Since the early eighties, Ali Suleyman Ustunelhas beenone of the main contributors to the field of Malliavin calculus. In a workshop held in Paris, June 2010 several prominent researchers gave exciting talks in honor of his 60th birthday. The present volume includes scientific contributions from this workshop.
Probability theory is first and foremost aimed at solving real-life problems containing randomness. Markov processes are one of the key tools for modeling that plays a vital part concerning such problems. Contributions on inventory control, mutation-selection in genetics and public-private partnerships illustrate several applications in this volume. Stochastic differential equations, be they partial or ordinary, also play a key role in stochastic modeling. Two of the contributions analyze examples that share a focus on probabilistic tools, namely stochastic analysis and stochastic calculus. Three other papers are devoted more to the theoretical development of these aspects. The volume addresses graduate students and researchers interested in stochastic analysis and its applications."

Throughout my whole career including student time I have had a feeling that leaning and teaching electromagnetism, especially macroscopic Maxwell equations (M-eqs) is dif?cult. In order to make a good use of these equations, it seemed necessary to be able to use certain empirical knowledges and model-dependent concepts, rather than pure logics. Many of my friends, colleagues and the physicists I have met on various occasions have expressed similar impressions. This is not the case with microscopic M-eqs and quantum mechanics, which do not make us feel reluctant to teach, probably because of the clear logical structure. What makes us hesitate to teach is probably because we have to explain what we ourselves do not completely understand. Logic is an essential element in physics, as well as in mathematics, so that it does not matter for physicists to experience dif?culties at the initial phase, as far as the logical structure is clear. As the we- known principles of physics say, "a good theory should be logically consistent and explain relevant experiments." Our feeling about macroscopic M-eqs may be related with some incompleteness of their logical structure.

This volume contains the proceedings from two closely related workshops: Computational Diffusion MRI (CDMRI 13) and Mathematical Methods from Brain Connectivity (MMBC 13), held under the auspices of the 16th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, which took place in Nagoya, Japan, September 2013.

Inside, readers will find contributions ranging from mathematical foundations and novel methods for the validation of inferring large-scale connectivity from neuroimaging data to the statistical analysis of the data, accelerated methods for data acquisition, and the most recent developments on mathematical diffusion modeling.

This volume offers a valuable starting point for anyone interested in learning computational diffusion MRI and mathematical methods for brain connectivity as well as offers new perspectives and insights on current research challenges for those currently in the field. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in computer science, MR physics, and applied mathematics.

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Although many archaeologists have a good understanding of the basics in computer science, statistics, geostatistics, modeling, and data mining, more literature is needed about the advanced analysis in these areas. This book aids archaeologists in learning more advanced tools and methods while also helping mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists with no previous knowledge of the field realize the potential of the methods in archaeological experiments.

By the dawn of the new millennium, robotics has undergone a major transformation in scope and dimensions. This expansion has been brought about by the maturity of the field and the advances in its related technologies. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenges of the human world. The new generation of robots is expected to safely and dependably co-habitat with humans in homes, workplaces, and communities, providing support in services, entertainment, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and assistance. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has produced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scientific disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neuros- ences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the field of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The goal of the series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) is to bring, in a timely fashion, the latest advances and developments in robotics on the basis of their significance and quality. It is our hope that the wider dissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing field.

These are the proceedings of the 20th international conference on domain decomposition methods in science and engineering. Domain decomposition methods are iterative methods for solving the often very large linearor nonlinear systems of algebraic equations that arise when various problems in continuum mechanics are discretized using finite elements. They are designed for massively parallel computers and take the memory hierarchy of such systems in mind. This is essential for approaching peak floating point performance. There is an increasingly well developed theory whichis having a direct impact on the development and improvements of these algorithms.

This book is based upon lectures presented in the summer of 2009 at the INFN-Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati School on Attractor Mechanism, directed by Stefano Bellucci. The symposium included such prestigious lecturers as S. Ferrara, G. Dall'Agata, J.F. Morales, J. Simon and M. Trigiante. All lectures were given at a pedagogical, introductory level, which is reflected in the specific "flavor" of this volume. The book also benefits from extensive discussions about, and the related reworking of, the various contributions. It is the fifth volume in a series of books on the general topics of supersymmetry, supergravity, black holes and the attractor mechanism.

