Design of Observational Studies
This book introduction to statistical inference in observational studies and a detailed discussion of the principles that guide the design of observational studies. An observational study is an empiric investigation of effects caused by treatments when randomized experimentation is unethical or infeasible. Observational studies are common in most fields that study the effects of treatments on people, including medicine, economics, epidemiology, education, psychology, political science and sociology. The quality and strength of evidence provided by an observational study is determined largely by its design. Design of Observational Studies is organized into five parts. Chapters 2, 3, and 5 of Part I cover concisely many of the ideas discussed in Rosenbaum’s Observational Studies. Part II discusses the practical aspects of using propensity scores and other tools to create a matched comparison that balances many covariates, and includes an updated chapter on matching in R. In Part III, the concept of design sensitivity is used to appraise the relative ability of competing designs to distinguish treatment effects from biases due to unmeasured covariates. Part IV discusses evidence factors and the computerized construction of more than one comparison group. Part V discusses planning the analysis of an observational study, with particular reference to Sir Ronald Fisher’s striking advice for observational studies: "make your theories elaborate."
Desertification in the Mediterranean Region : A security issue ; Proceedings of the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue Workshop, held in Valencia, Spain, 2-5 December 2003
This book focuses on two basic concepts: security and desertification in the Mediterranean Region and their linkages. Desertification is recognized as a process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas of the world that is the result of natural phenomena (e.g. climate variation) and anthropogenic factors. The outcome of this type of degradation has typically been considered to be either a reduction or a loss of both biological and economic productivity. The scope of the book includes the identification of the physical processes of desertification specific to both the north and south Mediterranean Region. Additionally, it specifically questions how changing environmental conditions may potentially reduce stability and peace in the world and thus affect "environmental security."
Dependence in Probability and Statistics
This book gives a detailed account of some recent developments in the field of probability and statistics for dependent data. The book covers a wide range of topics from Markov chain theory and weak dependence with an emphasis on some recent developments on dynamical systems, to strong dependence in times series and random fields. A special section is devoted to statistical estimation problems and specific applications. The book is written as a succession of papers by some specialists of the field, alternating general surveys, mostly at a level accessible to graduate students in probability and statistics, and more general research papers mainly suitable to researchers in the field. The first part of the book considers some recent developments on weak dependent time series, including some new results for Markov chains as well as some developments on new notions of weak dependence. This part also intends to fill a gap between the probability and statistical literature and the dynamical system literature. The second part presents some new results on strong dependence with a special emphasis on non-linear processes and random fields currently encountered in applications. Finally, in the last part, some general estimation problems are investigated, ranging from rate of convergence of maximum likelihood estimators to efficient estimation in parametric or non-parametric time series models, with an emphasis on applications with non-stationary data.
Dependability Modelling under Uncertainty : An Imprecise Probabilistic Approach
Mechatronic design processes have become shorter and more parallelized, induced by growing time-to-market pressure. Methods that enable quantitative analysis in early design stages are required, should dependability analyses aim to influence the design. Due to the limited amount of data in this phase, the level of uncertainty is high and explicit modeling of these uncertainties becomes necessary. This work introduces new uncertainty-preserving dependability methods for early design stages.
Dense Molecular Gas around Protostars and in Galactic Nuclei : European Workshop on Astronomical Molecules 2004
The European Workshop on Astronomical Molecules was held at ‘The Conference Building’ in Zwolle, the Netherlands, on 18–20 February 2004. The idea behind the workshop was to bring together astronomers studying similar processes in different astrophysical environments; masers and dense molecular gas around young stars and galactic nuclei. There is considerable overlap in physical and chemical phenomena between these environments, with scales ranging from circumstellar to central regions of galaxies. This issue includes 12 reviews and 27 contributed papers presented in this Wo- shop, all of them were refereed by invited speakers or the editors. The quality of the papers is outstanding. The projects discussed here are often in an early stage and undoubtedly their progress has bene?ted greatly from the opportunity to discuss results with the experts in a wide range of areas. Similarly,
Demand Planning : Processi, metodologie e modelli matematici per la gestione della domanda commerciale = Demand Planning : Processes, methodologies and mathematical models for managing commercial demand
Il libro Demand Planning analizza metodi quantitativi, modelli matematici e processi aziendali per la gestione e la pianificazione della domanda commerciale delle aziende, relativa ai prodotti ed ai servizi realizzati.
