Matematica generale con il calcolatore
By introducing mathematical objects, it teaches students how to use a computer to perform numerical and symbolic calculations, define a function and calculate its values, plot and explore graphs, and execute simple algorithms. The course is rich in examples, applications, and models, drawn from economics, physics, biology, statistics, and mathematics itself. The analysis of these models constitutes, in a certain sense, the true purpose of the mathematical theory covered. Automatic calculation tools (mathematics software, spreadsheets) are used extensively to explore and illustrate concepts and properties. Mathcad® software, in particular, was used, both as a calculation tool and as a simple yet powerful programming language. Considerable space is devoted to approximation, emphasizing the distinction between numerical and symbolic calculation; to algorithms as a synthesis of the syntactic and semantic aspects of mathematical objects; and to computer simulation, interpreted as a "physical" experiment and a source of conjecture. The ability to use a calculator marks a sort of "democratization" of mathematics: even complex results, which have always required a broad background of knowledge and laborious calculations, are now quickly accessible to anyone who understands the meaning of mathematical objects and knows how to use the syntax.
Mass Terms : Some Philosophical Problems
MASS TERMS, COUNT TERMS, AND SORTAL TERMS Central examples of mass terms are easy to come by. 'Water', 'smoke', 'gold', etc. , differ in their syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties from count terms such as 'man', 'star', 'wastebasket', etc. Syntactically, it seems, mass terms do, but singular count terms do not, admit the quantifier phrases 'much', 'an amount of', 'a little', etc. The typical indefinite article for them is 'some' (unstressed)!, and this article cannot be used with singular count terms. Count terms, but not mass terms, use the quantifiers 'each', 'every', 'some', 'few', 'many'; and they use 'a(n)' as the indefinite article. They can, unlike the mass terms, take numerals as prefixes.
Marswalk One : First Steps on a New Planet
MARSWALK ONE: First Steps on a New Planet addresses the question of why we should embark on a journey to Mars, documenting what the first human crew will do when they place their feet in the red dust of the planet. The book also addresses why we need to carry out these tasks and, more importantly, what a human crew could achieve that an automated mission could not. Understanding the clear benefits of sending a human crew to the surface of Mars, and how these benefits can be seen back on Earth, is the key to sustained long-term public and political support for the programme in terms of cash and commitment. The book accepts that the journey will be made, but does not specify precisely when. Flight time, and how to get to and from the planet are discussed briefly, to understand why the suggested duration spent at Mars is reasonable. The main objective of the work is to look at what science will be done on the surface – supported by orbital operations – and what hardware and technology will be employed to achieve the mission objectives. This analysis is drawn from previous experiences in manned and unmanned space programmes, including Apollo, Skylab, Salyut/Mir, Shuttle and ISS, Viking, Luna/Lunokhod, and recent Mars missions such as Pathfinder and Global Surveyor.
Markov Decision Processes with Their Applications
Markov decision processes (MDPs), also called stochastic dynamic programming, were first studied in the 1960s. MDPs can be used to model and solve dynamic decision-making problems that are multi-period and occur in stochastic circumstances. There are three basic branches in MDPs: discrete-time MDPs, continuous-time MDPs and semi-Markov decision processes. Starting from these three branches, many generalized MDPs models have been applied to various practical problems. These models include partially observable MDPs, adaptive MDPs, MDPs in stochastic environments, and MDPs with multiple objectives, constraints or imprecise parameters.
Marine Biotechnology II
This volume of Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology illustrates several topics in line with the following broad objectives: thinking of marine biotechnology as the controlled production and use of marine organisms and molecules for useful purposes, firstly by exploring aspects of marine biodiversity and exploitation of biomass, then considering the identification, production and processing of marine products.
Marine Biotechnology I
Oceans, which occupy up to two thirds of the surface of our planet, were not really approached from scientific point of view until the second half of the 19th century and even the 20th with regard to microbial and unicellular life. Today, the importance of marine biodiversity has been fully recognized. It is, indeed, one of the aspects which, over the two past decades, have made a major contribution to our knowledge and vision of the living planetThis volume of Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology illustrates several topics in line with the following broad objectives: thinking ofmarine biotechnology as the controlled production and use of marine organisms and molecules for useful purposes, firstly by exploring aspects of marine biodiversity and exploitation of biomass, then considering the identification, production and processing of marine products.
