Outrageously wealthy, very successful and dazzling in appearance, this is Leander Brand. He lives a life that others do not even dare to dream of, let alone live! Until one day a letter destroys everything so far! In his search for the truth, suddenly nothing shall be as it seems until now and a deep secret reveals itself to him. There are doors in life that we open, that we can never close again! And this forever!
With the theft of a deadly virus from one of the largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies in Switzerland, a fast-paced race against time begins. The blackmailers threaten to release the virus and thus seal the end of mankind. Clearly a case for Her Majesty's best agent, the Queen of England. This political thriller is suspenseful to the last word, the ending impossible to predict. In this story, truths are revealed that both media and politicians have been doing their best to cover up, deny and gloss over for years. This agent novel is confident, brisk and realistic. An unprecedented scenario that escalates into an unpredictable confusion as the story unfolds. The fronts remain opaque until the end of the story. Thrilling to the last word!
This multidisciplinary reference takes the reader through all four major phases of interdisciplinary inquiry: adequate conceptualization, rigorous formulation, substantive interpretation, and innovative implementation. The text introduces a novel synthetic paradigm of public health reasoning and epidemic modelling, and implements it with a study of the infamous 14th century AD Black Death disaster that killed at least one-fourth of the European population.
This new edition argues that, in both Mao and Deng periods, China has evolved in ways quite different from the Soviet model and from other developing countries. Like its predecessor, the book's approach is interdisciplinary and comparative. Professor Blecher analyzes China by introducing appropriate theories and concepts from historical and political sociology, economic development and political science. He explores China from two comparative perspectives: developing countries (including the newly industrializing countries of East Asia) and historical state socialist regimes. The book's chapters cover: imperial collapse, republican failure and communist triumph; a chronological overview since 1949; the state and politics; socialism and society; rural political economy; urban political economy; China and the Pacific Rim; the crisis of reform; and the future of Chinese economic development and politics. From PETRA: Blecher's new edition will revise and update the first, adding a new section on international economic factors to the political economy chapters - to include the WTO, gloablization, foreign investment etc. It will address new policy problems such as the spread of AIDS in China and will look at Hong Kong and Macau's return, and at the relationship with Taiwan. The Chinese diaspora is also covered.
Oxford Handbooks offer authoritative and up-to-date reviews of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned chapters from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The adage Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it is a powerful one for parents, teachers, and other professionals involved with or interested in deaf individuals or the Deaf community. Myths grown from ignorance have long dogged the field, and faulty assumptions and overgeneralizations have persisted despite contrary evidence. A study of the history of deaf education reveals patterns that have affected educational policy and legislation for deaf people around the world; these patterns are related to several themes critical to the chapters of this volume. One such theme is the importance of parental involvement in raising and educating deaf children. Another relates to how Deaf people have taken an increasingly greater role in influencing their own futures and places in society. In published histories, we see the longstanding conflicts through the centuries that pertain to sign language and spoken communication philosophies, as well as the contributions of the individuals who advocated alternative strategies for teaching deaf children. More recently, investigators have recognized the need for a diverse approach to language and language learning. Advances in technology, cognitive science, linguistics, and the social sciences have alternately led and followed changes in theory and practice, resulting in a changing landscape for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and those connected to them. This second volume of the The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education (2003) picks up where that first landmark volume left off, describing those advances and offering readers the opportunity to understand the current status of research in the field while recognizing the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. In Volume 2, an international group of contributing experts provide state-of-the-art summaries intended for students, practitioners, and researchers. Not only does it describe where we are, it helps to chart courses for the future.
People’s Wars in China, Malaya, and Vietnam explains why some insurgencies collapse after a military defeat while under other circumstances insurgents are able to maintain influence, rebuild strength, and ultimately defeat the government. The author argues that ultimate victory in civil wars rests on the size of the coalition of social groups established by each side during the conflict. When insurgents establish broad social coalitions (relative to the incumbent), their movement will persist even when military defeats lead to loss of control of territory because they enjoy the support of the civilian population and civilians will not defect to the incumbent. By contrast, when insurgents establish narrow coalitions, civilian compliance is solely a product of coercion. Where insurgents implement such governing strategies, battlefield defeats translate into political defeats and bring about a collapse of the insurgency because civilians defect to the incumbent. The empirical chapters of the book consist of six case studies of the most consequential insurgencies of the 20th century including that led by the Chinese Communist Party from 1927 to 1949, the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), and the Vietnam War (1960–1975). People’s Wars breaks new ground in systematically analyzing and comparing these three canonical cases of insurgency. The case studies of China and Malaya make use of Chinese-language archival sources, many of which have never before been used and provide an unprecedented level of detail into the workings of successful and unsuccessful insurgencies. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach and will be of interest to both political scientists and historians.
