For at least a decade, university foreign language programs have been in decline throughout the English-speaking world. As programs close or are merged into large multi-language departments, disciplines such as German studies find themselves struggling to survive. Transverse Disciplines offers an overview of the current research on the humanities and the academy at large and proposes creative and courageous ideas for the university of the future. Using German studies as a case study, the book examines localized academic work in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States in order to model new ideas for invigorated thinking beyond disciplinary specificity, university communities, and entrenched academic practices. In essays that are theoretical, speculative, experimental, and deeply personal, contributors suggest that German studies might do better to stop trying to protect existing national and disciplinary arrangements. Instead, the discipline should embrace feminist, queer, anti-racist, and decolonial academic practices and commitments, including community-based work, research-creation, and scholar activism. Interrogating the position of researchers, teachers, and administrators inside and outside academia, Transverse Disciplines takes stock of the increasingly tenuous position of the humanities and stakes a claim for the importance of imagining new disciplinary futures within the often restrictive and harmful structures of the academy.

Based on The International Metrology Congress meeting, this reference examines the evolution of metrology, and its applications in industry, environment and safety, health and medicine, economy and quality, and new information and communication technologies; details the improvement of measurement procedures to guarantee the quality of products and processes; and discusses the development of metrology linked to innovating technologies. The themes of the Congress (quality and reliability of measurement, measurement uncertainties, calibration, verification, accreditation, sensory metrology, regulations and legal metrology) are developed either in a general way or applied to a specific economic sector or to a specific scientific field.

Acting as a lightning rod for transformative thinking, Transverse Disciplines offers exciting new methodologies for reshaping academic work beyond the bounds of traditional disciplines.

A vital tool for researchers, engineers, and students, New Sensors and Processing Chain focuses on the processing chain to set up in order to extract relevant information on various systems. Highlighting the design of new microsensors and various applications, the authors present recent progress in instrumentation and microsystem design, providing insight to the modification of the sensor itself as well as its environment. Various applications illustrate the presentations, which show how a processing chain is organized from the data acquired by a specific sensor.

This book is built to start from elementary and fundamental bases to the first degrees of harmony. It provides many theoretical and technical bases of music, presenting in detail relations between physics and music (harmonics, frequency and time spectrum, dissonance, etc.), physiological relations with human body and education.

The Vlasov equation is the master equation which provides a statistical description for the collective behavior of large numbers of charged particles in mutual, long-range interaction. In other words, a low collision (or “Vlasov”) plasma. Plasma physics is itself a relatively young discipline, whose “birth” can be ascribed to the 1920s. The origin of the Vlasov model, however, is even more recent, dating back to the late 1940s. This “young age” is due to the rare occurrence of Vlasov plasma on Earth, despite the fact it characterizes most of the visible matter in the universe. This book – addressed to students, young researchers and to whoever wants a good understanding of Vlasov plasmas – discusses this model with a pedagogical presentation, focusing on the general properties and historical development of the applications of the Vlasov equation. The milestone developments discussed in the first two chapters serve as an introduction to more recent works (characterization of wave propagation and nonlinear properties of the electrostatic limit).

This book is dedicated to the description and application of various different theoretical models to identify the near and mid-infrared spectra of symmetric and spherical top molecules in their gaseous form. Theoretical models based on the use of group theory are applied to rigid and non-rigid molecules, characterized by the phenomenon of tunneling and large amplitude motions. The calculation of vibration-rotation energy levels and the analysis of infrared transitions are applied to molecules of ammonia (NH3) and methane (CH4). The applications show how interactions at the molecular scale modify the near and mid-infrared spectra of isolated molecules, under the influence of the pressure of a nano-cage (the substitution site of a rare gas matrix, clathrate, fullerene or zeolite) or a surface, and allow us to identify the characteristics of the perturbing environment. This book provides valuable support for teachers and researchers but is also intended for engineering students, working research engineers and Master's and doctorate students.

Elastic waves are used in fields as diverse as the non-destructive evaluation of materials, medicine, seismology and telecommunications. Elastic Waves in Solids 1 presents the different modes of propagation of elastic waves in increasingly complex media and structures. It first studies the propagation in an unlimited solid where only the material properties are taken into account. It then analyzes reflection and transmission phenomena at an interface with a fluid or a second solid. It explains the search for propagation modes on a free surface or at the interface between two media. Finally, it proposes a study of the dispersive propagation of elastic waves guided by a plate or a cylinder. This book is intended for students completing a master’s degree in acoustics, mechanics, geophysics or engineering, as well as teachers and researchers in these disciplines.

Capturing, recording and broadcasting the voice is often difficult. Many factors must be taken into account and achieving a true representation is much more complex than one might think. The capture devices such as the position of the singer(s) or narrator(s), the acoustics, atmosphere and equipment are just some of the physical aspects that need to be mastered. Then there is the passage through the analog or digital channel, which disrupts the audio signal, as well as the processes that are often required to enrich, improve or even transform the vocal timbre and tessitura. While in the past these processes were purely material, today digital technologies and software produce surprising results that every professional in recording and broadcasting should know how to master. Recording and Voice Processing 2 focuses on live and studio voice recordings. It presents the various pieces of hardware and software necessary for voice recording, and details possible sound channel configurations based on recording location. An actual recording, and its various constraints, is then considered, addressing the pitfalls to avoid and the strategies to use in order to achieve a satisfactory result. Different special effects (vocoder, auto-tune, Melodyne, etc.) that can be used on the voice, whether spoken or sung, are also presented.

Subtractive sound synthesis is one of the most widely used techniques in electronic music and in many analog synthesizers since the early 1960s. It is based on a simple principle, but its operation is complex, involving many parameters. It can be enhanced by a variety of effects that give the sound its authenticity, and does not simply imitate musical instruments, but can also transcribe noises present in natural soundscapes or generate entirely synthetic sounds. Synthesizers and Subtractive Sound Synthesis 2 presents practical exercises, ranging from the fundamentals to advanced functionalities. Most of the sound effects applicable to subtractive synthesis are covered: vibrato, phaser, reverb, etc. The final chapters deal with polyphony and arpeggiator-sequences.