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The first edition of this ground breaking reference work was the most comprehensive reference source available about the key aspects of the satellite applications field. This updated second edition covers the technology, the markets, applications and regulations related to satellite telecommunications, broadcasting and networking—including civilian and military systems; precise satellite navigation and timing networks (i.e. GPS and others); remote sensing and meteorological satellite systems. Created under the auspices of the International Space University based in France, this brand new edition is now expanded to cover new innovative small satellite constellations, new commercial launching systems, innovation in military application satellites and their acquisition, updated appendices, a useful glossary and more.

Pediatric CNS Tumors is a detailed review of childhood brain tumors that offers a biologically based perspective on their management. For each tumor type, epidemiology, pathological features, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment are discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on the provision of treatment algorithms that reflect current best practice, and controversies and therapeutic agents under development are also addressed. The closing chapters consider many of the diagnostic and treatment modalities common to all tumors, with special attention to experimental and emerging techniques. This third edition of the book has been thoroughly revised and updated to take into account the latest advances in knowledge and treatment.

This monograph on measurement error and misclassification covers a broad range of problems and emphasizes unique features in modeling and analyzing problems arising from medical research and epidemiological studies. Many measurement error and misclassification problems have been addressed in various fields over the years as well as with a wide spectrum of data, including event history data (such as survival data and recurrent event data), correlated data (such as longitudinal data and clustered data), multi-state event data, and data arising from case-control studies. Statistical Analysis with Measurement Error or Misclassification: Strategy, Method and Application brings together assorted methods in a single text and provides an update of recent developments for a variety of settings. Measurement error effects and strategies of handling mismeasurement for different models are closely examined in combination with applications to specific problems. Readers with diverse backgrounds and objectives can utilize this text. Familiarity with inference methods—such as likelihood and estimating function theory—or modeling schemes in varying settings—such as survival analysis and longitudinal data analysis—can result in a full appreciation of the material, but it is not essential since each chapter provides basic inference frameworks and background information on an individual topic to ease the access of the material. The text is presented in a coherent and self-contained manner and highlights the essence of commonly used modeling and inference methods. This text can serve as a reference book for researchers interested in statistical methodology for handling data with measurement error or misclassification; as a textbook for graduate students, especially for those majoring in statistics and biostatistics; or as a book for applied statisticians whose interest focuses on analysis of error-contaminated data. Grace Y. Yi is Professor of Statistics and University Research Chair at

This unique handbook is designed for surgeons involved in personal, programmatic, institutional, regional or national QI efforts. The book highlights key quality improvement principles that relate to the care of the surgical patient. Theories as well as practical tips regarding quality improvement are gathered for this outstanding resource. Aimed at surgical residents and young surgical faculty, Success in Academic Surgery: Surgical Quality Improvement is written by expert authors who are members of the Association for Academic Surgery. No similar book directed at surgeons exists, and this is a timely and comprehensive QI resource for trainees, educators, and surgical leaders.

This text focuses on the use of smoothing methods for developing and estimating differential equations following recent developments in functional data analysis and building on techniques described in Ramsay and Silverman (2005) Functional Data Analysis. The central concept of a dynamical system as a buffer that translates sudden changes in input into smooth controlled output responses has led to applications of previously analyzed data, opening up entirely new opportunities for dynamical systems. The technical level has been kept low so that those with little or no exposure to differential equations as modeling objects can be brought into this data analysis landscape. There are already many texts on the mathematical properties of ordinary differential equations, or dynamic models, and there is a large literature distributed over many fields on models for real world processes consisting of differential equations. However, a researcher interested in fitting such a model to data, or a statistician interested in the properties of differential equations estimated from data will find rather less to work with. This book fills that gap. Offers an accessible text to those with little or no exposure to differential equations as modeling objects Updates and builds on techniques from the popular Functional Data Analysis (Ramsay and Silverman, 2005) Opens up new opportunities for dynamical systems and presents additional applications for previously analyzed data Jim Ramsay, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and an Associate Member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University. He received his PhD from Princeton University in 1966 in quantitative psychology. He has been President of the Psychometric Society and the Statistical Society of Canada. He received the Gold Medal in 1998 for his contributions to psychometrics and functional data analysis and Honorary Membership in 2012 from the Statistical Society of Canada. Giles Hooker, PhD, is Associate

