- Table View
- List View
Bless Your Heart, Tramp!: And Other Southern Endearments
by Celia RivenbarkFrom the wickedly hilarious pen of Southern humorist Celia Rivenbark comes a collection of essays that brings to mind Dave Barry (in high heels) or Jeff Foxworthy (in a prom dress).Step into the wacky world of "womanless wedding" fund-raisers, in which Bubbas wear boas. Meet two sisters who fight rural boredom by washing Budweiser cans and cutting them into pieces to make clothing. Learn why the word snow sends any right-thinking Southerner careening to the Food Lion for extra loaves of bread and little else. Humor columnist and slightly crazed belle-by-birth Celia Rivenbark tackles these and other lard-laden subjects in Bless Your Heart, Tramp, a hilarious look at Southern---and just plain human---foibles, up-close and personal. So pour yourself a glass of sweet tea and curl up on the pie-azza with Bless Your Heart, Tramp.
Just One Taste: A Recipe For Love Novel (Recipe for Love #3)
by Louisa EdwardsBad-boy chef Wes Murphy is dreading his final-semester cooking class—Food Chemistry 101—until he meets the new substitute teacher. Dr. Rosemary Wilkins is a feast for the eyes, though her approach to food is strictly academic. So Wes decides to rattle her Bunsen burner by asking for her hands-on advice—on aphrodisiacs… Rosemary is a little wary about working with Wes, whose casual flirtations make her hot under the collar. But once they begin testing the love-enhancing power of chocolate, oysters, and strawberries, it becomes scientifically evident that the brainy science nerd and the boyish chef have some major chemistry together—and it's delicious…
Alibaba's World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company Is Changing the Face of Global Business
by Porter ErismanIn September 2014, a Chinese company that most Americans had never heard of held the largest IPO in history – bigger than Google, Facebook and Twitter combined. Alibaba, now the world's largest e-commerce company, mostly escaped Western notice for over ten years, while building a customer base more than twice the size of Amazon's, and handling the bulk of e-commerce transactions in China. How did it happen? And what was it like to be along for such a revolutionary ride?In Alibaba's World, author Porter Erisman, one of Alibaba's first Western employees and its head of international marketing from 2000 to 2008, shows how Jack Ma, a Chinese schoolteacher who twice failed his college entrance exams, rose from obscurity to found Alibaba and lead it from struggling startup to the world's most dominant e-commerce player. He shares stories of weathering the dotcom crash, facing down eBay and Google, negotiating with the unpredictable Chinese government, and enduring the misguided advice of foreign experts, all to build the behemoth that's poised to sweep the ecommerce world today. And he analyzes Alibaba's role as a harbinger of the new global business landscape—with its focus on the East rather than the West, emerging markets over developed ones, and the nimble entrepreneur over the industry titan. As we face this near future, the story of Alibaba—and its inevitable descendants—is both essential and instructive.
Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity
by Sam MillerA provocative portrait of one of the world's largest cities, delving behind the tourist facade to illustrate the people and places beyond the realms of the conventional travelogueSam Miller set out to discover the real Delhi, a city he describes as "India's dreamtown—and its purgatory." He treads the city streets, making his way through the city and its suburbs, visiting its less celebrated destinations—Nehru Place, Rohini, Ghazipur, and Gurgaon—which most writers and travelers ignore. His quest is the here and now, the unexpected, the overlooked, and the eccentric. All the obvious ports of call make appearances: the ancient monuments, the imperial buildings, and the celebrities of modern Delhi. But it is through his encounters with Delhi's people—from a professor of astrophysics to a crematorium attendant, from ragpickers to members of a police brass band—that Miller creates this richly entertaining portrait of what Delhi means to its residents, and of what the city is becoming. Miller, like so many of the people he meets, is a migrant in one of the world's fastest growing megapolises, and the Delhi he depicts is one whose future concerns us all. He possesses an intense curiosity; he has an infallible eye for life's diversities, for all the marvelous and sublime moments that illuminate people's lives. This is a generous, original, humorous portrait of a great city; one that unerringly locates the humanity beneath the mundane, the unsung, and the unfamiliar.
Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss—and the Myths and Realities of Dieting
by Gina KolataIn this eye-opening book, New York Times science writer Gina Kolata shows that our society's obsession with dieting and weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals.Rethinking Thin is at once an account of the place of diets in American society and a provocative critique of the weight-loss industry. Kolata's account of four determined dieters' progress through a study comparing the Atkins diet to a conventional low-calorie one becomes a broad tale of science and society, of social mores and social sanctions, and of politics and power.Rethinking Thin asks whether words like willpower are really applicable when it comes to eating and body weight. It dramatizes what it feels like to spend a lifetime struggling with one's weight and fantasizing about finally, at long last, getting thin. It tells the little-known story of the science of obesity and the history of diets and dieting—scientific and social phenomena that made some people rich and thin and left others fat and miserable. And it offers commonsense answers to questions about weight, eating habits, and obesity—giving us a better understanding of the weight that is right for our bodies.
Someone to Run With: A Novel
by David GrossmanDavid Grossman's Someone to Run With tells the story of a lost dog, and the discovery of first love on the streets of Jerusalem, portrayed here with a gritty realism that is as fresh as it is compelling.When awkward and painfully shy sixteen-year-old Assaf is asked to find the owner of a stray yellow lab, he begins a quest that will bring him into contact with street kids and criminals, and a talented young singer, Tamar, engaged on her own mission: to rescue a teenage drug addict.A runaway bestseller in Israel, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor: "It's time for Americans to fall in love with (Grossman's) Someone to Run With."
Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
by Jillian BeckerGiving Up is Jillian Becker's intimate account of her brief but extraordinary time with Sylvia Plath during the winter of 1963, the last months of the poet's life. Abandoned by Ted Hughes, Sylvia found companionship and care in the home of Becker and her husband, who helped care for the estranged couple's two small children while Sylvia tried to rest. In clear-eyed recollections unclouded by the intervening decades, Becker describes the events of Sylvia's final days and suicide: her physical and emotional state, her grief over Hughes's infidelity, her mysterious meeting with an unknown companion the night before her suicide, and the harsh aftermath of her funeral. Alongside this tragic conclusion is a beautifully rendered portrait of a friendship between two very different women.
Double Vision: A Novel
by Pat BarkerDouble Vision from Pat Barker, a gripping novel about the effects of violence on the journalists and artists who have dedicated themselves to representing itIn the aftermath of September 11, 2001, reeling from the effects of reporting from New York City, two British journalists, a writer, Stephen Sharkey, and a photographer, Ben Frobisher, part ways. Stephen, facing the almost simultaneous discovery that his wife is having an affair, returns to England shattered; he divorces and quits his job. Ben returns to his vocation. He follows the war on terror to Afghanistan and is killed. Stephen retreats to a cottage in the country to write a book about violence, and what he sees as the reporting journalist's or photographer's complicity in it; it is a book that will build in large part on Ben's writing and photography. Ben's widow, Kate, a sculptor, lives nearby, and as she and Stephen learn about each other their world speedily shrinks, in pleasing but also disturbing ways; Stephen's maid, with whom he has begun an affair, was once lovers with Kate's new studio assistant, an odd local man named Peter. As these connections become clear, Peter's strange behavior around Stephen and Kate begins to take on threatening implications. The sinister events that take place in this small town, so far from the theaters of war Stephen has retreated from, will force him to act instinctively, violently, and to face his most painful revelations about himself.
AI-Assisted Writing and Presenting in English (English for Academic Research)
by Adrian WallworkThis book is part of the English for Academic Research series. It shows university students and researchers how to optimize their use of chatbots and machine translation in order to correct the English usage of a research paper, and write emails, letters, and presentation scripts and slides in English. English-speaking language editors, translators, and EAP teachers will also find this book useful. The main focus is on ChatGPT and Google Translate. However the techniques proposed will also work with equivalent tools. You will learn the areas where ChatGPT works well: correcting, improving, paraphrasing, reducing, and summarizing texts; generating / suggesting texts; answering queries; and simulating academic scenarios. A key strategy for enhancing the output of machine translation is to pre-edit and post-edit your texts – this book tells you how. You will also learn what ChatGPT is currently NOT able to do, e.g. differentiating between ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’; listing all the changes it has made; highlighting your key findings; and advising you when you have written too much, plagiarized, used biased language, or forgotten to mention the limitations of your work. The book lists over 170 prompts that you can use with a chatbot. The author recommends using ChatGPT as an assistant, but not for generating an entire paper. Adrian Wallwork edits scientific papers and teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to PhD students. In addition to his many books for Springer, he has written course books for Oxford University Press and discussion books for Cambridge University Press. He is passionate about exploiting the advances in artificial intelligence to help researchers around the world write and publish their work.
