"Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics" collects contributions that describe the state of the art in software development for the Robotics domain. It reports on innovative ideas that are progressively introduced in the software development process, in order to promote the reuse of robotic software artifacts: domain engineering, components, frameworks and architectural styles. It illustrates the results of the most successful and well-known research projects which aim to develop reusable robotic software systems. Most of the chapters report on concepts and ideas discussed at the well attended ICRA2005 Workshop on "Principles and Practice of Software Development in Robotics", Barcelona, Spain, April 18 2005. The authors are recognised as leading scholars internationally, and the result is an effective blend of fundamental and innovative results on research and development in software for robotic systems, where one common factor is the integration of reusable building blocks. Besides the advancement in the field, most contributions survey the state of the art, report a number of practical applications to real systems, and discuss possible future developments.

A Comprehensive “Global” Vision of Convergence

The emergence of quality-of-service (QoS) mechanisms continues to propel the development of real-time multimedia services such as VoIP and videoconferencing. However, there remain many challenges to achieving optimized standardization convergence.

Basic Network Design, Equipment, and QoS Policies

Network Design for IP Convergence is a comprehensive, “global” guide to the state of the art and recent advances in IP network implementation. Providing an introduction to basic LAN/WAN/MAN network design, the author covers the latest equipment and architecture, addressing, QoS policies, and integration of services, among other topics. The book explains how to integrate the different layers of reference models and various technological platforms to mirror the harmonization that occurs in the real world of carrier networks. It furnishes appropriate designs for traditional and critical services in the LAN and carrier networks (both MAN and WAN), and it clarifies how a specific layer or technology can cause those services to malfunction. This book lays a foundation for understanding with concepts and applicability of QoS parameters under the multilayer scheme, and a solid explanation of service infrastructure. It goes on to describe integration in both real time and “not real time,” elaborating on how both processes can co-exist within the same IP network and concluding with the designs and configurations of service connections.

Learn How to Overcome Obstacles to Improve Technology

This sweeping analysis of the implementation of IP convergence and QoS mechanisms helps designers and operators get past key obstacles, such as integrating platform layers and technologies and implementing various associated QoS concepts, to improve technology and standards.  

About the Author

Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia

This guide demonstrates how to secure sensitive data and comply with internal and external audit regulations using Oracle 10g and 11g. It provides the hands-on guidance required to understand the complex options provided by Oracle and the know-how to choose the best option for a particular case. The book presents specific sequences of actions that should be taken to enable, configure, or administer security-related features. It includes best practices in securing Oracle and on Oracle security options and products. By providing specific instructions and examples this book bridges the gap between the individuals who install and configure a security feature and those who secure and audit it.

About the Author

CTO, Guardium Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

This volume contains the proceedings of ADHS'06: the 2nd IFAC Conference on Analysis and Design of Hybrid Systems, organized in Alghero (Italy) on June 7-9, 2006.
ADHS is a series of triennial meetings that aims to bring together researchers and practitioners with a background in control and computer science to provide a survey of the advances in the field of hybrid systems, and of their ability to take up the challenge of analysis, design and verification of efficient and reliable control systems. ADHS'06 is the second Conference of this series after ADHS'03 in Saint Malo.

* 65 papers selected through careful reviewing process
* Plenary lectures presented by three distinguished speakers
* Featuring interesting new research topics

Maximize your performance on 70-562, a required exam for the new Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 ASP.NET Application Development certification. This all-new, 2-in-1 SELF-PACED TRAINING KIT includes the official Microsoft study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features exam candidates want most including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for the skills and expertise you can apply to the job. Work at your own pace through lessons and lab exercises. Focusing on ASP.NET application development, the study guide delves into how to create a Web site, add and configure server controls, customize a Web application, work with ASP.NET AJAX and client-side scripting, use ADO.NET and XML with ASP.NET, work with data-bound controls and DataSource objects, write services, implement authentication and authorization, and create ASP.N ET mobile Web applications. Then assess your knowledge using more than 300 practice and review questions on the CD, which features customizable testing options to meet your specific needs. Choose timed or untimed testing modes, generate random tests, or focus on discrete objectives. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers including pointers back to the book for further study. You also get a trial edition of Microsoft Visual Studio(r) 2008 software and an exam discount voucher making this kit an exceptional value and a great career investment.