This new Handbook addresses the state of the art in the application of operations research models to problems in preventing terrorist attacks, planning and preparing for emergencies, and responding to and recovering from disasters. The purpose of the book is to enlighten policy makers and decision makers about the power of operations research to help organizations plan for and respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and public health emergencies, while at the same time providing researchers with one single source of up-to-date research and applications. The Handbook consists of nine separate chapters: Using Operations Research Methods for Homeland Security Problems Operations Research and Homeland Security: Overview and Case Study of Pandemic Influenza Deployed Security Games for Patrol Planning Interdiction Models and Applications Time Discrepant Shipments in Manifest Data Achieving Realistic Levels of Defensive Hedging Mitigating the Risk of an Anthrax Attack with Medical Countermeasures Service Networks for Public Health Preparedness and Large-scale Disaster Relief Efforts Disaster Response Planning in the Private Sector

This book, based on a graduate course given by the authors, is a pedagogic and self-contained introduction to the renormalization group with special emphasis on the functional renormalization group. The functional renormalization group is a modern formulation of the Wilsonian renormalization group in terms of formally exact functional differential equations for generating functionals.

In Part I the reader is introduced to the basic concepts of the renormalization group idea, requiring only basic knowledge of equilibrium statistical mechanics. More advanced methods, such as diagrammatic perturbation theory, are introduced step by step.

Part II then gives a self-contained introduction to the functional renormalization group. After a careful definition of various types of generating functionals, the renormalization group flow equations for these functionals are derived. This procedure is shown to encompass the traditional method of the mode elimination steps of the Wilsonian renormalization group procedure. Then, approximate solutions of these flow equations using expansions in powers of irreducible vertices or in powers of derivatives are given.

Finally, in Part III the exact hierarchy of functional renormalization group flow equations for the irreducible vertices is used to study various aspects of non-relativistic fermions, including the so-called BCS-BEC crossover, thereby making the link to contemporary research topics.

The production of heavy quarks in high-energy experiments offers a rich field to study, both experimentally and theoretically. Due to the additional quark mass, the description of these processes in the framework of perturbative QCD is much more demanding than it is for those involving only massless partons. In the last two decades, a large amount of precision data has been collected by the deep inelastic HERA experiment. In order to make full use of these data, a more precise theoretical description of charm quark production in deep inelastic scattering is needed. This work deals with the first calculation of fixed moments of the NNLO heavy flavor corrections to the proton structure function F2 in the limit of a small charm-quark mass. The correct treatment of these terms will allow not only a more precise analysis of the HERA data, but starting from there also a more precise determination of the parton distribution functions and the strong coupling constant, which is an essential input for LHC physics. The complexity of this calculation requires the application and development of technical and mathematical methods, which are also explained here in detail.

Aerobic granular sludge technology will play an important role as an innovative technology alternative to the present activated sludge process in industrial and municipal wastewater treatment in the near future. Intended to fill the gaps in the studies of aerobic granular sludge, this thesis comprehensively investigates the formation, characterization and mathematical modeling of aerobic granular sludge, through integrating the process engineering tools and advanced molecular microbiology. The research results of this thesis contributed significantly to the advance of understanding and optimization of the bacterial granulation processes, the next generation of technology for cost-effective biological wastewater treatment. Dr. Bing-Jie Ni works at Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC) of The University of Queensland, Australia.

This book is the first monograph providing an introduction to and an overview of numerical methods for the simulation of two-phase incompressible flows. The Navier-Stokes equations describing the fluid dynamics are examined in combination with models for mass and surfactant transport. The book pursues a comprehensive approach: important modeling issues are treated, appropriate weak formulations are derived, level set and finite element discretization techniques are analyzed, efficient iterative solvers are investigated, implementational aspects are considered and the results of numerical experiments are presented. The book is aimed at M Sc and PhD students and other researchers in the fields of Numerical Analysis and Computational Engineering Science interested in the numerical treatment of two-phase incompressible flows.

