Search results for ""author ltd e"

Heat is a branch of thermodynamics that occupies a unique position due to its involvement in the field of practice. Being linked to the management, transport and exchange of energy in thermal form, it impacts all aspects of human life and activity. Heat transfers are, by nature, classified as conduction, convection (which inserts conduction into fluid mechanics) and radiation. The importance of these three transfer methods has resulted – justifiably – in a separate volume being afforded to each of them. This second volume is dedicated to radiation. After recalling photometry, the calculation of luminance is addressed using the theory of the black body and associated laws: Stefan, Wien. The reciprocal radiation of two surfaces in total influence is discussed extensively, and the case of finished surfaces is also considered. Heat Transfer 2 combines a basic approach with a deeper understanding of the discipline and will therefore appeal to a wide audience, from technician to engineer, from doctoral student to teacher-researcher.

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Most physical problems can be written in the form of mathematical equations (differential, integral, etc.). Mathematicians have always sought to find analytical solutions to the equations encountered in the different sciences of the engineer (mechanics, physics, biology, etc.). These equations are sometimes complicated and much effort is required to simplify them. In the middle of the 20th century, the arrival of the first computers gave birth to new methods of resolution that will be described by numerical methods. They allow solving numerically as precisely as possible the equations encountered (resulting from the modeling of course) and to approach the solution of the problems posed. The approximate solution is usually computed on a computer by means of a suitable algorithm. The objective of this book is to introduce and study the basic numerical methods and those advanced to be able to do scientific computation. The latter refers to the implementation of approaches adapted to the treatment of a scientific problem arising from physics (meteorology, pollution, etc.) or engineering (structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, signal processing, etc.) .

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This volume of three books presents recent advances in modelling, planning and evaluating city logistics for sustainable and liveable cities based on the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It highlights modelling the behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in city logistics as well as planning and managing policy measures of city logistics including cooperative freight transport systems in public-private partnerships. Case studies of implementing and evaluating city logistics measures in terms of economic, social and environmental benefits from major cities around the world are also given.

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This volume of three books presents recent advances in modelling, planning and evaluating city logistics for sustainable and liveable cities based on the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It highlights modelling the behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in city logistics as well as planning and managing policy measures of city logistics including cooperative freight transport systems in public-private partnerships. Case studies of implementing and evaluating city logistics measures in terms of economic, social and environmental benefits from major cities around the world are also given.

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Most African cities are human settlements that lack the systems needed for effective land use planning. In fact, the disorganization that prevails has become so complex that the concept of urbanism itself has been called into question. This book highlights the need to restore urban planning in African cities through sustainable development and interculturality. Furthermore, it addresses the balance of power between urban planning and sustainable development and explores the historical and postcolonial aspects of urban planning in African cities. A case study focusing on the development of sustainable cities and neighborhoods in the M'Zab Valley is also included, as well as topics such as urban greening, climatic threats and the problem of state agro-industrial land transactions, which compete with sustainable urban planning. Sustainable Intercultural Urbanism at the Service of the African City of Tomorrow is a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners interested in urban issues in African cities. These cities, in particular sub Saharan cities, have long been excluded from any discourse on sustainable cities and urban planning; this book places the focus on these cities and acknowledges their varied urban realities. The intention is to spark a new debate on sustainable urban planning in African cities based on intercultural sustainable urbanism, which is key to thinking about and building ecological, intercultural, compact, intelligent and postcolonial cities.

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Digitalization is a long socio-historic process in which all areas of society�s activities are reconfigured. In the first volume of Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues, there is an examination of the transformations linked to the development of digital platforms and social media which affect cultural and communicational industries. The book also analyzes the formation of Big Data, their algorithmic processing and the societal changes which result from them (social monitoring and control in particular). Through diverse critical reflections, it equally presents different ways that digital participates in relations of power and domination, and contributes to eventual emancipatory practices. Following on, the second volume examines the transformations that are linked to digital practices that affect the production, circulation and consumption of information, as well as new forms that are taken by social mobilizations. It treats several important issues in the digital era that are more likely to become the subject of public debates, among which one can include the renewed relationship between research and digital. Through diverse critical reflections, it equally presents different ways that digital participates in relations of power and domination, and contributes to eventual emancipatory practices.

