Michael D. Engelhardt is a senior RF applications engineer at Verigy. He holds an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Ulm, Germany and an M.B.A. from the University of Dallas. Mr. Engelhardt has written several papers for major international conferences.

The book can be summarized as follows. A new online handwritten database is compiled, and four handwriting recognition systems are developed. Moreover, novel preprocessing and normalization strategies are designed especially for whiteboard notes and a new neural network based recognizer is applied. Commercial recognition systems are included in a multiple classifier system. The experimental results on the test set show a highly significant improvement of the recognition performance to more than 86%.

Contents: Classification Methods; Linguistic Resources and Handwriting Databases; Off-Line Approach; On-Line Approach; Multiple Classifier Combination; Writer-Dependent Recognition.

Contents: Robotic Vehicles; Space Robotics; Humanoids; Industrial, Personal, and Service Robots; Robotics for Biological and Medical Applications; Networked Robots.

Smart Structures: Innovative Systems for Seismic Response organizes current research and technology to provide researchers and practicing engineers, as well as advanced students, with the means to learn about and apply the very latest smart structure innovations. Key features include—

Designed for self-teaching, the text emphasizes essential information on structural formulations, mechanism of control systems, and numerical algorithms. It also provides step-by-step numerical examples to illustrate mathematical formulations and interpret physical representations, enabling readers to understand the forumulae vis-à-vis their applications. Each chapter comprehensively explores a specific topic, from smart structure systems currently in use, to case studies utilizing simulated earthquake data.

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

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

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.

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.

Imagine your favorite music without bass. It doesn't work, does it? The bass is the heartbeat of the music, the foundation of the groove, and the glue that holds together all the different instruments. You can feel the vibrations of the low notes – sometimes subtle and caressing, sometimes literally earthshaking – as they propel the song. The bass is the heart. So leave center stage to the other musicians – you have more important work to do. The limelight may be cool, but bassists rule!

You can find everything you need to dominate the bass in Bass Guitar For Dummies – whether you're a beginner picking up a bass for the first time or an experienced player looking for way to improve. And you won't drown in complicated music theory, either; this easy-to-understand reference gives you just enough music theory to get you on your way.

Bass Guitar For Dummies includes the following topics and more:

• Exploring the anatomy of a bass guitar
• Getting started: Holding your bass, positioning your hands, and striking notes
• Reading bass notation and understanding chords, scales, and octaves
• Creating a groove and playing solos and fills
• Examining different bass-playing styles, from rock and funk to blues and reggae
• Caring for your bass: Cleaning, changing strings, and so on
• Buying your own bass and accessories
• Top Ten lists on bassists you should know about

Bass Guitar For Dummies also comes with a CD that includes audio clips of all the examples in the book.

So put away the air bass guitar and get yourself the real thing. With the help of Bass Guitar For Dummies, you'll be groovin' in your own band in no time!

• Northern California, including San Francisco, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Redwood Country, Yosemite National Park, and more
• The central coast, including the Monterey Peninsula and the spectacular Big Sur Coast
• The Southland cities, including L.A., San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Beach, ritzy Palm Springs, and San Diego
• Major attractions like Hearst Castle, Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, and Alcatraz
• Activities like hiking in the Yosemite Valley, biking along the Monterey coastline, cruising Sunset Boulevard, taking in the scenery on the Pacific Coast Highway, and more
• All kinds of dining options, ranging from foodie favorites like the French Laundry in Yountville and Campanile, Patina, and Providence in L. A. to good restaurants for picky eaters, and great places to enjoy a vegetarian meal or incredible Vietnamese, Italian, Mexican, or Thai specialties
• Can’t miss family destinations in various parts of the state, including Humboldt Redwood State Park, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the California Science Center, in L.A., and more
• All sorts of accommodations, from new Treebones Resort in Big Sur that houses you in a gorgeous yurt, L. A.’s Chateau Marmont, with its Art Deco and Beaux Arts castle-style main building and individual bungalows, the Grand View and Seven Gables inns in Monterey/Pacific Grove with their spectacular ocean views, Chateau du Sureau in Oakhurst for pure pampering and four-star dining, and more

Like every For Dummies travel guide, California For Dummies, 4th Edition includes:

• Down-to-earth trip-planning advice
• What you shouldn’t miss — and what you can skip
• The best hotels and restaurants for every budget
• Handy Post-it Flags to mark your favorite pages

Complete with all kinds of planning tips plus actual time-tested itineraries, this covers the must-see attractions, suggests things to see or do that are off the beaten path, and answers questions you might not even think to ask, like where to go to get down and wacky the way actual Californians do, where to find great inexpensive, gifts, and even where to find the graves of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. With this guide, you’ll soon be singing, "California, here I come."

About the Author

Paula Tevis, also a second-generation Californian, was born and raised in Santa Barbara, attended college in Los Angeles, and then moved to her favorite city, where she could cheer for the San Francisco Giants in peace. After an eclectic but blessedly brief career that included stints in the computer and nonprofit sectors, she and her California-bred husband produced a couple of lovely children, and Paula happily relinquished the 9-to-5 world for the 24/7 one that parenting brings. Upon regaining consciousness, she metamorphosed into a freelance writer, and over the years has contributed articles and essays to Parenting and Family Fun magazines, the San Francisco Chronicle, Citysearch.com, Frommer’s Las Vegas, and Frommer’s New Orleans. She is the author of San Francisco For Dummies, the Berlitz Vancouver Pocketguide, and Frommer’s San Francisco with Kids. Paula currently lives with her husband and their daughters in London, but reads the Chronicle online daily.

