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Guide to Convolutional Neural Networks: A Practical Application to Traffic-Sign Detection and Classification

This must-read text/reference introduces the fundamental concepts of convolutional neural networks (ConvNets), offering practical guidance on using libraries to implement ConvNets in applications of traffic sign detection and classification. The work presents techniques for optimizing the computational efficiency of ConvNets, as well as visualization techniques to better understand the underlying processes. The proposed models are also thoroughly evaluated from different perspectives, using exploratory and quantitative analysis.Topics and features: explains the fundamental concepts behind training linear classifiers and feature learning; discusses the wide range of loss functions for training binary and multi-class classifiers; illustrates how to derive ConvNets from fully connected neural networks, and reviews different techniques for evaluating neural networks; presents a practical library for implementing ConvNets, explaining how to use a Python interface for the library to create and assess neural networks; describes two real-world examples of the detection and classification of traffic signs using deep learning methods; examines a range of varied techniques for visualizing neural networks, using a Python interface; provides self-study exercises at the end of each chapter, in addition to a helpful glossary, with relevant Python scripts supplied at an associated website.This self-contained guide will benefit those who seek to both understand the theory behind deep learning, and to gain hands-on experience in implementing ConvNets in practice. As no prior background knowledge in the field is required to follow the material, the book is ideal for all students of computer vision and machine learning, and will also be of great interest to practitioners working on autonomous cars and advanced driver assistance systems.

The Auditor’s Guide to Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Use Cases, Security and Assurance (Security, Audit and Leadership Series)

The 21st century has been host to a number of information systems technologies in the areas of science, automotive, aviation and supply chain, among others. But perhaps one of its most disruptive is blockchain technology whose origin dates to only 2008, when an individual (or perhaps a group of individuals) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper entitled Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system in an attempt to address the threat of “double- spending” in digital currency. Today, many top-notch global organizations are already using or planning to use blockchain technology as a secure, robust and cutting-edge technology to better serve customers. The list includes such well-known corporate entities as JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, IBM and Walmart. The tamper-proof attributes of blockchain, leading to immutable sets of transaction records, represent a higher quality of evidence for internal and external auditors. Blockchain technology will impact the performance of the audit engagement due to its attributes, as the technology can seamlessly complement traditional auditing techniques. Furthermore, various fraud schemes related to financial reporting, such as the recording of fictitious revenues, could be avoided or at least greatly mitigated. Frauds related to missing, duplicated and identical invoices can also be greatly curtailed. As a result, the advent of blockchain will enable auditors to reduce substantive testing as inherent and control audit risks will be reduced thereby greatly improving an audit’s detection risk. As such, the continuing use and popularity of blockchain will mean that auditors and information systems security professionals will need to deepen their knowledge of this disruptive technology. If you are looking for a comprehensive study and reference source on blockchain technology, look no further than The Auditor’s Guide to Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Use Cases, Security and Assurance. This title is a must read for all security and assurance professionals and students looking to become more proficient at auditing this new and disruptive technology.

The Auditor’s Guide to Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Use Cases, Security and Assurance (Security, Audit and Leadership Series)

The 21st century has been host to a number of information systems technologies in the areas of science, automotive, aviation and supply chain, among others. But perhaps one of its most disruptive is blockchain technology whose origin dates to only 2008, when an individual (or perhaps a group of individuals) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper entitled Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system in an attempt to address the threat of “double- spending” in digital currency. Today, many top-notch global organizations are already using or planning to use blockchain technology as a secure, robust and cutting-edge technology to better serve customers. The list includes such well-known corporate entities as JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, IBM and Walmart. The tamper-proof attributes of blockchain, leading to immutable sets of transaction records, represent a higher quality of evidence for internal and external auditors. Blockchain technology will impact the performance of the audit engagement due to its attributes, as the technology can seamlessly complement traditional auditing techniques. Furthermore, various fraud schemes related to financial reporting, such as the recording of fictitious revenues, could be avoided or at least greatly mitigated. Frauds related to missing, duplicated and identical invoices can also be greatly curtailed. As a result, the advent of blockchain will enable auditors to reduce substantive testing as inherent and control audit risks will be reduced thereby greatly improving an audit’s detection risk. As such, the continuing use and popularity of blockchain will mean that auditors and information systems security professionals will need to deepen their knowledge of this disruptive technology. If you are looking for a comprehensive study and reference source on blockchain technology, look no further than The Auditor’s Guide to Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Use Cases, Security and Assurance. This title is a must read for all security and assurance professionals and students looking to become more proficient at auditing this new and disruptive technology.

