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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.
Competencies, Higher Education and Career in Japan and the Netherlands
This book investigates how social and cultural factors affect the education, training and career development of graduates of higher education in Japan and the Netherlands. Despite their different historical paths, both countries are now subject to the common pressure of globalization. As a result, the higher education sector in both countries is becoming more universal and available to a larger population, and the economy and society are becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive. The aim of this book is to explore how Dutch and Japanese graduates choose and develop their careers in reference to the above-mentioned challenges. It is based on a unique data set consisting of surveys held among graduates 3 and 8 years after leaving higher education.
Comparative risk assessment and environmental decision making
Decision making in environmental projects is typically a complex and confusing process characterized by trade-offs between socio-political, environmental, and economic impacts. Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) is a methodology applied to facilitate decision making when various activities compete for limited resources. CRA has become an increasingly accepted research tool and has helped to characterize environmental profiles and priorities on the regional and national level. CRA may be considered as part of the more general but as yet quite academic field of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Considerable research in the area of MCDA has made available methods for applying scientific decision theoretical approaches to multi-criteria problems, but its applications, especially in environmental areas, are still limited. The papers show that the use of comparative risk assessment can provide the scientific basis for environmentally sound and cost-efficient policies, strategies, and solutions to our environmental challenges.
Comparative Corporate Governance : Shareholders as a Rule-maker
It is fairly easy for a Finnish Jurist to understand German Company law. On the other hand, UK Company law seems very confusing. What is even more confusing is that the UK corporate govemance model is often regarded as one of the best in the World. Clearly German law cannot be as bad as it is often said to be. This books results from these kinds of thoughts and an interest in comparative law, Company law and securities markets law. I wanted to find out whether the functional method would give anything new to say about the regulation of corpo rate govemance in Germany and the UK. As I have been lecturing on Company law and corporate govemance myself, I also wanted to write a book that I could use as a textbook in my courses. For this reason, I focused on one of the key questions in corporate govemance: the regula tion of shareholder activism.
Community Quality-of-Life Indicators : Best Cases VIII
Offers critical insights into the thriving international field of community indicators, incorporating the experiences of government leaders, philanthropic professionals, community planners and a wide range of academic disciplines. It illuminates the important role of community indicators in diverse settings and the rationale for the development and implementation of these innovative projects. details many of the practical “how to” aspects of the field as well as lessons learned from implementing indicators in practice. The case studies included here also demonstrate how, using a variety of data applications, leaders of today are monitoring and measuring progress and communities are empowered to make sustainable improvements in their wellbeing.
Classification Algorithms for Codes and Designs
Almost a century earlier, in 1782, Euler [180] published some results on classifying small Latin squares, but for the ?rst few steps in this direction one should actually go at least as far back as ancient Greece and the proof that there are exactly ?ve Platonic solids. One of the most remarkable achievements in the early, pre-computer era is the classi?cation of the Steiner triple systems of order 15, quoted above. An onerous task that, today, no sensible person would attempt by hand calcu- tion. Because, with the exception of occasional parameters for which com- natorial arguments are e?ective (often to prove nonexistence or uniqueness), classi?cation in general is about algorithms and computation.
Clashes of Knowledge : Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in Science and Religion
"Clashes of Knowledge" is the first volume of a series called "Knowledge and Space" dealing with spatial disparities of knowledge and the impact of the spatial context on the production and application of knowledge. The contributions in this book explore the conflicts between various types of knowledge, especially between orthodox and heterodox knowledge systems, which range from religious fundamentalism to heresies within the scientific community itself.
Cities between competitiveness and cohesion : Discourses, realities and implementation
The book shows that spatial and urban policy continues to be a key site of policy intervention and experimentation. Different national welfare systems, political cultures, and socio-economic conditions combine and recombine to address policy problems and opportunities. Collectively, the authors argue that the examined policy initiatives reflect and reproduce these broader changes and shifting ways of thinking about the appropriate relationships between citizens, businesses, and the state.
Chemical Sensors : An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers
Research in the area of chemical and biochemical sensors and the development of respective applications is still growing rapidly. In the last decade it has become evident that the successful development of chemical and biochemical sensors resistant to the harsh conditions in the various routine applications calls for a cooperation between chemists and engineers.Thus, this book aims at instructing researcher and practitioners in both disciplines in a strictly systematic, interdisciplinary and practice-oriented way about the basic technology of chemical and biochemical sensors. This concise volume bridges the gap between the different "ways of thinking" in chemistry, physics and engineering
Charging the Internal Combustion Engine
The purpose of this book is to facilitate a better understanding of the characteristics of superchargers in respect to their physical operating principles, as well as their interaction with piston engines. This applies both to the displacement compressor and toexhaustgas turbocharging systems,whichoftenareverycomplex.
Changing Education : Leadership, Innovation and Development in a Globalizing Asia Pacific
This book responds to the growing unease of educators and non-educators alike about the inadequacy of most current educational systems and programs to meet sufficiently the demands of fast changing societies. These systems and programs evolved and were developed in and for societies that have long been transformed, and yet no parallel transformation has taken place in the education systems they spawned. In the last twenty years or so, other sectors of society, such as transportation and communications systems, have radically changed the way they operate, but education has remained essentially the same. There is no doubt: education needs to change.
