The Armenian History attributed to Sebeos is one of the major works of early Armenian historiography. It traces the fortunes of Armenia in the sixth and seventh centuries within the broader context of the time, including the reign of Khosrov II (589-628) and the early Muslim expansion.

This is the first English translation of the modern critical edition of the Armenian text. The historical commentary compares Sebeos's account with other available sources and highlights the particular value of this Armenian witness to the momentous events of his time.

This book will appeal to all those interested in Armenia, the Caucasus, the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Middle East in late antiquity. It will be of particular value to Islamicists, since Sebeos not only sets the scene for the coming of Islam but also provides the only substantial non-Muslim account of the initial period of expansion. The notes are specifically aimed at the reader unfamiliar with Armenian; with the maps and appendices they will guide the nonspecialist through the complexities of Armenian society and the intricacies of family politics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, SBP-BRiMS 2018, held in Washington, DC, USA, in July 2018. The total of 27 short and 18 full papers presented in this volume was carefully reviewed and selected from 85 submissions. The contributions were organized in topical sections named: advances in sociocultural and behavioral process modeling; information, systems, and network science; applications for health and well-being; military and intelligence applications; cybersecurity.

The field of ultrafast nonlinear optics is broad and multidisciplinary, and encompasses areas concerned with both the generation and measurement of ultrashort pulses of light, as well as those concerned with the applications of such pulses. Ultrashort pulses are extreme events - both in terms of their durations, and also the high peak powers which their short durations can facilitate. These extreme properties make them powerful experiment tools. On one hand, their ultrashort durations facilitate the probing and manipulation of matter on incredibly short timescales. On the other, their ultrashort durations can facilitate high peak powers which can drive highly nonlinear light-matter interaction processes. Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics covers a complete range of topics, both applied and fundamental in nature, within the area of ultrafast nonlinear optics. Chapters 1 to 4 are concerned with the generation and measurement of ultrashort pulses. Chapters 5 to 7 are concerned with fundamental applications of ultrashort pulses in metrology and quantum control. Chapters 8 and 9 are concerned with ultrafast nonlinear optics in optical fibres. Chapters 10 to 13 are concerned with the applications of ultrashort pulses in areas such as particle acceleration, microscopy, and micromachining. The chapters are aimed at graduate-student level and are intended to provide the student with an accessible, self-contained and comprehensive gateway into each subject.

How does the EU resolve controversy when making laws that affect citizens? How has the EU been affected by the recent enlargements that brought its membership to a diverse group of twenty-seven countries? This book answers these questions with analyses of the EU's legislative system that include the roles played by the European Commission, European Parliament and member states' national governments in the Council of Ministers. Robert Thomson examines more than 300 controversial issues in the EU from the past decade and describes many cases of controversial decision-making as well as rigorous comparative analyses. The analyses test competing expectations regarding key aspects of the political system, including the policy demands made by different institutions and member states, the distributions of power among the institutions and member states, and the contents of decision outcomes. These analyses are also highly relevant to the EU's democratic deficit and various reform proposals.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, SBP-BRiMS 2022, which was in Pittsburgh, PA, USA in September 2022.The 25 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections as follows: computer science, psychology, sociology, communication science, public health, bioinformatics, political science, and organizational science. Numerous types of computational methods are used include, but not limited to, machine learning, language technology, social network analysis and visualization, agent-based simulation, and statistics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, SBP-BRiMS 2021, which was held online during July 6-9, 2021.The 32 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 56 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections as follows: COVID-related focus; methodologies; social cybersecurity and social networks; and human and agent modeling. They represent a wide number of disciplines including computer science, psychology, sociology, communication science, public health, bioinformatics, political science, and organizational science. Numerous types of computational methods are used including, but not limited to, machine learning, language technology, social network analysis and visualization, agent-based simulation, and statistics.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, SBP-BRiMS 2020, which was planned to take place in Washington, DC, USA. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held online during October 18-21, 2020. The 33 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 submissions. A wide number of disciplines are represented including computer science, psychology, sociology, communication science, public health, bioinformatics, political science, and organizational science. Numerous types of computational methods are used, such as machine learning, language technology, social network analysis and visualization, agent-based simulation, and statistics.

