This book captures the current challenges in automatic recognition of emotion in spontaneous speech and makes an effort to explain, elaborate, and propose possible solutions. Intelligent human-computer interaction (iHCI) systems thrive on several technologies like automatic speech recognition (ASR); speaker identification; language identification; image and video recognition; affect/mood/emotion analysis; and recognition, to name a few. Given the importance of spontaneity in any human-machine conversational speech, reliable recognition of emotion from naturally spoken spontaneous speech is crucial. While emotions, when explicitly demonstrated by an actor, are easy for a machine to recognize, the same is not true in the case of day-to-day, naturally spoken spontaneous speech. The book explores several reasons behind this, but one of the main reasons for this is that people, especially non-actors, do not explicitly demonstrate their emotion when they speak, thus making it difficult for machines to distinguish one emotion from another that is embedded in their spoken speech. This short book, based on some of authors' previously published books, in the area of audio emotion analysis, identifies the practical challenges in analysing emotions in spontaneous speech and puts forward several possible solutions that can assist in robustly determining the emotions expressed in spontaneous speech.

This volume comprises of 21 selected chapters, including two overview chapters devoted to abdominal imaging in clinical applications supported computer aided diagnosis approaches as well as different techniques for solving the pectoral muscle extraction problem in the preprocessing part of the CAD systems for detecting breast cancer in its early stage using digital mammograms. The aim of this book is to stimulate further research in medical imaging applications based algorithmic and computer based approaches and utilize them in real-world clinical applications. The book is divided into four parts, Part-I: Clinical Applications of Medical Imaging, Part-II: Classification and clustering, Part-III: Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) Tools and Case Studies and Part-IV: Bio-inspiring based Computer Aided diagnosis techniques.

Space robotics and autonomous systems (Space RAS) play a critical role in the current and future development of mission-defined machines that can survive in space while performing exploration, assembly, construction, maintenance and servicing tasks. They represent a multi-disciplinary emerging field at the intersection of space engineering, terrestrial robotics, computer science and materials. The field is essential to humankind's ability to explore or operate in space; providing greater access beyond human spaceflight limitations in the harsh environment of space, and offering greater operational handling that extends astronauts' capabilities. Space RAS covers all types of robotics for the exploration of planet surfaces as well as robotics used in orbit around the Earth and the sensors needed by the platform for navigation or control. Written by a team of International experts on space RAS, this book covers advanced research, technologies and applications including: sensing and perception to provide situational awareness for space robotic agents, explorers and assistants; mobility to reach and operate at sites of scientific interest on extra-terrestrial surfaces or free space environments using locomotion; manipulations to make intentional changes in the environment or objects using locomotion such as placing, assembling, digging, trenching, drilling, sampling, grappling and berthing; high-level autonomy for system and sub-systems to provide robust and safe autonomous navigation, rendezvous and docking capabilities and to enable extended-duration operations without human interventions to improve overall performance of human and robotic missions; human-robot interaction and multi-modal interaction; system engineering to provide a framework for understanding and coordinating the complex interactions of robots and achieving the desired system requirements; verification and validation of complex adaptive systems; modelling and simulation; and safety and trust.

This book discusses the mechanisms of electric conductivity in various ionic liquid systems (protic, aprotic as well as polymerized ionic liquids). It hence covers the electric properties of ionic liquids and their macromolecular counterpanes, some of the most promising materials for the development of safe electrolytes in modern electrochemical energy devices such as batteries, super-capacitors, fuel cells and dye-sensitized solar cells. Chapter contributions by the experts in the field discuss important findings obtained using broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and other complementary techniques. The book is an excellent introduction for readers who are new to the field of dielectric properties of ionic conductors, and a helpful guide for every scientist who wants to investigate the interplay between molecular structure and dynamics in ionic conductors by means of dielectric spectroscopy.

