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Encyclopedic Handbook of Integrated Optics (Optical Science and Engineering)
by KENICHI IGA and YASUO KOKUBUNAs optical technologies move closer to the core of modern computer architecture, there arise many challenges in building optical capabilities from the network to the motherboard. Rapid advances in integrated optics technologies are making this a reality. However, no comprehensive, up-to-date reference is available to the technologies and principles underlying the field. The Encyclopedic Handbook of Integrated Optics fills this void, collecting the work of 53 leading experts into a compilation of the most important concepts, phenomena, technologies, and terms covering all related fields.This unique book consists of two types of entries: the first is a detailed, full-length description; the other, a concise overview of the topic. Additionally, the coverage can be divided into four broad areas:A survey of the basics of integrated optics, exploring theory, practical concerns, and the fundamentals behind optical devicesFocused discussion on devices and components such as arrayed waveguide grating, various types of lasers, optical amplifiers, and optoelectronic devicesIn-depth examination of subsystems including MEMS, optical pickup, and planar lightwave circuitsFinally, systems considerations such as multiplexing, demultiplexing, 3R circuits, transmission, and receptionOffering a broad and complete treatment of the field, the Encyclopedic Handbook of Integrated Optics is the complete guide to the fundamentals, principles, and applications of integrated optics technology.
The End and Other Beginnings: Stories from the Future
by Veronica RothBestselling Divergent and Carve the Mark author Veronica Roth delivers a stunning collection of novella-length stories set in the future, illustrated with startling black-and-white artwork.No world is like the other. Within this masterful collection, each setting is more strange and wonderful than the last, brimming with new technologies and beings. And yet, for all the advances in these futuristic lands, the people still must confront deeply human problems.In these six stories, Veronica Roth reaches into the unknown and draws forth something startlingly familiar and profoundly beautiful. With tales of friendship and revenge, plus two new stories from the Carve the Mark universe, this collection has something for new and old fans alike. Each story begins with a hope for a better end, but always end with a better understanding of the beginning.With beautifully intricate black-and-white interior illustrations and a uniquely designed package, this is the perfect gift for book lovers.
The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System
by Jacy ReeseA bold yet realistic vision of how technology and social change are creating a food system in which we no longer use animals to produce meat, dairy, or eggsMichael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals brought widespread attention to the disturbing realities of factory farming. The End of Animal Farming pushes this conversation forward by outlining a strategic roadmap to a humane, ethical, and efficient food system in which slaughterhouses are obsolete--where the tastes of even the most die-hard meat eater are satisfied by innovative food technologies like cultured meats and plant-based protein. Social scientist and animal advocate Jacy Reese analyzes the social forces leading us toward the downfall of animal agriculture, the technology making this change possible for the meat-hungry public, and the activism driving consumer demand for plant-based and cultured foods. Reese contextualizes the issue of factory farming--the inhumane system of industrial farming that 95 percent of farmed animals endure--as part of humanity's expanding moral circle. Humanity increasingly treats nonhuman animals, from household pets to orca whales, with respect and kindness, and Reese argues that farmed animals are the next step. Reese applies an analytical lens of "effective altruism," the burgeoning philosophy of using evidence-based research to maximize one's positive impact in the world, in order to better understand which strategies can help expand the moral circle now and in the future. The End of Animal Farming is not a scolding treatise or a prescription for an ascetic diet. Reese invites readers--vegan and non-vegan--to consider one of the most important and transformational social movements of the coming decades.
