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This SpringerBrief deals with a class of discrete-time zero-sum Markov games with Borel state and action spaces, and possibly unbounded payoffs, under discounted and average criteria, whose state process evolves according to a stochastic difference equation. The corresponding disturbance process is an observable sequence of independent and identically distributed random variables with unknown distribution for both players. Unlike the standard case, the game is played over an infinite horizon evolving as follows. At each stage, once the players have observed the state of the game, and before choosing the actions, players 1 and 2 implement a statistical estimation process to obtain estimates of the unknown distribution. Then, independently, the players adapt their decisions to such estimators to select their actions and construct their strategies. This book presents a systematic analysis on recent developments in this kind of games. Specifically, the theoretical foundations on the procedures combining statistical estimation and control techniques for the construction of strategies of the players are introduced, with illustrative examples. In this sense, the book is an essential reference for theoretical and applied researchers in the fields of stochastic control and game theory, and their applications.

The contributions gathered here provide an overview of current research projects and selected software products of the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI. They show the wide range of challenges that scientific computing currently faces, the solutions it offers, and its important role in developing applications for industry. Given the exciting field of applied collaborative research and development it discusses, the book will appeal to scientists, practitioners, and students alike. The Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI combines excellent research and application-oriented development to provide added value for our partners. SCAI develops numerical techniques, parallel algorithms and specialized software tools to support and optimize industrial simulations. Moreover, it implements custom software solutions for production and logistics, and offers calculations on high-performance computers. Its services and products are based on state-of-the-art methods from applied mathematics and information technology.

This book discusses recent developments in and contemporary research on summability theory, including general summability methods, direct theorems on summability, absolute and strong summability, special methods of summability, functional analytic methods in summability, and related topics and applications. All contributing authors are eminent scientists, researchers and scholars in their respective fields, and hail from around the world. The book can be used as a textbook for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and as a valuable reference guide for researchers and practitioners in the fields of summability theory and functional analysis. Summability theory is generally used in analysis and applied mathematics. It plays an important part in the engineering sciences, and various aspects of the theory have long since been studied by researchers all over the world.

This book establishes bounds and asymptotics under almost minimal conditions on the varying weights, and applies them to universality limits and entropy integrals. Orthogonal polynomials associated with varying weights play a key role in analyzing random matrices and other topics. This book will be of use to a wide community of mathematicians, physicists, and statisticians dealing with techniques of potential theory, orthogonal polynomials, approximation theory, as well as random matrices.

This book offers an essential overview of computational conformal geometry applied to fundamental problems in specific engineering fields. It introduces readers to conformal geometry theory and discusses implementation issues from an engineering perspective. The respective chapters explore fundamental problems in specific fields of application, and detail how computational conformal geometric methods can be used to solve them in a theoretically elegant and computationally efficient way. The fields covered include computer graphics, computer vision, geometric modeling, medical imaging, and wireless sensor networks. Each chapter concludes with a summary of the material covered and suggestions for further reading, and numerous illustrations and computational algorithms complement the text. The book draws on courses given by the authors at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Tsinghua University, and will be of interest to senior undergraduates, graduates and researchers in computer science, applied mathematics, and engineering.

This book shows the capabilities of Microsoft Excel in teaching physical science statistics effectively. Similar to the previously published Excel 2016 for Physical Sciences Statistics, this book is a step-by-step, exercise-driven guide for students and practitioners who need to master Excel to solve practical physical science problems. If understanding statistics isn’t the reader’s strongest suit, the reader is not mathematically inclined, or if the reader is new to computers or to Excel, this is the book to start off with. Excel, a widely available computer program for students and managers, is also an effective teaching and learning tool for quantitative analyses in physical science courses. Its powerful computational ability and graphical functions make learning statistics much easier than in years past. Excel 2019 for Physical Sciences Statistics: A Guide to Solving Practical Problems capitalizes on these improvements by teaching students and managers how to apply Excel to statistical techniques necessary in their courses and work. In this new edition, each chapter explains statistical formulas and directs the reader to use Excel commands to solve specific, easy-to-understand physical science problems. Practice problems are provided at the end of each chapter with their solutions in an appendix. Separately, there is a full practice test (with answers in an appendix) that allows readers to test what they have learned.