This book de-emphasizes the formal mathematical description of spacecraft on-board attitude and orbit applications in favor of a more qualitative, concept-oriented presentation of these topics. The information presented in this book was originally given as a set of lectures in 1999 and 2000 instigated by a NASA Flight Software Branch Chief at Goddard Space Flight Center. The Branch Chief later suggested this book. It provides an approachable insight into the area and is not intended as an essential reference work. ACS Without an Attitude is intended for programmers and testers new to the field who are seeking a commonsense understanding of the subject matter they are coding and testing in the hope that they will reduce their risk of introducing or missing the key software bug that causes an abrupt termination in their spacecraft’s mission. In addition, the book will provide managers and others working with spacecraft with a basic understanding of this subject.

This book presents the proceedings of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Materials and Devices, which was conceived as a major contribution to large-scale efforts to foster Indian research and development in the field in close collaboration with the community of non-resident Indian researchers from all over the world. The research articles collected in this volume - selected from among the submissions for their intrinsic quality and originality, as well as for their potential value for further collaborations - document and report on a wide range of recent and significant results for various applications and scientific developments in the areas of Materials and Devices. The technical sessions covered include photovoltaics and energy storage, semiconductor materials and devices, sensors, smart and polymeric materials, optoelectronics, nanotechnology and nanomaterials, MEMS and NEMS, as well as emerging technologies.

Earth education is traditionally confined to specific topics: ecoliteracy, outdoor education, environmental science. But in the coming century, on track to be the warmest in human history, every aspect of human life will be affected by our changing planet. Emerging diseases, food shortages, drought, and waterlogged cities are just some of the unprecedented challenges that today’s students will face. How do we prepare 9.5 billion people for life in the Anthropocene, to thrive in this uncharted and more chaotic future? Answers are being developed in universities, preschools, professional schools, and even prisons around the world. In the latest installment ofState of the World, a diverse group of education experts share innovative approaches to teaching and learning in a new era. Topics include systems thinking for kids; the importance of play in early education; social emotional learning; comprehensive sexuality education; indigenous knowledge; sustainable business; medical training to treat the whole person; teaching law in the Anthropocene; and more. This volume addresses schooling at all levels of development, from preschool to professional. Its lessons can inform teachers, policy makers, school administrators, community leaders, parents, and students alike. And its vision will inspire anyone who wants to prepare students not only for the storms ahead but to become the next generation of sustainability leaders.

This book begins with a concentrated introduction into deterministic global optimization and moves forward to present new original results from the authors who are well known experts in the field. Multiextremal continuous problems that have an unknown structure with Lipschitz objective functions and functions having the first Lipschitz derivatives defined over hyperintervals are examined. A class of algorithms using several Lipschitz constants is introduced which has its origins in the DIRECT (DIviding RECTangles) method. This new class is based on an efficient strategy that is applied for the search domain partitioning. In addition a survey on derivative free methods and methods using the first derivatives is given for both one-dimensional and multi-dimensional cases. Non-smooth and smooth minorants and acceleration techniques that can speed up several classes of global optimization methods with examples of applications and problems arising in numerical testing of global optimization algorithms are discussed. Theoretical considerations are illustrated through engineering applications. Extensive numerical testing of algorithms described in this book stretches the likelihood of establishing a link between mathematicians and practitioners. The authors conclude by describing applications and a generator of random classes of test functions with known local and global minima that is used in more than 40 countries of the world. This title serves as a starting point for students, researchers, engineers, and other professionals in operations research, management science, computer science, engineering, economics, environmental sciences, industrial and applied mathematics to obtain an overview of deterministic global optimization. .

