Adaptive and Multilevel Metaheuristics
This volume presents recent advances in the area of adaptativeness in metaheuristic optimization, including up-to-date reviews of hyperheuristics and self-adaptation in evolutionary algorithms, as well as cutting edge works on adaptive, self-adaptive and multilevel metaheuristics, with application to both combinatorial and continuous optimization.
Ad Hoc Networks : Technologies and Protocols
Ad Hoc Networks: Technologies and Protocols is a concise in-depth treatment of various constituent components of ad hoc network protocols. It reviews issues related to medium access control, scalable routing, group communications, use of directional/smart antennas, network security, and power management among other topics. The authors examine various technologies that may aid ad hoc networking including the presence of an ability to tune transmission power levels or the deployment of sophisticated smart antennae. Ad Hoc Networks: Protocols and Technologies will be immensely useful as a reference work to engineers and researchers as well as to advanced level students in the areas of wireless networks, and computer networks.
Actors and the Art of Performance : Under Exposure
Actors and the Art of Performance: Under Exposure combines the author's two main biographical paths: her professional commitment to the fields of both theatre and philosophy. The art of acting on stage is analysed here not only from the theoretical perspective of a spectator, but also from the perspective of the actor. The author draws on her experience as both a theatre actor and a university professor whose teachings in the art of acting rely heavily on her own experience and also on her philosophical knowledge. The book is unique not only in terms of its content but also in terms of its style. Written in a multiplicity of voices, the text oscillates between philosophical reasoning and narrative forms of writing, including micro-narratives, fables, parables, and inter alia by Carroll, Hoffmann and Kleist. Hence the book claims that a trans-disciplinary dialogue between the art of acting and the art of philosophical thinking calls for an aesthetical research that questions and begins to seek alternatives to traditionally established and ingrained formats of philosophy.
Acoustical Imaging ; Vol.28
Since 1968, the International Acoustical Imaging Symposium has provided a unique forum for advanced research, promoting the sharing of technology, developments, methods and theory among all areas of acoustics
Acoustic Emission Testing : Basics for Research - Applications in Civil Engineering
The book covers all levels from the description of AE basics for AE beginners (level of a student) to sophisticated AE algorithms and applications to real large-scale structures as well as the observation of the cracking process in laboratory specimen to study fracture processes.
Acid Rain - Deposition to Recovery
Acid rain is still with us. Although it is a problem that people have worked diligently to solve, there are still many problem areas throughout the world. In reality the focus of acid rain research has shifted, and this book adds new vision to the topic. It contains papers, selected from Acid Rain 2005, the 7th International Conference on Acid Deposition, that take a broad perspective of the issues, emphasizing a number of themes: - the emission, concentration and deposition of pollutants / - nitrogen and trace elements in ecosystems and their effects on forests, water and soil / - studies of material damage and recovery - critical loads / The book is aimed at scientists and researchers who are working in the area of acid rain and its effects, and on nutrient cycling. This latest research will be of value to those concerned with the mitigation of acid rain effects.
Acid in the Environment : Lessons Learned and Future Prospects
This book is the result of a conference held biannually at the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College.is a collection of essays that blends the research findings and the policy analyses of individuals from different academic disciplines with the positions advanced by representatives of NGOs. Acid in the Environment: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects presents a broad approach to the study of acid deposition, exposing readers with a scientific background to significant policy issues and those with a policy orientation to important ecological impacts. The book raises important questions that will serve as a springboard for discussion between diverse groups of teachers and students, concerned citizens and legislators, and scientists and policy makers.
Academic Flying and the Means of Communication
This book shines a light on how and why academic work became entwined with air travel, and what can be done to change academia’s flying habit. The starting point of the book is that flying is only one means of scholarly communication among many, and that the state of the planet now obliges us to shift to other means.
Abstraction Refinement for Large Scale Model Checking
This book describes recent research developments in automatic abstraction refinement techniques. The authors address the main challenge in abstraction refinement, i.e., the ability to efficiently reach or come close to the optimum abstraction (the smallest abstract model that proves or refutes the given property). A suite of fully automatic abstraction techniques are proposed to improve the overall computation efficiency. The suite of algorithms presented in this book has demonstrated significant improvement over the prior art; some of them have already been adopted by the EDA companies in their commercial/in-house verification tools.
Absolute Stability of Nonlinear Control Systems
Following the recent developments in the field of absolute stability, Professor Xiaoxin Liao, in conjunction with Professor Pei Yu, has created a second edition of his seminal work on the subject. Liao begins with an introduction to the Lurie problem and the Lurie control system, before moving on to the simple algebraic sufficient conditions for the absolute stability of autonomous and non-autonomous ODE systems, as well as several special classes of Lurie-type systems. The focus of the book then shifts toward the new results and research that have appeared in the decade since the first edition was published. This includes nonlinear control systems with multiple controls, interval control systems, time-delay and neutral Lurie control systems, systems described by functional differential equations, the absolute stability for neural networks, as well as applications to chaos control and chaos synchronization.
A Space of Their Own : The Archaeology of Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylums in Britain, South Australia and Tasmania
The history of lunatic asylums – what do we really know about them? Films and television programs have portrayed them as places of horror where the patients are restrained and left to listen to the cries of their fellow inmates in despair. But what was the world of nineteenth century lunatic asylums really like? Are these images true? This book will explore this world using the techniques of historical archaeology and history.