The international conference entitled "New Trends in Approximation Theory" was held at the Fields Institute, in Toronto, from July 25 until July 29, 2016. The conference was fondly dedicated to the memory of our unique friend and colleague, André Boivin, who gave tireless service in Canada until his very last moment of his life in October 2014. The impact of his warm personality and his fine work on Complex Approximation Theory was reflected by the mathematical excellence and the wide research range of the 37 participants. In total there were 27 talks, delivered by well-established mathematicians and young researchers. In particular, 19 invited lectures were delivered by leading experts of the field, from 8 different countries. The wide variety of presentations composed a mosaic of aspects of approximation theory, highlighting interesting connections with important contemporary areas of Analysis. Primary topics discussed include application of approximation theory (isoperimetric inequalities, construction of entire order-isomorphisms, dynamical sampling); approximation by harmonic and holomorphic functions (especially uniform and tangential approximation), polynomial and rational approximation; zeros of approximants and zero-free approximation; tools used in approximation theory; approximation on complex manifolds, in product domains, and in function spaces; and boundary behaviour and universality properties of Taylor and Dirichlet series.

This book investigates Reliability-based Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (RBMDO) theory and its application in the design of deep manned submersibles (DMSs). Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is an effective design method for large engineering systems like aircraft, warships, and satellites, which require designers and engineers from various disciplines to cooperate with each other. MDO can be used to handle the conflicts that arise between these disciplines, and focuses on the optimal design of the system as a whole. However, it can also push designs to the brink of failure. In order to keep the system balanced, Reliability-based Design (RBD) must be incorporated into MDO. Consequently, new algorithms and methods have to be developed for RBMDO theory. This book provides an essential overview of MDO, RBD, and RBMDO and subsequently introduces key algorithms and methods by means of case analyses. In closing, it introduces readers to the design of DMSs and applies RBMDO methods to the design of the manned hull and the general concept design. The book is intended for all students and researchers who are interested in system design theory, and for engineers working on large, complex engineering systems.

This textbook invites readers to explore mathematical thinking by finding the beauty in the subject. With an accessible tone and stimulating puzzles, the author will convince curious non-mathematicians to continue their studies in the area. It has an expansive scope, covering everything from probability and graph theory to infinities and Newton’s method. Many examples of proofs appear as well, offering readers the opportunity to explore these topics with the amount of rigor that suits them. Programming exercises in Python are also included to show how math behaves in action. Mathematical Thinking is an ideal textbook for transition courses aimed at undergraduates moving from lower level to more advanced topics, as well as for math recruitment and invitational courses at the freshman or sophomore level. It may also be of interest in computer science departments and can be used as a supplemental text for courses in discrete mathematics and graph theory.

This volume is based on lectures notes for the courses delivered at the Cimpa Summer School: From Classical to Modern Probability, held at Temuco, Chile, be­ th th tween January 8 and 26 , 2001. This meeting brought together probabilists and graduate students interested in fields like particle systems, percolation, Brownian motion, random structures, potential theory and stochastic processes. We would like to express our gratitude to all the participants of the school as well as the people who contributed to its organization. In particular, to Servet Martinez, and Pablo Ferrari for their scientific advice, and Cesar Burgueiio for all his support and friendship. We want to thank all the professors for their stimulating courses and lectures. Special thanks to those who took the extra work in preparing each chapter of this book. We are also indebted to our sponsors and supporting institutions, whose interest and help was essential to organize this meeting: CIMPA, CNRS, CONI­ CYT, ECOS, FONDAP Program in Applied Mathematics, French Cooperation, Fundacion Andes, Presidential Fellowship, Universidad de Chile and Universidad de La Frontera. We are grateful to Miss Gladys Cavallone for her excellent work during the preparation of the meeting as well as for the considerable task of unifying the typography of the different chapters of this book.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the joint International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICANN/ICONIP 2003, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 2003. The 138 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 346 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning algorithms, support vector machine and kernel methods, statistical data analysis, pattern recognition, vision, speech recognition, robotics and control, signal processing, time-series prediction, intelligent systems, neural network hardware, cognitive science, computational neuroscience, context aware systems, complex-valued neural networks, emotion recognition, and applications in bioinformatics.

