Across race and time, a magical battle for freedom... 1859 Mkembro, West Africa "I know what's going to happen," says Amara as she wakes on the morning of her wedding to discover that she has been blessed -- or cursed -- with the power of prophecy. In her visions, she sees the slaver Van Owen, who will soon arrive on Africa's shores. Her father will challenge the invaders, wielding magic against rifles and whips, and setting in motion Amara's bid for freedom -- a quest that will extend for five generations. But no wait is too long, for Amara can see far into the future. Chains of Time tells two interweaving stories -- Amara's nineteenth century slave chronicle and the tale of her modern-day descendants, all of them fighting to find their voices, their redemption, and their freedom. Praise for CHAINS OF TIME... "A perceptive and gripping tale of race and family." -- Kirkus Reviews "★★★★★ The beauty of Woodstone's prose evokes the intensity and allegorical journey that is usually reserved for literary fiction. The writing is simultaneously gorgeous, terrifying, and hopeful." -- Readers' Favorite "R.B. Woodstone has crafted a thoughtful, time-spanning novel that touches on family, oppression, and otherness in Chains of Time... the dramatic blend of history, tragedy, and magic pulls a reader in from the very start." -- Self-Publishing Review "An exceptional story that will place you in the heart and mind of each of the amazing characters. Prepare to be moved by a unique story that delves deep into the historical abuse of a people but has dynamic pockets of excitement, heartbreak, and the paranormal. Highly recommended." -- Lesley Jones, international best-selling author "With captivating characters on a fulfilling magical journey, Chains of Time is a strong novel that does not disappoint." -- IndependentBookReview.com "Though the work is rooted in fantasy and magical realism, there's a highly realistic quality to the historical content and the experience of Africans in the tragedy of the slave trade. Young adult and adult readers alike can appreciate the sophistication of ideas, which are layered into a powerful storyline that blends present and past exceedingly well." -- K.C. Finn, USA Today best-selling author and Chanticleer Book Award winner

Continuous time parameter Markov chains have been useful for modeling various random phenomena occurring in queueing theory, genetics, demography, epidemiology, and competing populations. This is the first book about those aspects of the theory of continuous time Markov chains which are useful in applications to such areas. It studies continuous time Markov chains through the transition function and corresponding q-matrix, rather than sample paths. An extensive discussion of birth and death processes, including the Stieltjes moment problem, and the Karlin-McGregor method of solution of the birth and death processes and multidimensional population processes is included, and there is an extensive bibliography. Virtually all of this material is appearing in book form for the first time.

This book gives a systematic treatment of singularly perturbed systems that naturally arise in control and optimization, queueing networks, manufacturing systems, and financial engineering. It presents results on asymptotic expansions of solutions of Komogorov forward and backward equations, properties of functional occupation measures, exponential upper bounds, and functional limit results for Markov chains with weak and strong interactions. To bridge the gap between theory and applications, a large portion of the book is devoted to applications in controlled dynamic systems, production planning, and numerical methods for controlled Markovian systems with large-scale and complex structures in the real-world problems. This second edition has been updated throughout and includes two new chapters on asymptotic expansions of solutions for backward equations and hybrid LQG problems. The chapters on analytic and probabilistic properties of two-time-scale Markov chains have been almost completely rewritten and the notation has been streamlined and simplified. This book is written for applied mathematicians, engineers, operations researchers, and applied scientists. Selected material from the book can also be used for a one semester advanced graduate-level course in applied probability and stochastic processes.

If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl? As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom. From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

Focusing on discrete-time-scale Markov chains, the contents of this book are an outgrowth of some of the authors' recent research. The motivation stems from existing and emerging applications in optimization and control of complex hybrid Markovian systems in manufacturing, wireless communication, and financial engineering. Much effort in this book is devoted to designing system models arising from these applications, analyzing them via analytic and probabilistic techniques, and developing feasible computational algorithms so as to reduce the inherent complexity. This book presents results including asymptotic expansions of probability vectors, structural properties of occupation measures, exponential bounds, aggregation and decomposition and associated limit processes, and interface of discrete-time and continuous-time systems. One of the salient features is that it contains a diverse range of applications on filtering, estimation, control, optimization, and Markov decision processes, and financial engineering. This book will be an important reference for researchers in the areas of applied probability, control theory, operations research, as well as for practitioners who use optimization techniques. Part of the book can also be used in a graduate course of applied probability, stochastic processes, and applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th InternationalConference on Computational Logistics, ICCL 2017, held in Southampton,UK, in October 2017.The 38 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. They are organized in topical sections entitled: vehicle routing and scheduling; maritime logistics;synchromodal transportation; and transportation, logistics and supply chain planning.

Approx.852 pages - Winner of a 2024 McGuffey Longevity Award (College) (Texty) from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association - Retains the useful organization that students and professors have relied on since 1972 - Includes new coverage on Martingales - Offers a single source appropriate for a range of courses from undergraduate to graduate level