Fading Foundations : Probability and the Regress Problem
This book addresses the age-old problem of infinite regresses in epistemology. How can we ever come to know something if knowing requires having good reasons, and reasons can only be good if they are backed by good reasons in turn? The problem has puzzled philosophers ever since antiquity, giving rise to what is often called Agrippa's Trilemma. The current volume approaches the old problem in a provocative and thoroughly contemporary way. Taking seriously the idea that good reasons are typically probabilistic in character, it develops and defends a new solution that challenges venerable philosophical intuitions and explains why they were mistakenly held. Key to the new solution is the phenomenon of fading foundations, according to which distant reasons are less important than those that are nearby.
Factorization of Matrix and Operator Functions : The State Space Method
The present book deals with factorization problems for matrix and operator functions. The problems originate from, or are motivated by, the theory of non-selfadjoint operators, the theory of matrix polynomials, mathematical systems and control theory, the theory of Riccati equations, inversion of convolution operators, theory of job scheduling in operations research. The book systematically employs a geometric principle of factorization which has its origins in the state space theory of linear input-output systems and in the theory of characteristic operator functions. This principle allows one to deal with different factorizations from one point of view. Covered are canonical factorization, minimal and non-minimal factorizations, pseudo-canonical factorization, and various types of degree one factorization.
Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime : Theory, Research, and Strength-Based Practices
In Facilitating Desistance from Aggression and Crime: Theory, Research, & Strength-Based Practices, Drs. Calvin Langton and James Worling have gathered together internationally renowned authorities in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, criminology, social work, and law, to critically examine desistance as a construct, process, and outcome as well as the place of strengths work in correctional and forensic mental health settings.
Eye Tracking Methodology : Theory and Practice
Despite the availability of cheap, fast, accurate and usable eye trackers, there is still little information available on how to develop, implement and use these systems. This second edition of Andrew Duchowski’s successful guide to these systems contains significant additional material on the topic and fills this gap in the market with this accessible and comprehensive introduction. Opening with useful background information, including an introduction to the human visual system and key issues in visual perception and eye movement, the second part surveys eye-tracking devices and provides a detailed introduction to the technical requirements necessary for installing a system and developing an application program. The book focuses on video-based, corneal-reflection eye trackers – the most widely available and affordable type of system, before closing with a look at a number of interesting and challenging applications in human factors, collaborative systems, virtual reality, marketing and advertising.
Extreme Value Theory : An Introduction
Extreme Value Theory offers a careful, coherent exposition of the subject starting from the probabilistic and mathematical foundations and proceeding to the statistical theory. The book covers both the classical one-dimensional case as well as finite- and infinite-dimensional settings. All the main topics at the heart of the subject are introduced in a systematic fashion so that in the final chapter even the most recent developments in the theory can be understood. The treatment is geared toward applications. The presentation concentrates on the probabilistic and statistical aspects of extreme values such as limiting results, domains of attraction and development of estimators without emphasizing related topics such as point processes, empirical distribution functions and Brownian motion.
Extreme Man-Made and Natural Hazards in Dynamics of Structures
The present threat of the terrorist attacks or accidental explosions, the climate change which brings strong stormy winds or yet the destructive earthquake motion that occurs in previously inactive regions or brings about tsunamis, are a few examples of the kind of applications we seek to address in this work.
Extreme Financial Risks : From Dependence to Risk Management
Portfolio analysis and optimization, together with the associated risk assessment and management, require knowledge of the likely distributions of returns at different time scales and insights into the nature and properties of dependences between the different assets. This book offers an original and thorough treatment of these two domains, focusing mainly on the concepts and tools that remain valid for large and extreme price moves. Strong emphasis is placed on the theory of copulas and their empirical testing and calibration, because they offer intrinsic and complete measures of dependences.
Extending the Scalability of Linkage Learning Genetic Algorithms : Theory & Practice
This book aims to gain better understanding of the LLGA in theory and to improve the LLGA's performance in practice. It starts with a survey and classification of the existing genetic linkage learning techniques and describes the steps and approaches taken to tackle the research topics, including using promoters, developing the convergence time model, and adopting subchromosomes. It also provides the experimental results for observation of the linkage learning process as well as for verification of the theoretical models proposed in this study.
Extending Educational Change : International Handbook of Educational Change
This set of four volumes on Educational Change brings together evidence and insights on educational change issues from leading writers and researchers in the field from across the world. Many of these writers, whose chapters have been specially written for these books, have been investigating, helping initiate and implementing educational change, for most or all of their lengthy careers. Others are working on the cutting edge of theory and practice in educational change, taking the field in new or even more challenging directions. And some are more skeptical about the literature of educational change and the assumptions on which it rests. They help us to approach projects of understanding or initiating educational change more deeply, reflectively and realistically. Educational change and reform have rarely had so much prominence within public policy, in so many different places. Educational change is ubiquitous.
Expressive Order : Confirming Sentiments in Social Actions
Expressive Order introduces affect control theory to lay readers of sociology, and additionally guides sociology specialists into the theory's deep structure. Briefly, affect control theory proposes that individuals shape their social interactions so that emerging impressions reinforce sentiments about salient identities, behaviors, and settings. Emotions signal how the process of confirming sentiments is going for each individual.
Exponentially Dichotomous Operators and Applications
In this monograph the natural evolution operators of autonomous first-order differential equations with exponential dichotomy on an arbitrary Banach space are studied in detail. Characterizations of these so-called exponentially dichotomous operators in terms of their resolvents and additive and multiplicative perturbation results are given. The general theory of the first three chapters is then followed by applications to Wiener-Hopf factorization and Riccati equations, transport equations, diffusion equations of indefinite Sturm-Liouville type, noncausal infinite-dimensional linear continuous-time systems, and functional differential equations of mixed type.
