This rigourous and self-contained book describes mathematicaland, in particular, stochastic methods to assess the performance ofnetworked systems. It consists of three parts. The first part is areview on probability theory. Part two covers the classical theoryof stochastic processes (Poisson, renewal, Markov and queuingtheory), which are considered to be the basic building blocks forperformance evaluation studies. Part three focuses on therelatively new field of the physics of networks. This part dealswith the recently obtained insights that many very different largecomplex networks - such as the Internet, World Wide Web, proteins,utility infrastructures, social networks - evolve and behaveaccording to more general common scaling laws. This understandingis useful when assessing the end-to-end quality of communicationsservices, for example, in Internet telephony, real-time video andinteracting games. Containing problems and solutions, this book isideal for graduate students taking courses in performanceanalys

Error-correcting codes constitute one of the key ingredients inachieving the high degree of reliability required in modern datatransmission and storage systems. This book introduces the readerto the theoretical foundations of error-correcting codes, with anemphasis on Reed-Solomon codes and their derivative codes. Afterreviewing linear codes and finite fields, the author describesReed-Solomon codes and various decoding algorithms. Cyclic codesare presented, as are MDS codes, graph codes, and codes in the Leemetric. Concatenated, trellis, and convolutional codes are alsodiscussed in detail. Homework exercises introduce additionalconcepts such as Reed-Muller codes, and burst error correction. Theend-of-chapter notes often deal with algorithmic issues, such asthe time complexity of computational problems. While mathematicalrigor is maintained, the text is designed to be accessible to abroad readership, including students of computer science,electrical engineering, and mathematics, from senior-undergraduateto gr

For everyone who has looked up at the stars on a clear nightand longed to know more about them, here is the perfectintroduction and guide to discovering the stars. Discover the Stars leads you on a tour of all the stars andconstellations visible with the naked eye and introduces you todeep-sky objects that can be seen with binoculars or a simpletelescope. The tour is conducted by the editor of Astronomymagazine, Richard Berry, whose two-color, computer-plotted sky mapsand clear instructions make stargazing fun and productive from yourfirst night out. The heart of Discover the Stars is two sections of big, beautifulsky maps and charts. The first section features twelve maps thatshow the entire sky overhead as it appears during each month of theyear. These outline all the constellations visible anywhere in theNorthern Hemisphere, and the accompanying text reveals the richancient mythology that surrounds the star groups. The second section is made up of twenty-three star ch

The ecological literature on marsupials is dominated byde*ive natural history, and there has hitherto been littleattempt at either synthesis or evolutionary interpretation. Thisbook attempts to provide such a synthesis, by drawing on both thede*ive data base and predictions from the burgeoningliterature on behavioural and evolutionary ecology. It documentsthe excellent potential the study of marsupials provides forresolution of theoretical questions of general importance inbiology. It does this in three ways. First, by describing theimpressive diversity of marsupial life history strategies andtrophic roles. Second, by careful comparison with the eutherians,the scope of the marsupial radiation is used to analyse the role ofdevelopmental constraints and adaptive radiation in determining thediversification of higher taxa. Lastly, it is suggested that theaccessibility of marsupial young during their obligatory pouch lifefacilitates measurement, manipulation and assessment of kinship notpossible in other mammalia

First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Springalerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers ofindiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes inthe laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring becamea runaway bestseller, with international reverberations . . . Itis] well crafted, fearless and succinct . . . Even if she had notinspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one ofthe greatest nature writers in American letters" (PeterMatthiessen, for Time's 100 Most Influential People of theCentury). This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates RachelCarson's watershed book with a new introduction by the author andactivist Terry Tempest Williams and a new afterword by theacclaimed Rachel Carson biographer Linda Lear, who tells the storyof Carson's courageous defense of her truths in the face ofruthless assault from the chemical industry in the year followingthe publication of Silent Spring and before her untimely death in1964.

In this book, a new approach is pioneered in providing a unifiedtheory in continuum mechanics. General Continuum Mechanics isintended for the beginner, but it develops advanced materialcovering interdisciplinary subjects. With applications ofconvective, Lagrangian, and Eulerian coordinates and the first andsecond laws of thermodynamics, the first-year graduate student willlearn solid mechanics and fluid mechanics as an integrated subject.Electromagnetic continuum and relativistic continuum are included.The conservational properties of mass, momentum, and energy onearth and in the universe constitute the ingredients of this book.They are the monumental contributions of Newton, Maxwell, andEinstein, a panorama of beauty of universal laws that evolved overthe last four centuries. No boundaries are needed to separate them,but rather we integrate them in harmony and place them inperspective. This is the book for interdisciplinary studies tocarry out the modern scientific projects in which engineering,physics, and

Editor Max Brockman introduces the work of some of today’sbrightest and most innovative young scientists in this fascinatingand exciting collection of writings that describe the veryboundaries of our knowledge. Future Science features nineteen young scientists, most of whomare presenting their innovative work and ideas to a generalaudience for the first time. Featured in this collection areWilliam McEwan (son of the novelist), a virologist, discussing hisresearch into the biology of antiviral immunity; Naomi Eisenberger,a neuroscientist, wondering how social rejection affects usphysically; Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist, showing whatmassive datasets can teach us about society and ourselves; andAnthony Aguirre, a physicist, who gives readers a tantalizingglimpse of infinity.

From one of the most significant neuroscientists at worktoday, a pathbreaking investigation of a question that hasconfounded philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists forcenturies: how is consciousness created? Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years studying andwriting about how the brain operates, and his work has garneredacclaim for its singular melding of the scientific and thehumanistic. In Self Comes to Mind, he goes against thelong-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from thebody, presenting compelling new scientific evidence thatconsciousness—what we think of as a mind with a self—is to beginwith a biological process created by a living organism. Besides thethree traditional perspectives used to study the mind (theintrospective, the behavioral, and the neurological), Damasiointroduces an evolutionary perspective that entails a radicalchange in the way the history of conscious minds is viewed andtold. He also advances a radical hypothesis regarding the o