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Digitalization is a long and constant sociohistoric process in which all areas of society�s activities are reconfigured. Digitalization of Society and Socio-political Issues 1 examines the transformations linked to the development of digital platforms and social media, which affect the cultural and communicational industries. It analyzes the formation of Big Data, their algorithmic processing and the societal changes which result (social monitoring and control in particular). Through critical views, it equally presents the various ways in which technology participates in relations of power and domination, and contributes to possible emancipatory practices.

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By the time Eunice Gayson played James Bond''s girlfriend Sylvia Trench in Dr No and From Russia With Love she had already become one of the first reality TV stars. Her leading men included Sean Connery and Roger Moore, and at the height of her fame she co-starred in a record-breaking run of The Sound of Music. But when her second marriage fell apart and the roles dried up she was arrested for shoplifting. This is the inside story on some of the best-loved films ever made, and how the original Bond girl came back from the depths of despair.

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A promising long-term evolution of surgery relies on intracorporeal microrobotics. This book reviews the physical and methodological principles, and the scientific challenges to be tackled to design and control such robots. Three orders of magnitude will be considered, justified by the class of problems encountered and solutions implemented to manipulate objects and reach targets within the body: millimetric, sub-millimetric in the 10- 100 micrometer range, then in the 1-10 micrometer range. The most prominent devices and prototypes of the state of the art will be described to illustrate the benefit that can be expected for surgeons and patients. Future developments nanorobotics will also be discussed.

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This series in three volumes considers maps as constructions resulting from a number of successive transformations and stages integrated in a logical reasoning and an order of choices. Volume 1 introduces the basis of thematic cartography; the map is regarded as a construct due to transformation processes. Volume 2 focuses on the impact of the quantitative revolution, partially related to the advent of the computer age, on thematic cartography. Volume 3 is exclusively focused on the new approaches on thematic cartography offered by the three successive revolutions affecting the discipline: digital, multimedia and the Internet.

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The main properties that make carbon nanotubes (CNTs) a promising technology for many future applications are: extremely high strength, low mass density, linear elastic behavior, almost perfect geometrical structure, and nanometer scale structure. Also, CNTs can conduct electricity better than copper and transmit heat better than diamonds. Therefore, they are bound to find a wide, and possibly revolutionary use in all fields of engineering.The interest in CNTs and their potential use in a wide range of commercial applications; such as nanoelectronics, quantum wire interconnects, field emission devices, composites, chemical sensors, biosensors, detectors, etc.; have rapidly increased in the last two decades. However, the performance of any CNT-based nanostructure is dependent on the mechanical properties of constituent CNTs. Therefore, it is crucial to know the mechanical behavior of individual CNTs such as their vibration frequencies, buckling loads, and deformations under different loadings.This title is dedicated to the vibration, buckling and impact behavior of CNTs, along with theory for carbon nanosensors, like the Bubnov-Galerkin and the Petrov-Galerkin methods, the Bresse-Timoshenko and the Donnell shell theory.

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Geomatics is a field of science that has been intimately intertwined with our daily lives for almost 30 years, to the point where we often forget all the challenges it entails. Who does not have a navigation application on their phone or regularly engage with geolocated data? What is more, in the coming decades, the accumulation of geo-referenced data is expected to increase significantly. This book focuses on the notion of the imperfection of geographic data, an important topic in geomatics. It is essential to be able to define and represent the imperfections that are encountered in geographical data. Ignoring these imperfections can lead to many risks, for example in the use of maps which may be rendered inaccurate. It is, therefore, essential to know how to model and treat the different categories of imperfection. A better awareness of these imperfections will improve the analysis and the use of this type of data.

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How can healthcare systems be transformed by reimagining their multiple silos to favor processes and practices that are more responsive to local, horizontal initiatives? Altering Frontiers analyzes numerous experiences, using a multidisciplinary approach, paying attention to certain actors, collectives and organizational arrangements.Through this work, levers are identified that promote lasting transformation: recognizing the legitimacy of the practices of many who are often "invisible"; trusting those who know their intervention territory; investing in methodological support; taking advantage of tools and procedures such as instruments for strategic and managerial discussion; and developing the capacity to absorb innovative ideas and experiences that circulate within the environment.

