Springer dez 2007 (728 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -This is Volume II of a two-volume introductory text in classical algebra. The text moves methodically with numerous examples and details so that readers with some basic knowledge of algebra can read it without difficulty. It is recommended either as a textbook for some particular algebraic topic or as a reference book for consultations in a selected fundamental branch of algebra. The book contains a wealth of material. Amongst the topics covered in Volume are the theory of ordered fields and Nullstellen Theorems. Known researcher Lorenz also includes the fundamentals of the theory of quadratic forms, of valuations, local fields and modules. What's more, the book contains some lesser known or nontraditional results - for instance, Tsen's results on the solubility of systems of polynomial equations with a sufficiently large number of indeterminates. 352 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Every process in physics is governed by selection rules that are the consequence of symmetry requirements. The beauty and strength of group theory resides in the transformation of many complex symmetry operations into a very simple linear algebra. This concise and class-tested book has been pedagogically tailored over 30 years MIT and 2 years at the University Federal of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. The approach centers on the conviction that teaching group theory in close connection with applications helps students to learn, understand and use it for their own needs. For this reason, the theoretical background is confined to the first 4 introductory chapters (6-8 classroom hours). From there, each chapter develops new theory while introducing applications so that the students can best retain new concepts, build on concepts learned the previous week, and see interrelations between topics as presented. Essential problem sets between the chapters also aid the retention of the new material and for the consolidation of material learned in previous chapters. The text and problem sets have proved a useful springboard for the application of the basic material presented here to topics in semiconductor physics, and the physics of carbon-based nanostructures. 582 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Every process in physics is governed by selection rules that are the consequence of symmetry requirements. The beauty and strength of group theory resides in the transformation of many complex symmetry operations into a very simple linear algebra. This concise and class-tested book has been pedagogically tailored over 30 years MIT and 2 years at the University Federal of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. The approach centers on the conviction that teaching group theory in close connection with applications helps students to learn, understand and use it for their own needs. For this reason, the theoretical background is confined to the first 4 introductory chapters (6-8 classroom hours). From there, each chapter develops new theory while introducing applications so that the students can best retain new concepts, build on concepts learned the previous week, and see interrelations between topics as presented. Essential problem sets between the chapters also aid the retention of the new material and for the consolidation of material learned in previous chapters. The text and problem sets have proved a useful springboard for the application of the basic material presented here to topics in semiconductor physics, and the physics of carbon-based nanostructures.…

Buch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Every process in physics is governed by selection rules that are the consequence of symmetry requirements. The beauty and strength of group theory resides in the transformation of many complex symmetry operations into a very simple linear algebra. This concise and class-tested book has been pedagogically tailored over 30 years MIT and 2 years at the University Federal of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. The approach centers on the conviction that teaching group theory in close connection with applications helps students to learn, understand and use it for their own needs. For this reason, the theoretical background is confined to the first 4 introductory chapters (6-8 classroom hours). From there, each chapter develops new theory while introducing applications so that the students can best retain new concepts, build on concepts learned the previous week, and see interrelations between topics as presented. Essential problem sets between the chapters also aid the retention of the new material and for the consolidation of material learned in previous chapters. The text and problem sets have proved a useful springboard for the application of the basic material presented here to topics in semiconductor physics, and the physics of carbon-based nanostructures.Springer-Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 582 pp. Englisch.…

Buch. Etat : Neu. Neuware - Every process in physics is governed by selection rules that are the consequence of symmetry requirements. The beauty and strength of group theory resides in the transformation of many complex symmetry operations into a very simple linear algebra. This concise and class-tested book has been pedagogically tailored over 30 years MIT and 2 years at the University Federal of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. The approach centers on the conviction that teaching group theory in close connection with applications helps students to learn, understand and use it for their own needs. For this reason, the theoretical background is confined to the first 4 introductory chapters (6-8 classroom hours). From there, each chapter develops new theory while introducing applications so that the students can best retain new concepts, build on concepts learned the previous week, and see interrelations between topics as presented. Essential problem sets between the chapters also aid the retention of the new material and for the consolidation of material learned in previous chapters. The text and problem sets have proved a useful springboard for the application of the basic material presented here to topics in semiconductor physics, and the physics of carbon-based nanostructures.…

