Mating Flight

It's finally time for Jyothky and eight other misfit adolescent dragons to go off to an unexplored, dragon-free universe and decide who will marry whom. They're astral dragons, mighty and arrogant, with devastating breath weapons and vast magical powers, and they're not even there to conquer the place. What kind of trouble could the natives possibly be — even civilized and technologically sophisticated natives? Or the mind-controlling parasite worms, or the undead god, or any of Hove's other surprises? …Maybe quite a lot of trouble, but not as much as they will bring upon themselves.

This timely book deals with a current topic, i.e. the applications of metaheuristic algorithms, with a primary focus on optimization problems in civil engineering. The first chapter offers a concise overview of different kinds of metaheuristic algorithms, explaining their advantages in solving complex engineering problems that cannot be effectively tackled by traditional methods, and citing the most important works for further reading. The remaining chapters report on advanced studies on the applications of certain metaheuristic algorithms to specific engineering problems. Genetic algorithm, bat algorithm, cuckoo search, harmony search and simulated annealing are just some of the methods presented and discussed step by step in real-application contexts, in which they are often used in combination with each other. Thanks to its synthetic yet meticulous and practice-oriented approach, the book is a perfect guide for graduate students, researchers and professionals willing to applying metaheuristic algorithms in civil engineering and other related engineering fields, such as mechanical, transport and geotechnical engineering. It is also a valuable aid for both lectures and advanced engineering students.

Table of Contents Using HBMO Algorithm to Optimal Sizing & Sitting of Distributed Generation in Power System Noradin Ghadimi 1 – 8 Management of Urban Parking Lot Energy Efficiency with the Application of Wind Turbine and LED lights Bekir Z Yuksek, Ulan Dakeev 9 – 14 Indirect Vector Control of Three Phase Induction Motor using PSIM Nagulapati Kiran 15 – 24 Improved Dynamic Response of Buck Converter using Fuzzy Controller Nagulapati Kiran, Ch Varaha Narasimha Raja 25 – 36 Sliding Mode Control of Buck Converter Nagulapati Kiran 37 – 44 Two Parameter Controller for a Single Machine Infinite Bus System Ch. Varaha Narasimha Raja 45 – 50 A Hybrid Hardware Verification Technique in FPGA Design Mojtaba.Dehghani Firouzabadi, Hossein Heidari 51 – 54 A Genuine Random Sequential Multi-signature Scheme Yonglong Tang 55 – 68

This book explores mate-finding and courtship behaviour in the insect world, in all its subtlety and diversity. Insects engage in courtship as much, or as little, as any other animal; they have songs and dances, and all manner of instruments and ornaments to attract and court the opposite sex. Insects have evolved complex chemical and acoustic communication systems, sending fragrant messages, visual signals and subtle vibrations to attract and persuade. Insects also have many different ways and means of choosing or rejecting mating partners. This beautifully illustrated book shows the incredible variety of courtship behaviours and celebrates the wonderful natural history of a wide range of insects. Varieties of courtship can occur before, during and even after copulation, and numerous examples of the different mating strategies used are presented. This landmark volume will be of interest to students of biology, entomologists, naturalists and anyone with a desire to know more about the love lives of the small creatures with which we share the planet.

The honey bees were formerly seen as a small, static group comprising four species, whose behavior and ecology were simple variants on the patterns found in Apis mellifera. The picture now is one of a large, actively speciating group, reflecting in part the complex geological and biological influence of the Apis environment. Research on this diversity has benefitted from new techniques of DNA analysis applied to several long-standing problems in honey bee phylogenetics and that are reported in this volume. The behavior and ecology of the Apis species and populations are also more diverse and differentiated than previously recognized: Radically different orientation systems as expressed through dance language exist in various species. This study of Apis will be of great interest not only to biologists and apiculturalists but to anyone interested in systematics, genetics, and ethology. Our view of apis has changed radically in the past few years as a result of recent research on the Asian honeybee. The contributors to this book focus on systematics, genetics, behaviour and ecology to offer a synthesis for understanding this economically and scientifically important genus.