Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:57am CET
The authors have certainly identified a gap in the literature … Overall, the book is very informative and provides a strong foundation for work in this active research area.
-K. Alan Shore, Optics and Photonics News
The most significant feature of this work is that it combines three distinct topics - technology, device design and simulation, and applications - in a comprehensive way.
Readership
This book is intended for use by senior undergraduate or first-year graduate students in Applied Physics, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and Materials Sciences, and as a reference for engineers and scientists involved in semiconductor device research and development for RF applications.
Since the first report of SiGe heterostructure bipolar transistors (HBTs) in 1987, there has been tremendous progress in SiGe research. The successful demonstrations of SiGe HBT technology, in both high-performance digital and analogue circuit applications, are the results of over 15 years of steady research progress from initial material preparations in 1984, through device demonstrations from 1987–1992 to large scale circuit fabrication in 1994 and commercial products in 1998.
With the development of the ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapour deposition (UHVCVD) system, which produces highly uniform SiGe heterostructures more rapidly than other methods, such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) or low-pressure CVD, only minor modifications to the process flow are required to incorporate the manufacture of SiGe HBTs into a conventional bipolar or complementary metal–oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) line. Indeed, SiGe HBTs integrated with CMOS (BiCMOS) circuits have been shown to be substantially cheaper than III–V technology. Qualified full-scale production devices (with cut-off frequencies in the 50–60 GHz range) and circuits using 200 mm wafers in a standard 0.5 μm CMOS line are now available.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:56am CET
More than three decades have passed since lasing in semiconductors was first observed in several laboratories in 1962 (Hall et al., 1962; Holonyak, Jr. et al., 1962; Nathan et al., 1962; Quist et al., 1962). Although it was one of the first lasers to be demonstrated, the semiconductor laser had to await several important developments, both technological and those related to the understanding of its device physics, before it became fit for applications. Most notably, it was the introduction of heterostructures for achieving charge carrier and photon confinement in the late sixties and the understanding of device degradation mechanisms in the seventies that made possible the fabrication of reliable diode lasers operating with sufficiently low currents at room temperature. In parallel, progress in the technology of low loss optical fibers for optical communication applications has boosted the development of diode lasers for use in such systems. Several unique features of these devices, namely the low power consumption, the possibility of direct output modulation and the compatibility with mass production that they offer, have played a key role in this development. In addition the prospects for integration of diode lasers with other optical and electronic elements in optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) served as a longer term motivation for their advancement.
The next developments that made semiconductor lasers truly ubiquitous took place during the eighties and the early nineties. In the eighties, applications of diode lasers in compact disc players and bar-code readers have benefited from their mass-production capabilities and drastically reduced the prices of their simplest versions. In parallel, more sophisticated devices were developed as the technology matured. Important examples are high power lasers exhibiting very high electrical to optical power conversion efficiency, most notably for solid state laser pumping and medical applications, and high modulation speed, single frequency, distributed feedback lasers for use in long-haul optical communication systems.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:53am CET
Bacterial contamination of food and water resources, as well as the increasing incidence of nosocomial infections, has us on our toes, looking for ways of recognizing these elements. In addition, the recent and growing threats to personal and territorial securities make this task even more urgent. Therefore, accurate assessment of the state of current technologies is a prerequisitefor undertaking any course of action towards future improvements. In particular, development of new detection and identification technologies for the plethora of bacterial agents has become increasingly important to scientists and to regulatory agencies. In recent years, there has been much progress in the field of bacterial agents detection, resulting in the development of more accurate, fast, analyte-specific, robust, and cost effective techniques by incorporating emerging technologies from various disciplines.
Principles of Bacterial Detection: Biosensors, Recognition Receptors and Microsystems presents a significant and up-to-date review of various integrated approaches for bacterial detection by distinguished engineers and scientists. This work is a comprehensive approach to bacterial detection, presenting a thorough knowledge of the subject and an effective integration of disciplines in order to appropriately convey the state-of the-art fundamentals and applications of the most innovative approaches.
The book consists of four parts. The first part (Chapters 1–4) is an introduction to pathogenic bacteria and sampling techniques and provides an overview of the rapid microbiological methods. The second part (Chapters 5–20) describes the different transducers used for bacterial detection. It covers the theory behind each technique and delivers a detailed stateof-the-art review for all the new technologies used. The third part (Chapters 21–29) covers the different recognition receptors used in the latest methods for the detection of bacteria. It describes in detail the use of immunoassays, nucleic acids, oligonucleotide microarrays, carbohydrates, aptamers, protein microarrays, bacteriophage, phage display, and molecular imprinted polymers as recognition elements. The fourth part (Chapters 30–36) covers the different microsystems used for detection/identification and bacterial manipulations, mainly bacteria lysis in microfluidics, PCR in microfluidics, dielectrophoresis, ultrasonic manipulation techniques, and mass spectrometry.
