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Semi-Famous: A True Story of Near Celebrity

In this "laugh-out-loud funny&” book (Hank Green, New York Times bestselling author), social media star and comedian Josh Sundquist takes readers on his hilarious journey to the fringes of viral stardom to discover if it&’s possible to be both very famous and very happy As a semi-famous internet creator, Josh Sundquist knows what it's like to chase fame, but he also knows that more fame usually means more stress. So he set out on a pseudo-scientific investigation to find out if there is any way for fame and happiness to overlap. He attempts to define the word &“fame&”—hint: it's harder than you'd think. He turns back time to identify the first facially-recognizable celebrity (you might know his former BFF Brutus). He digs into the numbers to debunk urban legends associated with stardom (ever heard of the 27 Club?). He talks to other semi-famous people (from K-pop sensations to former child stars) and asks them: Is this fame thing making you happy? If not, why are you doing it? If so, what's your secret? All while recounting funny stories about his own cringy fame-seeking (like his many attempts, and failures, to get onto MTV). Packed with playful diagrams, fascinating insights from celebrities, and embarrassing truths from Josh&’s experience with semi-fame, this is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of becoming famous…or at least going viral on TikTok.

Semi-Infinite Programming: Recent Advances (Nonconvex Optimization and Its Applications #57)

Semi-infinite programming (SIP) deals with optimization problems in which either the number of decision variables or the number of constraints is finite. This book presents the state of the art in SIP in a suggestive way, bringing the powerful SIP tools close to the potential users in different scientific and technological fields. The volume is divided into four parts. Part I reviews the first decade of SIP (1962-1972). Part II analyses convex and generalised SIP, conic linear programming, and disjunctive programming. New numerical methods for linear, convex, and continuously differentiable SIP problems are proposed in Part III. Finally, Part IV provides an overview of the applications of SIP to probability, statistics, experimental design, robotics, optimization under uncertainty, production games, and separation problems. Audience: This book is an indispensable reference and source for advanced students and researchers in applied mathematics and engineering.

Semi-Infinite Programming (Nonconvex Optimization and Its Applications #25)

Semi-infinite programming (briefly: SIP) is an exciting part of mathematical programming. SIP problems include finitely many variables and, in contrast to finite optimization problems, infinitely many inequality constraints. Prob­ lems of this type naturally arise in approximation theory, optimal control, and at numerous engineering applications where the model contains at least one inequality constraint for each value of a parameter and the parameter, repre­ senting time, space, frequency etc., varies in a given domain. The treatment of such problems requires particular theoretical and numerical techniques. The theory in SIP as well as the number of numerical SIP methods and appli­ cations have expanded very fast during the last years. Therefore, the main goal of this monograph is to provide a collection of tutorial and survey type articles which represent a substantial part of the contemporary body of knowledge in SIP. We are glad that leading researchers have contributed to this volume and that their articles are covering a wide range of important topics in this subject. It is our hope that both experienced students and scientists will be well advised to consult this volume. We got the idea for this volume when we were organizing the semi-infinite pro­ gramming workshop which was held in Cottbus, Germany, in September 1996.

Semi-quantitative Approaches for Landslide Assessment and Prediction (Springer Natural Hazards)

In the present authors attempted to have a clear insight into the interworking of geotectonic, geomorphic, hydrologic and anthropogenic factors leading to landslide in the Shiv khola Watershed, the most worst affected region of Darjiling Himalaya. This book includes the parameters responsible for landslide events in mountainous areas. It provides knowledge and understanding to the local people, planners, and policy makers about the causes and consequences of landslides as well as provides a suitable method to mitigate the landslips. The book deals with the role of land, water and soil in landslide phenomena. These three attributes have been described in terms of critical rainfall, critical slope, critical height and changes and development of drainage network in landslides. Mitigations and site-specific management options are evaluated considering the roles of local govt., community and other organizations in both pre-slide and post-slide periods. Various scientific methods have been used to assess the landslides that will bring about tremendous help to researchers in the field. In particular, Researchers in Mountain Geomorphology and Geological and Geographical Society will get tremendous help from some topics such as 1-D slope stability model, SCS Curve Number Technique, Assessment of morphological parameters, application of RS & GIS, Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process. Semi-quantitative approach is followed for understanding spatial distribution of cohesion, friction angle slope, lithology and lineaments, drainage, upslope contributing area, land use and land cover types etc. This book also reveals some techniques and models for initiating slope instability.