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The swelling of concrete is a major concern for the owners and operators of dams and hydraulic structures. Faced with irreversible movement of their dams or with observations of cracking processes, operators need to explain the phenomena observed in order to justify safety conditions and in some cases to plan remedial works. Over the last 20 years, active research has been carried out in the field, resulting in practical results in phenomena interpretation and dam modeling. At the same time, an increasing number of affected dams have undergone safety re-evaluations and in some cases remedial work. Several of them have been removed altogether. Although it remains difficult to establish a “state of the art” in this domain due to the rapidly changing context, regular international exchanges in the field appear fruitful and necessary. Following on from previous conferences in the field organized by Robin Charlwood, former President of the ICOLD Concrete Committee, the initiative was taken by EDF and Toulouse University-LMDC to organize a workshop to provide a new opportunity for sharing experience. The aim of this workshop is to assemble active researchers, leading engineers, and experts from the practicing community and administration interested directly or indirectly in concrete swelling effects in dams and hydraulic structures. All types of chemical expansion phenomena, including those due to alkali aggregate reactions and those due to ettringite formation, are addressed. These proceedings include 24 papers written by experts renowned in their field, illustrating the need to progress with interdisciplinary approaches.

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The current diversity of transport services, as well as the complexity resulting from the deployment of specific transport protocols or mechanisms over the different services provided by heterogeneous networks, demand a novel design of the transport layer. Moreover, current and future applications will only be able to take advantage of the most adapted and available transport services if they are able to interact (i.e. discover, compose, deploy and adapt) efficiently with this advanced transport layer.The work presented in this book proposes a model-driven methodology and a service-oriented approach aimed at designing the mechanisms, functions, protocols and services of the next generation transport layer.The first part of this book presents the state of the art of transport protocols and introduces a model-driven methodology and an ontology semantic model implementation aimed at designing next generation transport protocols.The second part presents the UML-based design of a component-based transport protocol. An extension to this protocol based on service-component and service-oriented architectures is also presented.The third part presents various model-driven adaptive strategies aimed at managing the behavioral and structural adaptation of next generation autonomic transport protocols.The fourth and final part presents the design of a transport layer based on component-oriented and service-oriented approaches and integrating the autonomic computing paradigm guided by the semantic dimension provided by ontologies.

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This book questions the role of liquid sanitation in the development of cities in Africa. The absence of sewerage networks and treatment plants in African cities already submerged by rapid and anarchic urbanization is a major problem. To meet this challenge, it is urgent to rethink urban water governance and impose and enforce sustainable urban planning standards. In other words, sanitation issues must now be placed at the heart of urban planning.

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Scheduling is a broad research area and scheduling problems arise from several application domains (production systems, logistic, computer science, etc.). Solving scheduling problems requires tools of combinatorial optimization, exact or approximated algorithms. Flexibility is at the frontier between predictive deterministic approaches and reactive or "on-line" approaches. The purpose of flexibility is to provide one or more solutions adapted to the context of the application in order to provide the ideal solution. This book focuses on the integration of flexibility and robustness considerations in the study of scheduling problems. After considering both flexibility and robustness, it then covers various scheduling problems, treated with an emphasis on flexibility or robustness, or both.

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Probabilistic modeling of system performance, built primarily on the foundation of reliability theory, is referred to as reliability-based modeling. This book progressively builds up the functional complexity of system modeling. It starts by modeling the simplest system that can be designed, and then moves to the functional modeling of the multi-state system, step-by-step. Reliability-based Modeling of System Performance deals with modeling the functioning of systems by presenting its concepts, methods and mathematical tools. It is accessible to engineering students and academics who have already acquired basic knowledge of probability theory, applied statistics, differential calculus, integrals, combinatorial calculus and Boolean algebra.

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Information is an element of knowledge that can be stored, processed or transmitted. It is linked to concepts of communication, data, knowledge or representation. In a context of steady increase in the mass of information it is difficult to know what information to look for and where to find them. Computer techniques exist to facilitate this research and allow relevant information extraction. Recommendation systems introduced the notions inherent to the recommendation, based, inter alia, information search, filtering, machine learning, collaborative approaches. It also deals with the assessment of such systems and has various applications.