You’ll learn how to set up Windows, take advantage of all the pre-installed software, ensure that your computer is secure, and even run your Eee PC on solar power. You’ll find tips for configuring printers and changing touchpad settings, techniques for making Skype phone calls and listening to Internet radio, and advice for adding storage and peripherals. It also helps you:

• Take full advantage of this exciting, ultra-portable “netbook” PC
• Set up your wireless connection
• Make free Skype phone calls and video calls
• Use OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird e-mail, Mozilla Firefox, and other included applications
• Use the versatile OpenOffice productivity suite, including Writer for word processing, Calc for spreadsheets, and Impress for presentations
• Compare the advantages of Windows vs. Linux
• Discover the science, language, math, and art functions that kids can enjoy on the Eee
• Enjoy built-in games, watch videos, play music, organize and view photos, and more
• Boost storage and memory with SD cards and USB drives, go Bluetooth, and add a GPS
• Get the scoop on backups, explore the advanced desktop, and customize the user interface

The Eee PC makes it simple to surf the Web, play games, work, and more. Asus Eee PC For Dummies makes it easier!

About the Author

"... a recommended text for all analytical chemistry undergraduates for many years." - Education and Chemistry

"... a valuable reference manual." - European Journal of Pharmacological Biopharmacy

A concise overview of the principles and practice of analytical chemistry, reflecting the continuing impact of computers, the IT revolution, and the increasing range of applications of analytical chemistry in environmental science and medicine. Previous edition: c1995. DLC: Chemistry, Analytic.

Over more than two decades this book has established itself as the first choice for growing numbers of students and practising analysts who require a well-written and concise overview of the principles and practice of analytical chemistry. Significant changes encompass strengthening of the coverage of data handling, together with new material covering rapidly developing subject areas of molecular spectrometry, atomic spectrometry, and separation techniques. Answers to the self- learning problems and exercises are also included. The new edition of the book will continue to provide a sound and broad base for the study of analytical chemistry.

Courses based on the text will be of interest to students who wish to understand the fundamentals of biological transport and the models that describe it. It will provide readers with the knowledge necessary to interpret transport experiments in biological systems and to predict performance or behavior from transport data. Advanced undergraduates or graduate students in Biomedical Engineering or Physiology and Biophysics will find this book useful, as will other engineers (Mechanical, Chemical, Environmental) who have some familiarity with biology, or Biology students who prefer a more quantitative approach to the subject.

The new edition includes numerous figures and references, and problems at the end of each chapter. It is supported by an open web site http://biotrans.pratt.duke.edu/ to facilitate its use in class. The web site allows faculty users to share syllabi based on the text and to post additional problems that can serve as illustrations or be given to students; all users are welcome to note corrections and suggest improvements in the text, and to add new material to the knowledge base. The web site is intended to support a "community of the book" that can maintain its currency and value into the future.

Robust Systems Theory and Applications covers both the techniques used in linear robust control analysis/synthesis and in robust (control-oriented) identification. The main analysis and design methods are complemented by elaborated examples and a group of worked-out applications that stress specific practical issues: nonlinearities, robustness against changes in operating conditions, uncertain infinite dimensional plants, and actuator and sensor limitations. Designed expressly as a textbook for master's and first-year PhD students, this volume:

• Introduces basic robustness concepts in the context of SISO systems described by Laplace transforms, establishing connections with well-known classical control techniques
• Presents the internal stabilization problem from two different points of view: algebraic and state —space
• Introduces the four basic problems in robust control and the Loop shaping design method Presents the optimal *2 control problem from a different viewpoint, including an analysis of the robustness properties of *2 controllers and a treatment of the generalized *2 problem
• Presents the *2 control problem using both the state-space approach developed in the late 1980s and a Linear Matrix Inequality approach (developed in the mid 1990s) that encompasses more general problems
• Discusses more general types of uncertainties (parametric and mixed type) and µµ-synthesis as a design tool
• Presents an overview of optimal ,1 control theory and covers the fundamentals of its star-norm approximation
• Presents the basic tools of model order reduction
• Provides a tutorial on robust identification
• Offers numerous end-of-chapter problems and worked-out examples of robust control

RICARDO S. SNCHEZ-PEA, MSEE, PhD, is a researcher at the National Commission of Space Activities (CONAE) and Professor of Control Systems at the School of Engineering at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

MARIO SZNAIER, MSEE, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA."

Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives

Today's businesses change at the speed of light and your company's software support structures need to be able to keep up with these constantly changing business demands. That's where Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives comes in. This innovative guidebook demystifies the complex topic of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and provides you with the tools and terminology to create applications and services that can be easily maintained and supported as well as shared across an enterprise.

Presenting immediately useful information on what SOA is and how to optimally use it within your organization, Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives expertly discusses how to drive real business value through SOA with practical guidance on how to:

• Adopt SOA in a way that is measurable, low risk, and accepted by your organization

• Understand a comprehensive SOA evaluation and adoption strategy

• Learn what it means to be service oriented and process-centric

• Apply SOA to various industries

• Measure a Return on Investment (ROI) for SOA

• Acquire the skills for SOA

• Create your SOA adoption plan

• Know the risks inherent within SOA

There is a tremendous amount of misinformation surrounding SOA and service orientation in general, and what it really means for modern enterprises. Brimming with innovative guidance for veteran or new managers and executives, Service Oriented Architecture Field Guide for Executives presents the solid foundation every CEO, CFO, and CIO needs to help them plan, architect, and implement their organization's service oriented environments—cost-effectively and efficiently.