Buch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -This book presents the state-of-the-art in simulation on supercomputers. Leading researchers present results achieved on systems of the Stuttgart High Performance Computing Center in 2007. The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering, with emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting results for both vector-based and microprocessor-based systems, the book allows comparison between performance levels and usability of various architectures. 676 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The State of the Universe annuals provide an annual astronomy review suitable for the popular science-level reader. The 2008 annual covers the year's astronomical news on topics beyond the Solar System, placing them in the context of the longer-term goals of astronomers and astrophysicists around the world. The book also includes web links for all major news stories, providing a bridge between the public news stories and the actual research web sites. 196 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Financial statements and information drawn from them confront us daily: in the media, in corporate annual reports, in the treasurer's reports for clubs or religious groups, in documents provided to employees and managers, as one considers alternative investments, in documents provided by homeowners' association and government agenciesVarious readers of a company's 'financial score' make decisions based on financial information: the company's managers devise actions to improve operations; investors buy or sell the corporation's securities; creditors decide how much to lend; customers judge the reliability of this supplier; potential employees decide whether to invest their careers in the company.If you are training to be an accountant, find another book. This book's objective is to increase your ability to draw useful information from financial statements, and thus to make better decisions-in both your personal life and your professional life. Studying this book should help you be a better manager. That is both its objective and its perspective.The book starts at square one; it assumes no prior knowledge on your part. To increase your financial literacy, you will learn the common nomenclature (but not esoteric jargon) used by accountants and financial experts. You will be equipped to ask insightful questions of experts, to engage them and your colleagues in thoughtful debates about financial and accounting issues, and to make better decisions.Table of Contents: The Balance Sheet / The Income Statement / Valuation / Timing / Capital Structure / Cash Flow / Evaluating with Ratios / Cost Accounting / Budgeting and Forecasting / Rules and Integrity / Appendix: Scorekeeping at Not-for-Profits 176 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -My Heavens! charts the progress of the author's own substantial observatory (with additional material from amateur constructors of large observatories elsewhere) from conception, through design, planning and construction, to using an observatory of the kind that all amateur astronomers would aspire to own.This book tells the 'warts and all' story of small beginnings in amateur astronomy, leading to the construction of a 'top of the range' observatory at a house on the edge of a country village between Oxford and London. The author is a qualified building surveyor, and looks at building the observatory from his own professional perspective. There were of course many errors, problems, technical and organizational difficulties along the way, and the author never shies away from admitting his mistakes - and in doing so he reduces the chances of others falling into the same traps. Comparisons are made with similar large projects in the USA, taking a look at the differences and similarities in planning and building regulations, and in construction methods on both sides of the Atlantic.Eventually an observatory materialized, set up to facilitate the taking of very high quality images of the deep sky on those special days of best seeing.The story doesn't end with the construction of the observatory, but goes on to describe the author's choice of equipment, setting it up, and his own techniques for obtaining superb astronomical images like the ones he shows in his book. 200 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This lecture book is an introduction to project management. It will be of use for engineering students working on project design in all engineering disciplines and will also be of high value to practicing engineers in the work force. Few engineering programs prepare students in methods of project design and configuration management used within industry and government.This book emphasizes teams throughout and includes coverage of an introduction to projectmanagement, project definition, researching intellectual property (patent search), project scope, idealizing and conceptualizing a design, converting product requirements to engineering specifications, project integration, project communicationsmanagement, and conducting design reviews. The overall objectives of the book are for the readers to understand and manage their project by employing the good engineering practice used by medical and other industries in design and development of medical devices, engineered products and systems. The goal is for the engineer and student to work well on large projects requiring a team environment, and to effectively communicate technical matters in both written documents and oral presentations. 