Innovative Computing Methods and Their Applications to Engineering Problems

Based on the ideas of Russian psychologists Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria, this book explores methods of preventing or overcoming learning disabilities. Tatiana V. Akhutina and Natalia M. Pylaeva build on Vygotsky and Luria's sociocultural theory and their principle of a systemic structure and dynamic organization of higher mental functions. They focus on the interactive scaffolding of the weak components of the child's functional systems, the transition from joint child-adult co-actions, and the emotional involvement of the child. The authors discuss effective ways to remediate issues with attention, executive functions (working memory and cognitive control) and spatial and visual-verbal functions. Overcoming Learning Disabilities translates complex problems into easily understandable concepts useful to school psychologists, special and general education teachers, and parents of children with learning disabilities.

This engineering textbook is designed to introduce advanced control systems for vehicles, including advanced automotive concepts and the next generation of vehicles for ITS. For each automotive control problem considered, the authors emphasise the physics and underlying principles behind the control system concept and design. This is an exciting and rapidly developing field for which many articles and reports exist but no modern unifying text. An extensive list of references is provided at the end of each chapter for all the topics covered. It is currently the only textbook, including problems and examples, that covers and integrates the topics of automotive powertrain control, vehicle control, and intelligent transportation systems. The emphasis is on fundamental concepts and methods for automotive control systems, rather than the rapidly changing specific technologies. Many of the text examples, as well as the end-of-chapter problems, require the use of MATLAB and/or SIMULINK.

The renowned mathematician and educator Gilbert Strang presents a collection of expository papers on the theory and applications of linear algebra, accompanied by video lectures on http://ocw.mit.edu. The essays are diverse in scope and range from purely theoretical studies on deep fundamental principles of matrix algebra to discussions on the teaching of calculus and an examination of the mathematical foundations of aspects of computational engineering. One thing these essays have in common is the way that they express both the importance and the beauty of the subject, as well as the author's passion for mathematics. This text will be of practical use to students and researchers across a whole spectrum of numerate disciplines. Furthermore, this collection provides a unique perspective on mathematics and the communication thereof as a human endeavour, complemented as these essays are by commentary from the author regarding their provenance and the reaction to them.

Randomized algorithms have become a central part of the algorithms curriculum, based on their increasingly widespread use in modern applications. This book presents a coherent and unified treatment of probabilistic techniques for obtaining high probability estimates on the performance of randomized algorithms. It covers the basic toolkit from the Chernoff–Hoeffding bounds to more sophisticated techniques like martingales and isoperimetric inequalities, as well as some recent developments like Talagrand's inequality, transportation cost inequalities and log-Sobolev inequalities. Along the way, variations on the basic theme are examined, such as Chernoff–Hoeffding bounds in dependent settings. The authors emphasise comparative study of the different methods, highlighting respective strengths and weaknesses in concrete example applications. The exposition is tailored to discrete settings sufficient for the analysis of algorithms, avoiding unnecessary measure-theoretic details, thus making

Classical dynamics is one of the cornerstones of advanced education in physics and applied mathematics, with applications across engineering, chemistry and biology. In this book, the author uses a concise and pedagogical style to cover all the topics necessary for a graduate-level course in dynamics based on Hamiltonian methods. Readers are introduced to the impressive advances in the field during the second half of the twentieth century, including KAM theory and deterministic chaos. Essential to these developments are some exciting ideas from modern mathematics, which are introduced carefully and selectively. Core concepts and techniques are discussed, together with numerous concrete examples to illustrate key principles. A special feature of the book is the use of computer software to investigate complex dynamical systems, both analytically and numerically. This text is ideal for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who are already familiar with the Newtonian and Lagrangian

Exploring the mechanical features of biological cells, including their architecture and stability, this textbook is a pedagogical introduction to the interdisciplinary fields of cell mechanics and soft matter physics from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. This second edition has been greatly updated and expanded, with new chapters on complex filaments, the cell division cycle, the mechanisms of control and organization in the cell, and fluctuation phenomena. The textbook is now in full color which enhances the diagrams and allows the inclusion of new microscopy images. With around 280 end-of-chapter exercises exploring further applications, this textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics and biomedical engineering. A website hosted by the author contains extra support material, diagrams and lecture notes, and is available at www.cambridge.org/Boal.