About the Author

Kyle Gabhart is the Director of SOA Solutions at Web Age Solutions, a premier provider of technology education and mentoring. He is a subject matter expert specializing in service oriented technologies, enterprise architecture, and strategic business alignment. In addition to writing over seventy-five business and technology articles both online and in print, he has contributed to Professional Java XML and Professional EJB.

Bibhas Bhattacharya is the Chief Technology Officer at Web Age Solutions. He is an expert WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Commerce Suite architect. Before joining Web Age Solutions, he was an advisory software developer for the WebSphere product family at IBM.

Scans by ISPs have revealed as many as twenty-eight spyware programs running on the average home computer—like yours. That's a lot of people prying into what's on your PC, and a DSL or cable connection is a virtual welcome mat. But by following Ed Tittel's advice, you can learn how invasions occur, spot an infestation, repair damage that's already done, and slam the door on those who want to hijack your PC—along with your wallet.

Here's how you can

• Learn to recognize when a Trojan horse, a virus, adware, or spyware has invaded your PC
• Get the tools that can cure an infection
• Dig into the Windows Registry to remove the nastiest of bugs
• Prevent a recurrence with personal firewalls and protective software
• Deal with the onslaught of spam
• Keep your defenses up-to-date

Give it the boot

If you believe you've caught something and you're willing to kiss everything goodbye that you've added to or changed ... since the last time you booted up your computer ... try this. While Windows is first booting up, hit the F8 key .... Choose the Last Known Good Configuration option, and Windows should boot running the version of the Registry that existed the last time your system booted—that is, before you got infected.
— From Chapter 4

About the Author

Ed Tittel has been writing, researching, and teaching about Windows security topics since 1996. An inveterate tinkerer cursed with incurable curiosity, he's become a connoisseur of protection tools and techniques to battle spyware, adware, and malware.

• Reorganized material on data modeling to clearly separate entity relationship modeling, extended entity relationship modeling, and object-oriented modeling
• Expanded coverage of the object-oriented and object/relational approach to data management, including ODMG and SQL3
• Uses examples from real database systems including OracleTM and Microsoft AccessAE
• Includes discussion of decision support applications of data warehousing and data mining, as well as emerging technologies of web databases, multimedia, and mobile databases
• Covers advanced modeling in the areas of active, temporal, and spatial databases
• Provides coverage of issues of physical database tuning
• Discusses current database application areas of GIS, genome, and digital libraries

Shamkant Navathe is a professor and the head of the database research group at the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. He is well-known for his work on database modeling, database conversion, database design, distributed database allocation, and database integration. He has worked with IBM and Siemens in their research divisions and has been a consultant to various companies including Digital,CCA, HP and Equifax. He was the General Co-chairman of the 1996 International VLDB (Very Large Data Base) conference in Bombay, India.

He was also program co-chair of SIGMOD 1985 and General Co-chair of the IFIP WG 2.6 Data Semantics Workshop in 1995. He has been an associate editor of ACM Computing Surveys, and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. He is also on the editorial boards of Information Systems

This book will be interesting and useful for students and postgraduates in the area of Computer Science and for designers of modern digital devices. Compositional microprogram control units enlarge the class of models applied for implementation of control units with modern field-programmable logic devices.

Learn Techniques to Find the Information You Need

This revised third edition delivers invaluable guidance on how to collect data, write proposals, and make presentations. Offering you step-by-step techniques for the most efficient and focused research in school or work projects, How to Research includes hands-on exercises that build up skills and strengthen research techniques useful for any project, in any field.

Lorraine Blaxter is based at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, where she lectures at the School of Health and Human Studies.

Christina Hughes is a senior lecturer in the University of Warwick's sociology department.

Malcolm Tight is based at the Department of Educational Research at Lancashire University, United Kingdom.

This book begins with a thorough background of the subject. Next, the authors discuss the significance of electrometallurgy within the broader spectrum of science and technology. They then expand the previously laid theoretical base and explain mechanisms of metal deposition and applications for all existing related technologies.

The book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students involved with electrochemistry of metals, materials science, plating technologies, electronics materials and other fields. Scientists and engineers working in a variety of industries in addition to electrometallurgical process plants will find it an invaluable reference as it provides a thorough background of electrometallurgy, then explores the more advanced mechanisms of metal deposition in a logical manner.

Wrapped up in fast-paced careers that increasingly involve travel and frequent international relocation, many young people find themselves bouncing from one exotic assignment to another at the cost of work/life balance, meaningful relationships and a sense of continuity or connection. Margaret Malewski, who has lived the "GenXpat" life, wrote GenXpat to help young professionals achieve the personal fulfillment they need to succeed in their international careers, including information on how to:

- make an informed to decision to move
- optimize an expat contract to ensure their personal needs are met
- juggle work and relocation logistics
- deal with culture shock and cultural differences
- build social networks abroad
- manage the question of romantic relationships, be it by dating across cultures, embarking on a long-distance relationship or moving with a partner
- prepare a smooth re-entry to the home country, workforce and culture

Full of real-life examples from GenXpats who are now working for multinational companies, GenXpat explains what to expect when starting an expat adventure.

About the Author

Margaret Malewski grew up in Montreal speaking English, French and Polish and interacting with many cultures. On leaving Canada in 1992, she began a decade of expatriation that led her to work in countries as varied as Poland, Switzerland and Israel. GenXpat combines her personal relocation experience with that of her colleagues and leading research into this modern phenomenon.

It is unique because of the integration of project management fundamentals with the practices of international contracting, which characterize planning, design and construction of large works (such as plants and machinery) in the industrial sectors.

The rigorous academic approach is mixed with the managerial contribution of Danieli, through its experience in supplying more than 120 turnkey projects for the steel industry, worldwide. The project managment of the latter is described along-side how it can be effectively applied to win and manage large international contracts.