This monograph lays down the foundations of the theory of complex Kleinian groups, a newly born area of mathematics whose origin traces back to the work of Riemann, Poincare, Picard and many others. Kleinian groups are, classically, discrete groups of conformal automorphisms of the Riemann sphere, and these can be regarded too as being groups of holomorphic automorphisms of the complex projective line CP1. When going into higher dimensions, there is a dichotomy: Should we look at conformal automorphisms of the n-sphere?, or should we look at holomorphic automorphisms of higher dimensional complex projective spaces? These two theories are different in higher dimensions. In the first case we are talking about groups of isometries of real hyperbolic spaces, an area of mathematics with a long-standing tradition. In the second case we are talking about an area of mathematics that still is in its childhood, and this is the focus of study in this monograph. This brings together several important areas of mathematics, as for instance classical Kleinian group actions, complex hyperbolic geometry, chrystallographic groups and the uniformization problem for complex manifolds. "

A billiard is a dynamical system in which a point particle alternates between free motion and specular reflections fromthe boundaryof a domain."Exterior Billiards" presents billiards in the complement of domains and their applications in aerodynamics and geometrical optics.

This book distinguishes itself from existing literature by presenting billiard dynamics "outside" bounded domains, including scattering, resistance, invisibility and retro-reflection. It begins with an overview of the mathematical notations used throughout the book and a brief review of the main results. Chapters 2 and 3 are focused on problems of minimal resistance and Newton s problem in media with positive temperature. In chapters 4 and 5, scattering of billiards bynonconvex and rough domains is characterized and some related special problems of optimal mass transportation are studied. Applications in aerodynamics are addressed next and problems of invisibility and retro-reflection within the framework of geometric optics conclude the text.

The book will appeal to mathematicians working in dynamical systems and calculus of variations. Specialists working in the areas of applications discussed will also find it useful."

This unique book describes, analyses, and improves various approaches and techniques for the numerical solution of delay differential equations. It includes a list of available codes and also aids the reader in writing his or her own.

This volume reflects "New Trends in Shape Optimization" and is based on a workshop of the same name organized at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg in September 2013. During the workshop senior mathematicians and young scientists alike presented their latest findings. The format of the meeting allowed fruitful discussions on challenging open problems, and triggered a number of new and spontaneous collaborations. As such, the idea was born to produce this book, each chapter of which was written by a workshop participant, often with a collaborator. The content of the individual chapters ranges from survey papers to original articles; some focus on the topics discussed at the Workshop, while others involve arguments outside its scope but which are no less relevant for the field today. As such, the book offers readers a balanced introduction to the emerging field of shape optimization.

This monograph presents the state of the art in aeroservoelastic (ASE) modeling and analysis and develops a systematic theoretical and computational framework for use by researchers and practicing engineers. It is the first book to focus on the mathematical modeling of structural dynamics, unsteady aerodynamics, and control systems to evolve a generic procedure to be applied for ASE synthesis. Existing robust, nonlinear, and adaptive control methodology is applied and extended to some interesting ASE problems, such as transonic flutter and buffet, post-stall buffet and maneuvers, and flapping flexible wing. The author derives a general aeroservoelastic plant via the finite-element structural dynamic model, unsteady aerodynamic models for various regimes in the frequency domain, and the associated state-space model by rational function approximations. For more advanced models, the full-potential, Euler, and Navier-Stokes methods for treating transonic and separated flows are also briefly addressed. Essential ASE controller design and analysis techniques are introduced to the reader, and an introduction to robust control-law design methods of LQG/LTR and H2/H synthesis is followed by a brief coverage of nonlinear control techniques of describing functions and Lyapunov functions. Practical and realistic aeroservoelastic application examples derived from actual experiments are included throughout. Aeroservoelasiticity fills an important gap in the aerospace engineering literature and will be a valuable guide for graduate students and advanced researchers in aerospace engineering, as well as professional engineers, technicians, and test pilots in the aircraft industry and laboratories.

This book gives a general view of sequence analysis, the statistical study of successions of states, events or actions, one of the most promising venues of social science methodology.It includesinnovative contributions on life course studies, transitions into and out of work, contemporaneous and historical careers, time use, residential trajectories and political careers. The approach presented in this book is now central to the life-course perspective and the study of other social processes.

