Cognitive Supervision for Robot-Assisted Minimally Invasive Laser Surgery
This thesis lays the groundwork for the automatic supervision of the laser incision process, which aims to complement surgeons’ perception of the state of tissues and enhance their control over laser incisions. The research problem is formulated as the estimation of variables that are representative of the state of tissues during laser cutting. Prior research in this area leveraged numerical computation methods that bear a high computational cost and are not straightforward to use in a surgical setting. This book proposes a novel solution to this problem, using models inspired by the ability of experienced surgeons to perform precise and clean laser cutting. It shows that these new models, which were extracted from experimental data using statistical learning techniques, are straightforward to use in a surgical setup, allowing greater precision in laser-based surgical procedures.
Cognitive Economics
As a manifestation of a 'cognitive turn' observable in all social sciences, Cognitive Economics is concerned with the beliefs and mental operations held by actors placed within a dynamical and strategic environment. It appears as a synthesis of an educative research program, dealing with crossed expectations of actors, and an evolutionist research program on collective learning processes. The book mainly aims at extending the framework of game theory in order to better fit the results of rapidly increasing laboratory experiments concerned with individual choices and collective interactions. It also seeks to better explain some original economic phenomena involving boundedly rational agents in an institutional setting such as financial bubbles, job search or technological innovation.
Cognition, Communication and Interaction : Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Interactive Technology
This book aims to provide a trans-disciplinary research framework and methodology for interaction design. The analysis directs attention to three human capacities that our engagement with interactive technology has made salient and open to constant redefinition.
Co-creation for responsible research and innovation : Experimenting with design methods and tools
This book summarizes research being pursued within the SISCODE (Society in Innovation and Science through CO-DEsign) project, funded by the EU under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to set up an analytical, reflective and learning framework to explore the transformations in initiatives and policies emerging from the interaction between citizens and stakeholders. The book provides a critical analysis of the co-design processes activated in 10 co-creation labs addressing societal challenges across Europe. Each lab as a case study of real-life experimentation is described through its journey, starting from the purpose on the ground of the experimentation and the challenge addressed.
Coastal Fluxes in the Anthropocene : The Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone Project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
In global coastal zones, the major fabric of goods and services for human welfare as well as global changes are extraordinarily visible. They are shaped by natural Earth systems processes on a planetary scale, which are reflected in a continuously adapting coastal environment. Now, in the "Anthropocene", human society is a greater catalyst for change - impacting and modifying coastal processes. This book synthesizes knowledge on coastal and riverine material fluxes, biogeochemical processes and indications of change, and the human influence, before looking at future research and management needs. It is a milestone rather than a destination on the journey which continues under the new International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP) and the LOICZ II (Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone) Project.
Coastal dunes : Ecology and conservation
Brings together coastal dune specialists from tropical and temperate latitudes, which together cover a wide set of topics, including: geomorphology, community dynamics, ecophysiology, biotic interactions and environmental problems and conservation. A major product of this book is a set of recommendations for future research, identifying relevant topics where detailed knowledge is still lacking. It also identifies management tools that will promote and maintain the rich diversity of the dune environments in the context of continuing coastal development.
Clinical toxicology : Principles and mechanisms ; 2nd ed.
Addresses the current principles and mechanisms of clinical toxicology. It examines the complex interactions associated with clinical toxicological events and chemical exposure and drug administration. The author places special emphasis on signs and symptoms of diseases and pathology caused by toxins and clinical drugs. He covers contemporary issues in clinical toxicology, such as biological and chemical toxins, changes in protocols for managing toxic ingestions, new antidotes, and changes in particular treatments. The chapters contain numerous drawings, figures, and tables to aid in comprehension.
Mathematical Modeling for the Life Sciences
Proposing a wide range of mathematical models that are currently used in life sciences may be regarded as a challenge, and that is precisely the challenge that this book takes up. Of course this panoramic study does not claim to offer a detailed and exhaustive view of the many interactions between mathematical models and life sciences. This textbook provides a general overview of realistic mathematical models in life sciences, considering both deterministic and stochastic models and covering dynamical systems, game theory, stochastic processes and statistical methods. Each mathematical model is explained and illustrated individually with an appropriate biological example. Finally three appendices on ordinary differential equations, evolution equations, and probability are added to make it possible to read this book independently of other literature.
Mathematical Methods for Mechanics : A Handbook with MATLAB Experiments
The interaction between mathematics and mechanics is a never ending source of new developments. Today, challenging problems like space flight, gyroscope motions and tidal currents, can be studied on a laptop, feats that people still in the 1950’s dreamed of accomplishing. The present textbook addresses such problems and moreover, a wide-ranging spectrum of topics from bifurcation theory, optimization and control to rigid-body motion and continuum mechanics of elastic bodies and fluids. It fully encompasses the provision of mathematical tools up to their technical application. Because verifiability is a main element of science and numerical mathematics remain lackluster without demonstrations, a portion of the book is dedicated purely to computations.
Mathematical Linguistics
Mathematical Linguistics introduces the mathematical foundations of linguistics to computer scientists, engineers, and mathematicians interested in natural language processing. The book presents linguistics as a cumulative body of knowledge from the ground up, with no prior knowledge of linguistics being assumed, covering more than the average two-semester introductory course in linguistics.This comprehensive, reader-friendly volume offers readers a high-level orientation, discussing the foundations of the field and presenting both the classical work and the most recent results. It covers an extremely rich array of topics including not only syntax and semantics but also phonology and morphology, probabilistic approaches, complexity, learnability, and the analysis of speech and handwriting.