Battery Technology: From Fundamentals to Thermal Behavior and Management provides comprehensive coverage of rechargeable battery technology fundamentals, along with relevant aging mechanisms and thermal management systems. With a strong focus on the analysis and modeling of battery technologies, the book includes coverage of overpotentials in battery cells and discussions on the thermal-electrochemical coupled modeling of batteries. Beginning with an introduction to battery technology, the book then takes a deep dive into thermodynamics of batteries and electrochemical modeling of batteries. Subsequent chapters examine battery thermal behavior and thermal systems, before discussing integrated battery-based systems. Accompanied by chapter objectives, applications, case studies and study questions to test knowledge, this book is an essential resource for students and researchers wanting to understand the underlying basics of batteries, along with the latest advances in battery technology. Provides a comprehensive resource on the fundamentals of battery technologies and their thermal management systems Follows a coherent approach, starting from fundamentals and basics and culminating with advanced systems and applications Highlights case studies and real-world examples throughout to bridge the gap between knowledge and practical applications
A special agent fights chaos and terror in midair in this thriller by the New York Times-bestselling author of Stone Cross… Special agent Jericho Quinn is a wanted man. Suspected of murder and marked for death by a network of conspirators embedded in the White House, Quinn knows he has to get out of the country—fast—before a team of contract killers finds him and his daughter. To set things right at home, he’ll have to take a nonstop flight from Anchorage, Alaska, to Vladivostok, Russia, aboard a massive Airbus A380. But soon after takeoff, it becomes apparent that Quinn and his daughter picked the wrong plane. First, a passenger is brutally murdered. Then, Quinn is mistaken for a terrorist by an off-duty Air Marshal. As panic spreads through the plane and pressure builds to the screaming point, the unthinkable happens. Someone triggers a bomb. Spoiler alert: This plane is in big trouble… From the author of Tom Clancy Power and Empire, this terrifying thriller stars “a compelling, never-give-an-inch hero who will appeal to Jack Reacher fans” (Booklist).
At a time when the French monarchy traced its origins back to ancient Troy, Homeric epic was fated to play a significant political role. Homer came to Renaissance France packaged with an ancient interpretive tradition that made him an authority on all matters but also distinctly separate from Virgil and the Aeneid, rival Italy's foundational myth. Thus, once French humanists learned to read Homer in Greek, they quickly began putting him in the service of their king in order to teach him prudence and amplify his authority. Homer and the Politics of Authority in Renaissance France provides a stimulating perspective on how Homeric authority went from being used by humanists in the role of royal counselors to being exploited by both monarchical and anti-monarchical forces in the service of ideologies, most especially in the Wars of Religion (1562-1598). In turn, French writers of the period transitioned from being monarchical advisors to stirring crowds as actors on the larger political stage. In this study, Marc Bizer not only analyzes a number of works by key authors and humanists-including Michel de Montaigne, Joachim du Bellay, Guillaume Bude, and Jean Dorat, among others- but also examines their poetry, art, pamphlets, and plays. Although there have been several studies of the Homeric legacy in western literature and even in early modern French literature, none has analyzed the political role that Homer played in sixteenth-century France for this circle of important writers. The captivating results of this approach to the post-classical usage of Homer will appeal not only to historians and literary scholars, but also to political scientists, classicists, and art historians.
A little over a century ago, the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (saving lives, such as on the doomed S.S. Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized--and, more critically, patented--the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public view at the age of 22 with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London, 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests. He established stations and transmitters in every corner of the globe, from Newfoundland to Buenos Aires, Hawaii to Saint Petersburg. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationshps with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.
Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists introduces applied Bayesian modeling to ecologists using the highly acclaimed, free WinBUGS software. It offers an understanding of statistical models as abstract representations of the various processes that give rise to a data set. Such an understanding is basic to the development of inference models tailored to specific sampling and ecological scenarios. The book begins by presenting the advantages of a Bayesian approach to statistics and introducing the WinBUGS software. It reviews the four most common statistical distributions: the normal, the uniform, the binomial, and the Poisson. It describes the two different kinds of analysis of variance (ANOVA): one-way and two- or multiway. It looks at the general linear model, or ANCOVA, in R and WinBUGS. It introduces generalized linear model (GLM), i.e., the extension of the normal linear model to allow error distributions other than the normal. The GLM is then extended contain additional sources of random variation to become a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) for a Poisson example and for a binomial example. The final two chapters showcase two fairly novel and nonstandard versions of a GLMM. The first is the site-occupancy model for species distributions; the second is the binomial (or N-) mixture model for estimation and modeling of abundance. Introduction to the essential theories of key models used by ecologists Complete juxtaposition of classical analyses in R and Bayesian analysis of the same models in WinBUGS Provides every detail of R and WinBUGS code required to conduct all analyses Companion Web Appendix that contains all code contained in the book and additional material (including more code and solutions to exercises)
How does it happen that billions of stars can cooperate to produce the beautiful spirals that characterize so many galaxies, including ours? This book reviews the history behind the discovery of spiral galaxies and the problems faced when trying to explain the existence of spiral structure within them. In the book, subjects such as galaxy morphology and structure are addressed as well as several models for spiral structure. The evidence in favor or against these models is discussed. The book ends by discussing how spiral structure can be used as a proxy for other properties of spiral galaxies, such as their dark matter content and their central supermassive black hole masses, and why this is important.
China Against the Tides, 3rd Edition argues that, in both Mao and Deng periods, China evolved in ways quite different from the Soviet model and from other developing countries. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the book analyzes China by introducing theories and concepts from historical and political sociology, economic development, and political science. It also explores China from two comparative perspectives: developing countries (including the newly industrializing countries of East Asia) and historical state socialist regimes. China Against the Tides, 3rd Edition seeks to combine both the internal perspectives of the actors themselves with the external standpoint of the social scientist. China is, of course, unique; but so are all countries. But, like other countries, its distinctiveness can best be grasped by observing it from outside as well as from within. Every chapter in the third edition as well as the end bibliography has been updated. In addition, a new section examines China's international relations, and new coverage has been added throughout the chapters. For example, the third edition discusses: the Hu-Wen leadership that came to power in 2002, China's economic growth and social development, internet technology, the continued drumbeat of protests of various kinds, the situation in Tibet, the Olympic Games, the May 2008 earthquake, plus smaller but still notable events, such as the 2003 SARS outbreak, the Three Gorges Dam, and the 2005 pollution episode on the Songhua River
A major showcase for the compound semiconductor community, Compound Semiconductors 2002 presents an overview of recent developments in compound semiconductor physics and its technological applications to devices. The topics discussed reflect the significant progress achieved in understanding and mastering compound semiconductor materials and electronic and optoelectronic devices. The book covers heteroepitaxial growth, quantum confined emitters and detectors, quantum wires and dots, ultrafast transistors, and various compound materials.
Ha Jin is a contemporary Chinese American poet and novelist who is most commonly associated with the Misty Poetry movement. His contributions to the world of fiction have been awarded with such honors as the National Book Award and the Townsend Prize for Fiction. This Guggenheim Fellow was a young child in China under communist rule and was only 14 years old when he became a member of the People�s Liberation Army. In this riveting book about this celebrated author, critical analysis of his works are presented. Your readers will engage deeply with this volume by learning how to identify themes, analyze how elements in the text interact, and how to identify the informational context behind the fictional treatment Jin uses with his chosen words.
This updated edition of the book blends in new e-commerce technologies. Mobile commerce (M-commerce) and use of cloud computing are offering a new set of challenges and opportunities for those individuals who know what they are and how they are related to e-commerce. Their use opens up new markets, expanding the need for larger operations, which in turn requires greater knowledge of the operations management subjects presented in this book.The book is focused on issues, concepts, philosophies, procedures, methodologies, and practices of running e-commerce operations. It connects the basic operations management activities undertaken by every organization (e.g., inventory management, scheduling, etc.) and translates their application into issues and problems faced in the field of e-commerce.The book also provides current research findings, strategies, and practices that can help students in the field of operations management run and improve their e-commerce operations. It covers most of the basic operations management activities and functions and has been designed for an upper-level undergraduate business, a graduate business or engineering management course on e-commerce operations management for university students. Students interested in e-commerce operations will find this book a valuable guide to the important aspects of starting up and running an e-commerce operation. They can learn from reading this book how supply chains, products and processes, human resources and purchasing functions can supported and enhanced by the use of e-commerce. In addition, students can learn how to undertake forecasting and scheduling in e-commerce operations. Decision-makers and managers who have to reengineer e-commerce operations can also use this book as a guide to understanding e-commerce.
