Amino acids and the asymmetry of life : Caught in the act of formation
This book describes how the basic building blocks of life, the amino acids, formed. After a comprehensible introduction into stereochemistry, the author addresses the inherent property of amino acids in living organisms, namely the preference for left-handedness. What was the cause for violation of parity of amino acids in the emergence of life on Earth? All the fascinating models proposed by physicists, chemists and biologist are vividly presented including the scientific conflicts.
Americanization of the European Economy : A compact survey of American economic influence in Europe since the 1800s
Provides a comprehensive yet compact survey of the growth of American economic influence in Europe since the 1880s. Three distinct but cumulative waves of Americanization are identified. Americanization was (and still is) a complex process of technological, political, and cultural transfer, and this overview explains why and how the USA and the American model of industrial capitalism came to be accepted as the dominant paradigm of political economy in today's Europe. Americanization of the European Economy summarizes the ongoing discussion by business historians, sociologists, and political scientists and makes it accessible to all types of readers who are interested in political and economic development.
Ambient intelligence : A novel paradigm
Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is an integrating technology for supporting a pervasive and transparent infrastructure for implementing smart environments. Such technology is used to enable environments for detecting events and behaviors of people and for responding in a contextually relevant fashion. AmI proposes a multi-disciplinary approach for enhancing human machine interaction. The authors start with a description of the iDorm as an example of a smart environment conforming to the AmI paradigm, and introduces computer vision as an important component of the system. Other computer vision examples describe visual monitoring for the elderly, classic and novel surveillance techniques using clusters of cameras installed in indoor and outdoor application domains, and the monitoring of public spaces. Face and speech recognition systems are also covered as well as enhanced LEGO blocks for novel educational purposes. The book closes with a provocative chapter on how a cybernetic system can be designed as the backbone of a human machine interaction.
Alternative Education : Global Perspectives Relevant to the Asia-Pacific Region
Alternative streams of education have been and remain an important but difficult theme for teachers, parents, policy-makers, and scholars. By focusing on case studies of six countries (Bolivia, Thailand, Australia, USA, The Netherlands, and Denmark), and by comprehensively analysing these by means of international comparative methodologies, the author approaches the nuts and bolts issues of alternative and mainstream education systems. The case studies include Charter Schools in the USA and Waldorf Schools in Australia. The study presents not only an insightful analysis of alternative forms of education with regard to actual issues in societies and also legal and administrative features of education. It provides insights into the kind of school development that could be appropriate in the 21st century and the types of educational communities we should seek to create in the age of globalisation.
Alqadam Train Station
Aims to focuses on the redesign of the Southern Train Station of Damascus, located in the Al-Qadam area. The proposal aims to preserve the historical identity of the existing station while expanding it to meet the needs of modern urban mobility. The design balances heritage conservation with contemporary architectural expression, creating a space that respects the cultural fabric of Damascus while addressing future growth.Key elements include increasing station capacity, integrating sustainable design strategies, and enhancing passenger flow. Renewable energy use, passive ventilation, and green spaces are central to reducing environmental impact and improving user comfort. يركّز مشروع التخرج هذا على إعادة تصميم المحطة الجنوبية للقطارات في دمشق، الواقعة في منطقة القديهدف المشروع إلى الحفاظ على الهوية التاريخية للمحطة القديمة مع تطويرها وتوسيعها لتلبية احتياجات النقل الحضري المعاصر. يجمع التصميم بين صون التراث والتعبير المعماري الحديث، ليخلق فضاءً يحترم النسيج الثقافي لدمشق ويستجيب في الوقت نفسه لمتطلبات النمو المستقبلي. تشمل العناصر الأساسية زيادة القدرة الاستيعابية للمحطة، ودمج استراتيجيات التصميم المستدام، وتحسين حركة المسافرين. كما يعتمد المشروع على استخدام الطاقة المتجددة، والتهوية الطبيعية، وإضافة المساحات الخضراء لتقليل الأثر البيئي وتعزيز راحة المستخدمين.
