Finite element analysis and design of steel and steel–concrete composite bridges
The book’s eight chapters begin with an overview of the various forms of modern steel and steel-concrete composite bridges, current design codes (American, British, and Eurocodes), nonlinear material behavior of the bridge components, and applied loads and stability of steel and steel-concrete composite bridges. This is followed by self-contained chapters concerning design examples of steel and steel-concrete composite bridge components as well as finite element modeling of the bridges and their components. The final chapter focuses on finite element analysis and the design of composite highway bridges with profiled steel sheeting.
Filtering Theory : With Applications to Fault Detection, Isolation, and Estimation
The focus of this book is on filtering for linear processes, and its primary goal is to design filters from a class of linear stable unbiased filters that yield an estimation error with the lowest root-mean-square (RMS) norm. Various hierarchical classes of filtering problems are defined based on the availability of statistical knowledge regarding noise, disturbances, and other uncertainties. An important characteristic of the approach employed in this work for several aspects of filter analysis and design is structural in nature, revealing an inherent freedom to incorporate other classical secondary engineering constraints—such as placement of filter poles at desired locations—in filter design. Such a structural approach requires an understanding of powerful tools that then may be used in several engineering applications besides filtering.
Fenomeni Radioattivi : Dai nuclei alle stelle = Radioactive phenomena : From nuclei to stars
The topics covered constitute an introduction to radioactive phenomena in the strict sense with excursions, having as a starting point and guiding thread the decay b, in the field of elementary particle physics, in particular neutrinos, and astrophysics. Some topics are traditional (alpha decay, beta gamma), others concern frontier physics (so that the reader is offered particular itineraries from established physics to evolving physics).
Fecal Incontinence : Diagnosis and Treatment
Fecal incontinence is a frequent, distressing condition that has a devastating impact on patients’ lives. However, patients are typically embarrassed and reluctant to acknowledge this disability, so they relinquish the possibility of being cured and remain socially isolated. Since fecal incontinence may result from various pathophysiological situations, an accurate diagnostic work-up of each patient is fundamental. Today, a wide range of therapeutic options is available, but making the correct choice is pivotal to the successful management of this condition. This book is aimed at all physicians involved in the assessment and treatment of fecal incontinence. Its main purpose is to review the latest advances in the epidemiologic, socio-economic, psychologic, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of fecal incontinence, in order to establish guidelines for effective treatment.
Feasibility studies : An architect's guide
Details the benefits of a feasibility study. Once you’ve secured the commission, how do you ensure you’re following current best practice? Aimed at architects, it identifies the pitfalls involved in undertaking a feasibility study and explains how to set boundaries, organise the process and manage clients’ aspirations. By featuring recent live projects, alongside advice from successful architectural practices, it illustrates how a feasibility study can help achieve positive outcomes and avoid the dangers of a poorly defined brief and service proposal. Presenting the client’s, as well as the architect’s, perspective, this publication highlights why a feasibility study is a sensible way of establishing viability prior to committing to a full-service commission. It underlines the significance of ‘adding value’ as an architect.
Fast Reactions in Energetic Materials : High-Temperature Decomposition of Rocket Propellants and Explosives
Modern energetic materials include explosives, blasting powders, pyrotechnic m- tures and rocket propellants [1, 2]. The study of high-temperature decomposition of condensed phases of propellants and their components (liquid, solid and hybrid) is currently of special importance for the development of space-system engineering [3, 4]. To better understand the burning mechanisms (stationary, nonstationary, - steady) of composite solid propellants and their components, information about the macrokinetics of their high-temperature decomposition is required [5]. To be able to evaluate the ignition parameters and conditions of safe handling of heat-affected explosives, one needs to know the kinetic constants of their high-temperature - composition. The development of new composite solid propellants characterized by high performance characteristics (high burning rates, high thermal stability, stability to intrachamber perturbations, and other aspects) is not possible without quanti- tive data on the high-temperature decomposition of composite solid propellants and their components [6].
