The construction enterprise is being transformed by visual modelling. Once principally used by researchers and in niche industries, tools such as 3D/4D CAD and virtual reality are now in widespread use in construction. This book is both a survey of the changes being made in practice and a detailed guide to future directions for research and development bringing together the work of leading practitioners and academics. A particular strength of the book is its many detailed case studies and examples, making it an excellent resource for practitioners, researchers, and students seeking to understand the details of how new tools and methods are applied in a business context. The 11 chapters address following topics: - Uses of 3D/4D CAD and its costs and benefits, - Applications of visual modelling at the work face, - Applications of visual modelling in the designer office, - Technical integration of visual modelling tools such as 3D/4D CAD and virtual reality.

This book looks closely at the endings of narrative digital games, examining their ways of concluding the processes of both storytelling and play in order to gain insight into what endings are and how we identify them in different media. While narrative digital games share many representational strategies for signalling their upcoming end with more traditional narrative media - such as novels or movies - they also show many forms of endings that often radically differ from our conventional understanding of conclusion and closure. From vast game worlds that remain open for play after a story's finale, to multiple endings that are often hailed as a means for players to create their own stories, to the potentially tragic endings of failure and "game over", digital games question the traditional singularity and finality of endings. Using a broad range of examples, this book delves deeply into these and other forms and their functions, both to reveal the closural specificities of the ludonarrative hybrid that digital games are, as well as to find the core elements that characterise endings in any medium. It examines how endings make themselves known to players and raises the question of how well-established closural conventions blend with play and a player's effort to achieve a goal. As an interdisciplinary study that draws on game studies as much as on transmedial narratology, Forms and Functions of Endings in Narrative Digital Games is suited for scholars and students of digital games as well as for narratologists yet to become familiar with this medium.

This book illustrates the current work of leading multilevel modeling (MLM) researchers from around the world.

The book's goal is to critically examine the real problems that occur when trying to use MLMs in applied research, such as power, experimental design, and model violations. This presentation of cutting-edge work and statistical innovations in multilevel modeling includes topics such as growth modeling, repeated measures analysis, nonlinear modeling, outlier detection, and meta analysis.

This volume will be beneficial for researchers with advanced statistical training and extensive experience in applying multilevel models, especially in the areas of education; clinical intervention; social, developmental and health psychology, and other behavioral sciences; or as a supplement for an introductory graduate-level course.

Real Application Clusters (RAC) and the Grid architecture are Oracle's strategy for scaling out enterprise systems to cope with bigger workloads and more users. Many books limit themselves by conceptualizing and theorizing about RAC technology, but this book is the first to portray implementing and administering an Oracle 10"g" RAC system in a Linux environment. This book features basic concepts underlying Linux and Oracle RAC, design strategies, hardware procurement and configuration, and many other topics.

The RAC-specific technologies described include configuration of the interconnect, OCFS, ASM, Cluster Ready Services, and Grid Control. The Oracle features RMAN and Data Guard are also discussed, along with available hardware options. The authors include practical examples and configuration information, so that upon reading this book, youll be armed with the information you need to build an Oracle RAC database on Linux, whether it is on a single laptop or a 64-node Itanium cluster.

Sage Accounts is a straightforward accounting package, enabling small businesses to control their finances in a quick and easy manner. It assists in the smooth running of the business by enabling you to compile graphs and tables to keep track of where the money is coming from and where it is going to. The package includes summary information allowing you to view details at a glance, and provides an efficient time saving way of controlling your stock and financial records. This new edition has been fully revised and updated to ensure all information is accurate and up to date.

This book contains over 500 pages of help (crammed with close on 1000 illustrative images in 19 different chapters) on everything you need to know to create thesis formatting in Microsoft Word you can be proud of (Unfortunately, the content remains your responsibility )

The book will also be of use to any person needing to create large documents in Microsoft Word, and is thus not limited to the academic context.