Taking a unique materials science approach, this text introduces students to the basic concepts and applications of materials and biomedical engineering and prepares them for the challenges of the new interdisciplinary field of biomaterials science. Split into three sections - Basic Biology Principles, Biological Materials, and Bioinspired Materials and Biomimetics - it presents biological materials along with the structural and functional classification of biopolymers, bioelastomers, foams, and ceramic composites. More traditional biomimetic designs such as Velcro are then discussed in conjunction with new developments that mimic the structure of biological materials at the molecular level, mixing nanoscale with biomolecular designs. Bioinspired design of materials and structures is also covered. Focused presentations of biomaterials are presented throughout the text in succinct boxes, emphasising biomedical applications, whilst the basic principles of biology are explained, so no prior knowledge is required. The topics are supported by approximately 500 illustrations, solved problems, and end-of-chapter exercises.
Applied Statistical Modelling for Ecologists: A Practical Guide to Bayesian and Likelihood Inference Using R, JAGS/Nimble, Stan and TMB provides an important guide and comparison of powerful new software packages that are now widely used in research publications, including JAGS, Stan, Nimble, and TMB. It provides a gentle introduction to the most exciting specialist software that is often used to conduct cutting-edge research, along with Bayesian statistics and frequentist statistics with its maximum likelihood estimation method. In addition, this book is simple and accessible, allowing researchers to carry out and understand statistical modeling. Through examples, the book covers the underlying statistical models widely used by scientists across many disciplines. Thus, this book will be useful for anyone who needs to quickly become proficient in statistical modeling, and in the model-fitting engines covered. Provides a comprehensive, applied introduction to some of the most exciting, cutting-edge model fitting software packages: JAGS, Nimble, Stan, and TMB Covers all the basics of the modern applied statistical modeling that have become a key part of any natural science, including linear, generalized linear, mixed and also hierarchical models Provides applied introduction to the two dominant methods of parametric statistical modeling: maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference Adopts what could be called a "Rosetta stone approach," wherein understanding of one software, and of its associated language, will be greatly enhanced by seeing the analogous code in one of the other engines
Goal Programming Applications in Accounting 74 Goal Programming Applications in Agriculture 76 Goal Programming Applications in Economics 78 Goal Programming Applications in Engineering 79 Goal Programming Applications in Finance 80 Goal Programming Applications in Government 83 Goal Programming Applications in an International Context 88 Goal Programming Applications in Management 90 Goal Programming Applications in Marketing 97 Summary 98 CHAPTER 5. FUTURE TRENDS IN GOAL PROORAMMING 101 GP is Positioned for Growth 101 Shifting the Life Cycle of GP Research to Growth 103 Summary 107 Reference 108 APPENDIX A TEXTBOOKS, READINGS BOOKS AND MONOORAPHS ON GOAL PROORAMMING 109 APPENDIX B. JOURNAL RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ON GOAL PROORAMMING 113 INDEX 213 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1. Summary Relationship of GP with MS/OR and MCDM Figure 1-2. Frequency Distribution for GP Journal Publications Figure 1-3. Life Cycle ofGP Research Figure 2-1. Set of GP Efficient Solutions Figure 5-1. Life Cycle of GP Research ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1. MS/OR Topics and Their Related GP Topics Table 1-2. MCDM Subareas and Their Related GP Topics Table 1-3. Frequency Listing ofGP Journal Publications and Book Titles Table 2-1. Solutions for a Dominated GP Problem Table 2-2. Conversion ofLP Constraints to Goal Constraints Table 2-3. GP Citations on Dominance, Inferiority and Inefficiency Table 2-4. GP Citations on Relative Weighting, Prioritization and Incommensurability Table 2-5. MS/OR Topics and Their Related GP Topics Table 3-1. Citations on WeightedlPreemptive GP Methodology Table 3-2. Citations on Pure/Mixed Integer GP Methodology Table 3-3.