Exploring the mechanical features of biological cells, including their architecture and stability, this textbook is a pedagogical introduction to the interdisciplinary fields of cell mechanics and soft matter physics from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. This second edition has been greatly updated and expanded, with new chapters on complex filaments, the cell division cycle, the mechanisms of control and organization in the cell, and fluctuation phenomena. The textbook is now in full color which enhances the diagrams and allows the inclusion of new microscopy images. With around 280 end-of-chapter exercises exploring further applications, this textbook is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics and biomedical engineering. A website hosted by the author contains extra support material, diagrams and lecture notes, and is available at www.cambridge.org/Boal.

Machine learning is an interdisciplinary field of science and engineering that studies mathematical theories and practical applications of systems that learn. This book introduces theories, methods and applications of density ratio estimation, which is a newly emerging paradigm in the machine learning community. Various machine learning problems such as non-stationarity adaptation, outlier detection, dimensionality reduction, independent component analysis, clustering, classification and conditional density estimation can be systematically solved via the estimation of probability density ratios. The authors offer a comprehensive introduction of various density ratio estimators including methods via density estimation, moment matching, probabilistic classification, density fitting and density ratio fitting, as well as describing how these can be applied to machine learning. The book provides mathematical theories for density ratio estimation including parametric and non-parametric conve

In a boundary-crossing and globalizing world, the personal and social positions in self and identity become increasingly dense, heterogeneous and even conflicting. In this handbook scholars of different disciplines, nations and cultures (East and West) bring together their views and applications of dialogical self theory in such a way that deeper commonalities are brought to the surface. As a 'bridging theory', dialogical self theory reveals unexpected links between a broad variety of phenomena, such as self and identity problems in education and psychotherapy, multicultural identities, child-rearing practices, adult development, consumer behaviour, the use of the internet and the value of silence. Researchers and practitioners present different methods of investigation, both qualitative and quantitative, and also highlight applications of dialogical self theory.

State-of-the-art analysis of geological structures has become increasingly quantitative but traditionally, graphical methods are used in teaching. This innovative lab book provides a unified methodology for problem-solving in structural geology using linear algebra and computation. Assuming only limited mathematical training, the book begins with classic orientation problems and progresses to more fundamental topics of stress, strain and error propagation. It introduces linear algebra methods as the foundation for understanding vectors and tensors, and demonstrates the application of geometry and kinematics in geoscience without requiring students to take a supplementary mathematics course. All algorithms are illustrated with a suite of online MATLAB functions, allowing users to modify the code to solve their own structural problems. Containing 20 worked examples and over 60 exercises, this is the ideal lab book for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. It will also p

State-of-the-art analysis of geological structures has become increasingly quantitative but traditionally, graphical methods are used in teaching. This innovative lab book provides a unified methodology for problem-solving in structural geology using linear algebra and computation. Assuming only limited mathematical training, the book begins with classic orientation problems and progresses to more fundamental topics of stress, strain and error propagation. It introduces linear algebra methods as the foundation for understanding vectors and tensors, and demonstrates the application of geometry and kinematics in geoscience without requiring students to take a supplementary mathematics course. All algorithms are illustrated with a suite of online MATLAB functions, allowing users to modify the code to solve their own structural problems. Containing 20 worked examples and over 60 exercises, this is the ideal lab book for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. It will also p

Pragmatics is the study of human communication: the choices speakers make to express their intended meaning and the kinds of inferences that hearers draw from an utterance in the context of its use. This Handbook surveys pragmatics from different perspectives, presenting the main theories in pragmatic research, incorporating seminal research as well as cutting-edge solutions. It addresses questions of rational and empirical research methods, what counts as an adequate and successful pragmatic theory, and how to go about answering problems raised in pragmatic theory. In the fast-developing field of pragmatics, this Handbook fills the gap in the market for a one-stop resource to the wide scope of today's research and the intricacy of the many theoretical debates. It is an authoritative guide for graduate students and researchers with its focus on the areas and theories that will mark progress in pragmatic research in the future.

