Evolutionary Computation for Modeling and Optimization
Evolutionary Computation for Optimization and Modeling is an introduction to evolutionary computation, a field which includes genetic algorithms, evolutionary programming, evolution strategies, and genetic programming. The text is a survey of some application of evolutionary algorithms. It introduces mutation, crossover, design issues of selection and replacement methods, the issue of populations size, and the question of design of the fitness function. It also includes a methodological material on efficient implementation. Some of the other topics in this book include the design of simple evolutionary algorithms, applications to several types of optimization, evolutionary robotics, simple evolutionary neural computation, and several types of automatic programming including genetic programming. The book gives applications to biology and bioinformatics and introduces a number of tools that can be used in biological modeling, including evolutionary game theory. Advanced techniques such as cellular encoding, grammar based encoding, and graph based evolutionary algorithms are also covered.
Evolution, Monitoring and Predicting Models of Rockburst : Precursor Information for Rock Failure
Focuses on investigating predicting precursor information and key points of rockburst in mining engineering through laboratory experiment, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and case studies. Understanding the evolution patterns for the microstructure instability of rock is a prerequisite for rockburst prediction. The book provides a guide for readers seeking to understand the evolution patterns for the microstrucure of rock failure, the predicting key point of rock failure and the rockburst predicting model. It will be an essential reference to understand mechanism of rockburst and sheds new light on dynamic disasters prediction. Chapters are carefully developed to cover (1) The evolution patterns for the microstructure instability of rock; (2) Rockburst hazard monitoring and predicting criterion and predicting models. The book addresses the issue with a holistic and systematic approach that investigates the occurrence mechanism of rockburst based on the evolution patterns for the microstructure of rock failure and establishes the predicting model of rockburst.
Evolution of Teaching and Learning Paradigms in Intelligent Environment
This book is a fascinating window on the evolution of teaching and learning paradigms in intelligent environments. The three Australian authors include a number of chapters on issues of real relevance to today's teaching practice, including an introduction to the evolution of teaching and learning paradigms
Evidence-based practice in medicine and health care : A discussion of the ethical issues
Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) is feared to become a kind of cook-book medicine that has nothing to do with the traditional skills and ethics. This volume shows the contribution EBM makes and might make to medical practice and health policy. It describes as many viewpoints as possible with a focus on the ethical issues that are at stake in this process. It shows how EBM has developed from an internal medical issue to an instrument for health policy. It is the outcome of the European Project "Ethical Issues of Evidence Based Practice in Medicine and Health Care" and gives insight into the ethical background of the debate on the role of EBM in various areas of medicine, including clinical practice, medical education, medical research, health policy and medical sociology.
Evidence Use in Health Policy Making : An International Public Policy Perspective
Provides a set of conceptual, empirical, and comparative chapters that apply a public policy perspective to investigate the political and institutional factors driving the use of evidence to inform health policy in low, middle, and high income settings. The work presents key findings from the Getting Research Into Policy (GRIP-Health) project: a five year, six country, programme of work supported by the European Research Council. The chapters further our understanding of evidence utilisation in health policymaking through the application of theories and methods from the policy sciences. They present new insights into the roles and importance of factors such as issue contestation, institutional arrangements, logics of appropriateness, and donor influence to explore individual cases and comparative experiences in the use of evidence to inform health policy.
Everyday Innovators: Researching the Role of Users in Shaping ICTs
Everyday Innovators explores the active role of people, collectively and individually, in shaping the use of information and communication technologies. It examines issues around acquiring and using that knowledge of users, how we should conceptualise the role of users and understand the forms and limitations of their participation.
Event-Triggered and Time-Triggered Control Paradigms
Event-Triggered and Time-Triggered Control Paradigms presents a valuable survey about existing architectures for safety-critical applications and discusses the issues that must be considered when moving from a federated to an integrated architecture. The book focuses on one key topic--the amalgamation of the event-triggered and the time-triggered control paradigm into a coherent integrated architecture. The architecture provides for the integration of independent distributed application subsystems by introducing multi-criticality nodes and virtual networks of known temporal properties.
Eutrophication of Shallow Lakes with Special Reference to Lake Taihu, China
Eutrophication and algal blooms are worldwide environmental issues in lakes. The eutrophication process and formation mechanisms of algal blooms are particularly complicated in shallow lakes due to the strong lake–land, air–water and water–sediment interactions. This volume features papers presented at the International Symposium on the Eutrophication Process and Control in Large Shallow Lakes – with Special Reference to Lake Taihu, a Shallow Subtropical Chinese Lake, held in Nanjing, China, 22–26 April, 2005. The topics include: physical processes and their effects on shallow lake ecosystems; biogeochemistry of sediments and nutrient cycling in shallow lakes; algal blooms and ecosystem response in shallow lakes; eutrophication control and restoration in shallow lakes; and resource exploitation, environmental protection and sustainable management in shallow lakes.
Europes Automotive Industry on the Move : Competitiveness in a Changing World
The automotive industry is a major pillar of the modern global economy and one of Europe’s key industries. There can hardly be any doubt about the important role of this sector as an engine for employment, growth and innovation in Europe, and there are crucial challenges and opportunities ahead. The authors shed light on a broad range of issues – globalisation and restructuring, trade and foreign direct investment, innovation, regulation, and industry policy – and put a special focus on the new member states. While change may be inevitable, progress is not. This book shall serve as a map to all stakeholders: business executives and policy makers, investors and scholars.
