50 Years of Integer Programming 1958-2008: From the Early Years to the State-of-the-Art

Michael Jünger, Thomas M. Liebling, Denis Naddef, George L. Nemhauser, William R. Pulleyblank, Gerhard Reinelt, Giovanni Rinaldi, Laurence A. Wolsey, "50 Years of Integer Programming 1958-2008: From the Early Years to the State-of-the-Art"
Springer | 2009 | ISBN: 3540682740 | 804 pages | PDF | 5,6 MB

In 1958, Ralph E. Gomory transformed the field of integer programming when he published a short paper that described his cutting-plane algorithm for pure integer programs and announced that the method could be refined to give a finite algorithm for integer programming. In January of 2008, to commemorate the anniversary of Gomory's seminal paper, a special session celebrating fifty years of integer programming was held in Aussois, France, as part of the 12th Combinatorial Optimization Workshop. This book is based on the material presented during this session.

50 Years of Integer Programming offers an account of featured talks at the 2008 Aussois workshop, namely

- Michele Conforti, Gérard Cornuéjols, and Giacomo Zambelli: Polyhedral Approaches to Mixed Integer Linear Programming

- William Cook: 50+ Years of Combinatorial Integer Programming

- Francois Vanderbeck and Laurence A. Wolsey: Reformulation and Decomposition of Integer Programs

It includes a DVD containing a recording of the three original lectures as well as a panel discussion with six pioneers.

The book contains reprints of key historical articles together with new introductions and historical perspectives by the authors: Egon Balas, Michel Balinski, Jack Edmonds, Ralph E. Gomory, Arthur M. Geoffrion, Alan J. Hoffman & Joseph B. Kruskal, Richard M. Karp, Harold W. Kuhn, and Ailsa H. Land & Alison G. Doig.

It also contains written versions of survey lectures on six of the hottest topics in the field by distinguished members of the integer programming community:

- Friedrich Eisenbrand: Integer Programming and Algorithmic Geometry of Numbers

- Raymond Hemmecke, Matthias Köppe, Jon Lee, and Robert Weismantel: Nonlinear Integer Programming

- Andrea Lodi: Mixed Integer Programming Computation

- Francois Margot: Symmetry in Integer Linear Programming

- Franz Rendl: Semidefinite Relaxations for Integer Programming

- Jean-Philippe P. Richard and Santanu S. Dey: The Group-Theoretic Approach to Mixed Integer Programming

Integer programming holds great promise for the future, and continues to build on its foundations. Indeed, Gomory's finite cutting-plane method for the pure integer case is currently being reexamined and is showing new promise as a practical computational method. This book is a uniquely useful celebration of the past, present and future of this important and active field. Ideal for students and researchers in mathematics, computer science and operations research, it exposes mathematical optimization, in particular integer programming and combinatorial optimization, to a broad audience.

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The Quest for Artificial Intelligence

Nils J. Nilsson, "The Quest for Artificial Intelligence"
Cambridge University Press | 2009 | ISBN: 0521122937 | 584 pages | PDF | 8,4 MB

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field within computer science that is attempting to build enhanced intelligence into computer systems. This book traces the history of the subject, from the early dreams of eighteenth-century (and earlier) pioneers to the more successful work of today's AI engineers. AI is becoming more and more a part of everyone's life. The technology is already embedded in face-recognizing cameras, speech-recognition software, Internet search engines, and health-care robots, among other applications. The book's many diagrams and easy-to-understand descriptions of AI programs will help the casual reader gain an understanding of how these and other AI systems actually work. Its thorough (but unobtrusive) end-of-chapter notes containing citations to important source materials will be of great use to AI scholars and researchers. This book promises to be the definitive history of a field that has captivated the imaginations of scientists, philosophers, and writers for centuries.

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WiMAX Networks: Techno-Economic Vision and Challenges

Ramjee Prasad, Fernando J. Velez, "WiMAX Networks: Techno-Economic Vision and Challenges"
Springer | 2010 | ISBN: 9048187516 | 700 pages | PDF | 5,7 MB

Ignited by the mobile phone's huge success at the end of last century, the demand for wireless services is constantly growing. To face this demand, wireless systems have been and are deployed at a large scale. These include mobility-oriented technologies such as GPRS, CDMA or UMTS, and Local Area Network-oriented technologies such as WiFi. WiMAX Networks covers aspects of WiMAX quality of service (QoS), security, mobility, radio resource management, multiple input multiple output antenna, planning, cost/revenue optimization, physical layer, medium access control (MAC) layer, network layer, and so on.

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Getting StartED with Windows Live Movie Maker

James Floyd Kelly, "Getting StartED with Windows Live Movie Maker"
friends of ED | 2010 | ISBN: 1430229012 | 248 pages | PDF | 27,1 MB

Windows Live Movie Maker is a small but powerful movie editing application from Microsoft. It is a complete rewrite of the old Movie Maker software with a new audience in mind. The focus of this new edition is on giving you the power to quickly create movies and slideshows to share with your friends and family. The movies can be a combination of your favorite pictures and home movies set to your own soundtrack. You can add cool effects to transition between scenes, and captions to add a narrative to your movie. With Movie Maker, users can:
Edit digital video and photos, including adding music and narration
Apply animation effects to videos and photos
Create DVDs for personal use, including menu systems for navigation

What you’ll learn
Learn what’s new and different with the Live version of Movie Maker; find out where to download it and view an installation walkthrough.
Discover the basics of importing pictures and video, how to use AutoMovie and perform some easy tweaks on it, and how to save projects.
Experiment with trimming, splitting, and rotating video, fading-in/out, using the View menu to zoom in/out and switch between aspect ratios, arranging storyboard items, and previewing movies.
Learn how to import, trim, and fade music in/out; use start/end points; control volume; and edit audio in a movie clip.
Use formatting, color, size, transparency, and start/end times to add text animation, titles, captions, and credits to your movies.
Learn about DVD formats, creating menu systems, HD (720 and 1080) vs. standard formats, portable devices, e-mail attachments, and IM formats.
Learn tips for enhancing movie and sound quality, file management, menu organization, and creating interesting DVD movies to share.

Who this book is for

Most digital video editing applications have a steep learning curve and a thick manual. Windows Live Movie Maker is not difficult to learn, but it does not come with a manual. This book is for readers who want to quickly and easily edit their digital movies and create DVDs for viewing, but don�t want to sift through a lot of technical mumbo jumbo.

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