Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks ; LACONA VI Proceedings, Vienna, Austria, Sept. 21--25, 2005
In 1995 Professor Costas Fotakis brought together restorers and scientists to discuss the potential of lasers in art conservation. Since then the field of "Lasers in the Conservation of Artworks" has gained enormously in importance. Nowadays restorers and laser scientists work close together in order to develop new fields of applications during the last years.
IUTAM Symposium on Multiscale Modelling of Damage and Fracture Processes in Composite Materials ; Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium held in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, 23-27 May 2005
This volume constitutes the Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium. The main aim of the Symposium was to discuss the basic principles of damage growth and fracture processes in different types of composites: ceramic, polymer and metal matrix composites, cement and bituminous composites and wood. Nowadays, it is widely recognized that important macroscopic properties like the macroscopic stiffness and strength, are governed by processes that occur at one to several scales below the level of observation starting from nanoscale.
Bond Portfolio Optimization
1 The tools of modern portfolio theory are in general use in the equity markets, either in the form of portfolio optimization software or as an accepted frame- 2 work in which the asset managers think about stock selection. In the ?xed income market on the other hand, these tools seem irrelevant or inapplicable. Bond portfolios are nowadays mainly managed by a comparison of portfolio 3 4 risk measures vis ¶a vis a benchmark. The portfolio manager’s views about the future evolution of the term structure of interest rates translate th- selves directly into a positioning relative to his benchmark, taking the risks of these deviations from the benchmark into account only in a very crude 5 fashion, i.e. without really quantifying them probabilistically. This is quite surprising since sophisticated models for the evolution of interest rates are commonly used for interest rate derivatives pricing and the derivation of ?xed 6 income risk measures.
Blind Speech Separation
This is the first book to provide a cutting edge reference to the fascinating topic of blind source separation (BSS) for convolved speech mixtures. Through contributions by the foremost experts on the subject, the book provides an up-to-date account of research findings, explains the underlying theory, and discusses potential applications. The individual chapters are designed to be tutorial in nature with specific emphasis on an in-depth treatment of state of the art techniques. Blind Speech Separation is divided into three parts:Part 1 presents overdetermined or critically determined BSS. Here the main technology is independent component analysis (ICA). ICA is a statistical method for extracting mutually independent sources from their mixtures. Part 2 addresses underdetermined BSS, where there are fewer microphones than source signals. Here, the sparseness of speech sources is very useful; we can utilize time-frequency diversity, where sources are active in different regions of the time-frequency plane.Part 3 presents monaural BSS where there is only one microphone. Here, we can separate a mixture by using the harmonicity and temporal structure of the sources. We can build a probabilistic framework by assuming a source model, and separate a mixture by maximizing the a posteriori probability of the sources.
Big data and artificial intelligence in digital finance : Increasing personalization and trust in digital finance using big data and AI
This book presents how cutting-edge digital technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Blockchain are set to disrupt the financial sector. The book illustrates how recent advances in these technologies facilitate banks, FinTechs, and financial institutions to collect, process, analyze, and fully leverage the very large amounts of data that are nowadays produced and exchanged in the sector. To this end, the book also introduces some of the most popular Big Data, AI and Blockchain applications in the sector, including novel applications in the areas of Know Your Customer (KYC), Personalized Wealth Management and Asset Management, Portfolio Risk Assessment, as well as variety of novel Usage-based Insurance applications based on Internet-of-Things data.
Axon growth and guidance
The complexarchitectureofneuronal networks togetherwith the extraordinary associated functions make the nervous system a fascinating biological structure. The considerable work performed to explore this cellular machinery is nowadays successfulbecause the mysteryofnervous system developmentisbeing unravelled. As described in their outstanding review published 10 years ago in Science.' Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Corey Goodman-the pioneers of the molecular era of axon guidance-summarized the assembly of nervous system connections as a subtle game of attraction and repulsion of neuronal growth cones. The cellular ballet ensuring the formation of billions of synapses, which ultimately gives rise to the highest cognitive functions, is primarily orchestrated by a step-by-step mechanism of growth driven by multiple molecular cues. While our general concept of axon guidance remains identical, a profound evolution ofour knowledge ofthe molecular identityofthe guidance cues together with their interactions and signalling pathways occurred over the past ten years.
Autonomous vehicles technological trends
The automotive industry has always been synonymous with research and innovation, but nowadays the industry is adding pressure and is establishing the agenda of the researchers from the field. Visions have been provided, and the hardware and the software exist; the only question remaining is: “who is going to deliver”? To answer this question, we encouraged scientists, researchers, industry specialists, and academics to share their vision of autonomous vehicles. What will the platform look like? What kind of hardware and software is most suitable? Who will make the connection between these two interdependent environments (and how), so that in the end the AI will define the process? These are the pressing issues of the current moment, and this Special Issue will help all those interested in the topic to promote their vision and ideas.
