الصفحة 3
الصفحة 3
Multi-Agent Programming : Languages, Platforms and Applications
Part I describes four approaches that are based on computational logic or process algebra--Jason, 3APL, IMPACT, and CLAIM/SyMPA. These programming languages have formal semantics and use heavy machinery based on formal methods, but also provide working platforms for the development of multi-agent systems. Part II presents agent languages and platforms that extend or are based on Java--JADE, Jadex, and JACKTM. Although these have no formal semantics, the languages are well documented and the platforms provide a variety of tools that have been extensively used in practice. Part III provides two significant industry specific applications--The DEFACTO System for coordinating human-agent teams for the future of disaster response, and the ARTIMIS rational dialogue agent technology. The book also features seven appendices, summarising each of the agent programming languages, hence facilitating comparison of the approaches. In particular, Appendix A describes the criteria used for comparing the agent languages and platforms.
MRI in Clinical Practice
The book covers the basic Physics behind MRI, quality assurance, up-to-date safety guidelines and a useful gallery of image artefacts. Part of the book focuses on the specific areas of the body in which MRI is currently exploited, describing how MRI is performed in practice. In each of these sections, a common theme is followed with illustrations of MR images acquired with clinically relevant settings and typical imaging protocols are also explicitly stated. Additional information is provided which includes a subjective view of the strengths and weaknesses of MRI in comparison to other imaging modalities. As well as covering routine clinical techniques, the latest advanced methods (e.g. spectroscopy, fMRI, diffusion, high field MRI) are discussed and placed into the context of clinical application.
Moral Philosophy on the Threshold of Modernity
This volume investigates the paradigm changes which occurred in ethics during the early modern era (1350-1600). While many general claims have been made regarding the nature of moral philosophy in the period of transition from medieval to modern thought, the rich variety of extant texts has seldom been studied and discussed in detail. The present collection attempts to do this. It provides new research on ethics in the context of Late Scholasticism, Neo-Scholasticism, Renaissance Humanism and the Reformation. It traces the fate of Aristotelianism and of Stoicism, explores specific topics such as probabilism and casuistry, and highlights the connections between Protestant theology and early modern ethics. The book also examines how the origins of human rights, as well as different views of moral agency, the will and the emotions, came into focus on the eve of modernity.
Monograph of the Urostyloidea (Ciliophora, Hypotricha)
This monograph is the second of a series treating the hypotrichs, a major part of the spirotrichous ciliates. The urostyloids are characterised by a zigzag-arrangement of the ventral cirri. Like the first part of the series, the Oxytrichidae, it summarises the morphological, morphogenetic, faunistic, and ecological data from the past 230 years, scattered in more than 1300 references from all over the world. Dichotomous keys lead to 36 genera and subgenera comprising 153 species illustrated by more than 2100 figures, including original ones. The treatise offers taxonomists, cell biologists, and ecologists a thorough and up-to-date revision because for each species a detailed list of synonyms, a discussion of the nomenclature and systematics, and an extensive description of the morphology and ecology, including almost all published faunistic records, are provided. With the monographs of the Urostyloidea and the Oxytrichidae the interested scientist can identify more than 320 species of hypotrichs, which are an important component of the eukaryotic microbial life in limnetic, marine, and terrestrial habitats.
Monoaminergic modulation of cortical excitability
Monoaminergic Modulation of Cortical Excitability serves as an integrative and comprehensive comparison of the diverse and complex modulatory action of dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin receptors in the cortex. The volume is organized into several sections offering a broad spectrum of opinions on how the monoamine systems affect cortical function from a cellular/sub-cellular level to a system level. The complexity of these interactions are discussed in light of recent data showing how disruption of these systems dramatically affects the memory formation and information processing in the cortex.
Monetary Policy and the German Unemployment Problem in Macroeconomic Models : Theory and Evidence
Having the high unemployment in Germany in mind, this book discusses how macroeconomic theory has evolved over the past forty years. It shows that in recent years a convergence has taken place, with modern models embodying a Keynesian transmission mechanism, monetarist policy implication, and modeling techniques inspired by new classical economics and real business cycle theory. It also probes in which direction models may be extended from here. Empirically, the book uses different econometric techniques to investigate the relevance and implications of different macroeconomic theories for German data. A key question this book investigates is the role of demand and supply side conditions for the increase in the German unemployment rate. On a policy level, the book relates the implications of the different theories to the ongoing debate on the appropriate roles of demand and supply side policies for curing the German unemployment problem.
Molecular Markers of Brain Tumor Cells : Implications for Diagnosis, Prognosis and Anti-Neoplastic Biological Therapy
Childhood brain tumors are a diverse group of diseases characterized by the abnormal growth of tissue contained within the skull. Other than leukemia and lymphoma, brain tumors are the most common type of neoplasms that occur in children. The leading cause of death from childhood neoplasms among persons up to 19 years is brain tumors. As such, this book is a review of the most recent molecular biological research concerning brain tumors with references and comparisons to a variety of neoplastic disorders. The book then uses this information to foreshadow the direction that future anti-neoplastic therapies will take. Because of the wide spectrum of the objectives of the book, any individual involved in cancer research will greatly benefit from the work. Histopathologists, neuropathologists, clinical and research oncologists, and medical students will find this book to be an invaluable resource as a reference guide. Patients and their families will also find the book useful as it offers a comprehensive update on new, non-classical therapeutic modality options and contains a detailed description and analysis of brain tumors. Such an endeavor has yet to be undertaken by any other book and may prove to be the most comprehensive book on brain tumors thus far.
