Pattern Classification Using Ensemble Methods

Perturbation series expansion methods are sophisticated numerical tools used to provide quantitative calculations in many areas of theoretical physics. This book gives a comprehensive guide to the use of series expansion methods for investigating phase transitions and critical phenomena, and lattice models of quantum magnetism, strongly correlated electron systems and elementary particles. Early chapters cover the classical treatment of critical phenomena through high-temperature expansions, and introduce graph theoretical and combinatorial algorithms. The book then discusses high-order linked-cluster perturbation expansions for quantum lattice models, finite temperature expansions, and lattice gauge models. Also included are numerous detailed examples and case studies, and an accompanying resources website, www.cambridge.org/9780521842426, contains programs for implementing these powerful numerical techniques. A valuable resource for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers work

Solitons are waves with exceptional stability properties which appear in many areas of physics. The basic properties of solitons are introduced here using examples from macroscopic physics (e.g. blood pressure pulses and fibre optical communications). The book then presents the main theoretical methods before discussing applications from solid state or atomic physics such as dislocations, excitations in spin chains, conducting polymers, ferroelectrics and Bose–Einstein condensates. Examples are also taken from biological physics and include energy transfer in proteins and DNA fluctuations. Throughout the book the authors emphasise a fresh approach to modelling nonlinearities in physics. Instead of a perturbative approach, nonlinearities are treated intrinsically and the analysis based on the soliton equations introduced in this book. Based on the authors' graduate course, this textbook gives an instructive view of the physics of solitons for students with a basic knowledge of general p

This is a one-stop introduction to the methods of ergodic theory applied to holomorphic iteration. The authors begin with introductory chapters presenting the necessary tools from ergodic theory thermodynamical formalism, and then focus on recent developments in the field of 1-dimensional holomorphic iterations and underlying fractal sets, from the point of view of geometric measure theory and rigidity. Detailed proofs are included. Developed from university courses taught by the authors, this book is ideal for graduate students. Researchers will also find it a valuable source of reference to a large and rapidly expanding field. It eases the reader into the subject and provides a vital springboard for those beginning their own research. Many helpful exercises are also included to aid understanding of the material presented and the authors provide links to further reading and related areas of research.

Written to complement standard texts on commutative algebra, this short book gives complete and relatively easy proofs of important results, including the standard results involving localisation of formal smoothness (M. André) and localisation of complete intersections (L. Avramov), some important results of D. Popescu and André on regular homomorphisms, and some results from A. Grothendieck's EGA on smooth homomorphisms. The authors make extensive use of the André–Quillen homology of commutative algebras, but only up to dimension 2, which is easy to construct, and they deliberately avoid using simplicial methods. The book also serves as an accessible introduction to some advanced topics and techniques. The only prerequisites are a basic course in commutative algebra and the first definitions in homological algebra.

Professor Pantin's wide range of scientific interests - he was a professional zoologist, an excellent field geologist and widely read in physics - enable him to speak authoritatively concerning the relations between the sciences. In this book, which was originally published in 1968, Professor Pantin pursues the ideas to which he first gave expression in his Tarner Lectures. He explains that the most difficult scientific problems lie in the unrestricted biological sciences, not in the physical, or restricted, sciences. He points out that the basic aim of all scientific research is the classification of attributes and events, and considers why certain kinds of classification are especially acceptable to the human mind, and what are the forces, often unrecognised, which give the impulse to scientific research and influence its direction. The book will appeal both to professional scientists and to philosophers of science.

Using Chinese Synonyms is an essential reference book, specifically designed for non-native speakers of Chinese, and for teachers and other language professionals who want a user-friendly guide to the finer nuances of Chinese synonyms. It contains approximately 1700 synonyms in 316 groups. With the particular needs of non-native speakers of Chinese in mind, this invaluable book selects and explains words and phrases in everyday use, allowing students to enhance their knowledge of one of the most important and widely-spoken languages in the world. This book assists in the development of fluent, spontaneous and skilful use of Chinese synonyms.