The essential A—Z reference of culinary terms–concise and up-to-date

Anyone who has ever struggled to pronounce a word on a menu or wrestled with an unfamiliar recipe ingredient or cooking technique will find a true friend in this revised and updated edition of The Chef’s Companion. This indispensable culinary reference covers more than 5,000 English and foreign terms related to ingredients, cooking techniques, food preparation, wine terminology, and kitchen equipment, as well as notable figures in the history of food and gastronomy.

From Mexican adobo sauce to Italian zuppa, it offers instant fingertip access to concise definitions, correct spellings, and user-friendly pronunciation guides. The new edition includes 900 all-new terms reflecting the growing interest in wine, pastry, and ethnic cuisine, and also addresses changes in Chinese spelling and pronunciation. Packed with reliable, up-to-date information, the Companion is a valuable resource that belongs on every food lover’s bookshelf.

Elizabeth Riely (Newton Centre, MA) is a journalist and food historian whose articles have appeared in Bon Appetit, Gourmet, House & Garden, and The New York Times. She contributes regularly to The Boston Globe. Her cookbook, A Feast of Fruits, was published in 1993.

The indispensable guide to over 5,000 culinary terms

Even the most international chef sometimes needs help with today’s wildly diverse cooking terminology. Now, there’s an updated and revised edition of Elizabeth Riely’s The Chef’s Companion, which professional chefs and aspiring cooks everywhere can turn to when they need quick access to concise and reliable definitions, pronunciations, correct spelling, accepted usage, and origins of culinary terms. This invaluable guide covers all the terms that chefs might use with customers and kitchen staff–in areas such as cooking techniques, food preparation, herbs and spices, varieties of food, wine, and equipment for the professional kitchen. Over 900 new terms have been added to this edition to provide expanded coverage of areas such as wine, pastry, and ethnic cuisines. The Chef’s Companion: no kitchen is complete without it.

About the Author

ELIZABETH RIELY is a journalist and food historian whose articles have appeared in Bon Appétit, Gourmet, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times. She is editor of the Radcliffe Culinary Times, the newsletter of the Schlessinger Library, a contributor to Gastronomica, and the author of the cookbook A Feast of Fruits.END

This is a very useful book addressing a wide range of scientists (professors, researchers, technologists and manufacturers of packaging machinery) involved in the field of packaging. … This book will prove a necessary and potent companion … for [those] in the field … .
- Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 2005

…one of the most complete books that I have read and reviewed on the subject of Food Packaging, and I would completely recommend the approaches that are taken and details that are outlined to Packaging Engineers that are involved with Foods as indicated in the book. The book also is very much covering machinery that is used in the Food Packaging areas, and would be very helpful to the line engineers.
Ralph H, Thomas, CPP, Polymer News

Text provides a contemporary overview of food processing and packaging technologies. Covers package design, package labeling, shelf life, logistical considerations, packaging materials, machines, and processes necessary for a wide range of packaging presentations. For manufacturers and users of food packaging.

Terroir connotes a sense of place that imparts a distinctive character to wine. A central component of terroir is the soil and its immediate surroundings. Thus, an understanding of the basic properties of soils and how they function as a "living skin" on the earth's surface is of fundamental importance to grape growers and winemakers. Stripped of scientific jargon, Understanding Vineyard Soils explains to a wide audience how soils form and why they are so variable. Robert White describes essential chemical and physical processes involving nutrients, water, oxygen and carbon dioxide, moderated by the activities of soil organisms, and proposes remedies to alleviate adverse conditions such as soil acidity, compaction, poor drainage and salinity. The pros and cons of organic viticulture are discussed, as are the possible impacts of climate change. The author explains how sustainable wine production requires grape growers and winemakers to take care of the soil and minimize the impact of their activities on the environment. This book is a practical guide for viticulturists and for the lay reader who is seeking general information about soils, but who may also wish to pursue in more depth the influence of different soil types on vine performance and wine character.