136 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The field of brain imaging is developing at a rapid pace and has greatly advanced the areas of cognitive and clinical neuroscience. The availability of neuroimaging techniques, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic source imaging (MSI) has brought about breakthroughs in neuroscience. To obtain comprehensive information about the activity of the human brain, different analytical approaches should be complemented. Thus, in 'intermodal multimodality' imaging, great efforts have been made to combine the highest spatial resolution (MRI, fMRI) with the best temporal resolution (MEG or EEG). 'Intramodal multimodality' imaging combines various functional MRI techniques (e.g., fMRI, DTI, and/or morphometric/volumetric analysis). The multimodal approach is conceptually based on the combination of different noninvasive functional neuroimaging tools, their registration and cointegration. In particular, the combination of imaging applications that map different functional systems is useful, such as fMRI as a technique for the localization of cortical function and DTI as a technique for mapping of white matter fiber bundles or tracts. This booklet gives an insight into the wide field of multimodal imaging with respect to concepts, data acquisition, and postprocessing. Examples for intermodal and intramodal multimodality imaging are also demonstrated. Table of Contents: Introduction / Neurological Measurement Techniques and First Steps of Postprocessing / Coordinate Transformation / Examples for Multimodal Imaging / Clinical Aspects of Multimodal Imaging / References / Biography 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is an emerging field that has the potential to cause a great scientific and technological impact in the near future. Although new, this field is large and complex, with non-trivial relations to many different areas, such as image synthesis, computer vision, video and image processing, digital photography, special effects among others. For the above reasons,HDRI has been extensively researched over the past years and, consequently, the related scientific literature is vast. As an indication that the field is reaching maturity, tutorials and books on HDRI appeared. Moreover, this new resource has already reached interested practitioners in various application areas. In this book, we do not aim at covering the whole field of high dynamic range imaging and its applications, since it is a broad subject that is still evolving. Instead, our intent is to cover the basic principles behind HDRI and focus on one of the currently most important problems, both theoretically and practically. That is, the reconstruction of high dynamic range images from regular low dynamic range pictures. Table of Contents: Introduction / Digital Image / Imaging Devices and Calibration / HDR Reconstruction / HDRI Acquisition and Visualization / Tone Enhancement / References / Biography 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Spectral estimation is important in many fields including astronomy, meteorology, seismology, communications, economics, speech analysis, medical imaging, radar, sonar, and underwater acoustics. Most existing spectral estimation algorithms are devised for uniformly sampled complete-data sequences. However, the spectral estimation for data sequences with missing samples is also important in many applications ranging from astronomical time series analysis to synthetic aperture radar imaging with angular diversity. For spectral estimation in the missing-data case, the challenge is how to extend the existing spectral estimation techniques to deal with these missing-data samples. Recently, nonparametric adaptive filtering based techniques have been developed successfully for various missing-data problems. Collectively, these algorithms provide a comprehensive toolset for the missing-data problem based exclusively on the nonparametric adaptive filter-bank approaches, which are robust and accurate, and can provide high resolution and low sidelobes. In this book, we present these algorithms for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional spectral estimation problems. 108 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Engineers, Technology and Society presents topics intended to aid the practicing engineer in reflecting upon the nature and purpose of their own practice within the engineering profession and how that is related to and implicated in social, economic and political issues. The series will include external relations between engineering, economic systems and social and political practices, as well as power structures and working conditions within the organisation.In an increasingly competitive and hostile environment in which practicing engineers are forced to spend their lives fighting for higher profit margins, many engineers become despondent and often leave the profession just a few years after graduation. They do not feel they are engineering for those in need in the world but for a small minority who can pay. There are an increasing number of engineers in the workplace who feel dissatisfied with these issues but do not know where to begin to address them. It is hoped that these books will start a conversation in many parts of the world where diverse engineers are working.This introductory book of the series presents an overview of the key issues at stake. I consider how, as engineers, we might decide what is the right thing to do by exploring rights and notions of freedom and what these might mean in a world where we are, according to some, 'training for compliance'. I consider engineering in the past and how it has been used to contribute to social contexts in the Western world as well as in developing countries. I look at our responsibility as engineers to learn from the past to enhance our understanding and take appropriate action related to contemporary industrial development and globalization. Finally, I present a case study of my own engineering for others to critique. Practicing what you preach is never easy and living as a just engineer presents many challenges. As Ursula Franklin states clearly in her Massey lectures which I discuss in chapter 1, engineers have choices; it is up to us to ensure that we are aware of the way in which our engineering practice contributes to global social, economic and political issues so that we are able to make response - able choices. 