Fraud Auditing Using CAATT: A Manual for Auditors and Forensic Accountants to Detect Organizational Fraud (Internal Audit and IT Audit)

This book discusses various common occupational and organizational fraud schemes, based on the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) fraud tree and assist fraud examiners and auditors in correctly choosing the appropriate audit tests to uncover such various fraud schemes. The book also includes information about audit test red flags to watch out for, a list of recommended controls to help prevent future fraud related incidents, as well as step-by-step demonstrations of a number of common audit tests using IDEA® as a CAATT tool.

Fraud Auditing Using CAATT: A Manual for Auditors and Forensic Accountants to Detect Organizational Fraud (Internal Audit and IT Audit)

This book discusses various common occupational and organizational fraud schemes, based on the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) fraud tree and assist fraud examiners and auditors in correctly choosing the appropriate audit tests to uncover such various fraud schemes. The book also includes information about audit test red flags to watch out for, a list of recommended controls to help prevent future fraud related incidents, as well as step-by-step demonstrations of a number of common audit tests using IDEA® as a CAATT tool.

Photoshop Elements 10 Digital Classroom (Digital Classroom)

Learn Photoshop Elements your own way with this self-paced e-book Photoshop Elements is the leading consumer-level image-editing software, and this personal training e-course teaches you how to use all its features. The full-color e-book provides 13 essential lessons, each presented with step-by-step instructions and including lesson files and a video explanation of the concepts. You learn from leading instructors, and do it at your own pace. Photoshop Elements provides professional quality image-editing tools at an affordable price; this e-package guides you through step-by-step training on Elements basics, as well as what's new in Elements 10 Includes 13 lessons you can work through at your own pace, supported by video tutorials and more, available for download Created by the same team of experts who developed many of the official training programs for Adobe Systems Photoshop Elements 10 Digital Classroom is like having your own personal instructor! Note: For the Kindle edition, video training and lesson files must be downloaded separately, and are available at no additional cost.

Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom (Digital Classroom #68)

A book-and-video training package provides a unique illustration to the basics of Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a unique design and drawing program that allows you to create and produce brilliant art for a variety of mediums. This full-color book-and-video training package deciphers even the most complex Illustrator tasks and gets you quickly up to speed using the capabilities of the newest release of Illustrator. Thirteen self-paced lessons explain how to create and produce vibrant graphics using this robust vector drawing application. The complementary lessons featured on the videos are each approximately five minutes long and demonstrate the concepts and features covered in the lesson. Escorts you through the basics of creating and producing vibrant graphics using Illustrator Deciphers even the most advanced Illustrator tasks and makes them less intimidating Features full-color, step-by-step tutorials in the downloadable videos that complement the topics covered in each lesson of the book Encourages you to absorb each lesson at your own pace Jam-packed with information, this book and video training package is just like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each unique lesson. Note: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook files. These materials are available for download upon purchase.

Illustrator CS5 Digital Classroom (Digital Classroom #50)

A book-and-video training package provides a unique illustration to the basics of Illustrator Adobe Illustrator is a unique design and drawing program that allows you to create and produce brilliant art for a variety of mediums. This full-color book-and-video training package deciphers even the most complex Illustrator tasks and gets you quickly up to speed using the capabilities of the newest release of Illustrator. Thirteen self-paced lessons explain how to create and produce vibrant graphics using this robust vector drawing application. The complementary lessons featured on the videos are each approximately five minutes long and demonstrate the concepts and features covered in the lesson. Escorts you through the basics of creating and producing vibrant graphics using Illustrator Deciphers even the most advanced Illustrator tasks and makes them less intimidating Features full-color, step-by-step tutorials in the downloadable videos that complement the topics covered in each lesson of the book Encourages you to absorb each lesson at your own pace Jam-packed with information, this book and video training package is just like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each unique lesson. Note: DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook files. These materials are available for download upon purchase.

Microsoft Excel 2010 Digital Classroom (Digital Classroom #92)

The perfect book-and-video training package for Excel 2010! This Excel 2010 book-and-video training package-from the same professional training experts who also create many training materials for Adobe Systems-is like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each lesson, but you work at your own pace! The full-color ebook includes 8 lessons that teach you the new features and quirks of Microsoft Excel 2010. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions and lesson files, and provides valuable video tutorials that complement what you're learning and clearly demonstrate how to do tasks. This training package takes you well beyond the basics in a series of easy-to-absorb, five-minute lessons. Walks you through 8 lessons, each consisting of easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and lesson files in full color that make each task less intimidating Includes all the lesson files from the book and video tutorials that clearly show you how to do tasks and reinforces what you're learning in the book Covers new Excel 2010 features such as Office Web apps that can be accessed from anywhere and a streamlined new Ribbon Additional resources available on companion Web site: www.digitalclassroombooks.com Learn the ins-and-outs of Excel 2010!