Understanding Vineyard Soils will discuss new developments, especially in precision viticulture and organic viticulture. The introduction will address new technologies (near and remote sensing, digital soil mapping) as well as traditional soil classification. Following a chapter on site selection are the three core chapters on vineyard and soil management - The Nutrition of Grapevines, Where the Vine Roots Live, and The Living Soil. The book is written from an international perspective - the important points discussed in Chapters 1 through 6 are illustrated with examples drawn from many wine regions around the world.

About the Author

Robert White has had an outstanding international career in soil, water and nutrient management for more than 40 years. After working for many years in broad-acre agriculture, he turned his attention to the fascinating interaction between soil and the flavor and aromas of wines world-wide, a topic that happily marries sensory pleasure with science.
Books by same author White, R. E. 2006. Principles and Practice of Soil Science. Fourth Edition, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 363 pp (being translated into Portuguese) (limp) Third edition, 1997. Blackwell Science, Oxford, 348 pp (limp) Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Soil Science, second edition, 1987. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 244 pp. (also published in an English Language Book Society edition) (limp) White, R.E. Introduction to the Principles and Practice of Soil Science, 1979. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, 198 pp (translation in Italian) (limp) White, R. E. 2003. Soils for Fine Wines, Oxford University Press, New York, 279 pp (hard cover)

Christine M. Korsgaard presents an account of the foundation of practical reason and moral obligation. Moral philosophy aspires to understand the fact that human actions, unlike the actions of the other animals, can be morally good or bad, right or wrong. Few moral philosophers, however, have exploited the idea that actions might be morally good or bad in virtue of being good or bad of their kind - good or bad as actions. Just as we need to know that it is the function of the heart to pump blood to know that a good heart is one that pumps blood successfully, so we need to know what the function of an action is in order to know what counts as a good or bad action. Drawing on the work of Plato, Aristotle, and Kant, Korsgaard proposes that the function of an action is to constitute the agency and therefore the identity of the person who does it. As rational beings, we are aware of, and therefore in control of, the principles that govern our actions. A good action is one that constitutes its agent as the autonomous and efficacious cause of her own movements. These properties correspond, respectively, to Kant's two imperatives of practical reason. Conformity to the categorical imperative renders us autonomous, and conformity to the hypothetical imperative renders us efficacious. And in determining what effects we will have in the world, we are at the same time determining our own identities. Korsgaard develops a theory of action and of interaction, and of the form interaction must take if we are to have the integrity that, she argues, is essential for agency. On the basis of that theory, she argues that only morally good action can serve the function of action, which is self-constitution.

About the Author

Christine M. Korsgaard earned her B.A. at the University of Illinois in 1974, her Ph.D. at Harvard University, where she studied with John Rawls, in 1981, and an LHD at the University of Illinois in 2004. She is currently Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. She works on moral philosophy and its history, practical reason, agency, personal identity, and the relations between human beings and the other animals.