This compact volume covers the main developments in the social sciences since the Second World War. Chapters on economics, human geography, political science, psychology, social anthropology, and sociology will interest anyone wanting short, accessible histories of those disciplines, all written by experts in the relevant field; they will also make it easy for readers to make comparisons between disciplines. A final chapter proposes a blueprint for a history of the social sciences as a whole. Whereas most of the existing literature considers the social sciences in isolation from one other, this volume shows that they have much in common; for example, they have responded to common problems using overlapping methods, and cross-disciplinary activities have been widespread.

This compact volume covers the main developments in the social sciences since the Second World War. Chapters on economics, human geography, political science, psychology, social anthropology, and sociology will interest anyone wanting short, accessible histories of those disciplines, all written by experts in the relevant field; they will also make it easy for readers to make comparisons between disciplines. A final chapter proposes a blueprint for a history of the social sciences as a whole. Whereas most of the existing literature considers the social sciences in isolation from one other, this volume shows that they have much in common; for example, they have responded to common problems using overlapping methods, and cross-disciplinary activities have been widespread.

It is increasingly common for analysts to seek out the opinions of individuals and organizations using attitudinal scales such as degree of satisfaction or importance attached to an issue. Examples include levels of obesity, seriousness of a health condition, attitudes towards service levels, opinions on products, voting intentions, and the degree of clarity of contracts. Ordered choice models provide a relevant methodology for capturing the sources of influence that explain the choice made amongst a set of ordered alternatives. The methods have evolved to a level of sophistication that can allow for heterogeneity in the threshold parameters, in the explanatory variables (through random parameters), and in the decomposition of the residual variance. This book brings together contributions in ordered choice modeling from a number of disciplines, synthesizing developments over the last fifty years, and suggests useful extensions to account for the wide range of sources of influence on ch

It is increasingly common for analysts to seek out the opinions of individuals and organizations using attitudinal scales such as degree of satisfaction or importance attached to an issue. Examples include levels of obesity, seriousness of a health condition, attitudes towards service levels, opinions on products, voting intentions, and the degree of clarity of contracts. Ordered choice models provide a relevant methodology for capturing the sources of influence that explain the choice made amongst a set of ordered alternatives. The methods have evolved to a level of sophistication that can allow for heterogeneity in the threshold parameters, in the explanatory variables (through random parameters), and in the decomposition of the residual variance. This book brings together contributions in ordered choice modeling from a number of disciplines, synthesizing developments over the last fifty years, and suggests useful extensions to account for the wide range of sources of influence on ch

The problem of inducing, learning or inferring grammars has been studied for decades, but only in recent years has grammatical inference emerged as an independent field with connections to many scientific disciplines, including bio-informatics, computational linguistics and pattern recognition. This book meets the need for a comprehensive and unified summary of the basic techniques and results, suitable for researchers working in these various areas. In Part I, the objects of use for grammatical inference are studied in detail: strings and their topology, automata and grammars, whether probabilistic or not. Part II carefully explores the main questions in the field: What does learning mean? How can we associate complexity theory with learning? In Part III the author describes a number of techniques and algorithms that allow us to learn from text, from an informant, or through interaction with the environment. These concern automata, grammars, rewriting systems, pattern languages or tra

With signal combining and detection methods now representing a key application of signal processing in communication systems, this book provides a range of key techniques for receiver design when multiple received signals are available. Various optimal and suboptimal signal combining and detection techniques are explained in the context of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, including successive interference cancellation (SIC) based detection and lattice reduction (LR) aided detection. The techniques are then analyzed using performance analysis tools. The fundamentals of statistical signal processing are also covered, with two chapters dedicated to important background material. With a carefully balanced blend of theoretical elements and applications, this book is ideal for both graduate students and practising engineers in wireless communications.

In the seventeenth century, a series of proposals and schemes for an artificial language intended to replace Latin as the international medium of communication gained currency. Fully developed, these schemes consisted of a classification of all known 'things' and a set of self-defining names designed to reflect the divisions of the classification. This attempt to create a specialized and scientific form of language was enthusiastically taken up by a number of eminent scientists of the day, including Bacon, Descartes, Newton and other members of the Royal Society. Dr Slaughter demonstrates that the idea of a universal language was a rational response to the inadequacy of seventeenth-century language, a result of social and cultural changes precipitated by the rise of science, the spread of print and literacy, and the subsequent development of a literate culture. A valuable addition to the study of history and literature, this book also has relevance for contemporary languages with simil