Molecular Marker Systems in Plant Breeding and Crop Improvement
Successful release of new and better crop varieties increasingly requires genomics and molecular biology. This volume presents basic information on plant molecular marker techniques from marker location up to gene cloning. The text includes a description of technical approaches in genome analysis such as comparison of marker systems, positional cloning, and array techniques in 19 crop plants. A special section focuses on converting this knowledge into general and specific breeding strategies, particularly in relation to biotic stress. Theory and practice of marker assisted selection for QTL, gene pyramiding and the future of MAS are summarized and discussed for maize, wheat, and soybean. Furthermore, approaches in silviculture on the examples of Fagus, Populus, Eucalyptus, Picea and Abies are presented. The volume ends with a comprehensive review of the patents relevant for using molecular markers and marker assisted selection.
Molecular and Cellular Signaling
A small number of signaling pathways, no more than a dozen or so, form a control layer that is responsible for all signaling in and between cells of the human body. The signaling proteins belonging to the control layer determine what kinds of cells are made during development and how they function during adult life. Malfunctions in the proteins belonging to the control layer are responsible for a host of human diseases ranging from neurological disorders to cancers. Most drugs target components in the control layer, and difficulties in drug design are intimately related to the architecture of the control layer. Molecular and Cellular Signaling provides an introduction to molecular and cellular signaling in biological systems with an emphasis on the underlying physical principles. The text is aimed at upper-level undergraduates, graduate students and individuals in medicine and pharmacology interested in broadening their understanding of how cells regulate and coordinate their core activities and how diseases arise when these regulatory systems malfunction, as well as those in chemistry, physics and computer science interested in pursuing careers in biological and medical physics, bioinformatics and systems biology. To that end, the book includes background information and review sections, and chapters on signaling in the immune, endocrine (hormonal) and nervous systems. It has chapters on cancer, apoptosis and gene regulation, and contains chapters on bacteria and viruses. In those chapters not specifically devoted to pathogens, connections between diseases, drugs and signaling are made. Each chapter also features a problem set to facilitate further discussion and understanding.
Modern trends in research on steel, aluminium and composite structures includes papers presented at the 14th International Conference on metal structures 2021 ; ICMS 2021, Poznań, Poland, 16-18 June 2021
Modern Trends in Research on Steel, Aluminium and Composite Structures includes papers presented at the 14th International Conference on Metal Structures 2021 (ICMS 2021, Pozna, Poland, 16-18 June 2021). The 14th ICMS summarised a few years' theoretical, numerical and experimental research on steel, aluminium and composite structures, and presented new concepts.
Modern Mathematics Education for Engineering Curricula in Europe : A Comparative Analysis of EU, Russia, Georgia and Armenia
Provides a comprehensive overview of the core subjects comprising mathematical curricula for engineering studies in five European countries and identifies differences between two strong traditions of teaching mathematics to engineers. The collective work of experts from a dozen universities critically examines various aspects of higher mathematical education.
Modern Circuit Placement : Best Practices and Results
This book has four unique characteristics. First, it focuses on the most recent highly scalable placement techniques used for multi-million gate circuit designs, with consideration of many practical aspects of modern circuit placement, such as density and routability control, mixed-size placement support, and area I/O support. Second the book addresses dominant techniques being used in the field. Although these tools are developed by academia, many core techniques in these tools are being used extensively in industry and represent today’s advanced placement techniques. Third, the book provides quantitative comparison among the various techniques on common benchmark circuits derived from real-life industrial designs. The book includes significant amounts of analysis on each technique, such as trade-offs between quality-of-results (QoR) and runtime. Finally, analysis of the optimality of the placement techniques is included.
Modelling in Mathematical Programming : Methodology and Techniques
This book provides basic tools for learning how to model in mathematical programming, from models without much complexity to complex system models. It presents a unique methodology for the building of an integral mathematical model, as well as new techniques that help build under own criteria. It allows readers to structure models from the elements and variables to the constraints, a basic modelling guide for any system with a new scheme of variables, a classification of constraints and also a set of rules to model specifications stated as logical propositions, helping to better understand models already existing in the literature. It also presents the modelling of all possible objectives that may arise in optimization problems regarding the variables values. The book is structured to guide the reader in an orderly manner, learning of the components that the methodology establishes in an optimization problem. The system includes the elements, which are all the actors that participate in the system, decision activities that occur in the system, calculations based on the decision activities, specifications such as regulations, impositions or actions of defined value and objective criterion, which guides the resolution of the system.