Alicyclobacillus : Thermophilic Acidophilic Bacilli
Soft drinks with pHs lower than 4. 0 are subjected to minimum pasteuri- tion at 65 °C for 10 min as required by the Japanese Food Sanitation Law. Not only pathogenic bacteria but most spore-forming bacteria are unable to grow at this low pH condition, and thus reports of microbial spoilage in pasteurized acidic soft drinks are rare. Since 1982, when the spoilage of aseptically packed apple juice was - tributed to a new type of acidophilic spore-forming bacteria in Germany, a succession of similar complaints regarding other fruit juice concentrates and their products has been received. In the beginning, the bacteria were classified in the genus Bacillus, but later, in 1992, the new genus Ali- clobacillus was proposed owing to their characteristic cellular membranes containing omega-alicyclic fatty acids. A group of Alicyclobacillus strains, responsible for the tainting of fruit juices, was then described as A. a- doterrestris in 1999. They are acidophilic and grow preferably at around pH 4. 0. They are thermophilic and grow better at temperatures above 40 °C. This indicates that we might have been missing them by our or- nary methods of bacterial detection at pH 7. 0 and 35 °C.
Algorithms and data structures for massive datasets
Learn: Probabilistic sketching data structures for practical problems Choosing the right database engine for your application Evaluating and designing efficient on-disk data structures and algorithms Understanding the algorithmic trade-offs involved in massive-scale systems Deriving basic statistics from streaming data Correctly sampling streaming data Computing percentiles with limited space resources Algorithms and Data Structures for Massive Datasets reveals a toolbox of new methods that are perfect for handling modern big data applications. You'll explore the novel data structures and algorithms that underpin Google, Facebook, and other enterprise applications that work with truly massive amounts of data. These effective techniques can be applied to any discipline, from finance to text analysis. Graphics, illustrations, and hands-on industry examples make complex ideas practical to implement in your projects--and there's no mathematical proofs to puzzle over. Work through this one-of-a-kind guide, and you'll find the sweet spot of saving space without sacrificing your data's accuracy. About the Technology Standard algorithms and data structures may become slow--or fail altogether--when applied to large distributed datasets. Choosing algorithms designed for big data saves time, increases accuracy, and reduces processing cost.
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).
Algorithmic learning theory ; 19th International Conference, ALT 2008, Budapest, Hungary, October 13-16, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory, ALT 2008, held in Budapest, Hungary, in October 2008, co-located with the 11th International Conference on Discovery Science, DS 2008.
Algebraic Methods for Nonlinear Control Systems
A self-contained introduction to algebraic control for nonlinear systems suitable for researchers and graduate students.The most popular treatment of control for nonlinear systems is from the viewpoint of differential geometry yet this approach proves not to be the most natural when considering problems like dynamic feedback and realization. Professors Conte, Moog and Perdon develop an alternative linear-algebraic strategy based on the use of vector spaces over suitable fields of nonlinear functions. This algebraic perspective is complementary to, and parallel in concept with, its more celebrated differential-geometric counterpart.Algebraic Methods for Nonlinear Control Systems describes a wide range of results, some of which can be derived using differential geometry but many of which cannot.
Algebraic Cycles, Sheaves, Shtukas, and Moduli : Impanga Lecture Notes
The articles in this volume are devoted to: - moduli of coherent sheaves. - principal bundles and sheaves and their moduli. - new insights into Geometric Invariant Theory. - stacks of shtukas and their compactifications. - algebraic cycles vs. commutative algebra. - Thom polynomials of singularities. - zero schemes of sections of vector bundles.
Air-Ice-Ocean Interaction : Turbulent Ocean Boundary Layer Exchange Processes
At a time when the polar regions are undergoing rapid and unprecedented change, understanding exchanges of momentum, heat and salt at the ice-ocean interface is critical for realistically predicting the future state of sea ice. By offering a measurement platform largely unaffected by surface waves, drifting sea ice provides a unique laboratory for studying aspects of geophysical boundary layer flows that are extremely difficult to measure elsewhere. This book draws on both extensive observations and theoretical principles to develop a concise description of the impact of stress, rotation, and buoyancy on the turbulence scales that control exchanges between the atmosphere and underlying ocean when sea ice is present. Several interesting and unique observational data sets are used to illustrate different aspects of ice-ocean interaction ranging from the impact of salt on melting in the Greenland Sea marginal ice zone, to how nonlinearities in the equation of state for seawater affect mixing in the Weddell Sea.
Air, Water and Soil Quality Modelling for Risk and Impact Assessment
This book is the result of the Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Air, Water and Soil Quality Modelling for Risk and Impact Assessment,The aim of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on was to further joint environmental compartment modelling and applications of control theory to environmental management. The articles of the proceedings provide an overview of ongoing research in this field regarding assessment of environmental risks and impacts. Besides selected issues of practical application they address questions of forward and inverse modelling, integrated treatment of environmental changes and economic impacts as well as aspects of future development of numerical environmental modelling.