This Brief is mainly devoted to two classical and related results: the existence of a right inverse of the divergence operator and the so-called Korn Inequalities. It is well known that both results are fundamental tools in the analysis of some classic differential equations, particularly in those arising in fluid dynamics and elasticity. Several connections between these two topics and improved Poincaré inequalities are extensively treated. From simple key ideas the book is growing smoothly in complexity. Beginning with the study of these problems on star-shaped domains the arguments are extended first to John domains and then to Hölder α domains where the need of weighted spaces arises naturally. In this fashion, the authors succeed in presenting in an unified and concise way several classic and recent developments in the field. These features certainly makes this Brief useful for students, post-graduate students, and researchers as well.

Authored by leading experts from academia, users and manufacturers, this book provides an authoritative account of the science and technology involved in multiparticulate drug delivery systems which offer superior clinical and technical advantages over many other specialized approaches in drug delivery. The book will cover market trends, potential benefits and formulation challenges for various types of multiparticulate systems. Drug solubility, dose, chemistry and therapeutic indications as well as excipient suitability coupled with manufacturing methods will be fully covered. Key approaches for taste-masking, delayed release and extended release of multiparticulates systems are of significant interest, especially their in-vivo and in-vitro performance. In addition, the principles of scale-up, QbD, and regulatory aspects of common materials used in this technology will be explained, as well as recent advances in materials and equipment enabling robust, flexible and cost-effective manufacture. Case studies illustrating best practices will also make the book a valuable resource to pharmaceutical scientists in industry and academia.

This book analyzes George Orwell’s politics and their reception across both sides of the Atlantic. It considers Orwell’s place in the politics of his native Britain and his reception in the USA, where he has had some of his most fervent emulators, exegetists, and detractors. Written by an ex “teenage Maoist” from Liverpool, UK, who now lives and writes in New York, the book points out how often the different strands of opinion derive from “ancestral” ideological struggles within the Communist/Trotskyist movement in the 30’s, and how these often overlook or indeed consciously ignore the indigenous British politics and sociology that did so much to influence Orwell’s political and literary development. It examines in the modern era what Orwell did in his–the seductions of simplistic and absolutist ideologies for some intellectuals, especially in their reactions to Orwell himself.

The book presents a collection of accepted papers from the 3DGeoinfo 2015 international conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from October 28 – 30, 2015. All papers underwent double-blind review by experts from around the globe. The conference brought together pioneering international researchers and practitioners to facilitate the dialogue on emerging topics in the field of 3D geo-information. The focus areas include: - Data Collection and Modeling: advanced approaches for 3D data collection, reconstruction and methods for representation - Data Management: topological, geometrical and network models for maintenance of 3D geoinformation - Data Analysis and Visualization: frameworks for representing 3D spatial relationships, 3D spatial analysis and algorithms for navigation, interpolation, advanced VR, AR and MR visualisation, as well as 3D visualization on mobile devices - 3D Applications: city models, Cadastre, LBS, etc.

Over the next several decades, as human populations grow and developing countries become more affluent, the demand for energy will soar. Parts of the energy sector are preparing to meet this demand by increasing renewable energy production, which is necessary to combat climate change. But many renewable energy sources have a large energy sprawl—the amount of land needed to produce energy—which can threaten biodiversity and conservation. Is it possible to meet this rise in energy demand, while still conserving natural places and species? The editors provide a roadmap for preserving biodiversity despite the threats of energy sprawl. Their strategy—development by design—brings together companies, communities, and governments to craft blueprints for sustainable land development. This commonsense approach identifies and preemptively sets aside land where biodiversity can thrive while consolidating development in areas with lower biodiversity value. This approach makes sense for energy industries and governments, which can confidently build sustainability into their energy futures. This contributed volume brings together experts in diverse fields such as biodiversity conservation, ecology, ecosystem services, wildlife, fisheries, planning, energy, economics, and finance. Early chapters set the context for global patterns of biodiversity risk from energy extraction and the challenges of achieving a green future while maintaining energy security. Middle chapters are devoted to case studies from countries around the world, each describing a different energy sector and the collaborative process involved in planning complex energy projects in a way that maximizes biodiversity protection. Detailed maps and charts help orient readers to countries and energy sectors, providing proof for what is possible. With biodiversity declining rapidly because of an energy-hungry world, this book provides a needed guide for elected officials, industry representatives, NGOs and community gr

This book is an in-depth and user-friendly reference for better understanding immune-mediated skin diseases and their therapies. The focus is on the needs of the physician, resident, or student to understand the pathophysiology of the disease as well as the mechanisms of action of the therapies. Clinical and Basic Immunodermatology, Second Edition is an effective teaching tool that has practical applications for use on a daily basis. It is a valuable resource for practicing dermatologists, dermatology residents and students, and healthcare workers in related fields.

