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This richly illustrated textbook covers modern statistical methods with applications in medicine, epidemiology and biology. Firstly, it discusses the importance of statistical models in applied quantitative research and the central role of the likelihood function, describing likelihood-based inference from a frequentist viewpoint, and exploring the properties of the maximum likelihood estimate, the score function, the likelihood ratio and the Wald statistic. In the second part of the book, likelihood is combined with prior information to perform Bayesian inference. Topics include Bayesian updating, conjugate and reference priors, Bayesian point and interval estimates, Bayesian asymptotics and empirical Bayes methods. It includes a separate chapter on modern numerical techniques for Bayesian inference, and also addresses advanced topics, such as model choice and prediction from frequentist and Bayesian perspectives. This revised edition of the book “Applied Statistical Inference” has been expanded to include new material on Markov models for time series analysis. It also features a comprehensive appendix covering the prerequisites in probability theory, matrix algebra, mathematical calculus, and numerical analysis, and each chapter is complemented by exercises. The text is primarily intended for graduate statistics and biostatistics students with an interest in applications.

For a brief period during the latter part of World War II, Nevill F. Mott led a theoretical group at Fort Halstead in the United Kingdom that tackled scientific issues related to pressing war-time concerns. Among later awards and honors, Mott was knighted and a recipient of the Nobel Prize. While at Fort Halstead, he undertook an effort to theoretically describe the statistical fragmentation of munitions subjected to intense explosive loading. Mott`s original internal reports contain seminal theoretical concepts on the physics and statistics of dynamic fracture and fragmentation, which have provided the inspiration for numerous later modeling efforts and engineering formulae. Some of his most forward-looking thoughts on the micromechanical and molecular aspects of fracture are included in these publications. The present book surveys the theoretical analysis put forth by Mott with particular focus on his efforts to characterize the size and distribution of fragments resulting from a dynamic fragmentation event. Copies of the original internal reports of Mott and his co-workers are included. The book also pursues additional theoretical analysis with the intent of delving further into the physical ideas and unfinished analysis implicit in Mott`s original studies. This book will be of interest to all scientists and engineers concerned with the dynamic fracture and fragmentation of solid bodies subject to intense transient loads imparted by explosive detonation and high-velocity impact from both the historical and modern perspective.

Pro Git (Second Edition) is your fully-updated guide to Git and its usage in the modern world. Git has come a long way since it was first developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. It has taken the open source world by storm since its inception in 2005, and this book teaches you how to use it like a pro. Effective and well-implemented version control is a necessity for successful web projects, whether large or small. With this book you’ll learn how to master the world of distributed version workflow, use the distributed features of Git to the full, and extend Git to meet your every need. Written by Git pros Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, Pro Git (Second Edition) builds on the hugely successful first edition, and is now fully updated for Git version 2.0, as well as including an indispensable chapter on GitHub. It’s the best book for all your Git needs.

This revised and enlarged sixth edition of Proofs from THE BOOK features an entirely new chapter on Van der Waerden’s permanent conjecture, as well as additional, highly original and delightful proofs in other chapters.From the citation on the occasion of the 2018 "Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition"“… It is almost impossible to write a mathematics book that can be read and enjoyed by people of all levels and backgrounds, yet Aigner and Ziegler accomplish this feat of exposition with virtuoso style. […] This book does an invaluable service to mathematics, by illustrating for non-mathematicians what it is that mathematicians mean when they speak about beauty.”From the Reviews"... Inside PFTB (Proofs from The Book) is indeed a glimpse of mathematical heaven, where clever insights and beautiful ideas combine in astonishing and glorious ways. There is vast wealth within its pages, one gem after another. ... Aigner and Ziegler... write: "... all we offer is the examples that we have selected, hoping that our readers will share our enthusiasm about brilliant ideas, clever insights and wonderful observations." I do. ... "Notices of the AMS, August 1999"... This book is a pleasure to hold and to look at: ample margins, nice photos, instructive pictures and beautiful drawings ... It is a pleasure to read as well: the style is clear and entertaining, the level is close to elementary, the necessary background is given separately and the proofs are brilliant. ..."LMS Newsletter, January 1999"Martin Aigner and Günter Ziegler succeeded admirably in putting together a broad collection of theorems and their proofs that would undoubtedly be in the Book of Erdös. The theorems are so fundamental, their proofs so elegant and the remaining open questions so intriguing that every mathematician, regardless of speciality, can benefit from reading this book. ..." SIGACT News, December 2011

