The lives of the saints are either too grisly for little kids or too saccharine for older ones. But this collection appeals to both groups with a combination of gentle humor and frankness – battle-tested at the author’s weekly chapel services at the school where she teaches. It’s organized into two full school years, with each saint’s story falling on or near his or her special day so that each story can be a springboard to a creative seasonal teaching unit or small festival. Saints represent a wide variety of ethnic and geographic backgrounds.

The fundamental mathematical tools needed to understand machine learning include linear algebra, analytic geometry, matrix decompositions, vector calculus, optimization, probability and statistics. These topics are traditionally taught in disparate courses, making it hard for data science or computer science students, or professionals, to efficiently learn the mathematics. This self-contained textbook bridges the gap between mathematical and machine learning texts, introducing the mathematical concepts with a minimum of prerequisites. It uses these concepts to derive four central machine learning methods: linear regression, principal component analysis, Gaussian mixture models and support vector machines. For students and others with a mathematical background, these derivations provide a starting point to machine learning texts. For those learning the mathematics for the first time, the methods help build intuition and practical experience with applying mathematical concepts. Every chapter includes worked examples and exercises to test understanding. Programming tutorials are offered on the book's web site.

Provides a revealing global overview of air pollution and its startling impact through graphical and visual representation of data.

Over the past thirty years, airports within the EU – including nearly a hundred newly built or rebuilt during that time – have undergone a major economic transformation. From mere infrastructure providers, airports have become diversified and complex commercial enterprises in competition with each other. This is the first and only book thus far to deal with the legal issues surrounding this important development, focusing on the impact of EU Directive 12/2009 on airport charges. Examining the use of airport infrastructure, the growing competition among airports, and the relations between airlines and airports, the author, a leading aviation law practitioner, covers such issues and topics as the following: - types of charges – landing, passenger, aircraft parking; - pricing factors determining airport charges; - vertical contractual relations between airports and airlines; - airport market power and dominance; - issues of consultation and transparency; - ability of airlines and passengers to switch to alternative airports; - application of state aid rules; - security charges; - environmental charges and schemes; and - price discrimination and differentiation. The presentation encompasses a critical analysis of the findings of case law, both international and European, on airport charges in the context of the new trend of airports and airlines concluding vertical agreements. As an examination of the economic regulation of EU airports due to the liberalization process, structural changes in the ownership status of many EU airports, and the emergence of new airline business models (such as low-cost carriers), this book, the only one of its kind, will quickly become indispensable to practitioners, policymakers, and academics in aviation law.

The European Landscape is under stress of changing land use and a changing attitude of its users. Globalization, the disappearance of the iron curtain and the recent EU enlargement to 25 countries have changed the economic and environmental dimensions of Europe. Europe is changing its face from a western and eastern part to one European Union and to fast connections between its centres of activity. The rural and cultural heritage of Europe has to be adapted to cope with this change. However, its landscape is worth to be conserved as well, because it represents the European history in the same way as castles and churches. It even more represents the history of the common people, because it has been the tradition of the rural population that made these landscapes. It cannot be prevented that Europe is changing and it is good that Europe adapts to the new dimensions of the world. We, in Europe, have to define what we think is important and what must be conserved, what can be adapted to be used for new functions and what can be abolished because it has no value. These decisions will determine the new dimensions of the European landscapes. The Frontis Workshop on the New Dimensions of the European Landscape was held on 10-12 June 2002. Wageningen University and Research Centre organized this workshop aiming to develop visions on the landscape in Europe, its development and design in the future and to strengthen the international network in landscape planning.