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North Holland

    • Progress in Optics

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 32
      • December 13, 1993
      • English
      • eBook
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      Volume XXXII contains a number of review articles on recent developments in optics and related subjects. The first article presents an account of guided wave optics on silicon which is a subject of considerable current interest in the broad field of integrated optics, likely to influence the design and fabrication of various optical components. Chapter two provides an overview of the optical implementation of neural networks and discusses their design, models and architecture. The following article deals with applications of the path integral technique to the theory of wave propagation in random media, a technique used with considerable success in the last two decades for solutions of problems encountered in classical statistical wave theory. Methods for obtaining information on the relative location of objects in space are considered in the following chapter and includes an analysis of the potential accuracy and reliability of object location in the presence of additive Gaussian noise and a discussion of optical filters for localization of objects under various circumstances. The fifth article deals with the broad topic of radiation from uniformly moving sources. It considers the Vavilov-Cerenkov radiation, the Doppler effect in media, transition radiation and bremsstralung. These phenomena are of particular importance in the electrodynamics of continuous media, especially in a plasma. In the concluding article nonlinear optical plasmas in atoms and weakly relativistic plasmas are considered. The emphasis is on the specific properties of laser radiation that are important for inducing multiphoton processes and on nonlinear interactions of very intense laser pulses with electrons. All the articles are written by leading authorities in their respective fields, from all over the world.
    • Composition Operators on Function Spaces

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 179
      • November 3, 1993
      • R.K. Singh + 1 more
      • English
      • Paperback
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      This volume of the Mathematics Studies presents work done on composition operators during the last 25 years. Composition operators form a simple but interesting class of operators having interactions with different branches of mathematics and mathematical physics.After an introduction, the book deals with these operators on Lp-spaces. This study is useful in measurable dynamics, ergodic theory, classical mechanics and Markov process. The composition operators on functional Banach spaces (including Hardy spaces) are studied in chapter III. This chapter makes contact with the theory of analytic functions of complex variables. Chapter IV presents a study of these operators on locally convex spaces of continuous functions making contact with topological dynamics. In the last chapter of the book some applications of composition operators in isometries, ergodic theory and dynamical systems are presented. An interesting interplay of algebra, topology, and analysis is displayed.This comprehensive and up-to-date study of composition operators on different function spaces should appeal to research workers in functional analysis and operator theory, post-graduate students of mathematics and statistics, as well as to physicists and engineers.
    • Mathematical Approaches to Neural Networks

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 51
      • October 27, 1993
      • J.G. Taylor
      • English
      • eBook
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      The subject of Neural Networks is being seen to be coming of age, after its initial inception 50 years ago in the seminal work of McCulloch and Pitts. It is proving to be valuable in a wide range of academic disciplines and in important applications in industrial and business tasks. The progress being made in each approach is considerable. Nevertheless, both stand in need of a theoretical framework of explanation to underpin their usage and to allow the progress being made to be put on a firmer footing.This book aims to strengthen the foundations in its presentation of mathematical approaches to neural networks. It is through these that a suitable explanatory framework is expected to be found. The approaches span a broad range, from single neuron details to numerical analysis, functional analysis and dynamical systems theory. Each of these avenues provides its own insights into the way neural networks can be understood, both for artificial ones and simplified simulations. As a whole, the publication underlines the importance of the ever-deepening mathematical understanding of neural networks.
    • The Cognitive Psychology of Knowledge

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 101
      • October 1, 1993
      • G. Strube + 1 more
      • English
      • Paperback
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      The present book is a result of a seven-year (1986-1992) national research program in cognitive science in Germany, presumably the first large scale cognitive science program there. Anchored in psychology, and therefore christened Wissenpsychologie (psychology of knowledge), it has found interdisciplinary resonance, especially in artificial intelligence and education. The research program brought together cognitive scientists from over twenty German universities and more than thirty single projects were funded. The program was initiated by Heinz Mandl and Hans Spada, the main goals of which were to investigate the acquisition of knowledge, the access to knowledge, and the modification and application of knowledge from a psychological perspective. Emphasis was placed on formalisms of knowledge representation and on the processes involved. In many of the projects this was combined with computer simulations. A final but equally important goal was the development of experimental paradigms and methods for data analysis that are especially suited to investigate knowledge based processes.The research program has had a major impact on cognitive psychology in Germany. Research groups were established at many universities and research equipment was provided. It also inspired a considerable number of young scientists to carry out cognitive research, employ modeling techniques from artificial intelligence for psychological theorizing, and construct intelligent tutoring systems for education. Close contacts with cognitive scientists in the U.S. have helped to firmly integrate the program with international research endeavours. Each year, one or two workshops were held. The present volume is the result of the final workshop which was held in September 1992. Selected results from seventeen projects are presented in this book. The volume is enriched by three guest scholars who agreed to participate in the final workshop and to comment on the chapters of the book.
    • Cognitive Issues in Motor Expertise