This study of Sino-American crises in the 1950s sets out to define the most important crisis system in the Far East in terms of the behaviour of the United States and the People's Republic of China and of the crisis interactions which occurred between them. By comparative case study, it demonstrates how Sino-American crises functioned in Korea, Indochina and the Taiwan Straits; by cumulative case study, it elucidates the pattern of strategic interactions evolving through crises over time. Also, the analysis of Sino-American crises makes it possible to broaden the scope of crisis theory, by applying it to areas outside the Soviet-American relationship and by investigating the role of crises within wars as well as before or in lieu of wars. It contributes to an understanding of the roots of the triangular relationship that existed between Washington, Moscow and Peking in the context of shared crisis experience.

Prior to the publication of this volume in 1987, scholars interested in Old English alliterative meter discovered a number of intriguing restrictions on verse form, and their discoveries proved useful in the editing of texts and in research on the early history of the English language. It had proved impossible up to this point however, to capture these restrictions in a plausible system of rules. In this book Professor Russom obtained a coherent and comprehensive rule system using the insights of linguistic theory. The rules of this system apply not just to stress and syllable count but to other features of word structure as well. Russom claims, in particular, that the concept of 'metrical foot' appropriate for analysis of Old English poetry corresponds to the concept of 'word pattern' used in linguistic analysis. In Old English Meter and Linguistic Theory the author explains these rules carefully, justifies then from a linguistic point of view and goes on to apply them to a wide varie

Would you like to discover a comet? Or maybe you would like to be the first person on Earth - perhaps in the Universe - to recognise a celestial newcomer such as a nova or supernova. First published in 1992, this Guide tells you how to become an astronomical discoverer using only modest equipment. It describes what approaches to take in searching the night skies for the unusual and the unexpected. Included are 20 contributions from both amateur and professional astronomers who are world famous for their discoveries. This book covers all the kinds of objects that an amateur can hope to find as a result of systematic searching. Personal contributions from noted discoverers such as David Levy and Minoru Honda (comets), Bob Evans (supernovae), Eleanor Helin and Brian Manning (asteroids) and Mike Collins and Dan Kaiser (variable stars) reveal the secrets of their successful methods. The visual, photographic and electronic search techniques of the early nineties, are described as well as ins

Determining orbits for natural and artificial celestial bodies is an essential step in the exploration and understanding of the Solar System. However, recent progress in the quality and quantity of data from astronomical observations and spacecraft tracking has generated orbit determination problems which cannot be handled by classical algorithms. This book presents new algorithms capable of handling the millions of bodies which could be observed by next generation surveys, and which can fully exploit tracking data with state-of-the-art levels of accuracy. After a general mathematical background and summary of classical algorithms, the new algorithms are introduced using the latest mathematical tools and results, to which the authors have personally contributed. Case studies based on actual astronomical surveys and space missions are provided, with applications of these new methods. Intended for graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics, physics, astronomy and aerospace

Using a rigorous and concise framework, this book teaches the foundations of modern macroeconomic theory and its methods. It is ideally suited for students taking a first graduate course in macroeconomics as part of an MBA, finance, or economics degree. The book explains recent advances of modern macroeconomic theory with respect to growth, business cycles, and asset pricing by focusing on aspects of firm and household behavior that are embedded in modern macroeconomic studies. Throughout the book data issues are discussed in detail: where to find the data, how to download it, and the correspondence of data with model predictions. The mathematical level assumes that students have taken a course in calculus. With its emphasis on dynamic inter-temporal macroeconomics and the use of data, the book provides students with a core toolkit that will equip them both for more advanced study and for professional careers as economists.

Outside the formal teachings of the established religious institutions of many 'advanced' societies, there continues to exist a rich body of 'unofficial' or 'folk' religious beliefs and practices. This book provides an insight into the nature of folk religion in a small fishing village in North Yorkshire. Using a combination of sociological and historical methods, David Clark first explores the impact of an official religion - Methodism - on the village in the early nineteenth century, and its subsequent place in village life. He goes on the describe the ways in which Methodism relates to a more diffuse set of folk beliefs and rituals, such as those surrounding birth and death, the transitions of the annual cycle and the rigours of the fishing economy. The result is a fascinating portrait of official and unofficial religion within one local community. It also makes an important contribution to scholarly debates about the significance of folk religion within the wider religious culture,