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Color is a sensation generated both by the interaction of the visual sensors in the eyes with the natural environment and by the elaboration of visual information by higher brain functions.This book presents the mathematical framework needed to deal with several models of color processing of digital images. The book starts with a short yet exhaustive introduction to the basic phenomenological features of color vision, which are constantly used throughout the book. The discussion of computational issues starts with color constancy, which is dealt with in a rigorous and self-contained mathematical setting. Then, the original Retinex model and its numerous variants are introduced and analyzed with direct discrete equations. The remainder of the book is dedicated to the variational analysis of Retinex-like models, contextualizing their action with respect to contrast enhancement.

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This book presents statistical models that have recently been developed within several research communities to access information contained in text collections. The problems considered are linked to applications aiming at facilitating information access: - information extraction and retrieval; - text classification and clustering; - opinion mining; - comprehension aids (automatic summarization, machine translation, visualization). In order to give the reader as complete a description as possible, the focus is placed on the probability models used in the applications concerned, by highlighting the relationship between models and applications and by illustrating the behavior of each model on real collections. Textual Information Access is organized around four themes: informational retrieval and ranking models, classification and clustering (regression logistics, kernel methods, Markov fields, etc.), multilingualism and machine translation, and emerging applications such as information exploration. Contents Part 1: Information Retrieval 1. Probabilistic Models for Information Retrieval, Stéphane Clinchant and Eric Gaussier. 2. Learnable Ranking Models for Automatic Text Summarization and Information Retrieval, Massih-Réza Amini, David Buffoni, Patrick Gallinari,
 Tuong Vinh Truong and Nicolas Usunier. Part 2: Classification and Clustering 3. Logistic Regression and Text Classification, Sujeevan Aseervatham, Eric Gaussier, Anestis Antoniadis,
 Michel Burlet and Yves Denneulin. 4. Kernel Methods for Textual Information Access, Jean-Michel Renders. 5. Topic-Based Generative Models for Text 
Information Access, Jean-Cédric Chappelier. 6. Conditional Random Fields for Information Extraction, Isabelle Tellier and Marc Tommasi. Part 3: Multilingualism 7. Statistical Methods for Machine Translation, Alexandre Allauzen and François Yvon. Part 4: Emerging Applications 8. Information Mining: Methods and Interfaces for Accessing Complex Information, Josiane Mothe, Kurt Englmeier and Fionn Murtagh. 9. Opinion Detection as a Topic Classification Problem, Juan-Manuel Torres-Moreno, Marc El-Bèze, Patrice Bellot and
 Fréderic Béchet.

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An information system may be regarded as an organized set of resources, both technological and human. Security should take this specificity into consideration in order to ensure an overall security of information systems. The security of information systems is usually tackled in a technological perspective. This book proposes to focus not only on information systems' security in a technological perspective, but also in a human, managerial and organizational perspective.

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Graph partitioning is a theoretical subject with applications in many areas, principally: numerical analysis, programs mapping onto parallel architectures, image segmentation, VLSI design. During the last 40 years, the literature has strongly increased and big improvements have been made. This book brings together the knowledge accumulated during many years to extract both theoretical foundations of graph partitioning and its main applications.

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Manufacturing industries strive to improve the quality and reliability of their products, while simultaneously reducing production costs. To do this, modernized work tools must be produced; this will enable a reduction in the duration of the product development cycle, optimization of product development procedures, and ultimately improvement in the productivity of design and manufacturing phases. Numerical simulations of forming processes are used to this end, and in this book various methods and models for forming processes (including stamping, hydroforming and additive manufacturing) are presented. The theoretical and numerical advances of these processes involving large deformation mechanics on the basis of large transformations are explored, in addition to the various techniques for optimization and calculation of reliability. The advances and techniques within this book will be of interest to professional engineers in the automotive, aerospace, defence and other industries, as well as graduates and undergraduates in these fields.

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Heat is a branch of thermodynamics that occupies a unique position due to its involvement in the field of practice. Being linked to the management, transport and exchange of energy in thermal form, it impacts all aspects of human life and activity. Heat transfers are, by nature, classified as conduction, convection (which inserts conduction into fluid mechanics) and radiation. The importance of these three transfer methods has resulted – justifiably – in a separate volume being afforded to each of them, with the subject of convection split into two volumes. This fourth volume is dedicated to convection, more specifically, the problem of particular convective transfers. Twophase convection is considered and a more recent and much lesser-known field is presented, that of phase change transfer. Particular significance is given to numerical applications, allowing the reader to handle orders of magnitude, an important point in all physics. Heat Transfer 4 combines a basic approach with a deeper understanding of the discipline and will therefore appeal to a wide audience, from technician to engineer, from doctoral student to teacher-researcher.

