Nonlinear Dielectric Phenomena in Complex Liquids
Complex liquids constitute a basic element in modern materials science; their significant features include self-assembly, mesoscale structures, complex dynamics, unusual phases and enormous sensitivity to perturbations. Understanding their nature and properties are a great challenge to modern materials science that demands novel approaches. This book focuses on nonlinear dielectric phenomena, particularly on nonlinear dielectric spectroscopy (NDS), which may be considered a possible successor to broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS). NDS phenomena directly coupled to mesoscale heterogeneity fluctuations, so information obtained in this way is basically complementary to BDS tests. The book also discusses the application of NDS in a set of complex liquid systems: glassy liquids, liquid crystals, liquids with critical point phenomena, and bio-relevant liquids. The complementary application of NDS and BDS may allow the discovery of universal patterns for the whole category of complex liquids. Written by specialists in the field of nonlinear dielectric studies, theoreticians and experimentalists, ranging from solid state physics to biophysics, the book is organized so that it can serve as a basic textbook for a non-experienced reader.
Next-Generation FTTH Passive Optical Networks : Research Towards Unlimited Bandwidth Access
Dense FTTH Passive Optical Networks (PONs) is a cost efficient way to build fibre access, and international standards (G/E-PON) have been already launched, leading to new set of telecom products for mass deployment. However, these systems only make use of less than 1% of the optical bandwidth; thus, relevant research is taking place to maximize the capacity of these systems, with the latest opto-electronic technologies, demonstrating that the huge bandwidth available through the fibre access can be exploited in a cost efficient and reliable manner.
New Computational Methods in Power System Reliability
Power system reliability is in the focus of intensive study due to its critical role in providing energy supply to the modern society. This book is not aimed at providing the overview of the state of the art in power system reliability. On the contrary, it describes application of some new specific techniques: universal generating function method and its combination with Monte Carlo simulation and with random processes methods, Semi-Markov and Markov reward models and genetic algorithm.
Neurobiology of Human Values
Man has been pondering for centuries over the basis of his own ethical and aesthetic values. Until recent times, such issues were primarily fed by the thinking of philosophers, moralists and theologists, or by the findings of historians or sociologists relating to universality or variations in these values within various populations. Science has avoided this field of investigation within the confines of philosophy. Beyond the temptation to stay away from the field of knowledge science may also have felt itself unconcerned by the study of human values for a simple heuristic reason, namely the lack of tools allowing objective study. For the same reason, researchers tended to avoid the study of feelings or consciousness until, over the past two decades, this became a focus of interest for many neuroscientists
Neural Networks in a Softcomputing Framework
This concise but comprehensive textbook provides a powerful and universal paradigm for information processing. Each chapter provides state-of-the-art descriptions of the important major research results of the respective neural-network methods. A range of relevant computational intelligence topics, such as fuzzy logic and evolutionary algorithms, are introduced. These are powerful tools for neural-network learning. Array signal processing problems are discussed in order to illustrate the applications of each neural-network model.
Natural Disasters as Interactive Components of Global-Ecodynamics
This book opens a new approach to the study of global environmental changes having unfavourable character for mankind and other living systems. The main advantage of the book consists in the accumulation of knowledge from different sciences to parametrize the global ecodynamic process. Natural catastrophes are considered as an interactive element of global natural dynamics which are described by means of simulation models of global nature/society. The realization of this approach allows the integration within a complex structure of all international and national means of environmental monitoring and provides a tool for objective evaluation of the environmental quality. The main purpose of this book is to develop a universal information technology to estimate the state of environmental subsystems functioning under various climatic and anthropogenic conditions.
Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery in Cancer Treatment
Discusses nanotechnological developments of interfering RNA-based nanoparticles, delivery vehicles, and validated therapeutic RNAi–molecular target interactions and explains the results of clinical and preclinical trials. The book also gives strategies for universal methods of constructing hybrid organic–inorganic nanomaterials that can be widely applied in the biomedical field. Focuses on : Recent advances of nanoparticle-mediated siRNA delivery systems and their application in clinical trials for cancer therapy Material platforms that establish NPs and both localized and controlled gene silencing The most promising systems for clinical application Surveys progress in nanoparticle-based nanomedicine in cancer treatment The most advanced of the nonviral nanocarriers for delivery of oligonucleotides to malignant blood cancer cells
M-Solid Varieties of Algebras
It provides a complete and systematic introduction to the fundamentals of the hyperequational theory of universal algebra, offering the newest results on M-solid varieties of semirings and semigroups. The book aims to develop the theory of M-solid varieties as a system of mathematical discourse that is applicable in several concrete situations. It applies the general theory to two classes of algebraic structures, semigroups and semirings. Both these varieties and their subvarieties play an important role in computer science.
Morphosemantic Number : From Kiowa Noun Classes To UG Number Features
This volume presents: the foundations of a unified morphosemantic theory of number; insight into the flow of information from the lexicon, via syntax, into the morphology; wide-ranging topics: nominal semantics, noun classes, DP syntax, agreement, suppletion, complex morphology.
Models for Polymeric and Anisotropic Liquids
Models should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. For the physics of polymeric liquids, whose relevant lengths and time scales are out of reach for first principles calculations, this means that we have to choose a minimum set of sufficiently detailed descriptors such as architecture (linear, ring, branched), connectivity, semiflexibility, stretchability, excluded volume, and hydrodynamic interaction. These 'universal' fluids allow the prediction of material properties under external flow- or electrodynamic fields, the results being expressed in terms of reference units, specific for any particular chosen material. This book provides an introduction to the kinetic theory and computer simulation methods needed to handle these models and to interpret the results. Also included are a number of sample applications and computer codes.