Magnetohydrodynamics : Historical Evolution and Trends
Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) studies the interaction between the flow of an electrically conducting fluid and magnetic fields. It involves such diverse topics as the evolution and dynamics of astrophysical objects, thermonuclear fusion, metallurgy and semiconductor crystal growth, etc. Although the first ideas in magnetohydrodynamics appeared at the beginning of the last century, the "explosion" in theoretical and experimental studies occurred in the 1950s-60s. This state-of-the-art book aims at revising the evolution of ideas in various branches of magnetohydrodynamics (astrophysics, earth and solar dynamos, plasmas, MHD turbulence and liquid metals) and reviews current trends and challenges.
Machine Learning in Document Analysis and Recognition
The objective of Document Analysis and Recognition (DAR) is to recognize the text and graphicalcomponents of a document and to extract information. With ?rst papers dating back to the 1960’s, DAR is a mature but still gr- ing research?eld with consolidated and known techniques. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engines are some of the most widely recognized pr- ucts of the research in this ?eld, while broader DAR techniques are nowadays studied and applied to other industrial and o?ce automation systems. In the machine learning community, one of the most widely known - search problems addressed in DAR is recognition of unconstrained handwr- ten characters which has been frequently used in the past as a benchmark for evaluating machine learning algorithms, especially supervised classi?ers.
Logos of Phenomenology and Phenomenology of the Logos. Book One : Phenomenology as the Critique of Reason in Contemporary Criticism and Interpretation
During its century-long unfolding, spreading in numerous directions, Husserlian phenomenology while loosening inner articulations, has nevertheless maintained a somewhat consistent profile. As we see in this collection, the numerous conceptions and theories advanced in the various phases of reinterpretations have remained identifiable with phenomenology.
Liquid separations with membranes : An introduction to barrier interference
On the level of a textbook a self-consistent approach to liquid separations with membranes is presented, contrasting equilibrium separations with the rate-controlling effects of barrier interference on mass transfer. As a corollary objective, an effort is made to observe context, factual and historical, when introducing concepts and applications of membrane separation science. Ordering principle is the formal structure of mass transfer across barriers, being construed of a driving force (allocated to the condition of the mixtures to be separated) and a barrier permeability (holding the keys to membrane selectivity). The membranes, by this approach, appear by way of the mass transport demands which they are to meet, or else by way of the separation effects which they inspire.
Linear Models for Optimal Test Design
Begins with a reflection on the history of test design--the core activity of all educational and psychological testing. It then presents a standard language for modeling test design problems as instances of multi-objective constrained optimization. The main portion of the book discusses test design models for a large variety of problems from the daily practice of testing, and illustrates their use with the help of numerous empirical examples. The presentation includes models for the assembly of tests to an absolute or relative target for their information functions, classical test assembly, test equating problems, item matching, test splitting, simultaneous assembly of multiple tests, tests with item sets, multidimensional tests, and adaptive test assembly. Two separate chapters are devoted to the questions of how to design item banks for optimal support of programs with fixed and adaptive tests. Linear Models for Optimal Test Design, which does not require any specific mathematical background, has been written to be a helpful resource on the desk of any test specialist.
Landslides : Risk Analysis and Sustainable Disaster Management
Based on contributions to the first General Assembly of the International Consortium on Landslides, this reference and status report emphasizes the mechanisms of different types of landslides, landslide risk analysis, and sustainable disaster management. It comprises the achievements of the ICL over the past three years, since the Kyoto assembly. It consists of three parts: research results of the International Programme on Landslides (IPL); contributions on landslide risk analysis; and articles on sustainable disaster management. The contributions reflect a wide range of topics and concerns, randing from field studies, identification of objects of cultural heritage at landslide risk, as well as landslide countermeasures.