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The text addresses the impact of globalization within engineering, particularly on working practices and prospects for creativity. It suggests that accepted norms of economic activity create enclosures and thresholds within the profession, which-as engineers increase their awareness (reflexivity)-will shape the future of engineering, and the values which underpin it. It is aimed at practicing engineers and those in training and is an introduction to the social and political context currently setting new challenges for the profession. 64 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Take one elephant and one man to the top of a tower and simultaneously drop. Which will hit the ground first You are a pilot of a jet fighter performing a high-speed loop. Will you pass out during the maneuver How can you simulate being an astronaut with your feet still firmly placed on planet Earth In the aerospace environment, human, animal, and plant physiology differs significantly from that on Earth, and this book provides reasons for some of these changes. The challenges encountered by pilots in their missions can have implications on the health and safety of not only themselves but others. Knowing the effects of hypergravity on the human body during high-speed flight led to the development of human centrifuges. We also need to better understand the physiological responses of living organisms in space. It is therefore necessary to simulate weightlessness through the use of specially adapted equipment, such as clinostats, tilt tables, and body suspension devices. Each of these ideas, and more, is addressed in this review of the physical concepts related to space flights, microgravity, and hypergravity simulations. Basic theories, such as Newton's law and Einstein's principle are explained, followed by a look at the biomedical effects of experiments performed in space life sciences institutes, universities, and space agencies. Table of Contents: General Concepts in Physics - Definition of Physical Terms / The Effects of Hypergravity on Biomedical Experiments / The Effects of Microgravity on Biomedical Experiments / References 80 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book is intended for anyone trying to learn the fundamentals of computer programming. The chapters lead the reader through the various steps required for writing a program, introducing the MATLABr® constructs in the process. MATLABr® is used to teach programming because it has a simple programming environment. It has a low initial overhead which allows the novice programmer to begin programming immediately and allows the users to easily debug their programs. This is especially useful for people who have a 'mental block' about computers. Although MATLABr® is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables the user to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran, the author shows that it can also be used as a programming learning tool for novices. There are a number of exercises at the end of each chapter which should help users become comfortable with the language. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The application of mathematical analysis to wireless networks has met with limited success, due to the complexity of mobility and traffic models, coupled with the dynamic topology and the unpredictability of link quality that characterize such networks. The ability to model individual, independent decision makers whose actions potentially affect all other decision makers makes game theory particularly attractive to analyze the performance of ad hoc networks.Game theory is a field of applied mathematics that describes and analyzes interactive decision situations. It consists of a set of analytical tools that predict the outcome of complex interactions among rational entities, where rationality demands a strict adherence to a strategy based on perceived or measured results. In the early to mid-1990's, game theory was applied to networking problems including flow control, congestion control, routing and pricing of Internet services. More recently, there has been growing interest in adopting game-theoretic methods to model today's leading communications and networking issues, including power control and resource sharing in wireless and peer-to-peer networks.This work presents fundamental results in game theory and their application to wireless communications and networking. We discuss normal-form, repeated, and Markov games with examples selected from the literature. We also describe ways in which learning can be modeled in game theory, with direct applications to the emerging field of cognitive radio. Finally, we discuss challenges and limitations in the application of game theory to the analysis of wireless systems. We do not assume familiarity with game theory. We introduce major game theoretic models and discuss applications of game theory including medium access, routing, energy-efficient protocols, and others. We seek to provide the reader with a foundational understanding of the current research on game theory applied to wireless communications and networking. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The senses of human hearing and sight are often taken for granted by many individuals until they are lost or adversely affected. Millions of individuals suffer from partial or total hearing loss and millions of others have impaired vision. The technologies associated with augmenting these two human senses range from simple hearing aids to complex cochlear implants, and from (now commonplace) intraocular lenses to complex artificial corneas. The areas of human hearing and human sight will be described in detail with the associated array of technologies also described. 