Advances in Geosciences is the result of a concerted effort to bring together the latest results and planning activities related to earth and space science in Asia and the international arena. The volume editors are all leading scientists in their research fields covering six sections: Atmospheric Science (AS), Hydrological Science (HS), Ocean Science (OS), Solid Earth (SE), Solar Terrestrial (ST) and Planetary Science (PS). The main purpose is to highlight the scientific issues essential to the study of earthquakes, tsunamis, atmospheric dust storms, climate change, drought, flood, typhoons, monsoons, space weather, and planetary exploration. This volume is abstracted in NASA''s Astrophysics Data System: http: //ads.harvard.edu. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Ulf Waves: Exploring the Earth''s Magnetosphere (1,240k). Contents: ULF Waves: Exploring the Earth''s Magnetosphere (B J Fraser); Spectrum of Density Fluctuations in the Solar Wind (V Krishnan); Polarization Properties of the Ultra-Low Frequency Waves in Non-Axisymmetric Background Magnetic Fields (K Kabin et al.); and other papers. Readership: Academics, researchers and postgraduate students in geosciences
In the first book to focus on African American attitudes toward Japan and China, Marc Gallicchio examines the rise and fall of black internationalism in the first half of the twentieth century. This daring new approach to world politics failed in its effort to seek solidarity with the two Asian countries, but it succeeded in rallying black Americans in the struggle for civil rights. Black internationalism emphasized the role of race or color in world politics and linked the domestic struggle of African Americans with the freedom struggle of emerging nations "of color," such as India and much of Africa. In the early twentieth century, black internationalists, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, embraced Japan as a potential champion of the darker races, despite Japan's imperialism in China. After Pearl Harbor, black internationalists reversed their position and identified Nationalist China as an ally in the war against racism. In the end, black internationalism was unsuccessful as an interpretation of international affairs. The failed quest for alliances with Japan and China, Gallicchio argues, foreshadowed the difficulty black Americans would encounter in seeking redress for American racism in the international arena.
This volume is an outcome of the 11th IFIP WG7.5 working conference on Reliability and Optimization of Structural Systems in Canada. The conference focuses on structural reliability methods and applications and engineering risk analysis and decision-making.
Dr. Marc Lubin and Dr. Jed Yalof invite future and current therapists, counselors, and their supervisors to construct ways to achieve a more extensive and effective self-awareness and develop a "self-supervisory self" for a deeper and more informed clinical practice. Grounded in psychoanalytic supervision literature, Self Supervision: Psychodynamic Strategies uses a vignette-based and instructional format to outline a clear theory and framework for teaching, learning, and strengthening one's reflective self-supervision skills. Lubin and Yalof address how to create and sustain settings conducive to self-supervision; multiple approaches to gathering critical data including note-taking, recall, and use of technology; recognizing and addressing resistance to self-supervision; and exemplars, practical tools, processes, and routines for self-reflection and incorporation of what has been learned into future sessions. Through this approach to self-supervision, therapists will unlock and articulate inner observations; gain self-awareness before, during, and after client sessions; and arrive at greater clarity about their patients.
The Haunting Fetus focuses on the belief in modern Taiwan that an aborted fetus can return to haunt its family. Although the topic has been researched in Japan and commented on in the Taiwanese press, it has not been studied systematically in relation to Taiwan in either English or Chinese. This fascinating study looks at a range of topics pertaining to the belief in haunting fetuses, including abortion, sexuality, the changing nature of familial power structures, the economy, and traditional and modern views of the spirit world in Taiwan and in traditional Chinese thought. It addresses the mental, moral, and psychological aspects of abortion within the context of modernization processes and how these ramify through historical epistemologies and folk traditions. The author illustrates how images of fetus-ghosts are often used to manipulate women, either through fear or guilt, into paying exorbitant sums of money for appeasement. He argues at the same time, however, that although appeasement can be expensive, it provides important psychological comfort to women who have had abortions as well as a much-needed means to project personal and familial feelings of transgression onto a safely displaced object. In addition to bringing to the surface underlying tensions within a family, appeasing fetus-ghosts, like other dealings with supernatural beings in Chinese religions, allows for atonement through economic avenues. The paradox in which fetus-ghost appeasement simultaneously exploits and assists evinces the true complexity of the issue--and of religious and gender studies as a whole.
