Aliens


Book Description

In 2010, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that it was highly likely that space aliens were real. Hawking is not alone in this belief--polls consistently show that one-third of the population believes extraterrestrials have visited Earth. Aliens covers this subject in riveting detail with new information concerning close encounters, alien characteristics, abductions, and extraterrestrial conspiracies.




The Reference Point


Book Description




THE REFERENCE POINT


Book Description

Very rarely do people understand the forces that allow us to rise above adversity and achieve greatness. There are so many dead ends and pitfalls that come with life on earth. The Reference Point demonstrates that if you dedicate yourself to reflecting on your spirituality and your inner being that greatness can manifest itself.The Reference Point exemplifies struggle and success almost like ying and yang. What I gain from The Reference Point is that one needs to undergo the trials and tribulations in life in order to appreciate the true beauty that our spiritual journey takes us on. The Reference Point is our spiritual compass in many ways and provides a map of who we are and where we started. It will always bring us back if we allow our spiritual self to take change and grow. We should ask ourselves what is our Reference Point and how did we get to where we are in life. --MARCAL GRAHAM, Ed.D Author of Seeing the Need and Choosing to Lead




Understanding Consumer Financial Behavior


Book Description

Government policies, marketing campaigns of banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, and consumers' protective actions all depend on assumptions about consumer financial behavior. Unfortunately, many consumers have no or little knowledge of budgeting, financial products, and financial planning. It is therefore important that organizations and market authorities know why consumers spend, borrow, insure, invest, and save for their retirement - or why they do not. Understanding Consumer Financial Behavior provides a systemic economic and behavioral approach to the way people handle their finances. It discusses the different types of financial behaviors consumers may engage in and explores the psychological explanations for their behavior and choices. This exciting new book is essential reading for scholars of marketing, finance, and management; financial professionals; and consumer policy makers.




Multicriteria Decision Making


Book Description

At a practical level, mathematical programming under multiple objectives has emerged as a powerful tool to assist in the process of searching for decisions which best satisfy a multitude of conflicting objectives, and there are a number of distinct methodologies for multicriteria decision-making problems that exist. These methodologies can be categorized in a variety of ways, such as form of model (e.g. linear, non-linear, stochastic), characteristics of the decision space (e.g. finite or infinite), or solution process (e.g. prior specification of preferences or interactive). Scientists from a variety of disciplines (mathematics, economics and psychology) have contributed to the development of the field of Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) (or Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Multiattribute Decision Making (MADM), Multiobjective Decision Making (MODM), etc.) over the past 30 years, helping to establish MCDM as an important part of management science. MCDM has become a central component of studies in management science, economics and industrial engineering in many universities worldwide. Multicriteria Decision Making: Advances in MCDM Models, Algorithms, Theory and Applications aims to bring together `state-of-the-art' reviews and the most recent advances by leading experts on the fundamental theories, methodologies and applications of MCDM. This is aimed at graduate students and researchers in mathematics, economics, management and engineering, as well as at practicing management scientists who wish to better understand the principles of this new and fast developing field.




Medieval Europe


Book Description

A spirited history of the changes that transformed Europe during the 1,000-year span of the Middle Ages: “A dazzling race through a complex millennium.”—Publishers Weekly The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period—one not easily chronicled within the scope of a few hundred pages. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation. Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne’s reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events—and offers both a new conception of Europe’s medieval period and a provocative revision of exactly how and why the Middle Ages matter. “Far-ranging, fluent, and thoughtful—of considerable interest to students of history writ large, and not just of Europe.”—Kirkus Reviews, (starred review) Includes maps and illustrations