Hopf algebras have important connections to quantum theory, Lie algebras, knot and braid theory, operator algebras and other areas of physics and mathematics. They have been intensely studied in the past; in particular, the solution of a number of conjectures of Kaplansky from the 1970s has led to progress on the classification of semisimple Hopf algebras and on the structure of pointed Hopf algebras. Among the topics covered are results toward the classification of finite-dimensional Hopf algebras (semisimple and non-semisimple), as well as what is known about the extension theory of Hopf algebras. Some papers consider Hopf versions of classical topics, such as the Brauer group, while others are closer to work in quantum groups. The book also explores the connections and applications of Hopf algebras to other fields.

First published in 1891, this book was the earliest attempt to construct a systematic classification of all the indigenous languages of the Americas, focusing particularly on the relationship between culture and grammar and vocabulary. It addresses the various theories of the origins of the American race, and the archaeological evidence for the presence of humans in the Americas. It discusses geologists' opinions and the physical geography of the Americas in relation to Europe, and considers the physical characteristics of the Native Americans, their culture, religion, domestic habits and family organisation, providing a comprehensive anthropological and historical context for the linguistic work. Special attention is paid to the parts of the continent, mostly south of Mexico, whose ethnography was little known at the time of writing. Each chapter covers a particular region, and there is a detailed linguistic appendix.

Computational simulation of scientific phenomena and engineering problems often depends on solving linear systems with a large number of unknowns. This book gives insight into the construction of iterative methods for the solution of such systems and helps the reader to select the best solver for a given class of problems. The emphasis is on the main ideas and how they have led to efficient solvers such as CG, GMRES, and BI-CGSTAB. The author also explains the main concepts behind the construction of preconditioners. The reader is encouraged to gain experience by analysing numerous examples that illustrate how best to exploit the methods. The book also hints at many open problems and as such it will appeal to established researchers. There are many exercises that motivate the material and help students to understand the essential steps in the analysis and construction of algorithms.

Path integrals provide a powerful method for describing quantum phenomena. This book introduces the quantum mechanics of particles that move in curved space by employing path integrals and then using them to compute anomalies in quantum field theories. The authors start by deriving path integrals for particles moving in curved space and their supersymmetric generalizations. They then discuss the regularization schemes essential to constructing and computing these path integrals. This topic is used to introduce regularization and renormalization in quantum field theories in a wider context. These methods are then applied to discuss and calculate anomalies in quantum field theory. Such anomalies provide enormous constraints in the search for physical theories of elementary particles, quantum gravity and string theories. An advanced text for researchers and graduate students of quantum field theory and string theory, the first part is also a stand-alone introduction to path integrals in q

Some studies of ancient Roman masculinities have concentrated on the private aspects of the subject, particularly sexuality, and have drawn conclusions from a narrow field of reference, usually rhetorical practice. In contrast, this 2006 book examines the public and the most important aspect of Roman masculinity: manliness as represented by the concept of virtus. Using traditional historical, philological, and archaeological analyses, together with the methods of socio-linguistics and gender studies, it presents a comprehensive picture of how Roman manliness developed from the middle to the late Republic. Arguing that virtus was not, in essence, a moral concept, Myles McDonnell shows how the semantic range of the word, together with the manly ideal that it embodied, were altered by Greek cultural ideas; and how Roman manliness was contested in the religion, culture, and politics of the late Republic.

Machine learning methods originated from artificial intelligence and are now used in various fields in environmental sciences today. This is the first single-authored textbook providing a unified treatment of machine learning methods and their applications in the environmental sciences. Due to their powerful nonlinear modelling capability, machine learning methods today are used in satellite data processing, general circulation models(GCM), weather and climate prediction, air quality forecasting, analysis and modelling of environmental data, oceanographic and hydrological forecasting, ecological modelling, and monitoring of snow, ice and forests. The book includes end-of-chapter review questions and an appendix listing websites for downloading computer code and data sources. A resources website contains datasets for exercises, and password-protected solutions are available. The book is suitable for first-year graduate students and advanced undergraduates. It is also valuable for resear

