Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer US

Formal Methods for Protocol Engineering and Distributed Systems addresses formal description techniques (FDTs) applicable to distributed systems and communication protocols. It aims to present the state of the art in theory, application, tools an industrialization of FDTs. Among the important features presented are: FDT-based system and protocol engineering; FDT application to distributed systems; Protocol engineeering; Practical experience and case studies. Formal Methods for Protocol Engineering and Distributed Systems contains the proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Formal Description Techniques for Distributed Systems and Communication Protocols and Protocol Specification, Testing, and Verification, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and was held in Beijing, China, in October 1999. This volume is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate level course on Distributed Systems or Communications, and as a reference for researchers and industry practitioners.

The Fourier transform is one of the most important mathematical tools in a wide variety of fields in science and engineering. In the abstract it can be viewed as the transformation of a signal in one domain (typically time or space) into another domain, the frequency domain. Applications of Fourier transforms, often called Fourier analysis or harmonic analysis, provide useful decompositions of signals into fundamental or "e;primitive"e; components, provide shortcuts to the computation of complicated sums and integrals, and often reveal hidden structure in data. Fourier analysis lies at the base of many theories of science and plays a fundamental role in practical engineering design. The origins of Fourier analysis in science can be found in Ptolemy's decomposing celestial orbits into cycles and epicycles and Pythagorus' de- composing music into consonances. Its modern history began with the eighteenth century work of Bernoulli, Euler, and Gauss on what later came to be known as Fourier series. J. Fourier in his 1822 Theorie analytique de la Chaleur [16] (still available as a Dover reprint) was the first to claim that arbitrary periodic functions could be expanded in a trigonometric (later called a Fourier) series, a claim that was eventually shown to be incorrect, although not too far from the truth. It is an amusing historical sidelight that this work won a prize from the French Academy, in spite of serious concerns expressed by the judges (Laplace, Lagrange, and Legendre) re- garding Fourier's lack of rigor.

Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology is intended for the clinical cardiologist who wishes to refresh or deepen his understanding of the cellular basis of cardiac electrophysiology, for researchers interested in the basis of the electrical activity of the heart, such as clinical investigators, physiologists or pharmacologists, for teachers in physiology, pharmacology and other biomedical studies, and for medical students from graduate to postgraduate level. Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology starts with a primer of basic electrophysiology, the cardiac action potential and the physiological basis of the electrocardiogram. Our second aim after having introduced the basic concepts was to continue with giving an overview of the properties of the most important ionic currents in the heart, and to treat their modulation, in order to deal with the mechanisms underlying cardiac ischaemia, arrhythmias and remodelling. Edward Carmeliet and Johan Vereecke, Katholieke University Leuven, Belgium, have collaborated for over 30 years in cardiac electrophysiology research. Their studies include the genesis of the normal action potential, its changes in ischaemia, the effect of drugs, and the mechanism of arrhythmias, using techniques from the classic potential registration with intracellular microelectrodes to whole cell clamp and single channel measurements.

Industrial Energy Management: Principles and Applications provides an overall view of the energy management approach by following the stream of energy from factory boundaries to end users. All topics are examined from the point of view of plant users rather than from that of designers and only the basic concepts necessary to clarify the operation of the plants are outlined. Industrial Energy Management: Principles and Applications is written both as a textbook for university courses in engineering and as a work of reference for professionals in energy management. Readers are assumed to have a basic knowledge of thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, electric systems and power electronics, as well as computer programming. This book can be used not only by technicians involved in the field of energy management but also by managers who may find it a useful tool for understanding investment proposals and even a spur to solicit new ones. Industrial Energy Management: Principles and Applications consists of 21 chapters concerning general principles of energy transformation and energy sources, transformation plants such as electrical substantions and boiler plants, cogeneration plants, electrical and thermal fluid distribution lines, facilities plants such as pumps and fans, air compressors, cooling, HVAC and lighting systems, heat recovery equipment, principles of energy auditing and accounting by using computers, correlation between energy and waste, education in the field. At the end of the book a chapter has been dedicated to economic analysis of energy saving investments and evaluation is given of all the cases studied in the book.