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in East Asia: Perspectives from Japan and Taiwan (Palgrave Macmillan Studies on Human Rights in Asia)
by Polina Ivanova Lara MomessoThis edited volume fills a gap in current research on asylum seekers and refugees. By focusing on two East Asian countries, Japan and Taiwan, this volume offers material for comparison and reflection on an area of the world in which this theme is still relatively underdeveloped. By approaching the theme through the different perspectives of human rights, social construction through media representation and public opinion, and lived experiences, the book offers a multifaceted and sophisticated analysis of the phenomenon. The main aim of this collection is to expand current scholarship on refugee studies and offer policy recommendations on the timely topic of refugee and asylum seekers in East Asia. This is an open access book.
Analytical Molecular Dynamics of Amorphous Condensed Matter: Thermal and Non-equilibrium Response Behavior (Springer Series in Materials Science #342)
by José Joaquim Costa Cruz Pinto José Reinas dos Santos AndréThe book provides a detailed quantitative study and characterization of the physics of the thermal and viscoelastic behavior of mainly amorphous materials, and addresses a readership of both undergraduate (Part I and the two first chapters of Part II) and graduate students and junior researchers (Parts II and III). Though the discussion and examples concentrate on polymer materials, Part II illustrates the potential universality of the proposed most recent treatment – a Cooperative Theory of Materials Dynamics (CTMD) – and its ability to portray the 11 major physical characteristics of the materials' behavior by an alternative view of the thermal equilibrium and non-equilibrium dynamics at the "micro-scale", the still challenging problem of the glass transition and glass transition temperature, how partial crosslinking or crystallization limits the response, the expected impact of molecular packing, and of a few other open challenges. Part III discusses three specific domains where new applications and extensions of CTMD might be explored, while three Appendixes collect a few quantitative details and extensions of the treatment.
Teachers of Mathematics Working and Learning in Collaborative Groups: The 25th ICMI Study (New ICMI Study Series)
by Despina Potari Hilda BorkoThis open access book is the product of an international study which offers a state-of-the-art summary of mathematics teacher collaboration with respect to theory, research, practice, and policy. The authors – leading researchers and teachers on mathematics teacher collaboration – represent a wide range of countries and cultures. Chapters explore the various forms of teacher collaboration; the diversity of settings and groupings in which mathematics teacher collaboration occurs; the tools and resources that support mathematics teacher collaboration and are the product of collaboration; and the breadth of outcomes of such collaboration. Teachers’ experiences and learning in collaborative settings are represented through their own voices as well as the voices of researchers. Forms and outcomes of collaboration are considered through a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The authors reflect on the policy implications of this work and suggest new directions of research that take into account contextual, cultural, national and political dimensions that impact teachers’ work and learning through collaboration. The book is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who are interested in the power of teacher collaboration, and its history and potential for promoting educational innovations and equitable experiences for all teachers and learners.
Grundwissen Elektrotechnik und Elektronik: Eine leicht verständliche Einführung
by Martin Poppe Leonhard StinyDas Buch vermittelt die Grundlagen der Elektrotechnik und Elektronik in einer Form, die auch für den Anfänger ohne Kenntnisse in höherer Mathematik oder komplexer Physik geeignet ist. Fortgeschrittene finden ferner mathematisch anspruchsvollere Abschnitte zur Vertiefung. Ein großer Vorteil des Buches liegt in der äußerst logischen inhaltlichen Gliederung und in einer klaren Sprache. Es wird stets vom Einfachen zum Schwierigeren fortgeschritten und darauf geachtet, dass Fachbegriffe nicht als bekannt vorausgesetzt werden. Am Anfang wird von einfachen mechanischen Modellvorstellungen mit bildhaften Vergleichen zur Elektrizität ausgegangen. Später folgt ein Übergang zu formalen physikalischen Betrachtungen, die durch mathematische Zusammenhänge beschrieben werden. Zahlreiche Übungsaufgaben mit ausführlichen Lösungen ermöglichen ein Selbststudium. Durch die Berechnung eines gleichen Sachverhaltes mit unterschiedlichen Analyseverfahren werden mögliche Vorgehensweisen geübt.
