In the early 1990s, the establishment of the Internet brought forth a revolutionary viewpoint of information storage, distribution, and processing: the World Wide Web is becoming an enormous and expanding distributed digital library. Along with the development of the Web, image indexing and retrieval have grown into research areas sharing a vision of intelligent agents. Far beyond Web searching, image indexing and retrieval can potentially be applied to many other areas, including biomedicine, space science, biometric identification, digital libraries, the military, education, commerce, culture and entertainment.
Machine Learning and Statistical Modeling Approaches to Image Retrieval describes several approaches of integrating machine learning and statistical modeling into an image retrieval and indexing system that demonstrates promising results. The topics of this book reflect authors' experiences of machine learning and statistical modeling based image indexing and retrieval. This book contains detailed references for further reading and research in this field as well.

Honouring the work of the renowned historian Margaret Muller, After the Text will appeal to students and academics in Byzantine literature / Covering the use of rhetoric, poetry, fables, and hagiography in Byzantium, those interested in Byzantine Greek will find this book particularly enlightening / These studies illustrate the profound richness of Byzantine culture through its literature by analysing texts within context

Honouring the work of the renowned historian Margaret Muller, After the Text will appeal to students and academics in Byzantine literature / Covering the use of rhetoric, poetry, fables, and hagiography in Byzantium, those interested in Byzantine Greek will find this book particularly enlightening / These studies illustrate the profound richness of Byzantine culture through its literature by analysing texts within context

Constantine of Rhodes's tenth-century poem is an account of public monuments in Constantinople and of the Church of the Holy Apostles. In the opening section of the work, Constantine describes columns and sculptures within the city, seven of which he calls 'wonders'. In the second part of the poem, he portrays the Church of the Holy Apostles, offering an account of its architecture and internal decoration, notably the mosaics, seven of which are also depicted as 'wonders'. On one level, the poem offers an account of what was visible, a sense of city topography and, in the case of the Apostoleion, a vital description of a now-lost building. But it cannot be read as a straightforward description. Rather, Constantine's work offers insights into Byzantine perceptions of works of art. The monuments Constantine decided to portray and the ways in which he chose to describe them say as much, if not more, about the social and cultural milieu in which he operated as about the actual physical appearance of the monuments themselves. Further, the poem itself, as it survives in one fifteenth-century manuscript, raises questions: is it, in its current form, a single poem or is it made up of a compilation of Constantine's writings? This book supersedes the two previous editions of the poem, both dating to 1896, and provides the first full translation of the text. It consists of a new Greek edition of Constantine's poem, with an introductory essay, prepared by Ioannis Vassis, and a translation and commentary by a group of scholars headed by Liz James. Liz James also contributes an extensive discussion of the two distinct parts of the poem, the city monuments and the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Constantine of Rhodes's tenth-century poem is an account of public monuments in Constantinople and of the Church of the Holy Apostles. In the opening section of the work, Constantine describes columns and sculptures within the city, seven of which he calls 'wonders'. In the second part of the poem, he portrays the Church of the Holy Apostles, offering an account of its architecture and internal decoration, notably the mosaics, seven of which are also depicted as 'wonders'. On one level, the poem offers an account of what was visible, a sense of city topography and, in the case of the Apostoleion, a vital description of a now-lost building. But it cannot be read as a straightforward description. Rather, Constantine's work offers insights into Byzantine perceptions of works of art. The monuments Constantine decided to portray and the ways in which he chose to describe them say as much, if not more, about the social and cultural milieu in which he operated as about the actual physical appearance of the monuments themselves. Further, the poem itself, as it survives in one fifteenth-century manuscript, raises questions: is it, in its current form, a single poem or is it made up of a compilation of Constantine's writings? This book supersedes the two previous editions of the poem, both dating to 1896, and provides the first full translation of the text. It consists of a new Greek edition of Constantine's poem, with an introductory essay, prepared by Ioannis Vassis, and a translation and commentary by a group of scholars headed by Liz James. Liz James also contributes an extensive discussion of the two distinct parts of the poem, the city monuments and the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Links Geotechnics with Railway Track Engineering and Railway Operation Good railway track and railway operations depend on good geotechnics, in several different ways and at varying levels. Railway Geotechnics covers track, track substructure, load environment, materials, mechanics, design, construction, measurements, and management. Illustrated by case studies, with an emphasis on the geotechnical aspects of railway engineering, it discusses these topics from a historical perspective. It also presents the methodologies and best practices developed over the past 20 years. Written by Four Experienced Professionals This book: Emphasizes the practical aspects and best practices for railway track and substructure Contains guidelines for design, construction, and maintenance of railway track and substructure Provides many examples and case studies Railway Geotechnics is written primarily for professionals and graduate students, and begins with the fundamentals and basic principles, leading in to practical applications. The authors bring considerable experience and expertise, with many years of research and development, academia, railway operations, and consulting.