«There are very few, if any, books in the project management field that describe in detail a company-wide approach to project management within a large, multi-national corporation, with the amount of detail and giving the useful, practical understanding of the underlying principles and specific processes and practices that are presented here». Russell D. Archibald

– Details the GSM phase 2+ services, including new data and speech services and service platforms, such as AMR, ASCI. CAMEL and EFR
– Features a brand new chapter on General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
– Contains a completly revised and expanded chapter 'GSM - The story goes on'
– Presents new sections on Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and the migration to UMTS
– Includes expaned and updated chapters on Logical Channels and Channel Coding

Providing a range of solutions to control and signal processing problems, this book:

• Presents a comprehensive introduction to the polynomial systems approach for the solution of H2 and H∞ optimal control problems.
• Develops robust control design procedures using frequency domain methods.
• Demonstrates design examples for gas turbines, marine systems, metal processing, flight control, wind turbines, process control and manufacturing systems.
• Includes the analysis of multi-degrees of freedom controllers and the computation of restricted structure controllers that are simple to implement.
• Considers time-varying control and signal processing problems. 
• Addresses the control of non-linear processes using both multiple model concepts and new optimal control solutions.

Robust Industrial Control Systems: Optimal Design Approach for Polynomial Systems is essential reading for professional engineers requiring an introduction to optimal control theory and insights into its use in the design of real industrial processes.  Students and researchers in the field will also find it an excellent reference tool.

About the Author

Professor Michael Grimble, Director of the Industrial Control Centre and Past Chairman of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

"A thorough rundown of the various types of roof currently in use, with easy -to-read diagrams to make sense of it all … particularly useful if you have a tricky space to convert." (Build It, December 2008)

"easy to read and concise … an excellent book" (Building Engineer)

This book provides practical guidance on the design and construction of timber roofs, featuring numerous detail drawings. It includes information on loft to attic room conversion.

The new edition has been updated to cover the latest changes to the British Regulations and extended coverage of roof attic construction.

About the Author

Chris Mindham, BSc is a Director at Bassett & Findley, Wellingborough.

Got something to say? It's easy with a podcast!

Subscribe to podcasts, put together your own, and build a fan base

Podcasting really is twenty-first century communication, and you can be a part of it! This book gives you the scoop on listening to, producing, and distributing podcasts, points you toward the best hardware and software for creating one, and makes it easy to turn your computer into a recording suite, plus a whole lot more.

Discover how to

• Decide on a podcast focus
• Find and use the necessary hardware and software
• Record and mix a podcast
• Get your podcast online
• Use a little XML
• Promote your podcast

Evo Terra: Evo is the poster child for Type A personalities the world over. Washed-up musician, tree-hugging herbalist, heretical-but-ordained minister, talk-radio personality, advertising executive and technology innovator, all wrapped up in one single-serving package. In the podcasting world, Evo tends to infect others with the podcasting bug, from budding show hosts to the people behind the scenes finding new uses for podcast technologies.
He hosts three different podcasts, Slice of Scifi (sliceofscifi.com), the Dragon Page Cover to Cover, and Wingin’ It! (dragonpage.com) and is helping authors podcast their works to the masses at Podiobooks.com.
He currently resides in Cottonwood, Arizona, with his wife Sheila and his son NJ. Neither of which have a podcast. Yet.

• Master the functionality, protocols, and packets that make up real-world networking
• Learn networking concepts through examples in the field
• Tackle tasks such as planning and diagramming networks, running cables, and configuring network devices such as routers and switches
• Monitor networks for performance and problems, and learn troubleshooting techniques
• Practice what you've learned with nearly one hundred exercises, questions, sample problems, and projects

Head First's popular format is proven to stimulate learning and retention by engaging you with images, puzzles, stories, and more. Whether you're a network professional with a CCNA/CCNP or a student taking your first college networking course, Head First Networking will help you become a network guru.

About the Author

Al Anderson is the Director of IT Support Services at Salish Kootenai College. He holds an Associates of Science in Computer Science and is near completing of Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering. He has 10+ years of college teaching experience in Programming, Networking, and Desktop Publishing, and 15+ years experience in creating, editing, and formatting various documents including pamphlets, catalogs, and manuals. Al has produced a 3-8 hour video series for the Virtual Training Company including Ruby on Rails, REALbasic, and Programming Ruby. In addition, he has built many production applications including a Learning ManagementSystem in use by Salish Kootenai College, a Ruby-on-Rails issue-tracking help desk application, and a Mac OS X Cocoa Airport Wireless Utility.

Ryan Benedetti holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Montana and teaches in the Liberal Arts Department at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

For seven years, Ryan served as Department Head for Information Technology and Computer Engineering at SKC. Prior to that, he worked as editor and information systems specialist for a river, stream, and wetland research program in the School of Forestry at the University of Montana.

Ryan's poems have been published in Cut Bank and Andrei Codrescu's Exquisite Corpse. He loves cartooning, playing blues harmonica, making Flash learning toys, and practicing zazen. He spends his best moments with his wife, daughter, and son in the Mission Mountain Valley of Montana.

The book begins with a clear discussion of why Silverlight is such a good choice for developing RIAs and the implications that this has for your development decisions. The options available will be demonstrated by constructing a simple web–based training portal for a fictional enterprise, which will be extended and altered to demonstrate the techniques and methods that you have available to you. This includes accessing data using WCF and LINQ, and considering how best to deploy your finished Silverlight application when it is complete. The book also discusses the future of Silverlight for Mobile and how to plan for its release.

