Biodiversity of West African Forests

Biodiversity of West African Forests

This book focuses on the biodiversity and ecology of West African forests. The first part of the book includes 8 chapters which analyse the factors that give rise to biodiversity and structure tropical plant communities. It emphasizes the distribution and state of the forests and analyses vegetation gradients, determines hotspots of plant diversity, and treats distribution patterns of rare and endemic species in the Upper Guinean forests which extend from Senegal to Togo. The main part of the book is an atlas with ecological profiles of 280 rare and endemic plant species and 56 large timber species, each with a one-page entry including a coloured photograph and distribution map. This book will appeal to researchers working in forestry, biodiversity, plant ecology and conservation.

Biodiversity of West African Forests

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

Intended for students of intermediate organic chemistry, this text shows how to write a reasonable mechanism for an organic chemical transformation. The discussion is organized by types of mechanisms and the conditions under which the reaction is executed, rather than by the overall reaction as is the case in most textbooks. The treatment emphasizes unifying principles, showing how common mechanisms link seemingly disparate reactions. Each chapter discusses common mechanistic pathways and suggests practical tips for drawing them. Worked problems are included in the discussion of each mechanism, and ‘common error alerts’ are scattered throughout the text to warn readers about pitfalls and misconceptions that bedevil students. Each chapter is capped by a large problem set.

The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms

Open Quantum Systems I

Open Quantum Systems I

Understanding dissipative dynamics of open quantum systems remains a challenge in mathematical physics. This problem is relevant in various areas of fundamental and applied physics. From a mathematical point of view, it involves a large body of knowledge. Significant progress in the understanding of such systems has been made during the last decade. These books present in a self-contained way the mathematical theories involved in the modeling of such phenomena. They describe physically relevant models, develop their mathematical analysis and derive their physical implications.

Open Quantum Systems I

Axions

Axions

Axions are peculiar hypothetical particles that could both solve the CP problem of quantum chromodynamics and at the same time account for the dark matter of the universe. Based on a series of lectures by world experts in this field held at CERN (Geneva), this volume provides a pedagogical introduction to the theory, cosmology and astrophysics of these fascinating particles and gives an up-to-date account of the status and prospect of ongoing and planned experimental searches. Learners and practitioners of astroparticle physics will find in this book both a concise introduction and a current reference work to a showcase topic that connects the ‘inner space’ of the elementary particle world with the ‘outer space’ of the universe at large.

Axions

Introduction to Stochastic Calculus for Finance

Introduction to Stochastic Calculus for Finance

The large number of already available textbooks on stochastic calculus with specific applications to finance requires a justification for another contribution to this subject. The justifcation is mainly pedagogical. These lecture notes start with an elementary approach to stochastic calculus due to Fllmer, who showed that one can develop Ito’s calculus ‘pathwise’ as an exercise in real analysis. The text opens to students interested in finance a quick (but by no means ‘dirty’) road to the tools required for advanced finance in continuous time, including option pricing by martingale methods, term structure models in a HJM-framework and the Libor market model. The reader is supposed only to be familiar with elementary real analysis (e.g. Taylor’s Theorem) and basic probability theory. The text is also useful for mathematicians interested in the methods of modern mathematical finance without prior knowledge of advanced stochastic analysis.

Introduction to Stochastic Calculus for Finance

Phonetic Search Methods for Large Speech Databases

Phonetic Search Methods for Large Speech Databases

Phonetic Search Methods for Large Databases focuses on Keyword Spotting (KWS) within large speech databases. The brief will begin by outlining the challenges associated with Keyword Spotting within large speech databases using dynamic keyword vocabularies. It will then continue by highlighting the various market segments in need of KWS solutions, as well as, the specific requirements of each market segment. The work also includes a detailed description of the complexity of the task and the different methods that are used, including the advantages and disadvantages of each method and an in-depth comparison. The main focus will be on the Phonetic Search method and its efficient implementation. This will include a literature review of the various methods used for the efficient implementation of Phonetic Search Keyword Spotting, with an emphasis on the authors own research which entails a comparative analysis of the Phonetic Search method which includes algorithmic details. This brief is useful for researchers and developers in academia and industry from the fields of speech processing and speech recognition, specifically Keyword Spotting.

