Methods of Nonlinear Analysis

This is an in-depth analysis of the various methods used by small states to overcome their vulnerabilities in the international arena. With its balanced approach and variety of contributions, this boo

This book presents a critical review on the development and application of hygrothermal analysis methods to simulate the coupled transport processes of Heat, Air, and Moisture (HAM) transfer for one o

There are many methods of stable controller design for nonlinear systems. In seeking to go beyond the minimum requirement of stability, Adaptive Dynamic Programming in Discrete Time approaches the cha

Sara Nofri combines several research methods (multilingual bibliographic research, quantitative content analysis, semiotic text analysis, interviews to journalists) and a cross-cultural, interdiscipli

The increasing awareness of the effects of pollutants in the eco-system and on the development of suitable methods of analysis has stimulated a lot of research recently. This volume comprehensively di

An outstanding panel of hands-on experts and developers of CE equipment describe in step-by-step fashion their best cutting-edge methods for the detection and analysis of DNA mutations and modificatio

Stochastic Dynamics of Marine Structures is a text for students and a reference for professionals on the basic theory and methods used for stochastic modelling and analysis of marine structures subjected to environmental loads. The first part of the book provides a detailed introduction to the basic dynamic analysis of structures, serving as a foundation for later chapters on stochastic response analysis. This includes an extensive chapter on the finite element method. A careful introduction to stochastic modelling is provided, which includes such concepts as stochastic process, variance spectrum, random environmental processes, response spectrum, response statistics and short- and long-term extreme value models. The second part of the book offers detailed discussion of limit state design approaches, fatigue design methods, the equations of motion for dynamic structures and numerical solution techniques. The final chapter highlights methods for prediction of extreme values from measure

Measurement, analysis and modeling of extreme precipitation events linked to floods is vital in understanding changing climate impacts and variability. This book provides methods for assessment of the trends in these events and their impacts. It also provides a basis to develop procedures and guidelines for climate-adaptive hydrologic engineering. Academic researchers in the fields of hydrology, climate change, meteorology, environmental policy and risk assessment, and professionals and policy-makers working in hazard mitigation, water resources engineering and climate adaptation will find this an invaluable resource. This volume is the first in a collection of four books on flood disaster management theory and practice within the context of anthropogenic climate change. The others are: Floods in a Changing Climate: Hydrological Modeling by P. P. Mujumdar and D. Nagesh Kumar, Floods in a Changing Climate: Inundation Modeling by Giuliano Di Baldassarre and Floods in a Changing Climate:

Mechanics of Machinery describes the analysis of machines, covering both the graphical and analytical methods for examining the kinematics and dynamics of mechanisms with low and high pairs. This text

Disrupting Dark Networks focuses on how social network analysis can be used to craft strategies to track, destabilize and disrupt covert and illegal networks. The book begins with an overview of the key terms and assumptions of social network analysis and various counterinsurgency strategies. The next several chapters introduce readers to algorithms and metrics commonly used by social network analysts. They provide worked examples from four different social network analysis software packages (UCINET, NetDraw, Pajek and ORA) using standard network data sets as well as data from an actual terrorist network that serves as a running example throughout the book. The book concludes by considering the ethics of and various ways that social network analysis can inform counterinsurgency strategizing. By contextualizing these methods in a larger counterinsurgency framework, this book offers scholars and analysts an array of approaches for disrupting dark networks.

Disrupting Dark Networks focuses on how social network analysis can be used to craft strategies to track, destabilize and disrupt covert and illegal networks. The book begins with an overview of the key terms and assumptions of social network analysis and various counterinsurgency strategies. The next several chapters introduce readers to algorithms and metrics commonly used by social network analysts. They provide worked examples from four different social network analysis software packages (UCINET, NetDraw, Pajek and ORA) using standard network data sets as well as data from an actual terrorist network that serves as a running example throughout the book. The book concludes by considering the ethics of and various ways that social network analysis can inform counterinsurgency strategizing. By contextualizing these methods in a larger counterinsurgency framework, this book offers scholars and analysts an array of approaches for disrupting dark networks.