68 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Immediately following the Second World War, between 1947 and 1955, several classic papers quantified the fundamentals of human speech information processing and recognition. In 1947 French and Steinberg published their classic study on the articulation index. In 1948 Claude Shannon published his famous work on the theory of information. In 1950 Fletcher and Galt published their theory of the articulation index, a theory that Fletcher had worked on for 30 years, which integrated his classic works on loudness and speech perception with models of speech intelligibility. In 1951 George Miller then wrote the first book Language and Communication, analyzing human speech communication with Claude Shannon's just published theory of information. Finally in 1955 George Miller published the first extensive analysis of phone decoding, in the form of confusion matrices, as a function of the speech-to-noise ratio. This work extended the Bell Labs' speech articulation studies with ideas from Shannon's Information theory. Both Miller and Fletcher showed that speech, as a code, is incredibly robust to mangling distortions of filtering and noise. Regrettably much of this early work was forgotten. While the key science of information theory blossomed, other than the work of George Miller, it was rarely applied to aural speech research. The robustness of speech, which is the most amazing thing about the speech code, has rarely been studied. It is my belief (i.e., assumption) that we can analyze speech intelligibility with the scientific method. The quantitative analysis of speech intelligibility requires both science and art. The scientific component requires an error analysis of spoken communication, which depends critically on the use of statistics, information theory, and psychophysical methods. The artistic component depends on knowing how to restrict the problem in such a way that progress may be made. It is critical to tease out the relevant from the irrelevant and dig for the key issues. This will focus us on the decoding of nonsense phonemes with no visual component, which have been mangled by filtering and noise. This monograph is a summary and theory of human speech recognition. It builds on and integrates the work of Fletcher, Miller, and Shannon. The long-term goal is to develop a quantitative theory for predicting the recognition of speech sounds. In Chapter 2 the theory is developed for maximum entropy (MaxEnt) speech sounds, also called nonsense speech. In Chapter 3, context is factored in. The book is largely reflective, and quantitative, with a secondary goal of providing an historical context, along with the many deep insights found in these early works. 140 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The biomedical engineering senior capstone design course is probably the most important course taken by undergraduate biomedical engineering students. It provides them with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in previous years; develop their communication (written, oral, and graphical), interpersonal (teamwork, conflict management, and negotiation), project management, and design skills; and learn about the product development process. It also provides students with an understanding of the economic, financial, legal, and regulatory aspects of the design, development, and commercialization of medical technology. The capstone design experience can change the way engineering students think about technology, society, themselves, and the world around them. It gives them a short preview of what it will be like to work as an engineer. It can make them aware of their potential to make a positive contribution to health care throughout the world and generate excitement for and pride in the engineering profession. Working on teams helps students develop an appreciation for the many ways team members, with different educational, political, ethnic, social, cultural, and religious backgrounds, look at problems. They learn to value diversity and become more willing to listen to different opinions and perspectives. Finally, they learn to value the contributions of nontechnical members of multidisciplinary project teams. Ideas for how to organize, structure, and manage a senior capstone design course for biomedical and other engineering students are presented here. These ideas will be helpful to faculty who are creating a new design course, expanding a current design program to more than the senior year, or just looking for some ideas for improving an existing course. Contents: I. Purpose, Goals, and Benefits / Why Our Students Need a Senior Capstone Design Course / Desired Learning Outcomes / Changing Student Attitudes, Perceptions, and Awarenesss / Senior Capstone Design Courses and Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Outcomes / II. Designing a Course to Meet Student Needs / Course Management and Required Deliverables / Projects and Project Teams / Lecture Topics / Intellectual Property Confidentiality Issues in Design Projects / III. Enhancing the Capstone Design Experience / Industry Involvement in Capstone Design Courses / Developing Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy / Providing Students with a Clinical Perspective / Service Learning Opportunities / Collaboration with Industrial Design Students / National Student Design Competitions / Organizational Support for Senior Capstone Design Courses / IV. Meeting the Changing Needs of Future Engineers / Capstone Design Courses and the Engineer of 2020 84 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In this work, the reliability of HfO2 (hafnium oxide) with poly gate and dual metal gate electrode (Ru-Ta alloy, Ru) was investigated. Hard breakdown and soft breakdown, particularly the Weibull slopes, were studied under constant voltage stress. Dynamic stressing has also been used. It was found that the combination of trapping and detrapping contributed to the enhancement of the projected lifetime. The results from the polarity dependence studies showed that the substrate injection exhibited a shorter projected lifetime and worse soft breakdown behavior, compared to the gate injection. The origin of soft breakdown (first breakdown) was studied and the results suggested that the soft breakdown may be due to one layer breakdown in the bilayer structure (HfO2/SiO2: 4 nm/4 nm). Low Weibull slope was in part attributed to the lower barrier height of HfO2 at the interface layer. Interface layer optimization was conducted in terms of mobility, swing, and short channel effect using deep submicron MOSFET devices. 104 pp. Englisch. …

