Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

Cross disciplinary biometric systems help boost the performance of the conventional systems. Not only is the recognition accuracy significantly improved, but also the robustness of the systems is greatly enhanced in the challenging environments, such as varying illumination conditions. By leveraging the cross disciplinary technologies, face recognition systems, fingerprint recognition systems, iris recognition systems, as well as image search systems all benefit in terms of recognition performance. Take face recognition for an example, which is not only the most natural way human beings recognize the identity of each other, but also the least privacy-intrusive means because people show their face publicly every day. Face recognition systems display superb performance when they capitalize on the innovative ideas across color science, mathematics, and computer science (e.g., pattern recognition, machine learning, and image processing). The novel ideas lead to the development of new color models and effective color features in color science; innovative features from wavelets and statistics, and new kernel methods and novel kernel models in mathematics; new discriminant analysis frameworks, novel similarity measures, and new image analysis methods, such as fusing multiple image features from frequency domain, spatial domain, and color domain in computer science; as well as system design, new strategies for system integration, and different fusion strategies, such as the feature level fusion, decision level fusion, and new fusion strategies with novel similarity measures.

Cross Disciplinary Biometric Systems

Nanodust in the Solar System

Nanodust in the Solar System

Nanodust and nanometer-sized structures are important components of many objects in space. Nanodust is observed in evolved stars, young stellar objects, protoplanetary disks, and dust debris disks. Within the solar system, nanodust is observed with in-situ experiments from spacecraft. Nanometer-sized substructures are found in the collected cometary and interplanetary dust particles and in meteorites. Understanding the growth and destruction of dust, its internal evolution, as well as the optical properties and the detection of nanoparticles is of fundamental importance for astrophysical research.This book provides a focused description of the current state of research and experimental results concerning nanodust in the solar system. It addresses three major questions: What is nanodust? How was it discovered in the solar system? And how do we interpret the observations? The book serves as a self-contained reference work for space researchers and provides solid information on nanodust in cosmic environments for researchers working in astrophysics or in other fields of physics.

Nanodust in the Solar System

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

There are many examples of cooperation in Nature: cells cooperate to form tissues, organs cooperate to form living organisms, and individuals cooperate to raise their offspring or to hunt. However, why cooperation emerges and survives in hostile environments, when defecting would be a much more profitable short-term strategy, is a question that still remains open. During the past few years, several explanations have been proposed, including kin and group selection, punishment and reputation mechanisms, or network reciprocity. This last one will be the center of the present study. The thesis explores the interface between the underlying structure of a given population and the outcome of the cooperative dynamics taking place on top of it, (namely, the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game). The first part of this work analyzes the case of a static system, where the pattern of connections is fixed, so it does not evolve over time. The second part develops two models for growing topologies, where the growth and the dynamics are entangled.

Evolutionary Games in Complex Topologies

The Ainu of Japan

The Ainu of Japan

Taking an in-depth look at distinct aboriginal cultures, these comprehensive volumes balance information about both traditional and modern lifeways. From their history and cultural practices to their religions and the landscapes they call home, discover the intricacies of each featured native culture. Supports the national curriculum standards Culture; Time, Continuity, and Change; People, Places, and Environments; Individuals, Groups, and Institutions; Power, Authority, and Governance; Production, Distribution, and Consumption; Science Technology and Society; and Global Connections as outlined by the National Council for the Social Studies. The Ainu of Japan have shared their homeland with the Japanese people for centuries. Although the two cultures were very different in ancient times, the Ainu have since been forced to adopt many Japanese customs. After years of discrimination, the Ainu still strive to be treated as equals in modern Japanese society while retaining their independent culture.