Modeling and Using Context ; 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference, CONTEXT 2005, Paris, France, July 5-8, 2005, Proceedings
Context is of crucial importance for research and applications in many disciplines, as evidenced by many workshops, symposia, seminars, and conferences on specific aspects of context. The International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT), the oldest conference series focusing on context, provides a unique interdisciplinary emphasis, bringing together participants from a wide range of disciplines, including artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, organizational science, philosophy, psychology, ubiquitous computing, and application areas such as medicine and law, to discuss and report on context-related research and projects. Previous CONTEXT conferences were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1997), Trento, Italy (1999, LNCS 1688), Dundee, UK (2001, LNCS 2116), and Palo Alto, USA (2003, LNCS 2680). CONTEXT 2005 was held in Paris, France during July 5–8, 2005. There was a strong response to the CONTEXT 2005 Call for Papers, with 120 submissions received. A careful review process assessed all submissions, with each paper first reviewed by the international Program Committee, and then reviewer discussions were initiated as needed to assure that the final decisions carefully considered all aspects of each paper. Reviews of submissions by the Program Chairs were supervised independently and anonymously, to assure fair consideration of all work. Out of the 120 submissions, 23 were selected as full papers for oral presentation, and 20 were selected as full papers for poster presentation. These outstanding papers are presented in this proceedings.
Mobile Professional Voluntarism and International Development : Killing Me Softly?
This book explores the impact that professional volunteers have on the low resource countries they choose to spend time in. Whilst individual volunteering may be of immediate benefit to individual patients, this intervention may have detrimental effects on local health systems; distorting labour markets, accentuating dependencies and creating opportunities for corruption. Improved volunteer deployment may avoid these risks and present opportunities for sustainable systems change. The empirical research presented in this book stems from a specific volunteering intervention funded by the Tropical Health Education Trust and focused on improving maternal and newborn health in Uganda.
Mobile and Wireless Communications Networks ; IFIP TC6 / WG6.8 Conference on Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks (MWCN 2004) October 25-27, 2004 Paris, France
Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) has attracted great research interest in recent years. A Mobile Ad Hoc Network is a self-organizing multi-hop wireless network where all hosts (often called nodes) participate in the routing and data forwarding process. The dependence on nodes to relay data packets for others makes mobile ad hoc networks extremely susceptible to various malicious and selfish behaviors. This point is largely overlooked during the early stage of MANET research. Many works simply assume nodes are inherently cooperative and benign. However, experiences from the wired world manifest that the reverse is usually true; and many works [3] [10] [9] [8] [12] [19] have pointed out that the impact of malicious and selfish users must be carefully investigated. The goal of this research is to address the cooperation problem and related security issues in wireless ad hoc networks. As a rule of thumb, it is more desirable to include security mechanisms in the design phase rather than continually patching the system for security breaches. As pointed out in [2] [1], there can be both selfish and malicious nodes in a mobile ad hoc network. Selfish nodes are most concerned about their energy consumption and intentionally drop packets to save power. The purpose of malicious nodes, on the other hand, is to attack the network using various intrusive techniques. In general, nodes in an ad hoc network can exhibit Byzantine behaviors.
Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics
Mid-infrared Semiconductor Optoelectronics is an overview of the current status and technological development in this rapidly emerging area. It is composed of four parts. First, the basic physics and some of the main problems facing the design engineer (together with a comparison of possible solutions) are laid out. Next, there is a consideration of the multifarious lasers used as sources for mid-infrared technology, including an inspection of current approaches to the lack of such a source in the 3–4 µm region. Part III reviews recent work in light-emitting diodes and detectors and also deals with negative luminescence. The final part of the book is concerned with applications and highlights, once more, the diversity and technological importance of the mid-infrared spectral region.
Microcontrollers in Practice
Stressing common characteristics and real applications of the most used microcontrollers, this practical guide provides readers with hands-on knowledge of how to implement three families of microcontrollers (HC11, AVR, and 8051). Unlike the rest of the ocean of literature on individual chips, Microcontrollers in Practice supplieS side-by-side comparisons and an overview that treats the systems as resources available for implementation. Packed with hundred of practical examples and exercises to foster mastery of concepts and details, the guide also includes several extended projects. By treating the less expensive 8-bit and RISC microcontrollers, this information-dense manual equips students and home-experimenters with the know-how to put these devices into operation.
Metric Structures for Riemannian and Non-Riemannian Spaces
The first stages of the new developments were presented in Gromov's course in Paris, which turned into the famous "Green Book" by Lafontaine and Pansu (1979). The present English translation of that work has been enriched and expanded with new material to reflect recent progress. Additionally, four appendices—by Gromov on Levy's inequality, by Pansu on "quasiconvex" domains, by Katz on systoles of Riemannian manifolds, and by Semmes overviewing analysis on metric spaces with measures—as well as an extensive bibliography and index round out this unique and beautiful book.
Metric Spaces
The abstract concepts of metric ces are often perceived as difficult. This book offers a unique approach to the subject which gives readers the advantage of a new perspective familiar from the analysis of a real line. Rather than passing quickly from the definition of a metric to the more abstract concepts of convergence and continuity, the author takes the concrete notion of distance as far as possible, illustrating the text with examples and naturally arising questions. Attention to detail at this stage is designed to prepare the reader to understand the more abstract ideas with relative ease.