This monograph presents a general mechanical theory for biological growth. It provides both a conceptual and a technical foundation for the understanding and analysis of problems arising in biology and physiology. The theory and methods is illustrated on a wide range of examples and applications. A process of extreme complexity, growth plays a fundamental role in many biological processes and is considered to be the hallmark of life itself. Its description has been one of the fundamental problems of life sciences, but until recently, it has not attracted much attention from mathematicians, physicists, and engineers. The author herein presents the first major technical monograph on the problem of growth since D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s 1917 book On Growth and Form. The emphasis of the book is on the proper mathematical formulation of growth kinematics and mechanics. Accordingly, the discussion proceeds in order of complexity and the book is divided into five parts. First, a general introduction on the problem of growth from a historical perspective is given. Then, basic concepts are introduced within the context of growth in filamentary structures. These ideas are then generalized to surfaces and membranes and eventually to the general case of volumetric growth. The book concludes with a discussion of open problems and outstanding challenges. Thoughtfully written and richly illustrated to be accessible to readers of varying interests and background, the text will appeal to life scientists, biophysicists, biomedical engineers, and applied mathematicians alike.

This brief introduces overlapping coalition formation games (OCF games), a novel mathematical framework from cooperative game theory that can be used to model, design and analyze cooperative scenarios in future wireless communication networks. The concepts of OCF games are explained, and several algorithmic aspects are studied. In addition, several major application scenarios are discussed. These applications are drawn from a variety of fields that include radio resource allocation in dense wireless networks, cooperative spectrum sensing for cognitive radio networks, and resource management for crowd sourcing. For each application, the use of OCF games is discussed in detail in order to show how this framework can be used to solve relevant wireless networking problems. Overlapping Coalition Formation Games in Wireless Communication Networks provides researchers, students and practitioners with a concise overview of existing works in this emerging area, exploring the relevant fundamental theories, key techniques, and significant applications. .

As advanced space propulsion moves slowly from science fiction to achievable reality, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR, is a leading contender for making 'Mars in a month' a possibility. Developed by Ad Astra Rockets, which was founded by astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz and backed by NASA, its first commercial tests are imminent. VASIMR heats plasma to extreme temperatures using radio waves. Strong magnetic fields then funnel this plasma out the back of the engine, creating thrust. The continuous propulsion may place long, fast interplanetary journeys within reach in the near future. While scientists dream of the possibilities of using fusion or well-controlled matter-antimatter interactions to propel spacecraft fast and far, that goal is still some way over the horizon. VASIMR provides a more attainable propulsion technology that is based on the matter-antimatter concept. The book describes a landmark technology grounded in plasma physics and offering a practical technological solution for exploring beyond low Earth orbit in the decades to come.

This volume explores the role free radicals and antioxidants within the development of vascular disease, examining fundamental research and translating preclinical knowledge to clinical trials. The expertly authored chapters describe the relationship of oxidative stress to atherosclerosis and the cardiovascular system, exploring its role in cardiac fibrosis, renovascular disease, hypertension, and regulation of blood pressure and cerebral vascular tone. The concluding chapter discusses the current state of clinical research, contextualizing clinical trials within the existing theoretical framework and analyzing attempts to preserve oxidant stress under various conditions. With its concise and authoritative analysis of pre-clinical research and clinical results, Studies in Atherosclerosis – part of the bestselling Oxidative Stress in Basic Research and Clinical Practice series – is essential for researchers and clinicians focusing in cardiology, nephrology, or oxidative stress.