The need to transmit and store massive amounts of data reliably and without error is a vital part of modern communications systems. Error-correcting codes play a fundamental role in minimising data corruption caused by defects such as noise, interference, crosstalk and packet loss. This book provides an accessible introduction to the basic elements of algebraic codes, and discusses their use in a variety of applications. The author describes a range of important coding techniques, including Reed-Solomon codes, BCH codes, trellis codes, and turbocodes. Throughout the book, mathematical theory is illustrated by reference to many practical examples. The book was first published in 2003 and is aimed at graduate students of electrical and computer engineering, and at practising engineers whose work involves communications or signal processing.

Machine learning methods extract value from vast data sets quickly and with modest resources. They are established tools in a wide range of industrial applications, including search engines, DNA sequencing, stock market analysis, and robot locomotion, and their use is spreading rapidly. People who know the methods have their choice of rewarding jobs. This hands-on text opens these opportunities to computer science students with modest mathematical backgrounds. It is designed for final-year undergraduates and master's students with limited background in linear algebra and calculus. Comprehensive and coherent, it develops everything from basic reasoning to advanced techniques within the framework of graphical models. Students learn more than a menu of techniques, they develop analytical and problem-solving skills that equip them for the real world. Numerous examples and exercises, both computer based and theoretical, are included in every chapter. Resources for students and instructors,

This second edition presents the theory of continuum mechanics using computational methods. The text covers a broad range of topics including general problems of large rotation and large deformations and the development and limitations of finite element formulations in solving such problems. Dr Shabana introduces theories on motion kinematics, strain, forces and stresses and goes on to discuss linear and nonlinear constitutive equations, including viscoelastic and plastic constitutive models. General nonlinear continuum mechanics theory is used to develop small and large finite element formulations which correctly describe rigid body motion for use in engineering applications. This second edition features a new chapter that focuses on computational geometry and finite element analysis. This book is ideal for graduate and undergraduate students, professionals and researchers who are interested in continuum mechanics.

Data Communication and Networking, First Edition provides a solid, thorough overview of data communications and networking for Engineering Technology programs. This text covers information for one or more courses spanning digital communication systems, computer communication and networks, and data communications. It is specifically written and designed for engineering and engineering technology learners by using a systematic and visual approach with abundant tables, illustrations, and practical examples making it easy for students to comprehend concepts. Content begins with data communication, signal conversion and issues in data transmission. Each chapter includes an introduction, summary of key information, as well as practice questions and problems with answers. The text also includes coverage of network and network standards, Ethernet, network components and Transmission Control and Internets Protocols (TCP/IP). The integration of applications and laboratory experiments are found t

Fortran is one of the oldest high-level languages and remains the premier language for writing code for science and engineering applications. This book is for anyone who uses Fortran, from the novice learner to the advanced expert. It describes best practices for programmers, scientists, engineers, computer scientists and researchers who want to apply good style and incorporate rigorous usage in their own Fortran code or to establish guidelines for a team project. The presentation concentrates primarily on the characteristics of Fortran 2003, while also describing methods in Fortran 90/95 and valuable new features in Fortran 2008. The authors draw on more than a half century of experience writing production Fortran code to present clear succinct guidelines on formatting, naming, documenting, programming and packaging conventions and various programming paradigms such as parallel processing (including OpenMP, MPI and coarrays), OOP, generic programming and C language interoperability.

Fortran is one of the oldest high-level languages and remains the premier language for writing code for science and engineering applications. This book is for anyone who uses Fortran, from the novice learner to the advanced expert. It describes best practices for programmers, scientists, engineers, computer scientists and researchers who want to apply good style and incorporate rigorous usage in their own Fortran code or to establish guidelines for a team project. The presentation concentrates primarily on the characteristics of Fortran 2003, while also describing methods in Fortran 90/95 and valuable new features in Fortran 2008. The authors draw on more than a half century of experience writing production Fortran code to present clear succinct guidelines on formatting, naming, documenting, programming and packaging conventions and various programming paradigms such as parallel processing (including OpenMP, MPI and coarrays), OOP, generic programming and C language interoperability.