European water law and hydropolitics : An inquiry into the resilience of transboundary water governance in the European Union
provides the first comprehensive assessment of the various issues faced by countries in the European Union, where progressing climate change and urbanization pose significant cooperative challenges in a large number of river basins. Conducting a thorough analysis of the intricate web of EU water governance, it reveals that the hydropolitical stability of the European Union is already at risk. Further, given the structural nature of the shortcomings in EU water policy—e.g. the rigidity of the EU’s founding treaties or the institutional complacency of the European Commission— argues that these risks are likely to turn into sources of prolonged conflict, unless EU decision-making bodies take steps to address the new hydrological realities early on.
EU Digital Copyright Law and the End-User
This book is the first comprehensive exploration of the legal framework of EU digital copyright law from the perspective of the ‘end-user’. This multi-faceted actor of the digital environment is a consumer of copyrighted works, a file-sharer of these works on the Internet, and a possible follow-on creator, who builds upon pre-existing digitised materials. All of these activities raise significant issues for national, European and international legal systems.
E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations
E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations is an essential reference for anyone interested in the integration of e-business, e-work and e-learning processes. The book collects, for the first time, the proceedings from the 2003 IFIP eTrain Conference held in Pori, Finland. The text serves as a multi-disciplinary resource for information on the research, development and applications of all topics related to e-Learning. The first half of the book discusses theories, paradigms and their applications in academia and industry. The last half of the book examines learning environments, design issues and collaboration among the corporate, governmental and academic sectors. With academic and professional contributors, E-Training Practices for Professional Organizations reflects the multi-faceted and exciting nature of e-training studies. This volume presents the balanced view of past developments and current research necessary to truly reach the potential of this burgeoning field.
Etiology and Morphogenesis of Congenital Heart Disease : From Gene Function and Cellular Interaction to Morphology
This volume focuses on the etiology and morphogenesis of congenital heart diseases. It reviews in detail the early development and differentiation of the heart, and later morphologic events of the cardiovascular system, covering a wide range of topics such as gene functions, growth factors, transcription factors and cellular interactions that are implicated in cardiac morphogenesis and congenital heart disease. This book also presents recent advances in stem cell and cell sheet tissue engineering technologies which have the potential to provide novel in vitro disease models and to generate regenerative paradigms for cardiac repair and regeneration
Ethnocultural Perspectives on Disaster and Trauma : Foundations, Issues, and Applications
In this pioneering volume, experts on individual and collective trauma experience, posttraumatic stress and related syndromes, and emergency and crisis intervention – share knowledge and insights on the cultural context of working with ethnic and racial minority communities during disasters. In each chapter, emotional, psychological, and social needs as well as communal strengths and coping skills that arise in disasters are documented for major minority groups in the United States including specific chapters on African Americans, Native Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Indians, Chinese Americans, Caribbean Americans, Latin Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Vietnamese Americans
Ethnobotany : A phytochemical perspective
Explores the chemistry behind hundreds of plant medicines, dyes, fibers, flavors, poisons, insect repellants, and many other uses of botanicals. Bridging the gap between ethnobotany and chemistry, this book presents an introduction to botany, ethnobotany, and phytochemistry to clearly join these fields of study and highlight their importance in the discovery of botanical uses in modern industry and research. Part I. Ethnobotany, explores the history of plant exploration, current issues such as conservation and intellectual property rights, and a review of plant anatomy. An extensive section on plant taxonomy highlights particularly influential and economically important plants from across the plant kingdom. Part II. Phytochemistry, provides fundamentals of secondary metabolism, includes line drawings of biosynthetic pathways and chemical structures, and describes traditional and modern methods of plant extraction and analysis. The last section is devoted to the history of native plants and people and case studies on plants that changed the course of human history from five geographical regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Ocean. Throughout the entire book, vivid color photographs bring science to life, capturing the essence of human botanical knowledge and the beauty of the plant kingdom.
Ethics in Agriculture : An African Perspective
The role of biotechnology in African agriculture has become a contentious issue. The ethical issues in agriculture in Africa do not focus only on biotechnology. The role of nutrition in the persistence of HIV/AIDS is highly debated and sometimes controversial. Land-related issues also generate heated debates in communities and amongst policy-makers. The single core that runs through all of these and many other related issues is, what are ethically acceptable solutions to these problems? This book attempts, in simple, unambiguous terms, to discuss the most important issues in African agriculture that have an ethical thread.
Ethics and Sustainability in Accounting and Finance ; Vol. II
Continues the discussion on recent developments relating to ethical and sustainable issues in accounting & finance from Ethics and Sustainability in Accounting and Finance. This book focuses on the ethical aspects and fundamentals of this profession that accountants should also take into consideration, as this is the only way to build and preserve society’s confidence in accounting and increase its social credibility.
Ethics and Intersex
The book begins with introductory chapters on the etiology of intersex conditions, conceptual clarification, legal issues, and reflections about the inherent characteristics of medical care that have led up to the issues we face today and explain the resistance to change in traditional practices. Researchers provide recent data on gender identity, surgical outcomes, and appropriate clinical care. Issues never having been addressed are introduced. The significance of intersexuality for Christianity and for philosophical concerns with authenticity add further depth to the collection. The final chapters deal with future possibilities in the treatment of intersex and for intersex advocacy.
Ethics and Drug Resistance : Collective Responsibility for Global Public Health
This book provides in-depth analysis of the wide range of ethical issues associated with drug-resistant infectious diseases.
Ethics and Business : An Introduction
Offers a clear and accessible framework for understanding the important and complex ethical issues facing business in the contemporary world. Kevin Gibson explains ethical concepts in plain language, showing how terms such as responsibility, autonomy, justice, equality, rights, and beneficence are central to the ways in which business is and should be conducted.



