Fast Motions in Biomechanics and Robotics : Optimization and Feedback Control
In the past decades, much progress has been made in the field of walking robots. The current state of technology makes it possible to create humanoid robots that nearly walk like a human being, climb stairs, or avoid small - stacles. However, the dream of a robot running as fast and as elegantly as a human is still far from becoming reality. Control of such fast motions is still a big technological issue in robotics, and the maximum running speed of contemporary robots is still much smaller than that of human track runners. The conventional control approach that most of these robots are based on does not seem to be suitable to increase the running speeds up to a biological level.
Fashionity
This project is an AI fashion design system to generate fashion images based on user textual description. The proposed system incorporates advanced technology for dissemination and machine translation with the aim of facilitating a seamless user experience for input in both Arabic and English languages. Moreover, the project encompasses the incorporation of a recommendation system that proposes appropriate visual content based on user style. The primary objective of this project is to develop a robust framework capable of generating high-quality images based on textual descriptions, providing recommendations for similar clothing items, and facilitating the retrieval of photographic and apparel articles through image search.
Farewell to the Party Model? : Independent Local Lists in East and West European Countries
Local independent lists are a general phenomenon on the local level in many European countries – in established Western countries as well as in new democracies in Middle and Eastern Europe. The research is linked to the much-discussed phenomenon of the growing disenchantment with political parties and the sceptical evaluation of political parties on the local level. The edited book aims first at developing a theoretical and conceptual framework for these non-partisan lists. Second, the contributions describe and analyse for the first time comparatively presence, success, organisational structure, behaviour and performance of these local actors in twelve West and East European countries.
Extreme Ocean Waves
The book details the vast progress that has been achieved in the understanding of the physical mechanisms of rogue wave phenomenon in recent years. The selected articles address such issues as the formation of freak waves due to modulation instability of nonlinear wave field, physical and statistical properties of rogue wave generation in deep water and in shallow water, various models of nonlinear water waves, special analysis of nonlinear resonances between water waves and the relation between observations and freak wave theories.
Exploring Resilience : A Scientific Journey from Practice to Theory
Resilience has become an important topic on the safety research agenda and in organizational practice. Most empirical work on resilience has been descriptive, identifying characteristics of work and organizing activity which allow organizations to cope with unexpected situations. Fewer studies have developed testable models and theories that can be used to support interventions aiming to increase resilience and improve safety. In addition, the absent integration of different system levels from individuals, teams, organizations, regulatory bodies, and policy level in theory and practice imply that mechanisms through which resilience is linked across complex systems are not yet well understood. Scientific efforts have been made to develop constructs and models that present relationships; however, these cannot be characterized as sufficient for theory building. There is a need for taking a broader look at resilience practices as a foundation for developing a theoretical framework that can help improve safety in complex systems.
Explicit Stability Conditions for Continuous Systems : A Functional Analytic Approach
Explicit Stability Conditions for Continuous Systems deals with non-autonomous linear and nonlinear continuous finite dimensional systems. Explicit conditions for the asymptotic, absolute, input-to-state and orbital stabilities are discussed. This monograph provides new tools for specialists in control system theory and stability theory of ordinary differential equations, with a special emphasis on the Aizerman problem. A systematic exposition of the approach to stability analysis based on estimates for matrix-valued functions is suggested and various classes of systems are investigated from a unified viewpoint.
Experimental Unsaturated Soil Mechanics
These proceedings are a continuation of the series of International Conferences in Germany entitled "Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils." The primary objective is to discuss and understand unsaturated soil behaviour such that engineered activities are made better with times in terms of judgement and quality. We all realise by now that in addition to the knowledge on the classical concepts, it becomes an enormous challenging task to adapt convincing new concepts and present them in such a way that it could be used in engineering practices. The experimental studies reported primarily focus on the role of microstructure and fabric for the complex coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of cohesive frictional materials. Several papers consider the relevance of temperature affecting the constitutive behaviour of clays. Common features of state of the art theoretical and numerical approaches, including theory of porous media and mixture theory, intend to describe the complex multi-field problems of fully coupled thermo-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical initial - boundary value problems.