This book presents an Introduction and 11 independent chapters, which are devoted to various new approaches of intelligent image processing and analysis. The book also presents new methods, algorithms and applied systems for intelligent image processing, on the following basic topics: Methods for Hierarchical Image Decomposition; Intelligent Digital Signal Processing and Feature Extraction; Data Clustering and Visualization via Echo State Networks; Clustering of Natural Images in Automatic Image Annotation Systems; Control System for Remote Sensing Image Processing; Tissue Segmentation of MR Brain Images Sequence; Kidney Cysts Segmentation in CT Images; Audio Visual Attention Models in Mobile Robots Navigation; Local Adaptive Image Processing; Learning Techniques for Intelligent Access Control; Resolution Improvement in Acoustic Maps. Each chapter is self-contained with its own references. Some of the chapters are devoted to the theoretical aspects while the others are presenting the practical aspects and the analysis of the modeling of the developed algorithms in different application areas.

This book reflects the latest advances in nonlinear optics. Besides the simple, strict mathematical deduction, it also discusses the experimental verification and possible future applications, such as the all-optical switches. It consistently uses the practical unit system throughout. It employs simple physical images, such as "light waves" and "photons" to systematically explain the main principles of nonlinear optical effects. It uses the first-order nonlinear wave equation in frequency domain under the condition of "slowly varying amplitude approximation" and the classical model of the interaction between the light and electric dipole. At the same time, it also uses the rate equations based on the energy-level transition of particle systems excited by photons and the energy and momentum conservation principles to explain the nonlinear optical phenomenon. The book is intended for researchers, engineers and graduate students in the field of optics, optoelectronics, fiber communication, information technology and materials etc.

This book contributes to making urban rail transport fast, punctual and energy-efficient -significant factors in the importance of public transportation systems to economic, environmental and social requirements at both municipal and national levels. It proposes new methods for shortening passenger travel times and for reducing energy consumption, addressing two major topics: (1) train trajectory planning: the authors derive a nonlinear model for the operation of trains and present several approaches for calculating optimal and energy-efficient trajectories within a given schedule; and (2) train scheduling: the authors develop a train scheduling model for urban rail systems and optimization approaches with which to balance total passenger travel time with energy efficiency and other costs to the operator. Mixed-integer linear programming and pseudospectral methods are among the new methods proposed for single- and multi-train systems for the solution of the nonlinear trajectory planning problem which involves constraints such as varying speed restrictions and maximum traction/braking force. Signaling systems and their effects are also accounted for in the trajectory planning model.Origin-destination passenger demand is included in the model formulation for train scheduling. Iterative convex programming and efficient bi-level approaches are utilized in the solution of the train-scheduling problem. In addition, the splitting rates and route choices of passengers are also optimized from the system point of view. The problems and solutions described in Optimal Trajectory Planning and Train Scheduling for Urban Rail Transit Systems will interest researchers studying public transport systems and logistics whether from an academic or practitioner background as well as providing a real application for anybody studying optimization theory and predictive control.

Optical communications involves the transmission of information via optical fibres. Since the use of optical fibres for information transmission became widespread during the 1980s, the pace of technological advances in this area has been astounding. This second edition has been completely updated and revised throughout to reduce much of the mathematics, and to focus on those specific optical technologies that have emerged since the first edition. It presents new material on critical topics in the field, such as digital communications, fibre optics and lightwave networks. The text also integrates both fibre and space optics and emphasizes the systems aspects of optical communications.

This book shows how to develop efficient quantitative methods to characterize neural data and extra information that reveals underlying dynamics and neurophysiological mechanisms. Written by active experts in the field, it contains an exchange of innovative ideas among researchers at both computational and experimental ends, as well as those at the interface. Authors discuss research challenges and new directions in emerging areas with two goals in mind: to collect recent advances in statistics, signal processing, modeling, and control methods in neuroscience; and to welcome and foster innovative or cross-disciplinary ideas along this line of research and discuss important research issues in neural data analysis. Making use of both tutorial and review materials, this book is written for neural, electrical, and biomedical engineers; computational neuroscientists; statisticians; computer scientists; and clinical engineers.