Deformation and Gravity Change : Indicators of Isostasy, Tectonics, Volcanism, and Climate Change
During the last decades, measurements of various geodynamic processes have gained ever increasing importance. Temporal variations of the deformation and gravity fields monitored by geodetic measuring techniques reflect isostatic, tectonic or volcanic processes in the earth’s interior.Recordings of hydrologic or oceanographic phenomena allow conclusions on surface processes. This volume reflects the major developments during recent years in these areas of research.Most of the papers in this book were presented at the workshop on"Deformation and Gravity Change: Indicators of Isostasy, Tectonics, Volcanism and Climate Change", which took place at the Casa de los Volcanes on Lanzarote,Spain, 2005.
Deep-water Coral Reefs : Unique Biodiversity Hot-Spots
Provides a useful overview of various aspects of deep-water coral reefs and carbonate mounds, providing insights into the physical processes, and inspire and stimulate further research into these fascinating natural systems. This book, presents and discusses only a selection of the world’s discovered deep-water coral reefs.
Deep neural networks and data for automated driving : robustness, uncertainty quantification, and insights towards safety
Environment perception for highly automated driving heavily employs deep neural networks, facing many challenges. How much data do we need for training and testing? How to use synthetic data to save labeling costs for training? How do we increase robustness and decrease memory usage? For inevitably poor conditions: How do we know that the network is uncertain about its decisions? Can we understand a bit more about what actually happens inside neural networks? This leads to a very practical problem particularly for DNNs employed in automated driving: What are useful validation techniques and how about safety? This book unites the views from both academia and industry, where computer vision and machine learning meet environment perception for highly automated driving. Naturally, aspects of data, robustness, uncertainty quantification, and, last but not least, safety are at the core of it. This book is unique: In its first part, an extended survey of all the relevant aspects is provided. The second part contains the detailed technical elaboration of the various questions mentioned above.
Deep Learning-Based Face Analytics
Provides an overview of different deep learning-based methods for face recognition and related problems. Specifically, the authors present methods based on autoencoders, restricted Boltzmann machines, and deep convolutional neural networks for face detection, localization, tracking, recognition, etc. The authors also discuss merits and drawbacks of available approaches and identifies promising avenues of research in this rapidly evolving field.
Deep eutectic polvents : Synthesis, properties, and applications
Deep Eutectic Solvents contains a comprehensive review of the use of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as an environmentally benign alternative reaction media for chemical transformations and processes. The contributors cover a range of topics including synthesis, structure, properties, toxicity and biodegradability of DESs. The book also explores myriad applications in various disciplines, such as organic synthesis and (bio)catalysis, electrochemistry, extraction, analytical chemistry, polymerizations, (nano)materials preparation, biomass processing, and gas adsorption.
Deduction, Computation, Experiment : Exploring the Effectiveness of Proof
What is a proof for? What is the characteristic use of a proof as a computation, as opposed to its use as an experiment? What is the relationship between mathematical procedures and natural processes? The essays collected in this volume address such questions from different points of view and will interest students and scholars in several branches of scientific knowledge. Some essays deal with the logical skeleton of deduction, others examine the interplay between natural systems and models of computation, yet others use significant results from the natural sciences to illustrate the character of procedures in applied mathematics. Focusing on relevant conceptual and logical issues underlying the overall quest for proving, the volume seeks to cast light on what the effectiveness of proof rests on.
