Parallel and Distributed Computing and Networks

Illyricum, in the western Balkan peninsula, was a strategically important area of the Roman Empire where the process of Roman imperialism began early and lasted for several centuries. Dzino here examines Roman political conduct in Illyricum; the development of Illyricum in Roman political discourse; and the beginning of the process that would integrate Illyricum into the Roman Empire and wider networks of the Mediterranean world. In addition, he also explores the different narrative histories, from the romanocentric narrative of power and Roman military conquest, which dominate the available sources, to other, earlier scholarly interpretations of events.

Computational learning theory is a subject which has been advancing rapidly in the last few years. The authors concentrate on the probably approximately correct model of learning, and gradually develop the ideas of efficiency considerations. Finally, applications of the theory to artificial neural networks are considered. Many exercises are included throughout, and the list of references is extensive. This volume is relatively self contained as the necessary background material from logic, probability and complexity theory is included. It will therefore form an introduction to the theory of computational learning, suitable for a broad spectrum of graduate students from theoretical computer science and mathematics.

The homotopy type of a closed simply connected 4-manifold is determined by the intersection form. The homotopy classes of maps between two such manifolds, however, do not coincide with the algebraic morphisms between intersection forms. Therefore the problem arises of computing the homotopy classes of maps algebraically and determining the law of composition for such maps. This problem is solved in the book by introducing new algebraic models of a 4-manifold. The book has been written to appeal to both established researchers in the field and graduate students interested in topology and algebra. There are many references to the literature for those interested in further reading.

A sparkling magical debut, set in a fantastical Egypt full of flying carpets and mythical creatures! At home in Cairo, an unexpected gift arrives for Aliya, promising to grant her greatest wish – to know more about her lost parents. To her surprise, she’s whisked off by flying carpet to a parallel Egypt, where she’s enrolled at an academy for . .. time-travellers! But while she’s there, an enemy is watching – a master of forbidden magic. If they can unlock Aliya’s inherited talent, they can change history forever .. . A stunning adventure story for readers aged 9 and up Shortlisted for the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition 2021 For fans of Nura and the Immortal Palace and The Kingdom Over the Sea ‘An epic adventure packed with richness, history and a brilliant new magical school!’ ZOHRA NABI, Author of The Kingdom Over the Sea

For this updated critical edition of King Lear, Lois Potter has written a completely new introduction, taking account of recent productions and reinterpretations of the play, with particular emphasis on its afterlife in global performance and adaptation. The edition retains the Textual Analysis of the previous editor, Jay L. Halio, shortened and with a new preface by Brian Gibbons. Professor Halio, accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare's rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, chooses the Folio as the text for this edition. He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the Introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the quarto.

For this updated critical edition of King Lear, Lois Potter has written a completely new introduction, taking account of recent productions and reinterpretations of the play, with particular emphasis on its afterlife in global performance and adaptation. The edition retains the Textual Analysis of the previous editor, Jay L. Halio, shortened and with a new preface by Brian Gibbons. Professor Halio, accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare's rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, chooses the Folio as the text for this edition. He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the Introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the quarto.

Australian marsupials represent a parallel adaptive radiation to that seen among placental mammals. This great natural experiment has produced a striking array of mammals with structural and behavioural features echoing those seen among primates, rodents, carnivores, edentates and ungulates elsewhere in the world. Many of these adaptations involve profound evolutionary changes in the nervous system, and occurred in isolation from those unfolding among placental mammals. Ashwell provides the first comprehensive review of the scientific literature on the structure and function of the nervous system of Australian marsupials. The book also includes the first comprehensive delineated atlases of brain structure in a representative diprotodont marsupial (the tammar wallaby) and a representative polyprotodont marsupial (the stripe-faced dunnart). For those interested in brain development, the book also provides the first comprehensive delineated atlas of brain development in a diprotodont mars

Network flow theory has been used across a number of disciplines, including theoretical computer science, operations research, and discrete math, to model not only problems in the transportation of goods and information, but also a wide range of applications from image segmentation problems in computer vision to deciding when a baseball team has been eliminated from contention. This graduate text and reference presents a succinct, unified view of a wide variety of efficient combinatorial algorithms for network flow problems, including many results not found in other books. It covers maximum flows, minimum-cost flows, generalized flows, multicommodity flows, and global minimum cuts and also presents recent work on computing electrical flows along with recent applications of these flows to classical problems in network flow theory.