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
by Donald Goldsmith Martin ReesA world-renowned astronomer and an esteemed science writer make the provocative argument for space exploration without astronauts. Human journeys into space fill us with wonder. But the thrill of space travel for astronauts comes at enormous expense and is fraught with peril. As our robot explorers grow more competent, governments and corporations must ask, does our desire to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars justify the cost and danger? Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees believe that beyond low-Earth orbit, space exploration should proceed without humans. In The End of Astronauts, Goldsmith and Rees weigh the benefits and risks of human exploration across the solar system. In space humans require air, food, and water, along with protection from potentially deadly radiation and high-energy particles, at a cost of more than ten times that of robotic exploration. Meanwhile, automated explorers have demonstrated the ability to investigate planetary surfaces efficiently and effectively, operating autonomously or under direction from Earth. Although Goldsmith and Rees are alert to the limits of artificial intelligence, they know that our robots steadily improve, while our bodies do not. Today a robot cannot equal a geologist’s expertise, but by the time we land a geologist on Mars, this advantage will diminish significantly. Decades of research and experience, together with interviews with scientific authorities and former astronauts, offer convincing arguments that robots represent the future of space exploration. The End of Astronauts also examines how spacefaring AI might be regulated as corporations race to privatize the stars. We may eventually decide that humans belong in space despite the dangers and expense, but their paths will follow routes set by robots.
The End of Big: How the Digital Revolution Makes David the New Goliath
by Nicco MeleHow seemingly innocuous technologies are unsettling the balance of power by putting it in the hands of the masses - and what a world without "big" will mean for all of us.In TheEnd of Big, social media pioneer, political and business strategist, and Harvard Kennedy School faculty member Nicco Mele offers a fascinating, sometimes frightening look at how our ability to stay connected - constantly, instantly, and globally - is dramatically changing our world.Governments are being upended by individuals relying only on social media. Major political parties are seeing their power eroded by grassroots forces through online fund-raising. Universities are scrambling to preserve their student populations in the face of less expensive, more accessible online courses. Print and broadcast news outlets are struggling to compete with citizen journalists and bloggers. Our traditional institutions are being disrupted in revolutionary ways, some for the better. But, as Nicco Mele argues, the benefits of new technology come with unintended consequences. In The End of Big, Mele examines:- How fringe political forces enter the mainstream and gain traction using everyday technology - with the enormous potential to undermine central power- What happens when investigative journalism is replaced by ad hoc bloggers, mobile video, and instantaneous tweets...and whether they challenge or simply enable power- Why Web-based micro-businesses are outcompeting major corporations, and what innovations will alter the way we work, own things, and pay for goods and services- The collapse of traditional party politics, and the rise of a new kind of democracy, one which could produce dynamic and effective leaders...or demagogues- How citizen initiatives can replace local and state government functions, such as safety regulations, tax collection, and garbage pickup, and do so cheaper, faster, and betterMele argues that unless we exercise caution in our use of these new technologies, we risk a dark and wildly unstable future, one in which our freedoms and basic human values could be destroyed rather than enhanced. Both hopeful and alarming, The End of Big is a thought-provoking, passionately argued book that offers genuine insight into the ways we are using technology, and how it is radically changing our world in ways we are only now beginning to understand.
The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well
by Mark SchatzkerAcclaimed journalist and author of The Dorito Effect delivers a groundbreaking, entertaining, and informative work that reveals how our dysfunctional relationship with food began—and how science is leading us back to healthier living and eating.For the last fifty years, we have been fighting a losing war on food. We have cut fat, reduced carbs, eliminated sugar, and attempted every conceivable diet only to find that eighty-eight million American adults are prediabetic, more than a hundred million have high blood pressure, and nearly half now qualify as obese. The harder we try to control what we eat, the more unhealthy we become. Why? Mark Schatzker has spent his career traveling the world in search of the answer. In The Dorito Effect, he revealed the startling relationship between flavor and nutrition. In Steak, he was one of the first authors to recognize the critical importance of regenerative agriculture. Now, in The End of Craving, he poses an even more profound question: What if the key to nutrition and good health lies not in resisting the primal urge to eat but in understanding its purpose? Beginning in the mountains of Europe and the fields of the Old South, Schatzker embarks on a quest to uncover the lost art of eating and living well. Along the way, he visits brain scanning laboratories and hog farms, and encounters cultural oddities and scientific paradoxes—northern Italians eat what may be the world&’s most delicious cuisine, yet are among the world&’s thinnest people; laborers in southern India possess an inborn wisdom to eat their way from sickness to good health. Schatzker reveals how decades of advancements in food technology have turned the brain&’s drive to eat against the body, placing us in an unrelenting state of craving. Only by restoring the relationship between nutrition and the essential joy of eating can we hope to lead longer and happier lives. Combining cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom, The End of Craving is an urgent and radical investigation that will fundamentally change how we understand both food and ourselves.
