springer international publishing dez 2007 (99 results)

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Pragmatic Logic presents the analysis and design of digital logic systems. The author begins with a brief study of binary and hexadecimal number systems and then looks at the basics of Boolean algebra. The study of logic circuits is divided into two parts, combinational logic, which has no memory, and sequential logic, which does. Numerous examples highlight the principles being presented. The text ends with an introduction to digital logic design using Verilog, a hardware description language.The chapter on Verilog can be studied along with the other chapters in the text. After the reader has completed combinational logic in Chapters 4 and 5, sections 9.1 and 9.2 would be appropriate. Similarly, the rest of Chapter 9 could be studied after completing sequential logic in Chapters 6 and 7.This short lecture book will be of use to students at any level of electrical or computer engineering and for practicing engineers or scientists in any field looking for a practical and applied introduction to digital logic. The author's ''pragmatic'' and applied style gives a unique and helpful ''non-idealist, practical, opinionated'' introduction to digital systems. 220 pp. Englisch.

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Introduction to Logic Synthesis Using Verilog HDL explains how to write accurate Verilog descriptions of digital systems that can be synthesized into digital system netlists with desirable characteristics. The book contains numerous Verilog examples that begin with simple combinational networks and progress to synchronous sequential logic systems. Common pitfalls in the development of synthesizable Verilog HDL are also discussed along with methods for avoiding them. The target audience is anyone with a basic understanding of digital logic principles who wishes to learn how to model digital systems in the Verilog HDL in a manner that also allows for automatic synthesis. A wide range of readers, from hobbyists and undergraduate students to seasoned professionals, will find this a compelling and approachable work. The book provides concise coverage of the material and includes many examples, enabling readers to quickly generate high-quality synthesizable Verilog models. 84 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This lecture provides an introduction to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a technology enabling automatic identification of objects at a distance without requiring line-of-sight. Electronic tagging can be divided into technologies that have a power source (active tags), and those that are powered by the tag interrogation signal (passive tags); the focus here is on passive tags. An overview of the principles of the technology divides passive tags into devices that use either near field or far field coupling to communicate with a tag reader. The strengths and weaknesses of the approaches are considered, along with the standards that have been put in place by ISO and EPCGlobal to promote interoperability and the ubiquitous adoption of the technology. A section of the lecture has been dedicated to the principles of reading co-located tags, as this represents a significant challenge for a technology that may one day be able to automatically identify all of the items in your shopping cart in a just few seconds. In fact, RFID applications are already quite extensive and this lecture classifies the primary uses. Some variants of modern RFID can also be integrated with sensors enabling the technology to be extended to measure parameters in the local environment, such as temperature & pressure. The uses and applications of RFID sensors are further described and classified. Later we examine important lessons surrounding the deployment of RFID for the Wal-Mart and the Metro AG store experiences, along with deployments in some more exploratory settings. Extensions of RFID that make use of read/write memory integrated with the tag are also discussed, in particular looking at novel near term opportunities. Privacy and social implications surrounding the use of RFID inspire recurring debates whenever there is discussion of large scale deployment; we examine the pros and cons of the issues and approaches for mitigating the problems. Finally, the remaining challenges of RFID are considered and we look to the future possibilities for the technology. Table of Contents: Introduction / Principles of Radio Frequency Identification / RFID Industry Standards / Reading Collected RFID Tags / Applications of RFID Tagging / RFID Incorporating Sensing / Deployment and Experience with RFID Systems / Privacy, Kill Switches, and Blocker Tags / Opportunities for RFID Integrated with Memory / Challenges, Future Technology, and Conclusion 96 pp. Englisch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Most antenna engineers are likely to believe that antennas are one technology that is more or less impervious to the rapidly advancing semiconductor industry. However, as demonstrated in this lecture, there is a way to incorporate active components into an antenna and transform it into a new kind of radiating structure that can take advantage of the latest advances in analog circuit design. The approach for making this transformation is to make use of non-Foster circuit elements in the matching network of the antenna. By doing so, we are no longer constrained by the laws of physics that apply to passive antennas. However, we must now design and construct very touchy active circuits. This new antenna technology is now in its infancy. The contributions of this lecture are (1) to summarize the current state-of-the-art in this subject, and (2) to introduce some new theoretical and practical tools for helping us to continue the advancement of this technology. 56 pp. Englisch.

