Not consciousness, but knowledge of consciousness: that is what this book communicates in a fascinating way. Consciousness is the thread that links the disappearing gorilla with the octopus suffering from a stomach ache, and the person under anaesthetic with a new born baby. How these are different, yet illustrative of consciousness, is revealed in this accessible book by one of the world's leading thinkers and neural computing engineers. Igor Aleksander addresses this enigmatic topic, by making us understand the difference between what happens to us when thinking consciously and when sort of thinking when dreaming or when not conscious at all, as when sleeping, anaesthetised or knocked out by a blow on the head. The book also tackles the larger topics of free will, choice, God, Freud (what is 'the unconscious'?), inherited traits and individuality, while exploding the myths and misinformation of many earlier mind-hijackers. He shares the journey towards building a new model of consciousness, with an invitation to understand 5 axioms or basic ideas, which we easily recognise in ourselves.
Over 70 recipes to get you started with popular Python libraries based on the principal concepts of data visualization About This Book Learn how to set up an optimal Python environment for data visualization Understand how to import, clean and organize your data Determine different approaches to data visualization and how to choose the most appropriate for your needs Who This Book Is For If you already know about Python programming and want to understand data, data formats, data visualization, and how to use Python to visualize data then this book is for you. What You Will Learn Introduce yourself to the essential tooling to set up your working environment Explore your data using the capabilities of standard Python Data Library and Panda Library Draw your first chart and customize it Use the most popular data visualization Python libraries Make 3D visualizations mainly using mplot3d Create charts with images and maps Understand the most appropriate charts to describe your data Know the matplotlib hidden gems Use plot.ly to share your visualization online In Detail Python Data Visualization Cookbook will progress the reader from the point of installing and setting up a Python environment for data manipulation and visualization all the way to 3D animations using Python libraries. Readers will benefit from over 60 precise and reproducible recipes that will guide the reader towards a better understanding of data concepts and the building blocks for subsequent and sometimes more advanced concepts. Python Data Visualization Cookbook starts by showing how to set up matplotlib and the related libraries that are required for most parts of the book, before moving on to discuss some of the lesser-used diagrams and charts such as Gantt Charts or Sankey diagrams. Initially it uses simple plots and charts to more advanced ones, to make it easy to understand for readers. As the readers will go through the book, they will get to know about the 3D diagrams and animations. Maps are irreplaceable for displaying geo-spatial data, so this book will also show how to build them. In the last chapter, it includes explanation on how to incorporate matplotlib into different environments, such as a writing system, LaTeX, or how to create Gantt charts using Python. Style and approach A step-by-step recipe based approach to data visualization. The topics are explained sequentially as cookbook recipes consisting of a code snippet and the resulting visualization.
Evenki is one of nine Tungusic languages spoken in Siberia and Northern China. This book gives the first ever complete description of all this language's linguistic domain. Evenki is remarkable both for the vast area where it is spoken - from Western Siberia through the Amur region to the shores of the Arctic Ocean to Northern China - and for its immense number of dialects and sub-dialects.
Grubbing on pierogies at a a Russian deli... Pounding vodka shots at Moscow's hottest dance club... Cheering for the local hockey team at the stadium... Drop the textbook formality and chat with the locals in Russia's everyday language.
In 1939, a ten-year-old Igor Golomstock accompanied his mother, a medical doctor, to the vast network of labour camps in the Russian Far East. While she tended patients, he was minded by assorted 'trusty' prisoners – hardened criminals – and returned to Moscow an almost feral adolescent, fluent in obscene prison jargon but intellectually ignorant. Despite this dubious start he became a leading art historian and co-author (with his close friend Andrey Sinyavsky) of the first, deeply controversial, monograph on Picasso published in the Soviet Union. His writings on his 43 years in the Soviet Union offer a rare insight into life as a quietly subversive art historian and the post-Stalin dissident community. In vivid prose Golomstock shows the difficulties of publishing, curating and talking about Western art in Soviet Russia and, with self-deprecating humour, the absurd tragicomedy of life for the Moscow intelligentsia during Khruschev's thaw and Brezhnev's stagnation. He also offers a unique personal perspective on the 1966 trial of Sinyavsky and Yuri Daniel, widely considered the end of Khruschev's liberalism and the spark that ignited the Soviet dissident movement. In 1972 he was given 'permission' to leave the Soviet Union, but only after paying a 'ransom' of more than 25 years' salary, nominally intended to reimburse the state for his education. A remarkable collection of artists, scholars and intellectuals in Russia and the West, including Roland Penrose, came together to help him pay this astronomical sum. His memoirs of life once in the UK offer an insider's view of the BBC Russian Service and a penetrating analysis of the notorious feud between Sinyavsky and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Nominated for the Russian Booker Prize on its publication in Russian in 2014, The Ransomed Dissident opens a window onto the life of a remarkable man: a dissident of uncompromising moral integrity and with an outstanding gift for friendship.