The Army After Next (AAN) concept of rapidly deployable mechanized battleforces in a tactical environment requires the forces to be readilytransported by vertical, or near-vertical, lift aircraft. In the nonlinearAAN battlefield, this may require the forces to be deployed near the enemy1ssecond echelon. The authors examined the performance of the notional AANadvanced airframes to survive this initial air maneuver/insertion under avariety of conditions. These included level of situational awareness andintelligence provided to pilots, level of SEAD (suppression of enemy airdefenses), flight tactics and ingress routes used by the pilots, andsignature characteristics of the airframes (both RF, IR, and optical). Theauthors used high-resolution constructive simulations to explore and assessthe airframes1 survivability against an integrated air defense systemoperating in mixed terrain. The air defense system was one the Russians arecapable of deploying today. The results of the analysis indicate that noone approach can guarantee aircraft survivability. Combinations ofaggressive SEAD, use of stealth technology, and enhanced situationalawareness can, under certain conditions, result in good survivability ratesfor the aircraft. The large size and slow flight speeds of the aircraft,however, make them susceptible to optically guided munitions. These weaponsare difficult to both find and counter. New technologies, tactics, andtechniques will be needed to deal with this threat if the AAN air insertionconcept is to succeed.

About the Author

John Gordon IV (Currently enrolled in the Public Policy PhD program at George Mason University) is a RAND researcher.

Microwave photonics is an important interdisciplinary field that, amongst a host of other benefits, enables engineers to implement new functions in microwave systems.

With contributions from leading experts, Microwave Photonics: Devices and Applications explores this rapidly developing discipline. It bridges a gap between microwave and photonic engineering, providing an accessible interpretation of the current available research material and a detailed introduction to various aspects of the area.

Opening with an overview to the subject, this book covers direct modulation, photonic oscillators for THz signal generation, and terahertz sources. It takes a unique application- focused approach and describes:

• analogue fibre-optic links;
• fibre radio technology;
• microwave photonic signal processing;
• measurement of microwave photonic components, and;
• biomedical applications.

This text is ideal for practising microwave and fibre optics communication engineers wishing to improve their knowledge, and for researchers and graduate students wanting an overview of the subject.

In the new millennium, it is nearly impossible for us to talk about basic concerns like food or gas prices, without examining global intersections in trade, energy, immigration, the environment, and defense. Many countries once described as "developing" nations now wield greater economic and political influence than some of the so-called "major" powers. Former debtor nations have become creditors of the United States and other developed countries that run budget deficits. Without recognizing and understanding these connections, we cannot even begin to discuss how the United States and other countries can craft and harness effective policies amid this breathtaking progress. In Seeing the Elephant, Peter Marber describes how increasing economic integration and the rise of new actors is drastically altering the geopolitical landscape, and offers insights on how the U.S. can make policy to maintain a leading role in the years to come.

The twenty-first century, Marber explains, demands a very different lens for viewing the world. In the era of globalization, America's success hinges on the success of its neighbors, too. Rising economic powerhouses—China, Russia, India, Brazil, and others—bring a diverse set of interests to the table that the U.S. cannot afford to ignore. Moreover, globalization has created thousands of non-state actors—corporations, banks, hedge funds, activists, and even terrorists—who bring their own concerns to bear. Marber underscores the importance of forging strong relationships with pivotal developing nations and America's need to reaffirm the centricity of global protocols, rules, and institutions after an unfortunate period of neglect. It's not too late. By focusing on seven key cross-border, interlinking issues—trade and finance, energy, security, immigration, health, the environment, and poverty—Marber recommends key adjustments in policies that aim to strengthen and modernize our current institutional infrastructure, including NATO, the WHO, the WTO, the World Bank, and the UN, among others. While his strategies do not guarantee that the United States will remain on top economically, they ensure that the global system America helped to create triumphs in the end, protecting against the factionalism that led to two World Wars and destroyed decades of economic progress.

In this timely book, Marber demystifies globalization and analyzes new international megatrends and interconnections. With bold suggestions on how America can reassert its historic leadership in the new global arena, Seeing the Elephant will show readers how the U.S. still remains the planet's best chance at building enduring peace and prosperity.

