Open Access Books - Technology - 2020
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PublicationEvidence-based Software Engineering( 2020)Derek M. Jones"This book discusses what is currently known about software engineering, based on an analysis of all the publicly available data. This aim is not as ambitious as it sounds, because there is not a great deal of data publicly available. The intent is to provide material that is useful to professional developers working in industry; until recently researchers in software engineering have been more interested in vanity work, promoted by ego and bluster. The material is organized in two parts, the first covering software engineering and the second the statistics likely to be needed for the analysis of software engineering data."
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PublicationComputer Aided Verification( 2020)Shuvendu K. Lahiri, Chao Wan (editors)The open access two-volume set LNCS 12224 and 12225 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 32st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2020, held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in July 2020.*The 43 full papers presented together with 18 tool papers and 4 case studies, were carefully reviewed and selected from 240 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections:Part I: AI verification; blockchain and Security; Concurrency; hardware verification and decision procedures; and hybrid and dynamic systems.Part II: model checking; software verification; stochastic systems; and synthesis.*The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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PublicationMeasure, Integration & Real Analysis( 2020)Sheldon AxlerThis open access textbook welcomes students into the fundamental theory of measure, integration, and real analysis. Focusing on an accessible approach, Axler lays the foundations for further study by promoting a deep understanding of key results. Content is carefully curated to suit a single course, or two-semester sequence of courses, creating a versatile entry point for graduate studies in all areas of pure and applied mathematics.Motivated by a brief review of Riemann integration and its deficiencies, the text begins by immersing students in the concepts of measure and integration. Lebesgue measure and abstract measures are developed together, with each providing key insight into the main ideas of the other approach. Lebesgue integration links into results such as the Lebesgue Differentiation Theorem. The development of products of abstract measures leads to Lebesgue measure on Rn.Chapters on Banach spaces, Lp spaces, and Hilbert spaces showcase major results such as the Hahn–Banach Theorem, Hölder’s Inequality, and the Riesz Representation Theorem. An in-depth study of linear maps on Hilbert spaces culminates in the Spectral Theorem and Singular Value Decomposition for compact operators, with an optional interlude in real and complex measures. Building on the Hilbert space material, a chapter on Fourier analysis provides an invaluable introduction to Fourier series and the Fourier transform. The final chapter offers a taste of probability.Extensively class tested at multiple universities and written by an award-winning mathematical expositor, Measure, Integration & Real Analysis is an ideal resource for students at the start of their journey into graduate mathematics. A prerequisite of elementary undergraduate real analysis is assumed; students and instructors looking to reinforce these ideas will appreciate the electronic Supplement for Measure, Integration & Real Analysis that is freely available online.
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PublicationElectromagnetics Vol 2( 2020)Steven W. EllingsonElectromagnetics, volume 2 by Steven W. Ellingson is a 216-page peer-reviewed open textbook designed especially for electrical engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree program. It is intended as the primary textbook for the second semester of a two-semester undergraduate engineering electromagnetics sequence. The book addresses magnetic force and the Biot-Savart law; general and lossy media; parallel plate and rectangular waveguides; parallel wire, microstrip, and coaxial transmission lines; AC current flow and skin depth; reflection and transmission at planar boundaries; fields in parallel plate, parallel wire, and microstrip transmission lines; optical fiber; and radiation and antennas.
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PublicationIntroduction to Scientific Programming with Python( 2020)Joakim SundnesThis open access book offers an initial introduction to programming for scientific and computational applications using the Python programming language. The presentation style is compact and example-based, making it suitable for students and researchers with little or no prior experience in programming.The book uses relevant examples from mathematics and the natural sciences to present programming as a practical toolbox that can quickly enable readers to write their own programs for data processing and mathematical modeling. These tools include file reading, plotting, simple text analysis, and using NumPy for numerical computations, which are fundamental building blocks of all programs in data science and computational science. At the same time, readers are introduced to the fundamental concepts of programming, including variables, functions, loops, classes, and object-oriented programming. Accordingly, the book provides a sound basis for further computer science and programming studies.
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PublicationMultiple-Aspect Analysis of Semantic Trajectories( 2020)Konstantinos Tserpes, Chiara Renso, Stan Matwin (editors)This open access book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the First International Workshop on Multiple-Aspect Analysis of Semantic Trajectories, MASTER 2019, held in conjunction with the 19th European Conference on Machine Learning and Knowledge Discovery in Databases, ECML PKDD 2019, in WĂĽrzburg, Germany, in September 2019.The 8 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 12 submissions. They represent an interesting mix of techniques to solve recurrent as well as new problems in the semantic trajectory domain, such as data representation models, data management systems, machine learning approaches for anomaly detection, and common pathways identification.