Understanding and employing cryptography has become central for securing virtually any digital application, whether user app, cloud service, or even medical implant.Heavily revised and updated, the long-awaited second edition of Understanding Cryptography follows the unique approach of making modern cryptography accessible to a broad audience, requiring only a minimum of prior knowledge. After introducing basic cryptography concepts, this seminal textbook covers nearly all symmetric, asymmetric, and post-quantum cryptographic algorithms currently in use in applications—ranging from cloud computing and smart phones all the way to industrial systems, block chains, and cryptocurrencies.Topics and features:Opens with a foreword by cryptography pioneer and Turing Award winner, Ron RivestHelps develop a comprehensive understanding of modern applied cryptographyProvides a thorough introduction to post-quantum cryptography consisting of the three standardized cipher familiesIncludes for every chapter a comprehensive problem set, extensive examples, and a further-reading discussionCommunicates, using a unique pedagogical approach, the essentials about foundations and use in practice, while keeping mathematics to a minimumSupplies up-to-date security parameters for all cryptographic algorithmsIncorporates chapter reviews and discussion on such topics as historical and societal contextThis must-have book is indispensable as a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses, as well as for self-study by designers and engineers.The authors have more than 20 years’ experience teaching cryptography at various universities in the US and Europe. In addition to being renowned scientists, they have extensive experience with applying cryptography in industry, fromwhich they have drawn important lessons for their teaching.

This book elucidates how Finite Element methods look like from the perspective of Green’s functions, and shows new insights into the mathematical theory of Finite Elements. Practically, this new view on Finite Elements enables the reader to better assess solutions of standard programs and to find better model of a given problem. The book systematically introduces the basic concepts how Finite Elements fulfill the strategy of Green’s functions  and how approximating of Green’s functions. It discusses in detail the discretization error and shows that are coherent with the strategy of “goal oriented refinement”. The book also gives much attention to the dependencies of FE solutions from the parameter set of the model.

High-performance process improvement takes process improvement to the next ambition level. The kernel of the substance is a generic process improvement process that operates under the strictest time, quality and cost constraints. Thanks to a modular composition and robust methods the scope may range from one single person to networks with hundreds of companies. This is realized via three high-class phases:network and company analysis and synthesis, process analysis and synthesis, the implementation, including process improvement education and training and the practical realization of the improvement potential.The presented methods contain mass customization features and a very advanced logic for optimizing the interaction of people, technology, information and material both in the process improvement process itself and the focus process.The book is based on an extensive R&D effort and thorough practical verifications in more than 75 companies in almost any business and in all sizes.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), and big data analytics are business tasks and processes that are implemented using standardized software solutions. Artificial intelligence methods such as machine learning and generative AI influence and support these processes. This textbook allows students to learn, from a business perspective, how these methods are interconnected, how they influence one another, and what their limitations are. It teaches management-oriented thinking and acting, which are essential for computer scientists who work with business-process-oriented IT solutions.The third edition of this textbook introduces artificial intelligence methods for the ERP, SCM, CRM, BI, and Big Data process chain. These business tasks and processes, implemented with standardized software systems, are increasingly linked to artificial intelligence methods with varying degrees of success. Human cognitive abilities are identified as suitability criteria for evaluating and selecting AI methods for operational business areas such as procurement, production, sales, asset management, finance and accounting, human resources, etc. The fundamentals of machine learning and neural networks are supplemented by general topics related to AI. The chapters on ERP, SCM, CRM, BI, and Big Data have been largely taken from the second edition. Errors have been corrected, and additions or updates have been made to single chapters. Extensive and confusing derivations and theoretical sections have been moved to the Appendix, and a case study for a virtual company has been included to be used throughout the book. Each chapter finishes with an online true/false quiz. With at least 80% passed, it grants access to supplementary online exercises, including cognitive skill assessments, inventory management optimization, backpropagation, and supplemental online materials (videos, documents) on the author’s Web page. This book is aimed at business informatics students and industry professionals, who deal with business-oriented standardized software solutions.

