New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence ; JSAI 2007 Conference and Workshops, Miyazaki, Japan, June 18-22, 2007, Revised Selected Papers
The technology of artifcial intelligence is increasing its importance thanks to the rapid growth of the Internet and computer technology. In Japan, the annual conference series of JSAI (The Japanese Society for Arti?cial Intelligence) has been playing a leading role in promoting AI research, and selected papers of the annual conferences have been published in the LNAI series since 2003. This book consists of award papers from the 21st annual conference of JSAI (JSAI 2007) and selected papers from the four co-located workshops.
New Age herbals : Resource, quality and pharmacognosy
Importance of herbs (medicinal plants) can hardly be overemphasized. They are exploited for manyfold applications, ranging from phytopharmaceuticals, to nutraceuticals, to cosmetics and many others. Keeping in view the richness of herbs and their vast potential, this book collates the most up-to-date knowledge of important herbs and herbals. The book also gives an overview of some issues causing hindrance in the promotion of herbals. This book attempts to compile the rich experience of experts working on various herbs. New age single plant species, having multiple medicinal traits worth exploiting i.e. Hippophae rhamnoides (seabuckthorn), and Morinda citrifolia (noni) also find place as full chapters in the book.
New Advances in Virtual Humans: Artificial Intelligence Environment
In this book, various aspects of cognitive and emotional behaviour is described. In chapter one, a state of the art introduction to VH is presented and the associated research is given. In Chapter 2, cognitive and emotions processes are described. A Comprehensive context model for multi-party interactions with the VH is given in the next chapter. Finally, it is very important to model the socializing of groups of virtual humans. This is discussed in Chapter 4. The automatic modelling of expressions for VH is described in Chapter 5. The last chapter gives a case study of an intelligent kios avatar and its usability.
Neurodynamics of Cognition and Consciousness
This book addresses dynamical aspects of brain functions and cognition. This volume gives an overview of recent advances in this interdisciplinary field of cognitive and computer science related to dynamics of cognition, including experimental studies, dynamical modelling and interpretation of cognitive experiments, and theoretical approaches.
Nanomaterials and Nanochemistry
Nanomaterials are a fast developing field of research and applications lie in many separate domains, such as in hi-tech (optics, electronics, biology, aeronautics), but also in consumer industries (automotive, concrete, surface treatments (including paints), cosmetics, etc.).
Mycorrhizae : Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry
This book discusses and goes into detail on a number of topics: the molecular basis of nutrient exchange between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and host plants; the role of AM fungi in disease protection, alleviation of soil stresses and increasing grain production; interactions of AM fungi and beneficial saprophytic mycoflora in terms of plant growth promotion; the role of AM fungi in the restoration of native ecosystems; indirect contributions of AM fungi and soil aggregation to plant growth and mycorrhizosphere effect of multitrophic interaction; the mechanisms by which mycorrhizas change a disturbed ecosystem into productive land; the importance of reinstallation of mycorrhizal systems in the rhizosphere is emphasized and their impact on landscape regeneration, and in bioremediation of contaminated soils; Ectomycorrhizae (ECM) and their importance in forest ecosystems and associations of ECM in tropical rain forests function to maintain tropical monodominance; in vitro mycorrhization of micro-propagated plants, and visualizing and quantifying endorhizal fungi; the use of mycorrhizae, mainly AM and ECM, for sustainable agriculture and forestry.
Mute people aiding application
Communication is an essential tool for human survival. It is a fundamental and effective method of sharing thoughts, needs, feelings, and opinions. However, a large portion of the world's population lacks the ability to communicate with others. Such as the ones suffering from hearing loss, speech disability, or even both. Those disabilities have a significant impact on their lives in terms of work and relationships. The majority of these people are sometimes unable to support themselves financially due to the lack of job opportunities. Given these difficulties, we have decided to develop an application to help them overcome the obstacles they may encounter in their daily lives. After consulting with two deaf and mute people we customized an application that works in two ways. One of which is to translate their sign language in real time by using mobile camera and recognizing hand motion. The other works by converting text-to-voice, and accurately expressing the user’s emotions with the help of the facial emotion recognition.