This book is unique in that it focuses on how Silverlight can be applied in today’s business environment rather than simply delving into the product’s syntax and grammar in isolation. Silverlight is discussed in context with consideration given to security, scalability, and deployment. As such this book makes an excellent addition to any Silverlight library and extends your knowledge into practical areas that are rarely discussed.

• Advanced design concepts to develop loosely coupled web–based applications using Silverlight 2
• The role of Silverlight library assembly
• How to use dynamic Silverlight user controls to build your user interface at runtime
• How to externalize your data source definitions
• LINQ integration
• WCF/Web services integration
• Secured same–domain/cross–domain deployment
• The ABCs of developing mobile applications using Silverlight, including coverage of the common pitfalls and traps you may encounter
• Practical advice on how to adopt the Silverlight development platform in you’re your organization

This book is for enterprise architects, IT executives and IT professionals, the developer community, technical and project managers, and anyone who wants to start using Silverlight 2 in a corporate environment.

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Ashish Ghoda is a customer–focused and business values–driven IT executive with over 11 years of leadership, technical and financial management, and enterprise application architect experience. Currently he is associate director at a Big Four accounting firm.

In Pro Hyper–V, author Harley Stagner takes a comprehensive approach to acquiring, deploying, using, and troubleshooting Microsoft’s answer to virtualization on the Windows Server platform. Learn from a true virtualization guru all you need to know about deploying virtual machines, managing your library of VMs in your enterprise, recovering gracefully from failure scenarios, and migrating existing physical machines to virtual hardware.

In this book, you will discover

• How Hyper–V technologies built into Windows Server 2008 can save your organization money and make it more nimble
• What it takes to deploy Hyper–V to your servers
• The process to build, configure, and deploy virtual machines
• How to migrate physical machines to virtual machines, and virtual machines to other virtual machines
• Ideas and thoughts on disaster recovery in virtualized environments
• …and much more

This book is targeted at IT specialists interested in assessing, acquiring, deploying, and managing Windows Server–based virtualization products and technologies for their environments. Administrators currently using Hyper–V will also find this book useful as a reference for the more intricate parts of the system.

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Harley Stagner graduated from ECPI Technical College with a bachelor’s degree in management information systems and later graduated from Strayer University with an MBA in business management. His industry certifications include MCSE on Windows Server 2000 and 2003, VMware Certified Professional (VCP), and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) in Windows Server Virtualization. He is a seasoned IT professional who enjoys sharing his server virtualization experience through his writing. He has published many virtualization articles for SearchSystemsChannel.com, SearchServerVirtualization.com, SearchVMware.com, SearchOpenSource.com, and SearchStorage.com. He also maintains his own blogs at HarleyStagner.com and SearchMarked.com.

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common questions, issues, and tasks.

The Q&A sections and quizzes at the end of each lesson help you build and test your knowledge.

Notes, Tips, and Cautions point out shortcuts, solutions, and potential problems to avoid.

Learn how to…

• Explore and fully utilize all the core WSS 3.0 features
• Install WSS 3.0 on different versions of Windows Server
• Explore the interoperability between SharePoint and various Office 2003 and 2007 products
• Create and enhance workflows
• Manage user permissions at all levels
• Enhance search functionality using Search Server 2008 Express
• Create internal blogs using the Extended Blog Edition
• Get your site up-and-running quickly with the Microsoft application templates
• Enhance your site by utilizing free and commercial third-party web parts
• Create sites in different languages

Mike Walsh has been a SharePoint MVP since October 2002. He works as a Technology Consultant for Logica in Finland, having spent all but one year of his working life living and working in various European countries outside his native Britain. Mike became an MVP for the SharePoint Team Services (STS) product through actively sharing his STS knowledge in the newsgroup for that product. He has continued to be active in SharePoint newsgroups and (now) forums, mainly for Windows SharePoint Services for both versions 2.0 and 3.0. He has worked on the Ask the Experts stand at several Microsoft European conferences over the years. He was an early beta tester for both Office 2003, including WSS 2.0, and Office 2007, including WSS 3.0. This is Mike’s first full book. He has earlier written a chapter of a book that was a joint effort by a number of SharePoint MVPs.

Now revised and updated for the new Joomla! 1.6, this second edition “job–in–a–book” provides the solid core of know–how that you’ll need to get the most out of your Joomla! deployment, written to fully exploit the features of latest version of Joomla!. More than just a simple “build a toy web site” guide, Beginning Joomla!, Second Edition will give you a wealth of life–saving tips, tricks, tools, and fixes that experienced Joomla! developers use to build powerful, popular web sites while avoiding major headaches. This book covers

• How to use content versioning and multi–blogger support, among the latest changes to Joomla!
• Access management and how documents, photos, and other content are managed in Joomla! 1.6
• E–commerce integration, search engine optimization, and even extending Joomla! by creating your own plug–ins
• And much more…

Dan Rahmel explores the latest updates to Joomla! 1.6 that you’ll need if you already use Joomla! and explains, using the latest terms, how to build a web site from scratch if you don’t already use Joomla! An update to the best–selling Joomla! title on the market, this is the Joomla! book to get.

• The best way to set up a Joomla! installation and web server
• Creating a Joomla! site, from idea to execution
• The latest features of Joomla! and how to leverage them

This book is for current and prospective web developers interested in using the Joomla! content management system, as well as for any web user seeking to learn how to self–publish for a community.

Dan Rahmel is a Windows programmer with more than 14 years of experience designing and implementing information systems and deploying mid-sized client/server solutions using Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Microsoft Access, and Visual FoxPro.