The Ainu of Japan

Heterogeneous Multicore Processor Technologies for Embedded Systems

Heterogeneous Multicore Processor Technologies for Embedded Systems

To satisfy the higher requirements of digitally converged embedded systems, this book describes heterogeneous multicore technology that uses various kinds of low-power embedded processor cores on a single chip. With this technology, heterogeneous parallelism can be implemented on an SoC, and greater flexibility and superior performance per watt can then be achieved. This book defines the heterogeneous multicore architecture and explains in detail several embedded processor cores including CPU cores and special-purpose processor cores that achieve highly arithmetic-level parallelism. The authors developed three multicore chips (called RP-1, RP-2, and RP-X) according to the defined architecture with the introduced processor cores. The chip implementations, software environments, and applications running on the chips are also explained in the book.Provides readers an overview and practical discussion of heterogeneous multicore technologies from both a hardware and software point of view;Discusses a new, high-performance and energy efficient approach to designing SoCs for digitally converged, embedded systems;Covers hardware issues such as architecture and chip implementation, as well as software issues such as compilers, operating systems, and application programs;Describes three chips developed according to the defined heterogeneous multicore architecture, including chip implementations, software environments, and working applications

Heterogeneous Multicore Processor Technologies for Embedded Systems

Bilingual Youth

Bilingual Youth

The present volume represents a variety of portraits of what happens when families attempt to raise children in Spanish while living in English-speaking societies. Aided by the foregrounding chapter by Suzanne Romaine about language and identity and the afterword by Carol Klee that ties together many issues brought up throughout the collection, the reader gains a more complete understanding of the variables that contribute to Spanish bilingualism in English-speaking societies, and by extension a more complete understanding of the dynamic nature of bilingualism in general. This volume, the first of its kind, brings together an impressive array of sociolinguistic environments while keeping the two languages constant. We hope that it marks the beginning of comparative analyses of bilingualism, acquisition outcomes, and identity construction across environments that share the same languages, but where important disparities exist in the sociolinguistic landscapes.

Bilingual Youth

Trustworthy Ubiquitous Computing

Trustworthy Ubiquitous Computing

Trustworthy Ubiquitous Computing covers aspects of trust in ubiquitous computing environments. The aspects of context, privacy, reliability, usability and user experience related to emerged and exciting new computing paradigm of Ubiquitous Computing, includes pervasive, grid, and peer-to-peer computing including sensor networks to provide secure computing and communication services at anytime and anywhere. Marc Weiser presented his vision of disappearing and ubiquitous computing more than 15 years ago. The big picture of the computer introduced into our environment was a big innovation and the starting point for various areas of research. In order to totally adopt the idea of ubiquitous computing several houses were build, equipped with technology and used as laboratory in order to find and test appliances that are useful and could be made available in our everyday life. Within the last years industry picked up the idea of integrating ubiquitous computing and already available products like remote controls for your house were developed and brought to the market. In spite of many applications and projects in the area of ubiquitous and pervasive computing the success is still far away. One of the main reasons is the lack of acceptance of and confidence in this technology. Although researchers and industry are working in all of these areas a forum to elaborate security, reliability and privacy issues, that resolve in trustworthy interfaces and computing environments for people interacting within these ubiquitous environments is important. The user experience factor of trust thus becomes a crucial issue for the success of a UbiComp application. The goal of this book is to provide a state the art of Trustworthy Ubiquitous Computing to address recent research results and to present and discuss the ideas, theories, technologies, systems, tools, applications and experiences on all theoretical and practical issues.

Trustworthy Ubiquitous Computing

Sanitation

Sanitation

Finally, an up-to-date guide to cleaning and disinfection for the food preparation and processing industries. It discusses a host of examples from various food industries as well as topics universal to many industries, including biofilm formation, general sanitizing, and clean-in-place systems. Equally, the principles related to contamination, cleaning compounds, sanitizers and cleaning equipment are addressed. As a result, concepts of applied detergency are developed in order to understand and solve problems related to the cleaning and disinfection of laboratories, plants and other industrial environments where foods and beverages are prepared.