Over the course of the past decade, decoherence has become a ubiquitous scienti?c term popular in all kinds of research, from fundamental theories of quantum physics to applications in nanoengineering. Decoherence has been hailed as the solution to long-standing foundational problems dating back to the beginnings of quantum mechanics. It has been cursed as the key obstacle to next-generation technologies, such as quantum computers (another se- ingly omnipresent ?eld of research). And while decoherence has been directly observed in various experiments, its scope and meaning have often been m- understood and misrepresented. Decoherence makes a fantastic subject of research, as it touches upon many di?erent facets of physics, from phi- sophically inclined questions of interpretation all the way to down-to-earth problems in experimental settings and engineering applications. This book will introduce the reader, in an accessible and self-contained manner, to these various fascinating aspects of decoherence. It will focus in particularontherelationofdecoherencetotheso-calledquantum-to-classical transition, i. e. , the question of how decoherence may explain the emergence of the classical appearance of the macroscopic world around us from the underlying quantum substrate. Thescopeofthisbookisrelativelybroadinordertofamiliarizethereader withthemanyfacetsofdecoherence,inboththetheoreticalandexperimental domains. Throughout the book, I have sought to maintain a healthy balance betweentheconceptualideasassociatedwiththedecoherenceprogramonthe one hand and the formal and mathematical details on the other hand. This book will establish a proper understanding of decoherence as a pure quantum phenomenon and will emphasize the importance of the correct interpretation of theconsequences and achievements of decoherence.

This is an up-to-date review of studies in the physics of pulsed electrical discharges in a vacuum. It gives the reader detailed information on the processes occurring at electrodes and in vacuum gaps and on the mechanisms of discharge initiation and development. Modern techniques and equipment are described in detail. Their high temporal and spatial resolution may be used to solve a number of problems concerning the short-term and microscopic aspects of discharges. A summary is given of a great deal of experimental data on the kinetics of vacuum breakdown. The authors used these results to identify a series of steps in the vacuum breakdown phenomenon. They were the first to discover and describe the explosive electron emission phenomenon and to show its fundamental role in the spark and the arc stages of a discharge. The information in this book may encourage the reader to design new experiments. The results presented may be applied to solve specific research or engineering problems.

Dieses Buch zeigt, dass Suizid nicht nur eine Folge einer psychischen Erkrankung ist, sondern eine Handlung, die mit der Lebensgeschichte eines Menschen zusammenhängt. Auf der Grundlage von Hunderten von Interviews mit suizidgefährdeten Patienten argumentiert der Autor, dass Suizid und Suizidversuche dann auftreten, wenn jemand extremen emotionalen Schmerz erlebt, der die Fähigkeit zu rationalem Denken und Handeln stark beeinträchtigt. Auf der Grundlage dieses Verständnisses entwickelten Michel und seine Kollegen einen personenzentrierten Behandlungsansatz, der die Grenzen des traditionellen medizinischen Modells überwindet. Durch eine kurze Therapie finden die Patienten ein persönlich bedeutsames, narratives Verständnis ihrer Selbstmordgedanken und -impulse. Gefährdete Menschen können lernen, ihre Schwachstellen zu erkennen, um mit potenziell lebensbedrohlichen Situationen umzugehen und sich selbst zu schützen. Michel unterstreicht die Bedeutung der Kommunikation: Medizinisches Fachpersonal muss mit den Patienten als Individuen in Kontakt treten, um spezifische Warnzeichen zu erkennen.Dieses ebenso einfühlsame wie klare Buch bietet einen wichtigen Einblick in die Suizidprävention und zeigt, wie eine veränderte Einstellung dazu beitragen kann, Leben zu retten. Es enthält praktische Ratschläge für gefährdete Menschen, mit besonderem Schwerpunkt auf jungen Menschen, sowie für Angehörige und Fachkräfte im Gesundheitswesen.

