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Fetal compromise in labor
Sixty years ago, the purpose of introducing electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) was to reduce the incidence of intrapartum stillbirth. However, by the early 1980s, with falling stillbirth rates, fetal blood sampling had been widely abandoned, as many considered that EFM was sufficient on its own. Unfortunately, while the sensitivity of EFM for the detection of potential fetal compromise is high, specificity is low, and there is a high false positive rate which has been associated with a rising cesarean section rate. The authors suggest that EFM is considered and analyzed as a classic screening test and not a diagnostic test. Furthermore, it requires contextualization with other risk factors to achieve improved performance. A new proposed metric, the Fetal Reserve Index, takes into account additional risk factors and has demonstrated significantly improved performance metrics. It is going through the phases of further development, evaluation, and wider clinical implementation.
Fault-Diagnosis Systems : An Introduction from Fault Detection to Fault Tolerance
This book gives an introduction into the field of fault detection, fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant systems with methods which have proven their performance in practical applications. It guides the reader in a structured tutorial style: supervision methods, reliability, safety, system integrity and related terminology; fault detection with signal-based methods for periodic and stochastic signals; fault detection with process model-based methods like parameter estimation, state estimation, parity equations and principal component analysis; fault diagnosis with classification and inference methods; fault-tolerant systems with hardware and analytical redundancy; many practical simulation examples and experimental results for processes like electrical motors, pumps, actuators, sensors and automotive components; end-of-chapter exercises for self testing or for practice.
Fast, Efficient and Predictable Memory Accesses : Optimization Algorithms for Memory Architecture Aware Compilation
Fast, Efficient and Predictable Memory Accesses presents techniques for designing fast, energy-efficient and timing predictable memory systems. By using a careful combination of compiler optimizations and architectural improvements, we can achieve more than what would be feasible at one of the levels in isolation. The described optimization algorithms achieve the goals of high performance and low energy consumption. In addition to these benefits, the use of scratchpad memories significantly improves the timing predictability of the entire system, leading to tighter worst case execution time bounds (WCET). The WCET is a relevant design parameter for all timing critical systems. In addition, the book covers algorithms to exploit the power down modes of main memories in SDRAM technology, as well as the execute-in-place feature of Flash memories. The final chapter considers the impact of the register file, which is also part of the memory hierarchy.
Fast Reactions in Energetic Materials : High-Temperature Decomposition of Rocket Propellants and Explosives
Modern energetic materials include explosives, blasting powders, pyrotechnic m- tures and rocket propellants [1, 2]. The study of high-temperature decomposition of condensed phases of propellants and their components (liquid, solid and hybrid) is currently of special importance for the development of space-system engineering [3, 4]. To better understand the burning mechanisms (stationary, nonstationary, - steady) of composite solid propellants and their components, information about the macrokinetics of their high-temperature decomposition is required [5]. To be able to evaluate the ignition parameters and conditions of safe handling of heat-affected explosives, one needs to know the kinetic constants of their high-temperature - composition. The development of new composite solid propellants characterized by high performance characteristics (high burning rates, high thermal stability, stability to intrachamber perturbations, and other aspects) is not possible without quanti- tive data on the high-temperature decomposition of composite solid propellants and their components [6].
Farewell to the Party Model? : Independent Local Lists in East and West European Countries
Local independent lists are a general phenomenon on the local level in many European countries – in established Western countries as well as in new democracies in Middle and Eastern Europe. The research is linked to the much-discussed phenomenon of the growing disenchantment with political parties and the sceptical evaluation of political parties on the local level. The edited book aims first at developing a theoretical and conceptual framework for these non-partisan lists. Second, the contributions describe and analyse for the first time comparatively presence, success, organisational structure, behaviour and performance of these local actors in twelve West and East European countries.