The IMS


Book Description

The 3rd edition of this highly successful text builds on the achievement of the first two editions to provide comprehensive coverage of IMS. It continues to explore the concepts, architecture, protocols and functionalities of IMS while providing a wealth of new and updated information. It is written in a manner that allows readers to choose the level of knowledge and understanding they need to gain about the IMS. With 35% new material, The IMS,IP Multimedia Concepts and Services, 3rd Edition has been completely revised to include updated chapters as well as totally new chapters on IMS multimedia telephony and IMS voice call continuity. Additional new material includes IMS transit, IMS local numbering, emergency sessions, identification of communication services in IMS, new authentication model for fixed access, NAT traversal and globally routable user agents URI. Detailed descriptions of protocol behaviour are provided on a level that can be used for implementation and testing. Key features of the 3rd edition: Two new chapters on IMS multimedia telephony service and IMS Voice Call Continuity Updated information on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 7 level, including architecture, reference points and concepts Substantially extended coverage on IMS detailed procedures Completely rewritten and extended chapters on IMS services




5G for the Connected World


Book Description

Comprehensive Handbook Demystifies 5G for Technical and Business Professionals in Mobile Telecommunication Fields Much is being said regarding the possibilities and capabilities of the emerging 5G technology, as the evolution towards 5G promises to transform entire industries and many aspects of our society. 5G for the Connected World offers a comprehensive technical overview that telecommunication professionals need to understand and take advantage of these developments. The book offers a wide-ranging coverage of the technical aspects of 5G (with special consideration of the 3GPP Release 15 content), how it enables new services and how it differs from LTE. This includes information on potential use cases, aspects of radio and core networks, spectrum considerations and the services primarily driving 5G development and deployment. The text also looks at 5G in relation to the Internet of Things, machine to machine communication and technical enablers such as LTE-M, NB-IoT and EC-GSM. Additional chapters discuss new business models for telecommunication service providers and vertical industries as a result of introducing 5G and strategies for staying ahead of the curve. Other topics include: Key features of the new 5G radio such as descriptions of new waveforms, massive MIMO and beamforming technologies as well as spectrum considerations for 5G radio regarding all possible bands Drivers, motivations and overview of the new 5G system – especially RAN architecture and technology enablers (e.g. service-based architecture, compute-storage split and network exposure) for native cloud deployments Mobile edge computing, Non-3GPP access, Fixed-Mobile Convergence Detailed overview of mobility management, session management and Quality of Service frameworks 5G security vision and architecture Ultra-low latency and high reliability use cases and enablers, challenges and requirements (e.g. remote control, industrial automation, public safety and V2X communication) An outline of the requirements and challenges imposed by massive numbers of devices connected to cellular networks While some familiarity with the basics of 3GPP networks is helpful, 5G for the Connected World is intended for a variety of readers. It will prove a useful guide for telecommunication professionals, standardization experts, network operators, application developers and business analysts (or students working in these fields) as well as infrastructure and device vendors looking to develop and integrate 5G into their products, and to deploy 5G radio and core networks.




Reference Point and Case


Book Description

This monograph answers the rarely discussed questions of why complicated grammatical case phenomena exist in Korean and what the connection is between the case forms and their functions. The author argues that the case forms in Korean reflect patterns of the human cognitive process. While this approach may seem rather obvious to non-linguists, it is indeed a novel claim in contemporary linguistic theory. In order to provide technical analyses of Korean case phenomena such as multiple nominative/accusative, non-nominative subject, and adverbial case constructions, this book adopts an independently established descriptive construct known as reference point in the framework of Cognitive Grammar. The author demonstrates that the notion of reference point not only explains a substantially wider set of data, but also leads to a more reasonable generalization. The intended readership of this book are researchers who are interested in case phenomena, irrespective of their theoretical orientation.




Elizabethan England


Book Description

The Elizabethan era was a time of Shakespeare, the English Renaissance, pirates in the Caribbean, and the majestic glory of Queen Elizabeth. It was also a time of plague, poverty, and religious revolution. Elizabethan England explores the good and bad of a nation transformed, from the pomp of the royal court to daily life in London and exciting naval battles on the high seas.