Semi-Supervised Learning and Domain Adaptation in Natural Language Processing (Synthesis Lectures on Human Language Technologies)

This book introduces basic supervised learning algorithms applicable to natural language processing (NLP) and shows how the performance of these algorithms can often be improved by exploiting the marginal distribution of large amounts of unlabeled data. One reason for that is data sparsity, i.e., the limited amounts of data we have available in NLP. However, in most real-world NLP applications our labeled data is also heavily biased. This book introduces extensions of supervised learning algorithms to cope with data sparsity and different kinds of sampling bias. This book is intended to be both readable by first-year students and interesting to the expert audience. My intention was to introduce what is necessary to appreciate the major challenges we face in contemporary NLP related to data sparsity and sampling bias, without wasting too much time on details about supervised learning algorithms or particular NLP applications. I use text classification, part-of-speech tagging, and dependency parsing as running examples, and limit myself to a small set of cardinal learning algorithms. I have worried less about theoretical guarantees ("this algorithm never does too badly") than about useful rules of thumb ("in this case this algorithm may perform really well"). In NLP, data is so noisy, biased, and non-stationary that few theoretical guarantees can be established and we are typically left with our gut feelings and a catalogue of crazy ideas. I hope this book will provide its readers with both. Throughout the book we include snippets of Python code and empirical evaluations, when relevant.

Semiclassical Theories of Molecular Scattering (Springer Series in Chemical Physics #26)

The study of molecular collisions at energies from less than about 100 eV 3 down to a few 10- eV, which is roughly the range of chemical interest, has greatly expanded in the last 10 to 20 years. As in many fields, this activity has been stimulated by parallel advances in theory which have triggered the autocatalytic positive feedback system of experiment challenging theory and vice versa. Possibly the biggest driving force, however, has been the growing awareness that molecular collisions are important in our understanding of na­ tural and man-made environments. Molecular collision dynamics is now studied in connection with molecular formation in interplanetary space, upper atmo­ sphere chemistry, plasmas, lasers and fusion reactors, and is crucial for understanding gas-dynamic flow processes, gas-phase chemical reactions and catalysis. Despite the great strides made in studying elementary collisions in laboratory scattering experiments, many of the processes in these areas are too complicated for us to hope ever to study them in detail in the labo­ ratory. Thus in the long run we shall have to rely on theory. Initially, I think many of us, like myself, had hoped that the development of fast compu­ ters would outpace the demands on computing time so that "brute force" quan­ tum-mechanical exact calculations would provide all the answers. Unfortunate­ ly this has not been the case and efficient approximations are needed. They can be broadly classified as classical, semiclassical or semiquantal.

Semiconductor Modeling: For Simulating Signal, Power, and Electromagnetic Integrity

Discusses process variation, model accuracy, design flow and many other practical engineering, reliability and manufacturing issuesGives a good overview for a person who is not an expert in modeling and simulation, enabling them to extract the necessary information to competently use modeling and simulation programsWritten for engineering students and product design engineers

Semiconductors: Integrated Circuit Design for Manufacturability (Devices, Circuits, and Systems)

