Forces, Growth and Form in Soft Condensed Matter : At the Interface between Physics and Biology
This volume comprises the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held at Geilo, Norway, 24 March - 3 April 2003, the seventeenth ASI in a series held every two years since 1971. The objective of this ASI was to identify and discuss areas where synergism between modern physics, soft condensed matter and biology might be most fruitful. The main pedagogical approach was to have lecturers focussing on basic understanding of important aspects of the relative role of the various interaction- electrostatic, hydrophobic, steric, conformational, van der Waals etc. Soft condensed matter and the connection between physics and biology have been the themes of several earlier Geilo Schools. A return to these subjects thus allowed a fresh look and a possibility for defining new directions for research. Examples of soft materials, which were discussed at this ASI, included colloidal dispersions, gels, biopolymers and charged polymer solutions, polyelectrolytes, protein/membrane complexes, nucleic acids and their complexes. Indeed, most forms of condensed matter are soft and these substances are composed of aggregates and macromolecules, with interactions that are too weak and complex to form crystals spontaneously. A characteristic feature is that small external forces, slight perturbations in temperature, pressure or concentration, can all be enough to induce significant structural changes. Thermal fluctuations are almost by definition strong in soft materials and entropy is a predominant determinant of structure, so that disorder, slow dynamics and plastic deformation are the rule. Hence the phrase ‘soft condensed matter’ has been coined.
Ferroelectric Thin Films : Basic Properties and Device Physics for Memory Applications
Ferroelectric thin films continue to attract much attention due to their developing, diverse applications in memory devices, FeRAM, infrared sensors, piezoelectric sensors and actuators. This book, aimed at students, researchers and developers, gives detailed information about the basic properties of these materials and the associated device physics. All authors are acknowledged experts in the field.
Failure case studies steel structures
Supplies a summary of the published findings from eight steel structure failure investigations and a valuable collection of references that can be used by civil engineering students and practicing engineers to improve their failure literacy. Engineering professors and students can use these case studies as the basis for class discussions, a starting point for further research, and a reminder that learning from past failures can avoid similar failures in the future and lead to improved engineering practices.
Explainable Artificial Intelligence : An Introduction to Interpretable Machine Learning
Offers a curriculum for introducing interpretability to machine learning at every stage. The authors provide compelling examples that a core teaching practice like leading interpretive discussions can be taught and learned by teachers and sustained effort. And what better way to strengthen the quality of AI and Machine learning outcomes. I hope that this book will become a primer for teachers, data Science educators, and ML developers, and together we practice the art of interpretive machine learning.
Evolvable systems : From biology to hardware ; 7th International Conference, ICES 2007, Wuhan, China, September 21-23, 2007, Proceedings
The 41 revised full papers collected in this volume are organized in topical sections on digital hardware evolution, analog hardware evolution, bio-inspired systems, mechanical hardware evolution, evolutionary design, evolutionary algorithms in hardware design, and hardware implementation of evolutionary algorithms.
Evolvable Hardware
The contributions in this book provide the basics of reconfigurable devices so that readers will be fully prepared to understand what EHW is, why it is necessary and how it is designed. The book also discusses the leading research in digital, analog and mechanical EHW. Selections from leading international researchers offer examples of cutting-edge research and applications, placing particular emphasis on their practical usefulness.
Evolution of Thin Film Morphology : Modeling and Simulations
Thin film deposition is the most ubiquitous and critical of the processes used to manufacture high tech devices. Morphology and microstructure of thin films directly controls their optical, magnetic, and electrical properties. This book focuses on modeling and simulations used in research on the morphological evolution during film growth. The authors emphasize the detailed mathematical formulation of the problem both through numerical calculations based on Langevin continuum equations, and through Monte Carlo simulations based on discrete surface growth models when an analytical formulism is not convenient. Evolution of Thin-Film Morphology will be of benefit to university researchers and industrial scientists working in the areas of semiconductor processing, optical coating, plasma etching, patterning, micro-machining, polishing, tribology, and any discipline that requires an understanding of thin film growth processes.
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.
Essentials of business law
A practical, concise, and broad-based introduction to the vibrant field of business law. Both the traditional areas of law, such as contracts and property, and the emerging areas of law, such as e-commerce and environmental, are covered in short, informative chapters written to capture the essence of each topic. The objective of the text throughout its coverage is ease of use, ease of teaching, ease of assessment, and ease of understanding.
Equilibrium statistical physics : Phases of matter and phase transitions
This is a textbook which gradually introduces the student to the statistical mechanical study of the different phases of matter and to the phase transitions between them. Throughout, only simple models of both ordinary and soft matter are used but these are studied in full detail. The subject is developed in a pedagogical manner, starting from the basics, going from the simple ideal systems to the interacting systems, and ending with the more modern topics. The latter include the renormalisation group approach to critical phenomena, the density functional theory of interfaces, the topological defects of nematic liquid crystals and the kinematic aspects of the phase transformation process. This textbook provides the student with a complete overview, intentionally at an introductory level, of the theory of phase transitions. References include suggestions for more detailed treatments and four appendices supply overviews of the mathematical tools employed in the text.
Environment Learning for Indoor Mobile Robots : A Stochastic State Estimation Approach to Simultaneous Localization and Map Building
This monograph covers theoretical aspects of simultaneous localization and map building for mobile robots, such as estimation stability, nonlinear models for the propagation of uncertainties, temporal landmark compatibility, as well as issues pertaining the coupling of control and SLAM. One of the most relevant topics covered in this monograph is the theoretical formalism of partial observability in SLAM. The authors show that the typical approach to SLAM using a Kalman filter results in marginal filter stability, making the final reconstruction estimates dependant on the initial vehicle estimates. However, by anchoring the map to a fixed landmark in the scene, they are able to attain full observability in SLAM, with reduced covariance estimates.
Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing - EUC 2005 ; International Conference EUC 2005, Nagasaki, Japan, December 6-9, 2005, Proceedings
Welcome to the proceedings of the 2005 IFIP International Conference on - bedded and Ubiquitous Computing (EUC 2005), which was held in Nagasaki, Japan, December 6–9, 2005. Embedded and ubiquitous computing is emerging rapidly as an exciting new paradigm to provide computing and communication services all the time, - erywhere. Its systems are now pervading every aspect of life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances or can be worn unobtrusively as part of clothing and jewelry. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems, pervasive computing and c- munications, wireless networks, mobile computing, distributed computing and agent technologies, etc. Its tremendous impact on academics, industry, gove- ment, and daily life can be compared to that of electric motors over the past century, in fact it but promises to revolutionize life much more profoundly than elevators, electric motors or even personal computers. The EUC 2005 conference provided a forum for engineers and scientists in academia, industry, and government to address profound issues including te- nical challenges, safety, and social, legal, political, and economic issues, and to present and discuss their ideas, results, work in progress, and experience on all aspects of embedded and ubiquitous computing.
Electron Scattering in Solid Matte r: A Theoretical and Computational Treatise
Addressing graduate students and researchers, this book gives a very detailed theoretical and computational description of multiple scattering in solid matter. Particular emphasis is placed on solids with reduced dimensions, on full potential approaches and on relativistic treatments. For the first time approaches such as the Screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method that have emerged during the last 5 – 10 years are reviewed, considering all formal steps such as single-site scattering, structure constants and screening transformations, and also the numerical point of view. Furthermore, a very general approach is presented for solving the Poisson equation, needed within density functional theory in order to achieve self-consistency. Going beyond ordered matter and translationally invariant systems, special chapters are devoted to the Coherent Potential Approximation and to the Embedded Cluster Method, used, for example, for describing nanostructured matter in real space. In a final chapter, physical properties related to the (single-particle) Green’s function, such as magnetic anisotropies, interlayer exchange coupling, electric and magneto-optical transport and spin-waves, serve to illustrate the usefulness of the methods described.
Electrical Resistivity of Thin Metal Films
The aim of the book is to give an actual survey on the resistivity of thin metal and semiconductor films interacting with gases. We discuss the influence of the substrate material and the annealing treatment of the films, presenting our experimental data as well as theoretical models to calculate the scattering cross section of the conduction electrons in the frame-work of the scattering hypothesis.
e-Learning, e-Education, and Online Training ; 6th EAI International Conference, eLEOT 2020, Changsha, China, June 20-21, 2020, Proceedings, Part II
Constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on e-Learning, e-Education, and Online Training, eLEOT 2020, held in Changsha, China, in June 2020. The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 68 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 141 submissions. They focus on most recent and innovative trends and new technologies in for educational modernization, such as artificial intelligence and big data. The theme of eLEOT 2020 was “Education with New Generation Information Technology”.
e-Learning, e-Education, and Online Training ; 6th EAI International Conference, eLEOT 2020, Changsha, China, June 20-21, 2020, Proceedings, Part I
Constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on e-Learning, e-Education, and Online Training, eLEOT 2020, held in Changsha, China, in June 2020. The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 68 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 141 submissions. They focus on most recent and innovative trends and new technologies in for educational modernization, such as artificial intelligence and big data. The theme of eLEOT 2020 was “Education with New Generation Information Technology”.
Drugs used in murder and drugs facilitated sexual assaults
Since ancient times, the methods of committing crimes have varied and the methods of killing have varied. The killer has always sought to hide his crime. One of the methods of killing is poisoning the victim, but with the development of science also methods for detecting toxins inside the victim's body have developed. Also, in recent decades, drugs facilitating sexual assault have spread, which aim to make the victim unconscious and paralyze his resistance...
Drug Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics and Bioanalysis
Drug metabolism/pharmacokinetics and drug interaction studies have been extensively carried out in order to secure the druggability and safety of new chemical entities throughout the development of new drugs. Recently, drug metabolism and transport by phase II drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters, respectively, as well as phase I drug metabolizing enzymes, have been studied. A combination of biochemical advances in the function and regulation of drug metabolizing enzymes and automated analytical technologies are revolutionizing drug metabolism research. There are also potential drug-drug interactions with co-administered drugs due to inhibition and/or induction of drug metabolic enzymes and drug transporters.
Domain Modeling and the Duration Calculus : International Training School, Shanghai, China, September 17-21, 2007, Advanced Lectures
The book presented provide competent coverage of software security, domain modeling of software engineering, and duration calculus for real time systems - originating from lectures of leading experts in these fields from Europe and Asia.It addressed in detail are: development of real-time systems, domain engineering using abstract modeling, the area of duration calculus, and formal methods like language description using the operational semantics approach.
Disasters : Core Concepts and Ethical Theories
Examines disasters from a multidisciplinary perspective. Justification of actions in the face of disasters requires recourse both to conceptual analysis and ethical traditions. Part 1 of the book contains chapters on how disasters are conceptualized in different academic disciplines relevant to disasters. Part 2 has chapters on how ethical issues that arise in relation to disasters can be addressed from a number of fundamental normative approaches in moral and political philosophy. This book sets the stage for more focused normative debates given that no one book can be completely comprehensive. Providing analysis of core concepts, and with real-world relevance, this book should be of interest to disaster scholars and researchers, those working in ethics and political philosophy, as well as policy makers, humanitarian actors and intergovernmental organizations.



















