Introduction to Computer science

The national bestselling author takes a departure from his epic science fiction to craft this cross between Len Deighton-style espionage and H.P. Lovecraftian horror. Bob Howard is a computer-hacker

This book is a self-contained introduction to the theory of signals and systems, which lies at the basis of many areas of electrical and computer engineering. In the seventy short, glectures, formatte

This colorful introduction to the seasons is perfect for the early science curriculum. Each book contains numerous photographs depicting the recognizable features of autumn, spring, summer, and winte

This colorful introduction to the seasons is perfect for the early science curriculum. Each book contains numerous photographs depicting the recognizable features of autumn, spring, summer, and winte

This series is the perfect introduction to the universe. Correlated to the science curriculum, simple text and full-color photographs help young readers understand the objects they see in the sky. R

This series is the perfect introduction to the universe. Correlated to the science curriculum, simple text and full-color photographs help young readers understand the objects they see in the sky. R

This series is the perfect introduction to the universe. Correlated to the science curriculum, simple text and full-color photographs help young readers understand the objects they see in the sky. R

This bilingual introduction to the seasons is perfect for the early science curriculum. Each book contains numerous photographs depicting the recognizable features of autumn, spring, summer, and winte

This colorful introduction to the seasons is perfect for the early science curriculum. Each book contains numerous photographs depicting the recognizable features of autumn, spring, summer, and winte

This colorful introduction to the seasons is perfect for the early science curriculum. Each book contains numerous photographs depicting the recognizable features of autumn, spring, summer, and wint

This textbook introduces software engineering to advanced-level undergraduate and graduate studentsof computer science. It emphasizes a case-study approach whereby a project is developed throug

Inverse Modeling of the Ocean and Atmosphere is a graduate-level book for students of oceanography and meteorology, and anyone interested in combining computer models and observations of the hydrosphere or solid earth. A step-by-step development of maximally efficient inversion algorithms, using ideal models, is complemented by computer codes and comprehensive details for realistic models. Variational tools and statistical concepts are concisely introduced, and applications to contemporary research models, together with elaborate observing systems, are examined in detail. The book offers a review of the various alternative approaches, and further advanced research topics are discussed. Derived from the author's lecture notes, this book constitutes an ideal course companion for graduate students, as well as being a valuable reference source for researchers and managers in theoretical earth science, civil engineering and applied mathematics.

For over three decades, Paul Churchland has been a provocative and controversial philosopher of mind and of science. He is most famous as an advocate of 'eliminative materialism', whereby he suggests that our commonsense understanding of our own minds is radically defective and that the science of brain demonstrates this (just as an understanding of physics reveals that our commonsense understanding of a flat and motionless earth is similarly false). This collection offers an introduction to Churchland's work, as well as a critique of some of his most famous philosophical positions. Including contributions by both established and promising young philosophers, it is intended to complement the growing literature on Churchland, focusing on his contributions in isolation from those of his wife and philosophical partner, Patricia Churchland, as well as on his contributions to philosophy as distinguished from those to Cognitive Science.

For over three decades, Paul Churchland has been a provocative and controversial philosopher of mind and of science. He is most famous as an advocate of 'eliminative materialism', whereby he suggests that our commonsense understanding of our own minds is radically defective and that the science of brain demonstrates this (just as an understanding of physics reveals that our commonsense understanding of a flat and motionless earth is similarly false). This collection offers an introduction to Churchland's work, as well as a critique of some of his most famous philosophical positions. Including contributions by both established and promising young philosophers, it is intended to complement the growing literature on Churchland, focusing on his contributions in isolation from those of his wife and philosophical partner, Patricia Churchland, as well as on his contributions to philosophy as distinguished from those to Cognitive Science.

In this new text, designed for sophomores studying mathematics and computer science, the authors cover the basics of difference equations and some of their applications in computing and in population

This 1997 book is an introduction to the application of computer simulation and theory in the study of the interaction of energetic particles (

Plasma processing is a central technique in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. This self-contained book provides an up-to-date description of plasma etching and deposition in semiconductor fabrication. It presents the basic physics and chemistry of these processes, and shows how they can be accurately modelled. The author begins with an overview of plasma reactors, and discusses the various models for understanding plasma processes. He then covers plasma chemistry, and describes in detail the modelling of complex plasma systems, with reference to experimental results. The book closes with a useful glossary of technical terms. No prior knowledge of plasma physics is assumed in the book. It contains many exercises and will serve as an ideal introduction to plasma processing and technology for graduate students of electrical engineering and materials science. It will also be a useful reference for practising engineers in the semiconductor industry.