Mathematical and Statistical Methods in Insurance and Finance
The interaction between mathematicians and statisticians reveals to be an effective approach to the analysis of insurance and financial problems, in particular in an operative perspective. The Maf2006 conference, held at the University of Salerno in 2006, had precisely this purpose and the collection here published gathers some of the papers presented at the conference and successively worked out to this aim. They cover a wide variety of subjects in insurance and financial fields, all treated in light of the successful cooperation between the two quantitative methods.
Maritime Spatial Planning : past, present, future
This book is the first comprehensive overview of maritime spatial planning. Situated at the intersection between theory and practice, the volume draws together several strands of interdisciplinary research, reflecting on the history of MSP as well as examining current practice and looking towards the future. The authors and contributors examine MSP from disciplines as diverse as geography, urban planning, political science, natural science, sociology and education; reflecting the growing critical engagement with MSP in many academic fields. This innovative and pioneering volume will be of interest and value to students and scholars of maritime spatial planning, as well as planners and practitioners.
Marine Surface Films : Chemical Characteristics, Influence on Air-Sea Interactions and Remote Sensing
Since the late 1960s, various groups have investigated the influence of marine surface films on mechanisms dominating energy and mass transfer across the ocean/atmosphere interface. However, a compendium summarizing the state-of-the-art research in this field is still missing. The book fills this gap and transfers the accumulated knowledge to the scientific community. After a brief historical chapter basic chemical insights are presented, followed by theoretical and experimental approaches carried out in laboratory facilities. Air-sea interaction experiments are then described and finally, remote sensing applications with sea slicks and crude oil spills are presented.
Mapping selfies and memes as Touch
This book offers a rich and nuanced analysis of digitally networked socialities as culturally meaningful relationships of Touch. Focusing on the ways Touch is practised in everyday social interactions serves as a basis for understanding how Touch is multiply significant – physically, emotionally, intellectually and politically. Fiona Andreallo initiates a map of the fundamentals of Touch and how they can be considered for future research in considering digitally networked cultures. This map also serves as a basis for closely examining selfies and memes.
Map-based Mobile Services : Design, Interaction and Usability
It addresses methods and techniques for topics that range from design and rendering, context modelling, personalisation, multimodal interaction to usability test. Instead of striving for a seamless coverage of all essential theoretical and technical issues with an equal depth and extent, we attempt to pinpoint a number of research highlights and representative development activities at universities, research institutions and so- ware industry. The operational prototypes and platforms reported in the book are on the one hand outcome and feasibility proof of various approaches. On the other hand, they serve as a new starting point for the refinement of user interfaces and iterative usability tests.
Managing Protected Areas in Central and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change
Addresses the need for sharing knowledge and experience in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change. There is an urgent need to build capacity in protected areas to monitor, assess, manage and report the effects of climate change and their interaction with other pressures. The contributors identify barriers to the adaptation of conservation management, such as the mismatch between planning reality and the decision context at site level. Short and vivid descriptions of case studies, drawn from investigation areas all over Central and Eastern Europe, illustrate both the local impacts of climate change and their consequences for future management.
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.
Magnetic Functions Beyond the Spin-Hamiltonian
Using the spin-Hamiltonian formalism the magnetic parameters are introduced through the components of the Lambda-tensor involving only the matrix elements of the angular momentum operator. The energy levels for a variety of spins are generated and the modeling of the magnetization, the magnetic susceptibility and the heat capacity is done. Theoretical formulae necessary in performing the energy level calculations for a multi-term system are prepared with the help of the irreducible tensor operator approach. The goal of the programming lies in the fact that the entire relevant matrix elements (electron repulsion, crystal field, spin-orbit interaction, orbital-Zeeman, and spin-Zeeman operators) are evaluated in the basis set of free-atom terms. The modeling of the zero-field splitting is done at three levels of sophistication. The spin-Hamiltonian formalism offers simple formulae for the magnetic parameters by evaluating the matrix elements of the angular momentum operator in the basis set of the crystal-field terms. The magnetic functions for dn complexes are modeled for a wide range of the crystal-field strengths.
Machine Learning Techniques for Multimedia : Case Studies on Organization and Retrieval
This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the most important machine learning techniques used and their application in this domain. Arising from the EU MUSCLE network, a program that drew together multidisciplinary teams with expertise in machine learning, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and image, video, text and crossmedia processing, the book first introduces the machine learning principles and techniques that are applied in multimedia data processing and analysis. The second part focuses on multimedia data processing applications, with chapters examining specific machine learning issues in domains .
Machine Learning for Multimodal Interaction ; Vol.4299 ; 3rd International Workshop, MLMI 2006, Bethesda, MD, USA, May 1-4, 2006, Revised Selected Papers
This book contains a selection of refereed papers presented at the 3rd Workshop on Machine Learning for Multimodal Interaction (MLMI 2006), held in Bethesda MD, USA during May 1–4, 2006.



















