Discover New Methods for Dealing with High-Dimensional Data A sparse statistical model has only a small number of nonzero parameters or weights; therefore, it is much easier to estimate and interpret than a dense model. Statistical Learning with Sparsity: The Lasso and Generalizations presents methods that exploit sparsity to help recover the underlying signal in a set of data. Top experts in this rapidly evolving field, the authors describe the lasso for linear regression and a simple coordinate descent algorithm for its computation. They discuss the application of 1 penalties to generalized linear models and support vector machines, cover generalized penalties such as the elastic net and group lasso, and review numerical methods for optimization. They also present statistical inference methods for fitted (lasso) models, including the bootstrap, Bayesian methods, and recently developed approaches. In addition, the book examines matrix decomposition, sparse multivariate analysis, graphical models, and compressed sensing. It concludes with a survey of theoretical results for the lasso. In this age of big data, the number of features measured on a person or object can be large and might be larger than the number of observations. This book shows how the sparsity assumption allows us to tackle these problems and extract useful and reproducible patterns from big datasets. Data analysts, computer scientists, and theorists will appreciate this thorough and up-to-date treatment of sparse statistical modeling.

In response to the damage caused by a growth-led global economy, researchers across the world started investigating the association between environmental pollution and its possible determinants using different models and techniques. Most famously, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesizes an inverted U-shaped association between environmental quality and gross domestic product (GDP). This book explores the latest literature on the environmental Kuznets curve, including developments in the methodology, the impacts of the pandemic, and other recent findings. Researchers have recently broadened the range of the list of drivers of environmental pollution under consideration, which now includes variables such as foreign direct investment, trade expansion, financial development, human activities, population growth, and renewable and nonrenewable energy resources, all of which vary across different countries and times. And in addition to CO2 emissions, other proxies for environmental quality – such as water, land, and ecological footprints – have been used in recent studies. This book also incorporates analysis of the relationship between economic growth and the environment during the COVID-19 crisis, presenting new empirical work on the impact of the pandemic on energy use, the financial sector, trade, and tourism. Collectively, these developments have improved the direction and extent of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and broadened the basket of dependent and independent variables which may be incorporated. This book will be invaluable reading for researchers in environmental economics and econometrics.

Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.

The exclusive role of natural ecosystems is a key factor in the maintenance of the biospheric equilibrium. The current global crisis is largely caused by their dramatic decline by 43% in the past hundred years. Ignoring the immutable laws and limitations which determine the existence of all living things in the biosphere could lead humanity to an ecological catastrophe. This book presents the ecological, demographic, economic and socio-psychological manifestations of the global crisis and outlines the immutable laws and limitations which determine the existence of all living things in the biosphere.

The authors are eminently qualified to write about the problems associated with the global crisis and consider the causes behind humanity's conflict with its environment. V. Danilov-Danilian, Associate of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russia's former Minister of the Environment, and K. Losev, professor at Moscow State university, are leading Russian ecologists and I. Reyf is a journalist who specializes in ecology and global development. Dr. Danilov-Danilian works on the economics of nature management, economic and mathematical model building, sustainable development theory and ecology. Dr Losev is the chief researcher and head of the division of the VINITI. All the authors have published numerous papers, articles and books on such subjects as glaciology, hydrology, environment studies, global change and sustainable development.

This book comprises the select peer-reviewed papers presented at the 7th Indian Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference (7IYGEC 2019) held at the National Institute of Technology, Silchar. It covers recent research developments in geotechnical engineering particularly in the fields of shallow and deep foundations, rock mechanics, ground improvement techniques, geotechnical earthquake engineering, and characterization of soil. The book also discusses several computational techniques to model behavior of soil which can be useful for future research. A special emphasis is given on geo-environmental engineering for making the world cleaner and safer to live. Given the contents, the book will be beneficial for students, researchers, and professionals working in geotechnical engineering and allied areas.

Presents current research in AOP techniques along with hybrid technologies Covers latest advances in technological know-how for remediation of wastewater soiled with micropollutants Discusses pressing environmental pollution issues associated with AOPs needed for wastewater remediation Presents future perspective as well as techno-economic analysis in implementing various AOPs Reviews strategies to limit the micropollutants in water bodies

This book explores the main concerns for grappling with increasing environmental disasters and examines how environmental disasters are understood by states, corporations, and non-government organizations nationally and internationally. The focus of this book is threefold: first, to investigate what constitutes an environmental disaster and to identify the parameters for political responses nationally and internationally. Second, the chapters analyse contemporary state practices that exacerbate the impact of, and responses to, environmental disasters. They show how states promote extractivism based on limited understandings of nature drawn from Western philosophy. Finally, the book highlights the strengths and weaknesses in political and institutional responses at the local level to such disasters by state and non-state actors. This shows how both slow and fast violence of environmental disasters affects communities, but also how vulnerable subjects are based on people's capabilities. The Politics of 21st Century Environmental Disaster is an indispensable resource for students and scholars in political science and environmental studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Environmental Politics.

