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Obtaining the best from Regulation and Competition
Deregulation has introduced competition into traditionally monopolistic markets, particularly telecommunications and electric utilities. This book brings together ten essays that were presented at the Center for Research in Regulated Industries at Rutgers University and funded by several regulated companies. The authors, who include young scholars as well as established and highly regarded consultants and researchers, address some of the major issues now facing network industries and regulators - deregulation, competition, stranded assets, diversification, pricing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Nutrient Acquisition by Plants : An Ecological Perspective
Adaptation and evolution of terrestrial plants depend, to a large extent, on their ability to acquire nutrients. This is a modern and integrative treatment of the mechanisms controlling plant nutrient uptake and how plants respond to changes in the environment. The following key topics are covered: soil nutrient bioavailability; root responses to variations in nutrient supply; nitrogen fixation; regulation of nutrient uptake by internal plant demand; root characteristics; kinetics of nutrient uptake; root architecture; life span; mycorrhizae; responses to climate change. This integrated view helps us to understand the mechanisms that govern present-day plant communities and is indispensable in models designed to predict the response of plants to a changing climate.
New horizons for a data-driven economy : A roadmap for usage and exploitation of big data in Europe
The book is structured in four parts: Part I “The Big Data Opportunity” explores the value potential of big data with a particular focus on the European context. It also describes the legal, business and social dimensions that need to be addressed, and briefly introduces the European Commission’s BIG project. Part II “The Big Data Value Chain” details the complete big data lifecycle from a technical point of view, ranging from data acquisition, analysis, curation and storage, to data usage and exploitation. Next, Part III “Usage and Exploitation of Big Data” illustrates the value creation possibilities of big data applications in various sectors, including industry, healthcare, finance, energy, media and public services. Finally, Part IV “A Roadmap for Big Data Research” identifies and prioritizes the cross-sectorial requirements for big data research, and outlines the most urgent and challenging technological, economic, political and societal issues for big data in Europe.
New Business Models for the Reuse of Secondary Resources from WEEEs : The FENIX Project
This book summarizes research being pursued within the FENIX project, funded by the EU community under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to design a new product service paradigm able to promote innovative business models, to open added value to the vessels and to create new market segments. It experiments and validates its approach on three new concepts of added-value specialized vessels able to run requested services for several maritime sectors in the most effective, efficient, economic valuable and eco-friendly way. The three vessels share the same lean design methodology, IoT tools and HPC simulation strategy: a lean fact-based design model approach, which combines real operative data at sea with lean methodology, to support the development and implementation of the vessel concepts; IT customized tools to enable the acquisition, processing and usage of on board and local weather data, through an IoT platform, to provide business services to different stakeholders; HPC simulation, providing a virtual towing tank environment, for early vessel design improvement and testing. The book demonstrates that an integrated LCC analysis and LCC strategy to guarantee sustainability to vessels concepts and the proper environmental attention inside the maritime industry.
Multidetector-Row CT of the Thorax
With the advent of multidetector-row technology, excitement has returned to computed tomography. Not only can we now image faster and with better resolution than ever before; more importantly, the development of sophisticated image acquisition techniques has enabled us to venture into areas previously considered to be beyond the scope of CT imaging. The knowledge, experience, and vision of a host of renowned international experts in cutting-edge thoracic applications of multidetector-row CT are condensed within this book. The result is a critical, comprehensive review of the novel opportunities, but also the new challenges, brought about by the development of ever-faster CT acquisition techniques.
Multidetector-Row CT Angiography
Multidetector-row CT has dramatically improved the results of computed tomography in all clinical applications, but its beneficial impact has been most striking in vascular imaging. The simplicity of acquisition and the wide availability of equipment make this modality especially suitable for routine clinical application. In this book the basic aspects of multidetector-row CT angiography are comprehensively reviewed. Individual chapters are included on technical principles, image processing techniques and contrast agent administration. All clinical applications are then discussed in depth, with lucid descriptions of the examination technique for particular clinical indications and of the findings that characterize specific diseases. Limitations and advantages in comparison with other imaging modalities are considered. A large number of high-quality black and white and color illustrations help to explain the clinical findings.
Morphometrics with R
The R language and environment offers a single platform to perform a multitude of analyses from the acquisition of data to the production of static and interactive graphs. This offers an ideal environment to analyze shape variation and shape change. This open-source language is accessible for novices and for experienced users. Adopting R gives the user and developer several advantages for performing morphometrics: evolvability, adaptability, interactivity, a single and comprehensive platform, possibility of interfacing with other languages and software, custom analyses, and graphs. The book explains how to use R for morphometrics and provides a series of examples of codes and displays covering approaches ranging from traditional morphometrics to modern statistical shape analysis such as the analysis of landmark data, Thin Plate Splines, and Fourier analysis of outlines.
