John Cusack and Ryan Phillippe star in this thriller about a young American couple who become involved in a deadly scam abroad. Desperate for a child, Steven (Phillippe) and Shannon (Rachelle Lefevre) travel to Puerto Rico to adopt Haitian orphan Nina (Briana Roy), who they met through the organisation International Rescue Adoption run by Reigert (Jacki Weaver). But before the adoption can be finalised Nina mysteriously vanishes and the couple realise they have been the victims of an elaborate con. The case gets even more complex when dangerous criminals become aware of the secret dealings and they move in to capture a slice of proceedings, threatening the couple's lives in the process.

This monograph is framed within the context of off-road mobile robotics. In particular, it discusses issues related to modelling, localization, and motion control of tracked mobile robots working in planar slippery conditions. Tracked locomotion constitutes a well-known solution for mobile platforms operating over diverse challenging terrains, for that reason, tracked robotics constitutes an important research field with many applications (e.g. agriculture, mining, search and rescue operations, military activities). The specific topics of this monograph are: historical perspective of tracked vehicles and tracked robots; trajectory-tracking model taking into account slip effect; visual-odometry-based localization strategies; and advanced slip-compensation motion controllers ensuring efficient real-time execution. Physical experiments with a real tracked robot are presented showing the better performance of the suggested novel approaches to known techniques.

Keywords: longitudinal slip, visual odometry, slip-compensation control, robust predictive control, trajectory tracking.

Related subjects: Robotics Mechanical Engineering Mechanics Computer Science Artificial Intelligence - Applications

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A discussion of challenges related to the modeling and control of greenhouse crop growth, this book presents state-of-the-art answers to those challenges. The authors model the subsystems involved in successful greenhouse control using different techniques and show how the models obtained can be exploited for simulation or control design; they suggest ideas for the development of physical and/or black-box models for this purpose. Strategies for the control of climate- and irrigation-related variables are brought forward. The uses of PID control and feedforward compensators, both widely used in commercial tools, are summarized. The benefits of advanced control techniques-event-based, robust, and predictive control, for example-are used to improve on the performance of those basic methods. A hierarchical control architecture is developed governed by a high-level multiobjective optimization approach rather than traditional constrained optimization and artificial intelligence techniques. Reference trajectories are found for diurnal and nocturnal temperatures (climate-related setpoints) and electrical conductivity (fertirrigation-related setpoints). The objectives are to maximize profit, fruit quality, and water-use efficiency, these being encouraged by current international rules. Illustrative practical results selected from those obtained in an industrial greenhouse during the last eight years are shown and described. The text of the book is complemented by the use of illustrations, tables and real examples which are helpful in understanding the material. Modeling and Control of Greenhouse Crop Growth will be of interest to industrial engineers, academic researchers and graduates from agricultural, chemical, and process-control backgrounds.

A searing novel of the post-1910 Mexican revolutionary era that itself challenged the Mexican political establishment, Guzman's The Shadow of the Strongman ( La Sombra del Caudillo ) stands beside Azuela's The Underdogs ( Los de abajo ) in the pantheon of Mexican fiction. Unmasking the years of political intrigue and assassination that followed the Revolution, the novel was adapted in the 1960 film La Sombra del Caudillo , which was banned in Mexico for thirty years.

Double bill of canine adventures. In 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' (2008), when pampered chihuahua Chloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) gets lost while holidaying in Mexico, she is forced to rely on the kindness of various dogs she befriends as she tries to get home before she is captured by a villainous dognapper. Also in pursuit of Chloe is male chihuahua Papi (George Lopez), who is in love with her, and evil Doberman Diablo (Edward James Olmos), who has his eye on her valuable diamond collar. In 'Underdog' (2007), after an accident in the mysterious lab of mad scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage), an ordinary beagle named Shoeshine (voice of Jason Lee) finds himself with extraordinary powers, and the ability to talk. Armed with a fetching superhero costume, Underdog vows to protect the beleaguered citizens of Capital City and, in particular, a beautiful spaniel named Polly Purebred (voice of Amy Adams). When a diabolical plot by Barsinister and his overgrown henchman Cad (Patrick Warburton) threatens to destroy Capital City, only Underdog can save the day.

A searing novel of the post-1910 Mexican revolutionary era that itself challenged the Mexican political establishment, Guzman's The Shadow of the Strongman ( La Sombra del Caudillo ) stands beside Azuela's The Underdogs ( Los de abajo ) in the pantheon of Mexican fiction. Unmasking the years of political intrigue and assassination that followed the Revolution, the novel was adapted in the 1960 film La Sombra del Caudillo , which was banned in Mexico for thirty years.

Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson and Vanessa Hudgens star in this action adventure sequel to 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' (2008). After receiving a radio transmission from his missing grandfather (Michael Caine), Sean Anderson (Hutcherson) sets out on a journey with his mother's boyfriend, Hank (Johnson), to an uncharted island he believes may be the same one Jules Verne wrote a book about. Along the way they meet pilot Gabato (Luis Guzmán) and the attractive Kailani (Hudgens) who Sean soon falls for. As they explore the island they come across many wonders and encounter some deadly creatures. When the island looks set to self-destruct, the adventurers must race against time to find a way back to safety.

This is a tale that might be told around a campfire, night after night in the midst of a military campaign. The kinetic and garrulous Pancho Villa talking on and on about battles and men; bursting out with hearty, masculine laughter; weeping unashamed for fallen comrades; casually mentioning his hotheadedness-"one of my violent outbursts"-which sent one, two, or a dozen men before the firing squad; recounting amours; and always, always protesting dedication to the Revolutionary cause and the interests of "the people." Villa saw himself as the champion, eventually almost the sole champion, of the Mexican people. He fought for them, he said, and opponents who called him bandit and murderer were hypocrites. This is his story, his account of how it all began when as a peasant boy of sixteen he shot a rich landowner threatening the honor of his sister. This lone, starved refugee hiding out in the mountains became the scourge of the Mexican Revolution, the leader of thousands of men, and the hero of the masses of the poor. Great battles of the Revolution are described, sometimes as broad sweeps of strategy, sometimes as they developed half hour by half hour. Long, dusty horseback forays and cold nights spent pinned down under enemy fire on a mountainside are made vivid and gripping. The assault on Ciudad Juarez in 1911, the battles of Tierra Blanca, of Torreon, of Zacatecas, of Celaya, all are here, told with a feeling of great immediacy. This volume ends as Villa and Obregon prepare to engage each other in the war between victorious generals into which the Revolution degenerated before it finally ended. Martin Luis Guzman, eminent historian of Mexico, knew and traveled with Pancho Villa at various times during the Revolution. General Villa offered young Martin Luis a position as his secretary, but he declined. When many years later some of Villa's private papers, records, and what was apparently the beginning of an autobiography came into Guzman's hands, he was ideally suited to blend all these into an authentic account of the Revolution as Pancho Villa saw it, and of the General's life as known only to Villa himself. The Memoirs were first published in Mexico in 1951, where they were extremely popular; this volume was the first English publication. Virginia H. Taylor, translator in the Spanish Archives of the State of Texas Land Office, has accurately captured in English the flavor of the narrative.