This book is about the statistical principles behind the design of effective experiments and focuses on the practical needs of applied statisticians and experimenters engaged in design, implementation and analysis. Emphasising the logical principles of statistical design, rather than mathematical calculation, the authors demonstrate how all available information can be used to extract the clearest answers to many questions. The principles are illustrated with a wide range of examples drawn from real experiments in medicine, industry, agriculture and many experimental disciplines. Numerous exercises are given to help the reader practise techniques and to appreciate the difference that good design can make to an experimental research project. Based on Roger Mead's excellent Design of Experiments, this new edition is thoroughly revised and updated to include modern methods relevant to applications in industry, engineering and modern biology. It also contains seven new chapters on contempo

Spectroscopy is the principal tool used in astronomy to investigate the Universe beyond Earth's atmosphere. Through the analysis of electromagnetic radiation, spectrographs enable observers to assess the chemical composition, kinematics and local physical properties of distant stars, nebulae and galaxies. Thoroughly illustrated and clearly written, this handbook offers a practical and comprehensive guide to the different spectroscopic methods used in all branches of astronomy, at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-ray and from ground and space-borne instruments. After a historical overview of the field, the central chapters navigate the various types of hardware used in spectroscopy. In-depth descriptions of modern techniques and their benefits and drawbacks help you choose the most promising observation strategy. The handbook finishes by assessing new technologies and future prospects for deep-sky observation. This text is an ideal reference for today's graduate students and active r

The world is awash with digital data from social networks, blogs, business, science and engineering. Data-intensive computing facilitates understanding of complex problems that must process massive amounts of data. Through the development of new classes of software, algorithms and hardware, data-intensive applications can provide timely and meaningful analytical results in response to exponentially growing data complexity and associated analysis requirements. This emerging area brings many challenges that are different from traditional high-performance computing. This reference for computing professionals and researchers describes the dimensions of the field, the key challenges, the state of the art and the characteristics of likely approaches that future data-intensive problems will require. Chapters cover general principles and methods for designing such systems and for managing and analyzing the big data sets of today that live in the cloud and describe example applications in bioin

Spectroscopy is the principal tool used in astronomy to investigate the Universe beyond Earth's atmosphere. Through the analysis of electromagnetic radiation, spectrographs enable observers to assess the chemical composition, kinematics and local physical properties of distant stars, nebulae and galaxies. Thoroughly illustrated and clearly written, this handbook offers a practical and comprehensive guide to the different spectroscopic methods used in all branches of astronomy, at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-ray and from ground and space-borne instruments. After a historical overview of the field, the central chapters navigate the various types of hardware used in spectroscopy. In-depth descriptions of modern techniques and their benefits and drawbacks help you choose the most promising observation strategy. The handbook finishes by assessing new technologies and future prospects for deep-sky observation. This text is an ideal reference for today's graduate students and active r

Hybrid Predictive Control for Dynamic Transport Problems develops methods for the design of predictive control strategies for nonlinear-dynamic hybrid discrete-/continuous-variable systems. The method

This book offers an overview of iconographic methods and their application to archaeological analysis. It offers a truly interdisciplinary approach that draws equally from art history and anthropology. Vernon James Knight, Jr begins with an historiographical overview, addressing the methodologies and theories that underpin both archaeology and art history. He then demonstrates how iconographic methods can be integrated with the scientific methods that are at the core of much archaeological inquiry. Focusing on artifacts from the pre-Columbian civilizations of North and Meso-American sites, Knight shows how the use of iconographic analysis yields new insights into these objects and civilizations.

This textbook explains the basic ideas of subjective probability and shows how subjective probabilities must obey the usual rules of probability to ensure coherency. It defines the likelihood function, prior distributions and posterior distributions. It explains how posterior distributions are the basis for inference and explores their basic properties. Various methods of specifying prior distributions are considered, with special emphasis on subject-matter considerations and exchange ability. The regression model is examined to show how analytical methods may fail in the derivation of marginal posterior distributions. The remainder of the book is concerned with applications of the theory to important models that are used in economics, political science, biostatistics and other applied fields. New to the second edition is a chapter on semiparametric regression and new sections on the ordinal probit, item response, factor analysis, ARCH-GARCH and stochastic volatility models. The new ed

This text provides a complete introduction to the theory of variational inequalities with emphasis on contact mechanics. It covers existence, uniqueness and convergence results for variational inequalities, including the modelling and variational analysis of specific frictional contact problems with elastic, viscoelastic and viscoplastic materials. New models of contact are presented, including contact of piezoelectric materials. Particular attention is paid to the study of history-dependent quasivariational inequalities and to their applications in the study of contact problems with unilateral constraints. The book fully illustrates the cross-fertilisation between modelling and applications on the one hand and nonlinear mathematical analysis on the other. Indeed, the reader will gain an understanding of how new and nonstandard models in contact mechanics lead to new types of variational inequalities and, conversely, how abstract results concerning variational inequalities can be appli

