A giant in the pantheon of 19th century composers, Tchaikovsky continues to enthrall audiences today. From the Nutcracker--arguably the most popular ballet currently on the boards--Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty, to Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame, to the Symphony Pathetique and the always rousing, canon-blasting 1812 Overture--this prolific and beloved composer's works are perennial favorites. Now, John Wiley, a renowned Tchaikovsky scholar, provides a fresh biography aimed in classic Master Musicians style at the student and music lover. Wiley deftly draws on documents from imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet era sources, providing a more balanced look at recent controversies surrounding the marriage, death, and sexuality of the composer. The author dovetails the biographical material with separate chapters that treat the music thoroughly and fully, work-by-work, with more substantial explorations of Tchaikovsky's most familiar compositions. These analyses present new, even iconoclastic perspectives on the music and the composer's intent and expression. Several informative appendices, in the Master Musicians format, include an exhaustive list of works and bibliography.
This is the first book-length study in any language about this Russian artist--Marius Petipa's colleague and Tchaikovsky's collaborator--who is widely celebrated and yet virtually unknown. It follows Ivanov from his infancy in a St Petersburg foundling home through to his career as a dancer, r gisseur, and choreographer in the St Petersburg Imperial Ballet. Ivanov's artistic world is described, as is his legacy-- some dozen works, including Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and the famous dances from Prince Igor--that inspired Mikhail Fokine in the next generation. The book is richly documented, including the first complete publication of Ivanov's memoirs and hundreds of citations, many published here for the first time, from state documents, reminiscences, and criticism.
Here Roland Omnès offers a clear, up-to-date guide to the conceptual framework of quantum mechanics. In an area that has provoked much philosophical debate, Omnès has achieved high recognition for his Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton 1994), a book for specialists. Now the author has transformed his own theory into a short and readable text that enables beginning students and experienced physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers to form a comprehensive picture of the field while learning about the most recent advances. This new book presents a more streamlined version of the Copenhagen interpretation, showing its logical consistency and completeness. The problem of measurement is a major area of inquiry, with the author surveying its history from Planck to Heisenberg before describing the consistent-histories interpretation. He draws upon the most recent research on the decoherence effect (related to the modern resolution of the famous Schrödinger's cat problem) and an exact formulation of the correspondence between quantum and particle physics (implying a derivation of classical determinism from quantum probabilism). Interpretation is organized with the help of a universal and sound language using so-called consistent histories. As a language and a method, it can now be shown to be free of ambiguity and it makes interpretation much clearer and closer to common sense.
This book visualizes mortality dynamics in the Lexis diagram. While the standard approach of plotting death rates is also covered, the focus in this book is on the depiction of rates of mortality improvement over age and time. This rather novel approach offers a more intuitive understanding of the underlying dynamics, enabling readers to better understand whether period- or cohort-effects were instrumental for the development of mortality in a particular country. Besides maps for single countries, the book includes maps on the dynamics of selected causes of death in the United States, such as cardiovascular diseases or lung cancer. The book also features maps for age-specific contributions to the change in life expectancy, for cancer survival and for seasonality in mortality for selected causes of death in the United States. The book is accompanied by instructions on how to use the freely available R Software to produce these types of surface maps. Readers are encouraged to use the presented tools to visualize other demographic data or any event that can be measured by age and calendar time, allowing them to adapt the methods to their respective research interests. The intended audience is anyone who is interested in visualizing data by age and calendar time; no specialist knowledge is required. This book is open access under a CC BY license.
CARDIAC VALVE ALLOGRAFTS (HOMOGRAFTS) highlights the current controversy about freehand subcoronary aortic valve and root replacement with regard to postoperative morbidity and long term durability. It discusses particular implantation techniques of preference in young patients and in different root pathology. Other chapters address intermediate- and long-term results on cardiac valve and vascular homografts for treating complicating cardiac valve and aortic infections. The chapter on basic science additionally makes this book a highly authoritative reference source for cardiac surgeons, physicians and scientists. This work provides a current survey of the state-of-the-art.