This book presents the general theory and basic methods of linear and nonlinear stochastic systems (StS) i.e. dynamical systems described by stochastic finite- and infinite-dimensional differential, integral, integrodifferential, difference etc equations. The general StS theory is based on the equations for characteristic functions and functionals. The book outlines StS structural theory, including direct numerical methods, methods of normalization, equivalent linearization and parametrization of one- and multi-dimensional distributions, based on moments, quasimoments, semi-invariants and orthogonal expansions. Special attention is paid to methods based on canonical expansions and integral canonical representations. About 500 exercises and problems are provided. The authors also consider applications in mathematics and mechanics, physics and biology, control and information processing, operations research and finance.
This book presents an innovative approach to linguistic semantics, starting from the idea that language is a mechanism for the expression of linguistic meanings as particular surface forms (texts). Semantics is that system of rules that ensures a transition from a Semantic Representation of the meaning of a family of synonymous sentences to the Deep-Syntactic Representation of a particular sentence. Framed in terms of Meaning-Text linguistics, this volume discusses the Deep-Syntactic Representation and the transition from Semantics to Deep-Syntax via Semantic paraphrasing (the equivalence amongst Semantic Representations), Deep-Syntactic paraphrasing (the equivalence amongst Deep-Syntactic Representations), and the passage between the two. A chapter is dedicated to the Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary, a semantically based and co-occurrence-centered lexicon. Reflecting the author’s life-long dedication to semantics and syntax, this book is a paradigm-shifting contribution to language studies whose originality and daring will make it essential reading for linguists, anthropologists, semioticians, and computational linguists.
In the study of mathematical models that arise in the context of concrete - plications, the following two questions are of fundamental importance: (i) we- posedness of the model, including existence and uniqueness of solutions; and (ii) qualitative properties of solutions. A positive answer to the ?rst question, - ing of prime interest on purely mathematical grounds, also provides an important test of the viability of the model as a description of a given physical phenomenon. An answer or insight to the second question provides a wealth of information about the model, hence about the process it describes. Of particular interest are questions related to long-time behavior of solutions. Such an evolution property cannot be v- i?ed empirically, thus any in a-priori information about the long-time asymptotics can be used in predicting an ultimate long-time response and dynamical behavior of solutions. In recent years, this set of investigations has attracted a great deal of attention. Consequent efforts have then resulted in the creation and infusion of new methods and new tools that have been responsible for carrying out a successful an- ysis of long-time behavior of several classes of nonlinear PDEs.
This monograph discusses cosmological inflation and provides exact and slow roll solutions. It also reviews new and advanced approaches of exact solutions construction with canonical scalar fields, including application of generating functions methods, the superpotential and many others. This book presents the reduction of the Friedmann equation to the Abel equation, which is a very useful tool in cosmology. It offers new solutions and discusses its properties.Additionally, it touches upon the role of phantom scalar field cosmology and analyzes phantonical models. It describes brane cosmology with scalar fields, providing exact solutions construction using the superpotential method as well as Darboux transformations.This book provides detailed calculations throughout.
Explore the main algebraic structures and number systems that play a central role across the field of mathematics Algebra and number theory are two powerful branches of modern mathematics at the forefront of current mathematical research, and each plays an increasingly significant role in different branches of mathematics, from geometry and topology to computing and communications. Based on the authors' extensive experience within the field, Algebra and Number Theory has an innovative approach that integrates three disciplines—linear algebra, abstract algebra, and number theory—into one comprehensive and fluid presentation, facilitating a deeper understanding of the topic and improving readers' retention of the main concepts. The book begins with an introduction to the elements of set theory. Next, the authors discuss matrices, determinants, and elements of field theory, including preliminary information related to integers and complex numbers. Subsequent chapters explore key ideas relating to linear algebra such as vector spaces, linear mapping, and bilinear forms. The book explores the development of the main ideas of algebraic structures and concludes with applications of algebraic ideas to number theory. Interesting applications are provided throughout to demonstrate the relevance of the discussed concepts. In addition, chapter exercises allow readers to test their comprehension of the presented material. Algebra and Number Theory is an excellent book for courses on linear algebra, abstract algebra, and number theory at the upper-undergraduate level. It is also a valuable reference for researchers working in different fields of mathematics, computer science, and engineering as well as for individuals preparing for a career in mathematics education.