This book is dedicated to the mathematical study of two-dimensional statistical hydrodynamics and turbulence, described by the 2D Navier–Stokes system with a random force. The authors' main goal is to justify the statistical properties of a fluid's velocity field u(t,x) that physicists assume in their work. They rigorously prove that u(t,x) converges, as time grows, to a statistical equilibrium, independent of initial data. They use this to study ergodic properties of u(t,x) – proving, in particular, that observables f(u(t,.)) satisfy the strong law of large numbers and central limit theorem. They also discuss the inviscid limit when viscosity goes to zero, normalising the force so that the energy of solutions stays constant, while their Reynolds numbers grow to infinity. They show that then the statistical equilibria converge to invariant measures of the 2D Euler equation and study these measures. The methods apply to other nonlinear PDEs perturbed by random forces.

Table of contents: Stochastic methods in nonlinear structural dynamics.- Stochastic models of uncertainties in computational structural dynamics and structural acoustics.- The tale of stochastic linea

In Honoring the Ancestors, Donald H. Matthews affirms once and for all the African foundation of African-American religious practice. His analysis of the methods employed by historians, social scienti

"This book provides state-of-the-art coverage of contemporary methods in biosignal processing, with emphasis on brain signal analysis. The topics covered in this book reflect an ongoing evolution in b

The Jackknife and bootstrap are the most popular data-resampling methods used in statistical analysis. This book provides a systematic introduction to the theory of the jackknife, bootstrap and other

This book develops and applies an inventive theoretical approach, which combines different levels of analysis and activates a wide range of methods, to the comparative study of an important point that

This unique book is the first comprehensive guide to the discovery, analysis, and evaluation of natural experiments - an increasingly popular methodology in the social sciences. Thad Dunning provides an introduction to key issues in causal inference, including model specification, and emphasizes the importance of strong research design over complex statistical analysis. Surveying many examples of standard natural experiments, regression-discontinuity designs, and instrumental-variables designs, Dunning highlights both the strengths and potential weaknesses of these methods, aiding researchers in better harnessing the promise of natural experiments while avoiding the pitfalls. Dunning also demonstrates the contribution of qualitative methods to natural experiments and proposes new ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative techniques. Chapters complete with exercises and appendices covering specialized topics such as cluster-randomized natural experiments, make this an ideal teachin

This unique book is the first comprehensive guide to the discovery, analysis, and evaluation of natural experiments - an increasingly popular methodology in the social sciences. Thad Dunning provides an introduction to key issues in causal inference, including model specification, and emphasizes the importance of strong research design over complex statistical analysis. Surveying many examples of standard natural experiments, regression-discontinuity designs, and instrumental-variables designs, Dunning highlights both the strengths and potential weaknesses of these methods, aiding researchers in better harnessing the promise of natural experiments while avoiding the pitfalls. Dunning also demonstrates the contribution of qualitative methods to natural experiments and proposes new ways to integrate qualitative and quantitative techniques. Chapters complete with exercises and appendices covering specialized topics such as cluster-randomized natural experiments, make this an ideal teachin

This volume brings together archeologists, art historians, philologists, literary scholars, political scientists, and historians to articulate the ways in which western Greek theater was distinct from that of the Greek mainland and, at the same time, to investigate how the two traditions interacted. The chapters intersect and build on each other in their pursuit of a number of shared questions and themes: the place of theater in the cultural life of Sicilian and South Italian 'colonial cities;' theater as a method of cultural self-identification; shared mythological themes in performance texts and theatrical vase-painting; and the reflection and analysis of Sicilian and South Italian theater in the work of Athenian philosophers and playwrights. Together, the essays explore central problems in the study of western Greek theater. By gathering a number of different perspectives and methods, this volume offers the first wide-ranging examination of this hitherto neglected history.

