This book is essentially based on the lecture course on “Statistical Physics”, which was taught by the author at the physical faculty of the Ural State University in Ekater- inburg since 1992. This course was intended for all physics students, not especially for those specializing in theoretical physics. In this sense the material presented here contains the necessary minimum of knowledge o…
In the Tate Modern there is a version of Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss (1901–4) which can be seen on the cover of this book. A couple emerges from the block of marble in a rapturous embrace, the meeting of their lips deliberately concealed from the viewer. The woman leans into the embrace, turning and pulling the man down. Her leg presses over his thigh, gently prising his legs apart, whilst h…
In the context of decision-making in committees, equation (
This book is intended for one or two courses on basic electric circuits as well as the “Circuits and Signals” course, CE-CSG, described in the Body of Knowledge of the IEEE/ACM. It differs from other textbooks in its coverage, organization, and presentation, which strongly emphasize fundamentals and stresses creative problem solving. By emphasis on funda- mentals I mean: (1) being comprehen…
On July 23, 2009, as the preparations for this collection were nearing completion, Raymond Westbrook, the W. W. Spence Professor of Semitic Languages in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University, passed away. We had been contemplating the production of these volumes for some time and began work on them in earnest about one year ago, spurred in part by the progression of…
Traditional security mechanisms restrict access to authorized users only, in order to protect resources from malicious users. However, in many con- texts, we must protect ourselves from those who offer resources, so that the problem is in fact reversed. This improper usage cannot be addressed by traditional security mechanisms, and the issues relate more to trustworthiness than security. Trus…
This strikes me as a particularly apt description of how science proceeds on a day-to-day basis. It is certainly more accurate than the more common metaphor of scientists patiently piecing together a giant puzzle. With a puzzle you see the manufacturer has guaranteed there is a solution. I know that this view of the scientific process—feeling around in dark rooms, bumping into unidentifiable…
How do you define success? For some, success is a high-paying job, promotions, and financial security. For others, success is finding a rewarding balance between work and personal time. Regardless of how you define success or what your personal goals are, we wrote this text with one purpose: To help you succeed not only in today’s competitive business world, but also in your personal life. A…
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional associ…
Enterprises throughout the ages have always had to deal with processes of change. The invention of printing with movable type almost wholly superseded the medi- eval business model of—usually monastic—scriptoria in the space of just a few decades. Change, therefore, is not a modern phenomenon. Yet what is new is the number and growth of influencing factors that now determine business action…
It is difficult to overstate the importance of computer net- works and cybersecurity in today’s world. They have become such an integral part of our existence that only a moment’s reflection is required to delineate the many ways in which they impact essentially every aspect of our lives. For example, from a personal point of view one need only consider the impact that such things as wirele…
The book is intended for both an academic and a professional audience. As a textbook, it is intended as a one- or two-semester undergraduate course for computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering majors. This edition is designed to support the rec- ommendations of the ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curricula 2013 (CS2013). The CS2013 curriculum recommendation includes, for the…
The topic of variable selection in high-dimensional spaces (often with hundreds or thousands of dimensions) has attracted considerable attention in data mining re- search in previous years, and it is common in many real problems. In a nutshell, feature selection is a process that chooses an optimal subset of features according to a certain criterion. The selection of the criterion must be done…
Making money demands effort, whether working for a salary or investing. You get nothing for nothing. Anyone who tells you the stock market is an absolute doddle, and money for old rope, is either a conman or a fool. And the proof of that became very clear with the stock market depressions starting in 2007. But doing a bit of work does not necessarily mean heavy mathematics and several hours eve…
Having originated in the advanced economies, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008–09 spread rapidly to the rest of the world. The impact on the emerging markets, especially those in Asia, though not as severe as that in the advanced countries, was still quite signifi- cant. India withstood the crisis initially but could not remain entirely unaffected for long (especially after the collap…
In November 2008, a new type of computer worm started to spread quickly. It used three different types of attack on Windows⃝R hosts: exploiting vulnerabilities, guessing passwords, and infecting removable devices [20]. In three months it took over about 9 million Microsoft⃝R Windows systems around the world and formed a massive bot net [5]. The estimated economic loss brought by this worm w…
Algorithm is used to define the notion of decidability. It is a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations. This is essential for computers to process information. Computer programs contain algorithms that detail specific instructions a computer should perform to carry out a specified task. The traditional computer program performs specific instructions sequentially, and use…
There are two general goals in this book. Assuming the reader has had no prior training in statistics, the first is to provide a graduate-level introduction to basic, routinely used statistical techniques relevant to the social and behavioral sciences. As can be seen from the Table of Contents, a wide range of topics is covered. Included is a nontechnical description of three major insights reg…
Since its inception Theory has been concerned with its own limits, ends and after-life. It would be an illusion to imagine that the academy is no longer resistant to Theory but a significant consensus has been estab- lished and it can be said that Theory has now entered the mainstream of the humanities. Reaction against Theory is now a minority view and new generations of scholars have grown up…
Discrete-time signal processing has appeared to be one of the major momenta to the advances of science and engineering over the past several decades be- cause of the rapid progress of digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits in processing speed, functionality, and cost effectiveness. In many science and engineering applications, the signals of interest are distorted by an unknown physical s…
We wrote a second edition of this book for two reasons. First, the Statistics Toolbox for MATLAB® has been significantly expanded since the first edition, so the text needed to be updated to reflect these changes. Second, we wanted to incorporate some of the suggested improvements that were made by several of the reviewers of the first edition. In our view, one of the most important issues t…