الصفحة 12
الصفحة 12
Cloud-Based Benchmarking of Medical Image Analysis
Presents the VISCERAL project benchmarks for analysis and retrieval of 3D medical images (CT and MRI) on a large scale, which used an innovative cloud-based evaluation approach where the image data were stored centrally on a cloud infrastructure and participants placed their programs in virtual machines on the cloud. The book presents the points of view of both the organizers of the VISCERAL benchmarks and the participants.
Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems ; Vol. II : Epidemiology, Evolution and Ecology,Immunology, Neural Systems and the Brain, and Innovative Mathematical Methods
This two-volume, interdisciplinary work is a unified presentation of a broad range of state-of-the-art topics in the rapidly growing field of mathematical modeling in the biological sciences. Highlighted throughout both works are mathematical and computational approaches to examine central problems in the life sciences, ranging from the organizational principles of individual cells to the dynamics of large populations.
Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems ; Vol. I : Cellular Biophysics, Regulatory Networks, Development, Biomedicine, and Data Analysis
This two-volume, interdisciplinary work is a unified presentation of a broad range of state-of-the-art topics in the rapidly growing field of mathematical modeling in the biological sciences. Highlighted throughout both works are mathematical and computational approaches to examine central problems in the life sciences, ranging from the organizational principles of individual cells to the dynamics of large populations.
Materials for Tomorrow : Theory, Experiments and Modelling
This book contains six chapters on central topics in materials science. Each is written by specialists in the field, and gives a state-of-the-art presentation of the subject for graduate students and scientists not necessarily working in that field. Computer simulations of new materials, theory and experimental work are all extensively discussed. As nanomaterials are of great current interest, most of the topics discussed have a bearing on nanomaterials and nanodevices. In addition to inorganic nanotubes, metallic nanocrystals, electronic nanodevices, spintronics and interfaces on an atomic scale, the text also presents computer simulations on one of the less well understood fields in solid-state physics and materials science: glasses and undercooled fluids.
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.
Marginality : Addressing the Nexus of poverty, exclusion and ecology
In this volume economists, ecology experts, geographers, agronomists, sociologist, and business experts come together to address marginality. The inter-disciplinary research offers conceptual innovations and presents the dimensions of marginality in developing countries. Economic, political, and environmental drivers are assessed and mapped globally and in detail for countries in Africa and Asia, especially Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia. Economic growth especially in rural areas remains and farming communities is central to poverty reduction but needs to be complemented with specific actions to reach those at the margins.
Mapping Sustainability : Knowledge e-Networking and the Value Chain
Our underlying objectives are to contribute to the provision, mana- ment, and sharing of knowledge, and to enhance the value of knowledge and its uses by different constituencies in diverse contexts and at different stages of development. The central theme of this book, connecting its different parts, is about ways of transcending critical barriers to the effective uses of knowledge and e-networking. Of special relevance is the development of new approaches to the provision and transmission – from local sources to global networks and from global sources to local networks. In many ways, this is a book of theory and methods, as well as policy and performance.
Mangroves and Halophytes : Restoration and Utilisation
Focusing on Venezuela and Mexico, this edited volume from the International Society of Halophyte Utilisation (ISHU) explores the environmental issues facing South and Central America's coastal ecosystems, and discusses the uses of mangrove species and other halophytes in addressing issues of both coastal pollution and upland soil salinisation. The book draws on expertise from Europe and South America to present a series of case studies that detail Venezuela’s saline ecosystems and examine the economic potential of mangrove restoration and halophyte production. It includes cutting-edge research into the establishment of new mangrove stands which could serve as prototypes for the sustainable use of halophytes, including Chenopodium quinoa and Tamarix aphylla. Moreover, the detailed examples from Venezuela and other Caribbean countries provide useful models for comparison with halophyte utilisation in other parts of the world – especially the Mediterranean region, where much of the earlier research of the ISHU had been conducted.
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.
Management divided : Contradictions of labor management
One of the central dynamics shaping organizations is a contradiction managers face between ensuring workforce discipline and harnessing worker creativity. In this rich study of American manufacturing, Matt Vidal offers a theory of 'organizational political economy', integrating concepts from organization theory into a classical Marxist framework
Management by Business Process : A Managerial Perspective of People, Process, and Technology
To support businesses managed through an organizational structure oriented by business processes, it is essential that the manager has a set of knowledge, technical skills, and professional demeanor. This text focuses on these aspects, presenting: a) the theoretical foundation, describing the central concepts of the M-B-BP approach; b) the set of necessary techniques from different areas, describing and exemplifying those skills; and c) the required behaviors of managers and employees for structuring, operation, management, and continuous improvement of the organization's business processes.
Making Growth Work : How Companies Can Expand and Become More Efficient
Growth is the key goal of management. It's not just an indicator of a company's performance, but also the basis for its future success. But growth doesn't just mean getting bigger – it also means getting better. In other words, growth must be profitable, otherwise it destroys the company's value long term. And this is not the only challenge. Growth must also be made continuous. The traditional V-curve paradigm (first downsize, then grow) no longer applies. Today, companies must follow a parallel strategy of growth coupled with reorganization, in the sense of permanently increasing efficiency.
Macroeconomics of Monetary Union
This book, unlike other books, provides readers with a practical yet sophisticated grasp of the macroeconomic principles necessary to understand a monetary union. By definition, a monetary union is a group of countries that share a common currency. The most important case in point is the Euro area. Policy makers are the central bank, national governments, and national labour unions. Policy targets are price stability and full employment. Policy makers follow cold-turkey or gradualist strategies. Policy decisions are taken sequentially or simultaneously. The countries can differ in size or behaviour. Policy expectations are adaptive or rational. To illustrate all of this there are numerical simulations of monetary policy, fiscal policy, and wage policy.