Exchange traded funds : Structure, regulation and application of a new fund class
The organization of traditional mutual funds as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) produced revolutionary changes in the fund industry. These changes, and the subsequent events to which they led, have greatly - creased the practical way of trading funds. Traditional mutual fund m- kets were fragmented, and transactions were both costly and from time to time difficult to arrange. Investments in emerging markets for example were anything but efficient. As a consequence of establishing ETF funds market segments, the efficiency of transactions has been broadly increased as well as transaction costs dramatically reduced. All this changed in the early Nineties with the introduction of the first ETF for the purpose of trading funds. Exchange Traded Funds – Structure, Regulation and Application of a New Fund Class is a comprehensive summary of articles covering all aspects of the Exchange Traded Fund industry.The present book is divided into four parts: The opening part, containing ETFs – A Leading Financial Innovation and From Continent to Sectors: Challenges and Uses of ETFs in Europe, is - signed to give the reader broad insight into the industry, developments and trends. Further, the article Spiders: Where Are the Bugs? examine the characteristics and performance of these instruments from an academic point of view.
Excavations and Foundations in Soft Soils
The book is about soft soil engineering and is intended to serve the practicing as well as the research engineers. The planning, design and construction of exca- tions and foundations in soft to very soft soils is always a difficult and challanging assignment to engineers. The authors have tried to address some of these problems and challenges in this book. Beside the state of the art of soft soils, authors own research results and expe- ences from practical projects are presented in the book. Special emphasis is also given among others on the presentation of several case studies coresponding to each topic treated in the book as well as a summary of the experiences in the - termination of soil parameters for finite element analysis of geotechnical pr- lems. The book is illustrated by a wealth of photographs and diagrams.
Evolutionary Equations : Picard's Theorem for Partial Differential Equations, and Applications
This book provides a solution theory for time-dependent partial differential equations, which classically have not been accessible by a unified method. Instead of using sophisticated techniques and methods, the approach is elementary in the sense that only Hilbert space methods and some basic theory of complex analysis are required. Nevertheless, key properties of solutions can be recovered in an elegant manner.
Evolutionary cell biology : The origins of cellular architecture
Establishes the foundations of the emerging field of evolutionary cell biology. Includes a wide range of comparative data and examples from both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, integrating such observations with biophysical/biochemical principles and evolutionary theory. Provides a deep and broad coverage of the literature, with many ideas synthesised and presented for the first time
Evolution, Monitoring and Predicting Models of Rockburst : Precursor Information for Rock Failure
Focuses on investigating predicting precursor information and key points of rockburst in mining engineering through laboratory experiment, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and case studies. Understanding the evolution patterns for the microstructure instability of rock is a prerequisite for rockburst prediction. The book provides a guide for readers seeking to understand the evolution patterns for the microstrucure of rock failure, the predicting key point of rock failure and the rockburst predicting model. It will be an essential reference to understand mechanism of rockburst and sheds new light on dynamic disasters prediction. Chapters are carefully developed to cover (1) The evolution patterns for the microstructure instability of rock; (2) Rockburst hazard monitoring and predicting criterion and predicting models. The book addresses the issue with a holistic and systematic approach that investigates the occurrence mechanism of rockburst based on the evolution patterns for the microstructure of rock failure and establishes the predicting model of rockburst.
Evolution of Non-Expected Utility Preferences
The theory on the evolution of preferences deals with the endogenous formation of preference relations in strategic situations. In particular, we demonstrate that preferences which diverge from von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility may potentially prove to be successful under evolutionary pressures.
European water law and hydropolitics : An inquiry into the resilience of transboundary water governance in the European Union
provides the first comprehensive assessment of the various issues faced by countries in the European Union, where progressing climate change and urbanization pose significant cooperative challenges in a large number of river basins. Conducting a thorough analysis of the intricate web of EU water governance, it reveals that the hydropolitical stability of the European Union is already at risk. Further, given the structural nature of the shortcomings in EU water policy—e.g. the rigidity of the EU’s founding treaties or the institutional complacency of the European Commission— argues that these risks are likely to turn into sources of prolonged conflict, unless EU decision-making bodies take steps to address the new hydrological realities early on.



