More than 1,100 TEM images illustrate the science of ULSI

The natural outgrowth of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration), Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI) refers to semiconductor chips with more than 10 million devices per chip. Written by three renowned pioneers in their field, ULSI Semiconductor Technology Atlas uses examples and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) micrographs to explain and illustrate ULSI process technologies and their associated problems.

The first book available on the subject to be illustrated using TEM images, ULSI Semiconductor Technology Atlas is logically divided into four parts:

• Part I includes basic introductions to the ULSI process, device construction analysis, and TEM sample preparation
• Part II focuses on key ULSI modules—ion implantation and defects, dielectrics and isolation structures, silicides/salicides, and metallization
• Part III examines integrated devices, including complete planar DRAM, stacked cell DRAM, and trench cell DRAM, as well as SRAM as examples for process integration and development
• Part IV emphasizes special applications, including TEM in advanced failure analysis, TEM in advanced packaging development and UBM (Under Bump Metallization) studies, and high-resolution TEM in microelectronics

This innovative guide also provides engineers and managers in the microelectronics industry, as well as graduate students, with:

• More than 1,100 TEM images to illustrate the science of ULSI
• A historical introduction to the technology as well as coverage of the evolution of basic ULSI process problems and issues
• Discussion of TEM in other advanced microelectronics devices and materials, such as flash memories, SOI, SiGe devices, MEMS, and CD-ROMs

This book introduces low-noise and low-power design techniques for phase-locked loops and their building blocks. It summarizes the noise reduction techniques for fractional-N PLL design and introduces a novel capacitive-quadrature coupling technique for multi-phase signal generation. The capacitive-coupling technique has been validated through silicon implementation and can provide low phase-noise and accurate I-Q phase matching, with low power consumption from a super low supply voltage. Readers will be enabled to pick one of the most suitable QVCO circuit structures for their own designs, without additional effort to look for the optimal circuit structure and device parameters.

This book compiles some of the latest research in cooperation between robots and sensor networks. Structured in twelve chapters, this book addresses fundamental, theoretical, implementation and experimentation issues. The chapters are organized into four parts namely multi-robots systems, data fusion and localization, security and dependability, and mobility.

* Focuses only on elastic lidars and directly related topics.
* Evaluates all of the major inversion and analysis methods.
* Covers an emerging field that is generating a lot of interest.

A comprehensive examination of free electron lasers, designed to serve both as a tutorial text and a reference work to the field. Coverage includes incoherent undulator radiation, coherent emission sideband instabilities, coherent harmonic radiation and optical guiding.

In industrial engineering and manufacturing, control of individual processes and systems is crucial to developing a quality final product. Rapid developments in technology are pioneering new techniques of research in control and automation with multi-disciplinary applications in electrical, electronic, chemical, mechanical, aerospace, and instrumentation engineering. The Handbook of Research on Advanced Intelligent Control Engineering and Automation presents the latest research into intelligent control technologies with the goal of advancing knowledge and applications in various domains. This text will serve as a reference book for scientists, engineers, and researchers, as it features many applications of new computational and mathematical tools for solving complicated problems of mathematical modeling, simulation, and control.

This new and expanded monograph improves upon Mohan's earlier book, Residue Number Systems (Springer, 2002) with a state of the art treatment of the subject. Replete with detailed illustrations and helpful examples, this book covers a host of cutting edge topics such as the core function, the quotient function, new Chinese Remainder theorems, and large integer operations. It also features many significant applications to practical communication systems and cryptography such as FIR filters and elliptic curve cryptography. Starting with a comprehensive introduction to the basics and leading up to current research trends that are not yet widely distributed in other publications, this book will be of interest to both researchers and students alike.

