IUTAM Symposium on Computational Physics and New Perspectives in Turbulence ; Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Computational Physics and New Perspectives in Turbulence, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, September, 11-14, 2006
Leading experts in turbulence were brought together at this Symposium to exchange ideas and discuss, in the light of the recent progress in computational methods, new perspectives in our understanding of turbulence. The Symposium also fostered a vigorous interaction between those who pursue computations, and those concerned with developments in experiment and theory.
Complexity in chemistry, biology, and ecology
This book, written by an international team of experts, introduces the reader to various aspects of complexity theory and its applications. It illustrates the latest trends in science to go beyond the mechanistic Newtonian view of the world by shifting the focus to self-organization, adaptation, and emergent phenomena. The authors discuss these properties of complex systems in biology, ecology and chemistry along with the structure and interconnectedness of the "layers" of complexity. The qualitative description is complemented by a discussion of methods for complexity quantification. Networks are covered in detail as a universal language of the complex world.
Complexity Explained
This book explains why complex systems research is important in understanding the structure, function and dynamics of complex natural and social phenomena. It illuminates how complex collective behavior emerges from the parts of a system, due to the interaction between the system and its environment.
Complex systems concurrent engineering : Collaboration, technology innovation and sustainability
Concurrent engineering is well-established as an approach to engineer product parts. However, the concept has much broader application. Complex Systems Concurrent Engineering: Collaboration, Technology Innovation and Sustainability demonstrates how concurrent engineering can be used to benefit the development of complex systems, to produce results that sustain balanced stakeholder satisfaction over time. Gathered from the 14th ISPE International Conference on Concurrent Engineering, the collected papers cover all aspects of the sustainable and integrated development of complex systems, such as airplanes, satellites, space vehicles, automobiles and ships.
Complex Nonlinearity : Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals
The book starts with a textbook-like expose on nonlinear dynamics, attractors and chaos, both temporal and spatio-temporal, including modern techniques of chaos–control. Chapter 2 turns to the edge of chaos, in the form of phase transitions (equilibrium and non-equilibrium, oscillatory, fractal and noise-induced), as well as the related field of synergetics. While the natural stage for linear dynamics comprises of flat, Euclidean geometry (with the corresponding calculation tools from linear algebra and analysis), the natural stage for nonlinear dynamics is curved, Riemannian geometry (with the corresponding tools from nonlinear, tensor algebra and analysis). The extreme nonlinearity – chaos – corresponds to the topology change of this curved geometrical stage, usually called configuration manifold. Chapter 3 elaborates on geometry and topology change in relation with complex nonlinearity and chaos. Chapter 4 develops general nonlinear dynamics, continuous and discrete, deterministic and stochastic, in the unique form of path integrals and their action-amplitude formalism.
Complex Engineered Systems : Science Meets Technology
This volume examines the difficulties that arise in creating highly complex engineered systems and new approaches that are being adopted. Topics addressed range from the formal representation and classification of distributed networked systems to revolutionary engineering practices inspired by biological evolution. By bringing together the latest research in Complex Engineered Systems, this book sheds light on the current state and future course of this emerging field.
Complex decision making : Theory and practice
The increasingly complex environment of today's world, characterized by technological innovation and global communication, generates myriads of possible and actual interactions while limited physical and intellectual resources severely impinge on decision makers, be it in the public or private domains. At the core of the decision-making process is the need for quality information that allows the decision maker to better assess the impact of decisions in terms of outcomes, nonlinear feedback processes and time delays on the performance of the complex system invoked.
Complex and Adaptive Dynamical Systems : A Primer
We are living in an ever more complex world, an epoch where human actions can accordingly acquire far-reaching potentialities. Complex and adaptive dynamical systems are ubiquitous in the world surrounding us and require us to adapt to new realities and the way of dealing with them. This primer has been developed with the aim of conveying a wide range of "commons-sense" knowledge in the field of quantitative complex system science at an introductory level, providing an entry point to this both fascinating and vitally important subject.
Chaos, Nonlinearity, Complexity : The Dynamical Paradigm of Nature
This carefully edited book presents a focused debate on the mathematics and physics of chaos, nonlinearity and complexity in nature. It explores the role of non-extensive statistical mechanics in non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and presents an overview of the strong nonlinearity of chaos and complexity in natural systems that draws on the relevant mathematics from topology, measure-theory, inverse and ill-posed problems, set-valued analysis, and nonlinear functional analysis. It presents a self-contained scientific theory of complexity and complex systems as the steady state of non-equilibrium systems, denoting a homeostatic dynamic equilibrium between stabilizing order and destabilizing disorder.