Microsoft Word 2010 Digital Classroom (Digital Classroom #93)

The perfect book-and-video training package for Word 2010! This Word 2010 book-and-video training package-from the same professional training experts who also create many training materials for Adobe Systems-is like having your own personal instructor guiding you through each lesson, but you work at your own pace! The full-color ebook includes 8 lessons that teach you the new features and quirks of Microsoft Word 2010. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions and lesson files, and provides valuable video tutorials that complement what you're learning and clearly demonstrate how to do tasks. This jam-packed training package takes you well beyond the basics in a series of easy-to-absorb, five-minute lessons. Walks you through 8 lessons, each consisting of easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and lesson files in full color that make each task less intimidating Includes all the lesson files from the book and video tutorials that clearly show you how to do tasks and reinforces what you're learning in the book Covers exciting new Word 2010 features such as Office Web apps that can be accessed from anywhere and a streamlined new Ribbon Provides the perfect, one-stop, robust learning package-with book and supplementary video training Additional resources available on companion Web site: www.digitalclassroombooks.com Learn the ins-and-outs of Word 2010!

Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences

Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences examines the benefits involved in designing and employing immersive technologies to reconstruct difficult pasts at heritage sites around the world. Presenting interdisciplinary case studies of heritage sites and museums from across a range of different contexts, the volume analyzes the ways in which various types of immersive technologies can help visitors to contextualize and negotiate difficult or sensitive heritage and traumatic pasts. Demonstrating that some of the most creative applications of immersive experiences appear in and at museums and heritage sites, the book showcases how immersive technologies offer the possibility of confronting and disputing presumptions and prejudices, triggering responses, delivering new knowledge, initiating dialogue and challenging preexistingnotions of collective identity. The book provides a conceptual, as well as a hands-on, approach to understanding the use of immersive technologies at sensitive sites around the globe. Difficult Heritage and Immersive Experiences is essential reading for researchers and students who are interested in, or engaged in the study of, cultural heritage, memory, history, politics, dark tourism, design and digital media or immersive technologies. The book will also be of interest to museum and heritage practitioners.

The Languages of Western Tonality (Computational Music Science)

Tonal music, from a historical perspective, is far from homogenous; yet an enduring feature is a background "diatonic" system of exactly seven notes orderable cyclically by fifth. What is the source of the durability of the diatonic system, the octave of which is representable in terms of two particular integers, namely 12 and 7? And how is this durability consistent with the equally remarkable variety of musical styles — or languages — that the history of Western tonal music has taught us exist? This book is an attempt to answer these questions. Using mathematical tools to describe and explain the Western musical system as a highly sophisticated communication system, this theoretical, historical, and cognitive study is unprecedented in scope and depth. The author engages in intense dialogue with 1000 years of music-theoretical thinking, offering answers to some of the most enduring questions concerning Western tonality. The book is divided into two main parts, both governed by the communicative premise. Part I studies proto-tonality, the background system of notes prior to the selection of a privileged note known as "final." After some preliminaries that concern consonance and chromaticism, Part II begins with the notion "mode." A mode is "dyadic" or "triadic," depending on its "nucleus." Further, a "key" is a special type of "semi-key" which is a special type of mode. Different combinations of these categories account for tonal variety. Ninth-century music, for example, is a tonal language of dyadic modes, while seventeenth-century music is a language of triadic semi-keys. While portions of the book are characterized by abstraction and formal rigor, more suitable for expert readers, it will also be of value to anyone intrigued by the tonal phenomenon at large, including music theorists, musicologists, and music-cognition researchers. The content is supported by a general index, a list of definitions, a list of notation used, and two appendices providing the basic mathematical background.

Multiagent Scheduling: Models and Algorithms

Scheduling theory has received a growing interest since its origins in the second half of the 20th century. Developed initially for the study of scheduling problems with a single objective, the theory has been recently extended to problems involving multiple criteria. However, this extension has still left a gap between the classical multi-criteria approaches and some real-life problems in which not all jobs contribute to the evaluation of each criterion.In this book, we close this gap by presenting and developing multi-agent scheduling models in which subsets of jobs sharing the same resources are evaluated by different criteria. Several scenarios are introduced, depending on the definition and the intersection structure of the job subsets. Complexity results, approximation schemes, heuristics and exact algorithms are discussed for single-machine and parallel-machine scheduling environments. Definitions and algorithms are illustrated with the help of examples and figures.