Master the basic concepts and methodologies of digital signal processing with this systematic introduction, without the need for an extensive mathematical background. The authors lead the reader through the fundamental mathematical principles underlying the operation of key signal processing techniques, providing simple arguments and cases rather than detailed general proofs. Coverage of practical implementation, discussion of the limitations of particular methods and plentiful MATLAB illustrations allow readers to better connect theory and practice. A focus on algorithms that are of theoretical importance or useful in real-world applications ensures that students cover material relevant to engineering practice, and equips students and practitioners alike with the basic principles necessary to apply DSP techniques to a variety of applications. Chapters include worked examples, problems and computer experiments, helping students to absorb the material they have just read. Lecture slides

Kalman filter, particle filter, IMM, PDA, ITS, random sets... The number of useful object-tracking methods is exploding. But how are they related? How do they help track everything from aircraft, missiles and extra-terrestrial objects to people and lymphocyte cells? How can they be adapted to novel applications? Fundamentals of Object Tracking tells you how. Starting with the generic object-tracking problem, it outlines the generic Bayesian solution. It then shows systematically how to formulate the major tracking problems – maneuvering, multiobject, clutter, out-of-sequence sensors – within this Bayesian framework and how to derive the standard tracking solutions. This structured approach makes very complex object-tracking algorithms accessible to the growing number of users working on real-world tracking problems and supports them in designing their own tracking filters under their unique application constraints. The book concludes with a chapter on issues critical to successful impl

Business ethics has largely been written from the perspective of analytical philosophy with very little attention paid to the work of continental philosophers. Yet although very few of these philosophers directly discuss business ethics, it is clear that their ideas have interesting applications in this field. This innovative textbook shows how the work of continental philosophers - Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, Levinas, Bauman, Derrida, Levinas, Nietzsche, Zizek, Jonas, Sartre, Heidegger, Latour, Nancy and Sloterdijk - can provide fresh insights into a number of different issues in business ethics. Topics covered include agency, stakeholder theory, organizational culture, organizational justice, moral decision-making, leadership, whistle-blowing, corporate social responsibility, globalization and sustainability. The book includes a number of features designed to aid comprehension, including a detailed glossary of key terms, text boxes explaining key concepts, and a wide range of exa

Building upon the ideas introduced in their previous book, Derivatives in Financial Markets with Stochastic Volatility, the authors study the pricing and hedging of financial derivatives under stochastic volatility in equity, interest-rate, and credit markets. They present and analyze multiscale stochastic volatility models and asymptotic approximations. These can be used in equity markets, for instance, to link the prices of path-dependent exotic instruments to market implied volatilities. The methods are also used for interest rate and credit derivatives. Other applications considered include variance-reduction techniques, portfolio optimization, forward-looking estimation of CAPM 'beta', and the Heston model and generalizations of it. 'Off-the-shelf' formulas and calibration tools are provided to ease the transition for practitioners who adopt this new method. The attention to detail and explicit presentation make this also an excellent text for a graduate course in financial and ap

Business ethics has largely been written from the perspective of analytical philosophy with very little attention paid to the work of continental philosophers. Yet although very few of these philosophers directly discuss business ethics, it is clear that their ideas have interesting applications in this field. This innovative textbook shows how the work of continental philosophers - Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, Levinas, Bauman, Derrida, Levinas, Nietzsche, Zizek, Jonas, Sartre, Heidegger, Latour, Nancy and Sloterdijk - can provide fresh insights into a number of different issues in business ethics. Topics covered include agency, stakeholder theory, organizational culture, organizational justice, moral decision-making, leadership, whistle-blowing, corporate social responsibility, globalization and sustainability. The book includes a number of features designed to aid comprehension, including a detailed glossary of key terms, text boxes explaining key concepts, and a wide range of exa

The use of laser pulses to alter the internal quantum structure of individual atoms and molecules has applications in quantum information processing, the coherent control of chemical reactions and in quantum-state engineering. This book presents the underlying theory of such quantum-state manipulation for researchers and graduate students. The book provides the equations, and approaches for their solution, which can be applied to complicated multilevel quantum systems. It also gives the background theory for application to isolated atoms or trapped ions, simple molecules and atoms embedded in solids. Particular attention is given to the ways in which quantum changes can be displayed graphically to help readers understand how quantum changes can be controlled.

