Inverse Projection is a method for estimating accurate demographic indicators of a population where vital registration data are available, but population censuses are lacking or unreliable. The book offers an overview of the present state of methodological development in the field of inverse projection techniques. In the various chapters of the book, leading experts in demography and related fields review the method, discuss recent extensions, test performances, and stress differences of the various procedures. The book is intended for all scientists who are interested in the reconstruction of demographic scenarios in particular situations, with specific kinds of data, as well as for statisticians and mathematicians who are attracted by this fascinating field of application.

Inverse Projection is a method for estimating accurate demographic indicators of a population where vital registration data are available, but population censuses are lacking or unreliable. The book offers an overview of the present state of methodological development in the field of inverse projection techniques. In the various chapters of the book, leading experts in demography and related fields review the method, discuss recent extensions, test performances, and stress differences of the various procedures. The book is intended for all scientists who are interested in the reconstruction of demographic scenarios in particular situations, with specific kinds of data, as well as for statisticians and mathematicians who are attracted by this fascinating field of application.

A Selection of Image Processing Techniques: From Fundamentals to Research Front focuses on seven commonly used image-processing techniques. These are de-noising, de-blurring, repairing, de-fogging, reconstruction from projection, watermarking, and super-resolution. This book is suitable for readers who do not have a complete foundation in the principles of image technology but need to use image techniques to solve specific tasks in particular applications. Hence, elementary knowledge for further study is provided, allowing the reader to discover suitable techniques for solving practical problems and to learn the latest developments in a specific domain. This book offers readers a three-step strategy toward problem solving: first, essential principles, then, a detailed explanation, and finally, a discussion of practical and working techniques for specific tasks. Throughout, the author highlights materials pertaining to the newest developments and trends of the technologies.

Aside from distribution theory, projections and the singular value decomposition (SVD) are the two most important concepts for understanding the basic mechanism of multivariate analysis. The former underlies the least squares estimation in regression analysis, which is essentially a projection of one subspace onto another, and the latter underlies principal component analysis, which seeks to find a subspace that captures the largest variability in the original space. This book is about projections and SVD. A thorough discussion of generalized inverse (g-inverse) matrices is also given because it is closely related to the former. The book provides systematic and in-depth accounts of these concepts from a unified viewpoint of linear transformations finite dimensional vector spaces. More specially, it shows that projection matrices (projectors) and g-inverse matrices can be defined in various ways so that a vector space is decomposed into a direct-sum of (disjoint) subspaces. Projection Matrices, Generalized Inverse Matrices, and Singular Value Decomposition will be useful for researchers, practitioners, and students in applied mathematics, statistics, engineering, behaviormetrics, and other fields.

According to the classic and widely accepted statement by Hauser and Duncan (1959: 2), demography is defined as “the study of the size, territorial distribution, and components of population, changes therein, and components of such changes.” Almost all disciplines of social sciences and most disciplines of natural sciences deal with human beings in one way or another, either directly or indirectly. Furthermore, demographic concepts (e.g., birth rate, death rate, and migration) and methods and analysis strategies (e.g., life table analysis) can be readily extended to other species (insects, animals, plants, etc.) and inanimate collectives (enterprises, automobiles, etc.). Clearly, demography is an important thematic field in science and it may provide the empirical foundation for studying human beings, animals, and inanimate collectives on which other relevant scientific research is built. The volume aims to be of value to the various audiences of both non-specialists and experts who seek a comprehensive understanding of issues related to human population. As reviewed in the very beginning of the Theme Introduction, “interdisciplinary” is one of the three major features of demography. Given the rapid development in techniques for collecting not only demographic data but also other related data concerning health, biomarkers, genetics, behaviors, and social and natural environments in conventional population surveys, as well as rapidly enhancing computing powers, this volume shows and concludes that demography will be even more interdisciplinary in the coming decades. A notable example is that the cross-field “marriage” between bio-medical sciences and demography will lead us to enter an era in which bio-medical and demographic methods will be well integrated. As indicated by James R. Carey and James W. Vaupel in Chapter 13 of this volume, the bio-demographic branches of demography are vibrant areas of demographic research that are rapidly growing and that have great potential to enrich and enlarge the domain of demography. Not only can demographers learn much from biologists and epidemiologists, but demographers can contribute much to research on life in general and to research on population health. The increasing availability of data sources and much enhanced computing/internet power will also lead demography to be more interactive with the other fields, such as psychology, environmental science, economics, business and management, etc. As discussed in this volume’s Chapter 11 by Swanson and Pol, for example, it is now possible to link conventional demographic data sources of census, surveys, and vital statistics with administrative records such as social security, tax reporting, medical insurance, hospital records, school registration, supermarket purchasing cards use, etc., while protecting individuals’ privacy. Such linkages will substantially increase the value of demographic methods, surveys and administrative records for scientific research and policy analysis, as well as the applicability of demography in business and governmental decision making processes.

The contributions in this volume reflect not only the growing understanding of the underlying mechanisms controlling the various reactions in laser surface processing, but also the potential of several developing applications of direct processing. The most notable trend in the field currently is the technique of laser ablation, which is reported in almost a quarter of the papers in this volume. Whilst by no means a new phenomenon, attention has until recent years remained in the area of lithography and UV-sensitive materials. The growth in interest lies in the use of the technique to grow multi-component thin films and multi-layers. A number of papers on the topic of process diagnostics and in-situ measurements are also included. The theme of these annual meetings is centred around the physical and chemical modification of thin films and surfaces induced by the action of photon, ion, neutral, or electron beams in a variety of environments. Consequently these proceedings provide a comprehensive and unified presentation of the latest developments in this field.

The CAPTECH'98 workshop took place at the University of Geneva on November 26–27, 1998, sponsored by FIP Working Group 5.10 (Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds) and the Suisse Romande regional doctoral seminar in computer science. The subject of the conference was ongoing research in data capture and interpretation. The goals of capturing real world data in order to perceive, understand, and interpret them and then reacting to them in a suitable way are currently important research problems. These data can be very diverse: sounds, emotions, shapes, motions, forces, muscles, actions, etc. Once captured, they have to be treated either to make the invisible visible, or to understand a particular phenomenon so as to formulate an appropriate reaction, or to integrate various information in a new multimedia format. The conference included six sessions of presented papers and three panel discussions. Invited speakers treating various aspects of the topic were: Professor R. Earnshaw from Bradford University, Professor T. L. Kunii from Hosei University, and Professor P. Robert from EPFL. Professor K. Bauknecht, of the University of Zürich, President of IFIP, offered the welcoming address. Mr. E. Badique, project officer for the EU in Brussels, discussed recent results of the EU ACTS research program. Finally, the Geneva Computer Animation '98 Film Festival highlighted the evening of November 26.

Originally published under the title The Future of Economic History, this book attempts to chart a new course for the intellectual discipline known as economic history and determine its contributions to the study of economics. The authors suggest new and potentially fruitful areas and approaches for research and at the same time analyze the weaknesses in past efforts to chart a course for the future.