From New York Times bestselling author Marc Cameron,a thrill ride into the savage beauty of Alaska – where the wilderness is deadlier than any killer and a Tlingit girl's cold case murder makes even US Marshal Arliss Cutter’s blood run cold. BOOK 1 IN THE ARLISS CUTTER NOVELS – NOW IN TRADE PAPERBACK FOR THE FIRST TIME. "Cameron’s novels hook you from the first line, cement your eyes to the page, and grip your heart in a vice. I can’t think of another writer whose work I admire more." —WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER "A double-barreled blast of action, narrative, and impossible-to-fake authenticity.” —CJ BOX U.S. Marshal Arliss Cutter is a born tracker. Raised in the Florida swamplands, he honed his skills in the military, fought in the Middle East, and worked three field positions for Marshal Services. When it comes to tracking someone down—or taking someone out—Cutter’s the best. But his newest assignment is taking him out of his comfort zone to southeast Alaska. Cold, dark, uninhabited forests often shrouded in fog. And it’s the kind of case that makes his blood run cold . . . the shocking murder of a Tlingit Native girl. But the murder is just the beginning. Now, three people have disappeared on Prince of Wales Island. Two are crew members of the reality TV show, Fishwives. Cutter’s job is to find the bodies, examine the crew’s footage for clues, and track down the men who killed them. But it won’t be easy, because the whole town is hiding secrets, every trail is a dead end—and the hunter becomes the hunted... “Looking for authentic action, suspense, drama, and mystery? Look no further than U.S. Marshals Service veteran Marc Cameron whose thrillers capture the visceral nature of life in the trenches as only one who has lived it truly can.”—JACK CARR “Cameron’s books are riveting page-turners.” —MARK GREANEY
As the demand for data reliability increases, coding for error control becomes increasingly important in data transmission systems and has become an integral part of almost all data communication system designs. In recent years, various trellis-based soft-decoding algorithms for linear block codes have been devised. New ideas developed in the study of trellis structure of block codes can be used for improving decoding and analyzing the trellis complexity of convolutional codes. These recent developments provide practicing communication engineers with more choices when designing error control systems. Trellises and Trellis-based Decoding Algorithms for Linear Block Codes combines trellises and trellis-based decoding algorithms for linear codes together in a simple and unified form. The approach is to explain the material in an easily understood manner with minimal mathematical rigor. Trellises and Trellis-based Decoding Algorithms for Linear Block Codes is intended for practicing communication engineers who want to have a fast grasp and understanding of the subject. Only material considered essential and useful for practical applications is included. This book can also be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.
Ha Jin is a contemporary Chinese American poet and novelist who is most commonly associated with the Misty Poetry movement. His contributions to the world of fiction have been awarded with such honors as the National Book Award and the Townsend Prize for Fiction. This Guggenheim Fellow was a young child in China under communist rule and was only 14 years old when he became a member of the People�s Liberation Army. In this riveting book about this celebrated author, critical analysis of his works are presented. Your readers will engage deeply with this volume by learning how to identify themes, analyze how elements in the text interact, and how to identify the informational context behind the fictional treatment Jin uses with his chosen words.
Presents the complete text of the New Revised Standard Version Bible, with the Aprocryphal/Deuterocanonical books; and features annotations in a single column across the page bottom, in-text background essays on the major divisions of the biblical text, and other reference tools.
This is the first systematic, longitudinal study of the organization and operations of Chinese government at the county level. Highlighting the relationships between county officials and the administrative and production units above and below them, the authors open a window on the vast bureaucratic middle ground between Beijing policymaking and community-level politics.
This book analyzes the historical significance of rivaling concepts of world order in 20th century East Asia. Since the arrival of European imperialism in 19th century – coupled with its different schools of political philosophy and international law – China has struggled to combine ideas on national sovereignty, spatiality and hegemony in its quest of either imitating or replacing European norms of world order. By analyzing Chinese visions of regional and international order and comparing them with Japanese proposals of that era, this book discusses in detail the relationship of territoriality and political rule, discourses of amity and enmity, and finally the role of hegemoniality in the process of imagining a possible postnational world in 21st century East Asia and beyond.