Air quality integrated assessment : A European perspective
This book reports on the results of an extended survey conducted across Europe within the framework of the APPRAISAL FP7 project to determine the extent to which an integrated assessment approach to air quality is being adopted, on the one hand, by regional and local authorities to develop air quality plans and, on the other, by researchers. Following a detailed analysis of the role and structure of the components of an integrated assessment study, the results of the survey are considered from a variety of perspectives.
Air quality in airplane cabins and similar enclosed spaces
The editor of this volume invited a wide range of experts to provide an in-depth treatment of virtually all aspects of aircraft cabin air quality. The topics are covered at a level comprehensible to all who fly as well as being of sufficient depth to be informative to decision makers concerned with purchase, design, operation, and servicing of passenger aircraft. Topics are grouped under: Control of Aircraft Cabin Air Quality; Possible Effects of Low Humidity, Decreased Outside Air Flows; and Effects of Some Aircraft Malfunctions on Cabin Air Quality. The volume concludes with Air Quality Systems for Related Enclosed Spaces, in which chapters cover air quality in buildings, ships, submarines, and spacecraft, which provide novel approaches potentially applicable to aircraft.
AI in marketing : Applications, insights, and analysis
AI in marketing equips students with the knowledge to understand the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on marketing strategies, processes, and activities, empowering them to navigate the AI-driven marketing landscape confidently. divided into four parts, it provides a comprehensive exploration of AI's transformative role in marketing. the first part lays the groundwork, offering foundational insights into the intersection of AI and marketing. Part II explores the various applications of AI in marketing, and the tools marketers use to optimize their processes and deliver enhanced customer experiences. the third part focuses on leveraging AI for consumer insights, enabling marketers to craft data-driven strategies. the final part examines ethical considerations and the pedagogical integration of AI into marketing education.
AI in clinical practice : A guide to artificial intelligence and digital medicine
Explains how artificial intelligence is applied to medicine, illustrating not only its enormous potential but also ancillary issues and the limits and risks inherent in its use on a large scale. The book focuses on the intersection between medicine and AI and its implications on the impact of human health care delivery. Topics discussed include wearable devices, health data, Internet of Things, virtual reality, robotic assistance system, and digital intelligence in the health sector. Additionally, sections discuss diagnostics and decision-making systems and machine/deep learning in clinical setting.
AI 2004 : Advances in artificial intelligence ; 17th Australian Joint conference on artificial intelligence, Cairns, Australia, December 4-6, 2004, proceedings
AI 2004 was the seventeenth in the series of annual Australian artificial intelli-gence conferences. This conference is the major forum for artificial intelligenceresearch in Australia. It has consistently attracted strong international partic-ipation. This year more than two thirds of the submissions were from outsideAustralia.The current volume is based on the proceedings of AI 2004. AI 2004 was collo-cated with Complex 2004, the 7th Asia-Pacific Conference on Complex Systems,with the aim of promoting cross-fertilization and collaboration in areas of com-plex and intelligent systems
Agroecological transitions : From theory to practice in local participatory design
There is wide agreement on the need to change the prevalent agricultural models, given their negative impacts and their incompatibility with current societal issues. Agroecological transition has been promoted as a potential solution to the ecological, social and economic problems generated by these models. It however involves a systemic, multi-scale and transdisciplinary process. Due to this complexity, the overall picture of what farms and food systems “actually are” and “might be” may not be apparent at the individual level. Yet individuals’ knowledge and values provide complementary insights on how to proceed in deepening ecological modernisation. Expertise can also provide landmarks to be considered in that process. Because local stakeholders’ experience and skills are key resources in the adaptation and adoption of agroecological transition, new conceptual and methodological frameworks and tools have to be developed to support them in the design process of such a complex transition. This book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues.
Agricultural biodiversity and biotechnology in economic development
The topics addressed in this book are of vital importance to the survival of humankind. Agricultural biodiversity, encompassing genetic diversity as well as human knowledge, is the base upon which agricultural production has been built, and protecting this resource is critical to ensuring the capacity of current and future generations to adapt to unforeseen challenges. Agricultural biodiversity underpins the productivity of all agricultural systems and is particularly important for poor and food-insecure farmers, who maintain highly diverse production systems in response to the marginal and risky production conditions they operate under. Understanding the importance of agricultural biodiversity in the livelihoods of the food insecure and enhancing its performance through the use of a variety of tools, including biotechnology, is a critically important issue in the world today



