Many social entrepreneurs struggle to take successful, innovative programs that address social problems a local or limited basis and scale them up to expand their impact in a more widespread, deeper,

This first book on greedy approximation gives a systematic presentation of the fundamental results. It also contains an introduction to two hot topics in numerical mathematics: learning theory and compressed sensing. Nonlinear approximation is becoming increasingly important, especially since two types are frequently employed in applications: adaptive methods are used in PDE solvers, while m-term approximation is used in image/signal/data processing, as well as in the design of neural networks. The fundamental question of nonlinear approximation is how to devise good constructive methods (algorithms) and recent results have established that greedy type algorithms may be the solution. The author has drawn on his own teaching experience to write a book ideally suited to graduate courses. The reader does not require a broad background to understand the material. Important open problems are included to give students and professionals alike ideas for further research.

Software testing is conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of a product under testing. The book, which is a result of the two decades of teaching experience of the author, aims to present testing concepts and methods that can be used in practice. The text will help readers to learn how to find faults in software before it is made available to users. A judicious mix of software testing concepts, solved problems and real-life case studies makes the book ideal for a basic course in software testing. The book will be a useful resource for senior undergraduate/graduate students of engineering, academics, software practitioners and researchers.

This textbook provides an intuitive yet mathematically rigorous introduction to the thermodynamics and thermal physics of planetary processes. It demonstrates how the workings of planetary bodies can be understood in depth by reducing them to fundamental physics and chemistry. The book is based on two courses taught by the author for many years at the University of Georgia. It includes 'Guided Exercise' boxes; end-of-chapter problems (worked solutions provided online); and software boxes (Maple code provided online). As well as being an ideal textbook on planetary thermodynamics for advanced students in the Earth and planetary sciences, it also provides an innovative and quantitative complement to more traditional courses in geological thermodynamics, petrology, chemical oceanography and planetary science. In addition to its use as a textbook, it is also of great interest to researchers looking for a 'one stop' source of concepts and techniques that they can apply to their research pro

Software product lines provide a systematic means of managing variability in a suite of products. They have many benefits but there are three major barriers that can prevent them from reaching their full potential. First, there is the challenge of scale: a large number of variants may exist in a product line context and the number of interrelationships and dependencies can rise exponentially. Second, variations tend to be systemic by nature in that they affect the whole architecture of the software product line. Third, software product lines often serve different business contexts, each with its own intricacies and complexities. The AMPLE (http://www.ample-project.net/) approach tackles these three challenges by combining advances in aspect-oriented software development and model-driven engineering. The full suite of methods and tools that constitute this approach are discussed in detail in this edited volume and illustrated using three real-world industrial case studies.

The book addresses software design issues related to methods for the analysis of construction engineering by means of modern CAD (computer-aided design) systems and provides validation for their use.

This Finite Element Method offers a fundamental and practical introduction to the finite element method, its variants, and their applications in engineering. Every concept is introduced in the simples

This Finite Element Method offers a fundamental and practical introduction to the finite element method, its variants, and their applications in engineering. Every concept is introduced in the simples

Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting (New Series) is an annual publication designed to disseminate developments in the quantitative analysis of finance and accounting. The publication is a forum for statistical and quantitative analyses of issues in finance and accounting as well as applications of quantitative methods to problems in financial management, financial accounting, and business management. The objective is to promote interaction between academic research in finance and accounting and applied research in the financial community and the accounting profession.