Topics include:
-Learning to work faster in the Word environment
-Correct use of fonts and special characters
-Automated text input
-Working with templates
-Using styles for automated and consistent formatting
-Proper page setup
-Heading numbering
-Table/figure numbering
-Footnotes and endnotes
-Indexes
-Automated tables of content
-Search and replace
-Document navigation
-Managing large and/or multiple documents
-Citations and References
-Using Word's reviewing tools
-Tables
-Charts
-Equations
-Drawings and picture editing in Word
-Printing your dissertation

Learn how to:
-Apply different page numbering styles for different parts of the document
-Break between pages at the right places
-Automatically apply consistent heading numbering
-Format your text consistently and professionally
-Create consistent formatting across multiple documents
-Create neat and consistently formatted tables and charts
-Number tables, figures, etc. automatically
-Create cross references to tables and figures that keep track of the numbering of tables or figures
-Handle your reference citations automatically, including the creation of a reference list or Bibliography
-Create a table of contents automatically
-Automatically add often-repeated text elements
-Automatically format text elements (e.g. headings)
-Manage your foot- and endnotes properly
-Find your working place in the large document with the maximum speed and ease
-Create an index
-Combine multiple documents into one document
-And much, much more

Accompanying sample files and tools (Microsoft Word AddIn) can be downloaded from the author's website.

From the book cover:

Time is one of our most precious commodities-especially to a student completing a Master's or PhD and having to type their own thesis or dissertation, as most 21st century students now do. What would you do with an extra month to work on your dissertation? If you had to assign a financial value to a month, what would that be? That is the bold claim of this book-that typical students with a standard knowledge of Microsoft Word completing a full PhD dissertation who know and use the information provided in this book might be able to submit their dissertation approximately a month earlier (or have an extra month's worth of time to focus on their research work). This claim is made on the basis of the author's extensive experience in assisting students with problems encountered in the typing of their dissertations and teaching these principles to postgraduate students in a focused Microsoft Word training course. But it gets better. The techniques presented in this book do not save time by taking shortcuts that impinge on the quality of the final product. In fact, the focus of these techniques is how to improve the quality of the submitted dissertation by avoiding the mistakes students commonly make as a result of their lack of knowledge about the features offered by Microsoft Word. In other words, better quality work is obtained by employing techniques that simultaneously allow students to work faster. So what will you do with your month?

"Examines classic algorithms, geometric diagrams, and mechanical principles for enhances visualization of statistical estimation procedures and mathematical concepts in physics, engineering, and computer programming."

In this thesis, novel Monte Carlo methods for precisely calculating the critical phenomena of the effectively frustrated quantum spin system are developed and applied to the critical phenomena of the spin-Peierls systems. Three significant methods are introduced for the first time: a new optimization algorithm of the Markov chain transition kernel based on the geometric weight-allocation approach, the extension of the worm (directed-loop) algorithm to nonconserved particles, and the combination with the level spectroscopy. Utilizing these methods, the phase diagram of the one-dimensional XXZ spin-Peierls system is elucidated. Furthermore, the multi-chain and two-dimensional spin-Peierls systems with interchain lattice interaction are investigated. The unbiased simulation shows that the interesting quantum phase transition between the 1D-like liquid phase and the macroscopically-degenerated dimer phase occurs on the fully-frustrated parameter line that separates the doubly-degenerated dimer phases in the two-dimensional phase diagram. The spin-phonon interaction in the spin-Peierls system introduces the spin frustration, which usually hinders the quantum Monte Carlo analysis, owing to the notorious negative sign problem. In this thesis, the author has succeeded in precisely calculating the critical phenomena of the effectively frustrated quantum spin system by means of the quantum Monte Carlo method without the negative sign.

The hunt for new forms of value generation is shaping the future of economic and financial interactions, leading to the emergence of innovative business models and technological enablers. Other than challenging our time and space limits, such technological advancements, in some cases, have allowed the generation of value at nearly zero marginal cost. Inevitably, emergent tech solutions are fundamental game changers in digital and conventional finance. In this regard, the book fleshes out the core developments and trending fintech 2.0 solutions that pause challenges and bring opportunities for businesses and economies. It comprises nine main chapters with collective insights and interdisciplinary perspectives covering the business, tech, and regulatory layers of financial technologies and decentralized finance. Besides, the book illustrates how to leverage these state-of-the-art technologies for the evolving digital and decentralized finance world. The book targets a broad audience of researchers, academia, industry professionals, fintech enthusiasts, and the general business audience with timely data and up-to-date cases.