Because of the continuous evolution of integrated circuit manufacturing (ICM) and design for manufacturability (DfM), most books on the subject are obsolete before they even go to press. That’s why the field requires a reference that takes the focus off of numbers and concentrates more on larger economic concepts than on technical details. Semiconductors: Integrated Circuit Design for Manufacturability covers the gradual evolution of integrated circuit design (ICD) as a basis to propose strategies for improving return-on-investment (ROI) for ICD in manufacturing. Where most books put the spotlight on detailed engineering enhancements and their implications for device functionality, in contrast, this one offers, among other things, crucial, valuable historical background and roadmapping, all illustrated with examples. Presents actual test cases that illustrate product challenges, examine possible solution strategies, and demonstrate how to select and implement the right one This book shows that DfM is a powerful generic engineering concept with potential extending beyond its usual application in automated layout enhancements centered on proximity correction and pattern density. This material explores the concept of ICD for production by breaking down its major steps: product definition, design, layout, and manufacturing. Averting extended discussion of technology, techniques, or specific device dimensions, the author also avoids the clumsy chapter architecture that can hinder other books on this subject. The result is an extremely functional, systematic presentation that simplifies existing approaches to DfM, outlining a clear set of criteria to help readers assess reliability, functionality, and yield. With careful consideration of the economic and technical trade-offs involved in ICD for manufacturing, this reference addresses techniques for physical, electrical, and logical design, keeping coverage fresh and concise for the designers, manufacturers, and researchers defining product architecture and research programs.

Semiconductors: Integrated Circuit Design for Manufacturability (Devices, Circuits, and Systems)

Because of the continuous evolution of integrated circuit manufacturing (ICM) and design for manufacturability (DfM), most books on the subject are obsolete before they even go to press. That’s why the field requires a reference that takes the focus off of numbers and concentrates more on larger economic concepts than on technical details. Semiconductors: Integrated Circuit Design for Manufacturability covers the gradual evolution of integrated circuit design (ICD) as a basis to propose strategies for improving return-on-investment (ROI) for ICD in manufacturing. Where most books put the spotlight on detailed engineering enhancements and their implications for device functionality, in contrast, this one offers, among other things, crucial, valuable historical background and roadmapping, all illustrated with examples. Presents actual test cases that illustrate product challenges, examine possible solution strategies, and demonstrate how to select and implement the right one This book shows that DfM is a powerful generic engineering concept with potential extending beyond its usual application in automated layout enhancements centered on proximity correction and pattern density. This material explores the concept of ICD for production by breaking down its major steps: product definition, design, layout, and manufacturing. Averting extended discussion of technology, techniques, or specific device dimensions, the author also avoids the clumsy chapter architecture that can hinder other books on this subject. The result is an extremely functional, systematic presentation that simplifies existing approaches to DfM, outlining a clear set of criteria to help readers assess reliability, functionality, and yield. With careful consideration of the economic and technical trade-offs involved in ICD for manufacturing, this reference addresses techniques for physical, electrical, and logical design, keeping coverage fresh and concise for the designers, manufacturers, and researchers defining product architecture and research programs.

A Semidiscrete Version of the Citti-Petitot-Sarti Model as a Plausible Model for Anthropomorphic Image Reconstruction and Pattern Recognition (SpringerBriefs in Mathematics)

This book proposes a semi-discrete version of the theory of Petitot and Citti-Sarti, leading to a left-invariant structure over the group SE(2,N), restricted to a finite number of rotations. This apparently very simple group is in fact quite atypical: it is maximally almost periodic, which leads to much simpler harmonic analysis compared to SE(2). Based upon this semi-discrete model, the authors improve on previous image-reconstruction algorithms and develop a pattern-recognition theory that also leads to very efficient algorithms in practice.

Semigroups, Algebras and Operator Theory: Kochi, India, February 2014 (Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics #142)

This book discusses recent developments in semigroup theory and its applications in areas such as operator algebras, operator approximations and category theory. All contributing authors are eminent researchers in their respective fields, from across the world. Their papers, presented at the 2014 International Conference on Semigroups, Algebras and Operator Theory in Cochin, India, focus on recent developments in semigroup theory and operator algebras. They highlight current research activities on the structure theory of semigroups as well as the role of semigroup theoretic approaches to other areas such as rings and algebras. The deliberations and discussions at the conference point to future research directions in these areas. This book presents 16 unpublished, high-quality and peer-reviewed research papers on areas such as structure theory of semigroups, decidability vs. undecidability of word problems, regular von Neumann algebras, operator theory and operator approximations. Interested researchers will find several avenues for exploring the connections between semigroup theory and the theory of operator algebras.