Multi-Robot Systems. From Swarms to Intelligent Automata, Vol. III ; Proceedings from the 2005 International Workshop on Multi-Robot Systems
Documents developments in multi-robot systems research. This volume is the result of the Third International workshop on Multi-Robot Systems that was held in March 2005 at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
Multiplication of RNA Plant Viruses
Biochemical studies on plant virus RNA replication have advanced considerably since 2000, primarily because of new genetic, molecular, biochemical, and enzymatic studies. Certain virus-encoded essential proteins, nucleotide sequence motifs, and RNA secondary structures are central to virus RNA replication, which has a number of stages.
Multimodal Technologies for Perception of Humans ; International Evaluation Workshops CLEAR 2007 and RT 2007, Baltimore, MD, USA, May 8-11, 2007, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed joint post-workshop proceedings of two co-located events: the Second International Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships, CLEAR 2007, and the 5th Rich Transcription 2007 Meeting Recognition evaluation, RT 2007, held in succession in Baltimore, MD, USA, in May 2007.The workshops had complementary evaluation efforts; CLEAR for the evaluation of human activities, events, and relationships in multiple multimodal data domains; and RT for the evaluation of speech transcription-related technologies from meeting room audio collections.
Multimodal Technologies for Perception of Humans ; 1st International Evaluation Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships, CLEAR 2006, Southampton, UK, April 6-7, 2006, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the First International CLEAR 2006 Evaluation Campaign and Workshop on Classification of Events, Activities and Relationships for evaluation of multimodal technologies for the perception of humans, their activities and interactions. The workshop was held in the UK in April 2006.
Multicriteria Optimization
Decision makers in many areas, from industry to engineering and the social sector, face an increasing need to consider multiple, conflicting objectives in their decision processes. In many cases these real world decision problems can be formulated as multicriteria mathematical optimization models. The solution of such models requires appropriate techniques to compute so called efficient, or Pareto optimal, or compromise solutions that - unlike traditional mathematical programming methods - take the contradictory nature of the criteria into account. This book provides the necessary mathematical foundation of multicriteria optimization to solve nonlinear, linear and combinatorial problems with multiple criteria. Motivational examples illustrate the use of multicriteria optimization in practice. Numerous illustrations and exercises as well as an extensive bibliography are provided.
Multi-body Dynamic Modeling of Multi-legged Robots
This book describes the development of an integrated approach for generating the path and gait of realistic hexapod robotic systems. It discusses in detail locomation with straight-ahead, crab and turning motion capabilities in varying terrains, like sloping surfaces, staircases, and various user-defined rough terrains. It also presents computer simulations and validation using Virtual Prototyping (VP) tools and real-world experiments.
Multiagent System Technologies ; Vol. 3550 : 3rd German Conference, MATES 2005, Koblenz, Germany, September 11-13, 2005, Proceedings
After two successful MATES conferences in Erfurt 2003 and 2004, the 3rd G- man conference on Multi-agent System Technologies (MATES 2005) took place in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2005, and was co-located with the 28th German Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (KI 2005). Building onotheragent-related events in Germany in the past, and organized by the GI German Special Interest Group on Distributed Arti?cial Intelligence, the MATES conference series aims at promoting the theory and applications of agents and multiagent systems. In corporating the 9th International Workshopon Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2005), the topics of interest for MATES 2005 also covered the ?elds of intelligent information agents and systems for the Internet and the (Semantic) Web. As in recent years, MATES 2005 provided a distinguished, lively and int- disciplinary forum for researchers, users, and developers of agent technology, to present and discuss the latest advances of research and development in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems. Accordingly, the topics of MATES 2005 covered the whole range from the theory to applications of age- and multiagent technology. The technical program included a total of 24 sci- ti?c talks, and demonstrations of selected running agent systems, and both the MATES 2005 Best Paper and the CIA 2005 System Innovation awards.