Phonetic Search Methods for Large Speech Databases

The Newcom++ Vision Book

The Newcom++ Vision Book

The Book contains the Vision of the researchers of the European Network of Excellence NEWCOM++ (Network of Excellence on Wireless COMmunication) on the present and future status of Wireless Communication Networks. In its content, the community of NEWCOM++ researchers, shaped under the common ground of a mainly academic network of excellence, have distilled their scientific wisdom in a number of areas characterized by the common denominator of wireless communications, by identifying the medium-long term research tendencies/problems, describing the tools to face them and providing a relatively large number of references for the interested reader. The identified areas and the researchers involved in their redaction reflect the intersection of the major topics in wireless communications with those that are deeply investigated in NEWCOM++; they are preceded by an original description of the main trends in user/society needs and the degree of fulfilment that ongoing and future wireless communications standards will more likely help achieving. The appendix of the Book contains a list of ‘Millenium Problems’, seminal problems in the area of wireless communication networks, characterized by being crucial and still unsolved. The problems have been identified by NEWCOM++ researchers and filtered by the editors of the Vision Book.

The Newcom++ Vision Book

Security in Embedded Devices

Security in Embedded Devices

Although security is prevalent in PCs, wireless communications and other systems today, it is expected to become increasingly important and widespread in many embedded devices. For some time, typical embedded system designers have been dealing with tremendous challenges in performance, power, price and reliability. However now they must additionally deal with definition of security requirements, security design and implementation. Given the limited number of security engineers in the market, large background of cryptography with which these standards are based upon, and difficulty of ensuring the implementation will also be secure from attacks, security design remains a challenge. This book provides the foundations for understanding embedded security design, outlining various aspects of security in devices ranging from typical wireless devices such as PDAs through to contactless smartcards to satellites.

Security in Embedded Devices

Recent Advances in Operator Theory, Operator Algebras and Their Applications

Recent Advances in Operator Theory, Operator Algebras and Their Applications

This book offers peer-reviewed articles from the 19th International Conference on Operator Theory, Summer 2002. It contains recent developments in a broad range of topics from operator theory, operator algebras and their applications, particularly to differential analysis, complex functions, ergodic theory, mathematical physics, matrix analysis, and systems theory. The book covers a large variety of topics including single operator theory, C*-algebras, diffrential operators, integral transforms, stochastic processes and operators, and more.

Recent Advances in Operator Theory, Operator Algebras and Their Applications

The Mathematics of the Bose Gas and Its Condensation

The Mathematics of the Bose Gas and Its Condensation

This book contains a unique survey of the mathematically rigorous results about the quantum-mechanical many-body problem that have been obtained by the authors in the past seven years. It addresses a topic that is not only rich mathematically, using a large variety of techniques in mathematical analysis, but is also one with strong ties to current experiments on ultra-cold Bose gases and Bose-Einstein condensation. The book provides a pedagogical entry into an active area of ongoing research for both graduate students and researchers. It is an outgrowth of a course given by the authors for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers at the Oberwolfach Research Institute in 2004. The book also provides a coherent summary of the field and a reference for mathematicians and physicists active in research on quantum mechanics.

The Mathematics of the Bose Gas and Its Condensation

Comma Sense

Comma Sense

Are you confounded by commas, addled by apostrophes, or queasy about quotation marks? Do you believe a bracket is just a support for a wall shelf, a dash is something you make for the bathroom, and a colon and semicolon are large and small intestines? If so, language humorists Richard Lederer and John Shore (with the sprightly aid of illustrator Jim McLean), have written the perfect book to help make your written words perfectly precise and punctuationally profound.

Comma Sense

Handbook of Brewing, Second Edition

Handbook of Brewing, Second Edition

It has been ten years since its first edition, making the Handbook of Brewing, Second Edition the must have resource on the science and technology of beer production. It recounts how during this time, the industry has transformed both commercially and technically and how many companies have been subsumed into large multinationals while at the other extreme, microbreweries have flourished in many parts of the world. It also explains how massive improvements in computer power and automation have modernized the brewhouse while developments in biotechnology have steadily improved brewing efficiency, beer quality, and shelf life.