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

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

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

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

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The confluence of decades of computer science and computer engineering research in multimodal interaction (e.g., speech and gesture recognition), machine learning (e.g., classification and feature extraction), software (e.g., web browsers, distributed agents), electronics (e.g., energy-efficient microprocessors, head-mounted displays), design methodology in user-centered design, and rapid prototyping have enabled a new class of computers-wearable computers. The lecture takes the viewpoint of a potential designer or researcher in wearable computing. Designing wearable computers requires attention to many different factors because of the computer's closeness to the body and its use while performing other tasks. For the purposes of discussion, we have created the UCAMP framework, which consists of the following factors: user, corporal, attention, manipulation, and perception. Each of these factors and their importance is described. A number of example prototypes developed by the authors, as well as by other researchers, are used to illustrate these concepts. Wearable computers have established their first foothold in several application domains, such as vehicle and aircraft maintenance and manufacturing, inspection, language translation, and other areas. The lecture continues by describing the next step in the evolution of wearable computers, namely, context awareness. Context-aware computing takes into account a user's state and surroundings, and the mobile computer modifies its behavior based on this information. A user's context can be quite rich, consisting of attributes such as physical location, physiological state, personal history, daily behavioral patterns, and so forth. If a human assistant were given such context, he or she would make decisions in a proactive fashion, anticipating user needs, and acting as a proactive assistant. The goal is to enable mobile computers to play an analogous role, exploiting context information to significantly reduce demands on human attention. Context-aware intelligent agents can deliver relevant information when a user needs that information. These data make possible many exciting new applications, such as augmented reality, context-aware collaboration, and augmented manufacturing. The combined studies and research reported in this lecture suggest a number of useful guidelines for designing wearable computing devices. Also included with the guidelines is a list of questions that designers should consider when beginning to design a wearable computer. The research directions section emphasizes remaining challenges and trends in the areas of user interface, modalities of interaction, and wearable cognitive augmentation. Finally, we summarize the most important challenges and conclude with a projection of future directions in wearable computing. Table of Contents: Introduction / The Wearable Computing UCAMP / Design Guidelines for Wearable Computing / Research Directions / Conclusions and Future Challenges 76 pp. Englisch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This lecture explores the emerging area of reconfigurable antennas from basic concepts that provide insight into fundamental design approaches to advanced techniques and examples that offer important new capabilities for next-generation applications. Antennas are necessary and critical components of communication and radar systems, but sometimes their inability to adjust to new operating scenarios can limit system performance. Making antennas reconfigurable so that their behavior can adapt with changing system requirements or environmental conditions can ameliorate or eliminate these restrictions and provide additional levels of functionality for any system. For example, reconfigurable antennas on portable wireless devices can help to improve a noisy connection or redirect transmitted power to conserve battery life. In large phased arrays, reconfigurable antennas could be used to provide additional capabilities that may result in wider instantaneous frequency bandwidths, more extensive scan volumes, and radiation patterns with more desirable side lobe distributions. Written for individuals with a range of experience, from those with only limited prior knowledge of antennas to those working in the field today, this lecture provides both theoretical foundations and practical considerations for those who want to learn more about this exciting subject.Contents: Introduction / Definitions of Critical Parameters for Antenna Operation / Linkage Between Frequency Response and Radiation Characteristics: Implications for Reconfigurable Antennas / Methods for Achieving Frequency Response Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Polarization Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Radiation Pattern Reconfigurability / Methods for Achieving Compound Reconfigurable Antennas / Practical Issues for Implementing Reconfigurable Antennas / Conclusions and Directions for Future work 76 pp. Englisch.

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

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Light field is one of the most representative image-based rendering techniques that generate novel virtual views from images instead of 3D models. The light field capture and rendering process can be considered as a procedure of sampling the light rays in the space and interpolating those in novel views. As a result, light field can be studied as a high-dimensional signal sampling problem, which has attracted a lot of research interest and become a convergence point between computer graphics and signal processing, and even computer vision. This lecture focuses on answering two questions regarding light field sampling, namely how many images are needed for a light field, and if such number is limited, where we should capture them. The book can be divided into three parts. First, we give a complete analysis on uniform sampling of IBR data. By introducing the surface plenoptic function, we are able to analyze the Fourier spectrum of non-Lambertian and occluded scenes. Given the spectrum, we also apply the generalized sampling theorem on the IBR data, which results in better rendering quality than rectangular sampling for complex scenes. Such uniform sampling analysis provides general guidelines on how the images in IBR should be taken. For instance, it shows that non-Lambertian and occluded scenes often require a higher sampling rate. Next, we describe a very general sampling framework named freeform sampling. Freeform sampling handles three kinds of problems: sample reduction, minimum sampling rate to meet an error requirement, and minimization of reconstruction error given a fixed number of samples. When the to-be-reconstructed function values are unknown, freeform sampling becomes active sampling. Algorithms of active sampling are developed for light field and show better results than the traditional uniform sampling approach. Third, we present a self-reconfigurable camera array that we developed, which features a very efficient algorithm for real-time rendering and the ability of automatically reconfiguring the cameras to improve the rendering quality. Both are based on active sampling. Our camera array is able to render dynamic scenes interactively at high quality. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first camera array that can reconfigure the camera positions automatically. 104 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This is the third in a series of short books on probability theory and random processes for biomedical engineers. This book focuses on standard probability distributions commonly encountered in biomedical engineering. The exponential, Poisson and Gaussian distributions are introduced, as well as important approximations to the Bernoulli PMF and Gaussian CDF. Many important properties of jointly Gaussian random variables are presented. The primary subjects of the final chapter are methods for determining the probability distribution of a function of a random variable. We first evaluate the probability distribution of a function of one random variable using the CDF and then the PDF. Next, the probability distribution for a single random variable is determined from a function of two random variables using the CDF. Then, the joint probability distribution is found from a function of two random variables using the joint PDF and the CDF. The aim of all three books is as an introduction to probability theory. The audience includes students, engineers and researchers presenting applications of this theory to a wide variety of problems-as well as pursuing these topics at a more advanced level. The theory material is presented in a logical manner-developing special mathematical skills as needed. The mathematical background required of the reader is basic knowledge of differential calculus. Pertinent biomedical engineering examples are throughout the text. Drill problems, straightforward exercises designed to reinforce concepts and develop problem solution skills, follow most sections. 112 pp. Englisch.