The End of Fun (An Enemy Novel #7)
by Charlie HigsonEveryday Reality is a Drag?.FUN¿-the latest in augmented reality-is fun but it's also frustrating, glitchy, and dangerously addictive . Just when everyone else is getting on, 17-year-old Aaron O'Faolain wants off.But first he has to complete his Application for Termination, and in order to do that he has to deal with his History-not to mention the present, including his grandfather's suicide and a series of clues that may (or may not) lead to buried treasure. As he attempts to unravel the mystery, Aaron is sidetracked again . . . and again. Shadowed by his virtual "best friend," Homie, Aaron struggles with love, loss, dog bites, community theater, wild horses, wildfires, and the fact (deep breath) that actual reality can sometimes surprise you.Sean McGinty's strikingly profound debut unearths a world that is eerily familiar, yet utterly original. Discover what it means to come to the end of fun.
The End of Fun (An Enemy Novel #7)
by Sean McGintyEveryday Reality is a Drag?.FUN¿-the latest in augmented reality-is fun but it's also frustrating, glitchy, and dangerously addictive . Just when everyone else is getting on, 17-year-old Aaron O'Faolain wants off.But first he has to complete his Application for Termination, and in order to do that he has to deal with his History-not to mention the present, including his grandfather's suicide and a series of clues that may (or may not) lead to buried treasure. As he attempts to unravel the mystery, Aaron is sidetracked again . . . and again. Shadowed by his virtual "best friend," Homie, Aaron struggles with love, loss, dog bites, community theater, wild horses, wildfires, and the fact (deep breath) that actual reality can sometimes surprise you.Sean McGinty's strikingly profound debut unearths a world that is eerily familiar, yet utterly original. Discover what it means to come to the end of fun.
The End of Growth
by Richard HeinbergThis special, updated ebook edition includes new bonus material.Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.Richard Heinberg's latest landmark work goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors:--Resource depletion--Environmental impacts--Crushing levels of debtThese converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and to reinvent money and commerce.The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth's budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP.Richard Heinberg is the author of nine previous books, including The Party's Over, Peak Everything, and Blackout. A senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, Heinberg is one of the world's foremost peak oil educators and an effective communicator of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.
The End of Money: The Story of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies and the Blockchain Revolution (New Scientist Instant Expert)
by New Scientist<p>Murder for hire. Drug trafficking. Embezzlement. Money laundering. These might sound like plot lines of a thriller, but they are true stories from the short history of cryptocurrencies - digital currencies conceived by computer hackers and cryptographers that represent a completely new sort of financial transaction that could soon become mainstream. <p>The most famous - or infamous - cryptocurrency is bitcoin. But look beyond its tarnished reputation and something much shinier emerges. The technology that underlies bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies - the blockchain - is hailed as the greatest advancement since the invention of the internet. It is now moving away from being the backbone for a digital currency and making inroads into other core concepts of society: identity, ownership and even the rule of law. <p>The End of Money is your essential introduction to this transformative new technology that has governments, entrepreneurs and forward-thinking people from all walks of life sitting up and taking notice.</p>
The End of Nostalgia
by Diana Villiers NegroponteToday's Mexico is strongly determined to become a full player in the globalizing international economy. It has increased its manufacturing output in areas such as automobiles and electronics, and both corporate and government sectors would like to take greater strides toward being a full global player. But do the underlying institutional and cultural elements exist to support such an economic effort?In The End of Nostalgia, editor Diana Villiers Negroponte and colleagues from both sides of the Rio Grande examine the path that Mexico will likely take in the near future. It remains a land in transition, from a one-party political system steeped in a colonial Spanish past toward a modern liberal democracy with open markets. What steps are necessary for this proud nation to continue its momentum toward effective participation