This book presents a theoretical treatment of nonlinear behaviour of solids and structures in such a way that it is suitable for numerical computation, typically using the Finite Element Method. Starting out from elementary concepts, the author systematically uses the principle of virtual work, initially illustrated by truss structures, to give a self-contained and rigorous account of the basic methods. The author illustrates the combination of translations and rotations by finite deformation beam theories in absolute and co-rotation format, and describes the deformation of a three-dimensional continuum in material form. A concise introduction to finite elasticity is followed by an extension to elasto-plastic materials via internal variables and the maximum dissipation principle. Finally, the author presents numerical techniques for solution of the nonlinear global equations and summarises recent results on momentum and energy conserving integration of time-dependent problems. Exercise

Machine learning methods originated from artificial intelligence and are now used in various fields in environmental sciences today. This is the first single-authored textbook providing a unified treatment of machine learning methods and their applications in the environmental sciences. Due to their powerful nonlinear modelling capability, machine learning methods today are used in satellite data processing, general circulation models(GCM), weather and climate prediction, air quality forecasting, analysis and modelling of environmental data, oceanographic and hydrological forecasting, ecological modelling, and monitoring of snow, ice and forests. The book includes end-of-chapter review questions and an appendix listing websites for downloading computer code and data sources. A resources website contains datasets for exercises, and password-protected solutions are available. The book is suitable for first-year graduate students and advanced undergraduates. It is also valuable for resear

The Clifford algebras of real quadratic forms and their complexifications are studied here in detail, and those parts which are immediately relevant to theoretical physics are seen in the proper broad context. Central to the work is the classification of the conjugation and reversion anti-involutions that arise naturally in the theory. It is of interest that all the classical groups play essential roles in this classification. Other features include detailed sections on conformal groups, the eight-dimensional non-associative Cayley algebra, its automorphism group, the exceptional Lie group G2, and the triality automorphism of Spin 8. The book is designed to be suitable for the last year of an undergraduate course or the first year of a postgraduate course.

The study of ecclesiastical history presents unique problems: the events it deals with are not ordinary events and fundamental questions of faith may be involved in their interpretation. The Church historian is often required to be a student of dogma as much as of history. It is the complex relationships between history, Church history and theology that Dr Sykes examines, using as illustrations some of the vital issues arising from the revival of interest in Church history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The disputes during the Reformation about the claims of the papacy centred on the historical question of Peter's supremacy over the other apostles. Another problem involving historical evidence was the relative authority of scripture and tradition. Finally, Dr Sykes reviews the changing pattern of relations between Church and states and particularly the way in which events in nineteenth-century Europe foreshadowed the problems of the Church under the modern totalitarian reg

Four hundred years ago the pattern of human life and thought was strikingly different from our own. What main features led to the change in that pattern? Professor Nef, a distinguished historian, suggests that economic history cannot alone give the answer: it must be in terms of changing attitudes and interests as much as in terms of a developing economy and a growing technology. The origins of industrialism have to be sought in history as a whole. Man's concern for truth, goodness and beauty has done as much to produce the modern world as economic institutions and natural resources. Professor Nef has it in mind that, for a historian, the importance of human nature cannot be made subservient to that of productivity statistics; in this book he portrays the birth and development of our industrial civilisation in a clearer light. The book is developed from the second series of Wiles lectures given at Queen's University, Belfast and is a successor to Man on his Past by Herbert Butterfield.

Today's biblical scholars study the Gospel of Matthew with a wide variety of methods that yield diverse and exciting insights. Methods for Matthew offers a primer on six exegetical approaches that have proved to be especially useful and popular. In each case, a prominent scholar describes the principles and procedures of a particular approach and then demonstrates how that approach works in practice, applying it to a well-known text from Matthew's Gospel. As an added bonus, each of the chosen texts is treated to three different interpretations so that the reader can easily compare the results obtained through one approach to those obtained through other approaches. The reader will learn a great deal about two stories from Matthew ('the healing of a centurion's servant' and 'the resurrection of Jesus') and the reader will also learn enough about each of these six approaches to understand their function in biblical studies today.