Semigroups and Their Applications: Proceedings of the International Conference “Algebraic Theory of Semigroups and Its Applications” held at the California State University, Chico, April 10–12, 1986

Most papers published in this volume are based on lectures presented at the Chico Conference on Semigroups held on the Chico campus of the Cal­ ifornia State University on April 10-12, 1986. The conference was spon­ sored by the California State University, Chico in cooperation with the Engineering Computer Sciences Department of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The program included seven 50-minute addresses and seventeen 30-minute lectures. Speakers were invited by the organizing committee consisting of S. M. Goberstein and P. M. Higgins. The purpose of the conference was to bring together some of the leading researchers in the area of semigroup theory for a discussion of major recent developments in the field. The algebraic theory of semigroups is growing so rapidly and new important results are being produced at such a rate that the need for another meeting was well­ justified. It was hoped that the conference would help to disseminate new results more rapidly among those working in semi groups and related areas and that the exchange of ideas would stimulate research in the subject even further. These hopes were realized beyond all expectations.

Séminaire de Probabilités XVI 1980/81 (Lecture Notes in Mathematics #920)

Seminaire de Probabilites XXXIII (Lecture Notes in Mathematics #1709)

Seminal Contributions to Information Systems Engineering: 25 Years of CAiSE

In 2013, the International Conference on Advance Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE) turns 25. Initially launched in 1989, for all these years the conference has provided a broad forum for researchers working in the area of Information Systems Engineering. To reflect on the work done so far and to examine prospects for future work, the CAiSE Steering Committee decided to present a selection of seminal papers published for the conference during these years and to ask their authors, all prominent researchers in the field, to comment on their work and how it has developed over the years.The scope of the papers selected covers a broad range of topics related to modeling and designing information systems, collecting and managing requirements, and with special attention to how information systems are engineered towards their final development and deployment as software components.With this approach, the book provides not only a historical analysis on how information systems engineering evolved over the years, but also a fascinating social network analysis of the research community. Additionally, many inspiring ideas for future research and new perspectives in this area are sparked by the intriguing comments of the renowned authors.

Seminal Contributions to Modelling and Simulation: 30 Years of the European Council of Modelling and Simulation (Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications)

Marking the 30th anniversary of the European Conference on Modelling and Simulation (ECMS), this inspirational text/reference reviews significant advances in the field of modelling and simulation, as well as key applications of simulation in other disciplines. The broad-ranging volume presents contributions from a varied selection of distinguished experts chosen from high-impact keynote speakers and best paper winners from the conference, including a Nobel Prize recipient, and the first president of the European Council for Modelling and Simulation (also abbreviated to ECMS). This authoritative book will be of great value to all researchers working in the field of modelling and simulation, in addition to scientists from other disciplines who make use of modelling and simulation approaches in their work.

Semiotic Engineering Methods for Scientific Research in HCI (Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics)

Semiotic engineering was originally proposed as a semiotic approach to designing user interface languages. Over the years, with research done at the Department of Informatics of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, it evolved into a semiotic theory of human-computer interaction (HCI). It views HCI as computer-mediated communication between designers and users at interaction time. The system speaks for its designers in various types of conversations specified at design time. These conversations communicate the designers' understanding of who the users are, what they know the users want or need to do, in which preferred ways, and why. The designers' message to users includes even the interactive language in which users will have to communicate back with the system in order to achieve their specific goals. Hence, the process is, in fact, one of communication about communication, or metacommunication. Semiotic engineering has two methods to evaluate the quality of metacommunication in HCI: the semiotic inspection method (SIM) and the communicability evaluation method (CEM). Up to now, they have been mainly used and discussed in technical contexts, focusing on how to detect problems and how to improve the metacommunication of specific systems. In this book, Clarisse de Souza and Carla Leitão discuss how SIM and CEM, which are both qualitative methods, can also be used in scientific contexts to generate new knowledge about HCI. The discussion goes into deep considerations about scientific methodology, calling the reader's attention to the essence of qualitative methods in research and the kinds of results they can produce. To illustrate their points, the authors present an extensive case study with a free open-source digital audio editor called Audacity. They show how the results obtained with a triangulation of SIM and CEM point at new research avenues not only for semiotic engineering and HCI but also for other areas of computer science such as software engineering and programming. Table of Contents: Introduction / Essence of Semiotic Engineering / Semiotic Engineering Methods / Case Study with Audacity / Lessons Learned with Semiotic Engineering Methods / The Near Future of Semiotic Engineering