Sanitation

Essential ASP.NET Fast

Essential ASP.NET Fast

How to create dynamic web environments using the ASP .NET framework! The ASP .NET framework enables the development of dynamic web pages, which can interface to various database systems. Using the Visual Basic .NET language you will be able to begin to create your own web systems with ease. This quick and practical introduction explains: how to setup an ASP.NET development environment, and where to find the various software components.- the syntax and features of the language.- web-based user interaction using ASP .NET forms.- pre-defined ASP .NET objects.- how ASP .NET can interface with databases. Clearly written, this book provides you with all the essential information you need to create your own dynamic web environments using ASP .NET. Additional material is available from the Essential series web site: http://www.essential-series.com

Essential ASP.NET Fast

Crime Prevention - Eighth Edition

Crime Prevention - Eighth Edition

This timely revision of Crime Prevention: Approaches, Practices, and Evaluations provides an up-to-date collection of the research on crime prevention. The prevailing approaches and strategies are organized into categories of primary prevention (designed to prevent conditions that foster deviance), secondary prevention (directed toward persons or conditions with a high potential for deviance), and tertiary prevention (dealing with those who have already committed offenses). The effects of physical environments, the mass media, displacement and diffusion, electronic monitoring, and home confinement are also explored. In addition to presenting a discussion of the different prevention approaches, the author provides insight into the effectiveness of each approach.

Crime Prevention - Eighth Edition

Games Against Nature

Games Against Nature

In this book, Robert Harms makes an important advance toward recovering the history of the people of the rain forest by telling the story of the Nunu, who live in and around swampy floodplains of the middle Zaire River. Using concepts drawn from game theory, Professor Harms explores the changing relationship between nature and culture among the Nunu. Picturing Nunu society as animated by a never-ending competition among lineages and households, he traces how the competition pushed people into new environments, and how adaption to the new environment, in turn, led to new forms of competition.

Games Against Nature

Best Practice in Professional Supervision

Best Practice in Professional Supervision

Best Practice in Professional Supervision is an authoritative guide to being an excellent supervisor, covering the role, functions and dispositions involved. The authors consider basic skills, the practicalities of forming and maintaining the supervision relationship, and the organisational context and culture of supervision. The book offers practical examples and a model of supervision which draws together ideas from adult learning theory and reflective practice. Viewing supervision as a place for learning, this guide considers how supervision can assist practitioners to develop professional resilience and manage the stresses of complex work environments. It also includes specific chapters on supervision of clinical student placements and in child protection settings. This book covers a range of professions including social care, nursing, counselling, social work and allied health professions, and is an essential guide for all those in these and related professions undertaking supervision or supervision training.

Best Practice in Professional Supervision

Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

Almost all homes, apartments, and commercial buildings will experience leaks, flooding, or other forms of excessive indoor dampness at some point. Not only is excessive dampness a health problem by itself, it also contributes to several other potentially problematic types of situations. Molds and other microbial agents favor damp indoor environments, and excess moisture may initiate the release of chemical emissions from damaged building materials and furnishings. This new book from the Institute of Medicine examines the health impact of exposures resulting from damp indoor environments and offers recommendations for public health interventions.

Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

Dexterous and autonomous manipulation is a key technology for the personal and service robots of the future. Advances in Bimanual Manipulation edited by Bruno Siciliano provides the robotics community with the most noticeable results of the four-year European project DEXMART (DEXterous and autonomous dual-arm hand robotic manipulation with sMART sensory-motor skills: A bridge from natural to artificial cognition). The volume covers a host of highly important topics in the field, concerned with modelling and learning of human manipulation skills, algorithms for task planning, human-robot interaction, and grasping, as well as hardware design of dexterous anthropomorphic hands. The results described in this five-chapter collection are believed to pave the way towards the development of robotic systems endowed with dexterous and human-aware dual-arm/hand manipulation skills for objects, operating with a high degree of autonomy in unstructured real-world environments.

Advanced Bimanual Manipulation

50 Jobs in 50 States

50 Jobs in 50 States

Like lots of college grads, Daniel Seddiqui was having a hard time finding a job. But despite more than forty rejections, he knew opportunities had to exist. So he set out on an extraordinary quest: fifty jobs in fifty states in fifty weeks. And not just any jobshe chose professions that reflected the culture and economy of each state. Working as everything from a cheesemaker in Wisconsin, a border patrol agent in Arizona, and a meatpacker in Kansas to a lobsterman in Maine, a surfing instructor in Hawaii, and a football coach in Alabama, Daniel chronicles how he adapted to the wildly differing people, cultures, and environments. From one week to the next he had no idea exactly what his duties would be, where hed be sleeping, what hed be eating, or how hed be received. He became a roving news item, appearing on CNN, Fox News, World News Tonight, MSNBC, and the Today showwhich was good preparation for his stint as a television weatherman. Tackling challenge after challengeovercoming anxiety about working four miles underground in a West Virginia coal mine, learning to walk on six-foot stilts (in a full Egyptian king costume) at a Florida amusement park, racing the clock as a pit-crew member at an Indiana racetrackDaniel completed his journey a changed man. In this book he shares stories about the people he met, reveals the lessons he learned, and explains the five principles that kept him going.