A Software-Defined GPS and Galileo Receiver : A Single-Frequency Approach
Satellite navigation receivers are used to receive, process, and decode space-based navigation signals, such as those provided by the GPS constellation of satellites. There is an increasing need for a unified open platform that will enable enhanced receiver development and design, as well as cost-effective testing procedures for various applications. This book provide hands-on exploration of new technologies in this rapidly growing field. One of the unique features of the work is the interactive approach used, giving readers the ability to construct their own Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers. To construct such a reconfigurable receiver with a wide range of applications, the authors discuss receiver architecture based on software-defined radio (SDR) techniques. The presentation unfolds in a systematic, user-friendly style and goes from the basics to cutting-edge research.
A Rosicrucian Utopia in Eighteenth-Century Russia : The Masonic Circle of N.I. Novikov
The author undertakes an investigation into the history of Russian Freemasonry that has not been attempted previously. Her premise is that the Russian Enlightenment shows peculiar features, which prevent the application of the interpretative framework commonly used for the history of western thought. The author deals with the development of early Russian masonry, the formation of the Novikov circle in Moscow, the ‘programme’ of Rosicrucianism and the character of its Russian variant and, finally, the clash between the Rosicrucians and the State. The author concludes that the defenders of the Ancien Régime were not wrong. In fact the democratic behaviour, the critical attitude, the practice of participation, the freedom of thought, the tolerance for the diversity, the search for a direct communication with the divinity.
A Primer on Environmental Decision-Making: an integrative quantitative approach
Integrates decision-making and environmental science. For ecologists it will bridge the gap to economics. For practitioners in environmental economics and management it will be a major reference book. It probably contains the largest collection available of expressions and basic equations that are used in environmental sciences. Applying these expressions as "rules-of-thumb" will give participants in a decision-making process a common platform for discussion and arbitration.
A Portrait of State-of-the-Art Research at the Technical University of Lisbon
This book contains the edited version of the invited lectures that were delivered by prominent researchers at UTL. This book brings together in a review manner a comprehensive summary of high quality research contri- tions across basic and applied sciences. The contributing papers are organized around the following major areas: – Emergent areas (Nanosciences, Quantic Computations and Infor- tion, Risk and Volatility in Financial Markets); – Basic Sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Materials); – Social Sciences, Economics and Management Sciences; – Life Sciences and Biotechnology; – Engineering and Technologies – Nature, Environment and Sustainability; – Public Health, Food Quality and Safety; – Health and Sport Sciences; – Urbanism, Transports, Architecture, Arts and Design.
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Capability in Age and Ageing
This book provides insight on how to interpret capability in ageing – one’s individual ability to perform actions in order to reach goals one has reason to value – from a multidisciplinary approach. the book describes this demographic trends as well as the large global challenges and important societal implications this will have such as a worldwide increase in the number of persons affected with dementia, and in the ratio of retired persons to those still in the labor market. Through contributions from many different research areas, it discussed how capability depends on interactions between the individual (e.g. health, genetics, personality, intellectual capacity), environment (e.g. family, friends, home, work place), and society (e.g. political decisions, ageism, historical period).
A life cycle for clusters? : The dynamics of agglomeration, change, and adaption
The phenomenon of non-random spatial concentrations of firms in one or few related sectors (clusters) is intensively debated in economic theory and policy. The euphoria about successful clusters however neglects that historically, many thriving clusters did deteriorate into old industrial areas. This book studies the determinants of cluster survival by analyzing their adaptability to change in the economic environment. Linking theoretic knowledge with empirical observations, a simulation model (based in the N/K method) is developed, which explains when and why the cluster's architecture assists or hampers adaptability. It is found that architectures with intermediate degrees of division of labour and more collective governance forms foster adaptability. Cluster development is thus path dependent as architectures having evolved over time impact on the likelihood of future survival.
A History of Male Psychological Disorders in Britain, 1945–1980
Explores the under-researched history of male mental illness from the mid-twentieth century. It argues that statistics suggesting women have been more vulnerable to depression and anxiety are misleading since they underplay a host of alternative presentations of 'distress' more common in men.
A Guide to Lead-free Solders : Physical Metallurgy and Reliability
While tin/lead solders have dominated the electronics industry for many years, environmental considerations and new legislation are forcing change. Backed by more than ten years of research in Pb-free solders, many electronics manufacturers are poised for conversion. A Guide to Lead-free Solders is intended as a tool to help industry as it moves into a new era in the production and use of solders. An overview of the principles of soldering technology is provided beginning with the theory underlying each concept. Focusing on the most up-to-date methods for testing and characterization, these theories are then reinforced by experimental examples and industrial applications.
A Geometry of Approximation : Rough Set Theory: Logic, Algebra and Topology of Conceptual Patterns
A Geometry of Approximation' addresses Rough Set Theory, a field of interdisciplinary research first proposed by Zdzislaw Pawlak in 1982, and focuses mainly on its logic-algebraic interpretation. The theory is embedded in a broader perspective that includes logical and mathematical methodologies pertaining to the theory, as well as related epistemological issues. Any mathematical technique that is introduced in the book is preceded by logical and epistemological explanations. Intuitive justifications are also provided, insofar as possible, so that the general perspective is not lost.



