First published in 1990, Archaeological Prospecting and Remote Sensing surveys some of the highly ingenious non-destructive methods for detecting and mapping remains of ancient cultures that have vanished from the modern surface. Techniques include low-level air photography, magnetic, thermal, electric, and electromagnetic geophysical prospecting. A mathematical analysis of the phenomena and measurements is given together with the techniques for interpretation of results using computerized image processing. Archaeological prospecting used with image processing has emerged as a universal tool. The aim is to build a visual geographic system available for use by conservationists, historians and scientists alike. The team of authors comprises an archaeologist, two geophysicists and an applied mathematician who have collaborated to produce a book of immense value in this innovative field of study.

First published in 1940, this book was designed to explain as simply as possible how to perform the calculations involved in common statistical methods. Although not meant as a treatise on the theory of statistics, it nevertheless offered sufficient theory to enable the student to understand the use and application of the methods described. Whilst the book was chiefly addressed to students of the biological sciences, especially psychology, the methods described are fundamental to statistical work and could also prove useful to anyone needing to make use of elementary statistical methods. More than ten years after its original publication, a second edition was produced in 1952. This edition corrected a number of small arithmetical errors and took into account new statistical methods that had been developed. It is this second edition which is reproduced here.

Today's biblical scholars study the Gospel of Matthew with a wide variety of methods that yield diverse and exciting insights. Methods for Matthew offers a primer on six exegetical approaches that have proved to be especially useful and popular. In each case, a prominent scholar describes the principles and procedures of a particular approach and then demonstrates how that approach works in practice, applying it to a well-known text from Matthew's Gospel. As an added bonus, each of the chosen texts is treated to three different interpretations so that the reader can easily compare the results obtained through one approach to those obtained through other approaches. The reader will learn a great deal about two stories from Matthew ('the healing of a centurion's servant' and 'the resurrection of Jesus') and the reader will also learn enough about each of these six approaches to understand their function in biblical studies today.

This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. This second edition adds chapters on endogeneity and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 25 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.

First published in 1988, this book is a manual of methods for solving problems in radiative transfer. Several of the methods, on operator perturbation as well as on polarised radiative transfer, appeared for the first time in this volume, and the sections dealing with these topics each include introductory articles. The methods described are principally directed at astrophysical plasmas, but the methods are easily adaptable to applications involving other media where self-absorption of the radiation is important. The book is primarily intended for graduate students and research workers in the field of radiative transfer.

The problem of ocean acoustic tomography is to infer from precise measurements of travel time, or other properties of acoustic propagation, the state of the ocean traversed by a sound field. Tomography takes advantage of two facts: that travel time and other measurable acoustic parameters are functions of temperature, water velocity, and other parameters of oceanographic interest, and can be interpreted to provide information about the intervening ocean using inverse methods; and that the ocean is virtually transparent to low-frequency sound, so that signals can be transmitted over distances of many thousands of kilometres. It is therefore possible to prepare a practical system of transmitters and receivers to interpret the behaviour of the oceans. This book gives a comprehensive presentation of the underlying oceanography and mathematics necessary to understand and develop such a system. It covers the forward and inverse tomography problem, as well as numerous models for data interpre

This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. This second edition adds chapters on endogeneity and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 25 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.

During past years many countries constructed large accelerators for investigating heavy ion collisions, and new theoretical techniques for analysing results and making predictions were developed. Semi-classical methods were studied in the early days of quantum mechanics. Their application to heavy ion collisions has led to new advances and a number of different schools have grown up, each one emphasising different aspects of the theory. The aim of this book is to present a unified treatment of various lines of development. This book will be of great interest to graduate students wishing to learn about semi-classical methods in nuclear physics and to theoretical and experimental nuclear physicists, especially those working in heavy ion physics. It will also be of interest to research workers in other areas, such as atomic physics and quantum chemistry, where similar techniques are used.

Memory-based language processing - a machine learning and problem solving method for language technology - is based on the idea that the direct reuse of examples using analogical reasoning is more suited for solving language processing problems than the application of rules extracted from those examples. This book discusses the theory and practice of memory-based language processing, showing its comparative strengths over alternative methods of language modelling. Language is complex, with few generalizations, many sub-regularities and exceptions, and the advantage of memory-based language processing is that it does not abstract away from this valuable low-frequency information. By applying the model to a range of benchmark problems, the authors show that for linguistic areas ranging from phonology to semantics, it produces excellent results. They also describe TiMBL, a software package for memory-based language processing. The first comprehensive overview of the approach, this book wi