At first glance the prime numbers appear to be distributed in a very irregular way amongst the integers, but it is possible to produce a simple formula that tells us (in an approximate but well defined sense) how many primes we can expect to find that are less than any integer we might choose. The prime number theorem tells us what this formula is and it is indisputably one of the great classical theorems of mathematics. This textbook gives an introduction to the prime number theorem suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. The author's aim is to show the reader how the tools of analysis can be used in number theory to attack a 'real' problem, and it is based on his own experiences of teaching this material.

At first glance the prime numbers appear to be distributed in a very irregular way amongst the integers, but it is possible to produce a simple formula that tells us (in an approximate but well defined sense) how many primes we can expect to find that are less than any integer we might choose. The prime number theorem tells us what this formula is and it is indisputably one of the great classical theorems of mathematics. This textbook gives an introduction to the prime number theorem suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. The author's aim is to show the reader how the tools of analysis can be used in number theory to attack a 'real' problem, and it is based on his own experiences of teaching this material.

A concise introduction to geophysical data processing - many of the techniques associated with the general field of time series analysis - for advanced students, researchers, and professionals. The textbook begins with calculus before transitioning to discrete time series via the sampling theorem, aliasing, use of complex sinusoids, development of the discrete Fourier transform from the Fourier series, and an overview of linear digital filter types and descriptions. Aimed at senior undergraduate and graduate students in geophysics, environmental science, and engineering with no previous background in linear algebra, probability, or statistics, this textbook draws scenarios and datasets from across the world of geophysics, and shows how data processing techniques can be applied to real-world problems using detailed examples, illustrations, and exercises (using MATLAB or similar computing environment). Online supplementary resources include datasets for students, and a solutions manual a

Linear algebra is something all mathematics undergraduates and many other students, in subjects ranging from engineering to economics, have to learn. The fifth edition of this hugely successful textbook retains the quality of earlier editions while at the same time seeing numerous minor improvements and major additions. The latter include: a new chapter on singular values and singular vectors, including ways to analyze a matrix of data; a revised chapter on computing in linear algebra, with professional-level algorithms and code that can be downloaded for a variety of languages; a new section on linear algebra and cryptography; and a new chapter on linear algebra in probability and statistics. A dedicated and active website also offers solutions to exercises as well as new exercises from many different sources (e.g. practice problems, exams, development of textbook examples), plus codes in MATLAB, Julia, and Python.

Stories of the secret underground Cold War–era Soviet music subculture that distributed forbidden music on used hospital x-rays.During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music lovers and bootleggers defied the censors, building recording machines and making their own records of forbidden jazz, rock 'n' roll, and Russian music, cut onto used hospital x-ray film. Bone Music is the follow up the acclaimed X-Ray Audio: The Strange History of Soviet Music on the Bone, delving deeper into a forgotten era when being a music fan could mean a lengthy prison sentence, or worse. Who made these records? Why did they do it and how was it even possible? Foregrounding interviews and oral testimonies gathered over five years, Bone Music presents the stories of the original bone bootleggers, their customers, musicians, record collectors, and commentators, evoking a spirited resistance to a re

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - The international bestselling novel--starring Abigail Cowen, Tom Lewis, Nina Dobrev, with Logan Marshall Green and Eric Dane, special appearance by Famke Janssen. Distributed by Universal Studios with a screenplay by Francine Rivers and D.J. Caruso. This life-changing story of God's redemptive love, which has captured the hearts of millions worldwide, is set against the backdrop of the California Gold Rush, a time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Trafficked into prostitution as a child, Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Then she meets Michael Hosea, who obeys God's call to marry Angel and love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel's every bitter expectation until her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband's pursuing love, t

Primarily this book is intended for application of the operational calculus to mathematics, physics and technical problems. It gives the basic principles, ideas, and theorems clearly and extensively, but also many worked-out problems from mathematical and physical as well as from technical fields. The purely mathematical treatment is more advanced than is usual in books devoted primarily to practical applications, and the book will therefore be of value to those pure mathematicians who are interested in a rapid and simple derivation of complicated and unexpected relations between various mathematical functions, as well as to the engineer in search (for example) of a very simple treatment of transient phenomena in electrical networks.