Computer Hardware Description Languages and their Applications: Proceedings of the 11th IFIP WG10.2 International Conference on Computer Hardware Description Languages and their Applications - CHDL '93 Sponsored by IFIP WG10.2 and in cooperation with IEEE COMPSOC, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 26-28 April, 1993 (ISSN #Volume 32)

Hardware description languages (HDLs) have established themselves as one of the principal means of designing electronic systems. The interest in and usage of HDLs continues to spread rapidly, driven by the increasing complexity of systems, the growth of HDL-driven synthesis, the research on formal design methods and many other related advances.This research-oriented publication aims to make a strong contribution to further developments in the field. The following topics are explored in depth: BDD-based system design and analysis; system level formal verification; formal reasoning on hardware; languages for protocol specification; VHDL; HDL-based design methods; high level synthesis; and text/graphical HDLs. There are short papers covering advanced design capture and recent work in high level synthesis and formal verification. In addition, several invited presentations on key issues discuss and summarize recent advances in real time system design, automatic verification of sequential circuits and languages for protocol specification.

Cyberbullying and Sexting: Regulatory Challenges in the Digital Age

Drawing on two empirical studies and influential theoretical frameworks, this book provides a critical overview of the key regulatory challenges concerning cyberbullying and sexting behaviours among young people (persons under 18 years).The author explores issues such as conceptualising the behaviours, examining the prevailing presence of sexism, myths and stereotypes surrounding gender roles and identity, and the limitations of criminal law as an effective regulatory tool. In doing so, identifying peer-based sexting behaviours as part of a continuum of sexual behaviour is promoted alongside the need to consider interventions beyond the legal landscape and in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the main, priority is given to non-legal responses and the need for more effective and comprehensive gender-sensitive education programmes. The book therefore provides a more developed conceptual understanding of sexting and cyberbullying behaviours among young people.

Cyberbullying and Sexting: Regulatory Challenges in the Digital Age

Drawing on two empirical studies and influential theoretical frameworks, this book provides a critical overview of the key regulatory challenges concerning cyberbullying and sexting behaviours among young people (persons under 18 years).The author explores issues such as conceptualising the behaviours, examining the prevailing presence of sexism, myths and stereotypes surrounding gender roles and identity, and the limitations of criminal law as an effective regulatory tool. In doing so, identifying peer-based sexting behaviours as part of a continuum of sexual behaviour is promoted alongside the need to consider interventions beyond the legal landscape and in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the main, priority is given to non-legal responses and the need for more effective and comprehensive gender-sensitive education programmes. The book therefore provides a more developed conceptual understanding of sexting and cyberbullying behaviours among young people.

Mathematics and Computation in Music: Third International Conference, MCM 2011, Paris, France, June 15-17, 2011. Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #6726)

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, MCM 2011, held in Paris, France, in June 2011. The 24 revised full papers presented and the 12 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 62 submissions. The MCM conference is the flagship conference of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music. This year’s conference aimed to provide a multi-disciplinary platform dedicated to the communication and exchange of ideas amongst researchers involved in mathematics, computer science, music theory, composition, musicology, or other related disciplines. Areas covered were formalization and geometrical representation of musical structures and processes; mathematical models for music improvisation and gestures theory; set-theoretical and transformational approaches; computational analysis and cognitive musicology as well as more general discussions on history, philosophy and epistemology of music and mathematics.

Information Access through Search Engines and Digital Libraries (The Information Retrieval Series #22)

The Information Management Systems group at the University of Padua has been a major contributor to information retrieval (IR) and digital libraries. The papers in this book include coverage of automated text categorizations, web link analysis algorithms, retrieval in multimedia digital libraries, and multilingual information retrieval. The text will appeal to institutions and companies working on search engines and information retrieval algorithms.

Digital Libraries and Multimedia Archives: 12th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries, IRCDL 2016, Florence, Italy, February 4-5, 2016, Revised Selected Papers (Communications in Computer and Information Science #701)

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 12th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries, IRCDL 2016, held in Firence, Italy, in February 2016. The 15 papers presented were carefully selected from 23 submissions and cover topics such as formal methods, long-term preservation, metadata creation, management and curation, multimedia, ontology and linked data. The papers deal with numerous multidisciplinary aspects ranging from computer science to humanities in the broader sense, including research areas such as archival and library information sciences; information management systems; semantic technologies; information retrieval; new knowledge environments.