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PublicationPyrrhic Progress: The History of Antibiotics in Anglo-American Food Production( 2020)Kirchhelle, ClaasPyrrhic Progress analyses over half a century of antibiotic use, regulation, and resistance in US and British food production. Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped revolutionize post-war agriculture. Food producers used antibiotics to prevent and treat disease, protect plants, preserve food, and promote animals' growth. Many soon became dependent on routine antibiotic use to sustain and increase production. The resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics. Pyrrhic Progress reconstructs the complicated negotiations that accompanied this process of risk prioritization between consumers, farmers, and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Unsurprisingly, solutions differed: while Europeans implemented precautionary antibiotic restrictions to curb AMR, consumer concerns and cost-benefit assessments made US regulators focus on curbing drug residues in food. The result was a growing divergence of antibiotic stewardship and a rise of AMR. Kirchhelle's comprehensive analysis of evolving non-human antibiotic use and the historical complexities of antibiotic stewardship provides important insights for current debates on the global burden of AMR. This Open Access ebook is available under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, and is supported by a generous grant from Wellcome Trust.
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PublicationReal-time Linked Dataspaces( 2020)Edward CurryThis open access book explores the dataspace paradigm as a best-effort approach to data management within data ecosystems. It establishes the theoretical foundations and principles of real-time linked dataspaces as a data platform for intelligent systems. The book introduces a set of specialized best-effort techniques and models to enable loose administrative proximity and semantic integration for managing and processing events and streams.The book is divided into five major parts: Part I “Fundamentals and Concepts” details the motivation behind and core concepts of real-time linked dataspaces, and establishes the need to evolve data management techniques in order to meet the challenges of enabling data ecosystems for intelligent systems within smart environments. Further, it explains the fundamental concepts of dataspaces and the need for specialization in the processing of dynamic real-time data. Part II “Data Support Services” explores the design and evaluation of critical services, including catalog, entity management, query and search, data service discovery, and human-in-the-loop. In turn, Part III “Stream and Event Processing Services” addresses the design and evaluation of the specialized techniques created for real-time support services including complex event processing, event service composition, stream dissemination, stream matching, and approximate semantic matching. Part IV “Intelligent Systems and Applications” explores the use of real-time linked dataspaces within real-world smart environments. In closing, Part V “Future Directions” outlines future research challenges for dataspaces, data ecosystems, and intelligent systems.Readers will gain a detailed understanding of how the dataspace paradigm is now being used to enable data ecosystems for intelligent systems within smart environments. The book covers the fundamental theory, the creation of new techniques needed for support services, and lessons learned from real-world intelligent systems and applications focused on sustainability. Accordingly, it will benefit not only researchers and graduate students in the fields of data management, big data, and IoT, but also professionals who need to create advanced data management platforms for intelligent systems, smart environments, and data ecosystems.
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PublicationComputer Aided Verification( 2020)Shuvendu K. Lahiri, Chao Wang (editors)The open access two-volume set LNCS 12224 and 12225 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 32st International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2020, held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in July 2020.*The 43 full papers presented together with 18 tool papers and 4 case studies, were carefully reviewed and selected from 240 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections:Part I: AI verification; blockchain and Security; Concurrency; hardware verification and decision procedures; and hybrid and dynamic systems.Part II: model checking; software verification; stochastic systems; and synthesis.*The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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PublicationThe Impact of Digital Technologies on Public Health in Developed and Developing Countries( 2020)Mohamed Jmaiel, Mounir Mokhtari, Bessam Abdulrazak, Hamdi Aloulou, Slim Kallel (editors)This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference on String Processing and Information Retrieval, ICOST 2020, held in Hammamet, Tunisia, in June 2020.* The 17 full papers and 23 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. They cover topics such as: IoT and AI solutions for e-health; biomedical and health informatics; behavior and activity monitoring; behavior and activity monitoring; and wellbeing technology.*This conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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PublicationReliability and Ecological Aspects of Photovoltaic Modules( 2020)Abdulkerim Gok (Editor)Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy is expected to be the world's largest source of electricity in the future. To enhance the long-term reliability of PV modules, a thorough understanding of failure mechanisms is of vital importance. In addition, it is important to address the potential downsides to this technology. These include the hazardous chemicals needed for manufacturing solar cells, especially for thin-film technologies, and the large number of PV modules disposed of at the end of their lifecycles. This book discusses the reliability and environmental aspects of PV modules.