This book promotes the dialogue between approaches to sequence analysis that developed separately, within traditions contrasted in space and disciplines. It includes the latest developments about sequential concepts, coding, atypical datasets and time patterns, optimal matching and alternative algorithms, survey optimization and visualization. Field studies include original sequential material related to parenting in 19th-century Belgium, higher education and work in Finland and Italy, family formation before and after German reunification, French Jews persecuted in occupied France, long-term trends in electoral participation and regime democratization.

Overall the book reassesses the classical uses of sequences as well as it promotes new ways of collecting, formatting, representing and processing them. The introduction provides basic sequential concepts and tools, as well as a history of the method. Chapters are presented in a way that is both accessible to the beginner and informative to the expert."

There is no recent elementary introduction to the theory of discrete dynamical systems that stresses the topological background of the topic. This book fills this gap: it deals with this theory as 'applied general topology'. We treat all important concepts needed to understand recent literature. The book is addressed primarily to graduate students. The prerequisites for understanding this book are modest: a certain mathematical maturity and course in General Topology are sufficient.

This volume presents a collection of contributions dedicated to applied problems in the financial and energy sectors that have been formulated and solved in a stochastic optimization framework. The invited authors represent a group of scientists and practitioners, who cooperated in recent years to facilitate the growing penetration of stochastic programming techniques in real-world applications, inducing a significant advance over a large spectrum of complex decision problems.

After the recent widespread liberalization of the energy sector in Europe and the unprecedented growth of energy prices in international commodity markets, we have witnessed a significant convergence of strategic decision problems in the energy and financial sectors. This has often resulted in common open issues and has induced a remarkable effort by the industrial and scientific communities to facilitate the adoption of advanced analytical and decision tools. The main concerns of the financial community over the last decade have suddenly penetrated the energy sector inducing a remarkable scientific and practical effort to address previously unforeseeable management problems. This proposal aims to include in a unified framework for the first time an extensive set of contributions related to real-world applied problems in finance and energy, leading to a common methodological approach and in many cases having similar underlying economic and financial implications.

During the spring and the summer of 2007 the School of Stochastic Programming held in Bergamo (www.unibg.it/sps2007), and the eleventh symposium on Stochastic Programming in Vienna (http: //www.univie.ac.at/spxi), offered two venues for the presentation of the chapters included in the volume. After the two events, during the fall of 2007, all the invited contributors enthusiastically accepted the invitation to present their original work in the projected volume, from which this proposal was developed.

The volume is structured in three parts, devoted to contributions related to financial applications - Part I, with 7 chapters; energy applications - Part II, with 8 chapters; and to specific theoretical and computational issues - Part III, with 6 chapters -- recently developed in the scientific community and explicitly related to the applied problems presented.

This book introduces a unique, packet-based co-design control framework for networked control systems. It begins by providing a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art research on networked control systems, giving readers a general overview of the field. It then verifies the proposed control framework both theoretically and experimentally - the former using multiple control methodologies, and the latter using a unique online test rig for networked control systems. The framework investigates in detail the most common, communication constraints, including network-induced delays, data packet dropout, data packet disorders, and network access constraints, as well as multiple controller design and system analysis tools such as model predictive control, linear matrix inequalities and optimal control. This unique and complete co-design framework greatly benefits researchers, graduate students and engineers in the fields of control theory and engineering.

This book contains selected papers of the 11th OpenFOAM (R) Workshop that was held in Guimaraes, Portugal, June 26 - 30, 2016. The 11th OpenFOAM (R) Workshop had more than 140 technical/scientific presentations and 30 courses, and was attended by circa 300 individuals, representing 180 institutions and 30 countries, from all continents. The OpenFOAM (R) Workshop provided a forum for researchers, industrial users, software developers, consultants and academics working with OpenFOAM (R) technology. The central part of the Workshop was the two-day conference, where presentations and posters on industrial applications and academic research were shown. OpenFOAM (R) (Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation) is a free, open source computational toolbox that has a larger user base across most areas of engineering and science, from both commercial and academic organizations. As a technology, OpenFOAM (R) provides an extensive range of features to solve anything from complex fluid flows involving chemical reactions, turbulence and heat transfer, to solid dynamics and electromagnetics, among several others. Additionally, the OpenFOAM technology offers complete freedom to customize and extend its functionalities.