Semantic Models for Multimedia Database Searching and Browsing begins with the introduction of multimedia information applications, the need for the development of the multimedia database management systems (MDBMSs), and the important issues and challenges of multimedia systems. The temporal relations, the spatial relations, the spatio-temporal relations, and several semantic models for multimedia information systems are also introduced. In addition, this book discusses recent advances in multimedia database searching and multimedia database browsing. More specifically, issues such as image/video segmentation, motion detection, object tracking, object recognition, knowledge-based event modeling, content-based retrieval, and key frame selections are presented for the first time in a single book. Two case studies consisting of two semantic models are included in the book to illustrate how to use semantic models to design multimedia information systems. Semantic Models for Multimedia Database Searching and Browsing is an excellent reference and can be used in advanced level courses for researchers, scientists, industry professionals, software engineers, students, and general readers who are interested in the issues, challenges, and ideas underlying the current practice of multimedia presentation, multimedia database searching, and multimedia browsing in multimedia information systems.

Security and privacy are paramount concerns in database systems, which are vital to business, government and military operations and, indeed, society itself. Meanwhile, the expansion of the Internet and its convergence with telecommunications networks are providing incredible connectivity, myriad applications and, of course, new threats. Research Directions in Data and Applications Security describes original research results and innovative practical developments, all focused on maintaining security and privacy in database systems and applications that pervade cyberspace. The areas of coverage include: -Role-Based Access Control; -Database Security; -XML Security; -Data Mining and Inference; -Multimedia System Security; -Network Security; -Public Key Infrastructure; -Formal Methods and Protocols; -Security and Privacy. This book is the sixteenth volume in the series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.3 on Data and Application Security. It presents a selection of twenty-five updated and edited papers from the Sixteenth Annual IFIP WG 11.3 Conference on Data and Application Security, held at King's College, Cambridge, U.K. in July 2002. The papers demonstrate the richness and vitality of the discipline, and offer directions for future research efforts in data and applications security. Research Directions in Data and Applications Security is an invaluable resource for information assurance researchers, faculty members and graduate students, as well as for individuals engaged in research and development in the information technology sector.

Why does someone write a book about Tungsten? There are several reasons and precedents for this, the most important of which is that the last book on tungsten was written more than 20 years ago, in 1977, by St. W H. Yih and Ch T. Wang. During the intervening period there have been many new scientific and technological developments and innova- tions, so it was not only our opinion but the view of many other members of the "e;tungsten family"e; that it was time to start writing a new book about tungsten. Preparations of the new book began in 1994. further impetus to the project was provided by the realization that in spite of this new knowledge having been presented at seminars or published in the technical press, a general acknowledgement of it by the majority of technicians and scientists is still far from being realized. It is our hope that this book will significantly contribute to a broader acceptance of recent scientific and technological innovations. An important prerequisite for such a project is the availability of a recently retired, experienced person willing to devote his time and talents to the tedious part of the exercise.

PDE & Level Sets: Algorithmic Approaches to Static & Motion Imagery is specially dedicated to the segmentation of complex shapes from the field of imaging sciences using level sets and PDEs. It covers the fundamentals of level sets, different kinds of concepts of both geodesic curvature flows and planar flows, as well as the power of incorporation of regional-statistics in level set framework. In covering this material, this book presents segmentation of object-in-motion imagery based on level sets in eigen analysis framework, while also presenting classical problems of boundary completion in cognitive images, like the pop-up of subjective contours in the famous triangle of Kanizsa using surface evolution framework, or the mean curvature evolution of a graph with respect to the Riemannian metric induced by the image. All results are presented for modal completion of cognitive objects with missing boundaries. PDE & Level Sets: Algorithmic Approaches to Static & Motion Imagery is aimed at researchers and educators in imaging sciences, biomedical engineering, applied mathematics, algorithmic development, computer vision, signal processing, computer graphics and multimedia in general, both in academia and industry. Key Features: -Presents detailed review of PDEs and level sets, -Covers concepts of geodesic curvature flows and planar flows, -Offers advance applications of level sets for crack propagation and planar cracks, -Describes multi-resolution level sets for segmentation of video images, -Identifies fusion of fuzzy techniques in level set framework, -Discusses the role of subjective surfaces and Riemannian metric.