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Heat is a branch of thermodynamics that occupies a unique position due to its involvement in the field of practice. Being linked to the management, transport and exchange of energy in thermal form, it impacts all aspects of human life and activity. Heat transfers are, by nature, classified as conduction, convection (which inserts conduction into fluid mechanics) and radiation. The importance of these three transfer methods has resulted – justifiably – in a separate volume being afforded to each of them, with the subject of convection split into two volumes.This third volume is dedicated to convection, more specifically, the foundations of convective transfers. Various angles are considered to cover this topic, including empirical relationships and analytically approaching boundary layers, including the integral methods and numerical approaches. The problem of heat exchangers is presented, without aiming to be an exhaustive treatise. Heat Transfer 3 combines a basic approach with a deeper understanding of the discipline and will therefore appeal to a wide audience, from technician to engineer, from doctoral student to teacher-researcher.

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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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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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This volume of three books presents recent advances in modelling, planning and evaluating city logistics for sustainable and liveable cities based on the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). It highlights modelling the behaviour of stakeholders who are involved in city logistics as well as planning and managing policy measures of city logistics including cooperative freight transport systems in public-private partnerships. Case studies of implementing and evaluating city logistics measures in terms of economic, social and environmental benefits from major cities around the world are also given.

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Technological innovations, sociological and consumer trends, and growing internationalization are transforming the cultural and creative industries (CCIs). These changes present new challenges for CCIs that require original and inventive answers. Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries analyzes the powerful strategies put in place by CCI organizations such as Nintendo, the Lascaux Cave and Daft Punk. The case studies presented in this book cover video games, books, music, museums, fashion, film and architecture. Each chapter is organized around five key points: a theoretical framework that focuses on a specific concept, a description of the methodological mechanism mobilized, a presentation of the industry concerned, the analysis of the innovative strategy and a recap of the lessons and best practices demonstrated by the case.

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This reference book gives the reader a complete but comprehensive presentation of the foundations of convex analysis and presents applications to significant situations in engineering. The presentation of the theory is self-contained and the proof of all the essential results is given. The examples consider meaningful situations such as the modeling of curvilinear structures, the motion of a mass of people or the solidification of a material. Non convex situations are considered by means of relaxation methods and the connections between probability and convexity are explored and exploited in order to generate numerical algorithms.

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This book deals with the field of identification and sensors, more precisely the possibility of collecting information remotely with RF waves (RFID). The book introduces the technology of chipless RFID starting from classical RFID and barcode, and explores the field of identification and sensors without wire, without batteries, without chip, and with tags that can even be printed on paper. A technique for automatic design of UHF RFID tags is presented , aiming at making the tags as insensitive as possible to the environment (with the ability to increase the reading range reliability), or, conversely, making them sensitive in order to produce sensors, meanwhile keeping their unique ID. The RFID advantages are discussed, along with its numerous features, and comparisons with the barcode technology are presented. After that, the new chipless RFID technology is introduced on the basis of the previous conclusions. Original technological approaches are introduced and discussed in order to demonstrate the practical and economic potential of the chipless technology.

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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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Digital practices are shaped by graphical representations that appear on the computer screen, which is the principal surface for designing, visualizing, and interacting with digital information. Before any digital image or graphical interface is rendered on the screen there is a series of layers that affect its visual properties. To discover such processes it is necessary to investigate software applications, graphical user interfaces, programming languages and code, algorithms, data structures, and data types in their relationship with graphical outcomes and design possibilities. This book studies interfaces as images and images as interfaces. It offers a comprehensible framework to study graphical representations of visual information. It explores the relationship between visual information and its graphical supports, taking into account contributions from fields of visual computing. Graphical supports are considered as material but also as formal aspects underlying the representation of digital images on the digital screen.