in a highly competitive world?Contributors:Armando Chacón is the research director at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.Arturo Franco has worked with Cementos de Mexico (CEMEX) and the World Bank. He was a Global Leadership fellow at the World Economic Forum on Latin America, 2008-11.Eduardo Guerrero is a partner at Lantía Consultores in Mexico City, where he works on security assessment. He joined the Secretaría de Gobernación in December 2012.Andrés Rozental holds the permanent rank of Eminent Ambassador of Mexico. He is president of Rozental & Asociados and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.Christopher Wilson is an associate at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Duncan Wood is a member of the Mexican National Research System and editorial adviser to Reforma newspaper. Since January 2013, he has been the director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World
by Paul RobertsFrom the book jacket: THE SITUATION IS ALARMING AND IRREFUTABLE: Within thirty years, even by conservative estimates, we will have burned our way through most of the oil that is readily available to us. Already, the costly side effects of dependence on fossil fuel are taking their toll. Even as oil-related conflict threatens entire nations, individual consumers are suffering from higher prices at the gas pump, rising health problems, and the grim prospect of long-term environmental damage. In this frank and balanced investigation, Paul Roberts offers a timely wake-up call. He talks to both oil optimists and oil pessimists, delves deep into the economics and politics of oil, and considers the promises and pitfalls of alternatives such as wind power, hybrid cars, and hydrogen. A new afterword brings the book up to the minute. Brisk, immediate, and accessible, this is essential reading for anyone who uses oil. which is to say every one of us.
The End of Ordinary: A Novel
by Edward AshtonIn this humorous science fiction thriller, a genetic engineer and a group of teens uncover a dangerous conspiracy.Drew Bergen is an Engineer. He builds living things, one gene at a time. He’s also kind of a doofus. Six years after the Stupid War—a bloody, inconclusive clash between the Engineered and the UnAltered—that’s a dangerous combination. Hannah is Drew’s greatest project, modified in utero to be just a bit more than human. She’s also his daughter.Drew’s working on a new project now. He thinks his team is developing a spiffy new strain of corn, but Hannah’s classmate and her mysterious companion disagree. They think he’s cooking up the end of the world. When one of Drew’s team members disappears, he begins to suspect that they might be right. Soon they’re all in far over their heads, with corporate goons and government operatives hunting them, and millions of lives in the balance.Energetic and bitingly satirical, The End of Ordinary is a riveting near-future thriller that asks an important question: if we can’t get along when our differences are barely skin deep, what happens when they run all the way down to the bone?
The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy (The Information Society Series)
by Aaron Perzanowski Jason SchultzAn argument for retaining the notion of personal property in the products we “buy” in the digital marketplace. If you buy a book at the bookstore, you own it. You can take it home, scribble in the margins, put in on the shelf, lend it to a friend, sell it at a garage sale. But is the same thing true for the ebooks or other digital goods you buy? Retailers and copyright holders argue that you don't own those purchases, you merely license them. That means your ebook vendor can delete the book from your device without warning or explanation—as Amazon deleted Orwell's 1984 from the Kindles of surprised readers several years ago. These readers thought they owned their copies of 1984. Until, it turned out, they didn't. In The End of Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz explore how notions of ownership have shifted in the digital marketplace, and make an argument for the benefits of personal property.Of course, ebooks, cloud storage, streaming, and other digital goods offer users convenience and flexibility. But, Perzanowski and Schultz warn, consumers should be aware of the tradeoffs involving user constraints, permanence, and privacy. The rights of private property are clear, but few people manage to read their end user agreements. Perzanowski and Schultz argue that introducing aspects of private property and ownership into the digital marketplace would offer both legal and economic benefits. But, most important, it would affirm our sense of self-direction and autonomy. If we own our purchases, we are free to make whatever lawful use of them we please. Technology need not constrain our freedom; it can also empower us.