The primary aim of this book is to present a coherent introduction to graph theory, suitable as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in mathematics and computer scienc

Migration and colonization are major forces affecting the frequency, spatial pattern and spread of genes in human populations. Here, Alan Fix reviews theories of migration developed by biologists and social scientists and surveys patterns of migration in a diverse sample of human populations. Using these empirical studies, he evaluates models of migration developed by population geneticists and explores more realistic models using computer simulation. He then shows the relevance of studies of migration as a microevolutionary process to the understanding of longer term global patterns of human diversification, by examining the spread of anatomically modern Homo sapiens, the demic diffusion of agriculture in Europe, and the origins of human diversity in the Malayan Peninsula. By focusing on migration as a process rather than as its genetic consequences, the book provides a bridge between biological and social science studies of migration, genetic microevolutionary theory and longer term

This 2001 book provides a detailed introduction to the principles of Doppler and polarimetric radar, focusing in particular on their use in the analysis of weather systems. The design features and operation of practical radar systems are highlighted throughout the book in order to illustrate important theoretical foundations. The authors begin by discussing background topics such as electromagnetic scattering, polarization, and wave propagation. They then deal in detail with the engineering aspects of pulsed Doppler polarimetric radar, including the relevant signal theory, spectral estimation techniques, and noise considerations. They close by examining a range of key applications in meteorology and remote sensing. The book will be of great use to graduate students of electrical engineering and atmospheric science as well as to practitioners involved in the applications of polarimetric radar systems.

Studying the dynamics of a large number of particles interacting through long-range forces, commonly referred to as the 'N-body problem', is a central aspect of many different branches of physics. In recent years, significant advances have been made in the development of fast N-body algorithms to deal efficiently with such complex problems. This book is the first to give a thorough introduction to these so-called 'tree methods', setting out the basic principles and giving many practical examples of their use. No prior specialist knowledge is assumed, and the techniques are illustrated throughout with reference to a broad range of applications. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working on the modelling of systems in astrophysics, plasma physics, nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics and materials science.

This volume contains survey articles based on the invited lectures given at the Twentieth British Combinatorial Conference, organised jointly by the University of Durham and the Open University. It was held in July 2005 at the University of Durham. This biennial conference is a well-established international event, with speakers from all over the world. By its nature this volume provides an up-to-date overview of current research activity in several areas of combinatorics, ranging from combinatorial number theory to geometry. The authors are some of the world's foremost researchers in their fields, and here they summarize existing results, and give a unique preview of work currently being written up. The book provides a valuable survey of the present state of knowledge in combinatorics. It will be useful to research workers and advanced graduate students, primarily in mathematics but also in computer science, statistics and engineering.

The Chemistry and Physics of Coatings provides an introduction to the science underpinning the paint (organic coatings) industry to graduate level chemists who may have no previous knowledge of polyme

This book is an introduction to recent progress in the development and application of glass with special photonics properties. Glass has a number of structural and practical advantages over crystalline materials, including excellent homogeneity, variety of form and size, and the potential for doping with a variety of dopant materials. Glasses with photonic properties have great potential and are expected to play a significant role in the next generation of multimedia systems. Fundamentals of glass materials are explained in the first chapter, and the book then proceeds to a discussion of gradient index glass, laser glasses, nonlinear optical glasses and magneto-optical glasses. Beginning with the basic theory, the book discusses actual problems, performance and applications of glasses. The book will be of value to graduate students, researchers and professional engineers working in materials science, chemistry and physics with an interest in photonics and glass with special properties.