The essays collected in this book were delivered at the XLII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, held in London in 2009 to accompany the exhibition Byzantium 330-1453, at the Royal Academy. The exhibition was one of the most ambitious and complex exhibitions ever mounted at the Royal Academy, as well as one of the most popular, and the overall aim of the book is to reflect on the exhibition of Byzantine art, both as an academic and popular exercise, and through the choice and discussion of individual objects. Exhibitions present a very different picture of Byzantium and its culture from works of history. The choices of object for display, their arrangement, and the underlying aims of exhibition curators and designers mean that every exhibition presents a different picture of Byzantium. Particular emphases can be placed, whether on everyday life or high court culture; Constantinople or the provinces; or claims of continuity or change over the Byzantine millennium. The essays explore aspects of the image of Byzantium that results from these choices. Given the enormous popularity of exhibitions of Byzantine objects (continued after the completion of this volume by exhibitions in Paris, Bonn and Istanbul), art has become one of the most popular and accessible means of popularizing Byzantium to a wide public audience. Hitherto there has been no general consideration of either the historiography of Byzantine exhibitions or the ways in which they have been set up to present different aspects of Byzantine culture to an academic and general public. The essays are divided into 3 sections: Exhibiting Byzantium sets the 2009 exhibition into the context of other exhibitions of Byzantine art and considers the issues involved in curating and viewing such major collections of medieval art; Object Lessons offers a set of studies of individual objects that were in the exhibition; Byzantium through its Art moves to consider Byzantine art more widely, thinking about the different ways in which objects can be used to study Byzantine culture and society. These are preceded by an introduction by the editors which sets the volume in context.

The essays collected in this book were delivered at the XLII Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, held in London in 2009 to accompany the exhibition Byzantium 330-1453, at the Royal Academy. The exhibition was one of the most ambitious and complex exhibitions ever mounted at the Royal Academy, as well as one of the most popular, and the overall aim of the book is to reflect on the exhibition of Byzantine art, both as an academic and popular exercise, and through the choice and discussion of individual objects. Exhibitions present a very different picture of Byzantium and its culture from works of history. The choices of object for display, their arrangement, and the underlying aims of exhibition curators and designers mean that every exhibition presents a different picture of Byzantium. Particular emphases can be placed, whether on everyday life or high court culture; Constantinople or the provinces; or claims of continuity or change over the Byzantine millennium. The essays explore aspects of the image of Byzantium that results from these choices. Given the enormous popularity of exhibitions of Byzantine objects (continued after the completion of this volume by exhibitions in Paris, Bonn and Istanbul), art has become one of the most popular and accessible means of popularizing Byzantium to a wide public audience. Hitherto there has been no general consideration of either the historiography of Byzantine exhibitions or the ways in which they have been set up to present different aspects of Byzantine culture to an academic and general public. The essays are divided into 3 sections: Exhibiting Byzantium sets the 2009 exhibition into the context of other exhibitions of Byzantine art and considers the issues involved in curating and viewing such major collections of medieval art; Object Lessons offers a set of studies of individual objects that were in the exhibition; Byzantium through its Art moves to consider Byzantine art more widely, thinking about the different ways in which objects can be used to study Byzantine culture and society. These are preceded by an introduction by the editors which sets the volume in context.

The papers in this volume derive from the 31st Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies held for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, in March 1997. Desire, sex, love and the erotic are not terms usually associated with Byzantium and Byzantine Studies, unlike celibacy, virginity and asceticism, which more readily spring to mind. In order to examine whether the balance between these two extremes needed redressing, desire and denial was adopted as the theme for this symposium. The papers in this volume, by a group of international scholars, explore the many different aspects of Byzantine perceptions towards their own humanity and the frailties of that humanity. Using evidence from archaeology, art history and literary texts, ranging from sermons to legal documents, these chapters reveal writings about love, both secular and religious; images of sexuality and sensuality; the law; and Byzantine attitudes to bodies and the senses. What the symposium illustrated is that the question of desires in the Byzantine world is significant, and that such desires can offer insights into Byzantine conceptions of their own world.