Semiotic Perception and Dynamic Forms of Meaning (Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis)

What do we mean by semiotic perception? Why should the concepts of perception and expressivity be reinterpreted within the encompassing framework of a dynamic theory of semiotic fields and forms? Can we redeploy the concept of form in such a way as to make explicit such a native solidarity (‘chiasmatic’ would have said Merleau-Ponty) between perception, praxis and expression -- and first and foremost in the activity of language, right to the heart of the life of the social and speaking animal that we are? What then would be the epistemological and ontological consequences, and how might this affect the way we describe semiolinguistic forms? This book aims to provide answers to these questions by opening up avenues of research on how to understand the linguistic and semiotic dimensions at work in the constitution of experience, both individual and collective.

The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Video games are among the most popular media on the planet, and billions of people inhabit these virtual worlds on a daily basis. This book investigates the architecture of video games, the buildings, roads and cities in which gamers play out their roles. Examining both the aesthetic aspects and symbolic roles of video game architecture as they relate to gameplay, Gabriele Aroni tackles a number of questions, including: - How digital architecture relates to real architecture- Where the inspiration for digital gaming architecture comes from, and how it moves into new directions- How the design of virtual architecture influences gameplay and storytelling. Looking at how architecture in video games communicates and interacts with players, this book combines semiotics and architecture theory to display how architecture is used in a variety of situations, with different aims and results. Using case studies from NaissanceE, Assassin's Creed II and Final Fantasy XV, The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games discusses the techniques used to create successful virtual spaces and proposes a framework to analyse video game architecture, ultimately explaining how to employ architectural solutions in video games in a systematic and effective way.

The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Video games are among the most popular media on the planet, and billions of people inhabit these virtual worlds on a daily basis. This book investigates the architecture of video games, the buildings, roads and cities in which gamers play out their roles. Examining both the aesthetic aspects and symbolic roles of video game architecture as they relate to gameplay, Gabriele Aroni tackles a number of questions, including: - How digital architecture relates to real architecture- Where the inspiration for digital gaming architecture comes from, and how it moves into new directions- How the design of virtual architecture influences gameplay and storytelling. Looking at how architecture in video games communicates and interacts with players, this book combines semiotics and architecture theory to display how architecture is used in a variety of situations, with different aims and results. Using case studies from NaissanceE, Assassin's Creed II and Final Fantasy XV, The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games discusses the techniques used to create successful virtual spaces and proposes a framework to analyse video game architecture, ultimately explaining how to employ architectural solutions in video games in a systematic and effective way.

The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Shortlisted for the BAAL Book Prize 2017Emoji have gone from being virtually unknown to being a central topic in internet communication. What is behind the rise and rise of these winky faces, clinking glasses and smiling poos? Given the sheer variety of verbal communication on the internet and English's still-controversial role as lingua mundi for the web, these icons have emerged as a compensatory universal language. The Semiotics of Emoji looks at what is officially the world's fastest-growing form of communication. Emoji, the colourful symbols and glyphs that represent everything from frowning disapproval to red-faced shame, are fast becoming embedded into digital communication. Controlled by a centralized body and regulated across the web, emoji seems to be a language: but is it? The rapid adoption of emoji in such a short span of time makes it a rich study in exploring the functions of language. Professor Marcel Danesi, an internationally-known expert in semiotics, branding and communication, answers the pertinent questions. Are emoji making us dumber? Can they ultimately replace language? Will people grow up emoji literate as well as digitally native? Can there be such a thing as a Universal Visual Language? Read this book for the answers.