Chaos : A Program Collection for the PC
This new edition strives yet again to provide readers with a working knowledge of chaos theory and dynamical systems through parallel introductory explanations in the book and interaction with carefully-selected programs supplied on the accompanying diskette. The programs enable readers, especially advanced-undergraduate students in physics, engineering, and math, to tackle relevant physical systems quickly on their PCs, without distraction from algorithmic details. For the third edition of Chaos: A Program Collection for the PC, each of the previous twelve programs is polished and rewritten in C++ (both Windows and Linux versions are included). A new program treats kicked systems, an important class of two-dimensional problems, which is introduced in Chapter 13. Each chapter follows the structure: theoretical background; numerical techniques; interaction with the program; computer experiments; real experiments and empirical evidence; reference.
Chance : The life of games and the game of life
With its many easy-to-follow mathematical examples, this book takes the reader on an almost chronological trip through the fascinating and amazing laws of chance, omnipresent in the natural world and in our daily lives. Along the route many fascinating topics are discussed, such as: challenging probability paradoxes; "paranormal" coincidences; game odds; causes and effects; interpretation of opinion polls; winning chances as a game proceeds; the nature of randomness; entropy and randomness; randomness in life; algorithmic complexity and the undecidability of randomness; possibilities and limitations of learning the laws of a Universe immersed in chance events. This charming book will inform and entertain the scientist and non-scientist alike.
Browning Agents and Active Particles : Collective Dynamics in the Natural and Social Sciences
Lays out a vision for a coherent framework for understanding complex systems'' (from the foreword by J. Doyne Farmer). By developing the genuine idea of Brownian agents, the author combines concepts from informatics, such as multiagent systems, with approaches of statistical many-particle physics. This way, an efficient method for computer simulations of complex systems is developed which is also accessible to analytical investigations and quantitative predictions. The book demonstrates that Brownian agent models can be successfully applied in many different contexts, ranging from physicochemical pattern formation, to active motion and swarming in biological systems, to self-assembling of networks, evolutionary optimization, urban growth, economic agglomeration and even social systems.
Brain dynamics : An introduction to models and simualtions
Brain Dynamics serves to introduce graduate students and nonspecialists from various backgrounds to the field of mathematical and computational neurosciences. Some of the advanced chapters will also be of interest to the specialists. The book approaches the subject through pulse-coupled neural networks, with at their core the lighthouse and integrate-and-fire models, which allow for the highly flexible modelling of realistic synaptic activity, synchronization and spatio-temporal pattern formation. Topics also include pulse-averaged equations and their application to movement coordination. The book closes with a short analysis of models versus the real neurophysiological system.
Aspects of physical biology : Biological water, protein solutions, transport and replication
The present volume focuses on three main subtopics (biological water, protein solutions as well as transport and replication), presenting for each of the them the on-going debates on recent results. The role of water in biological processes, the mechanisms of protein folding, the phases and cooperative effects in biological solutions, the thermodynamic description of replication, transport and neural activity, all are subjects that are revised in this volume, based on new experiments and new theoretical interpretations.
Aspects of mathematical modelling : Applications in science, medicine, economics and management
The construction of mathematical models is an essential scientific activity. Mathematics has long been associated with developments in the exact sciences and engineering, but more recently mathematical modelling has been used to investigate complex systems that arise in many other fields. The contributors to this book demonstrate the application of mathematics to modern research topics in ecology and environmental science, health and medicine, phylogenetics and neural networks, theoretical chemistry, economics and management. The reader will find some review papers outlining current research directions in hot topics such as pattern formation and applications to medicine, and more targeted research papers on current developments in the various disciplines included.
A life cycle for clusters? : The dynamics of agglomeration, change, and adaption
The phenomenon of non-random spatial concentrations of firms in one or few related sectors (clusters) is intensively debated in economic theory and policy. The euphoria about successful clusters however neglects that historically, many thriving clusters did deteriorate into old industrial areas. This book studies the determinants of cluster survival by analyzing their adaptability to change in the economic environment. Linking theoretic knowledge with empirical observations, a simulation model (based in the N/K method) is developed, which explains when and why the cluster's architecture assists or hampers adaptability. It is found that architectures with intermediate degrees of division of labour and more collective governance forms foster adaptability. Cluster development is thus path dependent as architectures having evolved over time impact on the likelihood of future survival.
A Concise Course on Stochastic Partial Differential Equations
Concentrate on (nonlinear) stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) of evolutionary type. All kinds of dynamics with stochastic influence in nature or man-made complex systems can be modelled by such equations.
