'What's going to happen next?' Time series data hold the answers, and Bayesian methods represent the cutting edge in learning what they have to say. This ambitious book is the first unified treatment of the emerging knowledge-base in Bayesian time series techniques. Exploiting the unifying framework of probabilistic graphical models, the book covers approximation schemes, both Monte Carlo and deterministic, and introduces switching, multi-object, non-parametric and agent-based models in a variety of application environments. It demonstrates that the basic framework supports the rapid creation of models tailored to specific applications and gives insight into the computational complexity of their implementation. The authors span traditional disciplines such as statistics and engineering and the more recently established areas of machine learning and pattern recognition. Readers with a basic understanding of applied probability, but no experience with time series analysis, are guided fro

Shock wave-boundary-layer interaction (SBLI) is a fundamental phenomenon in gas dynamics that is observed in many practical situations, ranging from transonic aircraft wings to hypersonic vehicles and engines. SBLIs have the potential to pose serious problems in a flowfield; hence they often prove to be a critical - or even design limiting - issue for many aerospace applications. This is the first book devoted solely to a comprehensive, state-of-the-art explanation of this phenomenon. It includes a description of the basic fluid mechanics of SBLIs plus contributions from leading international experts who share their insight into their physics and the impact they have in practical flow situations. This book is for practitioners and graduate students in aerodynamics who wish to familiarize themselves with all aspects of SBLI flows. It is a valuable resource for specialists because it compiles experimental, computational and theoretical knowledge in one place.

Applied statistics is more than data analysis, but it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. David Cox and Christl Donnelly distil decades of scientific experience into usable principles for the successful application of statistics, showing how good statistical strategy shapes every stage of an investigation. As you advance from research or policy question, to study design, through modelling and interpretation, and finally to meaningful conclusions, this book will be a valuable guide. Over a hundred illustrations from a wide variety of real applications make the conceptual points concrete, illuminating your path and deepening your understanding. This book is essential reading for anyone who makes extensive use of statistical methods in their work.

The book contains the methods and bases of functional analysis that are directly adjacent to the problems of numerical mathematics and its applications; they are what one needs for the understand- ing

Principles of Snow Hydrology describes the factors that control the accumulation, melting and runoff of water from seasonal snowpacks over the surface of the earth. The book addresses not only the basic principles governing snow in the hydrologic cycle, but also the latest applications of remote sensing, and techniques for modeling streamflow from snowmelt across large mixed land-use river basins. Individual chapters are devoted to climatology and distribution of snow, snowpack energy exchange, snow chemistry, ground-based measurements and remote sensing of snowpack characteristics, snowpack management, and modeling snowmelt runoff. Many chapters have review questions and problems with solutions available online. This book is a reference book for practicing water resources managers and a text for advanced hydrology and water resources courses which span fields such as engineering, earth sciences, meteorology, biogeochemistry, forestry and range management, and water resources planning.

Polyhedral functions provide a model for an important class of problems that includes both linear programming and applications in data analysis. General methods for minimizing such functions using the polyhedral geometry explicitly are developed. Such methods approach a minimum by moving from extreme point to extreme point along descending edges and are described generically as simplicial. The best-known member of this class is the simplex method of linear programming, but simplicial methods have found important applications in discrete approximation and statistics. The general approach considered in this text, first published in 2001, has permitted the development of finite algorithms for the rank regression problem. The key ideas are those of developing a general format for specifying the polyhedral function and the application of this to derive multiplier conditions to characterize optimality. Also considered is the application of the general approach to the development of active se

Applied statistics is more than data analysis, but it is easy to lose sight of the big picture. David Cox and Christl Donnelly distil decades of scientific experience into usable principles for the successful application of statistics, showing how good statistical strategy shapes every stage of an investigation. As you advance from research or policy question, to study design, through modelling and interpretation, and finally to meaningful conclusions, this book will be a valuable guide. Over a hundred illustrations from a wide variety of real applications make the conceptual points concrete, illuminating your path and deepening your understanding. This book is essential reading for anyone who makes extensive use of statistical methods in their work.