This book contains an in-depth treatment of matrix-exponential (ME) distributions and their sub-class of phase-type (PH) distributions. Loosely speaking, an ME distribution is obtained through replacing the intensity parameter in an exponential distribution by a matrix. The ME distributions can also be identified as the class of non-negative distributions with rational Laplace transforms. If the matrix has the structure of a sub-intensity matrix for a Markov jump process we obtain a PH distribution which allows for nice probabilistic interpretations facilitating the derivation of exact solutions and closed form formulas. The full potential of ME and PH unfolds in their use in stochastic modelling. Several chapters on generic applications, like renewal theory, random walks and regenerative processes, are included together with some specific examples from queueing theory and insurance risk. We emphasize our intention towards applications by including an extensive treatment on statistical methods for PH distributions and related processes that will allow practitioners to calibrate models to real data. Aimed as a textbook for graduate students in applied probability and statistics, the book provides all the necessary background on Poisson processes, Markov chains, jump processes, martingales and re-generative methods. It is our hope that the provided background may encourage researchers and practitioners from other fields, like biology, genetics and medicine, who wish to become acquainted with the matrix-exponential method and its applications. .

This book features a selection of articles by Louis Boutet de Monvel and presents his contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and analysis. The works selected here reveal his central role in the development of his field, including three cornerstones: firstly, analytic pseudodifferential operators, which have become a fundamental aspect of analytic microlocal analysis, and secondly the Boutet de Monvel calculus for boundary problems for elliptic partial differential operators, which is still an important tool also in index theory. Thirdly, Boutet de Monvel was one of the first people to recognize the importance of the existence of generalized functions, whose singularities are concentrated on a single ray in phase space, which led him to make essential contributions to hypoelliptic operators and to a very successful and influential calculus of Toeplitz operators with applications to spectral and index theory. Other topics treated here include microlocal analysis, star products and deformation quantization as well as problems in several complex variables, index theory and geometric quantization. This book will appeal to both experts in the field and students who are new to this subject.

The series “Clinical Approaches and Procedures in Cosmetic Dermatology” intends to be a practical guide in Cosmetic Dermatology. Procedures in cosmetic dermatology are very popular and useful in medicine, indicated to complement topical and oral treatments not only for photodamaged skin but also for other dermatosis such as acne, rosacea, scars, etc. Also, full-face treatments using peelings, lasers, fillers and toxins are increasingly being used, successfully substituting or postponing the need for plastic surgeries. Altogether, these techniques not only provide immediate results but also help patients to sustain long-term benefits, both preventing/treating dermatological diseases and maintaining a healthy and youthful skin. Throughout this series, different treatments in Cosmetic Dermatology will be discussed in detail covering the use of many pharmacological groups of cosmeceuticals, the new advances in nutraceuticals and emerging technologies and procedures. This volume, entitled “Daily Routine in Cosmetic Dermatology” will be an important tool for aesthetic doctors, practicing dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and all other physicians interested in the field of aesthetic medicine. It discloses in detail the semiology and general treatments in cosmetic dermatology, providing the state-of-the-art regarding patients’ evaluation, photoprotection, nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals and special prescriptions. Also check the other volumes: Volume II - Chemical and Physical Peelings Volume III - Lasers, Lights and Other Technologies Volume IV - Botulinum Toxins, Fillers and Related Substances.

This book will address the application of gas phase thin film methods, including techniques such as evaporation, sputtering, CVD, and ALD to the synthesis of materials on nanostructured and high aspect-ratio high surface area materials. We have chosen to introduce these topics and the different application fields from a chronological perspective: we start with the early concepts of step coverage and later conformality in semiconductor manufacturing, and how later on the range of application branched out to include others such as energy storage, catalysis, and more broadly nanomaterials synthesis. The book will describe the ballistic and continuum descriptions of gas transport on nanostructured materials and then will move on to incorporate the impact of precursor-surface interaction. We will finally conclude approaching the subjects of feature shape evolution and the connection between nano and reactor scales and will briefly present different advanced algorithms that can be used to effectively compute particle transport, in some cases borrowing from other disciplines such as radiative heat transfer. The book gathers in a single place information scattered over thirty years of scientific research, including the most recent results in the field of Atomic Layer Deposition. Besides a mathematical description of the fundamentals of thin film growth in nanostructured materials, it includes analytic expressions and plots that can be used to predict the growth using gas phase synthesis methods in a number of ideal approximations. The focus on the fundamental aspects over particular processes will broaden the appeal and the shelf lifetime of this book. The reader of this book will gain a thorough understanding on the coating of high surface area and nanostructured materials using gas phase thin film deposition methods, including the limitations of each technique. Those coming from the theoretical side will gain the knowledge required to model the growth process, while those