Modern Computational Intelligence Methods for the Interpretation of Medical Images
A detailed description of up-to-date methods used for computer processing and interpretation of medical images is given. The scope of the book include images acquisition, storing with compression, processing, analysis, recognition and also its automatic understanding In introduction general overview of the computer vision methods designed for medical images is presented. Next sources of medical images are presented with their general characteristics. Both traditional (like X-ray) and very modern (like PET) sources of medical images are presented. The main emphasis is placed on such properties of medical images given by particular medical imaging methods which are important form the point of view of its computer processing, analysis and recognition.
MICAI 2008 : Advances in Artificial Intelligence ;7th Mexican International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, October 27-31, 2008 Proceedings
The 96 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 363 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on logic and reasoning, knowledge-based systems, knowledge representation and acquisition, ontologies, natural language processing, machine learning, pattern recognition, data mining, neural networks, genetic algorithms, hybrid intelligent systems, computer vision and image processing, robotics, planning and scheduling, uncertainty and probabilistic reasoning, fuzzy logic, intelligent tutoring systems, multi-agent systems and distributed ai, intelligent organizations, bioinformatics and medical applications, as well as applications.
Mediterranean Land-surface Processes Assessed from Space
1. 1 Space View and Ground Observations 1 1. 2 Mediterranean Climatic Environment 2 1. 3 Processes at Surfaces 10 1. 3. 1 Deforestation and Land-use Changes 10 1. 3. 2 Water Related Problems 16 1. 3. 3 Fire, Grazing, and Land Degradation 19 1. 3. 4 Drought, Floods, Frost, and Desertification 21 1. 3. 5 Coupling Between Surface and Atmosphere: The Role of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer 25 1. 4 Role and Capabilities of Measurements Made From Space 30 1. 4. 1 Research Programmes 30 1. 4. 2 Expected Information 32 1. 4. 3 Research Strategy 33 1. 4. 4 Observation of Changes in Heterogeneous Landscapes: Spatial and Temporal Scales 35 1. 4. 5 Land-surface Change Indicators Observable from Space 36 Spectral Characteristics of Vegetation and Soils (36); Responses of Remote Sensing Signals to Changes of Land-surface Properties (40) 1. 5 About this Book 48 Chapter 2 Processing and Archiving of Satellite and Ancillary Data 51 2. 1 Introduction 51 2. 2 The Remote Sensing Data Base 55 2. 2. 1 Satellite Instruments 55 The NOAA Observing System (55); Meteosat (57); Nimbus-7 (59); Landsat (59); SPOT (61); DMSP (62); ERS-1 and ERS-2 (62); TRMM (63); Terra (64); Envisat (65); Aqua (66) 2. 2. 2 Aircraft Instruments 66 The Use of Aircraft for Land-surface Process Studies (66); AVIRIS (67); TMS (68); AIRSAR (68); DIAL (69) 2. 3 Reception, Acquisition and Availability of Satellite Data 70 2. 3.
MDCT and 3D Workstations : A Practical How-To Guide and Teaching File
Written by Scott A. Lipson, MD, an authority in the field, this book is ideal for radiologists, radiology residents, and CT technologists who are getting started in multidetector CT or who want to improve and optimize their CT service. This concise guide and teaching file is the perfect introduction to MDCT volumetric imaging and 3D workstations. Intended to serve as a practical, easy-to-read systematic learning tool, the book begins by introducing the reader to the process of image data acquisition, CT protocols, image reconstruction and review, 3D workstations, clinical workstation use, and CT workflow efficiency. The second section of this book is a volumetric imaging teaching file.
Iron Nutrition in Plants and Rhizospheric Microorganisms
This book uses an interdisciplinary approach to provide a comprehensive review on the status of iron nutrition in plants. International scientists discuss research on acquisition of iron by strategy I and strategy II plants. These reviews summarize a variety of plant species and include both laboratory and field observations. Topics covered in this book include: plants as a source of iron for animals and humans, iron translocation in the plants, iron-stimulated activities that influence crop yield and fruit tree productivity, iron uptake by plants as influenced by microorganisms (i.e. free living soil microorganisms, symbiotic nitrogen-fixing and pathogenic bacteria), the role of plant hormones in iron transport, iron-metal competition in phytoremediation, root zone activities involving interactions between minerals and organic matter, the role of microbial siderophores in rhizospheric iron cycling, iron storage as phytoferritin, proteomic and metabolic studies associated with iron stress response, methods for studying iron metabolism including stable isotopes, and the correction of iron deficiency through the use of synthetic or natural chelates.