The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World
by Joel K. Bourne JrAn award-winning environmental journalist introduces a new generation of farmers and scientists on the frontlines of the next green revolution. When the demographer Robert Malthus (1766-1834) famously outlined the brutal relationship between food and population, he never imagined the success of modern scientific agriculture. In the mid-twentieth century, an unprecedented agricultural advancement known as the Green Revolution brought hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and improved irrigation that drove the greatest population boom in history--but left ecological devastation in its wake. In The End of Plenty, award-winning environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr. puts our race to feed the world in dramatic perspective. With a skyrocketing world population and tightening global grain supplies spurring riots and revolutions, humanity must produce as much food in the next four decades as it has since the beginning of civilization to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe. Yet climate change could render half our farmland useless by century's end. Writing with an agronomist's eye for practical solutions and a journalist's keen sense of character, detail, and the natural world, Bourne takes readers from his family farm to international agricultural hotspots to introduce the new generation of farmers and scientists engaged in the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. He discovers young, corporate cowboys trying to revive Ukraine as Europe's breadbasket, a Canadian aquaculturist channeling ancient Chinese traditions, the visionary behind the world's largest organic sugar-cane plantation, and many other extraordinary individuals struggling to increase food supplies--quickly and sustainably--as droughts, floods, and heat waves hammer crops around the globe. Part history, part reportage and advocacy, The End of Plenty is a panoramic account of the future of food, and a clarion call for anyone concerned about our planet and its people.
The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction
by Henry T. GreelyWithin 40 years many people will stop having sex for reproduction. After IVF and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, parents will pick embryos for implantation, gestation, and birth. It will be easy, safe, lawful, and free, Henry Greely predicts. He explains the new technologies and sets out the deep ethical and legal challenges facing humanity.
The End of Stationarity: Searching for the New Normal in the Age of Carbon Shock
by Mark SchapiroScientists have devised a new term to explain the turmoil caused by climate change: the end of stationarity. It means that our baselines for rainfall, water flow, temperature, and extreme weather are no longer relevant--that making predictions based on past experience is no longer possible. But climate change has upended baselines in the financial world, too, disrupting the global economy in ways that are just becoming clear, leaving us unable to assess risk, and causing us to fundamentally re-think economic priorities and existing business models. At the heart of that financial unrest is the role of carbon, and as the world moves toward making more and more polluters pay to emit it, a financial mystery unfolds: What are the costs? Who has the responsibility to pay for them? Who do you pay? How do you pay? And how will those costs ripple through the economy? These are the questions veteran journalist Mark Schapiro attempts to answer as he illuminates the struggle to pinpoint carbon's true costs and allocate them fairly--all while bumping up against the vagaries of the free market, the lobbying power of corporations, the political maneuverings of countries, and the tolerance of everyday consumers buying a cup of coffee, a tank of gas, or an airplane ticket. Along the way, Schapiro tracks the cost of carbon through the drought-ridden farmland of California, the jungles of Brazil, the world's greatest manufacturing center in China, the carbon-trading center of Europe, and the high-tech crime world that carbon markets have inspired. He even tracks the cost of carbon through the skies themselves, where efforts to put a price tag on the carbon left by airplanes in the no-man's land of the atmosphere created what amounted to a quiet but powerful global trade war. The End of Stationarity deftly depicts the wild, new carbon economy, and shows us how nations, emerging and developed, teeter on its brink. Originally published in hardcover as Carbon Shock, the book is updated throughout and includes a new afterword, based on the Paris climate talks.
