The Story So Far Vol. 1


Book Description

You don’t have to change any diapers here. We don’t go back that far. Sit back and wonder what Schizophrenic was like as a college dropout. What happened to Harrier after he won the Nobel Peace Prize. How Multipurpose rose to become one of the greatest weight-loss gurus the universe had ever come to trust. Because none of that actually happened. Cooler junk did, though. Like Multipurpose eating an entire bagel. Singlehandedly. Read about the history of your favorite In a Galaxy Far, Far AwRy jackasses: how they became who they are today. Who used to work as a recharge station attendant? Who set fire to a pile of old laundry? Whose urine smells most like asparagus? Or don’t. Don’t read about it. But you’ll always wonder about that asparagus urine. They all do. They all do.




Domestic Wastewater Treatment in Developing Countries


Book Description

Affordable and effective domestic wastewater treatment is a critical issue in public health and disease prevention around the world, particularly so in developing countries which often lack the financial and technical resources necessary for proper treatment facilities. This practical guide provides state-of-the-art coverage of methods for domestic wastewater treatment and provides a foundation to the practical design of wastewater treatment and re-use systems. The emphasis is on low-cost, low-energy, low-maintenance, high-performance 'natural' systems that contribute to environmental sustainability by producing effluents that can be safely and profitably used in agriculture for crop irrigation and/or in aquaculture, for fish and aquatic vegetable pond fertilization. Modern design methodologies, with worked design examples, are described for waste stabilization ponds, wastewater storage and treatment reservoirs; constructed wetlands, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors, biofilters, aerated lagoons and oxidation ditches. This book is essential reading for engineers, academics and upper-level and graduate students in engineering, wastewater management and public health, and others interested in sustainable and cost-effective technologies for reducing wastewater-related diseases and environmental damage.




Controlled Natural Language


Book Description

Controlled natural languages (CNLs) are based on natural language and apply restrictions on vocabulary, grammar, and/or semantics. They fall broadly into 3 groups. Some are designed to improve communication for non-native speakers of the respective natural language; in others, the restrictions are to facilitate the use of computers to analyze texts, for example, to improve computer-aided translation; and a third group of CNLs are designed to enable reliable automated reasoning and formal knowledge representation from seemingly natural texts. This book presents the 11 papers, selected from 14 submitted, and delivered at the sixth in the series of workshops on Controlled Natural Language, (CNL 2018), held in Maynooth, Ireland, in August 2018. The papers cover a full spectrum of controlled natural languages, ranging from human oriented to machine-processable controlled languages and from more theoretical results to interfaces, reasoning engines, and the real-life application of CNLs. The book will be of interest to all those working with controlled natural language, whatever their approach.




eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction


Book Description

In the last two decades, the biannual ECPPM (European Conference on Product and Process Modelling) conference series has provided a unique platform for the presentation and discussion of the most recent advances with regard to the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) applications in the AEC/FM (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management) domains. ECPPM 2014, the 10th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling, was hosted by the Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology of the Vienna University of Technology, Austria (17-19 September 2014). This book entails a substantial number of high-quality contributions that cover a large spectrum of topics pertaining to ICT deployment instances in AEC/FM, including: - BIM (Building Information Modelling) - ICT in Civil engineering & Infrastructure - Human requirements & factors - Computational decision support - Commissioning, monitoring & occupancy - Energy & management - Ontology, data models, and IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) - Energy modelling - Thermal performance simulation - Sustainable buildings - Micro climate modelling - Model calibration - Project & construction management - Data & information management As such, eWork and eBusiness in Architecture, Engineering and Construction 2014 represents a rich and comprehensive resource for academics and professionals working in the interdisciplinary areas of information technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction.




New Media and Public Activism


Book Description

The Arab Spring, chat forums, political leaders tweeting, online petitions, and protestors in the Occupy Movement - new media public spheres have without doubt radically altered social and political activism in society. But to what extent is this new activist public sphere stifled by the neoliberal economy and workfare state? Have we in fact become transformed into subjects of online consumption and orderly surveillance, rather than committed social and political campaigners? In this highly topical book, John Michael Roberts employs a political economy perspective to explore the relationship between financial neoliberal capitalism and digital publics. He assesses the extent to which they provide new forms of radical protest in civil society and offers an indispensable guide to understanding the relationship between the state, new media activism and neoliberal practices.




