In the Fourth Century A.D., independent and determined young Charis is forbidden to become a doctor because she is a woman. Disguising herself as a eunuch she flees Ephesus for Alexandria, then the center of learning. There she apprentices to a Jewish doctor but eventually becomes drawn into Church politics and is forced once again to flee. She serves as an army doctor at a Roman outpost in Thrace until, kidnapped by barbarian Visigoths, she finds her destiny to heal and also to be a woman and a wife.

For centuries, men and women have manned lighthouses to ensure the safe passage of ships. It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail. At least, they aren't supposed to.

Learn to rapidly build and deploy cross-platform applications from a single codebase with practical, real-world solutions using the mature Delphi 10.4 programming environment Key FeaturesImplement Delphi's modern features to build professional-grade Windows, web, mobile, and IoT applications and powerful serversBecome a Delphi code and project guru by learning best practices and techniques for cross-platform developmentDeploy your complete end-to-end application suite anywhereBook Description Delphi is a strongly typed, event-driven programming language with a rich ecosystem of frameworks and support tools. It comes with an extensive set of web and database libraries for rapid application development on desktop, mobile, and internet-enabled devices. This book will help you keep up with the latest IDE features and provide a sound foundation of project management and recent language enhancements to take your productivity to the next level. You'll discover how simple it is to support popular mobile device features such as sensors, cameras, and GPS. The book will help you feel comfortable working with FireMonkey and styles and incorporating 3D user interfaces in new ways. As you advance, you'll be able to build cross-platform solutions that not only look native but also take advantage of a wide array of device capabilities. You'll also learn how to use embedded databases, such as SQLite and InterBase ToGo, synchronizing them with your own custom backend servers or modules using the powerful RAD Server engine. The book concludes by sharing tips for testing and deploying your end-to-end application suite for a smooth user experience. By the end of this book, you'll be able to deliver modern enterprise applications using Delphi confidently. What you will learnDiscover the latest enhancements in the Delphi IDEOvercome the barriers that hold you back from embracing cross-platform developmentBecome fluent with FireMonkey controls, styles, LiveBindings, and 3D objectsBuild Delphi packages to extend RAD Server or modularize your applicationsUse FireDAC to get quick and direct access to any dataLeverage IoT technologies such as Bluetooth and Beacons and learn how to put your app on a Raspberry PiEnable remote apps with backend servers on Windows and Linux through REST APIsDevelop modules for IIS and Apache web serversWho this book is for This book is for Delphi developers interested in expanding their skillset beyond Windows programming by creating professional-grade applications on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and back-office servers. You'll also find this book useful if you're a developer looking to upgrade your knowledge of Delphi to keep up with the latest changes and enhancements in this powerful toolset. Some Delphi programming experience is necessary to make the most out of this book.

Artificial life embodies a recent and important conceptual step in modem science: asserting that the core of intelligence and cognitive abilities is the same as the capacity for living. The recent surge of interest in artificial life has pushed a whole range of engineering traditions, such as control theory and robotics, beyond classical notions of goal and planning into biologically inspired notions of viability and adaptation, situatedness and operational closure. These proceedings serve two important functions: they address bottom-up theories of artificial intelligence and explore what can be learned from simple models such as insects about the cognitive processes and characteristic autonomy of living organisms, while also engaging researchers and philosophers in an exciting examination of the epistemological basis of this new trend. Topics Artificial Animals • Genetic Algorithms • Autonomous Systems • Emergent Behaviors • Artificial Ecologies • Immunologic Algorithms • Self-Adapting Systems • Emergent Structures • Emotion And Motivation • Neural Networks • Coevolution • Fitness Landscapes Contributors H. Bersini, Domenico Parisi, Rodney A. Brooks, Christopher G. Langton, S. Kauffman, J.-L. Denenbourg, Pattie Maes, John Holland, T. Smithersm H. Swefel, H. Muhlenbein

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th China Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks, CWSN 2020 held in Dunhuang, China, in September 2020. The 20 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 85 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on wireless sensor network theory and technology, basic theory and application of internet of things, internet of things security and privacy protection, and perception and positioning.