Lectures on Information Retrieval: Third European Summer-School, ESSIR 2000 Varenna, Italy, September 11-15, 2000. Revised Lectures (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #1980)

Information Retrieval (IR) is concerned with the effective and efficient retrieval of information based on its semantic content. The central problem in IR is the quest to find the set of relevant documents, among a large collection containing the information sought, satisfying a user's information need usually expressed in a natural language query. Documents may be objects or items in any medium: text, image, audio, or indeed a mixture of all three. This book presents 12 revised lectures given at the Third European Summer School in Information Retrieval, ESSIR 2000, held at the Villa Monastero, Varenna, Italy, in September 2000. The first part of the book is devoted to the foundation of IR and related areas; the second part on advanced topics addresses various current issues, from usability aspects to Web searching and browsing.

Digital Libraries and Archives: 8th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2012, Bari, Italy, February 9-10, 2012, Revised Selected Papers (Communications in Computer and Information Science #354)

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 8th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries, held in Bari, Italy, in February 2012. The 22 full papers, included together with 4 panel papers, were selected from extended versions of the presentations given at the conference, following an additional round of reviewing and revision after the event. The topics covered are as follows: legacy documents and cultural heritage; systems interoperability and data integration; formal and methodological foundations of digital libraries; semantic web and linked data for digital libraries; multilingual information access; digital library infrastructures; metadata creation and management; search engines for digital library systems; evaluation and log data; handling audio/visual and non-traditional objects; user interfaces and visualization; digital library quality; policies and copyright issues in digital libraries; scientific data curation, citation and scholarly publication, user behavior and modeling; and preservation and curation.

Digital Libraries and Archives: 7th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2011, Pisa, Italy,January 20-21, 2011. Revised Papers (Communications in Computer and Information Science #249)

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 7th Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries held in Pisa, Italy, in January 2011. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and cover topics of interest such as system interoperability and data integration; formal and methodological foundations of digital libraries; semantic web and linked data for digital libraries; multilingual information access; digital library infrastructures; metadata creation and management; search engines for digital library systems; evaluation and log data; handling audio/visual and non-traditional objects; user interfaces and visualization; digital library quality.

Digital Libraries: 6th Italian Research Conference, IRCDL 2010, Padua, Italy, January 28-29, 2010. Revised Selected Papers (Communications in Computer and Information Science #91)

Information Retrieval Meets Information Visualization: PROMISE Winter School 2012, Zinal, Switzerland, January 23-27, 2012, Revised Tutorial Lectures (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #7757)

The research domains information retrieval and information visualization have always been independent from each other. However, they have the potential to be mutually beneficial. With this in mind, a writer school was organized in Zinal, Switzerland, in January 2012, within the context of the EU-funded research project PROMISE (Participative Research Laboratory for Multimedia and Multilingual Information Systems Evaluation). PROMISE aims at advancing the experimental evaluation of complex multimedia and multilingual information systems in order to support individuals, commercial entities, and communities who design, develop, employ, and improve such complex systems. The overall goal of PROMISE is to deliver a unified environment collecting data, knowledge, tools, and methodologies, and to help the user community involved in experimental evaluation. This book constitutes the outcome of the PROMISE Winter School 2012 and contains 11 invited lectures from the research domains information retrieval and information visualization. A large variety of subjects are covered, including hot topics such as crowdsourcing and social media.

Recent Advances in Robust Statistics: Theory and Applications

This book offers a collection of recent contributions and emerging ideas in the areas of robust statistics presented at the International Conference on Robust Statistics 2015 (ICORS 2015) held in Kolkata during 12–16 January, 2015. The book explores the applicability of robust methods in other non-traditional areas which includes the use of new techniques such as skew and mixture of skew distributions, scaled Bregman divergences, and multilevel functional data methods; application areas being circular data models and prediction of mortality and life expectancy. The contributions are of both theoretical as well as applied in nature. Robust statistics is a relatively young branch of statistical sciences that is rapidly emerging as the bedrock of statistical analysis in the 21st century due to its flexible nature and wide scope. Robust statistics supports the application of parametric and other inference techniques over a broader domain than the strictly interpreted model scenarios employed in classical statistical methods.The aim of the ICORS conference, which is being organized annually since 2001, is to bring together researchers interested in robust statistics, data analysis and related areas. The conference is meant for theoretical and applied statisticians, data analysts from other fields, leading experts, junior researchers and graduate students. The ICORS meetings offer a forum for discussing recent advances and emerging ideas in statistics with a focus on robustness, and encourage informal contacts and discussions among all the participants. They also play an important role in maintaining a cohesive group of international researchers interested in robust statistics and related topics, whose interactions transcend the meetings and endure year round.