Analisi di Rasch e questionari di misura : Applicazioni in medicina e scienze sociali = Rasch analysis and measurement questionnaires: Applications in medicine and social sciences
Evaluation questionnaires are the most used tools nowadays in the field of medicine and the human sciences to evaluate variables such as disability, altruism or pain. However, clinicians are often unfamiliar with these tools. What do they really measure? How are the results to be interpreted? This book tries to answer these questions.
An Introduction to Riemann Surfaces, Algebraic Curves and Moduli Spaces
This book gives an introduction to modern geometry. Starting from an elementary level the author develops deep geometrical concepts, playing an important role nowadays in contemporary theoretical physics. He presents various techniques and viewpoints, thereby showing the relations between the alternative approaches.
Algorithms and architectures for parallel processing ; 7th International Conference, ICA3PP 2007, Hangzhou, China, June 11-14, 2007, Proceedings
The improvements in computation and communication capabilities have enabled the creation of demanding applications in critical domains such as the environment, health, aerospace, and other areas of science and technology. Similarly, new classes of applications are enabled by the availability of heterogeneous large-scale distributed systems which are becoming available nowadays (based on technologies such as grid and peer-to-peer systems).Parallel computing systems exploit a large diversity of computer architectures, from supercomputers, shared-memory or distributed-memory multi processors, to local networks and clusters of p- sonal computers. With the recent emergence of multi core architectures, parallel computing is now set to achieve “mainstream” status. Approaches that have been advocated by parallel computing researchers in the past are now being utilized in a number of software libraries and hardware systems that are available for everyday use. Parallel computing ideas have also come to dominate areas such as multi user gaming (especially in the development of gaming engines based on “cell” arc- tectures).
Agent-oriented software engineering V ; 5th International workshop, AOSE 2004, New York, NY, USA, July 2004, revised selected papers
The explosive growth of application areas such as electronic commerce, ent- prise resource planning and mobile computing has profoundly and irreversibly changed our views on software systems. Nowadays, software is to be based on open architectures that continuously change and evolve to accommodate new components and meet new requirements. Software must also operate on di?- ent platforms, without recompilation, and with minimal assumptions about its operating environment and its users. Furthermore, software must be robust and ¨ autonomous, capable of serving a naive user with a minimum of overhead and interference. Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities of software systems. They o?er higher-level abstractions and mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among heterogeneous and autonomous parties, p- ception, commitments, goals, beliefs, and intentions, all of which need conceptual modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these concepts can lead to advanced functionalities.
Agent-Based Modeling Meets Gaming Simulation
Provides a good example of the diverse scope and standard of research achieved in simulation and gaming today. The theme of the special session at ISAGA2003 was Agent-Based Modeling Meets Gaming Simulation. Nowadays, agent-based simulation is becoming very popular for modeling and solving complex social phenomena. It is also used to arrive at practical solutions to social problems. At the same time, however, the validity of simulation does not exist in the magni?cence of the model. R. Axelrod stresses the simplicity of the agent-based simulation model through the “Keep it simple, stupid” (KISS) principle: As an ideal, simple modeling is essential.
Aesthetic Surgery of the Abdominal Wall
We have come a long way since the days when abdominal wall contouring was p- formed by simple dermolipectomies, with no attention to diastasis correction and muscular reinforcement, and little regard for the final aesthetic result. Nowadays, an abdominoplasty may be indicated for even the most demanding of patients. Details such as placement of the incision and umbilicoplasty are meticulously planned so as to conceal undesirable scars. Since the advent of suction-assisted lipectomy, in as- ciation with a classical operation or as an isolated procedure, the plastic surgeon has become capable of remodeling the entire trunk, assuring removal of considerable amounts of adipose tissue.
Advanced computer simulation approaches for soft matter sciences I
Soft matter science is nowadays an acronym for an increasingly important class of materials, which ranges from polymers, liquid crystals, colloids up to complex macromolecular assemblies, covering sizes from the nanoscale up the microscale. Computer simulations have proven as an indispensable, if not the most powerful, tool to understand properties of these materials and link theoretical models to experiments. In this first volume of a small series recognized leaders of the field review advanced topics and provide critical insight into the state-of-the-art methods and scientific questions of this lively domain of soft condensed matter research.