John Vinceexplains a wide range of mathematical techniques and problem-solving strategies associated with computer games, computer animation, virtual reality, CAD and other areas of computer graphics in this completely revised and expanded fifth edition. The first five chapters cover a general introduction, number sets, algebra, trigonometry and coordinate systems, which are employed in the following chapters on vectors, matrix algebra, transforms, interpolation, curves and patches, analytic geometry and barycentric coordinates. Following this, the reader is introduced to the relatively new topic of geometric algebra, followed by two chapters that introduce differential and integral calculus. Finally, there is a chapter on worked examples. Mathematics for Computer Graphics covers all of the key areas of the subject, including: · Number sets · Algebra · Trigonometry · Coordinate systems · Determinants · Vectors · Quaternions · Matrix algebra · Geometric transforms · Interpolation · Curves and surfaces · Analytic geometry · Barycentric coordinates · Geometric algebra · Differential calculus · Integral calculus This fifth edition contains over 120 worked examples and over 320 colour illustrations, which are central to the author’s descriptive writing style.Mathematics for Computer Graphicsprovides a sound understanding of the mathematics required for computer graphics, giving a fascinating insight into the design of computer graphics software and setting the scene for further reading of more advanced books and technical research papers.

This book compares two buildings with different technologies and distinct environment from the combined viewpoints of civil engineering and architecture. The first is the most recent building of Columbia University in New York, the Northwest Science Building, a project designed by Rafael Moneo and Dan Brodkin of Ove Arup. The second one is the Burgo Tower in Oporto, by Eduardo Souto Moura and Rui Furtado of AFA, a building that brings a new perspective to the use of prefabrication technologies with local traditional construction systems. With the detailed analyses of recognized researchers in civil engineering and architecture, this book is a reflection upon the problems and solutions in the design and construction process of a prefabricated building system. This volume, like those to follow, brings together, building research and building design practice to enhance the knowledge of complementarity areas involved in construction, engineering and architecture. This is the first book in a new series "Building Research: Design, Construction and Technologies" which aims to bridge scientific research and professional practice to understand the Building Design problems. In each edition, one or two case studies (recognized buildings in the international design panorama) are analyzed with their authors to assess the design process and the construction development. To understand the problems involved, researchers, engineers and architects, are asked to contribute to this an alysis with essays on building research issues, as building technology, construction management, acoustics, maintenance or prefabrication.

The evolution of the Argentina Continental Margin during the Quaternary and the stratigraphic and morphosedimentary configuration responded to climatic variability, oceanographic changes, glacioeustatic fluctuations and tectono-isostatic processes, which began to impact on the margin during previous geological periods. The final modeling of the margin was achieved in the late Miocene, when the interaction between the Antarctic and North Atlantic water-masses favored climatic and oceanographic changes with a profound effect on morphosedimentary features. In the Quaternary, the different regions of the margin distinctly responded to such changes. Whereas in the shelf the main modeling factors were the sea-level fluctuations of glacioeustatic origin and consequent marine-continental stratigraphic records, in the slope (particularly in the sector corresponding to the passive margin) the prevailing effect was the interaction between water-masses and the sea floor, giving origin to contouritic depositional systems accompanied of gravity processes responsible of turbiditic and mass-wasting deposits. Different relationships between contouritic and turbiditic facies respond to distinct combinations of oceanic circulation variability and the indirect effect on the sea floor of sea-level fluctuations. As a result of this complexity in the regional processes in the framework of the broad hemispheric oceanographic-climatic conditioning factors, the ACM can be considered as a complete archive for the Southern Ocean.