Features • Presents an accessible introduction to the topic in addition to more advanced material for specialists in the field. • Covers a broad spectrum of topics this new field. • Contains exciting case studies and examples, such as quantum dots, bionanomaterials, and future perspectives.

This book describes a comprehensive selection of ocean processes such as wave phenomena (surface, internal gravitational, and acoustic waves), the influence of surfactants and pollutants on the aquatic environment's dynamics, the models of the stratified natural environment, convective phenomena in the ocean, and the interaction of wave and convective processes. Finally, this book dedicates the last section to unsolved problems in the physics of anomalous waves. Most of the chapters present the most hegemonic theories but also they introduce the revulsive ideas based on alternative approaches. The underlying mathematical models are scientifically justified both at the physical and formal mathematical levels. In all known limiting cases lead to well-known classical results. They are in good agreement with experimental data. Several sections show the application of developed approaches to the description of natural phenomena. The book is of interest to specialists working in the field of ocean physics, as well as undergraduate and graduate students specializing in marine physics and oceanography.

A Tour of Data Science: Learn R and Python in Parallel covers the fundamentals of data science, including programming, statistics, optimization, and machine learning in a single short book. It does not cover everything, but rather, teaches the key concepts and topics in Data Science. It also covers two of the most popular programming languages used in Data Science, R and Python, in one source. Key features: Allows you to learn R and Python in parallel Cover statistics, programming, optimization and predictive modelling, and the popular data manipulation tools - data.table and pandas Provides a concise and accessible presentation Includes machine learning algorithms implemented from scratch, linear regression, lasso, ridge, logistic regression, gradient boosting trees, etc. Appealing to data scientists, statisticians, quantitative analysts, and others who want to learn programming with R and Python from a data science perspective.

This volume presents a timely recognition, warning and mapping of the fast approaching wave, or "bio-tsunami", of global socio-technical transformation, built by a much wider spectrum of converging powers, including biotechnology, new agriculture, novel foods, health, quality of life, environment, energy, sustainability, education, knowledge management, and design of smart applications. The book contains eight sections corresponding to different clusters of bioeconomic and socio-technical change, as identified by the editors' "Scanning the Horizon" foresight research; it also offers an integrated view of the future bioeconomy landscape though the convergence of several technologies that affect everyday life. The clusters offer methodologies for forecasting the future bioeconomy, and how these predictions can affect target-setting and the orientation of policies and actions to manage cultural and societal change, and achieve sustainable development in less developed areas. The book will be of interest to researchers, producers, logistics experts, policy makers, regulators, business and financial institutions, and biotechnologists (e.g. geneticists, food experts, etc.).

There are very few books that focus on the unique challenges of technology leadership that are written by a technology leader. This book examines leadership challenges that technologists face and provides simple strategies and practical tools for increasing personal leadership skills. The book provides a path to move from being an average leader to being a great leader.

For centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.

Dutch planning is widely known and admired for its ambitions and its achievements. This book provides, for the first time, a comprehensive description and analysis in English of its full range of policies and practices. It gives an up-to-date account of the principles - written and unwritten - behind the planning, and in addition shows how the practice sometimes ignores those principles in order to achieve better results. It describes the content of the policies, the measures taken to realise them, and the successes and failures. The book is not uncritical of Dutch land-use planning, but the author values its strengths and believes that planning in other countries could learn from them. These strengths arise in the continuing tension between the high ambitions of the Dutch planning, and the ingenuity and pragmatism exercised in order to realise those ambitions.

This book discusses molecular approaches in plant as response to environmental factors, such as variations in temperature, water availability, salinity, and metal stress. The book also covers the impact of increasing global population, urbanization, and industrialization on these molecular behaviors. It covers the natural tolerance mechanism which plants adopt to cope with adverse environments, as well as the novel molecular strategies for engineering the plants in human interest. This book will be of interest to researchers working on the impact of the changing environment on plant ecology, issues of crop yield, and nutrient quantity and quality in agricultural crops. The book will be of interest to researchers as well as policy makers in the environmental and agricultural domains.

- Presents the first career retrospective of Peter Goin's work, with contextualized close readings of images and rare insight into the artist's intent, decisions, and evolution - Written by a renowned literary ecocritic to provide broad, interdisciplinary appeal across subjects such as photography, ecocriticism and environmental humanities - Beautifully illustrated with 200 colour and black and white photographs

This volume brings together contributions that provide a snapshot of current food research. What is Food? acknowledges the many dimensions of food, including its social, cultural, symbolic and sensual qualities, while also being material in that it is fundamental to our survival. The collection addresses contemporary challenges and reflects the concerns of funders and researchers working in the broad field of the sociology of food: dietary health, sustainability, food safety and food poverty. Reflecting broader academic trends, the chapters are moreover concerned with interdisciplinarity, the analysis of change, data reuse and the use of social media as data. The book includes empirical evidence from around the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan and addresses food both as a lens through which to examine these wider social relationships, processes and social change and as a primary subject. The contributions will be of interest to a wide range of students and researchers looking for a cutting-edge insight into how to frame and study food in areas related to the sociology of food, health, risk, poverty, sustainability and research methods.