Long-Run Growth Forecasting
Explores how to set up an empirical model that helps with forecasting long-term economic growth in a large number of countries. It offers a systematic approach to models of potential GDP that can also be used for forecasts of more than a decade. It is an attempt to fill the wide gap between the high demand for such models by commercial banks, international organizations, central banks and governments on the one hand and the limited supply on the other hand. Frequent forecast failures in the past (e.g. Japan 1990, Asia 1997) and the heavy economic losses they produced motivated the work. The book assesses the large number of different theories of economic growth, the drivers of economic growth, the available datasets and the empirical methods on offer. A preference is shown for evolutionary models and an augmented Kaldor model. The book uses non-stationary panel techniques to find pair-wise cointegration among GDP per capita and its main correlates such as physical capital, human capital and openness.
List decoding of error-correcting codes : Winning thesis of the 2002 ACM doctoral dissertation competition
Presents some spectacular new results in the area of decoding algorithms for error-correcting codes. Specifically, it shows how the notion of “list-decoding” can be applied to recover from far more errors, for a wide variety of err- correcting codes, than achievable before. A brief bit of background : error-correcting codes are combinatorial str- tures that show how to represent (or “encode”) information so that it is - silient to a moderate number of errors. Speci?cally, an error-correcting code takes a short binary string, called the message, and shows how to transform it into a longer binary string, called the codeword, so that if a small number of bits of the codewordare ?ipped, the resulting string does not look like any other codeword. The maximum number of errorsthat the code is guaranteed to detect, denoted d, is a central parameter in its design. A basic property of such a code is that if the number of errors that occur is known to be smaller than d/2, the message is determined uniquely. This poses a computational problem, called the decoding problem : compute the message from a corrupted codeword, when the number of errors is less than d/2.
Linear Optimization Problems with Inexact Data
Linear programming attracted the interest of mathematicians during and after World War II when the first computers were constructed and methods for solving large linear programming problems were sought in connection with specific practical problems—for example, providing logistical support for the U.S. Armed Forces or modeling national economies. Early attempts to apply linear programming methods to solve practical problems failed to satisfy expectations. There were various reasons for the failure. One of them, which is the central topic of this book, was the inexactness of the data used to create the models. This phenomenon, inherent in most pratical problems, has been dealt with in several ways. At first, linear programming models used "average” values of inherently vague coefficients, but the optimal solutions of these models were not always optimal for the original problem itself. Later researchers developed the stochastic linear programming approach, but this too has its limitations. Recently, interest has been given to linear programming problems with data given as intervals, convex sets and/or fuzzy sets. The individual results of these studies have been promising, but the literature has not presented a unified theory. Linear Optimization Problems with Inexact Data attempts to present a comprehensive treatment of linear optimization with inexact data, summarizing existing results and presenting new ones within a unifying framework.
Linear Differential Equations and Group Theory from Riemann to Poincaré
A study of how a particular vision of the unity of mathematics, often called geometric function theory, was created in the 19th century. The central focus is on the convergence of three mathematical topics: the hypergeometric and related linear differential equations, group theory, and on-Euclidean geometry. The text for this second edition has been greatly expanded and revised, and the existing appendices enriched with historical accounts of the Riemann–Hilbert problem, the uniformization theorem, Picard–Vessiot theory, and the hypergeometric equation in higher dimensions. The exercises have been retained, making it possible to use the book as a companion to mathematics courses at the graduate level.
Les douleurs abdominales en questions : Rôle physiopathologique de la sensibilité viscérale = Abdominal pain in question : The pathophysiological role of visceral sensitivity
The gut-brain axis refers to the network of nerve pathways that connect the myenteric plexus, the veritable "gut brain," to the central nervous system. Nearly 80% of these neurons are sensory neurons, and the afferent pathways that transmit information from the digestive tract to the central nervous system play a crucial role in the physiological regulation of digestive functions, as well as in certain pathological conditions. A large majority of these sensations remain unconscious and give rise to reflex responses. Only those requiring a conscious response reach the level of awareness in a normal state (hunger, thirst, the urge to defecate). In pathological situations, the same is true for painful sensations of digestive origin. Functional bowel disorders are a frequent reason for consultation. Their pathophysiology is now based on a model integrating the various etiological factors around the brain-gut axis. These patients frequently present with visceral hypersensitivity, which manifests as an increased perception of digestive sensations, notably the onset of pain in response to stimuli that are not painful in normal subjects. Recognizing the role of visceral hypersensitivity has made it possible to explain the mechanism of action of medications used to treat functional bowel disorders and paves the way for the development of new molecules acting on digestive afferents. In this book, we will describe the anatomical and physiological basis for understanding the concept of visceral sensitivity and the role of digestive afferents in the pathophysiology of acute and chronic abdominal pain, particularly irritable bowel syndrome.
Leptomeningeal Metastases
Leptomeningeal Metastases provides the reader with an overview of the state-of-the-art therapy for the leptomeningeal patient with additional information on epidemiology, symptom management, new clinical trials, and current basic research in animal models for experimental therapies. "Leptomeningeal metastases remains a devastating manifestation of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Leading figures in the field review the pathophysiology and clinical consequences of this process. State-of-the-art treatment strategies are presented highlighting advances in current management."
Learning from clusters : A critical assessment from an economic-geographical perspective
Edited volumes run the danger of being a hotchpotch of contributions on a wide variety of topics. Here, we have explicitly focused on a central theme in contemporary economic geography and regional science, namely the relationship between learning, innovation and clustering. Internationally renowned scientists made both theoretical and empirical contributions to this volume. We think this book constitutes a broad palette of contemporary thinking and research on the relationship between spatial concentration and innovation and hope it will play a significant role in future debates on this issue.