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Today's information technology, along with Artificial Intelligence (AI), is moving towards total communication between all computerized systems. AI is a representation of human intelligence based on the creation and application of algorithms in specific computer environments. Its aim is to enable computers to act like human beings. For it to work, this type of technology requires computer systems, data with management systems and advanced algorithms, used by AI. In mechanical engineering, AI can offer many possibilities: in mechanical construction, predictive maintenance, plant monitoring, robotics, additive manufacturing, materials, vibration control and agro composites, among many others. This book is dedicated to Artificial Intelligence uncertainties in mechanical problems. Each chapter clearly sets out used and developed illustrative examples. Aimed at students, Uncertainty and Artificial Intelligence is also a valuable resource for practicing engineers and research lecturers.

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In an era of ubiquity, nomadism and ecological challenge, the maturity of wireless technologies, the readiness of broadband Internet access and the popularity of smart terminals should contribute to emancipating IT services in connection with the home and home-based resources. This book, in light of several years of applied research and technological surveys, aims at describing the digital home networking environment, its techniques, and the challenges around its service architecture. Digital Home Networking aims to provide a broad introduction to state-of-the-art digital home standards and protocols, as well as an in-depth description of service architectures for entertainment and domotic services involving digital home resources. The book covers aspects such as networking, remote access, security, interoperability, scalability and Quality of Service. Notably, it describes the generic architecture, which was proposed and developed in the context of the EUREKA/Celtic research project "Feel@Home".

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Engineering structures may be subjected to extreme high-rate loading conditions, like those associated with natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, rock falls, etc.) or those of anthropic origin (impacts, fluid–structure interactions, shock wave transmissions, etc.). Characterization and modeling of the mechanical behavior of materials under these environments is important in predicting the response of structures and improving designs. This book gathers contributions by eminent researchers in academia and government research laboratories on the latest advances in the understanding of the dynamic process of damage, cracking and fragmentation. It allows the reader to develop an understanding of the key features of the dynamic mechanical behavior of brittle (e.g. granular and cementitious), heterogeneous (e.g. energetic) and ductile (e.g. metallic) materials.

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This book has as main aim to be an introductory textbook of applied knowledge in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP), which is a method of weather forecasting that employs: A set of equations that describe the flow of fluids translated into computer code, combined with parameterizations of other processes, applied on a specific domain and integrated in the basis of initial and domain boundary conditions. Current weather observations serve as input to the numerical computer models through a process called data assimilation to produce atmospheric properties in the future (e.g. temperature, precipitation, and a lot of other meteorological parameters). Various case studies will be also presented and analyzed through this book.

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Information Systems Management is intended to sensitize the heads of organizations to the issues raised by information systems (IS). Through its pedagogical presentation, the book ensures that issues related to IS are not left solely to the experts in the field. The book combines and analyzes three key concepts of IS: governance, urbanization and alignment. While governance requires the implementation of a number of means, bodies and procedures to manage IS more effectively, urbanization involves visualization methods to enable the manager to take into account the different levels of the organization of an IS and their coherence. Finally, alignment assesses the ability of the IS to make a significant contribution to the organization's strategy.

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This book provides a detailed study of Financial Mathematics. In addition to the extraordinary depth the book provides, it offers a study of the axiomatic approach that is ideally suited for analyzing financial problems. This book is addressed to MBA's, Financial Engineers, Applied Mathematicians, Banks, Insurance Companies, and Students of Business School, of Economics, of Applied Mathematics, of Financial Engineering, Banks, and more.

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This book illustrates simply, but with many details, the state of the art of reliability science, exploring clear reliability disciplines and applications through concrete examples from their industries and from real life, based on industrial experiences. Many experts believe that reliability is not only a matter of statistics but is a multidisciplinary scientific topic, involving materials, tests, simulations, quality tools, manufacturing, electronics, mechatronics, environmental engineering and Big Data, among others. For a complex mechatronic system, failure risks have to be identified at an early stage of the design. In the automotive and aeronautic industries, fatigue simulation is used both widely and efficiently. Problems arise from the variability of inputs such as fatigue parameters and life curves. This book aims to discuss probabilistic fatigue and reliability simulation. To do this, Reliability and Physics-of-Healthy in Mechatronics provides a study on some concepts of a predictive reliability model of microelectronics, with examples from the automotive, aeronautic and space industries, based on entropy and Physics-of-Healthy.