NoSQL Data Models


Book Description

The topic of NoSQL databases has recently emerged, to face the Big Data challenge, namely the ever increasing volume of data to be handled. It is now recognized that relational databases are not appropriate in this context, implying that new database models and techniques are needed. This book presents recent research works, covering the following basic aspects: semantic data management, graph databases, and big data management in cloud environments. The chapters in this book report on research about the evolution of basic concepts such as data models, query languages, and new challenges regarding implementation issues.




The Semantic Web -- ISWC 2012


Book Description

The two-volume set LNCS 7649 + 7650 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2012, held in Boston, MA, USA, in November 2012. The International Semantic Web Conference is the premier forum for Semantic Web research, where cutting edge scientific results and technological innovations are presented, where problems and solutions are discussed, and where the future of this vision is being developed. It brings together specialists in fields such as artificial intelligence, databases, social networks, distributed computing, Web engineering, information systems, human-computer interaction, natural language processing, and the social sciences. Volume 1 contains a total of 41 papers which were presented in the research track. They were carefully reviewed and selected from 186 submissions. Volume 2 contains 17 papers from the in-use track which were accepted from 77 submissions. In addition, it presents 8 contributions to the evaluations and experiments track and 7 long papers and 8 short papers of the doctoral consortium.




Pandemic Fissures


Book Description

This book analyses India’s response to COVID-19, using an intersectional framework that highlights the roles of the central government, regional governments, and community organisations, both formal and informal. The volume brings forward the immense potential embedded within collective communitarian formations by exploring themes such as disaster capitalism, municipal socialism, civic capitalism, apocalypse or disaster communism, and Marxist humanism in relation to the management strategies exhibited by the Indian government towards the COVID-19 pandemic. It underscores the necessity for imagining a scenario where egalitarian and socially just policies replace the dominance of capitalism. Part of the Academics, Politics and Society in the Post-COVID World series, the book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of sociology, political studies, cultural studies, social anthropology, South Asia studies, pandemic studies, and postcolonial studies.




Optical Wireless Communications


Book Description

The 2nd Edition of Optical Wireless Communications: System and Channel Modelling with MATLAB® with additional new materials, is a self-contained volume that provides a concise and comprehensive coverage of the theory and technology of optical wireless communication systems (OWC). The delivery method makes the book appropriate for students studying at undergraduate and graduate levels as well as researchers and professional engineers working in the field of OWC. The book gives a detailed description of OWC, focusing mainly on the infrared and visible bands, for indoor and outdoor applications. A major attraction of the book is the inclusion of Matlab codes and simulations results as well as experimental test-beds for free space optics and visible light communication systems. This valuable resource will aid the readers in understanding the concept, carrying out extensive analysis, simulations, implementation and evaluation of OWC links. This 2nd edition is structured into nine compact chapters that cover the main aspects of OWC systems: History, current state of the art and challenges Fundamental principles Optical source and detector and noise sources Modulation, equalization, diversity techniques Channel models and system performance analysis Visible light communications Terrestrial free space optics communications Relay-based free space optics communications Matlab codes. A number of Matlab based simulation codes are included in this 2nd edition to assist the readers in mastering the subject and most importantly to encourage them to write their own simulation codes and enhance their knowledge.




Advances in Cancer Management


Book Description

Cancer is now the most common cause of death in the world. However, because of early diagnosis, better treatment, and advanced life expectancy, many cancer patients frequently live a long, happy, and healthy life after the diagnosis- and often live as long as patients who eventually do not die because of cancer. This book presents newer advances in diagnosis and treatment of specific cancers, an evidence-based and realistic approach to the selection of cancer treatment, and cutting-edge laboratory developments such as the use of the MALDI technique and computational methods that can be used to detect newer protein biomarkers of cancers in diagnosis and to evaluate the success of treatment.