Victor Robert Lee's provocative literary spy novel Performance Anomalies launches a protagonist, partly of Chinese and Russian origin, to rival the most memorable espionage heroes. Cono 7Q is a startling young man of haunting heritage who has been gifted - or cursed - with an accelerated nervous system. An orphan and a loner, he acts as a freelance clandestine agent, happy to use his strange talents in the service of dubious organizations and governments - until, in Kazakhstan, on a personal mission to rescue a former lover, he is sucked into a deadly maelstrom of betrayal that forces him to question all notions of friendship and allegiance. Relevant to our geopolitical times, Performance Anomalies tracks the expansion of Beijing's imperial reach into Central Asia, and the takeover of corruption-riddled Kazakhstan. Cono 7Q's main adversary is a brutal Beijing agent whose personality has been twisted by the Cultural Revolution's devastation of his family. Performance Anomalies travels from Brazil and Stanford to Kazakhstan and the Tian Shan mountains, covering an engrossing emotional landscape set against the backdrop of an emerging new cold war between America and both China and Russia.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems, OPODIS 2004, held at Grenoble, France, in December 2004. The 30 revised full papers presented together with abstracts of 2 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 102 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on design of distributed systems, ad-hoc networks and mobile agents, grid and networks, security, distributed algorithms, self-stabilization, sensor networks, and task/resource allocation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Software Engineering for Resilient Systems, SERENE 2015, held in Paris, France, in September 2015. The 10 revised technical papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 18 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on development of resilient systems, verification, validation and evaluation of resilience, case studies and applications.

Composed of papers written by leading engineers and scientists in the field, this valuable collection reports the most recent advances in cryocooler development, contains extensive performance test results and comparisons, and relates the latest experience in integrating cryocoolers into advanced applications.

This volume provides an eloquent review of the anatomy and physiology of phonation, the work-up of patients with voice disorders, basic evaluation of wind instrument performance and dysfunction, and a full description of the most common skeletal and non-skeletal dentofacial anomalies, including their means of diagnosis and treatment. This is followed by a comprehensive review of literature on the vocal and acoustic features of affected patients, as well as the special considerations in wind instrumentalists. The effect of orthodontic therapy/ orthognathic surgery on voice, associated upper airway changes, and wind instruments performance is emphasized. The information provided in this book will heighten the patients’, therapists’, teachers’ and physicians’ awareness of the vocal characteristics and wind instrumentalists concerns often associated with these conditions. Dentofacial Anomalies: Implications for Voice and Wind Instrument Performance is addressed to otolaryngologists, laryngologists, speech-language pathologists, voice teachers, professional voice users, wind instrumentalists, instrument teachers, arts medicine physicians, physical therapists, orthodontists and other dentists, as well as members of the general public who are concerned about their voices and or wind instrument playing.

Comprehensive Remote Sensing, Nine Volume Set covers all aspects of the topic, with each volume edited by well-known scientists and contributed to by frontier researchers. It is a comprehensive resource that will benefit both students and researchers who want to further their understanding in this discipline. The field of remote sensing has quadrupled in size in the past two decades, and increasingly draws in individuals working in a diverse set of disciplines ranging from geographers, oceanographers, and meteorologists, to physicists and computer scientists. Researchers from a variety of backgrounds are now accessing remote sensing data, creating an urgent need for a one-stop reference work that can comprehensively document the development of remote sensing, from the basic principles, modeling and practical algorithms, to various applications. Fully comprehensive coverage of this rapidly growing discipline, giving readers a detailed overview of all aspects of Remote Sensing principles and applications Contains ‘Layered content’, with each article beginning with the basics and then moving on to more complex concepts Ideal for advanced undergraduates and academic researchers Includes case studies that illustrate the practical application of remote sensing principles, further enhancing understanding

Do you have an employee whose performance keeps deteriorating—despite your close monitoring? Brace yourself: You may be at fault—by unknowingly triggering the set-up-to-fail syndrome. Perhaps things started off swimmingly. But then something--a missed deadline, a lost client—made you question the person's performance. You began micromanaging him. Suspecting your reduced confidence, he started doubting himself—and stopped giving his best. You viewed his new behavior as additional proof of mediocrity, and tightened the screws further. In The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome, Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux show how this insidious cycle hurts everyone: employees stop volunteering ideas, preventing your organization from getting the most from them; you lose energy to attend to other activities; and your reputation suffers as other employees deem you unfair. Team spirit wilts as targeted performers are alienated. But the set-up-to-fail syndrome doesn't have to happen. The authors provide preventive measures, such as loosening the reins as new employees master their jobs. If the syndrome has already erupted, Manzoni and Barsoux explain how to discuss the dynamic with your employee and reverse the cycle.

Gain confidence in the surgical management of female and male infertility. Authored by leading experts in operative gynecology and urology, in collaboration with the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, this valuable handbook provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the indications, techniques, and outcomes of modern reproductive surgery. This manual presents clear step-by-step instructions illustrated with intraoperative photographs and surgical videos in order to offer patients surgical options and avoid, or improve, IVF.