The book presents the state of the art in machine learning algorithms (artificial neural networks of different architectures, support vector machines, etc.) as applied to the classification and mapping of spatially distributed environmental data. Basic geostatistical algorithms are presented as well. New trends in machine learning and their application to spatial data are given, and real case studies based on environmental and pollution data are carried out. The book provides a CD-ROM with the Machine Learning Office software, including sample sets of data, that will allow both students and researchers to put the concepts rapidly to practice.

Students and PhD students of geographical, geological and environmental departments, geophysicists, environmentalists (soil sciences, geography, mining), regulatory agencies, statisticians.

Learning From Geospatial Data: Problems and Important Concepts of Machine Learning – Machine Learning Algorithms for Geospatial Data – Contents of the Book. Software Description – Short Review of the Literature - Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis: Presentation of Data and Case Studies: Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis – Data Pre-Processing – Spatial Correlations: Variography – Presentation of Data – k-Nearest Neighbours Algorithm: a Benchmark Model for Regression and Classification - Geostatistics: Spatial Predictions – Geostatistical Conditional Simulations – Spatial Classification – Software - Machine Learning Algorithms: Artificial Neural Networks: Introduction – Radial Basis Function Neural Networks – General Regression Neural Networks – Probabilistic Neural Networks – Self-Organising Maps – Gaussian Mixture Models And Mixture Density Network • Support Vector Machines And Kernel Methods: Introduction to Statistical Learning Theory – Support Vector Classification – Spatial Data Classification with SVM – Support Vector Regression – Spatial Data Mapping with SVR – Advanced Topics in Kernel Methods.

Inside an insulating vacuum chamber in a tunnel about 100 meters below the surface of the Franco-Swiss plain near Geneva, packets of protons whirl around the 27-km circumference of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at a speed close to that of light, colliding every 25 nanoseconds at four beam crossings.

Robot Programming by Demonstration (PbD) examines methods by which a robot learns new skills through human guidance. Also referred to as learning by imitation, tutelage or apprenticeship learning, PbD takes inspiration from the way humans learn new skills by imitation, thereby developing methods by which new skills can be transmitted to a robot.

Solidication is one of the oldest processes for producing complex shapes for applications ranging from art to industry, and it remains as one of the most important commercial processes for many materials. Since the 1980's, numerous fundamental developments in the understanding of solidication processes and microstructure formation have come from both analytical theories and the application of computational techniques using commonly available powerful computers.

Linear operators in Hilbert space play a fundamental role in the formulation of quantum theory. This book offers a self-contained presentation of the most important tools and methods from Hilbert space theory, with particular focus on the spectral theory of self-adjoint operators.