We anticipate that the book will be helpful to academicians, practitioners, and professionals working in various fields, including biomedical sciences, physical sciences, microsystems engineering, nanotechnology, veterinary science and medicine, food QA, bioterrorism and security as well as allied health, healthcare and surveillance. Since the fundamentals are also reviewed, we believe that the book will appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students who study in areas related to bacterial detection.
We gratefully acknowledge all authors for their participation and contributions, which made this book a reality. We give many thanks to Olivier Laczka and Joseph Piliero for the book cover design.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:36am CET
"This book presents a framework for estimating three-dimensional (3D) shapes from defocused and motion-blurred images. The book systematically describes various problems involved in estimating 3D shapes, and provides solutions to these problems… The book is well-written, and is equipped with Matlab code that implements the estimators presented in the chapters… I recommend this book to engineers in image processing and computer vision. Readers will learn state-of-the-art methods for shape restoration." (Hsun-Hsien Chang, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (9), September 2008)
Images contain information about the spatial properties of the scene they depict. When coupled with suitable assumptions, images can be used to infer three-dimensional information. This useful volume concentrates on motion blur and defocus, which can be exploited to infer the 3-D structure of a scene—as well as its radiance properties—and which in turn can be used to generate novel images with better quality.
3-D Shape Estimation and Image Restoration presents a coherent framework for the analysis and design of algorithms to estimate 3-D shape from defocused and motion blurred images, and to eliminate defocus and motion blur to yield "restored" images. It provides a collection of algorithms that are optimal with respect to the chosen model and estimation criterion.
Topics and Features include:
• Comprehensive introduction to guide readers through the different areas of the topic
• Basic models of image formation
• Discussion of least-squares shape from defocus
• Unifying defocus and motion blur
• Handling multiple moving objects
• Dealing with occlusions
• Appendices supply the necessary background in optimization and regularization
• www.eps.hw.ac.uk/~pf21/FavaroSoattoBook/downloads contains implementations of relevant algorithms, test data and demos.
Written for readers with interests in image processing and computer vision and with backgrounds in engineering, science or mathematics, this highly practical text/reference is accessible to advanced students or those with a degree that includes basic linear algebra and calculus courses. It can also be seen as a resource for practitioners looking to expand their knowledge in the subject.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:34am CET
Object-Oriented Programming and Java presents two important topics in contemporary software development: object-oriented programming and Java. This book takes a different teaching approach from most available literature, it begins with the description of real-world object interaction scenarios and explains how they can be translated, represented and executed using object-oriented programming paradigm.
Principally, Java is an object-oriented programming language. By establishing a solid foundation in the understanding of object-oriented programming concepts and their applications, the book provides readers with the pre-requisites for writing proper object-oriented programs using Java.
Object-Oriented Programming and Java covers the latest in Java technologies and is suitable for undergraduate or postgraduate courses on object-oriented technology, and in particular, using Java as a programming language for creating object-oriented programs.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:33am CET
The complexity of modern supply chains requires decision makers in logistics to work with a set of efficient (Pareto optimal) solutions, mainly to catch different economic aspects for which one optimal solution related to a single objective function is not able to capture entirely. Motivated by this, and by recent changes in global markets and the availability of new transportation services, Multi-objective Management in Freight Logistics
provides a detailed study of freight transportation systems, with a specific focus on multi-objective modeling.
Multi-objective Management in Freight Logistics provides decision makers with new methods and tools to implement multi-objective optimization models in logistics. The book combines theoretical aspects with applications, showing the advantages and the drawbacks of adopting scalarization techniques, and when it is worthwhile to reduce the problem to a goal programming one. The book also shows applications where more than one decision maker evaluates the effectiveness of the logistic system and thus a multilevel programming approach is sought to attain meaningful solutions.
Multi-objective Management in Freight Logistics opens by presenting the general working framework, and with analyses of logistic platforms and intermodality management in large scale transportation systems. This is then followed by a study of multi-objective route planning, based on the application of hazardous material transportation. Additionally, the book examines freight distribution on a smaller scale, as in the case of goods distribution in metropolitan areas. The general approach followed by the text is that of presenting both the network design and the tactical (planning) point of view, providing mathematics, algorithms and related experiments for each problem.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:32am CET
Challenges in complexity and variability of multimedia data have led to revolutions in machine learning techniques. Multimedia data, such as digital images, audio streams and motion video programs, exhibit richer structures than simple, isolated data items. A number of pixels in a digital image collectively conveys certain visual content to viewers. A TV video program consists of both audio and image streams that unfold the underlying story. To recognize the visual content of a digital image, or to understand the underlying story of a video program, we may need to label sets of pixels or groups of image and audio frames jointly.