Knowledge-Driven Computing : Knowledge Engineering and Intelligent Computations
Knowledge-Driven Computing constitutes an emerging area of intensive research located at the intersection of Computational Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering with strong mathematical foundations. It embraces methods and approaches coming from diverse computational paradigms, such as evolutionary computation and nature-inspired algorithms, logic programming and constraint programming, rule-based systems, fuzzy sets and many others. The use of various knowledge representation formalisms and knowledge processing and computing paradigms is oriented towards the efficient resolution of computationally complex and difficult problems.
Knowing Art : Essays in Aesthetics and Epistemology
Knowing Art collects ten original essays written by leading philosophers who distill and build upon recent work at the intersection of aesthetics and epistemology. Specific topics addressed include the objectivity of critical knowledge, the quality of critical testimony, the roles of principles and perception in critical reasoning, phenomenal knowledge of what a work of art is like, the acquisition of factual information and psychological understanding from fictions, and the limits of images as sources of historical evidence. In addressing these topics, the volume also explores the challenges that art poses for theories of knowledge as well as the challenges that artistic knowledge poses to traditional views about art.
Issues in Theoretical Diversity : Persistence, Composition, and Time
Our world is full of composite objects that persist through time: dogs, persons, chairs and rocks. But in virtue of what do a bunch of little objects get to compose some bigger object, and how does that bigger object persist through time? This book aims to answer these questions, but it does so by looking at accounts of composition and persistence through a new methodological lens. It asks the question: what does it take for two theories to be genuinely different, and how can we know whether what seems like metaphysical disagreement is really just semantic disagreement
Complex decision making : Theory and practice
The increasingly complex environment of today's world, characterized by technological innovation and global communication, generates myriads of possible and actual interactions while limited physical and intellectual resources severely impinge on decision makers, be it in the public or private domains. At the core of the decision-making process is the need for quality information that allows the decision maker to better assess the impact of decisions in terms of outcomes, nonlinear feedback processes and time delays on the performance of the complex system invoked.
Compact objects in astrophysics : White dwarfs, neutron stars and Black Holes
Camenzind's Compact Objects in Astrophysics gives a comprehensive introduction and up-to-date overview about the physical processes behind these objects, covering the field from the beginning to most recent results, including all relevant observations.
Classes of Finite Groups
Many group theorists all over the world have been trying in the last twenty-five years to extend and adapt the magnificent methods of the Theory of Finite Soluble Groups to the more ambitious universe of all finite groups. This is a natural progression after the classification of finite simple groups but the achievements in this area are scattered in various papers.Our objectives in this book were to gather, order and examine all this material, including the latest advances made, give a new approach to some classic topics, shed light on some fundamental facts that still remain unpublished and present some new subjects of research in the theory of classes of finite, not necessarily solvable, groups.
Categories and Sheaves
This book covers categories, homological algebra and sheaves in a systematic and exhaustive manner starting from scratch, and continues with full proofs to an exposition of the most recent results in the literature, and sometimes beyond.The authors present the general theory of categories and functors, emphasising inductive and projective limits, tensor categories, representable functors, ind-objects and localization. Then they study homological algebra including additive, abelian, triangulated categories and also unbounded derived categories using transfinite induction and accessible objects. Finally, sheaf theory as well as twisted sheaves and stacks appear in the framework of Grothendieck topologies.
Catastrophic Events Caused by Cosmic Objects
Many times all of us could hear from mass media that an asteroid approached and swept past the Earth. Such an asteroid or comet will inevitably strike the planet some day. This volume considers hazards due to collisions with cosmic objects, particularly in light of recent investigations of impacts by the authors. Each chapter written by an expert contains an overview of an aspect and new findings in the field. The main hazardous effects – cratering, shock, aerial and seismic waves, fires, ejection of dust and soot, tsunami are described and numerically estimated. Numerical simulations of impacts and impact consequences have received much attention in the book. Fairly small impacting objects 50 -100 m in diameter pose a real threat to humanity and their influence on the atmosphere and ionosphere is emphasized.



