Exploring Resilience : A Scientific Journey from Practice to Theory
Resilience has become an important topic on the safety research agenda and in organizational practice. Most empirical work on resilience has been descriptive, identifying characteristics of work and organizing activity which allow organizations to cope with unexpected situations. Fewer studies have developed testable models and theories that can be used to support interventions aiming to increase resilience and improve safety. In addition, the absent integration of different system levels from individuals, teams, organizations, regulatory bodies, and policy level in theory and practice imply that mechanisms through which resilience is linked across complex systems are not yet well understood. Scientific efforts have been made to develop constructs and models that present relationships; however, these cannot be characterized as sufficient for theory building. There is a need for taking a broader look at resilience practices as a foundation for developing a theoretical framework that can help improve safety in complex systems.
Exploring C for Microcontrollers : A Hands on Approach
The market is flooded with numbers of good books on Embedded Systems designed especially with the most popular MCS51 family. These books are traditional in nature i.e. they start with the routine architectural features of 8051, description of registers, ports, interrupts etc. Most of these things are already covered in the device data sheet and application notes. In this book all such routine things are skipped. The focus is on programming microcontrollers, to be specific MCS-51 family in ‘C’ using Keil IDE. Exploring C for Microcontrollers presents seventeen live case studies apart from the many basic programs organized around every on-chip resource like port, time/counter, interrupt , serial I/O etc. Rather than introducing the underpinning theory or reproducing lengthy data sheets, our approach is "learning-through-doing" and one that appeals to busy electronics designers. The ‘C’ codes given are well supported by easy to understand comments wherever required.
Explorations of the Life-World : Continuing Dialogues with Alfred Schutz
This anthology originated from three conferences, which were held at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, on March 26-28, 1999, at the Univ- sity of Konstanz, Germany, on May 26-29, 1999 and a session at the SPHS annual meeting at the University of Oregon, USA, on October 5-7, 1999. With one exception the contributions to this volume are revised versions of papers read at these meetings. Each of these conferences took place in order to celebrate the centennial of the birthday of Alfred Schutz, who was born April 13, 1899, and died May 20, 1959. First of all we would like to thank Evelyn Schutz-Lang, the daughter of Alfred and Ilse Schutz, for her continuing support and encouragement.
Explorations in Mathematical Physics : The Concepts Behind an Elegant Language
This book takes you on a tour of the main ideas forming the language of modern mathematical physics. Here you will meet novel approaches to concepts such as determinants and geometry, wave function evolution, statistics, signal processing, and three-dimensional rotations. You'll see how the accelerated frames of special relativity tell us about gravity. On the journey, you'll discover how tensor notation relates to vector calculus, how differential geometry is built on intuitive concepts, and how variational calculus leads to field theory. You will meet quantum measurement theory, along with Green functions and the art of complex integration, and finally general relativity and cosmology.
Explicit Stability Conditions for Continuous Systems : A Functional Analytic Approach
Explicit Stability Conditions for Continuous Systems deals with non-autonomous linear and nonlinear continuous finite dimensional systems. Explicit conditions for the asymptotic, absolute, input-to-state and orbital stabilities are discussed. This monograph provides new tools for specialists in control system theory and stability theory of ordinary differential equations, with a special emphasis on the Aizerman problem. A systematic exposition of the approach to stability analysis based on estimates for matrix-valued functions is suggested and various classes of systems are investigated from a unified viewpoint.
Experimental Unsaturated Soil Mechanics
These proceedings are a continuation of the series of International Conferences in Germany entitled "Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils." The primary objective is to discuss and understand unsaturated soil behaviour such that engineered activities are made better with times in terms of judgement and quality. We all realise by now that in addition to the knowledge on the classical concepts, it becomes an enormous challenging task to adapt convincing new concepts and present them in such a way that it could be used in engineering practices. The experimental studies reported primarily focus on the role of microstructure and fabric for the complex coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour of cohesive frictional materials. Several papers consider the relevance of temperature affecting the constitutive behaviour of clays. Common features of state of the art theoretical and numerical approaches, including theory of porous media and mixture theory, intend to describe the complex multi-field problems of fully coupled thermo-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical initial - boundary value problems.
Experimental Robotics : The 10th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics
The goal of ISER is to provide a forum for research in robotics that focuses on novelty of theoretical contributions validated by experimental results. The meetings are conceived to bring together, in a small group setting, researchers from around the world who are in the forefront of experimental robotics research.
Experimental and Efficient Algorithms ; 4th International Workshop, WEA 2005, Santorini Island, Greece, May 10-13, 2005, Proceedings
This proceedings volume contains the accepted papers and invited talks p- sented at the 4th International Workshop of E?cient and Experimental Al- rithms (WEA 2005), that was held May 10–13, on Santorini Island, Greece. The WEA events are intended to be an international forum for research on the design, analysis and especially the experimental implementation, evaluation and engineering of algorithms, as well as on combinatorial optimization and its applications. The?rstthreeworkshopsinthisserieswereheldinRiga(2001),MonteVerita (2003) and Rio de Janeiro (2004). Thisvolumecontains3invitedpapersrelatedtocorrespondingkeynotetalks.
Experimental Algorithms ; 6th International Workshop, WEA 2007, Rome, Italy, June 6-8, 2007, Proceedings
Fostering and disseminating high quality research results focused on the experimental analysis of algorithms the papers are devoted to the design, analysis, implementation, experimental evaluation, and engineering of efficient algorithms. Among the application areas addressed are most fields applying advanced algorithmic techniques, such as combinatorial optimization, approximation, graph theory, discrete mathematics, data mining, simulation, cryptography and security, scheduling, searching, sorting, string matching, coding, networking, etc.



