This textbook combines the mathematical foundations of the theory of special and general relativity with numerous applications in physics and astronomy. Besides the discussion of classical experiments that impressively confirm the predictions of the theory of relativity, a special focus is on cosmology, as an important application of general relativity. The discussion of the physics of compact stellar objects, i.e. white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, and a short section on the formation and evolution of stars complement the presentation.The authors put special emphasis on relativistic visualization. Two chapters give an overview of various visualization techniques in special and general relativity. Examples of relativistic visualization make the predictions of relativity, which so blatantly seem to contradict everyday experience, more tangible and intelligible. The resulting figures and accompanying videos support the understanding of the topics covered in the text. The videos are accessible also via the Springer Nature More Media App.This edition is the translation and extension of a textbook of the authors written in German. It also includes more recent developments in astrophysics and cosmology, such as the detection and observation of gravitational waves, or the Hubble controversy.The book is intended for students of physics and related study courses who would like to get an overview of both the theory of relativity and its areas of application. However, the interested layperson, too, will gain a new and deeper insight into relativity and astrophysics.

The estimation and the validation of the Basel II risk parameters PD (default probability), LGD (loss given fault), and EAD (exposure at default) is an important problem in banking practice. These parameters are used on the one hand as inputs to credit portfolio models and in loan pricing frameworks, on the other to compute regulatory capital according to the new Basel rules. This book covers the state-of-the-art in designing and validating rating systems and default probability estimations. Furthermore, it presents techniques to estimate LGD and EAD and includes a chapter on stress testing of the Basel II risk parameters. The second edition is extended by three chapters explaining how the Basel II risk parameters can be used for building a framework for risk-adjusted pricing and risk management of loans.

Motivation for This Book The OPC Foundation provides specifications for data exchange in industrial au- mation. There is a long history of COM/DCOM-based specifications, most pro- nent OPC Data Access (DA), OPC Alarms and Events (A&E), and OPC Historical Data Access (HDA), which are widely accepted in the industry and implemented by almost every system targeting industrial automation. Now the OPC Foundation has released a new generation of OPC specifications called OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA). With OPC UA, the OPC Foundation fulfills a technology shift from the retiring COM/DCOM technology to a servi- oriented architecture providing data in a platform-independent manner via Web Services or its own optimized TCP-based protocol. OPC UA unifies the previous specifications into one single address space capable of dealing with current data, alarms and events and the history of current data as well as the event history. A remarkable enhancement of OPC UA is the Address Space Model by which v- dors can expose a rich and extensible information model using object-oriented techniques. OPC UA scales well from intelligent devices, controllers, DCS, and SCADA systems up to MES and ERP systems. It also scales well in its ability to provide information; on the lower end, a model similar to Classic OPC can be used, providing only base information, while at the upper end, highly sophisticated models can be described, providing a large amount of metadata including complex type hierarchies.

The introduction of mechatronic components for the powertrain, steering and braking systems opens the way to automatic driving functions. Together with internal and environmental sensors, various driver assistance systems are going to be developed for improving driving comfort and safety. Automatic driving control functions suppose a well-designed vehicle behavior. In order to develop and implement the software-based control functions mathematical vehicle models for the stationary and dynamic behavior are required. The book first introduces basic theoretically derived models for the tire traction and force transfer, the longitudinal, lateral, roll and pitch dynamic behavior and related components, like suspensions, steering systems and brakes. These models have to be tailored to allow an identification of the many unknown parameters during driving, also in dependence of different road conditions, velocity and vehicle load. Based on these mathematical models drive dynamiccontrol systems are developed for semi-active and active suspensions, hydraulic and electromechanical brakes including ABS, traction and steering control. Then driver assistance systems like adaptive cruise control (ACC), electronic stability control (ESC), electronic course control and anti-collision control systems are considered. The anti-collision systems are designed and tested for emergency braking, emergency steering and avoiding of overtaking accidents. The book is dedicated to automotive engineers as well as to graduate students of mechanical, electrical and mechatronic engineering and computer science.

