Computing systems are becoming highly complex, harder to understand, and therefore more prone to failure. Where such systems control aircraft for example, system failure could have disastrous consequences. It is important therefore that we are able to employ mathematical techniques to specify the behavior of critical systems. This thesis uses the theory of Communicating Sequential Processes to show how a real-time system (a system that maintains a continuous interaction with its environment) may be specified. Included is a case study in which a local area network protocol is described at two levels of abstraction, and a general method for structuring CSP descriptions of layered protocols is given. The research contained here represents the very latest work on the specification and verification of real-time systems.

We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history. It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined but in the opposite direction. Yet precious little rigorous study has been done on the broad phenomenon of dechurching in America. Jim Davis and Michael Graham have commissioned the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching in America by renowned sociologists Dr. Ryan Burge and Dr. Paul Djupe. The Great Dechurching takes the insights gleaned from this study to drill down on how exactly people are dechurching with respect to beliefs, behavior, and belonging. The Great Dechurching gives the church in America its first ever deep dive into the dechurched phenomenon. Readers will learn about the dechurched through a detailed sketch of demographics, size, core concerns, church off-ramps, historical roots, and the gravity of what is at stake. Then they will explore what can be done to slow the bleed, engage the pertinent issues winsomely and wisely, and hopefully re-church some of the dechurched.

This is the third book in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest. The book focuses upon a set of research questions on the recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest (SGIs) as a distinct EU concept. This includes, inter alia, the emergence of universal service obligations and the way they are regulated in the EU in primary and secondary law, the range of soft law communications adopted by the Commission to create a distinctive EU concept of SGIs, the residual role of hard law in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the special problems created by Social Services of General Economic Interest and the interaction of procurement and state aid law with SGIs. A new perspective is offered in this book: some of the issues faced by the EU in accommodating SGIs into a regulatory framework are found also in the policy of the WTO and in least developed countries (LDCs).

Why do some things pass under the radar of our attention, but other things capture our interest? Why do some religions catch on and others fade away? What makes a story, a movie, or a book riveting? Why do some people keep watching the news even though it makes them anxious?The past 20 years have seen a remarkable flourishing of scientific research into exactly these kinds of questions. Professor Jim Davies' fascinating and highly accessible book, "Riveted," reveals the evolutionary underpinnings of why we find things compelling, from art to religion and from sports to superstition. Compelling things fit our minds like keys in the ignition, turning us on and keeping us running, and yet we are often unaware of what makes these "keys" fit. What we like and don't like is almost always determined by subconscious forces, and when we try to consciously predict our own preferences we're often wrong. In one study of speed dating, people were asked what kinds of partners they found attractive. When the results came back, the participants' answers before the exercise had no correlation with who they actually found attractive in person We are beginning to understand just how much the brain makes our decisions for us: we are rewarded with a rush of pleasure when we detect patterns, as the brain thinks we've discovered something significant; the mind urges us to linger on the news channel or rubberneck an accident in case it might pick up important survival information; it even pushes us to pick up "People "magazine in order to find out about changes in the social structure.Drawing on work from philosophy, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, economics, computer science, and biology, Davies offers a comprehensive explanation to show that in spite of the differences between the many things that we find compelling, they have similar effects on our minds and brains.

The true story of an elite group of men who wrote a page in Naval history. They patrolled the waterways in thirty-one foot river patrol boats powered by Detroit diesel engines with water jet-propulsion. Armed with machineguns and grenade launchers, as well as sheer guts and determination, these sailors faced danger around every bend in the river. Working together, they became one of the finest weapons in Admiral Zumwalt's arsenal for turning back the tide of communist infiltration into Saigon, taking control of the inland waterways. These are true accounts of their bravery, which they proved time and again by spearheading operations into enemy controlled territory. United together in brotherhood, they accomplished all their missions and won their part of the Vietnam War. .

To be effective, data-intensive systems require extensive ongoing customisation to reflect changing user requirements, organisational policies, and the structure and interpretation of the data they hold. Manual customisation is expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. In large complex systems, the value of the data can be such that exhaustive testing is necessary before any new feature can be added to the existing design. In most cases, the precise details of requirements, policies and data will change during the lifetime of the system, forcing a choice between expensive modification and continued operation with an inefficient design. Engineering Agile Big-Data Systems outlines an approach to dealing with these problems in software and data engineering, describing a methodology for aligning these processes throughout product lifecycles. It discusses tools which can be used to achieve these goals, and, in a number of case studies, shows how the tools and methodology have been used to improve a variety of academic and business systems.

Hot on the heels of the first volume, Garfield returns in the second volume of a redesigned, updated, and value-priced collection! The second Full Course collection, featuring the next eight issues of Garfield's comic book escapades, sends the gang into some wacky adventures! Odie makes a new friend, Pet Force takes on a scary team of Super-Villains, and Garfield faces his most fearsome foe, the Lasagna Monster! The good times continue to roll in this round, as we see how the gang beats the heat, learn if Jon can finally stop being late, and if Nermal can set a world record! Meanwhile, Pet Force stops by for even more adventures! Along with creator Jim Davis, Mark Evanier, Scott Nickel, Gary Barker, Mike DeCarlo, Andy Hirsch, Mark & Stephanie Heike, David DeGrand, Fred Hembeck, Courtney Bernard, Genevieve Ft, Lisa Moore, and Steve Wands bring home even more cattitude with the Fat Cat. Collects Garfield #9-16.

America's favorite cat is back with this new value-priced edition of three-in-one comic strips (contains: Garfield Feeds His Face [#64], Garfield Eats and Runs [#65], and Garfield Nutty as a Fruitcake [#66]) together for the first time in color and super-sized!