As an author, he has written over a dozen books including Nuts-and-Bolts Filmmaking, Visual Basic Programmer's Reference (first, second, and third editions), Building Web Database Applications with Visual Studio, Teach Yourself Database Programming in 24 Hours, Developing Client-Server Applications with Visual Basic, and many more. His books have been translated into various languages including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. He is a contributor to DBMS, Internet Advisor, and American Programmer magazines.

Written by an expert in the field of telecommunications, this book describes the Inter-Asterisk Exchange protocol (IAX) and its operations, discussing the main characteristics of the protocol including NAT traversal, security, IPv6 support, interworking between IPv4 and IPv6, interworking with SIP and many others. The author presents the ways in which IAX can be activated so as to avoid complications such as NAT and the presence of intermediary boxes in operational architectures. This book analytically demonstrates the added values of IAX protocol compared to existing ones, while proposing viable deployment scenarios that assess the behavior of the protocol in operational networks.

Key Features:

• Promotes a viable alternative protocol to ease deployment of multimedia services
• Analyses the capabilities of the IAX protocol and its ability to meet VoIP service provider requirements, and provides scenarios of introducing IAX within operational architectures
• Addresses the advantages and disadvantages of SIP, and Details the features of IAX that can help, in junction with SIP, to overcome various disadvantages of SIP
• Explores the added values of IAX protocol compared to existing protocols
• Discusses the compatibility of new adopted architectures and associated protocols

The focus of this year's conference has shifted to the legal rather than the deeply technical especially by incorporating the International Workshop on e-Forensics. The 21 papers deal with legal issues covering voice and telephony, image source identification and authentication, investigative practice, and applications including surveillance.

The book first covers the big picture so the reader can get comfortable with the Android approach to the mobile applications. Then the reader learns to apply Android by following the many practical examples. The book concludes with two deep and hands-on examples.

Unlocking Android addresses the Android application framework, its graphical capabilities and media support, data storage, communications capabilities, phone interactions, and notifications.

Unlocking Android covers Android SDK 1.x

Engineering Service Oriented Systems: A Model-Driven Approach combines concepts from systems theory, model driven software engineering, and ontologies for software engineering into a systematic method for engineering service oriented systems while integrating both business and software perspectives.

About the Author

Bill Karakostas is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Informatics at the City University, London. Dr. Karakostas, holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, an MPhil and a PhD in Software Engineering from the Department of Computation at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), England. He has a sixteen plus years research track record in areas such as business engineering (process redesign, simulation, workflow management, ERP systems), and software engineering (requirements management, service and component-oriented development). He has been leading European Union funded research projects for over 15 years, and he has researched extensively in the areas of software engineering, IS modeling and e-commerce technologies. He has published in excess of 100 research papers and is the co-author of a book on Systems Requirements Engineering. Dr. Karakostas has acted as scientific advisor to several software houses in Greece and the UK. Dr Karakostas is a member of ACM.

Yannis Zorgios holds a PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST), U.K. In 1998 joined CLMS (UK) LIMITED where he is the main architect and the product manager of the CLMS Enterprise Systems Management Server, a service oriented platform that combines the latest research developments in systems engineering, model driven development and business process management. His research interests focus on the provision of Contemporary Learning Management Systems and ontological frameworks that support large, complex and dynamic enterprise systems and empower the learning capability of individuals and organizations.

Contents: Uncertainty Modeling; Clustering, Classification and Summarization; Decision Making and Information Processing; Systems Modeling and Applications; Logic and Mathematical Structures.

Pro OpenSolaris was written to demonstrate that you can host your open source applications and solutions on OpenSolaris, taking advantage of its advanced features such as containers and other forms of virtualization, the ZFS file system, and DTrace. It's assumed that you are already fairly knowledgeable about developing on Linux systems, so the authors give an overview of the similarities and differences between Linux and OpenSolaris, and then present details on how to use the Service Management Facility (SMF), ZFS, zones, and even a bit of DTrace. They also provide pointers to the many project communities associated with new OpenSolaris features. Special focus is given to web development using familiar applications such as Apache, Tomcat, and MySQL, along with the NetBeans IDE, and showing you how to exploit some of OpenSolaris's unique technologies.

• Discover the secrets of the ZFS, the most powerful file system ever conceived
• Explore OpenSolaris AMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) and GlassFish in the context of Web 2.0 and Linux/Solaris, respectively
• Familiarize yourself with the new security administration features of OpenSolaris, including changes in DTrace

Linux system administrators and programmers who would like to know what they have missed since Solaris became an open source operating system.

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Harry Foxwell is a system engineer for Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc., specializing in operating system support (Solaris, OpenSolaris, and Linux). He is also an adjunct professor of computer science at George Mason University, where he has taught, among other classes, operating system courses based on OpenSolaris. He has also written several book reviews for ACM’s Computing Reviews.

Object Oriented Simulation will qualify as a valuable resource to students and accomplished professionals and researchers alike, as it provides an extensive, yet comprehensible introduction to the basic principles of object-oriented modeling, design and implementation of simulation models.

Key features include an introduction to modern commercial graphical simulation and animation software, accessible breakdown of OOSimL language constructs through various programming principles, and extensive tutorial materials ideal for undergraduate classroom use.

• Presents a comprehensive introduction to the basic principles of object-oriented modeling, design, and implementation of simulation models.
• Encourages a stronger foundation with objects and classes using an "objects early" approach.
• Emphasizes model implementation with minimal treatment of statistics.

• Accommodates a smooth transition to object-oriented modeling and a gradual introduction to object-oriented simulation for professionals.
• Provides complete case studies fully explained with corresponding case study in OOSimL.
• Includes summaries, examples, and problems in every chapter. Simulation software presented in material is available on the book’s web site.
• Introduces graphical simulation and animation software Arena and Flexsim.