These two volumes constitute the refereed proceedings of the Third Asian Conference on Computer Vision, ACCV'98, held in Hong Kong, China, in January 1998. The volumes present together a total of 58 revised full papers and 112 revised posters selected from over 300 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on biometry, physics-based vision, color vision, robot vision and navigation, OCR and applications, low-level processing, active vision, face and hand posture recognition, segmentation and grouping, computer vision and virtual reality, motion analysis, and object recognition and modeling.
All fourteen major peacebuilding missions launched between 1989 and 1999 shared a common strategy for consolidating peace after internal conflicts: immediate democratization and marketization. Transforming war-shattered states into market democracies is basically sound, but pushing this process too quickly can have damaging and destabilizing effects. The process of liberalization is inherently tumultuous, and can undermine the prospects for stable peace. A more sensible approach to post-conflict peacebuilding would seek, first, to establish a system of domestic institutions that are capable of managing the destabilizing effects of democratization and marketization within peaceful bounds and only then phase in political and economic reforms slowly, as conditions warrant. Peacebuilders should establish the foundations of effective governmental institutions prior to launching wholesale liberalization programs. Avoiding the problems that marred many peacebuilding operations in the 1990s will require longer-lasting and, ultimately, more intrusive forms of intervention in the domestic affairs of these states. This book was first published in 2004.
Superconductivity is among the most exciting of quantum phenomena in condensed matter physics, and has important applications across science and technology, from fusion reactors to particle accelerators. This self-contained text provides a comprehensive account of the physical foundations of superconductivity and related recent developments in the field. Beginning with a detailed description of the BSC theory of superconductivity, the book then describes the subsequent successes of this landmark theory and proceeds to more advanced topics such as Josephson effects and vortices. The strong coupling theory of superconductivity is introduced in later chapters, providing a springboard to important current research on hydride superconductors, which have displayed very high critical temperatures. Recent manifestations of superfluidity in ultracold atoms physics are also described. This book will give readers a solid grounding in the theory and applications of superconductivity, and an appreciation of its broader importance in the field of modern condensed matter physics.
From bridges and tunnels to nuclear waste repositories, structures require that soils maintain their design engineering properties if the structures are to reach their projected life spans. The same is true for earth dams, levees, buffers, barriers for landfills, and other structures that use soils as engineered materials. Yet soil, a natural resource, continues to change as a result of natural and anthropogenic stresses. As the discipline of soil properties and behaviours matures, new tools and techniques are making it possible to study these properties and behaviours in more depth. What Happens to Soil Under Weathering, Aging, and Chemical Stress? Environmental Soil Properties and Behaviour examines changes in soil properties and behaviour caused by short- and long-term stresses from anthropogenic activities and environmental forces. Introducing new concepts of soil behaviour, soil maturation, and soil functionality, it integrates soil physics, soil chemistry, and soil mechanics as vital factors in soil engineering. The book focuses on environmental soil behaviour, with particular attention to two main inter-related groups of soil–environment issues. The first is the use of soil as an environmental tool for management and containment of toxic and hazardous waste materials. The second is the impact of ageing and weathering processes and soil contamination on the properties and behaviour of soils, especially those used in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering projects. A Transdisciplinary Look at Soil-Changing Processes To determine short- and long-term soil quality and soil functionality, the authors emphasize the need to be aware of the nature of the stressors involved as well as the kinds of soil-changing processes that are evoked. This book takes a first step toward a much-needed transdisciplinary effort to develop a broader and deeper understanding of what happens to soil and how we can determine and quantify the effect of biogeochemical processes. It offers a timely resource for the study of soil properties and behaviours, effects of environmental changes, and remediation of contaminated soil.
Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a declarative problem solving approach, initially tailored to modeling problems in the area of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KRR). More recently, its attractive combination of a rich yet simple modeling language with high-performance solving capacities has sparked interest in many other areas even beyond KRR. This book presents a practical introduction to ASP, aiming at using ASP languages and systems for solving application problems. Starting from the essential formal foundations, it introduces ASP's solving technology, modeling language and methodology, while illustrating the overall solving process by practical examples. Table of Contents: List of Figures / List of Tables / Motivation / Introduction / Basic modeling / Grounding / Characterizations / Solving / Systems / Advanced modeling / Conclusions
What does this p-value actually mean? And what is a significant result? This book provides a compact and comprehension-oriented introduction to inferential statistics and answers questions like these. One focus is on the logic underlying inferential statistics and hypothesis testing: Readers learn the most commonly used procedures (t-test, analysis of variance with and without repeated measures, correlation/regression) as well as the pitfalls of data analysis, and develop the understanding necessary to interpret results correctly. The individual chapters are supplemented by concrete evaluation examples from everyday research - including exemplary implementation with the programs SPSS and R. In addition to the classic methods, cross-references to current developments in psychological methodological research are also included.This book is a translation of the original German 3rd edition of Inferenzstatistik verstehen by Markus Janczyk and Roland Pfister. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.
Managing Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation is the first textbook for non-business based entrepreneurship courses, focussed on students with a background in science and technology. Its comprehensive, rigorous and yet accessible approach originates from the authors’ considerable experience mentoring students as they turn their technological ideas into real-life business ventures. . The text is separated into three parts providing a roadmap for successful entrepreneurial projects: Part I focusses on how to create your venture, turning technology into businesses and how to link together entrepreneurship and innovation Part II shows you how to grow your venture and make it profitable, looking at the early development of academic spin-outs and how to adapt your technology to the customers’ needs. Part III takes you through the day-to-day running on your business; whether to adopt a contingency or contextual approach, how to develop new products and services and alternative options for growth. With a wide range of practical steps, lists of things to consider and guidelines on how to turn your technology based ideas into a successful business, this text will be essential for all non-business students who need to understand entrepreneurship, management and innovation. It will also prove a useful introduction to all Masters-level students taking these subjects in business schools.
To survive, complementary primordial life molecules had to become self-repairing timers oscillating in harmony with the macrocosmic environmental rhythms on Earth
To survive, complementary primordial life molecules had to become self-repairing timers oscillating in harmony with the macrocosmic environmental rhythms on Earth
Life on earth arose from the everlasting predictable change of light and darkness. The first life molecules were confronted with the Earth's two-faced environment manifesting itself as a rhythm of a damaging light phase (day) and a harmless low light dark phase (night) produced by the apparent celestial movements within the earth-moon-sun system. It required two mutually complementing molecule types: ribonucleic acids and peptides, which had to adapt jointly to that fundamental duality in order to achieve a 'duration across change'. Both combined into a helically intertwined ribonucleopeptide filament as the initial molecular structure of life on earth. The predictable alternation of a damaging (UV irradiation, high-energy sun light) and a non-damaging (low-energy moon light) phase lead to the inclusion of rhythmic repair and timing in molecular life from begin on. The ribonucleopeptide filament responded to the dual qualities of its environment by behaving like an 'oscilloid'. Rhythmically alternating contraction to prevent damage during daytime and expansion to allow self-sustained repair during nighttime initiated the oscillation of the primordial biological timer as a molecular reflection of the macrocosmic time on Earth impacted by the light/dark rhythm. Macrocosmic time is both circular, because days, months and years consist of recurring cycles of light and darkness, and linear, because successive days, months and years are not identical repeats of the preceding ones and follow each other in a row. Corresponding to this yin/yang structure of macrocosmic time, biological time is also cyclical and linear at the same time. Under this perspective, life arose as an earth-bound molecular pattern instructed by celestial rhythms. Interestingly, there exists a correspondence to the dual, mutually complementing molecular basis of life in ancient Chinese mythology. A helically intertwined ribonuclopeptide filament represents an equivalent, a living reflection, of the T'ai chi symbol with its mutually complementing, inseparable black and white components that illustrate the fundamental duality of darkness and light or night and day on Earth. Yang and Yin, and Ch'ien and K'un, constitute the basic duality of the yin/yang philosophy and the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ging, respectively. Fu-hsi and Nü-kua, the personified versions of this basic duality, are characterised by their helically intertwining snake- or dragon-like lower bodies. Together, they are linking Earth to Heaven.
A comprehensive review and analysis of environmental literacy within the context of environmental science and sustainable development. Approaching the topic from multiple perspectives, the book explores the development of human understanding of the environment and human-environment interactions in the fields of biology, psychology, sociology, economics and industrial ecology.