Space telescopes are among humankind’s greatest scientific achievements of the last fifty years. This book describes the instruments themselves and what they were designed to discover about the Solar System and distant stars. Exactly how these telescopes were built and launched and the data they provided is explored. Only certain kinds of radiation can penetrate our planet's atmosphere, which limits what we can observe. But with space telescopes all this changed. We now have the means to "see" beyond Earth using ultraviolet, microwave, and infrared rays, X-rays and gamma rays. In this book we meet the pioneers and the telescopes that were built around their ideas. This book looks at space telescopes not simply chronologically but also in order of the electromagnetic spectrum, making it possible to understand better why they were made.

This book covers the main ideas, methods, and recent developments of quantum-limit optical spectroscopy and applications to quantum information, resolution spectroscopy, measurements beyond quantum limits, measurement of decoherence, and entanglement. Quantum-limit spectroscopy lies at the frontier of current experimental and theoretical techniques, and is one of the areas of atomic spectroscopy where the quantization of the field is essential to predict and interpret the existing experimental results. Currently, there is an increasing interest in quantum and precision spectroscopy both theoretically and experimentally, due to significant progress in trapping and cooling of single atoms and ions. This progress allows one to explore in the most intimate detail the ways in which light interacts with atoms and to measure spectral properties and quantum effects with high precision. Moreover, it allows one to perform subtle tests of quantum mechanics on the single atom and single photon scale which were hardly even imaginable as ``thought experiments'' a few years ago. .

This treatment of modern topics related to the control of nonlinear systems is a collection of contributions celebrating the work of Professor Henk Nijmeijer and honoring his 60th birthday. It addresses several topics that have been the core of Professor Nijmeijer’s work, namely: the control of nonlinear systems, geometric control theory, synchronization, coordinated control, convergent systems and the control of underactuated systems. The book presents recent advances in these areas, contributed by leading international researchers in systems and control. In addition to the theoretical questions treated in the text, particular attention is paid to a number of applications including (mobile) robotics, marine vehicles, neural dynamics and mechanical systems generally. This volume provides a broad picture of the analysis and control of nonlinear systems for scientists and engineers with an interest in the interdisciplinary field of systems and control theory. The reader will benefit from the expert participants’ ideas on important open problems with contributions that represent the state of the art in nonlinear control.

This book provides innovative practical suggestions regarding the production and management of medical records that are designed to address the inconsistencies and errors that have been highlighted especially in relation to national eHealth programs. Challenges and lessons that have emerged from the use of clinical information and the design of medical records are discussed, and principles underpinning the implementation of health IT are critically examined. New trends in the use of clinical data are explored in depth, with analysis of issues relating to integration and sharing of patient information, data visualization, big data analytics, and the requirements of modern electronic health records. The spirit pervading the book is one of co-production, in which the needs of practitioners are taken into account from the outset. Readers will learn the basic concepts of how clinical information emanating from the doctor–patient relationship can be effectively integrated with genetic and environmental data and analyzed by complex algorithms with the goal of improving medical decision making and patient care. The book, written by European experts and researchers, will be of interest to all stakeholders in the field, including doctors, technicians, and policy makers.

During the last decades climate changes, particularly warming trends, have been recorded around the globe. Climate change shaped the political agenda during the last decade with three issues as hot topics, commonly making the headlines: carbon budgets, impact and mitigation of climate change. Changes in climate have become evident through insect epidemics, drought episodes and intense forest and unusual storm activities. Climate changes are expected to impact vegetation manifesting as changes in vegetation extents, tree species compositions, growth rates, and mortality rates, and also as species migrations. Over a number of sessions, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has discussed how forests may be impacted and also how forests and forest management practices may be used to mitigate the impacts of changes in climate, particularly to possibly reduce the rate of change. Given the significant role that forests play in the climate system – as sources, sinks, and through carbon trading – this book update the current scientific evidences on the relationships between climate, forest resources and forest management practices around the world. This new book edition, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presents an update on state-of-the-art research results, visions and theories, as well as specific methods for sustainable forest management under changing climatic conditions. The book contains a wealth of information which may be useful to foresters and forest managers, politicians and the legal and policy environment and forestry administrators by presenting and analysis of the current knowledge, and a series of case studies focused on the biological and the economic impacts of climate change in forest ecosystems in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America..