• Models described with UML and/or extended simulation diagrams.

Practical Eclipse Rich Client Platform Projects is a clear and technical guide for Eclipse developers to help them enhance their knowledge and achieve their goals quickly.

• The book explains the technical concepts easily and in an engaging way.
• The text provides plenty of source code and images as learning aids.
• Several practical projects and case studies are included.

• Understand RCP basics, architecture, and foundations.
• Use and incorporate plug–ins with Eclipse.
• Design and develop user interface components and work with the Eclipse FormsAPIs.
• Add and integrate 2D graphics using the Graphical Editing Framework.
• Build professional–looking and functional reports with Eclipse BIRT.
• Create visually more dynamic 3D graphics by incorporating OpenGL into Eclipse.
• Add help support and automated updates via the Update Manager.

The primary audience of this book will be developers and software engineers involved in user interface development with the Eclipse platform. Also, this book will be valuable to scientists, students, practitioners, and all those interested in multiplatform user interface development.

The Practical series from Apress is your best choice for getting the job done, period. From professional to expert, this series lets you apply project–motivated templates (or frameworks) step by step in a very direct, practical, and efficient manner toward current real–world projects that may be sitting on your desk. So whatever your career goal, Apress can be your trusted guide to take you where you want to go on your IT career empowerment path.

Vladimir Silva holds a master’s degree in computer science from Middle Tennessee State University. He worked for four years for IBM as a research engineer where he acquired extensive experience in distributed and grid computing research. Vladimir is a highly technical, focus–based individual and team player. He belongs to two National Honor Societies and has published many computer science articles for IBM and is author of Grid Computing for Developers (Charles River Media, 2005).

Written by a team of experts from Symbian, Nokia and Sun Microsystems Java ME on Symbian OS reveals what can be found “under-the-hood” of the world’s leading smartphone operating system. If you’re just starting out in the exciting world of smartphone development and want to learn Java ME, or if you already have some experience of Java ME development but need extra tips to help your true professional stand out, then this is the book for you!

Read on for:

• Introduction to Java ME and programming fundamentals
• Java ME on Symbian OS (core and advanced chapters)
• Drill down into MSA, DoJa and MIDP game development
• Under the hood of the Java ME platform

The book includes two appendices on:

• SNAP Mobile technology
• WidSets.

With over ten years' experience in Java technologies and over four years’ experience at Symbian, Roy Ben Hayun now works for Sun Microsystems as a systems architect in the Engineering Services group, which leads the development, marketing and productizing of Java ME CLDC and CDC on different platforms.

The honeymoon is over.

Prepare yourself to thwart Mac attacks.

Where security is concerned, Macs have long led a charmed existence. No more. If you manage security for a network that includes OS X machines, this update on the strengths and weaknesses of Mac OS X is required reading.

Beginning with the core differences between Mac OS X and Windows or Linux, this book follows the steps an attacker would take. You will learn the tools needed to find vulnerabilities, the techniques used to exploit them, and the means by which attackers maintain control once they gain access. When you know how they get in, you'll know how to keep them out.

• See what makes Mac OS® X unique, what security improvements were added with Leopard®, and where vulnerabilities lie

• Explore uncommon protocols—Bonjour®, the QuickTime® file format, and RTSP

• Look for bugs in Apple's source code or use a black box technique such as fuzzing

• Examine stack overflow and heap overflow attacks directed at PowerPC and x86 architectures, as well as shellcodes and payloads

• Learn to inject code into running processes and how attackers use this technique

• Understand Mac OS X-specific rootkit techniques

CharlIe Millerwon the second CanSecWest Pwn2Own contest in 2008 and was named one of the Top 10 Computer Hackers of 2008 by Popular Mechanics.

Dino Dai Zovi won the first CanSecWest Pwn2Own contest in 2007 and was named one of the 15 Most Influential People in Security by eWEEK.

Drawing upon years of practical experience and using numerous examples and illustrative applications, J. Norberto Pires covers robotics programming as it applies to:

• The current industrial robotic equipment including manipulators, control systems, and programming environments.
  
• Software interfaces that can be used to develop distributed industrial manufacturing cells and techniques which can be used to build interfaces between robots and computers.
  
• Real-world applications with examples designed and implemented recently in the lab.

This book is supported by a website http://robotics.dem.uc.pt/indrobprog that includes software code for the examples presented, various software applications developed by the author and videos of all examples presented and discussed.

"The monograph is concerned with the position and force control of redundant robot manipulators from both theoretical and experimental points of view. It contains a rich bibliography as well as a full symbol and subject index. Its aim is to provide an introduction for graduate students and researchers in the field of control of redundant robot manipulators. … it is a useful learning tool for scientists and engineers from academia and industry." (Clementina Mladenova, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1081, 2006)

This monograph provides a comprehensive and thorough treatment of the problem of controlling a redundant robot manipulator. It presents the latest research from the field with a good balance between theory and practice. All theoretical developments are verified both via simulation and experimental work on an actual prototype redundant robot manipulator. This book is the first text aimed at graduate students and researchers working in the area of redundant manipulators giving a comprehensive coverage of control of redundant robot manipulators from the viewpoint of theory and experimentation.