The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)

Shortlisted for the BAAL Book Prize 2017Emoji have gone from being virtually unknown to being a central topic in internet communication. What is behind the rise and rise of these winky faces, clinking glasses and smiling poos? Given the sheer variety of verbal communication on the internet and English's still-controversial role as lingua mundi for the web, these icons have emerged as a compensatory universal language. The Semiotics of Emoji looks at what is officially the world's fastest-growing form of communication. Emoji, the colourful symbols and glyphs that represent everything from frowning disapproval to red-faced shame, are fast becoming embedded into digital communication. Controlled by a centralized body and regulated across the web, emoji seems to be a language: but is it? The rapid adoption of emoji in such a short span of time makes it a rich study in exploring the functions of language. Professor Marcel Danesi, an internationally-known expert in semiotics, branding and communication, answers the pertinent questions. Are emoji making us dumber? Can they ultimately replace language? Will people grow up emoji literate as well as digitally native? Can there be such a thing as a Universal Visual Language? Read this book for the answers.

The Semiotics of Information Systems: A Research Methodology for the Digital Age (Technology, Work and Globalization)

The central concepts of information meaning, embodied cognition and semiotics are hugely relevant to contemporary organisations and personal and social lives. However, these concepts are not well understood and are frequently under-represented, misrepresented, and their importance seriously underplayed in the study of management. This is particularly noticeable in the study of the information systems and digital technologies that underpin so much of business operations, personal and social life, organisation, communication and management today. This book seeks to fill the obvious gap. It provides detailed understanding of fundamental concepts and develops a useable, integrative semiotics framework. The framework is grounded in rich social theory and philosophy, and, as the book demonstrates, provides a valuable exploratory and explanatory framework for researchers. This takes shape as a 12-step research process, that has the general features of most research methodologies but also provides distinctive rich resources for in-depth research into semiotically related phenomena. It will be of great interest to academics undertaking research in digital technologies and business model innovation, as well as scholars of research methodology, organisation studies, HRM, marketing and information systems.

Semirings and Affine Equations over Them: Theory and Applications (Mathematics and Its Applications #556)

Semiring theory stands with a foot in each of two mathematical domains. The first being abstract algebra and the other the fields of applied mathematics such as optimization theory, the theory of discrete-event dynamical systems, automata theory, and formal language theory, as well as from the allied areas of theoretical computer science and theoretical physics. Most important applications of semiring theory in these areas turn out to revolve around the problem of finding the equalizer of a pair of affine maps between two semimodules. In this volume, we chart the state of the art on solving this problem, and present many specific cases of applications. This book is essentially the third part of a trilogy, along with Semirings and their Applications, and Power Algebras over Semirings, both written by the same author and published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999. While each book can be read independently of the others, to get the full force of the theory and applications one should have access to all three. This work will be of interest to academic and industrial researchers and graduate students. The intent of the book is to bring the applications to the attention of the abstract mathematicians and to make the abstract mathematics available to those who are using these tools in an ad-hoc manner without realizing the full force of the theory.

Semirings and their Applications

There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not some day be applied to phenomena of the real world. - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobatchevsky This book is an extensively-revised and expanded version of "The Theory of Semirings, with Applicationsin Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science" [Golan, 1992], first published by Longman. When that book went out of print, it became clear - in light of the significant advances in semiring theory over the past years and its new important applications in such areas as idempotent analysis and the theory of discrete-event dynamical systems - that a second edition incorporating minor changes would not be sufficient and that a major revision of the book was in order. Therefore, though the structure of the first «dition was preserved, the text was extensively rewritten and substantially expanded. In particular, references to many interesting and applications of semiring theory, developed in the past few years, had to be added. Unfortunately, I find that it is best not to go into these applications in detail, for that would entail long digressions into various domains of pure and applied mathematics which would only detract from the unity of the volume and increase its length considerably. However, I have tried to provide an extensive collection of examples to arouse the reader's interest in applications, as well as sufficient citations to allow the interested reader to locate them. For the reader's convenience, an index to these citations is given at the end of the book .