This volume presents the selected papers of the First International Conference on Fundamental Research in Electrical Engineering, held at Khwarazmi University, Tehran, Iran in July, 2017. The selected papers cover the whole spectrum of the main four fields of Electrical Engineering (Electronic, Telecommunications, Control, and Power Engineering).

This book introduces a novel Ti-Sb-Te alloy for high-speed and low-power phase-change memory applications, which demonstrates a phase-change mechanism that differs significantly from that of conventional Ge2Sb2Te5 and yields favorable overall performance. Systematic methods, combined with better material characteristics, are used to optimize the material components and device performance. Subsequently, a phase-change memory chip based on the optimized component is successfully fabricated using 40-nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology, which offers a number of advantages in many embedded applications.

The book, 'Laser Physics and Technology', addresses fundamentals of laser physics, representative laser systems and techniques, and some important applications of lasers. The present volume is a collection of articles based on some of the lectures delivered at the School on 'Laser Physics and Technology' organized at Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology during March, 12-30, 2012. The objective of the School was to provide an in-depth knowledge of the important aspects of laser physics and technology to doctoral students and young researchers and motivate them for further work in this area. In keeping with this objective, the fourteen chapters, written by leading Indian experts, based on the lectures delivered by them at the School, provide along with class room type coverage of the fundamentals of the field, a brief review of the current status of the field. The book will be useful for doctoral students and young scientists who are embarking on a research in this area as well as to professionals who would be interested in knowing the current state of the field particularly in Indian context.

This book explains the fundamentals of control theory for Internet of Things (IoT) systems and smart grids and its applications. It discusses the challenges imposed by large-scale systems, and describes the current and future trends and challenges in decision-making for IoT in detail, showing the ongoing industrial and academic research in the field of smart grid domain applications. It presents step-by-step design guidelines for the modeling, design, customisation and calibration of IoT systems applied to smart grids, in which the challenges increase with each system's increasing complexity. It also provides solutions and detailed examples to demonstrate how to use the techniques to overcome these challenges, as well as other problems related to decision-making for successful implementation. Further, it anaylses the features of decision-making, such as low-complexity and fault-tolerance, and uses open-source and publicly available software tools to show readers how they can design, implement and customise their own system control instantiations. This book is a valuable resource for power engineers and researchers, as it addresses the analysis and design of flexible decision-making mechanisms for smart grids. It is also of interest to students on courses related to control of large-scale systems, since it covers the use of state-of-the-art technology with examples and solutions in every chapter. And last but not least, it offers practical advice for professionals working with smart grids.

This book introduces a new level of abstraction that closes the gap between the textual specification of embedded systems and the executable model at the Electronic System Level (ESL). Readers will be enabled to operate at this new, Formal Specification Level (FSL), using models which not only allow significant verification tasks in this early stage of the design flow, but also can be extracted semi-automatically from the textual specification in an interactive manner. The authors explain how to use these verification tasks to check conceptual properties, e.g. whether requirements are in conflict, as well as dynamic behavior, in terms of execution traces.

Failure Mechanisms in Semiconductor Devices Second Edition E. Ajith Amerasekera Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, USA Farid N. Najm University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Since the successful first edition of Failure Mechanisms in Semiconductor Devices, semiconductor technology has become increasingly important. The high complexity of today's integrated circuits has engendered a demand for greater component reliability. Reflecting the need for guaranteed performance in consumer applications, this thoroughly updated edition includes more detailed material on reliability modelling and prediction. The book analyses the main failure mechanisms in terms of cause, effects and prevention and explains the mathematics behind reliability analysis. The authors detail methodologies for the identification of failures and describe the approaches for building reliability into semiconductor devices. Their thorough yet accessible text covers the physics of failure mechanisms from the semiconductor die itself to the packaging and interconnections. Incorporating recent advances, this comprehensive survey of semiconductor reliability will be an asset to both engineers and graduate students in the field.