50 Jobs in 50 States

Random Perturbation Methods with Applications in Science and Engineering, Volume 150

Random Perturbation Methods with Applications in Science and Engineering, Volume 150

As systems evolve, they are subjected to random operating environments. In addition, random errors occur in measurements of their outputs and in their design and fabrication where tolerances are not precisely met. This book develops methods for describing random dynamical systems, and it illustrates how the methods can be used in a variety of applications. The first half of the book concentrates on finding approximations to random processes using the methodologies of probability theory. The second half of the book derives approximations to solutions of various problems in mechanics, electronic circuits, population biology, and genetics. In each example, the underlying physical or biological phenomenon is described in terms of nonrandom models taken from the literature, and the impact of random noise on the solutions is investigated. The mathematical problems in these applicitons involve random pertubations of gradient systems, Hamiltonian systems, toroidal flows, Markov chains, difference equations, filters, and nonlinear renewal equations. The models are analyzed using the approximation methods described here and are visualized using MATLAB-based computer simulations.

Random Perturbation Methods with Applications in Science and Engineering, Volume 150

Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge- Centered Systems IX

Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge- Centered Systems IX

The L.N.C.S. journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between Grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This, the fifth issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains nine selected full-length papers, focusing on the topics of query processing, information extraction, management of dataspaces and contents, and mobile applications.

Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge- Centered Systems IX

Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition

Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition

A modern computer system that’s not part of a , is even more of an anomaly today than it was when we published the first edition of this book in 1991. But however widespread networks have become, managing a network and getting it to perform well can still be a problem.Managing NFS and NIS, in a new edition based on , 8, is a guide to two tools that are absolutely essential to distributed computing environments: the Network Filesystem (NFS) and the Network Information System (formerly called the ‘yellow pages’ or YP).,

The Network Filesystem, developed by Sun Microsystems, is fundamental to most Unix networks. It lets systems ranging from PCs and Unix workstations to large mainframes , each other’s files transparently, and is the standard method for sharing files between different computer systems.

Managing NFS and NIS, 2nd Edition

Linux System Administration

Linux System Administration

If you’re an experienced system administrator looking to acquire , skills, or a seasoned Linux user facing a new challenge, Linux System , offers practical knowledge for managing a complete range of Linux systems and servers. The book summarizes the steps you need to build everything from standalone SOHO hubs, web servers, and LAN servers to load-balanced clusters and servers consolidated through virtualization. Along the way, you’ll learn about all of the tools you need to set up and maintain these working environments.,

Linux is now a standard corporate platform with users numbering in the hundreds of millions, and there is a definite shortage of talented administrators. Linux System Administration is ideal as an introduction to Linux for Unix veterans, MCSEs, and mainframe administrators, and as an advanced (and refresher) guide for existing Linux administrators who will want to jump into the middle of the book.

Linux System Administration

Programming Sound with Pure Data

Programming Sound with Pure Data

Sound gives your native, web, or , apps that extra dimension, and it’s essential for games. Rather than using canned samples from a sample library, learn how to build sounds from the ground up and produce them for web projects using the Pure Data , language. Even better, you’ll be able to integrate dynamic sound environments into your native apps or games-sound that reacts to the app, instead of sounding the same every time. Start your journey as a sound designer, and get the power to craft the sound you put into your digital experiences.,

Add sound effects or music to your web, Android, and , apps and games–sound that can react to changing environments or user input dynamically (at least in the native apps). You can do all this with Pure Data, a visual programming language for digital sound processing.

Programming Sound with Pure Data