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"In this rare insider's view into contemporary North Korea, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom. "The General will now enter the room." Everyone turns to stone. Not moving my head, I direct my eyes to a point halfway up the archway where Kim Jong-il's face will soon appear... As North Korea's State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life. Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing expose; told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung's escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is a rare and unprecedented insight into the world's most secretive and repressive regime"--
SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER Dear Leader contains astonishing new insights about North Korea which could only be revealed by someone working high up in the regime. It is also the gripping story of how a member of the inner circle of this enigmatic country became its most courageous, outspoken critic. Jang Jin-sung held one of the most senior ranks in North Korea's propaganda machine, helping tighten the regime's grip over its people. Among his tasks were developing the founding myth of North Korea, posing undercover as a South Korean intellectual and writing epic poems in support of the dictator, Kim Jong-il. Young and ambitious, his patriotic work secured him a bizarre audience with Kim J...
This book aims to familiarize readers with the overall scope of endoscopic surgeries for the treatment of various types of spinal disease. State of the art techniques for minimally invasive endoscopic procedures to the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine are precisely described. The coverage includes cutting-edge endoscopic solutions for spinal canal stenosis or instability and low back pain. All technical aspects are explained in detail, and the text is complemented by many helpful illustrations. A further key feature is the provision of accompanying surgical videos, which will be of value to both novice and experienced surgeons. As a result of recent technological advances, minimally invasive endoscopic procedures are now being used for the treatment of patients with spinal problems in various institutes across the world. It can be anticipated that, in the near future, these procedures will be regarded as mainstream in spine surgery. The authors hope that this book will motivate the reader to participate in this trend, which promises important benefits for patients.
This book is a comprehensive guide to the application of recently introduced and emerging technologies in minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). These technologies, including 2D and 3D navigation, endoscopy, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, and 3D printing, are helping to overcome previous limitations of MISS, such as the steep learning curve and the need for a great deal of experience in order to achieve optimal outcomes. Compared with traditional techniques, their use is designed to reduce local operative tissue damage, alleviate systemic surgical stress, and enable earlier return to function. The book provides detailed and extensively illustrated accounts of the role of the new technologies and techniques in a wide range of indications. In essence, all spine conditions, whether degenerative, traumatic, or oncologic, will in the near future be amenable to MISS using these approaches. The book will be a source of insight and practical assistance for all surgeons who perform MISS, regardless of their level of experience.
The four volume set assembled following The 2005 International Conference on Computational Science and its Applications, ICCSA 2005, held in Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore, from 9 May 2005 till 12 May 2005, represents the ?ne collection of 540 refereed papers selected from nearly 2,700 submissions. Computational Science has ?rmly established itself as a vital part of many scienti?c investigations, a?ecting researchers and practitioners in areas ranging from applications such as aerospace and automotive, to emerging technologies such as bioinformatics and nanotechnologies, to core disciplines such as ma- ematics, physics, and chemistry. Due to the shear size ...
The four-volume set LNCS 3480-3483 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2005, held in Singapore in May 2005. The four volumes present a total of 540 papers selected from around 2700 submissions. The papers span the whole range of computational science, comprising advanced applications in virtually all sciences making use of computational techniques as well as foundations, techniques, and methodologies from computer science and mathematics, such as high performance computing and communication, networking, optimization, information systems and technologies, scientific visualization, graphics, image processing, data analysis, simulation and modelling, software systems, algorithms, security, multimedia etc.
There is a large increase in the amount of information available on World Wide Web and also in number of online databases. This information abundance increases the complexity of locating relevant information. Such a complexity drives the need for improved and intelligent systems for search and information retrieval. Intelligent Agents are currently used to improve the search and retrieval information on World Wide Web. The use of existing search and retrieval engines with the addition of intelligent agents allows a more comprehensive search with a performance that can be measured. Intelligent Agents for Mining and Information Retrieval discusses the foundation as well as the pratical side of intelligent agents and their theory and applications for web data mining and information retrieval. The book can used for researchers at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels as well as a reference of the state-of-art for cutting edge researchers.
This book issues all aspects of minimally invasive spine surgery. From interventional techniques such as nerve block to multilevel fusion surgery, the field of minimally invasive surgery is organized by chapter from basics to the end. Each chapter will include various figures and tables, and videos will be added in the surgery-related parts. A special focus will be placed on spinal endoscopic surgery, which has undergone rapid development in recent years. Both full-endoscopic spine surgery and uni-portal bilateral endoscopic will be dealt. Various surgical approaches and procedures will be presented for disc-herniated disease and stenotic legion from cervical to lumbar. The new technology solution such as navigation-guided spine surgery and robot surgery and artificial and augmented reality will be introduced.
This book is a superbly illustrated guide to the latest endoscopic approaches employed in surgery to the lumbar spine. In the past, spinal endoscopic surgeries have been performed mainly in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation, but indications have now expanded owing to breakthroughs in surgical methods and instruments. Furthermore, in addition to the traditional percutaneous transforaminal approach, various other approaches are now feasible, including the posterior, paraspinal, transpedicular, and contralateral. This book describes and illustrates the full array of approaches in indications including lumbar central stenosis, lumbar foraminal stenosis, and lumbar disc herniation. Detailed guidance is also provided on endoscopic lumbar interbody fusion, covering the oblique, uniportal, and biportal approaches. Supplementary surgical videos further facilitate understanding and execution of the described procedures. Written by expert spinal endoscopy surgeons with extensive practical experience and a record of academic achievement, the book will be an ideal aid for spine surgeons at all levels of experience.
Contemporary Endoscopic Spine Surgery brings the reader the most up-to-date information on the endoscopy of the spine. Key opinion leaders from around the world have come together to present the clinical evidence behind their competitive endoscopic spinal surgery protocols. Chapters in the series cover a range of aspects of spine surgery including spinal pain generators, preoperative workup with modern independent predictors of favorable clinical outcomes with endoscopy, anesthesia in an outpatient setting, management of complications, and a fresh look at technology advances in a historical context. The reader will have a first-row seat during the illustrative discussions of expanded surgica...