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book/lecture is intended for a college freshman level class in problem solving, where the particular problems deal with electrical and electronic circuits. It can also be used in a junior/senior level class in high school to teach circuit analysis. The basic problem-solving paradigm used in this book is that of resolution of a problem into its component parts. The reader learns how to take circuits of varying levels of complexity using this paradigm. The problem-solving exercises also familiarize the reader with a number of different circuit components including resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, and operational amplifiers and their use in practical circuits. The reader should come away with both an understanding of how to approach complex problems and a 'feel' for electrical and electronic circuits. 148 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Breath sounds have long been important indicators of respiratory health and disease. Acoustical monitoring of respiratory sounds has been used by researchers for various diagnostic purposes. A few decades ago, physicians relied on their hearing to detect any symptomatic signs in respiratory sounds of their patients. However, with the aid of computer technology and digital signal processing techniques in recent years, breath sound analysis has drawn much attention because of its diagnostic capabilities. Computerized respiratory sound analysis can now quantify changes in lung sounds; make permanent records of the measurements made and produce graphical representations that help with the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from lung diseases. Digital signal processing techniques have been widely used to derive characteristics features of the lung sounds for both diagnostic and assessment of treatment purposes. Although the analytical techniques of signal processing are largely independent of the application, interpretation of their results on biological data, i.e. respiratory sounds, requires substantial understanding of the involved physiological system. This lecture series begins with an overview of the anatomy and physiology related to human respiratory system, and proceeds to advanced research in respiratory sound analysis and modeling, and their application as diagnostic aids. Although some of the used signal processing techniques have been explained briefly, the intention of this book is not to describe the analytical methods of signal processing but the application of them and how the results can be interpreted. The book is written for engineers with university level knowledge of mathematics and digital signal processing. 68 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The replacement or augmentation of failing human organs with artificial devices and systems has been an important element in health care for several decades. Such devices as kidney dialysis to augment failing kidneys, artificial heart valves to replace failing human valves, cardiac pacemakers to reestablish normal cardiac rhythm, and heart assist devices to augment a weakened human heart have assisted millions of patients in the previous 50 years and offers lifesaving technology for tens of thousands of patients each year. Significant advances in these biomedical technologies have continually occurred during this period, saving numerous lives with cutting edge technologies. Each of these artificial organ systems will be described in detail in separate sections of this lecture. 76 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The globally averaged surface temperature of the Earth has increased during the past century by about 0.7°C. Most of the increase can be attributed to the greenhouse effect, the increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide that is emitted when fossil fuels are burned to produce energy.The book begins with the important distinction between weather and climate, followed by data showing how carbon dioxide has increased and the incontrovertible evidence that it is caused by burning fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, and natural gas). I also address the inevitable skepticism that global warming arouses and offer a number of responses to the global warming skeptics. After dealing with the skeptics, I analyze both the current and future effects of global warming. These future effects are based on scenarios or 'storylines' put forth by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. In closing, I address the controversial (and grim) suggestion that we have already passed the 'tipping point,' which is the time after which, regardless of our future actions, global warming will cause considerable hardship on human society. I intend this book to be approachable for all concerned citizens, but especially students of the sciences and engineering who will soon be in a position to make a difference in the areas of energy and the environment. I have tried to frame the debate in terms of what the engineering community must do to help combat global warming. We have no choice but to think in terms of global environmental constraints as we design new power plants, factories, automobiles, buildings, and homes. The best thing for scientists to do is to present what we know, clearly separating what is known from what is suspected, in a non-apocalyptic manner. If matters are clearly and passionately presented to the public, we must be prepared to accept the will of the people. This presents the scientific community with an enormous responsibility, perhaps unlike any we have had in the past.Contents: Weather and Climate (and a Little History) / Are the Concentrations of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Increasing / The Greenhouse Effect and the Evidence of Global Warming / The Skeptics: Are Their Doubts Scientifically Valid / Impacts: The ''So What'' Question / The Bottom Line 120 