It is easy to imagine that a future populated with an ever-increasing number of mobile and pervasive devices that record our minute goings and doings will significantly expand the amount of information that will be collected, stored, processed, and shared about us by both corporations and governments. The vast majority of this data is likely to benefit us greatly—making our lives more convenient, efficient, and safer through custom-tailored and context-aware services that anticipate what we need, where we need it, and when we need it. But beneath all this convenience, efficiency, and safety lurks the risk of losing control and awareness of what is known about us in the many different contexts of our lives. Eventually, we may find ourselves in a situation where something we said or did will be misinterpreted and held against us, even if the activities were perfectly innocuous at the time. Even more concerning, privacy implications rarely manifest as an explicit, tangible harm. Instead, most privacy harms manifest as an absence of opportunity, which may go unnoticed even though it may substantially impact our lives. In this Synthesis Lecture, we dissect and discuss the privacy implications of mobile and pervasive computing technology. For this purpose, we not only look at how mobile and pervasive computing technology affects our expectations of—and ability to enjoy—privacy, but also look at what constitutes ""privacy"" in the first place, and why we should care about maintaining it. We describe key characteristics of mobile and pervasive computing technology and how those characteristics lead to privacy implications. We discuss seven approaches that can help support end-user privacy in the design of mobile and pervasive computing technologies, and set forward six challenges that will need to be addressed by future research. The prime target audience of this lecture are researchers and practitioners working in mobile and pervasive computing who want to better understand and account for the nuanced privacy implications of the technologies they are creating. Those new to either mobile and pervasive computing or privacy may also benefit from reading this book to gain an overview and deeper understanding of this highly interdisciplinary and dynamic field.
The first comprehensive guide to distributional reinforcement learning, providing a new mathematical formalism for thinking about decisions from a probabilistic perspective. Distributional reinforcement learning is a new mathematical formalism for thinking about decisions. Going beyond the common approach to reinforcement learning and expected values, it focuses on the total reward or return obtained as a consequence of an agent's choices—specifically, how this return behaves from a probabilistic perspective. In this first comprehensive guide to distributional reinforcement learning, Marc G. Bellemare, Will Dabney, and Mark Rowland, who spearheaded development of the field, present its key concepts and review some of its many applications. They demonstrate its power to account for many complex, interesting phenomena that arise from interactions with one's environment. The authors present core ideas from classical reinforcement learning to contextualize distributional topics and include mathematical proofs pertaining to major results discussed in the text. They guide the reader through a series of algorithmic and mathematical developments that, in turn, characterize, compute, estimate, and make decisions on the basis of the random return. Practitioners in disciplines as diverse as finance (risk management), computational neuroscience, computational psychiatry, psychology, macroeconomics, and robotics are already using distributional reinforcement learning, paving the way for its expanding applications in mathematical finance, engineering, and the life sciences. More than a mathematical approach, distributional reinforcement learning represents a new perspective on how intelligent agents make predictions and decisions.
China has shifted its foreign policy from one that avoided engagement in international organizations to one that is now embracing them. These moves present a new challenge to international relations theory. How will the global community be affected by the engagement of this massive global power with international institutions? This new study explores why China has chosen to abandon its previous doctrine of institutional isolation and details how it is currently unable to balance American power unilaterally and details an indirect path to greater power. In addition, it includes the first major analysis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, comprising China, Russia and most of Central Asia. In contrast to many works on the "rise of China" question, which place an emphasis on her material goods and powers, this book delivers a new approach. It shows how the unique barriers Beijing is facing are preventing the country from taking the traditional paths of territorial expansion and political-economic domination in order to develop as a great power. One of these barriers is the United States and its inherent military and economic strength. The other is the existence of nuclear weapons, which makes direct great power conflict unacceptably costly. China has therefore opted for a new path, using institutions as stepping stones to great power status. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, world politics, world history and Asia.