The Levant - modern Lebanon, southern Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine - is one of the most intensively excavated regions of the world. This richly documented and illustrated survey offers a state-of-the-art description of the formative phase of Levantine societies, as they perfected the Mediterranean village economy and began to interact with neighboring civilizations in Egypt and Syria, on the way to establishing their first towns and city-state polities. Citing numerous finds and interpretive approaches, Greenberg offers a new narrative of social and cultural development, emulation, resistance and change, illustrating how Levantine communities translated broader movements of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean Bronze Age - the emergence of states, international trade, elite networks and imperial ambitions - into a uniquely Levantine idiom.

The Levant - modern Lebanon, southern Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine - is one of the most intensively excavated regions of the world. This richly documented and illustrated survey offers a state-of-the-art description of the formative phase of Levantine societies, as they perfected the Mediterranean village economy and began to interact with neighboring civilizations in Egypt and Syria, on the way to establishing their first towns and city-state polities. Citing numerous finds and interpretive approaches, Greenberg offers a new narrative of social and cultural development, emulation, resistance and change, illustrating how Levantine communities translated broader movements of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean Bronze Age - the emergence of states, international trade, elite networks and imperial ambitions - into a uniquely Levantine idiom.

This volume maps the areas of ethical concern in the debate regarding the governance of genetic information, and suggests alternative ethical frameworks and models of regulation in order to inform its restructuring. Genetic governance is at the heart of medical and scientific developments, and is connected to global exploitation, issues of commodification, commercialisation and ownership, the concepts of property and intellectual property and concerns about individual and communal identity. Thus the decisions that are made in the next few years about appropriate models of genetic governance will have knock-on effects for other areas of governance. In short the final answer to 'Who Decides?' in the context of genetic governance will fundamentally shape the ethical constructs of individuals and their networks and relationships in the public sphere.

This volume maps the areas of ethical concern in the debate regarding the governance of genetic information, and suggests alternative ethical frameworks and models of regulation in order to inform its restructuring. Genetic governance is at the heart of medical and scientific developments, and is connected to global exploitation, issues of commodification, commercialisation and ownership, the concepts of property and intellectual property and concerns about individual and communal identity. Thus the decisions that are made in the next few years about appropriate models of genetic governance will have knock-on effects for other areas of governance. In short the final answer to 'Who Decides?' in the context of genetic governance will fundamentally shape the ethical constructs of individuals and their networks and relationships in the public sphere.

The field of ultracold atomic physics has developed rapidly during the last two decades, and currently encompasses a broad range of topics in physics, with a variety of important applications in topics ranging from quantum computing and simulation to quantum metrology, and can be used to probe fundamental many-body effects such as superconductivity and superfluidity. Beginning with the underlying and including the most cutting-edge experimental developments, this textbook covers essential topics such as Bose-Einstein condensation of alkali atoms, studies of BEC-BCS crossover in degenerate Fermi gas, synthetic gauge fields and Hubbard models, and many-body localization and dynamical gauge fields. Key physical concepts, such as symmetry and universality highlight the connections between different systems, and theory is developed with plain derivations supported by experimental results. This self-contained and modern text will be invaluable for researchers, graduate students and advanced

This 1989 book provides an introduction to the immensely important area of computer networking. The book covers everything from systems linked by telephone lines to tightly coupled networks of processors using high speed links, and the correspondingly broad range of techniques that are needed. The emphasis throughout is on the understanding of the principles that may rapidly become out of date. However, detailed discussion of standards and systems is given where they are widely accepted and likely to be long-lasting. In particular the ARPANET and OSI standards are discussed. The author's style is extremely accessible, and many real-life examples are given to illustrate the discussion.