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This volume contains a selection of papers in modern operator theory and its applications. Most of them are directly related to lectures presented at the Inter­ national Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications held at the University of Groningen (IWOTA-98) in Groningen, the Netherlands, from June 30-July 3, 1998. The workshop was attended by 97 mathematicians-of which 12 were PhD or postdoctoral students-from 19 countries. The program consisted of 19 plenary lectures of 40 minutes and 72 lectures of 30 minutes in 4 parallell sessions. The present volume reflects the wide range and rich variety of topics presented and discussed at the workshop. The papers deal with operator polynomials and analytic operator functions, with spectral problems of (partial) differential oper­ ators and related operator matrices, with interpolation, completion and extension problems, with commutant lifting and dilation, with Ricatti equations and real­ ization problems, with scattering theory, with problems from harmonic analysis, and with topics in the theory of reproducing kernel spaces and of spaces with an indefinite metric. All papers underwent the usual refereeing process.

In this book, we discuss the path integral quantization and the stochastic quantization of classical mechanics and classical field theory. Forthe description ofthe classical theory, we have two methods, one based on the Lagrangian formalism and the other based on the Hamiltonian formal­ ism. The Hamiltonian formalism is derived from the Lagrangian·formalism. In the standard formalism ofquantum mechanics, we usually make use ofthe Hamiltonian formalism. This fact originates from the following circumstance which dates back to the birth of quantum mechanics. The first formalism ofquantum mechanics is Schrodinger's wave mechan­ ics. In this approach, we regard the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of analytical mechanics as the Eikonal equation of "geometrical mechanics". Based on the optical analogy, we obtain the Schrodinger equation as a result ofthe inverse of the Eikonal approximation to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and thus we arrive at "wave mechanics". The second formalism ofquantum mechanics is Heisenberg's "matrix me­ chanics". In this approach, we arrive at the Heisenberg equation of motion from consideration of the consistency of the Ritz combination principle, the Bohr quantization condition and the Fourier analysis of a physical quantity. These two formalisms make up the Hamiltonian.formalism of quantum me­ chanics.

Biometric authentication refers to identifying an individual based on his or her distinguishing physiological and/or behavioral characteristics. It associates an individual with a previously determined identity based on that individual s appearance or behavior. Because many physiological or behavioral characteristics (biometric indicators) are distinctive to each person, biometric identifiers are inherently more reliable and more capable than knowledge-based (e.g., password) and token-based (e.g., a key) techniques in differentiating between an authorized person and a fraudulent impostor. For this reason, more and more organizations are looking to automated identity authentication systems to improve customer satisfaction, security, and operating efficiency as well as to save critical resources. Biometric authentication is a challenging pattern recognition problem; it involves more than just template matching. The intrinsic nature of biometric data must be carefully studied, analyzed, and its properties taken into account in developing suitable representation and matching algorithms. The intrinsic variability of data with time and environmental conditions, the social acceptability and invasiveness of acquisition devices, and the facility with which the data can be counterfeited must be considered in the choice of a biometric indicator for a given application. In order to deploy a biometric authentication system, one must consider its reliability, accuracy, applicability, and efficiency. Eventually, it may be necessary to combine several biometric indicators (multimodal-biometrics) to cope with the drawbacks of the individual biometric indicators.

The study of spatial patterns in extended systems, and their evolution with time, poses challenging questions for physicists and mathematicians alike. Waves on water, pulses in optical fibers, periodic structures in alloys, folds in rock formations, and cloud patterns in the sky: patterns are omnipresent in the world around us. Their variety and complexity make them a rich area of study. In the study of these phenomena an important role is played by well-chosen model equations, which are often simpler than the full equations describing the physical or biological system, but still capture its essential features. Through a thorough analysis of these model equations one hopes to glean a better under­ standing of the underlying mechanisms that are responsible for the formation and evolution of complex patterns. Classical model equations have typically been second-order partial differential equations. As an example we mention the widely studied Fisher-Kolmogorov or Allen-Cahn equation, originally proposed in 1937 as a model for the interaction of dispersal and fitness in biological populations. As another example we mention the Burgers equation, proposed in 1939 to study the interaction of diffusion and nonlinear convection in an attempt to understand the phenomenon of turbulence. Both of these are nonlinear second-order diffusion equations.