This book is composed of two texts, by R.L. Dobrushin and S. Kusuoka, each representing the content of a course of lectures given by the authors. They are pitched at graduate student level and are thus very accessible introductions to their respective subjects for students and non specialists. CONTENTS: R.L. Dobrushin: On the Way to the Mathematical Foundations of Statistical Mechanics.- S. Kusuoka: Diffusion Processes on Nested Fractals.
The social organization of teaching and learning, particularly in classrooms, has not yet been recognized as a foundational element of education. However, social constructionist views of human development, cognition, and schooling, as well as the increasing challenges of cultural and linguistic diversity, make it a vital concern for teachers, researchers, and policymakers. This book introduces the concept of educational social organization, assembles the pertinent theory and evidence, and suggests future directions for training and policy. }The four goals of school reform--academic excellence, fairness, inclusion and harmony--can be achieved simultaneously, by transforming the final common pathway of all school reform--instructional activity. Teaching Transformed is a new vision for classrooms, based on consensus research findings and unified practice prescriptions, explained and justified by new developments in sociocultural theory, and clarified by an explicit five-phase developmental guide for achieving that transformation. Teaching Transformed is both visionary and practical, both theoretical and data-driven, and determined to create effective education for all students. Professional educators, parents, and any reader concerned with saving our schools will find this book necessary to understand our current plight, and to envision a realistic means of transformation.
Roland Benedikter and Karim Fathi describe the pluri-dimensional characteristics of the Coronavirus crisis and draw the pillars for a more “multi-resilient” Post-Corona world, including political recommendations on how to generate it.
Sensory testing has been in existence ever since man started to use his senses to judge the quality and safety of drinking water and foodstuffs. With the onset of trading, there were several developments that led to more formalized testing, involving professional tasters and grading systems. Many of these grading systems are still in existence today and continue to serve a useful purpose, for example in assessing tea, coffee, and wines. However, there has also been a growing need for methods for well-repli cated, objective, unbiased sensory assessment, which can be applied rou tinely across a wide range of foods. Sensory analysis seeks to satisfy this need. Sensory analysis is not new to the food industry, but its application as a basic tool in food product development and quality control has not always been given the recognition and acceptance it deserves. This, we believe, is largely due to the lack of understanding about what sensory analysis can offer in product research, development, and marketing and a fear that the discipline is "too scientific" to be practical. To some extent, sensory scien tists have perpetuated this fear by failing to recognize the industrial con straints to implementing sensory testing procedures. These Guidelines are an attempt to redress the balance.
Frequency Assignment and Network Planning for Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Systems focuses on Digital Audio Broadcasting and Digital Video Broadcasting. The author provides a concise introduction to the subject and presents principles, concepts and commonly accepted methods used in the planning process. The frequency assignment material focuses on allotment planning while network planning is dealt with mainly from a network optimization perspective. All methods introduced and mathematical tools presented are fully explained. General concepts are illustrated with the help of several planning scenarios both for frequency assignment and network planning. Frequency assignment and network planning are vital issues throughout most of Europe and North America as a direct consequence of the increasing demand for digital communication systems.
The second edition of a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of mobile robotics, from algorithms to mechanisms. Mobile robots range from the Mars Pathfinder mission's teleoperated Sojourner to the cleaning robots in the Paris Metro. This text offers students and other interested readers an introduction to the fundamentals of mobile robotics, spanning the mechanical, motor, sensory, perceptual, and cognitive layers the field comprises. The text focuses on mobility itself, offering an overview of the mechanisms that allow a mobile robot to move through a real world environment to perform its tasks, including locomotion, sensing, localization, and motion planning. It synthesizes material from such fields as kinematics, control theory, signal analysis, computer vision, information theory, artificial intelligence, and probability theory. The book presents the techniques and technology that enable mobility in a series of interacting modules. Each chapter treats a different aspect of mobility, as the book moves from low-level to high-level details. It covers all aspects of mobile robotics, including software and hardware design considerations, related technologies, and algorithmic techniques. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout, with 130 pages of new material on such topics as locomotion, perception, localization, and planning and navigation. Problem sets have been added at the end of each chapter. Bringing together all aspects of mobile robotics into one volume, Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots can serve as a textbook or a working tool for beginning practitioners. Curriculum developed by Dr. Robert King, Colorado School of Mines, and Dr. James Conrad, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to accompany the National Instruments LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit, are available. Included are 13 (6 by Dr. King and 7 by Dr. Conrad) laboratory exercises for using the LabVIEW Robotics Starter Kit to teach mobile robotics concepts.