Missions of universities : Past, present, future
provides an analysis of university missions over time and space. It starts out by presenting a governance framework focusing on the demands on universities set by regulators, market actors and scrutinizers. It examines organizational structures, population development, the fundamental tasks of universities, and internal governance structures. Next, offers a discussion of the idea and role of universities in society, exploring concepts such as autonomy and universality, and the university as a transformative institute. The next four chapters deal with the development of universities from medieval times, through the Renaissance, towards the research universities in the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States.
IP operations and management ; 8th IEEE International workshop, IPOM 2008, Samos Island, Greece, September 22-26, 2008. Proceedings
Constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th IEEE Workshop on IP Operations and Management, IPOM 2008, held on Samos Island, Greece, on September 22-26, 2008, as part of the 4th International Week on Management of Networks and Services, Manweek 2008. The 12 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on network anomaly detection; traffic engineering, protection, and recovery; network measurements and applications; and network management and security.
Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
This book is designed to provide an in-depth knowledge on the basic operational features and characteristics of Genetic Algorithms. The various operators and techniques given in the book are pertinent to carry out Genetic Algorithm Research Projects. The book also explores the different types are Genetic Algorithms available with their importance. Implementation of Genetic Algorithm concept has been performed using the universal language C/C++ and the discussion also extends to Genetic Algorithm MATLAB Toolbox. Few Genetic Algorithm problems are programmed using MATLAB and the simulated results are given for the ready reference of the reader. The applications of Genetic Algorithms in Machine learning, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Data Mining, Image Processing, and VLSI are dealt to make the readers understand where the concept can be applied.
International Prosecution of Human Rights Crimes
It is intended for a wide variety of readers: academics, all kinds of jurists, as well as human rights activists, who sometimes know more about the applicable law than the legal experts. It owes its existence to a paradox: On the one hand, new structures for dealing with the most serious international crimes are being put into place.
Indigenous and Cultural Psychology : Understanding People in Context
Indigenous psychology is an emerging new field in psychology, focusing on psychological universals in social, cultural, and ecological contexts - Starting point for psychologists who wish to understand various cultures from their own ecological, historial, philosophical, and religious perspectives
Improving Inclusive Education through Universal Design for Learning
Provides an analysis of how the educational strategy of Universal Design for Learning can stimulate the process of inclusive education in different educational-cultural contexts and different areas of the educational system. The findings of the research deepen the conception of inclusive education and present an analysis of factors that are significant for developing the educational system as well as providing evidence-based recommendations for educational practice. The research for this work was done in four European countries with various historical-cultural contexts: Lithuania and Poland underwent a transformation of the educational systems at the turning point in their political system, shifting from a strictly centralized Soviet policy to a liberal and democratic education system; Austria has experienced changes in social stratification and a need for cultural harmonisation arising from active national migration processes, whereas Finland has been gradually developing a socio-democratic model of national welfare.
Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks : Architectures and Protocols
Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks provides a unified view of the state-of-the-art protocols and architectures for heterogeneous wireless networking. The chapters cover both the theoretical concepts and system-level implementation issues related to design, analysis, and optimization of architectures and protocols for heterogeneous wireless access networks.
Governance of Communication Networks : Connecting Societies and Markets with IT
The articles collected in this book shed light on several aspects that are crucial for the success of global communication networks: they range from an appropriate framework for regulation and suitable strategies of firms that act as international players, to the inclusion of customers in defining product and service strategies, and from problems of access to advanced technology and networks for all groups in society regardless of their social status or geographical location to the role of new technologies in facilitating universal communication.
Geometry of Müntz Spaces and Related Questions
Starting point and motivation for this volume is the classical Muentz theorem which states that the space of all polynomials on the unit interval, whose exponents have too many gaps, is no longer dense in the space of all continuous functions. The resulting spaces of Muentz polynomials are largely unexplored as far as the Banach space geometry is concerned and deserve the attention that the authors arouse. They present the known theorems and prove new results concerning, for example, the isomorphic and isometric classification and the existence of bases in these spaces. Moreover they state many open problems. Although the viewpoint is that of the geometry of Banach spaces they only assume that the reader is familiar with basic functional analysis. In the first part of the book the Banach spaces notions are systematically introduced and are later on applied for Muentz spaces. They include the opening and inclination of subspaces, bases and bounded approximation properties and versions of universality.
Geometric and Topological Methods for Quantum Field Theory
This volume offers an introduction, in the form of four extensive lectures, to some recent developments in several active topics at the interface between geometry, topology and quantum field theory. The first lecture is by Christine Lescop on knot invariants and configuration spaces, in which a universal finite-type invariant for knots is constructed as a series of integrals over configuration spaces. This is followed by the contribution of Raimar Wulkenhaar on Euclidean quantum field theory from a statistical point of view. The author also discusses possible renormalization techniques on noncommutative spaces. The third lecture is by Anamaria Font and Stefan Theisen on string compactification with unbroken supersymmetry. The authors show that this requirement leads to internal spaces of special holonomy and describe Calabi-Yau manifolds in detail. The last lecture, by Thierry Fack, is devoted to a K-theory proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and discusses some applications of K-theory to noncommutative geometry. These lectures notes, which are aimed in particular at graduate students in physics and mathematics, start with introductory material before presenting more advanced results. Each chapter is self-contained and can be read independently.



