Proceedings of the Indian Geotechnical Conference 2022 Volume 4: Geotechnics: Learning, Evaluation, Analysis and Practice (GEOLEAP) (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #479)
by C. N. V. Satyanarayana Reddy Ravikiran Vaidya Babu T. Jose Dipak Kumar Sahoo Anand J. Puppala Benny Mathews AbrahamThis book comprises the select proceedings of the Indian Geotechnical Conference (IGC) 2022. The contents focus on recent developments in geotechnical engineering for a sustainable world. The book covers behavior of soils and soil–structure interaction, soil stabilization, ground improvement, and land reclamation, shallow and deep foundations, geotechnical, geological and geophysical investigation, rock engineering, tunneling and underground structures, slope stability, landslides and liquefaction, earth retaining structures and deep excavations, geosynthetics engineering, geo-environmental engineering, sustainable geotechnics, and landfill design, geo-hydrology, dam and embankment engineering, earthquake geotechnical engineering, transportation geotechnics, forensic geotechnical engineering and retrofitting of geotechnical structures, offshore geotechnics, marine geology and sub-sea site investigation, computational, analytical and numerical modeling, and reliability in geotechnical engineering. The contents of this book are useful to researchers and professionals alike.
Erweiterte virtuelle Prototypen für heterogene Systeme
by Rolf Drechsler Daniel Große Muhammad HassanDieses Buch beschreibt eine umfassende Kombination von Methoden, die den modernen Virtual Prototype (VP)-basierten Verifikationsfluss für heterogene Systems-on-Chip (SOCs) stark verbessern. Insbesondere kombiniert das Buch Verifikations- und Analyseaspekte über verschiedene Stufen des VP-basierten Verifikationsflusses hinweg und bietet eine neue Perspektive auf die Verifikation, indem es fortschrittliche Techniken wie metamorphes Testen, Datenfluss-Testen und Informationsfluss-Testen einsetzt. Darüber hinaus legt das Buch einen starken Schwerpunkt auf fortschrittliche, abdeckungsorientierte Methoden zur Verifizierung des funktionalen Verhaltens des SOC sowie zur Gewährleistung seiner Sicherheit.Bietet eine umfassende Einführung in den modernen VP-basierten Verifikationsablauf für heterogene SOCs;Stellt eine neuartige metamorphe Testtechnik für heterogene SOCs vor, die keine Referenzmodelle erfordert;Enthält automatisierte, fortschrittliche, auf Datenflussabdeckung basierende Methoden, die auf SystemC/AMS-basierte VP zugeschnitten sind;Beschreibt erweiterte funktionale abdeckungsgesteuerte Methoden zur Verifizierung verschiedener funktionaler Verhaltensweisen von RF-Verstärkern.
Attacks, Defenses and Testing for Deep Learning
by Jinyin Chen Ximin Zhang Haibin ZhengThis book provides a systematic study on the security of deep learning. With its powerful learning ability, deep learning is widely used in CV, FL, GNN, RL, and other scenarios. However, during the process of application, researchers have revealed that deep learning is vulnerable to malicious attacks, which will lead to unpredictable consequences. Take autonomous driving as an example, there were more than 12 serious autonomous driving accidents in the world in 2018, including Uber, Tesla and other high technological enterprises. Drawing on the reviewed literature, we need to discover vulnerabilities in deep learning through attacks, reinforce its defense, and test model performance to ensure its robustness. Attacks can be divided into adversarial attacks and poisoning attacks. Adversarial attacks occur during the model testing phase, where the attacker obtains adversarial examples by adding small perturbations. Poisoning attacks occur during the model training phase, wherethe attacker injects poisoned examples into the training dataset, embedding a backdoor trigger in the trained deep learning model. An effective defense method is an important guarantee for the application of deep learning. The existing defense methods are divided into three types, including the data modification defense method, model modification defense method, and network add-on method. The data modification defense method performs adversarial defense by fine-tuning the input data. The model modification defense method adjusts the model framework to achieve the effect of defending against attacks. The network add-on method prevents the adversarial examples by training the adversarial example detector. Testing deep neural networks is an effective method to measure the security and robustness of deep learning models. Through test evaluation, security vulnerabilities and weaknesses in deep neural networks can be identified. By identifying and fixing these vulnerabilities, the security and robustness of the model can be improved. Our audience includes researchers in the field of deep learning security, as well as software development engineers specializing in deep learning.
Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare: 17th EAI International Conference, PervasiveHealth 2023, Malmö, Sweden, November 27-29, 2023, Proceedings (Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering #572)
by Pieter Van Gorp Dario Salvi Syed Ahmar ShahThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2023, held in Malmö, Sweden, during November 27-29, 2023. The 29 full papers and 6 short papers were selected from 90 submissions and are organized in thematic sessions as follows: Pervasive Mental Health; Privacy, Ethics and Regulations; Datasets and Big data Processing; Pervasive health for Carers; Pervasive Health in Clinical Practice; Remote Monitoring; Patient and User Aspects; Motion and rehabilitation; Workshop on the Internet of Things in Health Research; Posters and demos (non indexed annex).
Cellular Cause-Effect Structures (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control #526)
by Ludwik CzajaThis book presents the adaptation of cause-effect structures to the formal description of phenomena such as the behaviour of living objects, the mutual communication of living cells, but also such as the growth of crystals and other natural processes. The system of cause-effect structures has been designed for the description and analysis of objects with dispersed components, acting concurrently and synchronizing and communicating one another. This adaptation consists in customizing generic semantics of cause-effect structures to semantics specific to the behaviour of natural objects. That is creating evolution rules for the formal models of these objects. However, the structural, algebraic properties of cause-effect structures are retained. The activity of cellular cause-effect structures is supposed to imitate the activity of cellular automata, the formal system intended for the above-mentioned aims. But operations on syntactic constructions, in particular their transformations and simplification, are the same as for the general cause-effect structures. These algebraic operations are also used to perform certain geometric/topological conversions of location bases for the cellular cause-effect structures, like flat surfaces into cylindrical or toroidal. This is depicted by numerous illustrations. An adaptation of cause-effect structures to other formal descriptions of some natural phenomena, such as reaction systems, is provided in book 331 of the “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems” series, whereas the complete description of cause-effect structures, in book 45.
My Rescue Pet Rescued Me: Amazing True Stories of Adopted Animal Heroes
by Sharon Ward KeebleMeet the inspirational animals who went from rescued to rescuer in these incredible true stories. You’ll read all about the animal heroes who came to their owner’s aid – whether it was helping them to recover from mental illness, relationship breakdown or bereavement. Let these stories warm your heart and reveal how animals can help us heal.
365 Days of Positivity: Daily Guidance for a Happier You
by Debbi MarcoThere’s joy in every day This little book will help you find everyday moments of happiness. With uplifting quotations and simple tips to brighten your mood, it will inspire you to stay positive all year round.
A Little Bit of Golfing Wit: Quips and Quotes for the Golf-Obsessed
by Tom HayLaugh yourself off the fairway with this mini-collection of golfing humour – the very best quips and quotes for the golf-obsessed.
Just Be You: Positive Quotes and Affirmations for Self-Care
by Summersdale PublishersHaving a wobbly day, week or year? This little book of uplifting quotations and powerful affirmations will help you to realise you are the best person you could possibly be – you!
Be Brave: The Little Book of Courage
by Summersdale PublishersLess fear. More fierce.Whatever challenges life sends your way, you need to know and nurture your inner strength. Packed with inspiring affirmations and courageous quotations from those who have dared to be audacious, this book will boost your self-belief and empower you to BE BRAVE.
The Best Cat Memes Ever: The Funniest Relatable Memes as Told by Cats
by Charlie EllisDive into this book of hilarious and relatable memes as told by the internet’s favourite animal: cats! For life’s every up and down, there’s a meme to capture the feeling – and with their sassy personalities, their endless curiosity and their distinct capacity for being that little bit odd, who better to live these moments with us than our cuddly feline friends?You might not realize it, but some of the everyday moments in our lives are actually universal – and these cats are here to tell it like it is.Have you ever experienced:The awkward moment someone says “Just smile naturally” and you forget what natural is?The moment you accidentally open the front-facing camera and you’re confronted with your many chins?The flash of terror when you’re home alone and you hear an odd noise?The satisfaction of walking in time to your music?The crushing awkwardness of saying “you too” when a waiter tells you to enjoy your meal?If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then this book is for you! Look no further and dive into this collection, which contains the most hilarious and relatable memes about life, told through the expressive brilliance of cats.
Live Better: A Book of Spiritual Guidance
by Sophie GoldingYour spiritual journey can take many forms, and it’s important to choose the path that’s right for you. This handbook will introduce you to traditions and practices with the power to open your heart and broaden your mind. Along with practical tips and enlightening quotes, the insights here are stepping stones towards a better life.