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 102
      • September 15, 1993
      • J. Starkes + 1 more
      • English
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      The intent of this book is to describe those perceptual and cognitive components which contribute to skilled motor performance in a wide variety of disciplines, including sports, microsurgery, video games, and speech. Also considered are issues in the measurement of motor skill, the development of motor skill across the life span, and the importance of individual differences in the development of motor skill. Many chapters contain studies employing the expertise approach used so successfully to study cognitive skills in psychology. Using this approach, expert performers are compared to novices on domain relevant laboratory tasks in order to determine whether specific cognitive or perceptual processes are related to performance differences.This volume will be of value to kinesiologists, sport psychologists, physical educators, and cognitive psychologists who are interested in a new perspective on the nature of motor skills. The majority of the chapters include reviews of the literature necessary to understand the case being made. Thus, the book may be understood by any reader with a basic course in psychology or motor behavior.
    • Memory in Everyday Life

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 100
      • August 25, 1993
      • G.M. Davies + 1 more
      • English
      • Hardback
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      The last decade has seen a major growth in research on how memory is used in everyday life. This volume represents a reaction to traditional laboratory-bound studies of the first half of the century which sought to identify the fundamental principles of learning and memory through the use of materials and methods totally divorced from the real world. The new wave of memory research has had considerable success in charting how memory develops, the role it plays in educational and social skills and the impact of memory impairment on mental life. The current volume consists of authoritative reviews of this emerging area linked to comment and criticism from major researchers in the field.Contrasted, probably for the first time, are two major styles of research in applied memory research: The naturalistic approach, which has sought to study memory in everyday environments, using actual experiences from people's lives as the raw data from which to derive more general principles, and the applied cognitive approach, whereby theories and methods are developed using orthodox laboratory techniques which are then validated by applying them directly to real phenomena. This is one of the few books to bring together evidence across the very wide spectrum of humdrum activity that constitutes the everyday uses of memory.
    • Handbook of Convex Geometry

      • 1st Edition
      • August 24, 1993
      • Bozzano G Luisa
      • English
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      Handbook of Convex Geometry, Volume B offers a survey of convex geometry and its many ramifications and connections with other fields of mathematics, including convexity, lattices, crystallography, and convex functions. The selection first offers information on the geometry of numbers, lattice points, and packing and covering with convex sets. Discussions focus on packing in non-Euclidean spaces, problems in the Euclidean plane, general convex bodies, computational complexity of lattice point problem, centrally symmetric convex bodies, reduction theory, and lattices and the space of lattices. The text then examines finite packing and covering and tilings, including plane tilings, monohedral tilings, bin packing, and sausage problems. The manuscript takes a look at valuations and dissections, geometric crystallography, convexity and differential geometry, and convex functions. Topics include differentiability, inequalities, uniqueness theorems for convex hypersurfaces, mixed discriminants and mixed volumes, differential geometric characterization of convexity, reduction of quadratic forms, and finite groups of symmetry operations. The selection is a dependable source of data for mathematicians and researchers interested in convex geometry.
    • Combinatorial Problems and Exercises

      • 2nd Edition
      • August 11, 1993
      • L. Lovász
      • English
      • Paperback
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      The aim of this book is to introduce a range of combinatorial methods for those who want to apply these methods in the solution of practical and theoretical problems. Various tricks and techniques are taught by means of exercises. Hints are given in a separate section and a third section contains all solutions in detail. A dictionary section gives definitions of the combinatorial notions occurring in the book.Combinatorial Problems and Exercises was first published in 1979. This revised edition has the same basic structure but has been brought up to date with a series of exercises on random walks on graphs and their relations to eigenvalues, expansion properties and electrical resistance. In various chapters the author found lines of thought that have been extended in a natural and significant way in recent years. About 60 new exercises (more counting sub-problems) have been added and several solutions have been simplified.
    • Theory of Convex Structures

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 50
      • August 2, 1993
      • M.L.J. van de Vel
      • English
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      Presented in this monograph is the current state-of-the-art in the theory of convex structures. The notion of convexity covered here is considerably broader than the classic one; specifically, it is not restricted to the context of vector spaces. Classical concepts of order-convex sets (Birkhoff) and of geodesically convex sets (Menger) are directly inspired by intuition; they go back to the first half of this century. An axiomatic approach started to develop in the early Fifties. The author became attracted to it in the mid-Seventies, resulting in the present volume, in which graphs appear side-by-side with Banach spaces, classical geometry with matroids, and ordered sets with metric spaces. A wide variety of results has been included (ranging for instance from the area of partition calculus to that of continuous selection). The tools involved are borrowed from areas ranging from discrete mathematics to infinite-dimensional topology.Although addressed primarily to the researcher, parts of this monograph can be used as a basis for a well-balanced, one-semester graduate course.
    • Topological Rings

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 178
      • July 7, 1993
      • S. Warner
      • English
      • Hardback
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      This text brings the reader to the frontiers of current research in topological rings. The exercises illustrate many results and theorems while a comprehensive bibliography is also included.The book is aimed at those readers acquainted with some very basic point-set topology and algebra, as normally presented in semester courses at the beginning graduate level or even at the advanced undergraduate level. Familiarity with Hausdorff, metric, compact and locally compact spaces and basic properties of continuous functions, also with groups, rings, fields, vector spaces and modules, and with Zorn's Lemma, is also expected.