Since 2005, a series of significant developments has been unfolding in the area of the Tongking Gulf under the rubric of an ambitious project called "Two Corridors and One Rim." Proposed by Vietnam in 2004 and enthusiastically embraced by China, the project is designed to link their shared shores and hinterlands by superhighways and high-speed rail. An area that had seemed a backwater for two hundred years has suddenly become a dynamic engine of growth.Yet how innovative are these developments? Drawing on fresh historical insights and recent archaeological research in northern Vietnam and southern China, "The Tongking Gulf Through History" reveals that this region has long been a center of cultural, political, and economic exchange. From a historical point of view, contributors argue, the Gulf of Tongking has come full circle. Inspired by the Braudelian vision that regionality arises from long-term human interactions, essays avoid state-centered approaches of nationalist histories to focus on local communities throughout the Gulf. In doing so, they reveal a complex pattern of interrelationships and geopolitical factors that has shaped the gulf region for over two millennia.The first half of the volume covers the era from the Neolithic to the tenth century, when an independent state emerged from old Chinese Jiaozhi, or modern northern Vietnam; the second surveys the nine centuries that followed, in which only two states came to share the maritime shores of the Tongking Gulf. Together, the essays illuminate how millennia of recurring human interactions within this geographical space have created a regional ensemble with its own longstanding historical integrity and dynamics.

In the early 1990s, the establishment of the Internet brought forth a revolutionary viewpoint of information storage, distribution, and processing: the World Wide Web is becoming an enormous and expanding distributed digital library. Along with the development of the Web, image indexing and retrieval have grown into research areas sharing a vision of intelligent agents. Far beyond Web searching, image indexing and retrieval can potentially be applied to many other areas, including biomedicine, space science, biometric identification, digital libraries, the military, education, commerce, culture and entertainment. Machine Learning and Statistical Modeling Approaches to Image Retrieval describes several approaches of integrating machine learning and statistical modeling into an image retrieval and indexing system that demonstrates promising results. The topics of this book reflect authors' experiences of machine learning and statistical modeling based image indexing and retrieval. This book contains detailed references for further reading and research in this field as well.

Links Geotechnics with Railway Track Engineering and Railway Operation Good railway track and railway operations depend on good geotechnics, in several different ways and at varying levels. Railway Geotechnics covers track, track substructure, load environment, materials, mechanics, design, construction, measurements, and management. Illustrated by case studies, with an emphasis on the geotechnical aspects of railway engineering, it discusses these topics from a historical perspective. It also presents the methodologies and best practices developed over the past 20 years. Written by Four Experienced Professionals This book: Emphasizes the practical aspects and best practices for railway track and substructure Contains guidelines for design, construction, and maintenance of railway track and substructure Provides many examples and case studies Railway Geotechnics is written primarily for professionals and graduate students, and begins with the fundamentals and basic principles, leading in to practical applications. The authors bring considerable experience and expertise, with many years of research and development, academia, railway operations, and consulting.

In this book, Liz James offers a comprehensive history of wall mosaics produced in the European and Islamic middle ages. Taking into account a wide range of issues, including style and iconography, technique and material, and function and patronage, she examines mosaics within their historical context. She asks why the mosaic was such a popular medium and considers how mosaics work as historical 'documents' that tell us about attitudes and beliefs in the medieval world. The book is divided into two part. Part I explores the technical aspects of mosaics, including glass production, labour and materials, and costs. In Part II, James provides a chronological history of mosaics, charting the low and high points of mosaic art up until its abrupt end in the late middle ages. Written in a clear and engaging style, her book will serve as an essential resource for scholars and students of medieval mosaics.

When a structure is put under an increasing compressive load, it becomes unstable and buckling occurs. Buckling is a particularly significant concern in designing shell structures such as aircraft, automobiles, ships, or bridges. This book discusses stability analysis and buckling problems and offers practical tools for dealing with uncertainties that exist in real systems. The techniques are based on two complementary theories which are developed in the text. First, the probabilistic theory of stability is presented, with particular emphasis on reliability. Both theoretical and computational issues are discussed. Secondly, the authors present the alternative to probability based on the notion of 'anti-optimization', a theory that is valid when the necessary information for probabilistic analysis is absent, that is, when only scant data are available. Design engineers, researchers, and graduate students in aerospace, mechanical, marine, and civil engineering who are concerned with issues of structural integrity will find this book a useful reference source.

Modern East Asia: A History explores the history of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from the late eighteenth century to the present. The text presents information on each country individually and also demonstrates how historical trends within each nation are linked. The book begins with an introduction to cultural foundations and a brief history of East Asia in the seventeenth century. The volume progresses chronologically, beginning in 1830 with a discussion of the major crises that swept East Asia, including covering both domestic and international challenges. In proceeding chapters, readers learn about key events, ideas, conflicts, and negotiations that have shaped East Asia throughout history. They read about the termination of the feudal structure in Japan, French colonial conquest in Vietnam, the birth of modern nationalism in China, the events that led to Korea splitting into two separate nations, and more. Comprehensive and complete, Modern East Asia provides readers with a thorough exploration of the progression of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam throughout the modern period. The text is ideal for world history courses, especially those that focus on East Asia.