"This interesting monograph is devoted to the study of multi-agent, populations of biological cells and robot teams. … The main objective of the approach is to provide solutions to the problem of how dynamics of an individual agent propagates to the population dynamics. … This original monograph has a wide interest for scholars in the area of multi-agent systems, including computational biology, biometrical engineering, nano-robotics, and even aerospace engineering." (Silvia Curteanu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1147, 2008)

Cells and Robots is an outcome of the multidisciplinary research extending over Biology, Robotics and Hybrid Systems Theory. It is inspired by modeling reactive behavior of the immune system cell population, where each cell is considered as an independent agent. In our modeling approach, there is no difference if the cells are naturally or artificially created agents, such as robots. This appears even more evident when we introduce a case study concerning a large-size robotic population scenario. Under this scenario, we also formulate the optimal control of maximizing the probability of robotic presence in a given region and discuss the application of the Minimum Principle for partial differential equations to this problem. Simultaneous consideration of cell and robotic populations is of mutual benefit for Biology and Robotics, as well as for the general understanding of multi-agent system dynamics.

The text of this monograph is based on the PhD thesis of the first author. The work was a runner-up for the fifth edition of the Georges Giralt Award for the best European PhD thesis in Robotics, annually awarded by the European Robotics Research Network (EURON).

Dejan Milutinovic received his Dipl. Ing. (1995) and M.Sc. (1999) in Electrical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia, and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2004) at Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon Technical University, Portugal.

In 1995 he was employed at "Mihajlo Pupin" Institute, Belgrade, working on real-time control industrial applications. In 2000 he moved to the Institute of Systems and Robotics, Lisbon, where he worked on his PhD thesis. From 2004 to 2006 he was a post-doc at Theoretical Biology Department of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Presently, he is a post-doc at Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Department of Duke University Medical Center, NC, USA.

His scientific interest is in the area of modeling and control of stochastic dynamical systems applied to the immune system and Robotics. In 2005, he was recognized as a runner-up for the best PhD thesis of European Robotics by the European Robotics Research Network (EURON) jury in the 5th edition of Georges Giralt PhD Award.

Pedro Lima got his Ph.D. (1994) in Electrical Engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon Technical University. He is also a member of the Institute for Systems and Robotics, a Portuguese private research institution, where he is co-coordinator of the Intelligent Systems group and a member of the Scientific Council.

Pedro Lima is a Trustee of the RoboCup Federation, and was the General Chair of RoboCup2004, held in Lisbon. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems and of the Portuguese magazine Robótica, a founding member of the Portuguese Robotics Society, the elected chair of the IEEE RAS Portugal Chapter, and a senior member of the IEEE. He is also the co-editor of two special issues of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, one special issue of Elsevier’s Journal of Robotics Autonomous Systems, the author of a book and several journal and conference papers.

His scientific interests are in the areas of hybrid systems, discrete event systems and reinforcement learning, mainly in their applications to complex large-scale systems, such as multi-robot systems. He has also been very active in the promotion of Science and Technology to the society, through the organization of Robotics events in Portugal, including the Portuguese Robotics Open since 2001.

Jim Binkley is a teacher, network engineer, and researcher in the Computer Science Department at Portland State University. Jim has twenty five years of experience with UNIX operating system internals and twenty years of experience with TCP/IP networking. Jim teaches a graduate sequence of networking classes including TCP/IP, routing, and network security, and also teaches operating system classes including Linux O.S. internals, Linux Device Drivers, and BSD TCP/IP stack internals.

Key Features
* Use gmax with popular game packs to modify levels and characters for licensed games
* Shows how to model and texture with PaintShopPro
* Covers TRAINZ Asset Creation Studio, Siege Max game pack for Dungeon Siege, Tempest game pack for Quake III Arena, Impossible Creature Tools, LithUnwrap, and more
* CD-ROM includes figures and project files

ON THE CD!
The CD-ROM contains all images from the book (4-color), numerous projects that use popular game packs, and these two applications:

* gmax 1.2
- Discreet™
* Paint ShopPro 7.04 (30 day trial version)
- Jasc Software

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Applications and projects on this CD-ROM require a PC with Windows 98, 2000, or XP; 300MHz (or higher) processor; 128MB RAM; 300MB disk space; graphics card supporting 1024 x 768 x 16 bit color; Web browser and Internet connection to register the product; CD-ROM drive; mouse.

About the Author

Clayton E. Crooks II (Knoxville, TN) is a partner in Advanced Information Systems, a consulting company specializing in custom hardware and software solutions for education, small business, and government entities. His articles have appeared in Dr. Dobbs, and he is the author of Awesome Game Creation 2/E.

If you're a WLL engineer, or a non-technical manager, marketer, or regulator involved in WLL system development, you'll find the information in this book invaluable. Well written introductory chapters discuss the main areas of the telecommunications environment, and the concepts of convergence and access technologies. You learn why wireless in the local loop is seriously challenging the use of traditional copper cable, the economic issues behind wired and wireless interconnection, and even some expert WLL market forecasts.

From the Author

Wireless local loop - the use of radio to provide a communications link to homes and businesses - has been a topic of much interest in the wireless community since around 1995. However, much has changed over the last five years. In the first edition of this book, I looked in detail at the use of wireless local loop as a means to provide connections to homes at low and medium data rates. Since then the emphasis has changed towards higher bandwidth systems able to provide 1 - 10Mbits/s to homes and up to 1Gbits/s to businesses. In this second edition, I have taken the opportunity to look in detail at this new class of wireless system, with extended chapters covering broadband technology and operation. I have also looked back over the last five years to ask why the original vision for fixed wireless changed and what the implications are for the future.

The aim of this book is to be the single point of reference for engineers, managers, marketers, sales teams and others working in the area of fixed wireless, within manufacturers, operators, regulators, consultants and others involved in the industry.

I have been highly active in the fixed wireless arena since 1997, working as Motorola's head of strategy for fixed wireless and chairing and presenting at many industry conferences. This book is a synthesis of all I have heard and learnt and has become widely used within the industry.