Face Biometrics for Personal Identification : Multi-Sensory Multi-Modal Systems
This book provides an ample coverage of theoretical and experimental state-of-the-art work as well as new trends and directions in the biometrics field. It offers students and software engineers a thorough understanding of how some core low-level building blocks of a multi-biometric system are implemented. While this book covers a range of biometric traits including facial geometry, 3D ear form, fingerprints, vein structure, voice, and gait, its main emphasis is placed on multi-sensory and multi-modal face biometrics algorithms and systems. "Multi-sensory" refers to combining data from two or more biometric sensors, such as synchronized reflectance-based and temperature-based face images. "Multi-modal" biometrics means fusing two or more biometric modalities, like face images and voice timber. The first part addresses new and emerging face biometrics. Emphasis is placed on biometric systems where single sensor and single modality are employed in challenging imaging conditions. The second part on multi-sensory face biometrics deals with the personal identification task in challenging variable illuminations and outdoor operating scenarios by employing visible and thermal sensors. The third part of the book focuses on multi-modal face biometrics by integrating voice, ear, and gait modalities with facial data. The last part presents generic chapters on multi-biometrics fusion methodologies and performance prediction techniques.
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.
Explosively Driven Pulsed Power : Helical Magnetic Flux Compression Generators
While the basic operating principles of Helical Magnetic Flux Compression Generators are easy to understand, the details of their construction and performance limits have been described only in government reports, many of them classified. Conferences in the field of flux compression are also dominated by contributions from government (US and foreign) laboratories. And the government-sponsored research has usually been concerned with very large generators with explosive charges that require elaborate facilities and safety arrangements. This book emphasizes research into small generators (less than 500 grams of high explosives) and explains in detail the physical fundamentals, construction details, and parameter-variation effects related to them.
Expert Oracle Database 10g Administration
This book covers the new 10g management and performance tools and provides essential primers on Unix, Linux and Windows NT administration and on core SQL and PL/SQL programming techniques. And it provides everything the new and aspring Oracle database administrator needs to build and administer complex Oracle 10g databases.
Expert ASP.NET 2.0 Advanced Application Design
Expert ASP.NET 2.0 Advanced Application Design will help you derive maximum performance and reliability from the distributed applications you create with ASP.NET 2.0. The book first looks at some of the non-functional requirements that impact the design of a distributed application. It then relates them to the servers and services available in the .NET 2.0 Framework. ASP.NET 2.0 is the central process for use in distributed .NET applications, and the book closely examines the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework and its hosting environment, Internet Information Server (IIS). The book looks at how ASP.NET 2.0 is used by different packages within .NET (like Web Services), and explores how it can be extended to meet your own custom requirements.
Experimental Research in Evolutionary Computation : The New Experimentalism
This book introduces the new experimentalism in evolutionary computation, providing tools to understand algorithms and programs and their interaction with optimization problems. The book develops and applies statistical techniques to analyze and compare modern search heuristics such as evolutionary algorithms and particle swarm optimization. Treating optimization runs as experiments, the author offers methods for solving complex real-world problems that involve optimization via simulation, and he describes successful applications in engineering and industrial control projects.
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.
Exchange traded funds : Structure, regulation and application of a new fund class
The organization of traditional mutual funds as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) produced revolutionary changes in the fund industry. These changes, and the subsequent events to which they led, have greatly - creased the practical way of trading funds. Traditional mutual fund m- kets were fragmented, and transactions were both costly and from time to time difficult to arrange. Investments in emerging markets for example were anything but efficient. As a consequence of establishing ETF funds market segments, the efficiency of transactions has been broadly increased as well as transaction costs dramatically reduced. All this changed in the early Nineties with the introduction of the first ETF for the purpose of trading funds. Exchange Traded Funds – Structure, Regulation and Application of a New Fund Class is a comprehensive summary of articles covering all aspects of the Exchange Traded Fund industry.The present book is divided into four parts: The opening part, containing ETFs – A Leading Financial Innovation and From Continent to Sectors: Challenges and Uses of ETFs in Europe, is - signed to give the reader broad insight into the industry, developments and trends. Further, the article Spiders: Where Are the Bugs? examine the characteristics and performance of these instruments from an academic point of view.