When one Garfield isn't enough--there's only one thing better than a Garfield collection: three Garfield collections!

GARFIELD FEEDS HIS FACE: "Eat early and often"--that's the credo of the furry fatso. Garfield fans who are gluttons for fun will want to indulge themselves in this meaty new collection of rib-tickling comics.

GARFIELD EATS AND RUNS: For Garfield, eating is a full-contact sport. Boasting an Olympic-sized appetite, the famished feline dives into each meal with the heart--and mouth--of a champion.

GARFIELD NUTTY AS A FRUITCAKE: What kind of house does Garfield live in? A nuthouse, of course! The Arbuckle home is located just around the bend, where Jon and his wacky pets display their mad skills for having fun!

This is the third book in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest. The book focuses upon a set of research questions on the recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest (SGIs) as a distinct EU concept. This includes, inter alia, the emergence of universal service obligations and the way they are regulated in the EU in primary and secondary law, the range of soft law communications adopted by the Commission to create a distinctive EU concept of SGIs, the residual role of hard law in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the special problems created by Social Services of General Economic Interest and the interaction of procurement and state aid law with SGIs. A new perspective is offered in this book: some of the issues faced by the EU in accommodating SGIs into a regulatory framework are found also in the policy of the WTO and in least developed countries (LDCs).

Garfield's back in this brand-new full-color compilation comic strip book--truly a must-have for fans!

Garfield returns--weighing more than ever!--for his 69th book. They're all here--Jon, Odie, Nermal, and, of course, our favorite fat cat, Garfield!

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 13th Brazilian Symposium on Formal Methods, SBMF 2010, held in Natal, Brazil, in November 2010. The 18 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The papers presented cover a broad range of foundational and methodological issues in formal methods for the design and analysis of software and hardware systems as well as applications in various domains.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods, IFM 2007, held in Oxford, UK in July 2007.

The 32 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 85 submissions. The papers address all aspects of formal methods integration, including of a process of analysis or design application of formal methods to analysis or design, extension of one method, based upon the inclusion of ideas or concepts from others, informal or semi-formal modelling languages, tools, or techniques, and semantic integration or practical application.

Slang Across Societies is an introductory reference work and textbook which aims to acquaint readers with key themes in the study of youth, criminal and colloquial language practices. Focusing on key questions such as speaker identity and motivations, perceptions of use and users, language variation, and attendant linguistic manipulations, the book identifies and discusses more than 20 in-group and colloquial varieties from no fewer than 16 different societies worldwide. Suitable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students working in areas of slang, lexicology, lexicography, sociolinguistics and youth studies, Slang Across Societies brings together extensive research on youth, criminal and colloquial language from different parts of the world.

The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.

Formal engineering methods are changing the way that software systems are - veloped.Withlanguageandtoolsupport, theyarebeingusedforautomaticcode generation, and for the automatic abstraction and checking of implementations. In the future, they will be used at every stage of development: requirements, speci?cation, design, implementation, testing, and documentation. The ICFEM series of conferences aims to bring together those interested in the application of formal engineering methods to computer systems. Researchers and practitioners, from industry, academia, and government, are encouraged to attend, andtohelpadvancethestateoftheart.Authorsarestronglyencouraged to make their ideas as accessible as possible, and there is a clear emphasis upon work that promises to bring practical, tangible bene?t: reports of case studies should have a conceptual message, theory papers should have a clear link to application, and papers describing tools should have an account of results. ICFEM 2004 was the sixth conference in the series, and the ?rst to be held in North America. Previous conferences were held in Singapore, China, UK, A- tralia, and Japan. The Programme Committee received 110 papers and selected 30forpresentation.The?nalversionsofthosepapersareincludedhere, together with 2-page abstracts for the 5 accepted tutorials, and shorter abstracts for the 4 invited tal

The Fat Cat returns to comics in this original graphic novel featuring all-new stories, including work by legendary Garfield & Friends screenwriter Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer), with contributions from Scott Nickel (Garfield), Andy Hirsch (Baker Street Peculiars), and a special short story featuring first ever off-model artwork of your favorite characters as Garfield is reinterpreted for a new generation. When Jon reveals plans to bring Odie to a talent show audition, Garfield decides he can't let Odie get all the spotlight. But when his actions cause Odie to run away, it's up to Garfield to bring Odie back home.

Formal methods are coming of age. Mathematical techniques and tools are now regarded as an important part of the development process in a wide range of industrial and governmental organisations. A transfer of technology into the mainstream of systems development is slowly, but surely, taking place. FM'99, the First World Congress on Formal Methods in the Development of Computing Systems, is a result, and a measure, of this new-found maturity. It brings an impressive array of industrial and applications-oriented papers that show how formal methods have been used to tackle real problems. These proceedings are a record of the technical symposium ofFM'99: alo- side the papers describingapplicationsofformalmethods, youwill ndtechnical reports, papers, andabstracts detailing new advances in formaltechniques, from mathematical foundations to practical tools. The World Congress is the successor to the four Formal Methods Europe Symposia, which in turn succeeded the four VDM Europe Symposia. This s- cession re?ects an increasing openness within the international community of researchers and practitioners: papers were submitted covering a wide variety of formal methods and application areas. The programmecommittee re?ects the Congress's international nature, with a membership of 84 leading researchersfrom 38 di erent countries.The comm- tee was divided into 19 tracks, each with its own chair to oversee the reviewing process. Our collective task was a di cult one: there were 259 high-quality s- missions from 35 di erent countries.