MEMS technology and applications have grown at a tremendous pace, while structural dimensions have grown smaller and smaller, reaching down even to the molecular level. With this movement have come new types of applications and rapid advances in the technologies and techniques needed to fabricate the increasingly miniature devices that are literally changing our world. A bestseller in its first edition, Fundamentals of Microfabrication, Second Edition reflects the many developments in methods, materials, and applications that have emerged recently. Renowned author Marc Madou has added exercise sets to each chapter, thus answering the need for a textbook in this field. Fundamentals of Microfabrication, Second Edition offers unique, in-depth coverage of the science of miniaturization, its methods, and materials. From the fundamentals of lithography through bonding and packaging to quantum structures and molecular engineering, it provides the background, tools, and directions you need to confidently choose fabrication methods and materials for a particular miniaturization problem. New in the Second Edition Revised chapters that reflect the many recent advances in the field Updated and enhanced discussions of topics including DNA arrays, microfluidics, micromolding techniques, and nanotechnology In-depth coverage of bio-MEMs, RF-MEMs, high-temperature, and optical MEMs. Many more links to the Web Problem sets in each chapter
The volumes in this authoritative series present a multidisciplinary approach to modeling and simulation of flows in the cardiovascular and ventilatory systems, especially multiscale modeling and coupled simulations. The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are tightly coupled, as their primary function is to supply oxygen to and remove carbon dioxide from the body's cells. Because physiological conduits have deformable and reactive walls, macroscopic flow behavior and prediction must be coupled to phenomenological models of nano- and microscopic events in a corrector scheme of regulated mechanisms when the vessel lumen caliber varies markedly. Therefore, investigation of flows of blood and air in physiological conduits requires an understanding of the biology, chemistry, and physics of these systems together with the mathematical tools to describe their functioning. Volume 4 is devoted to major sets of intracellular mediators that transmit signals upon stimulation of cell-surface receptors. Activation of signaling effectors triggers the release of substances stored in cellular organelles and/or gene transcription and protein synthesis. Complex stages of cell signaling can be studied using proper mathematical models, once the role of each component is carefully handled. Volume 4 also reviews various categories of cytosolic and/or nuclear mediators and illustrates some major signal transduction pathways, such as NFkappaB axis, oxygen sensing, and mechanotransduction.
Wrap up warm and journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Includes all four books in The Arliss Cutter Thrillers series; Open Carry, Stone Cross, Bone Rattle and Cold Snap. Open Carry: After enlisting in the military and fighting in the Middle East, US Marshal Arliss Cutter is sent to the icy wastelands of southeast Alaska. Three people have disappeared on Prince of Wales Island. Two are crew members of the reality TV show, Alaska Adventure Jobs. The other is a Tlingit Indian girl who had the misfortune of witnessing their murders. Cutter’s job is to find the bodies, examine the crew’s footage for clues, and track down the men who killed them. Easier said than done. Especially when the whole town is hiding secrets, the trail leads to a dead end – and the hunter becomes the prey. Stone Cross: Winter comes early to the rural native community of Stone Cross, Alaska – and so does hunting season. But Arliss Cutter has come here for a very different game. A federal judge is receiving death threats and refuses protection. Cutter and his deputy Lola Teariki have been assigned to shadow him on his trip to this icy outland. When Cutter and Lola arrive, the village is already gripped with fear. A young couple has disappeared and their handyman is found dead. To make matters worse, a dense fog has descended on the region, isolating the town from civilization. With the judge’s life still at risk, and two people still missing, Cutter and Lola have their work cut out for them... Bone Rattle: In Juneau, a young archaeologist is sent to protect the ancient burial sites uncovered by an Alaskan gold mining company. He never returns. In Anchorage, a female torso – minus head, hands, and feet – is washed ashore near a jogging trail by the airport. It is not the first. At Alaska’s Fugitive Task Force, Arliss Cutter and deputy Lola Teariki are pulled from their duties and sent to a federal court in Juneau to keep track of sequestered jurors in a high-profile drug trial. When a prosecuting attorney is murdered – and a reporter viciously attacked – Cutter realizes they’re dealing with something darker. The truth lies deep within the ancient sites and precious mines of this isolated land – and inside the cold hearts of those who would kill to hide its secrets. Cold Snap: After an early spring thaw on the Alaskan coast, Anchorage police discover a gruesome new piece of evidence in their search for a serial killer – a dismembered human foot. In the remote northern town of Deadhorse, Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter escorts four very dangerous handcuffed prisoners onto a small bush plane. He’s expecting a routine mission and a nonstop flight. But when the plane goes down in the wilderness, the prisoners murder the pilot and torch the plane. Back in Anchorage, deputy Lola Teariki has traced the dismembered foot to a missing girl and the serial psychopath who slaughtered her – one of the prisoners on Cutter's flight. With no means of communication, Cutter will have to use all his skills if he is to survive the harsh Alaskan wilderness and an angry killer on the loose... This bone-chilling thriller series shows the desperate measures that must be taken to survive Alaska’s icy heart, perfect for fans of Lee Child, James Swallow and Harlan Coben. Praise for Marc Cameron ‘A double-barreled blast of action.’ C.J. Box ‘Cameron’s books are riveting page turners.’ Mark Greaney ‘One of the hottest new authors in the thriller genre.’ Brad Thor ‘Superb. Compelling characters, vivid settings, and rollicking adventures.’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Impossible to put down. I only have a few authors I regard as the best, and Marc Cameron is right there close to the top.’ Reader Review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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