It demonstrates how features such as animation and audio can be employed to ensure web sites are used to their full potential and therefore helps to create professional products that will secure a positive image of the company or product they are promoting. It is accessible and simplifies the authoring experience so that even those with little or no previous knowledge of creating web pages can develop and innovate stimulating and interactive features to enhance their content.

This book is based on a number of systems concepts, of which the following are emphasized here: oThe interacting systems of society and the environment are dynamic and evolution ary oEvolution of these systems carries them through stages of differential stability and instability, continuity and discontinuity oAssociated with evolution and instability is structural change that is essentially irre versible oThe present is a stage of world transformation that may not have been equaled for decades or even centuries oPolicies and decisions must match the times, in the present case the stage of world transformation The time 11:59:59 PM, approximately, on December 31, 2000 has an impor tant symbolic meaning. It marks the end of a minute, the end of an hour, the end of a day, the end of a year, the end of a decade, the end of a century, and the end of a millennium. The time and date provide a convenient yardstick against which we can evaluate the evolution of our thinking and the adequacy of our assumptions, mental models, paradigms, and policies. Will the beginning tum out to be appropriately dif ferent from the end? We hope that this book is helpful in such evaluation. This is a new-paradigm book, which both presents and advances the new way of thinking about the systems of science, technology, society, economics, politics, and the environment, and actively calls for the replacement of the worn out cognitive/sociotechnical paradigm."

If you are a typical Oracle professional, you don't have the luxury of time to keep up with new technology and read all the new manuals to understand each new feature of the latest release from Oracle. You need a comprehensive source of information and in-depth tips and techniques for using the new technology. You need Oracle Internals: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for DBAs.
Oracle has evolved from a simple relational database into one of the most complex e-commerce platforms ever devised. It's not enough for you to understand just the Oracle database. You must also understand the components of the Web server technology, XML, Oracle Security, Oracle and Java, and a host of other issues in order to do your job properly.
This book is a compendium of the best and most useful articles form Oracle Internals, Auerbach Publications' newsletter for Oracle database administrators and other Oracle professionals. Edited by Oracle guru Don Burleson, it provides the type of in-depth, highly technical information not found in any other book, information only available from peers and consultants. The chapters focus on the truly tough stuff - proven techniques learned in the trenches.
You could get this information from other sources, but you'd have to hunt and peck for it. Can you afford that kind of time? Oracle Internals: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for DBAs gives you knowledge and advice directly applicable to your work in one easy-to-use resource.

'The Project Manager's Toolkit' provides a quick reference checklist approach to drive an IT development project as well as solve issues that arise in the process. It can be used proactively to set a project on the right course and reactively for solutions to problems. It will: * help identify what needs doing next on an IT project * provide quick reference 'to-do' lists for use throughout the lifecycle of an IT project * answer the need for material that can be used to quality-check project deliverables It has been designed so that those on the project team who are facing a problem can pick up the book, turn to a relevant checklist and use it as a "starter-for-ten" to find a solution. For example, how to analyse data for a data-conversion exercise, or how to measure the quality of a project deliverable. 'The Project Manager's Toolkit' therefore provides a fast way to reduce an insolvable problem/issue to a set of smaller solvable ones

"Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality" presents a broad coverage of the technologies and interface design issues associated with wearable computers and augmented reality displays both rapidly developing fields in computer science, engineering, and human interface design. This book presents concepts related to the use and underlying technologies of augmented reality and wearable computer systems. There are many application areas for this technology, such as medicine, manufacturing, training, and recreation. Wearable computers will allow a much closer association of information with the user than is possible with traditional desktop computers.
This book addresses an important aspect of wearable computers and augmented reality, either from the conceptual or from an application framework. Given the wide coverage of topics on issues related to the display of computer-generated images in the environment, this book can be used as a text for computer science, computer engineering, and interface design courses.