Autopsy derives from the greek word autopsia, which means act of seeing with one's own eyes. It remains the most objective and accurate method to understand human. disease. Unfortunately, the volume of autopsies in teaching hospitals has decreased dramatically over the past years. The crucial factors that account for this are the recent progress and development of new technologies, especially in diagnostic imaging, immunology, cell biology and genetics. Additionally, the perpetual fear of legal liability by physicians accounts for its further decline. Consequently, physicians and medical students are engaged in fewer autopsies and are not reaping the rich educational rewards that accompany these examinations. The purpose of the autopsy is not only to establish the cause of death, but also to determine the nature and course of the disease process. Our goal with this book is to emphasize the importance of the post-mortem exam and the correlation between pathologic material and clinical data by analyzing actual cases with problem-based methodology. The focus of this handbook is on cardiovascular disease, and when appropriate, other disease categories are included if they have an impact on cardiovascular function. The approach is more than the usual clinico-pathological correlation. Rather, we attempt to present the material from the perspective of the autopsy table. We use the clinical data as the initial framework and the autopsy findings to develop a true understanding of the disease and the associated pathophysiology of the condition.

As computer power grows and data collection technologies advance, a plethora of data is generated in almost every field where computers are used. The com- puter generated data should be analyzed by computers; without the aid of computing technologies, it is certain that huge amounts of data collected will not ever be examined, let alone be used to our advantages. Even with today's advanced computer technologies (e. g. , machine learning and data mining sys- tems), discovering knowledge from data can still be fiendishly hard due to the characteristics of the computer generated data. Taking its simplest form, raw data are represented in feature-values. The size of a dataset can be measUJ*ed in two dimensions, number of features (N) and number of instances (P). Both Nand P can be enormously large. This enormity may cause serious problems to many data mining systems. Feature selection is one of the long existing methods that deal with these problems. Its objective is to select a minimal subset of features according to some reasonable criteria so that the original task can be achieved equally well, if not better. By choosing a minimal subset offeatures, irrelevant and redundant features are removed according to the criterion. When N is reduced, the data space shrinks and in a sense, the data set is now a better representative of the whole data population. If necessary, the reduction of N can also give rise to the reduction of P by eliminating duplicates.

Divided into four parts, this book covers recent developments in topics pertaining to gravity theories, including discussions on the presence of scalar fields. Part One is devoted to exact solutions in general relativity, and is mainly concerned with the results of rotating null dust beams and fluids. Also included is a panoramic vision of new research directions in this area, which would require revising certain theorems and their possible extensions within gravity theories, new aspects concerning the Ernst potentials, double Kerr spacetimes, and rotating configurations. In particular, there is a detailed discussion of totally symmetric and totally geodesic spaces, in which a method for generating (2+1)-dimensional solutions from (3+1)-dimensional solutions is given. Part Two deals with alternative theories of gravity, all of which include scalar fields and gauge fields. Here, quantum and cosmological effects, which arise from both gravity theories in four and higher dimensions and from metric-affine theories, are investigated. Part Three is devoted to cosmological and inflationary scenarios. Local effects, such as the influence of scalar fields in protogalactic interactions, numerical studies of the collapse of molecular cores, as well as the inverse inflationary problem and the blue eigenvalue spectrum of it, are considered. Moreover, the role of scalar fields as dark matter and quantum cosmology in the Bergman-Wagoner and Gowdy theories, together with the relation of the conformal symmetry and deflationary gas universe, are likewise presented. The last part of the book includes some mixed topics which are still in the experimental stage. Among them are the foundation of the Maxwell theory, a discussion on electromagnetic Thirring problems, a note on the staticity of black holes with non-minimally coupled scalar fields, and a study of the Lorentz force free charged fluids in general relativity. Thus, this book is the most up-to-date, comprehensive collection of papers on the subject of exact solutions and scalar fields in gravity and is a valuable tool for researchers in the area.