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PublicationDC Electrical Circuit Analysis: A Practical Approach( 2020)James M. Fiore"Welcome to DC Electrical Circuit Analysis, an open educational resource (OER). The goal of this text is to introduce the theory and practical application of analysis of DC electrical circuits. It is offered free of charge under a Creative Commons non-commercial, share-alike with attribution license. For your convenience, along with the free pdf and odt files, print copies are available at a very modest charge. Check my web sites for links. This text is based on the earlier Workbook for DC Electrical Circuits, which it replaces. The original expository text has been greatly expanded and includes many examples along with computer simulations. For the convenience of those who used the Workbook, many of the problem sets are the same, with some re-ordering depending on the chapter."
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PublicationEnhancing Future Skills and Entrepreneurship( 2020)Kuldip Singh Sangwan, Christoph Herrmann (Editors)This open access book presents the proceedings of the 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering held at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, on September 16–17, 2019. Intended to foster the synergies between research and education, the conference is one of the joint activities of the BITS Pilani and TU Braunschweig conducted under the auspices of Indo-German Center for Sustainable Manufacturing, established in 2009. The book is divided into three sections: engineering, education and entrepreneurship, covering a range of topics, such as renewable energy forecasting, design & simulation, Industry 4.0, and soft & intelligent sensors for energy efficiency. It also includes case studies on lean and green manufacturing, and life cycle analysis of ceramic products, as well as papers on teaching/learning methods based on the use of learning factories to improve students’problem-solving and personal skills. Moreover, the book discusses high-tech ideas to help the large number of unemployed engineering graduates looking for jobs become tech entrepreneurs. Given its broad scope, it will appeal to academics and industry professionals alike. This work is licensed under a CC BY
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PublicationRepresentation Learning for Natural Language Processing( 2020)Zhiyuan Liu, Yankai Lin, Maosong SunThis open access book provides an overview of the recent advances in representation learning theory, algorithms and applications for natural language processing (NLP). It is divided into three parts. Part I presents the representation learning techniques for multiple language entries, including words, phrases, sentences and documents. Part II then introduces the representation techniques for those objects that are closely related to NLP, including entity-based world knowledge, sememe-based linguistic knowledge, networks, and cross-modal entries. Lastly, Part III provides open resource tools for representation learning techniques, and discusses the remaining challenges and future research directions.The theories and algorithms of representation learning presented can also benefit other related domains such as machine learning, social network analysis, semantic Web, information retrieval, data mining and computational biology. This book is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, researchers, lecturers, and industrial engineers, as well as anyone interested in representation learning and natural language processing.
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PublicationTechnology, Design and the Arts - Opportunities and Challenges( 2020)Rae Earnshaw, Susan Liggett, Peter Excell, Daniel Thalmann (editors)This open access book details the relationship between the artist and their created works, using tools such as information technology, computer environments, and interactive devices, for a range of information sources and application domains. This has produced new kinds of created works which can be viewed, explored, and interacted with, either as an installation or via a virtual environment such as the Internet. These processes generate new dimensions of understanding and experience for both the artist and the public’s relationships with the works that are produced. This has raised a variety of interdisciplinary opportunities and issues, and these are examined. The symbiotic relationship between artistic works and the cultural context in which they are produced is reviewed. Technology can provide continuity by making traditional methods and techniques more efficient and effective. It can also provide discontinuity by opening up new perspectives and paradigms. This can generate new ideas, and produce a greater understanding of artistic processes and how they are implemented in practice. Tools have been used from the earliest times to create and modify artistic works. For example, naturally occurring pigments have been used for cave paintings. What has been created provides insight into the cultural context and social environment at the time of creation. There is an interplay between the goal of the creator, the selection and use of appropriate tools, and the materials and representations chosen. Technology, Design and the Arts - Opportunities and Challenges is relevant for artists and technologists and those engaged in interdisciplinary research and development at the boundaries between these disciplines.
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PublicationHealth of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility( 2020)Wael K. Al-Delaimy, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo (editors)This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem.The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.
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PublicationAtmospheric Air Pollution and Monitoring( 2020)Abderrahim Lakhouit (Editor)Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important aspect in building design due to its effect on human health and wellbeing. Generally, people spend about 90% of their time indoors where they are exposed to chemicals, particulate matters, biological contaminants and possibly carcinogens. In particular, the air quality at hospitals carries with it risks for serious health consequences for medical staff as well as patients and visitors. This book is a study of atmospheric air pollution and presents ways we can reduce its impacts on human health. It discusses tools for measuring IAQ as well as analyzes IAQ in closed buildings. It is an important documentation of air quality and its impact on human health.