Part of a series which provides autobiographical studies by individuals who are among contemporary leaders in the management discipline. Essays explore their experiences, and the factors and forces influencing their professional and personal development. Bibliographies of their work are included.
Impossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness has been written to satisfy the curiosity each and every one of us has about our own consciousness. It takes the view that the neurons in our heads are the source of consciousness and attempts to explain how this happens. Although it talks of neural networks, it explains what they are and what they do, in such a way that anyone may understand.This book is also a story. A story of a land where people think that they are automata without much in the way of consciousness, a story of cormorants and cliffs by the sea, a story of what it might be like to be a conscious machine…
My "Kaleidoscope" is , indeed, a patchy and complicated picture:some stories are tragic, some nostalgic,some funny ,others just offer food for thought. This is what life offers us every day, and this is what we should regard without fear or prejudice,each episode being a precious lesson , a reminder,gentle or harsh at times,of what we are and what we did (or did not do),be it the despair of a man, savouring his last love and torturing himself to extinction with doubt,suspicion and hopelessness ;or the boy's" love at first sight" gaffe ;or hypocrisy of self-righteous Christians;or the unusual for our deceitful times integrity and honesty of a Chinese young man, who prefers returning to his homophobic homeland to seeking political asylum in the USA at the cost of breaking his promise;or the struggle of a very young boy to preserve his unique and pure self in the nightmarish Communist atmosphere;or the trials of an American teacher in Taiwan... As is the case with my previous collection of short stories,"In the Battle",none of my "Kaleidoscope"is mere fiction.All stories are true and the names have just been slightly changed or omitted altogether.Also, as in my previous book,the narrator is not to be identified as a writer. Peer into the intricate pattern of my "Kaleidoscope", grow into it, compare it with your own experience, and you will understand that all over the world, be it Taiwan,Russia or the USA, people struggle for the same rights, look for the same happiness, encounter the same problems.Though, the problems are the same, the solutions can be very very different... Like my great literary predecessor in the realm of American belle lettres,Vladimir Nabokov,I believe that in creative writing ,HOW is much more important that WHAT,so, I tried to master my style, and you, my patient and, hopefully, benevolent,reader,are to be my literary judge. I will be thankful for any critique or comment that you choose to send me.
In order to create a living character on the stage, the actor needs more than masterful technique. He must work on the play in a way that will enable him to understand the meaning of each of the roles in it, and the nature of the relations between these roles. Stanislavsky developed his method of working on the play and the role over many years, but because it was constantly being modified and improved, only fragments of the method were ever recorded. Now Irina and Igor Levin have systematized the method, clearly setting forth its principles and demonstrating precisely how they are put to use. Using the complete text of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and breaking it into individual "events;" they take the reader through each situation in the play, exploring the motivations and feelings of the characters. The reader emerges with a fine understanding of the play and its roles, and with a method that can be used successfully to analyze any drama. "An excellent book, highly useful for actors and directors both in its principles and in its detailed analyses of text and subtext."—Nicholas Rudall, Court Theatre.
The book is dedicated to linguistic morphology and it contains a sketch of a complete morphological theory, centered around a discussion of fundamental concepts such as morph vs. morpheme, inflectional category, voice, grammatical case, agreement vs. government, suppletion, relationships between linguistic signs, etc.: the hottest issues in modern linguistics! The book introduces rigorous and clear concepts necessary to describe morphological phenomena of natural languages. Among other things, it offers logical calculi of possible grammemes in a given category. The presentation is developed in a typological perspective, so that linguistic data from a large variety of languages are described and analyzed (about 100 typologically very different languages). The main method is deductive: the concepts proposed in Aspects of the Theory of Morphology are based on a small set of indefinibilia and each concept is defined in terms of these indefinibilia and/or other concepts defined previously; as a result, logical calculi can be constructed (similar to Mendeleev's Periodical Table of Elements in chemistry). Then the concept is applied to the actual linguistic data to demonstrate its validity and advantages. Thus, Aspects of the Theory of Morphology combines metalinguistic endeavor (a system of concepts for morphology) with typological and descriptive orientation. It reaches out to all students of language, including the border fields and applications.