Introduction to Video Search Engines
Their book has a practical emphasis with the goal of bringing readers up to date on the state of the art in multimedia search technologies and systems. It explains the overall process of video content acquisition, indexing and retrieval with browsing, it provides overviews of constituent technologies such as information retrieval, Internet video systems, video and multimedia processing to extract index data, and it gives examples of research prototypes and existing commercial systems and describes their features.
Introduction to data systems : Building from Python
Encompassing a broad range of forms and sources of data, this textbook introduces data systems through a progressive presentation. Introduction to Data Systems covers data acquisition starting with local files, then progresses to data acquired from relational databases, from REST APIs and through web scraping. It teaches data forms/formats from tidy data to relationally defined sets of tables to hierarchical structure like XML and JSON using data models to convey the structure, operations, and constraints of each data form.
Introduction to Data Mining and its Applications
This book explores the concepts of data mining and data warehousing, a promising and flourishing frontier in data base systems and new data base applications and is also designed to give a broad, yet in-depth overview of the field of data mining. Data mining is a multidisciplinary field, drawing work from areas including database technology, AI, machine learning, NN, statistics, pattern recognition, knowledge based systems, knowledge acquisition, information retrieval, high performance computing and data visualization.
International Handbook of English Language Teaching
This two-volume handbook provides a comprehensive examination of policy, practice, research, and theory related to English language teaching (ELT) in international contexts. Nearly 70 chapters highlight the research foundation for the best practices, frameworks for policy decisions, and areas of consensus and controversy in the teaching and development of English as a second and/or additional language for kindergarten through to adult speakers of languages other than English.
Interfacing with C++ : Programming Real-World Applications
This book is for people who are interested in learning and exploring electronic interfacing as well as C++ programming in a practicable and enjoyable way. Readers will learn to program a PC to do real-world things - not simply number crunching and graphics. They will also master how to write programs that interact with real-world devices. The book and accompanying software incorporate simple and easy-to-understand projects such as digital-to-analog conversion, analog to digital conversion, DC and Stepper motor control, temperature and voltage measurement, PC-based timing, or basic data acquisition.
Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning
This volume attempts to address an issue that deserves further attention on the part of language acquisition researchers: that of intercultural learners in instructed language contexts. Given the fact that most speech communities where such learning takes place are at least bilingual, and the idea that English is studied for the purposes of communication among people from different cultures, the book focuses on English learners as intercultural speakers. In so doing, the volume brings together three main research areas: those of the study of English as a lingua franca, the development of communicative competence and the use and acquisition of a language beyond a second one in instructed contexts.
Information processing in medical imaging ; 19th International conference, IPMI 2005, Glenwood Springs, CO, USA, July 10-15, 2005, Proceedings
The nineteenth biennial International Conference on Information Processing in Medical Imaging (IPMI) was held July 11–15, 2005 in Glenwood Springs, CO, USA on the Spring Valley campus of the Colorado Mountain College. Following the successful meeting in beautiful Ambleside in England, this year’s conference addressed important recent developments in a broad range of topics related to the acquisition, analysis and application of biomedical images. Interest in IPMI has been steadily growing over the last decade. This is p- tially due to the increased number of researchers entering the ?eld of medical imagingasaresultoftheWhitakerFoundationandtherecentlyformedNational Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. This year, there were 245 full manuscripts submitted to the conference which was twice the number s- mitted in 2003 and almost four times the number of submissions in 2001. Of these papers, 27 were accepted as oral presentations, and 36 excellent subm- sions that could not be accommodated as oral presentations were presented as posters. Selection of the papers for presentation was a di?cult task as we were unable to accommodate many of the excellent papers submitted this year. All accepted manuscripts were allocated 12 pages in these proceedings.
Information context : Nature, impact, and role ; 5th International conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Sciences, CoLIS 2005, Glasgow, UK, June 4-8, 2005 Proceedings
.CoLIS examinesthehistorical,theoretical,empiricalandtechnicalissuesrelatingtoour understanding and use of information, promoting an interdisciplinary approach to research. CoLIS seeks to provide a broad platform for the examination of context as it relates to our theoretical, empirical and technical development of information-centered disciplines. The theme for CoLIS 5 was the nature, impact and role of context within information-centered research. Context is a complex, dynamic and multi- - mensional concept that in?uences both humans and machines: how they behave individually and how they interact with each other. In CoLIS 5 we took an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of context to help us understand and the theoretical approaches to modelling and understanding context, incorporate contextual reasoning within technology, and develop a shared framework for promoting the exploration of context.