This book describes both the theoretical and experimental aspects of optical soliton generation, soliton properties and the application of optical solitons to all-optical high-bit-rate communications. Only temporal optical solitons in fibres are considered. The intention of the book is to provide an overview of our current understanding of optical soliton properties, introducing the subject for the student and reviewing the most recent research. Each chapter has been written by experts, indeed chapters 1 and 2 have been contributed by the pioneers of theoretical and experimental optical soliton research – Dr A. Hasegawa and Dr L. F. Mollenauer respectively. The book will be of importance to graduate students and researchers in optics, optical engineering and communications science, providing a useful introduction for those who are entering the field. It will provide an up-to-date summary of recent research for the expert, who will also find the references to each chapter extremely val

How the cerebellum accomplishes its highly complex feats of coordination has been the subject of much inquiry; one of the pre-eminent theories places adaptive control at the forefront. This book reinforces the view that the cerebellum functions as an adaptive control system; that is, it automatically adjusts its output as needed for such eventualities as temporary or lasting weakness of muscle. It is the first text to synthesize the substantial body of literature on the subject, combining the neuroscience of the cerebellum with the science of control theory common to electrical and computer engineers. Organized in four parts, the book examines cerebellar anatomy and physiology; cerebellar function; models and theories; and ends with a summary and conclusions. The author's clinical perspective offers a broader view of cerebellar function beyond the basic neuroscience. An appendix demonstrates evidence supporting the adaptive control model from a detailed comparison of the cerebellum wit

Classical logic has proved inadequate in various areas of computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, philosopy and linguistics. This is an introduction to extensions of first-order logic, based on the principle that many-sorted logic (MSL) provides a unifying framework in which to place, for example, second-order logic, type theory, modal and dynamic logics and MSL itself. The aim is two fold: only one theorem-prover is needed; proofs of the metaproperties of the different existing calculi can be avoided by borrowing them from MSL. To make the book accessible to readers from different disciplines, whilst maintaining precision, the author has supplied detailed step-by-step proofs, avoiding difficult arguments, and continually motivating the material with examples. Consequently this can be used as a reference, for self-teaching or for first-year graduate courses.

This book provides an introduction to the general principles of nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation, concentrating on simple models and their application. The concepts of relaxation and the time domain are particularly emphasised. Some relatively advanced topics are treated, but the approach is graduated and all points of potential difficulty are carefully explained. An introductory classical discussion of relaxation is followed by a quantum-mechanical treatment. Only when the the principles of relaxation are firmly established is the density operator approach introduced; and then its power becomes apparent. A selection of case studies is considered in depth, providing applications of the ideas developed in the text. There are a number of appendices, including one on random functions. This treatment of one of the most important experimental techniques in modern science will be of great value to final-year undergraduates, graduate students and researchers using nuclear magnetic re

The quantitative analysis of biological sequence data is based on methods from statistics coupled with efficient algorithms from computer science. Algebra provides a framework for unifying many of the seemingly disparate techniques used by computational biologists. This book, first published in 2005, offers an introduction to this mathematical framework and describes tools from computational algebra for designing new algorithms for exact, accurate results. These algorithms can be applied to biological problems such as aligning genomes, finding genes and constructing phylogenies. The first part of this book consists of four chapters on the themes of Statistics, Computation, Algebra and Biology, offering speedy, self-contained introductions to the emerging field of algebraic statistics and its applications to genomics. In the second part, the four themes are combined and developed to tackle real problems in computational genomics. As the first book in the exciting and dynamic area, it wi

The state of ecosystems, biological communities and species are continuously changing as a result of both natural processes and the activities of humans. In order to detect and understand these changes, effective ecological monitoring programmes are required. This book offers an introduction to the topic and provides both a rationale for monitoring and a practical guide to the techniques available. Written in a nontechnical style, the book covers the relevance and growth of ecological monitoring, the organizations and programmes involved, the science of ecological monitoring and an assessment of methods in practice, including many examples from monitoring programmes around the world. Building on the success of the first edition, this edition has been fully revised and updated with two additional chapters covering the relevance of monitoring to the reporting of the state of the environment, and the growth of community based ecological monitoring.

The state of ecosystems, biological communities and species are continuously changing as a result of both natural processes and the activities of humans. In order to detect and understand these changes, effective ecological monitoring programmes are required. This book offers an introduction to the topic and provides both a rationale for monitoring and a practical guide to the techniques available. Written in a nontechnical style, the book covers the relevance and growth of ecological monitoring, the organizations and programmes involved, the science of ecological monitoring and an assessment of methods in practice, including many examples from monitoring programmes around the world. Building on the success of the first edition, this edition has been fully revised and updated with two additional chapters covering the relevance of monitoring to the reporting of the state of the environment, and the growth of community based ecological monitoring.