Many types of engineering structures exhibit nonlinear behavior under real operating conditions. Sometimes the unpredicted nonlinear behavior of a system results in catastrophic failure. In civil engineering, grandstands at sporting events and concerts may be prone to nonlinear oscillations due to looseness of joints, friction, and crowd movements. In the aerospace industry, nonlinear motions may have serious implications for fatigue life. In the automotive industry, examples include brake sequel and undesirable engine mounting oscillations. Engineers of all types encounter nonlinear behavior in a system at some time in their working lives and should be able to recognize it.
Nonlinearity in Structural Dynamics: Detection, Identification and Modeling provides a background in techniques that can be applied to situations in which nonlinearity plays, or is suspected to play, a role in the dynamic structural behavior. Striking a good balance between theory and application, the book covers both analytical and experimental methods and describes their application to real structures. The authors include numerous examples of nonlinearity in real engineering systems. The book is essential reading for engineers and scientists in the fields of structural dynamics and nonlinearity as well as a useful supplement for graduate and senior undergraduate students in engineering courses.

The constantly evolving technological infrastructure of the modem world presents a great challenge of developing software systems with increasing size, complexity, and functionality. The software engineering field has seen changes and innovations to meet these and other continuously growing challenges by developing and implementing useful software engineering methodologies. Among the more recent advances are those made in the context of software portability, formal verification. techniques, software measurement, and software reuse. However, despite the introduction of some important and useful paradigms in the software engineering discipline, their technological transfer on a larger scale has been extremely gradual and limited. For example, many software development organizations may not have a well-defined software assurance team, which can be considered as a key ingredient in the development of a high-quality and dependable software product. Recently, the software engineering field has observed an increased integration or fusion with the computational intelligence (Cl) field, which is comprised of primarily the mature technologies of fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms, genetic programming, and rough sets. Hybrid systems that combine two or more of these individual technologies are also categorized under the Cl umbrella. Software engineering is unlike the other well-founded engineering disciplines, primarily due to its human component (designers, developers, testers, etc. ) factor. The highly non-mechanical and intuitive nature of the human factor characterizes many of the problems associated with software engineering, including those observed in development effort estimation, software quality and reliability prediction, software design, and software testing."

A clear, comprehensive treatment of the subject, Environmental Statistics with S-PLUS is an ideal resource for environmental scientists, engineers, regulators, and students, even those with only a limited knowledge of statistics. It provides insight into what to think about before you collect environmental data, how to collect it, and how to make sense of it after you have it. This book addresses the vast array of methods used today by scientists, researchers, and regulators.

Through its convenient showcase of information and numerous data sets posted on the Web, Environmental Statistics with S-PLUS shows you how to implement these methods using the statistical software package S-PLUS and the add-in modules EnvironmentalStats for S-PLUS, S+SpatialStats, and S-PLUS for ArcView. This survey of statistical methods, definitions, and concepts helps you collect and effectively analyze data for environmental pollution problems.

This book includes the proceedings of the fourth workshop on recommender systems in fashion and retail (2022), and it aims to present a state-of-the-art view of the advancements within the field of recommendation systems with focused application to e-commerce, retail, and fashion by presenting readers with chapters covering contributions from academic as well as industrial researchers active within this emerging new field. Recommender systems are often used to solve different complex problems in this scenario, such as product recommendations, size and fit recommendations, and social media-influenced recommendations (outfits worn by influencers).

Microsoft's Works 2000 suite replaces Works 4.0 and the minor upgrade 4.5. The suite contains word processing, spreadsheet and database software, plus an address book, calendar and a range of templates and wizards to give users a start on many types of documents. This is an introduction to Works 2000 for new users, with the assumption that the new Works user probably has little prior experience of computers. It starts with the basics of screen control and file management, then looks at each of the main components in turn. The focus is on what is being processed - text, numbers - rather than the application being used, as the same techniques recur in different applications.

This book features the latest research in the area of immersive technologies as presented at the 7th International Extended Reality (XR) Conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2022. Bridging the gap between academia and industry, it showcases the latest advances in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR) and metaverse and their applications in various sectors such as business, marketing, retail, education, healthcare, tourism, events, fashion, entertainment, and gaming. The volume gathers selected research papers by prominent AR, VR, XR and metaverse scholars from around the world. Presenting the most significant topics and latest findings in the fields of augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality and metaverse, it will be a valuable asset for academics and practitioners alike.