Decision-Making in Engineering Design : Theory and Practice
We use our brains when we create plans and designs. The resulting plans and designs take physical form, however, what we thought about, the alternatives we tried, and the constraints we recognized while we were making these plans and designs are usually not written anywhere. Therefore, those who only get to see the results, e.g. the final text and drawings, do not learn what led the designer to reach such conclusions and as a consequence never understand the real design. This description of decision processes will provide the means for the development of new manufacturing systems and production activities in the future because it helps us gain a real understanding of the how the mind processes we go through when making decisions affect the decisions that we make.
Decision Support for Global Enterprises
Decision Support for Global Enterprises consists of peer-reviewed and invited papers with two primary goals: (1) Stimulate creative discussion between academic researchers and the practitioner IS community to improve the research and practice in the area. (2) Increase awareness of the problems and challenges faced by global enterprises that can be met with innovative decision support systems. Limitations are also explored, covering the following topics: the emerging enterprise decision making processes and technologies; decision making in uncertain, changing conditions; the changing infrastructure in organizations and society; the expanding role of web technologies; and emerging theories and practices for managing knowledge and making decisions.
Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty : From Theory to Practice
Focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them.
Decision Making in the Manufacturing Environment : Using Graph Theory and Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods
Manufacturing is the backbone of any industrialized nation. Recent worldwide advances in manufacturing technologies have brought about a metamorphosis in industry. Fast-changing technologies on the product front have created a need for an equally fast response from manufacturing industries. To meet these challenges, manufacturing industries have to select appropriate manufacturing strategies, product designs, manufacturing processes, work piece and tool materials, and machinery and equipment. The selection decisions are complex, as decision making is more challenging today. Decision makers in the manufacturing sector frequently face the problem of assessing a wide range of options and selecting one based on a set of conflicting criteria.
Decision Making for Complex Socio-Technical Systems : Robustness from Lessons Learned in Long-Term Radioactive Waste Governance
The long-term governance of radioactive waste continues to be a major complex and contentious socio-technical issue worldwide. Traditionally, it has been considered as mainly a challenge to scientists and engineers to develop technical "solutions" to specific problems. But increasingly these narrow solutions have been enlarged by wider societal considerations such as ethics, public involvement, control and retrievability – needs that have in the meanwhile been recognised by the nuclear community, at least in a general way. In this book, we analyse motives for a broad discourse as well as suggest prerequisites to launch it. The author attempts to give a novel, empirically based and technically sound treatment of fundamental issues in long-term management and governance. Written to be accessible to a wide selection of the interested public, the study proposes a combination of technical design issues, analysis methods and institutional backup in a dynamic procedure, and with involvement at all levels of political, commercial and social life.
David Chipperfield Architects = Architektur und Baudetails: Architecture and Construction Details
Supplemented by three current projects. It gives a glimpse behind the scenes, describes processes and provides plenty of building details.
Data-Driven Fault Detection and Reasoning for Industrial Monitoring
Assesses the potential of data-driven methods in industrial process monitoring engineering. The process modeling, fault detection, classification, isolation, and reasoning are studied in detail. These methods can be used to improve the safety and reliability of industrial processes. Fault diagnosis, including fault detection and reasoning, has attracted engineers and scientists from various fields such as control, machinery, mathematics, and automation engineering. Combining the diagnosis algorithms and application cases, this book establishes a basic framework for this topic and implements various statistical analysis methods for process monitoring.
Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery ; Vol.4081 ; 8th International Conference, DaWaK 2006, Krakow, Poland, September 4-8, 2006, Proceedings
DaWaK aimed at providing the right and logical balance between data warehousing and knowledge discovery. In data warehousing the papers cover different research problems, such as advanced techniques in OLAP visuali- tion and multidimensional modelling, innovation of ETL processes and integration problems, materialized view optimization, very large data warehouse processing, data warehouses and data mining applications integration, data warehousing for real-life applications, e. g. , medical applications and spatial applications. In data mining and knowledge discovery, papers are focused on a variety of topics from data streams analysis and mining, ontology-based mining techniques, mining frequent item sets, clustering, association and classification, patterns and so on.



