1. Provides comprehensive analysis of the eco-physiological aspects of the novel plant growth regulators 2. Useful for investigators in plant physiology, developmental biology, crop biotechnology, plant breeding, plant signaling and communication. 3. Explains the integrative role of strigolactones, karrikins and alkamides in plant development and signaling

Covers three important aspects of smart cities i.e., healthcare, smart communication and information, and smart transportation technologies Discusses on various security aspects of medical documents and the data preserving mechanisms Provides better solution using IoT techniques for healthcare, transportation, and communication systems Includes the implementation example, various datasets, experimental results, and simulation procedures Offers solution for various disease prediction systems with intelligent techniques

Features • Discusses novel methods of cancer diagnostics and cancer treatment. • Details non and minimally-invasive photonics techniques. • Explores the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence to these novel techniques.

This reference text presents the usage of artificial intelligence in healthcare and discusses the challenges and solutions of using advanced techniques like wearable technologies and image processing in the sector. Features: Focuses on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare with issues, applications, and prospects Presents the application of artificial intelligence in medical imaging, fractionalization of early lung tumour detection using a low intricacy approach, etc Discusses an artificial intelligence perspective on wearable technology Analyses cardiac dynamics and assessment of arrhythmia by classifying heartbeat using electrocardiogram (ECG) Elaborates machine learning models for early diagnosis of depressive mental affliction This book serves as a reference for students and researchers analyzing healthcare data. It can also be used by graduate and post graduate students as an elective course.

First-hand technical expertise – torch has been developed in/by the author’s team at RStudio. Presupposes only a minimal background in mathematics. Presupposes no background in optimization and/or deep learning (but some general ideas about machine learning). Entertaining and fun to read (at least that’s the intention!). Concept-first approach

This book offers a deeper historical context to the interplay between the physical fortunes of climate and weather and the ways in which the Tamil society experienced it in the medieval age. It touches upon the rainfall, famines and droughts, storms and cyclones, earthquakes, floods and tsunamis, temperature and atmospheric pressure of the modern age, noticed by the Catholic and Protestant missionaries, European traders, travellers, the East India Company officials and servants using scientific instruments. Based on a greater variety of Tamil sources, missionary letters and reports, British and French colonial records, the monograph presents the reading of history through the lens of climate change and provides a more complete picture of Tamil landscape and environment in South India from the ninth to the nineteenth century. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

Taking a practical approach to the subject, Advanced Engineering Mathematics with MATLABr, Third Edition continues to integrate technology into the conventional topics of engineering mathematics. The author employs MATLAB to reinforce concepts and solve problems that require heavy computation. MATLAB scripts are available for download at www.crcpress.com Along with new examples, problems, and projects, this updated and expanded edition incorporates several significant improvements. New to the Third Edition * New chapter on Green's functions * New section that uses the matrix exponential to solve systems of differential equations * More numerical methods for solving differential equations, including Adams-Bashforth and finite element methods * New chapter on probability that presents basic concepts, such as mean, variance, and probability density functions * New chapter on random processes that focuses on noise and other random fluctuations Suitable for a differential equations course or a variety of engineering mathematics courses, the text covers fundamental techniques and concepts as well as Laplace transforms, separation of variable solutions to partial differential equations, the z-transform, the Hilbert transform, vector calculus, and linear algebra. It also highlights many modern applications in engineering to show how these topics are used in practice. A solutions manual is available for qualifying instructors.

This book highlights the significance of using sustainable energy to prevent the deterioration of our planet using heat pumps. Energy sustainability can be achieved through improved energy efficiency. In this regard, heat pumps offer an energy-efficient alternative for heating and cooling. To drive the adoption of heat pumps as a key component of sustainable buildings, the authors focus on examining sustainable practices in heat pump operations and innovative system design. In view of the growing desire to use sustainable energy to meet heating and cooling demands and improve indoor air quality, this book offers a valuable reference guide to the available options in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) system design. To begin with, the authors define sustainable energy and discuss the trend of "thinking green" in building design. They then discuss sustainable practices and heat pump applications in mapping out HVAC systems. In turn, they examine the use of green operations to promote sustainable practices and, in order to highlight the importance of innovative design, discuss the configuration options and precision control aspects. In closing, the authors illustrate innovative sustainable design on the basis of several energy-efficient cases. The book's main goal is to drive the adoption of sustainable energy solutions. Heat pumps, it argues, represent the most efficient system for meeting commercial/recreational/residential heating and cooling demands. The book not only examines industrial practices in heat pump application, but also discusses advanced heat pump technologies and innovative heat pump designs.