About the Author

Peter Marber (New York, NY) is global head of GEM fixed income and currencies at HSBC Halbis Partners. He was formerly Founding parter and Chief Strategist for the Atlantic Funds LLC, which was acquired by HSBC in 2005. Marber began his career at UBS where he was co-founder and President of the emrgency markets subsidiary. He has been a faculty member at Columbia University since 1993 and has taught at both the Business school and the School of International and Public Affairs. He has also taught at Johns Hopkins University. He is affiliated with theWorld Policy Institute and the New America Foundation.

This book reviews the cutting-edge significant research in the field of smart light-responsive materials based on azobenzene polymers and liquid crystals. Emphasis is placed on the discovery of new phenomena from the past 5 years, their underlying mechanisms, new functionalities, and properties achieved through rational design. Edited by leading authorities in the field, Zhao and Ikeda, the chapters are authored by an internationally-recognized team of experts from North America, Europe, and Asia. Smart Light-Responsive Materials will serve to catalyze new research that will lead this field over the next 5-10 years.

Opens the door to promising new light-enabled

smart materials and their applications

Examining the most promising developments, this contributed work reviews smart light-responsive materials based on azobenzene polymers and liquid crystals. The book explores the underlying mechanisms of azobenzene polymers and liquid crystals, highlighting new functionalities and properties that have been realized through rational design. Moreover, the book provides insight into new and emerging light-enabled smart materials and their applications, particularly in the fields of photonics and optics.

Edited by two leading authorities in the field, this book features an internationally recognized team of expert authors. Contributions are based on the authors' firsthand experience in the lab as well as their thorough investigation of the literature. Highlights of coverage include:

• Photo-induced phenomena in supramolecular azobenzene materials

• Amorphous azobenzene polymers for light-induced surface patterning

• Light-responsive 2-D motions and manipulations in azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline polymer materials

• Photo-tuning of the helical structure of cholesteric liquid crystals

• Azobenzene block copolymers in the solid state

Among the materials covered are light-bendable elastomers, light-dissociable polymer micelles, light-controllable emulsions, liquid crystal/polymer composites, and colloids.

Smart Light-Responsive Materials not only presents the state of the technology, it also serves as a catalyst for the development of new light-enabled materials and applications. In addition to benefiting researchers who work on azobenzene polymers and liquid crystals, the book is also recommended for any researcher involved in developing light-responsive materials as many of the strategies from the book can be adapted to other chromophores.

About the Author

Yue Zhao, PhD, is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sherbrooke. With more than 100 publications to his credit, Dr. Zhao's research interests center on the design, synthesis, and applications of new polymer and liquid-crystalline materials. He has worked on specific applications of light-responsive materials, self-assembled materials, and nanostructured materials for liquid crystal displays, controlled drug delivery, and tunable optical devices.

Tomiki Ikeda, PhD, is Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Professor Ikeda is a leading authority in light-responsive materials and liquid-crystalline materials. Professor Ikeda's research interests focus on photomobile polymer materials, photodeformable smart materials based on azobenzene liquid-crystalline elastomers, and electroluminescent liquid-crystalline materials. He has more than 400 publications to his credit.

The magnitude of the identity theft and fraud problem is enormous. Identity fraud was identified as one of the top priorities of the Department of Justice, just prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Naturally, everyone’s priorities changed after 9/11. The impact of identity theft and identity fraud is reaching a proportion and a level of sophistication by the criminal element that prompt coordination by governments, multinational corporations, and citizens is required if we are going to have any significant impact.

Identity Theft Handbook: Detection, Prevention, and Security is also very timely, considering the woes of our financial services/banking industry. Current poor economic trends, oil prices, and mortgage lending problems threaten the confidence in our financial services industry. It must be protected from further damage from identity theft and identity fraud.

Identity Theft Handbook: Detection, Prevention, and Security is a great beginning to understanding the history and complexity of the identity theft and identity fraud problem. Biegelman gives an excellent view of the history of the identity theft problem in the United States. The past method of operation for criminals committing these crimes provides a framework for understanding the origins of their new methods and indicates how much the criminal element has grown.