Multiobjective optimization deals with solving problems having not only one, but multiple, often conflicting, criteria. Such problems can arise in practically every field of science, engineering and business, and the need for efficient and reliable solution methods is increasing. The task is challenging due to the fact that, instead of a single optimal solution, multiobjective optimization results in a number of solutions with different trade-offs among criteria, also known as Pareto optimal or efficient solutions. Hence, a decision maker is needed to provide additional preference information and to identify the most satisfactory solution. Depending on the paradigm used, such information may be introduced before, during, or after the optimization process. Clearly, research and application in multiobjective optimization involve expertise in optimization as well as in decision support.This state-of-the-art survey originates from the International Seminar on Practical Approaches to Multiobjective Optimization, held in Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, in December 2006, which brought together leading experts from various contemporary multiobjective optimization fields, including evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO), multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) and multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA).This book gives a unique and detailed account of the current status of research and applications in the field of multiobjective optimization. It contains 16 chapters grouped in the following 5 thematic sections: Basics on Multiobjective Optimization; Recent Interactive and Preference-Based Approaches; Visualization of Solutions; Modelling, Implementation and Applications; and Quality Assessment, Learning, and Future Challenges.

The estimation and the validation of the Basel II risk parameters PD (default probability), LGD (loss given fault), and EAD (exposure at default) is an important problem in banking practice. These parameters are used on the one hand as inputs to credit portfolio models and in loan pricing frameworks, on the other to compute regulatory capital according to the new Basel rules. This book covers the state-of-the-art in designing and validating rating systems and default probability estimations. Furthermore, it presents techniques to estimate LGD and EAD and includes a chapter on stress testing of the Basel II risk parameters. The second edition is extended by three chapters explaining how the Basel II risk parameters can be used for building a framework for risk-adjusted pricing and risk management of loans.

An introduction to the basic theory of stochastic calculus and its applications. Examples are given throughout the text, in order to motivate and illustrate the theory and show its importance for many applications in e.g. economics, biology and physics. The basic idea of the presentation is to start from some basic results (without proofs) of the easier cases and develop the theory from there, and to concentrate on the proofs of the easier case in order to quickly progress to the parts of the theory that are most important for the applications. For the 6th edition the author has added further exercises and, for the first time, solutions to many of the exercises are provided.

This concise survey describes the requirements on materials operating in high-temperature environments and the processes that increase the temperature capability of metals, ceramics, and composites. The major part deals with the applicable materials and their specific properties, with one entire chapter devoted to coatings. Written for engineering and science students, researchers, and managers in industry.

15 years after the ?rst printing of Algebraic Function Fields and Codes,the mathematics editors of Springer Verlag encouraged me to revise and extend the book. Besides numerous minor corrections and amendments, the second edition di?ers from the ?rst one in two respects. Firstly I have included a series of exercises at the end of each chapter. Some of these exercises are fairly easy and should help the reader to understand the basic concepts, others are more advanced and cover additional material. Secondly a new chapter titled “Asymptotic Bounds for the Number of Rational Places” has been added. This chapter contains a detailed presentation of the asymptotic theory of function ?elds over ?nite ?elds, including the explicit construction of some asymptotically good and optimal towers. Based on these towers, a complete and self-contained proof of the Tsfasman-Vladut-Zink Theorem is given. This theorem is perhaps the most beautiful application of function ?elds to coding theory. The codes which are constructed from algebraic function ?elds were ?rst introduced by V. D. Goppa. Accordingly I referred to them in the ?rst edition as geometric Goppa codes. Since this terminology has not generally been - cepted in the literature, I now use the more common term algebraic geometry codes or AG codes. I would like to thank Alp Bassa, Arnaldo Garcia, Cem Guneri, ¨ Sevan Harput and Alev Topuzo? glu for their help in preparing the second edition.

Der Lehrbuch-Klassiker zur Einführung in die Sozialpsychologie stellt das beliebte Grundlagenfach der Psychologie lebendig, bunt und anschaulich vor: Jemanden lieben, miteinander streiten, zusammen arbeiten, gemeinsam lernen – das Leben steckt voller Sozialpsychologie, denn das vielseitige Fachgebiet beschäftigt sich damit, wie Gedanken, Gefühle und Verhalten von Menschen durch die Anwesenheit anderer Menschen beeinflusst werden.