Machine Learning for Multimedia Content Analysis introduces machine learning techniques that are particularly powerful and effective for modeling spatial, temporal structures of multimedia data and for accomplishing common tasks of multimedia content analysis. This book systematically covers these techniques in an intuitive fashion and demonstrates their applications through case studies. This volume uses a large number of figures to illustrate and visualize complex concepts, and provides insights into the characteristics of many algorithms through examinations of their loss functions and straightforward comparisons.
Machine Learning for Multimedia Content Analysis is designed for an academic and professional audience. Researchers will find this book an invaluable tool for applying machine learning techniques to multimedia content analysis. This volume is also suitable for practitioners in industry.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:30am CET
This book contains a collection of papers presented at the 1st International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO). The purpose of ICINCO is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the application of informatics to Control, Automation and Robotics. The research papers focus on real world applications, covering three main themes: Intelligent Control Systems, Optimization, Robotics and Automation, Signal Processing, Systems Modeling and Control.
Informatics applications are pervasive in many areas of Control, Automation and Robotics. This book will be of interest to professionals working in the areas of control and robotics, especially to those who need to maintain knowledge about current trends in development methods and applications.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:29am CET
Each year billions of dollars are being spent to develop, manufacture, and operate transportation systems such as aircraft, ships, trains, and motor vehicles throughout the world. During their operation thousands of lives are lost annually due to various types accidents. Needless to say, approximately 70 to 90 percent of transportation crashes are the result of human error to a certain degree. Moreover, it may be added that human errors contribute significantly to most transportation crashes across all modes of transportation.
Human Reliability and Error in Transportation Systems is the first book to cover the subject of human reliability across all types of transportation system. The material will be accessible to readers with no previous knowledge in the field, and is supported with a full explanation of the necessary mathematical concepts together with numerous examples and test problems.
About the Author
Dr B.S. Dhillon is a professor of Engineering Management in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ottawa. He has published over 330 articles on engineering management, reliability, safety, etc. He is or has been on the editorial boards of 9 international scientific journals, he has served as General Chairman of two international conferences on reliability and quality, and he has been employed as a consultant to various organizations and bodies.
Posted: January 5th, 2009, 7:29am CET
From the reviews:
"The presentation is focused on the fundamental ideas of domain engineering, requirements engineering and computer system engineering. … The rigorous treatment and the author’s original style of viewing the software engineering approaches are important, outstanding features … . is of special interest for both software engineering theorists and practitioners … . The style is very concise, but at the same time very friendly. … Undoubtedly, readers coming from a large variety of fields of interest will appreciate the novelty and usefulness … ." (Tudor Balanescu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1095 (21), 2006)
The art, craft, discipline, logic, practice and science of developing large scale software products is in increasing need of a trustworthy, believable and professional base. This book is one of a series of three volumes, devoted to fill this need. This series of strongly related text books combine informal, engineeringly sound approaches with the rigour of formal, mathematics based approaches.
The present volume covers the basic principles and techniques of overall software development: From domains via requirements to software designs. Thus the book advocates a novel approach to software engineering based on the adage: Before requirements can be formulated one must understand the application domain. The book is therefore structured this way: From (i) the principles and techniques for the development of domain descriptions, via (ii) principles and techniques for the derivation of requirements prescriptions from domain models, to (iii) principles and techniques for the refinement of requirements into software designs: Architectures and component design.
Emphasis in the coverage of domain and requirements engineering is on
Posted: January 4th, 2009, 2:38pm CET
Responding to the need for a clear, up-to-date introduction to the field, The Method of Moments in Electromagnetics explores surface integral equations in electromagnetics and presents their numerical solution using the method of moments (MOM) technique. It provides the numerical implementation aspects at a nuts-and-bolts level while discussing integral equations and electromagnetic theory at a higher level.
The author covers a range of topics in this area, from the initial underpinnings of the MOM to its current applications. He first reviews the frequency-domain electromagnetic theory and then develops Green’s functions and integral equations of radiation and scattering. Subsequent chapters solve these integral equations for thin wires, bodies of revolution, and two- and three-dimensional problems. The final chapters examine the contemporary fast multipole method and describe some commonly used methods of numerical integration, including the trapezoidal rule, Simpson’s rule, area coordinates, and Gaussian quadrature on triangles. The text derives or summarizes the matrix elements used in every MOM problem and explains the approach used in and results of each example.
This book provides both the information needed to solve practical electromagnetic problems using the MOM and the knowledge necessary to understand more advanced topics in the field.