The End of the CBC?
by David Taras Christopher WaddellThe End of the CBC? is about three overlapping crises: the crisis that has enveloped the CBC, the crisis of news, and the crisis of democracy. They are all the result to some degree of the vast changes that have overtaken and consumed the media world in the last ten to fifteen years. The emergence of platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Netflix, the hyper-targeting of individual users through data analytics, the development of narrow online identity communities, and the rise of an attention economy that makes it more and more difficult for any but the most powerful media organizations to be noticed, have changed the media landscape in dramatic ways. The effects on the CBC and on other Canadian media organizations have been shattering. Describing the failure of successive governments to address problems faced by the public broadcaster, this book explains how the CBC lost its place in sports, drama, and entertainment. Taras and Waddell propose a way forward for the CBC – one in which the corporation concentrates its resources on news and current affairs and re-establishes a reputation for depth and quality.
The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat
by Charles CloverWe have reached a pivotal moment for fishing, with seventy-five percent of the world's fish stock either fully exploited or overfished. If nothing is done to stop the squandering of fish stocks the life of the oceans will face collapse and millions of people could starve. Fish is the aspirational food for Western society, the healthy, weight-conscious choice, but those who eat and celebrate fish often ignore the fact that the fishing industry, although as technologically advanced as space travel, has an attitude to conservation 10,000 years out of date. Traveling on an industrial scale in the North Sea smashes everything it does not catch, taking 16 lbs of dead marine animals to produce just 1 lb of sole. Regulation isn't working, fishermen must cheat or lose money, dolphins and other wildlife (seabirds, turtles, sharks) are killed unnecessarily and fish stocks are collapsing despite the warnings. Because of the shortage of traditional varieties the market has moved on, competing, sometimes illegally, with local fishermen in the waters off Africa and in the Indian Ocean and plundering the high seas and the ocean depths all the way to Antarctica.The End of the Line looks at the problem and proves that we, as consumers, have to change if the situation is to improve.
End of the Road: A Novel
by LS HawkerGreat minds can change the worldor leave it in ruins . . .When tech prodigy Jade Veverka creates a program to communicate with her autistic sister, she’s tapped by a startup to explore the potential applications of her technology. But Jade quickly begins to notice some strange things about the small Kansas town just beyond the company’s campus—why are there no children anywhere to be seen, and for that matter, anyone over the age of forty? Why do all of the people living here act uncomfortable and jumpy?On the way home one night, Jade and her co-worker are run off the road, and their lab and living spaces are suddenly overrun with armed guards, purportedly for their safety. Confined to the compound and questioning what her employers might be hiding from her, Jade fears she’s losing control not only of her invention, but of her very life. It soon becomes clear that the threat reaches far beyond Jade and her family, and the real danger is much closer than she’d ever imagined.
The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France
by Jennifer HechtOn October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, both men and women included, joined together to form an unusual group, The Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. The idea was that, after death, they would dissect one another and (hopefully) show a direct relationship between brain shapes and sizes and the character, abilities and intelligence of individuals. This strange scientific pact, and indeed what we have come to think of as anthropology, which the group's members helped to develop, had its genesis in aggressive, evangelical atheism.With this group as its focus, The End of the Soul is a study of science and atheism in France in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows that anthropology grew in the context of an impassioned struggle between the forces of tradition, especially the Catholic faith, and those of a more freethinking modernism, and moreover that it became for many a secular religion. Among the adherents of this new faith discussed here are the novelist Emile Zola, the great statesman Leon Gambetta, the American birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes embodied the triumph of ratiocination over credulity.Boldly argued, full of colorful characters and often bizarre battles over science and faith, this book represents a major contribution to the history of science and European intellectual history.
The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France
by Jennifer HechtOn October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, joined together to form the Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. With this group as its focus, The End of the Soul is a study of science and atheism in France in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows that anthropology grew out of a struggle between tradition (especially Catholicism) and modernism, and that it became for many a secular religion, with such adherents as Emile Zola, Margaret Sanger, and Arthur Conan Doyle.