How does the EU resolve controversy when making laws that affect citizens? How has the EU been affected by the recent enlargements that brought its membership to a diverse group of twenty-seven countries? This book answers these questions with analyses of the EU's legislative system that include the roles played by the European Commission, European Parliament and member states' national governments in the Council of Ministers. Robert Thomson examines more than 300 controversial issues in the EU from the past decade and describes many cases of controversial decision-making as well as rigorous comparative analyses. The analyses test competing expectations regarding key aspects of the political system, including the policy demands made by different institutions and member states, the distributions of power among the institutions and member states, and the contents of decision outcomes. These analyses are also highly relevant to the EU's democratic deficit and various reform proposals.

European legislation affects countless aspects of daily life in modern Europe but just how does the European Union make such significant legislative decisions? How important are the formal decision-making procedures in defining decision outcomes and how important is the bargaining that takes place among the actors involved? Using a combination of detailed evidence and theoretical rigour, this volume addresses these questions and others that are central to understanding how the EU works in practice. It focuses on the practice of day-to-day decision-making in Brussels and the interactions that take place among the Member States in the Council and among the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. A unique data set of actual Commission proposals are examined against which the authors develop, apply and test a range of explanatory models of decision-making, exemplifying how to study decision-making in other political systems using advanced theoretical tools and appropriate research design.

European legislation affects countless aspects of daily life in modern Europe but just how does the European Union make such significant legislative decisions? How important are the formal decision-making procedures in defining decision outcomes and how important is the bargaining that takes place among the actors involved? Using a combination of detailed evidence and theoretical rigour, this volume addresses these questions and others that are central to understanding how the EU works in practice. It focuses on the practice of day-to-day decision-making in Brussels and the interactions that take place among the Member States in the Council and among the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. A unique data set of actual Commission proposals are examined against which the authors develop, apply and test a range of explanatory models of decision-making, exemplifying how to study decision-making in other political systems using advanced theoretical tools and appropriate research design.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling, SBP-BRiMS 2019, held in Washington, DC, USA, in July 2019. The total of 28 papers presented in this volume was carefully reviewed and selected from 72 submissions. The papers in this volume show, people, theories, methods and data from a wide number of disciplines including computer science, psychology, sociology, communication science, public health, bioinformatics, political science, and organizational science. Numerous types of computational methods are used include, but not limited to, machine learning, language technology, social network analysis and visualization, agent-based simulation, and statistics.

When people discuss politics, they often mention the promises politicians make during election campaigns. Promises raise hopes that positive policy changes are possible, but people are generally skeptical of these promises. Party Mandates and Democracy reveals the extent to and conditions under which governments fulfill party promises during election campaigns. Contrary to conventional wisdom a majority of pledges-sometimes a large majority-are fulfilled in most countries, most of the time. The fulfillment of parties' election pledges is an essential part of the democratic process. This book is the first major, genuinely comparative study of promises across a broad range of countries and elections, including the United States, Canada, nine Western European countries, and Bulgaria. The book thus adds to the body of literature on the variety of outcomes stemming from alternative democratic institutions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Social, Cultural, and Behavioral Modeling & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation, SBP-BRiMS 2017, held in Washington, DC, USA, in July 2017.The 16 full papers and 27 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 79 submissions. Owing to its strong multi-disciplinary heritage, the papers represent a large range of disciplines including computer science, psychology, sociology, communication science, public health, bioinformatics, political science, and organizational science and use numerous types of computational methods such as machine learning, language technology, social network analysis and visualization, agent-based simulation, and statistics. They are organized in the following topical sections: behavioral and social sciences; cyber and intelligence applications; information, systems, and network sciences; and methodology.