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This up-to-date guide to over 400 species of the fascinating fishes along the coast of southern Africa and features over 600 original paintings showing changes with growth and sexual differences in colour of many of the fishes. The species accounts include useful descriptions and other information enabling easy identification and comparison of similar species. Coastal Fishes of Southern Africa is intended to assist in learning more about the biology and ecology of southern African marine fishes. A perfect companion to exploring the rich diversity of southern African shores.

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This book deals with the dynamics of international specializations during the present period of trade globalization. It discusses international trade as a network linking countries, and uses structural techniques to analyze the evolving structure of this network. It offers a new approach to address the economic emergence of countries. Using these structural methods, the book also explains knowledge exchange. Indeed, the structure transformation of the international trade is partly due to an exchange of competencies between regions. Many concrete examples are proposed.

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This book is dedicated to the general study of fluid structure interaction with consideration of uncertainties. The fluid-structure interaction is the study of the behavior of a solid in contact with a fluid, the response can be strongly affected by the action of the fluid. These phenomena are common and are sometimes the cause of the operation of certain systems, or otherwise manifest malfunction. The vibrations affect the integrity of structures and must be predicted to prevent accelerated wear of the system by material fatigue or even its destruction when the vibrations exceed a certain threshold.

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There are many different ways of generating representations. This includes representations generated by living beings while comprehending reality in order to act; representations generated by the Universe during its extensive unfolding, creating physical elements and living beings; and the direct representation of elements through an animal’s sixth sense. To this list we must now add the creation of artificial consciousness, which generates representations that resemble the mental representations of humans. These representations allow robotic systems to communicate directly with each other.Fundamental Generation Systems develops a theory which presents, from the beginning, the function of this sixth sense called the “sense of informational comprehension”. This sense is understood as an ability to use the informational foundations of the Universe via a dedicated cerebral domain found in every animal.

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Are difficulties in dyslexia the same the world over? What can we learn from resources and practice in different countries? In this book, individuals, institutions and organisations have been gathered from around the world to report on the policies, resources and training for people with dyslexia and those who work with them. Over 50 countries are included in this guide, together with details of dyslexia associations and resources. This unique collection offers a wealth of information to parents, teachers and individuals who are seeking support. It also will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers. This book is also available as an electronic supplement to The International Book of Dyslexia: A Cross-Language Comparison and Practice Guide which is available from your bookshop or from John Wiley & Sons Ltd ISBN 0471498416 The complete volume is an extensive and wide-ranging guide to both dyslexia research and practice around the world.

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Since the concept was first proposed at the end of the 20th Century, metamaterials have been the subject of much research and discussion throughout the wave community. More than 10 years later, the number of related published articles is increasing significantly. On the one hand, this success can be attributed to dreams of new physical objects which are the consequences of the singular properties of metamaterials. Among them, we can consider the examples of perfect lensing and invisibility cloaking. On other hand, metamaterials also provide new tools for the design of well-known wave functions such as antennas for electromagnetic waves. The goal of this book is to propose an overview of the concept of metamaterials as a perspective on a new practical tool for wave study and engineering. This includes both the electromagnetic spectrum, from microwave to optics, and the field of acoustic waves. Contents 1. Overview of Microwave and Optical Metamaterial Technologies, Didier Lippens. 2. MetaLines: Transmission Line Approach for the Design of Metamaterial Devices, Bruno Sauviac. 3. Metamaterials for Non-Radiative Microwave Functions and Antennas, Divitha Seetharamdoo and Bruno Sauviac. 4. Toward New Prospects for Electromagnetic Compatibility, Divitha Seetharamdoo. 5. Dissipative Loss in Resonant Metamaterials, Philippe Tassin, Thomas Koschny, and Costas M. Soukoulis. 6. Transformation Optics and Antennas, André de Lustrac, Shah Nawaz Burokur and Paul-Henri Tichit. 7. Metamaterials for Control of Surface Electromagnetic and Liquid Waves, Sébastien Guenneau, Mohamed Farhat, Muamer Kadic, Stefan Enoch and Romain Quidant. 8. Classical Analog of Electromagnetically Induced Transparency, Philippe Tassin, Thomas Koschny and Costas M. Soukoulis.

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