Excel PivotTables Recipe Book : A Problem-Solution Approach
Excel Pivot Tables Recipe Book: A Problem-Solution Approach is for anyone who uses Excel frequently. This book follows a problem-solution format that covers the entire breadth of situations you might encounter when working with PivotTables—from planning and creating, to formatting and extracting data, to maximizing performance and troubleshooting. The author presents tips and techniques in this collection of recipes that cannot be found in Excel's Help section, and she carefully explains the most confusing features of PivotTables.
Excel 2007 PivotTables Recipes : A Problem-Solution Approach
You'll find this book when facing any new or difficult problem in PivotTables, covering the entire breadth of situations you could ever encounter, from planning and creating, to formatting and extracting data, to maximizing performance and troubleshooting.
Examining Innovation Management from a Fair Process Perspective
Companies nowadays still differ considerably in that they interact with employees. This interaction depends on different organisational cultures, leadership styles, and the ways in which information and communication take place. A recent trend, even in economic theory, is that interactions are valued in themselves and not solely to achieve rational economic maximisation. People care about outcomes, but they also care about the interactional processes that produce those outcomes. Thomas Limberg investigates a new approach to the management of human relationships in a knowledge-based work environment and analyses the relationship between fair process and innovation performance. Key findings are that social interactions have a significant influence on execution performance in organisations, and fairness can have positive effects on innovative behaviour and therefore on innovation performance. In the transition from a production-based to a knowledge-based economy, fair process is becoming a powerful tool for managing human interactions and for influencing attitudes and behaviours that are so critical in reaching high innovation performance.
Evolutionary Synthesis of Pattern Recognition Systems
Evolutionary Synthesis of Pattern Recognition Systems presents novel effective approaches based on evolutionary computational techniques, such as genetic programming (GP), linear genetic programming (LGP), coevolutionary genetic programming (CGP) and genetic algorithms (GA) to automate the synthesis and analysis of object detection and recognition systems. The book’s concepts, principles, and methodologies will enable readers to automatically build robust and flexible systems—in a systematic manner—that can provide human-competitive performance and reduce the cost of designing and maintaining these systems. Its content covers all key aspects of object recognition: object detection, feature selection, feature discovery, object recognition, domain knowledge. Basic knowledge of programming and data structures, and some calculus, is presupposed.ing the book’s novel ideas
Evolutionary Computer Music
The evolutionary computation approach to music is an exciting new development for composers and musicologists alike. For composers, it provides an innovative and natural means for generating musical ideas from a specifiable set of primitive components and processes. For musicologists, these techniques are used to model the cultural transmission and change of a population's body of musical ideas over time. In both cases, musical evolution can be guided by a variety of constraints and tendencies built into the system, such as realistic psychological factors that influence the way music is expressed, experienced, learned, stored, modified, and passed on among individuals. This book discusses not only the applications of evolutionary computation to music, but also the tools needed to create and study such systems. These tools are drawn in part from research into the origins and evolution of biological organisms, ecologies, and cultural systems on the one hand, and from computer simulation methodologies on the other. They can be combined to create surrogate artificial worlds populated by interacting simulated organisms in which complex musical experiments can be performed that would otherwise be impossible.
Evolutionary Algorithms for Solving Multi-Objective Problems
This book for Solving Multi-Objective Problems, significantly augmented with contemporary knowledge and adapted for the classroom. All the various features of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are presented in an innovative and student-friendly fashion, incorporating state-of-the-art research results. The diversity of serial and parallel MOEA structures are given, evaluated and compared. The book provides detailed insight into the application of MOEA techniques to an array of practical problems. The assortment of test suites are discussed along with the variety of appropriate metrics and relevant statistical performance techniques.
Evolution of Italian Enterprises in the 20th Century
During the first two-thirds of the 20th century the themes of sectorial structure and compared performance prevail in Italian economic historiography. In the last part of the century, in contrast, attention is focused on the behavior of single economic actors and their micro-economic strategies. This book intends to act as a bridge between the two approaches, and reconstructs - through an original study based on a plurality of methodologies - the secular journey of Italian industrial enterprise