This book offers an in-depth introduction to video-based rendering (VBR), a rapidly developing interdisciplinary topic employing techniques from computer graphics, computer vision, and telecommunicat

Discrete mathematics is fundamental to computer science, and this text covers its ideas and mathematical language. Features counting and listing, functions, decision trees and recursion, and basic con

The ability to navigate across town, comprehend an animated display of the functioning of the human heart, view complex multivariate data on a company's website, or to read an architectural blueprint and form a three-dimensional mental picture of a house are all tasks involving visuospatial thinking. The field of visuospatial thinking is a relatively diverse interdisciplinary research enterprise. An understanding of visuospatial thinking, and in particular, how people represent and process visual and spatial information, is relevant not only to cognitive psychology but also education, geography, architecture, medicine, design computer science/artificial intelligence, semiotics and animal cognition. The goal of this book, first published in 2005, is to present a broad overview of research on visuospatial thinking that can be used by researchers as well as students interested in this topic in both basic research and applied/naturalistic contexts.

The ability to navigate across town, comprehend an animated display of the functioning of the human heart, view complex multivariate data on a company's website, or to read an architectural blueprint and form a three-dimensional mental picture of a house are all tasks involving visuospatial thinking. The field of visuospatial thinking is a relatively diverse interdisciplinary research enterprise. An understanding of visuospatial thinking, and in particular, how people represent and process visual and spatial information, is relevant not only to cognitive psychology but also education, geography, architecture, medicine, design computer science/artificial intelligence, semiotics and animal cognition. The goal of this book, first published in 2005, is to present a broad overview of research on visuospatial thinking that can be used by researchers as well as students interested in this topic in both basic research and applied/naturalistic contexts.

This book provides a thorough introduction to one of the most efficient approximation methods for the analysis and solution of problems in theoretical physics and applied mathematics. It is written with practical needs in mind and contains a discussion of 50 problems with solutions, of varying degrees of difficulty. The problems are taken from quantum mechanics, but the method has important applications in any field of science involving second order ordinary differential equations. The power of the asymptotic solution of second order differential equations is demonstrated, and in each case the authors clearly indicate which concepts and results of the general theory are needed to solve a particular problem. This book will be ideal as a manual for users of the phase-integral method, as well as a valuable reference text for experienced research workers and graduate students.

A series of important applications of combinatorics on words has emerged with the development of computerized text and string processing. The aim of this volume, the third in a trilogy, is to present a unified treatment of some of the major fields of applications. After an introduction that sets the scene and gathers together the basic facts, there follow chapters in which applications are considered in detail. The areas covered include core algorithms for text processing, natural language processing, speech processing, bioinformatics, and areas of applied mathematics such as combinatorial enumeration and fractal analysis. No special prerequisites are needed, and no familiarity with the application areas or with the material covered by the previous volumes is required. The breadth of application, combined with the inclusion of problems and algorithms and a complete bibliography will make this book ideal for graduate students and professionals in mathematics, computer science, biology a

Finite Element Plasticity and Metalforming Analysis is concerned with describing a computer based technique for aiding the optimisation of metalforming processes. These methods should enable tool and product designers to reduce development lead times for the introduction of new products, to optimise the process and to help improve the quality and reliability of products. The book is specifically devoted to the finite element method and its use in plasticity problems. It details the theoretical background assuming little previous knowledge, and describes how it can be implemented and used to examine realistic metalforming processes. Forging, rolling and extrusion are typical processes covered, in addition to specific problems such as ductile fracture and how it can be predicted. It is the first text that describes in detail elastic-plastic finite-element theory and how it is used in forming analyses. The technique described can be used to simulate metal flow in 2- and 3-D problems and c

This book focuses on dealing with large-scale data, a field commonly referred to as data mining. The book is divided into three sections. The first deals with an introduction to statistical aspects of

This textbook is intended to serve as a one-semester introductory course in number theory and in this second edition it has been revised throughout and many new exercises have been added. Historical perspective is included and emphasis is given to some of the subject's applied aspects; in particular the field of cryptography is highlighted. At the heart of the book are the major number theoretic accomplishments of Euclid, Fermat, Gauss, Legendre, and Euler, and to fully illustrate the properties of numbers and concepts developed in the text, a wealth of exercises have been included. It is assumed that the reader will have 'pencil in hand' and ready access to a calculator or computer. For students new to number theory, whatever their background, this is a stimulating and entertaining introduction to the subject.