A “smart and surprising” (Booklist) “expansive history” (Publishers Weekly) detailing the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky’s Salt. As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. “A lively history of biology, mechanics, and culture that stretches back 60 million years” (Nature) The Age of Wood reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. Ennos takes us on a sweeping journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A brilliant blend of recent research and existing scientific knowledge, this is an “excellent, thorough history in an age of our increasingly fraught relationships with natural resources” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
With the continued advance of computing power and accessibility, the view that "real mathematicians don't compute" no longer has any traction for a newer generation of mathematicians. The goal in this book is to present a coherent variety of accessible examples of modern mathematics where intelligent computing plays a significant role and in so doi
This book provides an expansive review of the public goods theme and highlights the inherent linkage between sustainable development and corporate responsibility for improving the current and future welfare of communities both at home and abroad. The main proposition here is that sustainable development is focused on preserving and maintaining public goods. Consequently, whoever uses public goods is liable for their preservation, their maintenance, and, where they are underdeveloped, for their expansion. Successful delivery, both now and in the future, depends on a positive relationship of the public sector with the private sector. This book will serve to stimulate discussions of scholars and policy makers in the field of sustainable development with business leaders, and will close the gap between the public and the private sectors by building a common understanding and common methodologies for implementing and measuring sustainable development in the macro- and the micro-spheres.
Advanced Control Engineering provides a complete course in control engineering for undergraduates of all technical disciplines. Starting with a basic overview of elementary control theory this text quickly moves on to a rigorous examination of more advanced and cutting edge date aspects such as robust and intelligent control, including neural networks and genetic algorithms. With examples from aeronautical, marine and many other types of engineering, Roland Burns draws on his extensive teaching and practical experience presents the subject in an easily understood and applied manner. Control Engineering is a core subject in most technical areas. Problems in each chapter, numerous illustrations and free Matlab files on the accompanying website are brought together to provide a valuable resource for the engineering student and lecturer alike. Complete Course in Control Engineering Real life case studies Numerous problems
The introduction of the thesis consists of four parts: first, we motivate our chosen macroeconomic setting by looking at some real world phenomena. For a better understanding of these phenomena, we argue that the mutual dynamic interactions between flScal policy and financial markets need to be closely examined in a macroeconomic framework. Second, we review different strands of the economic literature in order to show that most of the literature has so far exclusively concentrated either on fmancial market dynamics or on flScal policy issues. We conclude that a more integrated model setting is called for in order to explain the dynamic interactions observed in reality. Third, we discuss at length the economic assumptions underlying our model. This avoids multiple repetition later on. Finally, we outline the structure of the thesis and the objectives we pursue in the different chapters. 1. 1 Motivation Fiscal policy and financial market reactions are increasingly receiving world wide attention. The most recent examples are the Maastricht criteria about flScal control, the South-East Asia financial crisis and the resulting IMF policy stance, the high level of public debt in developed and developing countries and the effect on interest rates and economic growth. In contrast to the still underdeveloped theoretical literature on these dynamic links, finding empirical evidence that supports the existence of these links is not a very hard task.
This comprehensive textbook provides a thorough analysis of the nature of European societies across the expanded EU member states. Using a wealth of data, the authors compare the different dimensions of the territorial and social order of Europe and address a range of issues relating to Europeanisation and key topics such as inequality, migration, poverty, population and family, the labour market and education. Presented in a student friendly way, this book also helps unravel people's attitudes towards Europe, European integration and citizens of other European countries. It will be an essential read for under- and post-graduate students and academics of sociology, European studies, social stratification, social policy and political sciences.
This book provides an introduction to human visual perception suitable for readers studying or working in the fields of computer graphics and visualization, cognitive science, and visual neuroscience. It focuses on how computer graphics images are generated, rather than solely on the organization of the visual system itself; therefore, the text pro
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