The authors consider abstract nonlinear second order evolution equations with a nonlinear damping. Questions related to long time behavior, existence and structure of global attractors are studied. Particular emphasis is put on dynamics which--in addition to nonlinear dissipation-- have noncompact semilinear terms and whose energy may not be necessarily decreasing. For such systems the authors first develop a general theory at the abstract level. They then apply the general theoryto nonlinear wave and plate equations exhibiting the aforementioned characteristics and are able to provide new results pertaining to several open problems in the area of structure and properties of global attractors arising in this class of PDE dynamics.
This book shows new directions in group theory motivated by computer science. It reflects the transition from geometric group theory to group theory of the 21st century that has strong connections to computer science. Now that geometric group theory is drifting further and further away from group theory to geometry, it is natural to look for new tools and new directions in group theory which are present.
This book tells you everything you need to know about international construction: the companies, their markets, the types of projects they build, how they compete and operate and how it affects us all. It paints a comprehensive portrait of an overlooked global business that generates a major portion of the GDP in every developed nation. As with any mature sector, countries make efforts to export their expertise, but the competition in construction is fierce, and the risks are many. Only the leanest and meanest survive. What, then, does it take to win? Most writing on construction focuses at the project-management level or even more narrowly at the level of technical performance. This book presents the big picture; it tells you what successful international construction companies do to stay in the game and thrive. The book examines international construction through three lenses. The first is theory. The body of existing knowledge on construction is here brought together, condensed and explained. The second are the actors. The companies that lead the way in global construction are showcased, and the features that make countries desirable hosts are appraised. Finally, what is it that firms actually do? This last part delves into the various strategic approaches taken by 60 construction firms in carving out and defending an overseas market niche. The insights provide guidance on how global construction companies develop competitive advantage and stay resilient in the face of a mercurial global economy. These lessons will be of interest to the student and manager alike.
The book is dedicated to the Ionian Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean. The encyclopedia contains about 600 articles on the hydrographic and geographic objects, hydrological features of the sea, biological resources, as well as administrative-territorial units of the Ionian countries. The most significant natural objects like islands, peninsulas, bays, rivers, mountains, their geographical peculiarities are briefly described as well as economy, culture and history, cities, ports, international agreements, research institutions, activities of outstanding scientists, researchers, travelers are presented in the publication. The chronology of the main historical events that have become significant landmarks in the history of discovery and exploration of the Ionian Sea from the 31 B.C. to the present day is given.
Provides an introduction to the applications, theory, and algorithms of linear and nonlinear optimization. The emphasis is on practical aspects - discussing modern algorithms, as well as the influence of theory on the interpretation of solutions or on the design of software. The book includes several examples of realistic optimization models that address important applications. The succinct style of this second edition is punctuated with numerous real-life examples and exercises, and the authors include accessible explanations of topics that are not often mentioned in textbooks, such as duality in nonlinear optimization, primal-dual methods for nonlinear optimization, filter methods, and applications such as support-vector machines. The book is designed to be flexible. It has a modular structure, and uses consistent notation and terminology throughout. It can be used in many different ways, in many different courses, and at many different levels of sophistication.
This text is an advancement of the theory of vibration protection of mechanical systems with lumped and distributed parameters. The book offers various concepts and methods of solving vibration protection problems, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different methods, and the fields of their effective applications. Fundamental approaches of vibration protection, which are considered in this book, are the passive, parametric and optimal active vibration protection. The passive vibration protection is based on vibration isolation, vibration damping and dynamic absorbers. Parametric vibration protection theory is based on the Shchipanov-Luzin invariance principle. Optimal active vibration protection theory is based on the Pontryagin principle and the Krein moment method. The book also contains special topics such as suppression of vibrations at the source of their occurrence and the harmful influence of vibrations on humans.“p> Numerous examples, which illustrate the theoretical ideas of each chapter, are included. This book is intended for graduate students and engineers. It is assumed that a reader has working knowledge of theory of vibrations, differential equations, andcomplex analysis. About the Authors. Igor A Karnovsky, Ph.D., Dr. Sci., is a specialist in structural analysis, theory of vibration and optimal control of vibration. He has 40 years of experience in research, teaching and consulting in this field, and is the author of more than 70 published scientific papers, including two books in Structural Analysis (published with Springer in 2010-2012) and three handbooks in Structural Dynamics (published with McGraw Hill in 2001-2004). He also holds a number of vibration-control-related patents. Evgeniy Lebed, Ph.D., is a specialist in applied mathematics and engineering. He has 10 years of experience in research, teaching and consulting in this field. The main sphere of his research interests are qualitative theory of differential equations, integral transforms and frequency-domain analysis with application to image and signal processing. He is the author of 15 published scientific papers and a US patent (2015).