This book examines the first cycle of urbanization, collapse and reurbanization in the 4th-2nd millennium BCE Levant. The core of the study is a detailed analysis of settlement fluctuations and material culture development in the Hula Valley, at the crossroads between modern Israel, Syria and Lebanon. Focusing on field data and a close reading of the material text, the book emphasizes the variety exhibited in patterns of cultural and social change when small, densely settled regions are carefully scrutinized. Using the concepts of time-space edges and shifting loci of power, the study suggests new scenarios to explain changes in the regional archaeological record, and considers the implications these have for existing reconstructions of social evolution in the larger region. The Levant is shown to be composed of a fluid mosaic of polities that moved along multiple, if often parallel, paths towards and away from complexity. This book is for anyone studying the archaeology of early sta

Deep Wheel Orcadia is, effortlessly, a first: a science-fiction verse-novel written in the Orcadian dialect, it's also the first full-length book in the Orkney language in over fifty years.Astrid is returning home from art school on Mars, looking for inspiration. Darling is fleeing a life that never fit, searching for somewhere to hide. They meet on Deep Wheel Orcadia, a distant space station struggling for survival as the pace of change threatens to leave the community behind.Deep Wheel Orcadia is a magical first: a science-fiction verse-novel written in the Orkney dialect. This unique adventure in minority language poetry comes with a parallel translation into playful and vivid English, so the reader will miss no nuance of the original. The rich and varied cast weaves a compelling, lyric and effortlessly readable story around place and belonging, work and economy, generation and gender politics, love and desire - all with the lightness of touch, fluency and musicality one might expec

In an age of revolution, Mexico's creole leaders held aloft the Virgin of Guadalupe and brandished an Aztec eagle perched upon a European tricolor. Their new constitution proclaimed 'the Mexican nation is forever free and independent'. Yet the genealogy of this new nation is not easy to trace. Colonial Mexico was a patchwork state whose new-world vassals served the crown, extended the empire's frontiers and lived out their civic lives in parallel Spanish and Indian republics. Theirs was a world of complex intercultural alliances, interlocking corporate structures and shared spiritual and temporal ambitions. Sean F. McEnroe describes this history at the greatest and smallest geographical scales, reconsidering what it meant to be an Indian vassal, nobleman, soldier or citizen over three centuries in northeastern Mexico. He argues that the Mexican municipality, state and citizen were not so much the sudden creations of a revolutionary age as the progeny of a mature multiethnic empire.

In an age of revolution, Mexico's creole leaders held aloft the Virgin of Guadalupe and brandished an Aztec eagle perched upon a European tricolor. Their new constitution proclaimed 'the Mexican nation is forever free and independent'. Yet the genealogy of this new nation is not easy to trace. Colonial Mexico was a patchwork state whose new-world vassals served the crown, extended the empire's frontiers and lived out their civic lives in parallel Spanish and Indian republics. Theirs was a world of complex intercultural alliances, interlocking corporate structures and shared spiritual and temporal ambitions. Sean F. McEnroe describes this history at the greatest and smallest geographical scales, reconsidering what it meant to be an Indian vassal, nobleman, soldier or citizen over three centuries in northeastern Mexico. He argues that the Mexican municipality, state and citizen were not so much the sudden creations of a revolutionary age as the progeny of a mature multiethnic empire.

This provocative study assesses at length and in detail the validity and significance of the claim, first made in 1863, that Shelley suffered throughout his life from a youthful contraction of venereal disease. The authors have undertaken vigourous research and consulted little-known medical works of the period 1780–1830 (including a number by Shelley's own doctors), and have interwoven their examination with a description of early nineteenth-century attitudes towards venereal disease (which parallel in some respects present-day fears raised by the threat of AIDS). The book is not, however, simply an investigation of a biographical mystery. The authors' cardinal aim is to reveal the importance of the meaning of disease and healing in Shelley's poetry. They document through specific and concrete textual analysis the extent to which the image of venereal plague functions for Shelley as a metaphor of evil, and they show how his schoolboy fascination with the panacea and his fugitive ambit

The Triumph of Augustan Poetics offers an important re-evaluation of the transition from Baroque to Augustan in English literature. Starting with Butler's Hudibras, Blanford Parker describes Augustan satire as a movement away from the 'controversial disputation' of the seventeenth century to a general satire which ridicules Protestant, Anglican and Catholic in equal measure, as well as the poetic traditions that supported them. Once the dominant forms of late medieval and Baroque thought - analogical and fideist, a fully symbolic world and an empty wilderness - were erased, a novel space for the imagination was created. Here a 'literalism' new to European thought can be seen to have replaced the general satire, and at this moment Pope and Thomson create a new art of natural and quotidian description, in parallel with the rise of the novel. Parker's account concludes with the ambiguous or hostile reaction to this new mode seen in the works of Samuel Johnson and others.

Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, describes and criticises a range of suggestions that have been made with the aim of resolving these problems; these include the traditional, or 'Copenhagen' interpretation, the possible role of the conscious mind in measurement and the postulate of parallel universes. This new edition has been revised throughout to take into account developments in this field over the past fifteen years, including the idea of 'consistent histories' to which a completely new chapter is devoted.

This 1986 study presents an insightful perspective on public attitudes towards the European Community. It contains a review of the findings from public opinion surveys of the time on this issue, but goes beyond straightforward description to provide a real understanding of European attitudes. A variety of social-psychological theories are used to test a model of the structure underlying Community attitudes. The original data reported in the present study parallel the findings from much larger, representative and long-term surveys of public opinion. Thus Miles Hewstone is able to derive from his research a wide-ranging analysis of cross-national differences in attitudinal support, the Community's impact on its citizens, and the likely trends in attitude and voting behaviour. At a time when the entry of Spain and Portugal had further expanded the Community's membership, such issues were particularly timely and this clear and penetrating study especially welcome.

'A passion for possessing books, not so much to be instructed by them, as to gratify the eye by looking on them': thus is described 'bibliomania' by one of the characters of Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847), in this humorous novel first published in 1809. Introduced in English at the end of the eighteenth century, the term 'bibliomania' - or 'book-madness' - gained popularity with the publication of Dibdin's eponymous work. Using the entirely revised 1811 edition, this reissue brings back to life Dibdin's bibliomaniac characters and their playful dialogues on the nature and history of book collecting, and, most importantly, on the dangers of the 'fatal disease' that is bibliomania, its strange manifestations - such as the 'vellum', 'first edition', and 'unique copies' symptoms - and its possible cure. The author of numerous bibliographical works, Dibdin provides erudite comments and clarifications to his characters' dialogues in a parallel narrative of footnotes.

One of the most distinguished social scientists in the world addresses one of the central historical questions of the past millennium: does the European Renaissance deserve its unique status at the very heart of our notions of modernity? Jack Goody scrutinises the European model in relation to parallel renaissances that have taken place in other cultural areas, primarily Islam and China, and emphasises what Europe owed to non-European influences. Renaissances continues that strand of historical analysis critical of Eurocentrism that Goody has developed in recent works like The East and the West (1996) or The Theft of History (2006). This book is wide-ranging, powerful, deftly argued, and draws upon the author's long experience of working in Africa and elsewhere. Not since Toynbee in The Study of History has anybody attempted quite what Jack Goody is undertaking in Renaissances, and the result is as accessible as it is ambitious.

One of the most distinguished social scientists in the world addresses one of the central historical questions of the past millennium: does the European Renaissance deserve its unique status at the very heart of our notions of modernity? Jack Goody scrutinises the European model in relation to parallel renaissances that have taken place in other cultural areas, primarily Islam and China, and emphasises what Europe owed to non-European influences. Renaissances continues that strand of historical analysis critical of Eurocentrism that Goody has developed in recent works like The East and the West (1996) or The Theft of History (2006). This book is wide-ranging, powerful, deftly argued, and draws upon the author's long experience of working in Africa and elsewhere. Not since Toynbee in The Study of History has anybody attempted quite what Jack Goody is undertaking in Renaissances, and the result is as accessible as it is ambitious.

In the last few years, scientists have begun to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the origin and early evolution of the universe. In a fresh, engaging, and highly readable introduction to these ideas, James Lidsey deftly steers us along a journey back in time to the very origin of the universe. We are introduced to the fascinating ideas scientists are currently developing to explain what happened in the first billion, billion, billion, billionth of a second - the 'inflationary' epoch. Along the way we stop off to review the latest ideas on superstrings, parallel universes and the ultimate fate of our universe. Lucid analogies, clear and concise prose and straightforward language make this book a delight to read. It makes accessible to the general reader some of the most profound and complex ideas about the origin of our universe currently challenging the world's best scientists.

The Elements of Java Style, written by renowned author Scott Ambler, Rogue Wave Software Vice President Alan Vermeulen, and a team of programmers from Rogue Wave, is for anyone who writes Java code. While there are many books that explain the syntax and basic use of Java, this book, first published in 2000, explains not just what you can do with the syntax, but what you ought to do. Just as Strunk and White's The Elements of Style provides rules of usage for the English language, this book provides a set of rules for Java practitioners to follow. While illustrating these rules with parallel examples of correct and incorrect usage, the book provides a collection of standards, conventions, and guidelines for writing solid Java code which will be easy to understand, maintain, and enhance. Anyone who writes Java code or plans to should have this book next to their computer.