Cell Motility
Cell motility is a fascinating example of cell behavior which is fundamentally important to a number of biological and pathological processes. It is based on a complex self-organized mechano-chemical machine consisting of cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors. In general, the cytoskeleton is responsible for the movement of the entire cell and for movements within the cell. The main challenge in the field of cell motility is to develop a complete physical description on how and why cells move. For this purpose new ways of modeling the properties of biological cells have to be found. This long term goal can only be achieved if new experimental techniques are developed to extract physical information from these living systems and if theoretical models are found which bridge the gap between molecular and mesoscopic length scales. Cell Motility gives an authoritative overview of the fundamental biological facts, theoretical models, and current experimental developments in this fascinating area.
Case-Based Reasoning on Images and Signals
This book is the first edited book that deals with the special topic of signals and images within Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). It offers different learning capabilities, for all phases of a signal-interpreting system, that satisfy different needs during the development process of a signal-interpreting system.
Case Studies in Food Safety and Environmental Health
The ISEKI-Food book series is a collection where various aspects of food safety and environmental issues are introduced and reviewed by scientists specializing in the field. In all of the books a special emphasis is placed on including case studies applicable to each specific topic. The books are intended for graduate students and senior level undergraduate students as well as professionals and researchers interested in food safety and environmental issues applicable to food safety.
Carotenoids ; Vol.4 : Natural Functions
The Carotenoids book series provides detailed accounts of the fundamental chemistry of carotenoids and the basic methods used in carotenoid research, and critical discussions of the biochemistry, functions and applications of these important compounds. Volume 4 and its companion, Volume 5, deal with the functions of carotenoids in all kinds of living organisms and the actions of carotenoids in human nutrition and health. The material presented in the earlier Volumes is all relevant to studies of biological functions and actions. In particular, biological studies must be supported by a rigorous analytical base. The various analytical procedures described in Volumes 1A and 1B, supplemented by the data for individual compounds given in the Carotenoids Handbook, must be understood and applied correctly, whether they are being used for quantitative analysis, identification or in complex studies of carotenoids in situ.
Careers of University Graduates : Views and Experiences in Comparative Perspectives
In this volume, scholars from twelve countries show how transition to employment, job assignments, employment assessments of the quality of employment and work vary by the graduates’ socio-biographic and educational background. It also focuses on experiences during the course of study and competences acquired, international experience, regional background and regions of employment. It demonstrates more substantial differences of the relationships between study and subsequent employment between various countries than previous debates and analyses have suggested.
Carbonate Reservoir Characterization : An Integrated Approach
One principal need in petroleum recovery from carbonate reservoirs is the description of the three-dimensional distribution of petrophysical properties in order to improve performance predictions by means of fluid-flow computer simulations. The book focuses on a rock based approach for the integration of geological, petrophysical, and geostatistical methods to construct a reservoir model suitable to input into flow simulation programs. This second edition includes a new chapter on model construction and new examples of limestone, dolostone, and touching-vug reservoir models as well as improved chapters on basic petrophysical properties, rock-fabric/petrophysical relationships, calibration of wireline logs, and sequence stratigraphy.
Calculus and mechanics on two-point homogenous riemannian spaces
The present monograph gives a short and concise introduction to classical and quantum mechanics on two-point homogenous Riemannian spaces, with empahsis on spaces with constant curvature. Chapter 1-4 provide the basic notations from differential geometry for studying two-body dynamics in these spaces. Chapter 5 deals with the problem of finding explicitly invariant expressions for the two-body quantum Hamiltonian. Chapter 6 addresses one-body problems in a central potential. Chapter 7 studies the classical counterpart of the quantum system of chapter 5. Chapter 8 investigates some applications in the quantum realm, namely for the coulomb and oscillator potentials.
Business Ethics of Innovation
Firms that operate in a market economy often depend upon innovations in order to achieve competitive advantages that sustainably secure their survival. Business ethics is thus largely concerned with questions about the decisional freedoms involved in innovation processes. Innovations oftentimes raise novel questions about the role of the state or the structure of society. Business ethics needs to provide a framework for balancing the different perspectives, values, and interests at stake. This balance must be achieved at the level of the firm in order to facilitate adequate long term decisions, but it should also be sought at higher, including regulatory, levels. Achieving this balance will require an ethical framework for entrepreneurial action.
Bulk Metallic Glasses : An Overview
Bulk Metallic Glasses explores an emerging field of materials known as bulk metallic glasses. It summarizes the rapid development of these materials over the last decade and includes documentation on diverse applications of bulk metallic glasses; from structural applications to microcomponents. Some of the applications covered are pressure sensors, microgears for motors, magnetic cores for power supplies, and nano-dies for replacing next generation DVDs. The chapters cover current theories and recent research including an atomistic theory of local topological fluctuations, atomistic simulations, and unique microstructures of these amorphous materials. Other topics include glass formation, glass forming ability, and the underlying mechanisms and physical insights of these criteria. The mechanical deformation of bulk metallic glasses, fatigue, fracture, and corrosion behaviors of these materials are also reviewed.