Computational aeroacoustics (CAA) is a relatively new research area. CAA algorithms have developed rapidly and the methods have been applied in many areas of aeroacoustics. The objective of CAA is not simply to develop computational methods but also to use these methods to solve practical aeroacoustics problems and to perform numerical simulation of aeroacoustic phenomena. By analysing the simulation data, an investigator can determine noise generation mechanisms and sound propagation processes. This is both a textbook for graduate students and a reference for researchers in CAA and as such is self-contained. No prior knowledge of numerical methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) is needed, however, a general understanding of partial differential equations and basic numerical analysis is assumed. Exercises are included and are designed to be an integral part of the chapter content. In addition, sample computer programs are included to illustrate the implementation of

A key figure in the field of evolutionary biology, William Bateson (1861–1926) revived Mendelian methods of analysis to develop Darwin's theory of evolution, thereby pioneering the study of genetics. In these lectures, published at Yale in 1913, Bateson systematically chronicles the era's conflicting and developing theories on taxonomy, speciation, variation and hybridisation, and includes his own thoughts on continuous and discontinuous variation and its causes. Drawing on the comparative physiology and anatomy of species that he knew from his wide experience, citing detailed examples from across the taxonomic kingdoms, Bateson brings to life this exciting time in biology. Because the theories central to the modern understanding of genetics, heredity and evolution were formed at this time, this work remains valuable and relevant to students of biology and the history of science.

Using autoethnographic and autopoetic methods based on analysis of his own experiences of growing up black in Louisiana and then working his way through the "White Ivory Tower," Alexander (communicati

In this book Craig, Kinney and their collaborators confront the main unsolved mysteries in Shakespeare's canon through computer analysis of Shakespeare's and other writers' styles. In some cases their analysis confirms the current scholarly consensus, bringing long-standing questions to something like a final resolution. In other areas the book provides more surprising conclusions: that Shakespeare wrote the 1602 additions to The Spanish Tragedy, for example, and that Marlowe along with Shakespeare was a collaborator on Henry VI, Parts 1 and 2. The methods used are more wholeheartedly statistical, and computationally more intensive, than any that have yet been applied to Shakespeare studies. The book also reveals how word patterns help create a characteristic personal style. In tackling traditional problems with the aid of the processing power of the computer, harnessed through computer science, and drawing upon large amounts of data, the book is an exemplar of the new domain of digita

This book describes a unique approach to smart receiver system design. It starts with the analysis of a very basic, single-path receiver structure, then using similar methods, extends the analysis to

The required research sequence is perhaps the most dreaded element of a BSW or MSW program for students who don't see the applicability of research methods and data analysis to the "real world" of pra

The first edition of Geometric Morphometrics for Biologists has been the primary resource for teaching modern geometric methods of shape analysis to biologists who have a stronger background in biolog

The analysis of body composition (fat, bone and muscle) is an important process throughout the biomedical sciences. This is the first book to offer a clear and detailed introduction to the key methods

The analysis of body composition (fat, bone and muscle) is an important process throughout the biomedical sciences. This is the first book to offer a clear and detailed introduction to the key methods

This book addresses researchers and practitioners interested in modeling, prediction and forecasting of natural systems based on nonlinear dynamics. It is a practical guide to data analysis and to the

What is knowledge and how is it represented? This book focuses on the idea of formalising knowledge as relations, interpreting knowledge represented in databases or logic programs as relational data and discovering new knowledge by identifying hidden and defining new relations. After a brief introduction to representational issues, the author develops a relational language for abstract machine learning problems. He then uses this language to discuss traditional methods such as clustering and decision tree induction, before moving onto two previously underestimated topics that are just coming to the fore: rough set data analysis and inductive logic programming. Its clear and precise presentation is ideal for undergraduate computer science students. The book will also interest those who study artificial intelligence or machine learning at the graduate level. Exercises are provided and each concept is introduced using the same example domain, making it easier to compare the individual pro

What is knowledge and how is it represented? This book focuses on the idea of formalising knowledge as relations, interpreting knowledge represented in databases or logic programs as relational data and discovering new knowledge by identifying hidden and defining new relations. After a brief introduction to representational issues, the author develops a relational language for abstract machine learning problems. He then uses this language to discuss traditional methods such as clustering and decision tree induction, before moving onto two previously underestimated topics that are just coming to the fore: rough set data analysis and inductive logic programming. Its clear and precise presentation is ideal for undergraduate computer science students. The book will also interest those who study artificial intelligence or machine learning at the graduate level. Exercises are provided and each concept is introduced using the same example domain, making it easier to compare the individual pro