In this important study Ian Hacking continues the enquiry into the origins and development of certain characteristic modes of contemporary thought undertaken in such previous works as the best-selling The Emergence of Probability. Professor Hacking shows how by the late-nineteenth century it became possible to think of statistical patterns as explanatory in themselves, and to regard the world as not necessarily deterministic in character. In the same period the idea of human nature was displaced by a model of normal people with laws of dispersion. These two parallel transformations fed into each other, so that chance made the world seem less capricious: it was legitimated because it brought order out of chaos. Combining detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breadth and verve, The Taming of Chance brings out the relations between philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics and the development of social institutions, and provides a unique and authorit

In this important study Ian Hacking continues the enquiry into the origins and development of certain characteristic modes of contemporary thought undertaken in such previous works as the best-selling The Emergence of Probability. Professor Hacking shows how by the late-nineteenth century it became possible to think of statistical patterns as explanatory in themselves, and to regard the world as not necessarily deterministic in character. In the same period the idea of human nature was displaced by a model of normal people with laws of dispersion. These two parallel transformations fed into each other, so that chance made the world seem less capricious: it was legitimated because it brought order out of chaos. Combining detailed scientific historical research with characteristic philosophic breadth and verve, The Taming of Chance brings out the relations between philosophy, the physical sciences, mathematics and the development of social institutions, and provides a unique and authorit

Understand the relationship between information theory and the physics of wave propagation with this expert guide. Balancing fundamental theory with engineering applications, it describes the mechanism and limits for the representation and communication of information using electromagnetic waves. Information-theoretic laws relating functional approximation and quantum uncertainty principles to entropy, capacity, mutual information, rate distortion, and degrees of freedom of band-limited radiation are derived and explained. Both stochastic and deterministic approaches are explored, and applications for sensing and signal reconstruction, wireless communication, and networks of multiple transmitters and receivers are reviewed. With end-of-chapter exercises and suggestions for further reading enabling in-depth understanding of key concepts, it is the ideal resource for researchers and graduate students in electrical engineering, physics and applied mathematics looking for a fresh perspecti

Computers are developing into a powerful medium integrating film, pictures, text and sound, and the use of computers for communication and information is rapidly expanding. The Computer as Medium brings insights from art, literature and theatre to bear on computers and discusses the communicative and organizational nature of computer networks within a historical perspective. The book consists of three parts. The first part characterizes the semiotic nature of computers and discusses semiotic approaches to programming and interface design. The second part discusses narrative and aesthetic issues of interactive fiction, information systems and hypertext. The final part contains papers on the cultural, organizational and historical impact of computers.The broad and rich coverage of this book will appeal to scholars in cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, media studies and mass communications, cultural studies and education.

Computers are developing into a powerful medium integrating film, pictures, text and sound, and the use of computers for communication and information is rapidly expanding. The Computer as Medium brings insights from art, literature and theatre to bear on computers and discusses the communicative and organizational nature of computer networks within a historical perspective. The book consists of three parts. The first part characterizes the semiotic nature of computers and discusses semiotic approaches to programming and interface design. The second part discusses narrative and aesthetic issues of interactive fiction, information systems and hypertext. The final part contains papers on the cultural, organizational and historical impact of computers.The broad and rich coverage of this book will appeal to scholars in cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, media studies and mass communications, cultural studies and education.

Topological Phases of Matter are an exceptionally dynamic field of research: several of the most exciting recent experimental discoveries and conceptual advances in modern physics have originated in this field. These have generated new, topological, notions of order, interactions and excitations. This text provides an accessible, unified and comprehensive introduction to the phenomena surrounding topological matter, with detailed expositions of the underlying theoretical tools and conceptual framework, alongside accounts of the central experimental breakthroughs. Among the systems covered are topological insulators, magnets, semimetals, and superconductors. The emergence of new particles with remarkable properties such as fractional charge and statistics is discussed alongside possible applications such as fault-tolerant topological quantum computing. Suitable as a textbook for graduate or advanced undergraduate students, or as a reference for more experienced researchers, the book ass