About the Author
Tripoint Industries Inc., Harvest, Alabama, USA
Posted: January 4th, 2009, 2:35pm CET
The fourth edition of Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry stays true to the vision of its predecessors while embracing the advances made in biochemical research since the previous edition. As always, the book presents the fundamentals of biochemistry through selected topics, and emphasizes the most important recent developments and applications without abandoning the classical core of the subject. The new edition has been carefully streamlined to reduce the length of the book without compromizing content. As with previous editions, it emphasizes clear prose and student friendly explanations to optimize student comprehension. It also contains a groundbreaking new treatment of metabolic regulation, up to date coverage of DNA based information technologies, many new applications and problems, and a new graphical style for enzyme reaction mechanisms, including step by step annotations that clarify the concepts and chemical logic of enzymatic reactions. Lecturer supplements include: Instructor's Resource CD ROM with Test Bank, Printed Test Bank and a set of 150 Overhead Transparencies. For students a Study Guide and Solutions Manual is available which includes discussion questions, a self test and a Cellular Metabolic Map, as well as a Lecture Notebook containing the essential diagrams and reaction equations in the text. The textbook's dedicated website http://www whfreeman.com/lehninger offers numerous features including PowerPoint images, animated mechanisms and living graphs.
Posted: January 4th, 2009, 8:16am CET
This title is based on a series of case studies of the website design processes in smaller and larger organizations. It offers a thorough analysis of the activities undertaken, in conbination with practical experiences of website designers and producers. It pays attention to the often complicated organizational context that web deigners and producers have to work in, while they serve both bosses and target groups to their best intents. The importance of careful evaluation is stressed throughout the book and in the concluding checklists, which guide the practitioner through the design process, from initiqal idea through site maintenance and re-design.
Posted: January 4th, 2009, 8:13am CET
Since the realization of the first laser 40 years ago, the merging of the fields of quantum electronics and quantum optics has stimulated the development of many new materials and devices. These, in turn, support a flourishing optoelectronics market for optical communications, optical data processing, medical diagnostics, materials processing, display technology, and many other applications.
Therefore, in the year 2000, it is timely to publish The Handbook of Advanced Electronic and Photonic Materials and Devices. The editor, Hari Singh Nalwa, is well known for his original work on nonlinear optics of organic molecules and polymers. Together with Seizo Miyata, he edited a comprehensive volume under this title that provides a broad overview of this particular subject. The same authors also edited a volume on organic electroluminescent materials and devices.
The present 10 volume handbook has a much broader scope. It includes semiconductor materials, quantum wells and quantum dots, liquid crystals, conducting polymers, laser materials, photoconductors, electroluminescent and photorefractive materials, nanostructured, supramolecular, and self-assembled materials, ferroelectrics, and superconductors. Applications of these materials in photoconductors, optical fibers, xerography, solar cells, dynamic random access memory, and sensors are described. The Handbook contains contributions by 180 leading experts from 25 different countries. It truly represents the worldwide research efforts and results that support the global market of optoelectronics. All scientific and technical workers in this broad field are indebted to the contributing authors, the editor and Academic Press for publishing this comprehensive handbook for the new millennium. It will support further growth in a field that already has surpassed my wildest expectations of 40 years ago.
Posted: January 4th, 2009, 8:11am CET
A comprehensive and groundbreaking collection of ideas for plant improvement
Most of the world's supply of legumes is cultivated under adverse conditions that make this commercially important crop susceptible to the vagaries of nature and damaging stresses. Genetic manipulation has become a proven way for cultivators to battle these problems; but there has been a lack of reliable information on the practical aspects of this promising method. Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes is the important text that fills this void by providing a vast array of groundbreaking essays from some of the discipline's most renowned experts. This unique collection is your single source for not only the most up-to-date accounts of genetic manipulation employed today, but also ideas for realistic and practical uses.
Comprehensive in its approach, Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes presents the latest research on all aspects of genetically modified legume production. With contributions from over 90 international experts, this eye-opening resource offers an in-depth exploration of key topics such as, genetic transformation technology, suppression-subtractive hybridization, c-DNA micro arrays, molecular mapping, tagging regulatory elements, and real-time PCR. Additionally, this text features a wealth of detailed references and informative tables to clearly explain pertinent data.
Handbook of New Technologies for Genetic Improvement of Legumes is an invaluable resource for researchers and educators in the area of plant genetic manipulation and plant biotechnology as well as scientists, educators, and graduate students focusing on the genetic manipulation of legumes.
About the Author
P.B. Kirti, PhD, is Professor in the department of Plant Sciences at the University of Hyderabad, India. He has extensive experience in genetic manipulation in mustard and chickpea and in development of cytoplasmic male sterility-fertility restorer systems based on the use of cell fusion hybrids. Dr. Kirti's current research interests revolve around the genetic manipulation of peanut and pigeonpea for pest and disease resistance as well as transposon insertion mutagenesis. He has been a Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany and FAO Visiting Fellow at the Ohio State Biotechnology Center and is a currently a Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Scientists, an Elected Member of the Plant Tissue Association of India, and a Visiting Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