Percolation theory is the study of an idealized random medium in two or more dimensions. The mathematical theory is mature, and continues to give rise to problems of special beauty and difficulty. Percolation is pivotal for studying more complex physical systems exhibiting phase transitions. The emphasis of this book is upon core mathematical material and the presentation of the shortest and most accessible proofs. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers in probability and mathematical physics. Almost no specialist knowledge is assumed. Much new material appears in this second edition, including: dynamic and static renormalization, strict inequalities between critical points, a sketch of the lace expansion, and several essays on related fields and applications.

The book serves as a first introduction to computer programming of scientific applications, using the high-level Python language. The exposition is example and problem-oriented, where the applications are taken from mathematics, numerical calculus, statistics, physics, biology and finance. The book teaches "Matlab-style" and procedural programming as well as object-oriented programming. High school mathematics is a required background and it is advantageous to study classical and numerical one-variable calculus in parallel with reading this book. Besides learning how to program computers, the reader will also learn how to solve mathematical problems, arising in various branches of science and engineering, with the aid of numerical methods and programming. By blending programming, mathematics and scientific applications, the book lays a solid foundation for practicing computational science.From the reviews: Langtangen … does an excellent job of introducing programming as a set of skills in problem solving. He guides the reader into thinking properly about producing program logic and data structures for modeling real-world problems using objects and functions and embracing the object-oriented paradigm. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. F. H. Wild III, Choice, Vol. 47 (8), April 2010Those of us who have learned scientific programming in Python ‘on the streets’ could be a little jealous of students who have the opportunity to take a course out of Langtangen’s Primer.” John D. Cook, The Mathematical Association of America, September 2011This book goes through Python in particular, and programming in general, via tasks that scientists will likely perform. It contains valuable information for students new to scientific computing and would be the perfect bridge between an introduction to programming and an advanced course on numerical methods or computational science.Alex Small,IEEE, CiSE Vol. 14 (2), March /April 2012  “This fourth edition is a wonderful, inclusive textbook that covers pretty much everything one needs to know to go from zero to fairly sophisticated scientific programming in Python…” Joan Horvath, Computing Reviews, March 2015

Most natural optimization problems, including those arising in important application areas, are NP-hard. Therefore, under the widely believed conjecture that P≠NP, their exact solution is prohibitively time consuming. Charting the landscape of approximability of these problems, via polynomial-time algorithms, therefore becomes a compelling subject of scientific inquiry in computer science and mathematics. This book presents the theory of approximation algorithms.This book is divided into three parts. Part I covers combinatorial algorithms for a number of important problems, using a wide variety of algorithm design techniques. Part II presents linear programming based algorithms. These are categorized under two fundamental techniques: rounding and the primal-dual schema. Part III covers four important topics: the first is the problem of finding a shortest vector in a lattice; the second is the approximability of counting, as opposed to optimization, problems; the third topic is centered around recent breakthrough results, establishing hardness of approximation for many key problems, and giving new legitimacy to approximation algorithms as a deep theory; and the fourth topic consists of the numerous open problems of this young field.This book is suitable for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on approximation algorithms. An undergraduate course in algorithms and the theory of NP-completeness should suffice as a prerequisite for most of the chapters. This book can also be used as supplementary text in basic undergraduate and graduate algorithms courses.

Lankhorst and his co‑authors present ArchiMate® 3.0, enterprise modelling language that captures the complexity of architectural domains and their relations and allows the construction of integrated enterprise architecture models. They provide architects with concrete instruments that improve their architectural practice. As this is not enough, they additionally present techniques and heuristics for communicating with all relevant stakeholders about these architectures. Since an architecture model is useful not only for providing insight into the current or future situation but can also be used to evaluate the transition from ‘as‑is’ to ‘to‑be’, the authors also describe analysis methods for assessing both the qualitative impact of changes to an architecture and the quantitative aspects of architectures, such as performance and cost issues.The modelling language presented has been proven in practice in many real‑life case studies and has been adopted by The Open Group as an international standard. So this book is an ideal companion for enterprise IT or business architects in industry as well as for computer or management science students studying the field of enterprise architecture.This fourth edition of the book has been completely reworked to be compatible with ArchiMate® 3.0, and it includes a new chapter relating this new version to other standards. New sections on capability analysis, risk analysis, and business architecture in general have also been introduced.