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PublicationKnowledge Graphs and Big Data Processing( 2020)Valentina Janev, Damien Graux, Hajira Jabeen, Emanuel Sallinger (editors)This open access book is part of the LAMBDA Project (Learning, Applying, Multiplying Big Data Analytics), funded by the European Union, GA No. 809965. Data Analytics involves applying algorithmic processes to derive insights. Nowadays it is used in many industries to allow organizations and companies to make better decisions as well as to verify or disprove existing theories or models. The term data analytics is often used interchangeably with intelligence, statistics, reasoning, data mining, knowledge discovery, and others. The goal of this book is to introduce some of the definitions, methods, tools, frameworks, and solutions for big data processing, starting from the process of information extraction and knowledge representation, via knowledge processing and analytics to visualization, sense-making, and practical applications. Each chapter in this book addresses some pertinent aspect of the data processing chain, with a specific focus on understanding Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Big Data Architectures, and Smart Data Analytics solutions. This book is addressed to graduate students from technical disciplines, to professional audiences following continuous education short courses, and to researchers from diverse areas following self-study courses. Basic skills in computer science, mathematics, and statistics are required.
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PublicationBuildings for Education( 2020)Stefano Della Torre, Massimiliano Bocciarelli, Laura Daglio, Raffaella Neri (Editors)This open access book presents theoretical and practical research relating to the vast, publicly financed program for the construction of new schools and the reorganization of existing educational buildings in Italy. This transformative process aims to give old buildings a fresh identity, to ensure that facilities are compliant with the new educational and teaching models, and to improve both energy efficiency and structural safety with respect to seismic activity. The book is divided into three sections, the first of which focuses on the social role of the school as a civic building that can serve the needs of the community. Innovations in both design and construction processes are then analyzed, paying special attention to the Building Information Modeling (BIM) strategy as a tool for the integration of different disciplines. The final section is devoted to the built heritage and tools, technologies, and approaches for the upgrading of existing buildings so that they meet the new regulations on building performance. The book will be of interest to all who wish to learn about the latest insights into the challenges posed by, and the opportunities afforded by, a comprehensive school building and renovation program. This work is licensed under a CC BY
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PublicationRational Cybersecurity for Business( 2020)Dan BlumUse the guidance in this comprehensive field guide to gain the support of your top executives for aligning a rational cybersecurity plan with your business. You will learn how to improve working relationships with stakeholders in complex digital businesses, IT, and development environments. You will know how to prioritize your security program, and motivate and retain your team. Misalignment between security and your business can start at the top at the C-suite or happen at the line of business, IT, development, or user level. It has a corrosive effect on any security project it touches. But it does not have to be like this. Author Dan Blum presents valuable lessons learned from interviews with over 70 security and business leaders. You will discover how to successfully solve issues related to: risk management, operational security, privacy protection, hybrid cloud management, security culture and user awareness, and communication challenges. This open access book presents six priority areas to focus on to maximize the effectiveness of your cybersecurity program: risk management, control baseline, security culture, IT rationalization, access control, and cyber-resilience. Common challenges and good practices are provided for businesses of different types and sizes. And more than 50 specific keys to alignment are included. What You Will Learn. Improve your security culture: clarify security-related roles, communicate effectively to businesspeople, and hire, motivate, or retain outstanding security staff by creating a sense of efficacy. Develop a consistent accountability model, information risk taxonomy, and risk management framework. Adopt a security and risk governance model consistent with your business structure or culture, manage policy, and optimize security budgeting within the larger business unit and CIO organization IT spend. Tailor a control baseline to your organization’s maturity level, regulatory requirements, scale, circumstances, and critical assets. Help CIOs, Chief Digital Officers, and other executives to develop an IT strategy for curating cloud solutions and reducing shadow IT, building up DevSecOps and. Disciplined Agile, and more. Balance access control and accountability approaches, leverage modern digital identity standards to improve digital relationships, and provide data governance and privacy-enhancing capabilities. Plan for cyber-resilience: work with the SOC, IT, business groups, and external sources to coordinate incident response and to recover from outages and come back stronger. Integrate your learnings from this book into a quick-hitting rational cybersecurity success plan. Who This Book Is For. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other heads of security, security directors and managers, security architects and project leads, and other team members providing security leadership to your business