Move : Architecture in Motion - Dynamic Components and Elements
Dynamic components and adaptive elements are becoming increasingly important in contemporary architecture, and not just because of their visual effect. If architects and engineers are engaging more and more with the issue of movement – whether in the form of sun-tracking solar cells, lowerable walls, or intelligently programmed elevators – it’s because they are busy exploring responses to three challenges: How can we control and reduce the energy requirement of buildings? How can we expand the range of possible uses? And how can we represent, illustrate, accommodate, and control dynamic movements in buildings?
Motivic Homotopy Theory : Lectures at a Summer School in Nordfjordeid, Norway, August 2002
This book is based on lectures given at a summer school held in Nordfjordeid on the Norwegian west coast in August 2002. In the little town with the sp- tacular surroundings where Sophus Lie was born in 1842, the municipality, in collaboration with the mathematics departments at the universities, has established the “Sophus Lie conference center”. The purpose is to help or- nizing conferences and summer schools at a local boarding school during its summer vacation, and the algebraists and algebraic geometers in Norway had already organized such summer schools for a number of years. In 2002 a joint project with the algebraic topologists was proposed.
Motivational profiles in TIMSS mathematics : Exploring student clusters across aountries and time
This open access book presents a person-centered exploration of student profiles, using variables related to motivation to do school mathematics derived from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data. Statistical cluster analysis is used to identify groups of students with similar motivational profiles, across grades and over time, for multiple participating countries. In this book, a person-centered analysis of distinct and meaningful motivational profiles and their differences on sociodemographic variables and mathematics performance broadens understanding about the role that motivation characteristics play in learning and achievement in mathematics.
Motivational Aspects of Prejudice and Racism
Motivational Aspects of Prejudice and Racism examines the cognitive processes as well as the motivational forces that create and sustain social hierarchies based on racial categories. A panel of top scholars analyzes the subtle and explicit manifestations of bias within and across racial groups, while refuting the idea that race has lost its power as a social concept. Chapter authors review the evolution of the psychological understanding of racism and its effects, pinpoint emerging trends in racism research, and illuminate the experience of prejudice from minority group members’ perspectives. Well-known psychosocial phenomena as the cross-race identification effect, social identity, and majority culture members' conflicting attitudes regarding race, are explored, with the underlying ideologies that nurture them. The volume concludes with a realistic assessment of the future, and possible elimination, of racism. Readers are challenged to re-think self and social identities and self-concepts—particularly relevant ideas as America grows more diverse, and potentially more divided.
Motivation and career satisfaction at higher education in Syria: A sample from private university
This research paper examines the effect of motivational factors , extrinsic and intrinsic factors which effect on staff satisfaction at work at universities in Syria. The research methodology employs a quantitative design of questionnaire instrument. The model predicts that if employees develop high levels of motivation in their work and organizations, this will stimulate a good quality in their productivity and develop satisfaction at work. Motivation in general , extrinsic factors, intrinsic factors and job satisfaction are based on prior research measures. Sampling strategy employed non-probability sampling. The size of the sample is 35. The results of the research designate that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors are positively associated with employee job satisfaction
Motion-Free Super-Resolution
With the explosion of Internet technology and graphics engines, digital images are now everywhere. Image capturing tools are all pervading - in our pockets to inside a satellite. And although imaging applications demand an availability to high resolution images, such images are not picture perfect and may be lacking sufficient details. This requires that these images be super-resolved for improved details. How to achieve this is what constitutes research in the area of image super-resolution. Motion-Free Super-Resolution explores new technology for image super-resolution - applying cues other than the motion cue in super-resolving a scene. This book will serve as an essential reference for both academecians and practicing engineers in the area of image processing and computer vision, as well as providing a basis for ongoing research in this field.



