This handbook provides an introduction to and reference information about the science behind the production and use of particulate fillers in polymer applications. Fillers play an important role and are used with practically all types of polymers: thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers. Readers will find an introduction to the topic of particulate fillers for polymer applications and their importance. The first chapters describe the use and characteristics of fillers in different polymer types, such as thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers. The following chapters compile and summarize comprehensive information about different filler materials which find application nowadays, including mineral fillers (for example feldspars, wollastonites, and many more) and inorganic fillers (barium sulphate, or clays), bio-fillers, recycled and sustainable fillers, and fillers for specific applications (for example flame-retardant fillers, fillers for electrically conductive applications, or thermally conductive additives). Offering key information, compiled by a mixed team of authors from academia and industry, this handbook will appeal to researchers and professionals working on and with particulate polymer fillers alike.

This volume in the SpringerBriefs in Energy series offers a systematic review of unit commitment (UC) problems in electrical power generation. It updates texts written in the late 1990s and early 2000s by including the fundamentals of both UC and state-of-the-art modeling as well as solution algorithms and highlighting stochastic models and mixed-integer programming techniques. The UC problems are mostly formulated as mixed-integer linear programs, although there are many variants. A number of algorithms have been developed for, or applied to, UC problems, including dynamic programming, Lagrangian relaxation, general mixed-integer programming algorithms, and Benders decomposition. In addition the book discusses the recent trends in solving UC problems, especially stochastic programming models, and advanced techniques to handle large numbers of integer- decision variables due to scenario propagation.

This book highlights innovative solutions together with various techniques and methods that can help support the manufacturing sector to excel in economic, social, and environmental terms in networked business environments. The book also furthers understanding of sustainable manufacturing from the perspective of value creation in manufacturing networks, by capitalizing on the outcomes of the European ‘Sustainable Value Creation in Manufacturing Networks’ project. New dynamics and uncertainties in modern markets call for innovative solutions in the global manufacturing sector. While the manufacturing sector is traditionally driven by technology, it also requires other managerial and organizational solutions in terms of network governance, business models, sustainable solution development for products and services, performance management portals, etc., which can provide major competitive advantages for companies. At the same time, the manufacturing industry is subject to a change process, where business networks play a major role in value-creating processes. By far the biggest challenge in this context is making value creation a sustainable process where economic, social, and environmental demands are met. Managing product and service-related business operations in manufacturing networks thus brings different challenges that cannot purely be resolved using traditional methods, and techniques. This book is an outcome of a European project funded by the European Commission, and performed by a dedicated R&D consortium comprised of some leading Research institutions and Industrial partners.

This thesis demonstrates the adaptation of existing techniques and principles towards enabling clean and precise measurements of biomolecules interacting with inorganic surfaces. In particular, it includes real-time measurement of serum proteins interacting with engineered nanomaterial. Making meaningful and unambiguous measurements has been an evolving problem in the field of biology and its various allied domains, primarily due to the complex nature of experiments and the large number of possible interferants. The subsequent quantification of interactions between biomolecules and inorganic surfaces solves pressing problems in the rapidly developing fields of lipidomics and nanomedicine.

This brief offers a valuable resource on principles of quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning and the related link-layer resource management techniques for high data-rate wireless networks. The primary emphasis is on protocol modeling and analysis. It introduces media access control (MAC) protocols, standards of wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area networks (WPANs), and wireless body area networks (WBANs), discussing their key technologies, applications, and deployment scenarios. The main analytical approaches and models for performance analysis of the fundamental resource scheduling mechanisms, including the contention-based, reservation-based, and hybrid MAC, are presented. To help readers understand and evaluate system performance, the brief contains a range of simulation results. In addition, a thorough bibliography provides an additional tool. This brief is an essential resource for engineers, researchers, students, and users of wireless networks.