This book is designed for students, professionals and researchers in the field of multimedia and related fields with a need to learn the basics of multimedia systems and signal processing. Emphasis is given to the analysis and processing of multimedia signals (audio, images, and video). Detailed insight into the most relevant mathematical apparatus and transformations used in multimedia signal …
This comprehensive volume on the blood-gas barrier (BGB) among vertebrates covers its structure and composition along with aspects of evolution, bioengineering, and morphometry. The book also discusses the embryological development of the BGB, including chronology of events and molecular control in vertebrates; modulation of the barrier function, including cyclic stretch-induced increases in al…
This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any course on research meth…
This book presents Systems Engineering from a modern, multidisciplinary engineering approach, providing the understanding that all aspects of systems design, systems, software, test, security, maintenance and the full life-cycle must be factored in to any large-scale system design; up front, not factored in later. It lays out a step-by-step approach to systems-of-systems architectural design, d…
This book provides an updated list of the vascular flora of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, incorporating the latest nomenclatural and floristic findings. The list of plants was extrapolated from a geographic database including all data from floristic or vegetational references and herbarium specimens concerning the Park area. This data storage tool was obtained from the d…
This textbook covers the theoretical background of one- and multidimensional signal processing, statistical analysis and modelling, coding and information theory with regard to the principles and design of image, video and audio compression systems. The theoretical concepts are augmented by practical examples of algorithms for multimedia signal coding technology, and related transmission aspect…
The author of Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, Amy Blackstone, started envisioning this textbook while sitting in her own undergraduate sociology research methods class. She enjoyed the material but wondered about its relevance to her everyday life and future plans (the idea that one day she would be teaching such a class hadn’t yet occurred to her).No…
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Multidisciplinary Social Networks Conference, MISNC 2015, held in Matsuyama, Japan, in September 2015. The 49 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 125 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: multidisciplinary research on social networks; ethical issues related to SNS; informati…
This book examines the links between employee-organisation relationships, work wellness and the impact thereof on the labour market from a South African perspective. By employing this focus, the book explains the role of the employment relationship and the psychological contract in improving work wellness. To do so, it reviews the establishment and management of contracts in the context of labo…
Michael Nofer examines whether and to what extent Social Media can be used to predict stock returns. Market-relevant information is available on various platforms on the Internet, which largely consist of user generated content. For instance, emotions can be extracted in order to identify the investors' risk appetite and in turn the willingness to invest in stocks. Discussion forums also provid…