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Wind energy is now the world's fastest growing energy source. In the past 10 years, the global wind energy capacity has increased rapidly. The installed global wind power capacity has grown to 47.317 GW from about 3.5 GW in 1994. The global wind power industry installed 7976 MW in 2004, an increase in total installed generating capacity of 20%. The phenomenal growth in the wind energy industry can be attributed to the concerns to the environmental issues, and research and development of innovative cost-reducing technologies. Denmark is a leading producer of wind turbines in the world, with an almost 40% share of the total worldwide production. The wind energy industry is a giant contributor to the Danish economy. In Denmark, the 3117 MW (in 2004) wind power is supplied by approximately 5500 wind turbines. Individuals and cooperatives own around 80% of the capacity. Denmark will increase the percentage of energy produced from wind to 25% by 2008, and aims for a 50% wind share of energy production by 2025. Wind technology has improved significantly over the past two decades, and almost all of the aspects related to the wind energy technology are still under active research and development. However, this monograph will introduce some basics of the electrical and power electronic aspects involved with modern wind generation systems, including modern power electronics and converters, electric generation and conversion systems for both fixed speed and variable speed systems, control techniques for wind turbines, configurations of wind farms, and the issues of integrating wind turbines into power systems. P 72 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In the present work, the growing awareness in engineering of the profession's responsibility towards the environment and the poor is considered. The following approach is taken: a brief overview of the issues of poverty particularly in the U.S. and the deterioration of the natural world with a focus on the Arctic is provided. Case studies involving New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the status of polar bears in a time of shrinking Arctic ice cover are detailed. Recent developments in engineering related to the issues of poverty and the environment are discussed. A new paradigm for engineering based on the works of Leonardo Boff and Thomas Berry, one that places an important emphasis upon a community, is explored. 84 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -An important merit of the MPEG-4 video standard is that it not only provided tools and algorithms for enhancing the compression efficiency of existing MPEG-2 and H.263 standards but also contributed key innovative solutions for new multimedia applications such as real-time video streaming to PCs and cell phones over Internet and wireless networks, interactive services, and multimedia access. Many of these solutions are currently used in practice or have been important stepping-stones for new standards and technologies. In this book, we do not aim at providing a complete reference for MPEG-4 video as many excellent references on the topic already exist. Instead, we focus on three topics that we believe formed key innovations of MPEG-4 video and that will continue to serve as an inspiration and basis for new, emerging standards, products, and technologies. The three topics highlighted in this book are object-based coding and scalability, Fine Granularity Scalability, and error resilience tools. This book is aimed at engineering students as well as professionals interested in learning about these MPEG-4 technologies for multimedia streaming and interaction. Finally, it is not aimed as a substitute or manual for the MPEG-4 standard, but rather as a tutorial focused on the principles and algorithms underlying it. 88 pp. Englisch.…

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The recognition of humans and their activities from video sequences is currently a very active area of research because of its applications in video surveillance, design of realistic entertainment systems, multimedia communications, and medical diagnosis. In this lecture, we discuss the use of face and gait signatures for human identification and recognition of human activities from video sequences. We survey existing work and describe some of the more well-known methods in these areas. We also describe our own research and outline future possibilities. In the area of face recognition, we start with the traditional methods for image-based analysis and then describe some of the more recent developments related to the use of video sequences, 3D models, and techniques for representing variations of illumination. We note that the main challenge facing researchers in this area is the development of recognition strategies that are robust to changes due to pose, illumination, disguise, and aging. Gait recognition is a more recent area of research in video understanding, although it has been studied for a long time in psychophysics and kinesiology. The goal for video scientists working in this area is to automatically extract the parameters for representation of human gait. We describe some of the techniques that have been developed for this purpose, most of which are appearance based. We also highlight the challenges involved in dealing with changes in viewpoint and propose methods based on image synthesis, visual hull, and 3D models. In the domain of human activity recognition, we present an extensive survey of various methods that have been developed in different disciplines like artificial intelligence, image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision. We then outline our method for modeling complex activities using 2D and 3D deformable shape theory. The wide application of automatic human identification and activity recognition methods will require the fusion of different modalities like face and gait, dealing with the problems of pose and illumination variations, and accurate computation of 3D models. The last chapter of this lecture deals with these areas of future research. 180 pp. Englisch. …