This book is the first to allow you to experience the details of the ultra-fast lives of dragonflies, these large, beautiful flying insects, through an abundance of unique snapshots and image sequences. Dragonflies are world champions of flight, bionic wonders; they reveal much about the mysteries of evolution. We witness their social interaction, and appreciate their success over three hundred million years. Dragonflies - what an evocative name! - are easy to observe, even for beginners. About 80 species live in Germany, and every body of water is home to a few. They are not shy, do not sting and often come very close. Perhaps you will fall in love with dragonflies - just like the two authors who have been studying them for over 30 years. With the knowledge in this book, you will look at dragonflies in a completely novel way.     About the AuthorsGeorg Rüppell was Professor of Behavioral Ecology at the Technical University of Braunschweig and has supervised over 300 studies with his working group, many of them on dragonflies. It was the quick-reaction training he got through his teenage sporting activities, he finds, that helped him to be constantly alert to the abrupt flight movements around him. He was the first biologist in the world to take up the field study of bird flight using slow-mo, and subsequently apply his expertise  to dragonflies. He met his wife Dagmar Hilfert-Rüppell on a research trip to the dragonflies of Japan.Dagmar Hilfert-Rüppell has been studying and filming dragonflies for 30 years. She is particularly fond of damselflies, about which she wrote her doctoral thesis. She has developed infinite patience when filming to capture new behaviors in close-up. She is also the inspired driving force behind their numerous trips all around the world.

There is growing recognition of the need to address the fragility of digital information, on which our society heavily depends for smooth operation in all aspects of daily life. This has been discussed in many books and articles on digital preservation, so why is there a need for yet one more? Because, for the most part, those other publications focus on documents, images and webpages – objects that are normally rendered to be simply displayed by software to a human viewer. Yet there are clearly many more types of digital objects that may need to be preserved, such as databases, scientific data and software itself.David Giaretta, Director of the Alliance for Permanent Access,  and his contributors explain why the tools and techniques used for preserving rendered objects are inadequate for all these other types of digital objects, and they provide the concepts, techniques and tools that are needed. The book is structured in three parts. The first part is on theory, i.e., the concepts and techniques that are essential for preserving digitally encoded information. The second part then shows practice, i.e., the use and validation of these tools and techniques. Finally, the third part concludes by addressing how to judge whether money is being well spent, in terms of effectiveness and cost sharing.Various examples of digital objects from many sources are used to explain the tools and techniques presented. The presentation style mainly aims at practitioners in libraries, archives and industry who are either directly responsible for preservation or who need to prepare for audits of their archives. Researchers in digital preservation and developers of preservation tools and techniques will also find valuable practical information here. Researchers creating digitally encoded information of all kinds will also need to be aware of these topics so that they can help to ensure that their data is usable and can be valued by others now and in thefuture.To further assist the reader, the book is supported by many hours of videos and presentations from the CASPAR project and by a set of open source software.

Seafloor surveying with acoustic remote sensing has become a powerful tool for researchers and professionals seeking knowledge about the structure and behavior of the seafloor. In particular, sidescan sonar is proving to be the preeminent technique, but its data is often difficult to interpret due to the physics of acoustic remote sensing, and to the varied geological processes at play. This handbook not only presents all the fundamentals but also explains how to interpret sidescan sonar imagery and bathymetry. It fully explores the most recent advances, both in the technology and in the knowledge of marine structures, and provides deep insights for interpretation and decision-making. Broadly expanded and updated from the previous 1997 “Handbook of Seafloor Sonar Imagery”, this handbook is indispensable to oceanographers, resource exploiters, telecommunications engineers, and marine researchers of all kinds.