"Still waters run deep." This proverb expresses exactly how a mathematician Akihito Uchiyama and his works were. He was not celebrated except in the field of harmonic analysis, and indeed he never wanted that. He suddenly passed away in summer of 1997 at the age of 48. However, nowadays his contributions to the fields of harmonic analysis and real analysis are permeating through various fields of analysis deep and wide. One could write several papers explaining his contributions and how they have been absorbed into these fields, developed, and used in further breakthroughs. Peter W. Jones (Professor of Yale University) says in his special contribution to this book that Uchiyama's decomposition of BMO functions is considered to be the Mount Everest of Hardy space theory. This book is based on the draft, which the author Akihito Uchiyama had completed by 1990. It deals with the theory of real Hardy spaces on the n-dimensional Euclidean space. Here the author explains scrupulously some of important results on Hardy spaces by real-variable methods, in particular, the atomic decomposition of elements in Hardy spaces and his constructive proof of the Fefferman-Stein decomposition of BMO functions into the sum of a bounded?function and Riesz transforms of bounded functions.

Quantum mechanics and quantum field theory are highly successful physical theo­ ries that have numerous practical applications. Largely mathematical in character, these theories continue to stimulate the imaginations of applied mathematicians and purists as weIl. In recent years, in particular, as a new array of tools have emerged, including a representative amount from the domain of so-called pure mathematics, interest in both the conceptual and physical aspects of these beau­ tiful subjects has especially blossomed. Given the emergence of newer and of­ ten spectacular applications of mathematics to quantum theory, and to theoretical physics in general, one notes that certain communication gaps between physicists and mathematicians continue to be bridged. This text on quantum mechanics, designed primarily for mathematics students and researchers, is an attempt to bridge further gaps. Although the mathematical style presented is generally precise, it is counterbalanced at some points by a re­ laxation of precision, as our overall purpose is to capture the basic fiavor of the subject both formally and intuitively. The approach is one in which we attempt to maintain sensitivity with respect to diverse backgrounds of the readers, including those with modest backgrounds in physics. Thus we have included several con­ crete computational examples to fortify stated principles, several appendices, and certain basic physical concepts that help to provide for a reasonably self-contained account of the material, especially in the first 11 chapters.

Real Application Clusters (RAC) and the Grid architecture are Oracle's strategy for scaling out enterprise systems to cope with bigger workloads and more users. Many books limit themselves by conceptualizing and theorizing about RAC technology, but this book is the first to portray implementing and administering an Oracle 10g RAC system in a Linux environment. This book features basic concepts underlying Linux and Oracle RAC, design strategies, hardware procurement and configuration, and many other topics. The RAC-specific technologies described include configuration of the interconnect, OCFS, ASM, Cluster Ready Services, and Grid Control. The Oracle features RMAN and Data Guard are also discussed, along with available hardware options. The authors include practical examples and configuration information, so that upon reading this book, you'll be armed with the information you need to build an Oracle RAC database on Linux, whether it is on a single laptop or a 64-node Itanium cluster.

Almost every serious amateur astronomer knows the benefit of having a fixed observatory of some sort - it saves a vast amount of time and effort during every observing session - and this book provides the necessary help. More Small Astronomical Observatories details the methods and techniques employed by non-professional astronomers from all over the world, providing a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to build a small observatory of almost any kind. It's a fun read, too.

E-Business covers a broad spectrum of businesses based on the Internet, including e-commerce, e-healthcare, e-government and e tailing. While substantial attention is being given to the planning and development of e-business applications, the efficiency and effectiveness of e-business systems will largely depend on management solutions. These management solutions demand a good grasp of both the technical and business perspectives of an e-business service. There have been many books on the Internet based on e-commerce, Internet protocols, distributed components etc. However, none of these books address the problem of managing e business as a set of networked services. They do not link enterprise management with network and systems management. This book provides an overview of the emerging techniques for IT service management from a business perspective with case studies from telecommunication and healthcare sectors. It integrates the business perspective with relevant technical standards, such as SNMP, WBEM and DMI. This book presents some concepts and methodologies that enable the development of effective and efficient management systems for networked services. The book is intended to familiarize practicing managers, engineers, and graduate level students with networked service management concepts, architectures and methodologies with reference to evolving standards. It should be useful in a number of disciplines, such as business management, information systems, computers and networking, and telecommunications. Appendix 2 is based on TeleManagement (TM) Forum's documents on TOM (GB921,GB910 and GB908). While this appendix has explained the basic management concept of an e-telco, TMForum now recommends the use of eTOM as explained in www.tmforum.com. An overview of eTOM is available in the report The TeleManagement Forum's enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) by Michael Kelly appearing in the Journal of Network and Systems Management in March 2003.