End-to-End Adaptive Congestion Control in TCP/IP Networks (Automation and Control Engineering #46)
by Christos N. Houmkozlis George A. RovithakisEstablishing adaptive control as an alternative framework to design and analyze Internet congestion controllers, End-to-End Adaptive Congestion Control in TCP/IP Networks employs a rigorously mathematical approach coupled with a lucid writing style to provide extensive background and introductory material on dynamic systems stability and neural network approximation; alongside future internet requests for congestion control architectures. Designed to operate under extreme heterogeneous, dynamic, and time-varying network conditions, the developed controllers must also handle network modeling structural uncertainties and uncontrolled traffic flows acting as external perturbations. The book also presents a parallel examination of specific adaptive congestion control, NNRC, using adaptive control and approximation theory, as well as extensions toward cooperation of NNRC with application QoS control. Features: Uses adaptive control techniques for congestion control in packet switching networks Employs a rigorously mathematical approach with lucid writing style Presents simulation experiments illustrating significant operational aspects of the method; including scalability, dynamic behavior, wireless networks, and fairness Applies to networked applications in the music industry, computers, image trading, and virtual groups by techniques such as peer-to-peer, file sharing, and internet telephony Contains working examples to highlight and clarify key attributes of the congestion control algorithms presented Drawing on the recent research efforts of the authors, the book offers numerous tables and figures to increase clarity and summarize the algorithms that implement various NNRC building blocks. Extensive simulations and comparison tests analyze its behavior and measure its performance through monitoring vital network quality metrics. Divided into three parts, the book offers a review of computer networks and congestion control, presents an adaptive congestion control framework as an alternative to optimization methods, and provides appendices related to dynamic systems through universal neural network approximators.
End-to-End Quality of Service: Engineering in Next Generation Heterogenous Networks
by Abdelhamid MelloukA modern communication network can be described as a large, complex, distributed system composed by higher interoperating, smaller sub-systems. Today, the proliferation and convergence of different types of wired, wireless, and mobile networks are crucial for the success of the next generation networking. However, these networks can hardly meet the requirements of future integrated-service networks, and are expected to carry multimedia traffic with various Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Providing all relevant QoS/QoE issues in these heterogeneous networks is then an important challenge for telecommunication operators, manufacturers, and companies. The impressive emergence and the important demand of the rising generation of real-time Multi-service (such as Data, Voice VoD, Video-Conference, etc.) over communication heterogeneous networks, require scalability while considering a continuous QoS. This book presents and explains all the techniques in new generation networks which integrate efficient global control mechanisms in two directions: (1) maintain QoS requirements in order to maximize network resources utilization, and minimize operational costs on all the types of wired-wireless-mobile networks used to transport traffic, and (2) mix the QoS associated with home, access, and core networks in order to provide Quality of Service/Quality of Experience expected by users of new services.
Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction
by Helen Anne CurryCharting the political, social, and environmental history of efforts to conserve crop diversity. Many people worry that we're losing genetic diversity in the foods we eat. Over the past century, crop varieties standardized for industrial agriculture have increasingly dominated farm fields. Concerned about what this transition means for the future of food, scientists, farmers, and eaters have sought to protect fruits, grains, and vegetables they consider endangered. They have organized high-tech genebanks and heritage seed swaps. They have combed fields for ancient landraces and sought farmers growing Indigenous varieties. Behind this widespread concern for the loss of plant diversity lies another extinction narrative that concerns the survival of farmers themselves, a story that is often obscured by urgent calls to collect and preserve. Endangered Maize draws on the rich history of corn in Mexico and the United States to uncover this hidden narrative and show how it shaped the conservation strategies adopted by scientists, states, and citizens. In Endangered Maize, historian Helen Anne Curry investigates more than a hundred years of agriculture and conservation practices to understand the tasks that farmers and researchers have considered essential to maintaining crop diversity. Through the contours of efforts to preserve diversity in one of the world's most important crops, Curry reveals how those who sought to protect native, traditional, and heritage crops forged their methods around the expectation that social, political, and economic transformations would eliminate diverse communities and cultures. In this fascinating study of how cultural narratives shape science, Curry argues for new understandings of endangerment and alternative strategies to protect and preserve crop diversity.