The 13th century Secret History of the Mongols, covering the great Činggis Qan’s (?1162-1227) ancestry and life, a literary monument of first magnitude. Introduction, full translation and commentary. The Secret History of the Mongols has been selected by Choice as Outstanding Academic Title (2005). The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004153639).
This Handbook is intended as a desk reference for researchers, students and engineers working in various areas of solid mechanics and quantitative materials science. It contains a broad range of elasticity solutions. In particular, it covers the following topics: -Basic equations in various coordinate systems, -Green's functions for isotropic and anisotropic solids, -Cracks in two- and three-dimensional solids, -Eshelby's problems and related results, -Stress concentrations at inhomogeneities, -Contact problems, -Thermoelasticity. The solutions have been collected from a large number of monographs and research articles. Some of the presented results were obtained only recently and are not easily available. All solutions have been thoroughly checked and transformed to a userfriendly form.
The chemical properties of superoxide ion, its biological role, and the role of other oxygen radicals which arise as a result of its transformations are contained in this text. In Volume I the principal reactions of superoxide ion, including protonation reactions with proton donors, nucleophilic reactions with esters, alkyl halides and other compounds, electron transfer reactions with quinones and metal complexes, are described.
The monograph presents the Meaning-Text approach applied to the domain of syntax from a typological angle; it deals with several long-standing syntactic problems on the basis of a dependency description. Its content can be presented in five parts + an Introduction: The Introduction explains the architecture of the book and sketches the Meaning-Text linguis-tic model, underlying the subsequent discussion. I. Surface-syntactic relations in the languages of the world, with special studies of subjects and objects. II. Grammatical voice in the dependency framework: the “passive” construction in Chinese. III. The relative clause: a calculus and analysis of possible types; the pseudo-relative (“headless”) clause. IV. Binary conjunctions (such as IF ..., THEN ...), free indefinite pronouns ([He went] nobody knows where), and syntactic idioms. V. Word order: linearization of dependency structures. The monograph offers a new perspective in syntactic studies. It is strongly typology-oriented (using the data from typologically diverse languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Basque, Georgian, etc.) and based on a system of rigorous definitions of the notions involved, which ensures a link with computational linguistics and Natural Language Processing
The influence of different gomomorphic images on the structure of a group is one of the most important and natural problems of group theory. The problem of describing a group with all its gomomorphic images known, i.e. reconstructing the whole thing using its reflections, seems especially natural and promising. This theme has a history that is almost a half-century long. The authors of this book present well-established results as well as newer, contemporary achievements in this area from the common integral point of view. This view is based on the implementation of module theory for solving group problems. Evidently, this approach requires investigation of some specific types of modules: infinite simple modules and just infinite modules (note that every infinite noetherian module has either an infinite simple factor-module or a just infinite factor-module). This book will therefore be useful for group theorists as well as ring and module theorists. Also, the level, style, and presentation make the book easily accessible to graduate students.
Positioning itself at the common boundaries of several disciplines, this work provides new perspectives on modern nanoscale problems where fundamental science meets technology and computer modeling. In addition to well-known computational techniques such as finite-difference schemes and Ewald summation, the book presents a new finite-difference calculus of Flexible Local Approximation Methods (FLAME) that qualitatively improves the numerical accuracy in a variety of problems.
This book introduces readers to the key provisions of the URRAN-based technical asset management system - a methodology for managing resources and risks by analyzing and ensuring the required levels of reliability and safety in Russia’s railway transport facilities. It describes the architecture of the URRAN information system’s unified corporate platform (UCP URRAN) and its subsystems for infrastructure facilities and rolling stock complexes. It also highlights the UCP URRAN’s prospects for development, especially in the application of artificial intelligence to predict dangerous events in railway transport operation. The book is chiefly intended for specialists engaged in practical work on the technical maintenance of railway transport facilities. It can also be used as a reference guide for students and researchers at railway universities or professionals who are dealing with problems in technical asset management in other industries.
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