Handbook of Brewing, Second Edition

Values-based Service for Sustainable Business

Values-based Service for Sustainable Business

The role of values in developing and managing service companies has been under researched in the existing literature – until now. This book analyzes a large organization (IKEA) as a basis for values based service for sustainable business.

Values-based Service for Sustainable Business

Computational Prospects of Infinity - Part 2

Computational Prospects of Infinity - Part 2

This volume is a collection of written versions of the talks given at the Workshop on Computational Prospects of Infinity, held at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences from 18 June to 15 August 2005. It consists of contributions from many of the leading experts in recursion theory (computability theory) and set theory. Topics covered include the structure theory of various notions of degrees of unsolvability, algorithmic randomness, reverse mathematics, forcing, large cardinals and inner model theory, and many others. Book jacket.

Computational Prospects of Infinity - Part 2

Complex Variables

Complex Variables

This text gives an overview of the basic properties of holomorphic functions of one complex variable. Topics studied in this overview include a detailed description of differential forms, homotopy theory, and homology theory, as the analytic properties of holomorphic functions, the solvability of the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Riemann equation with emphasis on the notation of compact families, the theory of growth of subharmonic functions, and an introduction to the theory of sheaves, covering spaces and Riemann surfaces. To further illuminate the material, a large number of exercises of differing levels of difficulty have been added.

Complex Variables

Underwater Tailing Placement at Island Copper Mine

Underwater Tailing Placement at Island Copper Mine

By their very nature, mining operations generate significantly more waste than ore. For a large-scale mine, this can translate into several hundred million tons of waste rock and tailings that must stored and eventually reclaimed. Waste storage on this scale requires vast land mass and significant expense for site reclamation once the mine is closed.

Underwater Tailing Placement at Island Copper Mine

Gravitation

Gravitation

Although gravity is the dominant force of nature at large distances (from intermediate scales to the Hubble length), it is the weakest of forces in particle physics, though it is believed to become important again at very short scales (the Planck length). The conditions created in particle accelerators are similar to those at the time of the early universe. While particle physics offers insight to early universe physics, there is a need to understand gravity at extremes of large and short distances to further understand cosmology and the development of the universe. Gravitation: From the Hubble Length to the Planck Length fulfills this need by providing an overview of relativistic astrophysics, early universe physics, cosmology, and their interface with particle physics.

Gravitation

Parenting and the Childs World

Parenting and the Childs World

Stimulated by the publication of The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris, Parenting and the Child’s World was conceived around the notion that there are multiple sources of influence on children’s development, including parenting behavior, family resources, genetic and other biological factors, as well as social influences from peers, teachers, and the community at large.

Parenting and the Childs World

Transitioning to IFRS in SAP ERP Financials

Transitioning to IFRS in SAP ERP Financials

This book is the roadmap your conversion project team needs to prepare your SAP ERP Financials systems for conversion to IFRS. It includes detailed coverage of the transition process, an overview of the US GAAP/IFRS deltas and how they are mapped in ERP Financials, and real-world advice from an IFRS conversion project at a large petrochemical company. With this concise guide, youll give your finance professionals, executives, technical staff, project managers, and consultants a real jumpstart to IFRS projects in upgrade or non-upgrade scenarios.

Transitioning to IFRS in SAP ERP Financials

A Natural Introduction to Probability Theory

A Natural Introduction to Probability Theory

‘The book [is] an excellent new introductory text on probability. The classical way of teaching probability is based on measure theory. In this book discrete and continuous probability are studied with mathematical precision, within the realm of Riemann integration and not using notions from measure theory. Numerous topics are discussed, such as: random walks, weak laws of large numbers, infinitely many repetitions, strong laws of large numbers, branching processes, weak convergence and [the] central limit theorem. The theory is illustrated with many original and surprising examples and problems.’ Zentralblatt Math ‘Most textbooks designed for a one-year course in mathematical statistics cover probability in the first few chapters as preparation for the statistics to come. This book in some ways resembles the first part of such textbooks: it’s all probability, no statistics. But it does the probability more fully than usual, spending lots of time on motivation, explanation, and rigorous development of the mathematics. The exposition is usually clear and eloquent. Overall, this is a five-star book on probability that could be used as a textbook or as a supplement.’ MAA online

A Natural Introduction to Probability Theory