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Challenging American Leadership : Impact of National Quality on Risk of Losing Leadership
After leading the world during most of the 20th century in economic, political, technological, military, and even social terms, America’s role is now being challenged. Its values questioned, and its methods often disparaged, America had become the clear example to be followed or even copied, yet its more recent strategic and political decisions gained little international support and a lot of outright opposition. The quality of its national planning and decision making has been severely compromised, and risk management appears to be largely absent. India and China are now emerging as new economic powers, with advancing technological prowess. Their focus is on socioeconomic development, but their capabilities and potentials are much broader and may challenge America's leadership before long, unless it recognizes the changing demands of the new wide open globalized world.
Challenges for Computational Intelligence
Computational Intelligence (CI) is used as a name to cover many existing branches of science, with artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems and evolutionary computation forming its core. In recent years CI has been extended by adding many other subdisciplines and it became quite obvious that this new field also requires a series of challenging problems that will give it a sense of direction. Without setting up clear goals and yardsticks to measure progress on the way many research efforts are wasted.The book written by top experts in CI provides such clear directions and the much-needed focus on the most important and challenging research issues, showing a roadmap how to achieve ambitious goals.
Cellulose : Molecular and Structural Biology : Selected Articles on the Synthesis, Structure, and Applications of Cellulose
Cellulose: Molecular and Structural Biology is an up-to-date treatise on the most advanced and provocative research into the biosynthesis, structure, and applications of nature’s most abundant macromolecule and renewable resource, cellulose.Molecular, biochemical, and evolutionary aspects of cellulose biosynthesis are reviewed in a variety of living organisms, including cyanobacteria, eubacteria, (Acetobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli), vascular plants (including Arabidopsis, forest trees, and maize), and tunicates.
Cellular Genetic Algorithms
CELLULAR GENETIC ALGORITHMS defines a new class of optimization algorithms based on the concepts of structured populations and Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The authors explain and demonstrate the validity of these cellular genetic algorithms throughout the book. This class of genetic algorithms is shown to produce impressive results on a whole range of domains, including complex problems that are epistatic, multi-modal, deceptive, discrete, continuous, multi-objective, and random in nature. The focus of this book is twofold. On the one hand, the authors present new algorithmic models and extensions to the basic class of Cellular GAs in order to tackle complex problems more efficiently. On the other hand, practical real world tasks are successfully faced by applying Cellular GA methodologies to produce workable solutions of real-world applications.
Cellular automata ; 8th International conference on cellular automata for research and industry, ACRI 2008, Yokohama, Japan, September 23-26, 2008. Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2008, held in Yokohama, Japan, in September 2008.
Cellular automata ; 7th International conference on cellular automata for research and industry, ACRI 2006, Perpignan, France, September 20-23, 2006, Proceedings
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2006. The book presents 53 revised full papers and 19 revised poster papers together with 6 invited lectures. Topical sections include CA theory and implementation, computational theory, population dynamics, physical modeling, urban, environmental and social modeling, traffic and boolean networks, multi-agents and robotics, as well as crowds and cellular automata, and more.
Celestial Mechanics : The Waltz of the Planets
Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.
Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology
Environmental archaeology encompasses the application of biological and geological techniques to the study of human/environmental interactions. Each chapter is an original or revised work by internationally-recognized geoarchaeologists, human biologists, paleoethnobotanists, and zooarchaeologists. Each study demonstrates how and why the information obtained using environmental techniques is important to anthropologists instead of describing, critiquing, or advocating a method. These ethnographic, geological, and biological case studies successfully demonstrate the application of environmental science toward the resolution of questions related to human behavior in the past.
Cardiac PET and PET/CT Imaging
Cardiac PET and hybrid PET/CT have revolutionized the field of cardiovascular imaging and offer new options for diagnosis and management of patients with cardiac conditions. Cardiologists, radiologists, and nuclear medicine specialists must have an up-to-date reference in this rapidly changing field in order to most effectively utilize new technology in practice. Cardiac PET and PET/CT Imaging takes a step-by-step approach to PET and PET/CT instrumentation, imaging, and protocols. Beginning with imaging fundamentals and progressing through advanced discussion of specific applications, this book is a comprehensive source of cardiac PET and PET/CT information.
Carbon in the Geobiosphere : Earth's outer shell
Carbon and carbon dioxide always played an important role in the geobiosphere that is part of the Earth’s outer shell and surface environment. The book’s eleven chapters cover the fundamentals of the biogeochemical behavior of carbon near the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, minerals, waters, air-sea exchange, and inorganic and biological processes fractionating the carbon isotopes, and its role in the evolution of inorganic and biogenic sediments, ocean water, the coupling to nutrient nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and the future of the carbon cycle in the Anthropocene. This book is mainly a reference text for Earth and environmental scientists; it presents an overview of the origins and behavior of the carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the human effects on them. The book can also be used for a one-semester course at an intermediate to advanced level addressing the behavior of the carbon and related cycles.
Capacity options for revenue management : Theory and applications in the air cargo industry
Hellermann addresses in his dissertation one of the most interesting - pects of this evolution for OR/MS, the parallel development of long-term and short-term markets for capacity and output, accompanied by a range of option and ?xed-commitment (i. e. , forward) contracts as the basic mec- nisms supporting transactions. This has been a fascinating topic for OR/MS research because it builds on the powerful framework of real options, while connecting directly to key operations decisions (capacity planning, network design, staf?ng, routing, maintenance, and so forth) of the equipment and technologies whose output is the focus of contracts.
Cancer in the Arab World
Over the past few decades, the Arab world has witnessed a swift evolution in healthcare provision. Nonetheless, Arab countries have considerable variability in economic capabilities, resource allocation, and intellectual talent that inevitably reflect on access to modern cancer care and prevention. This book is authored by experts from the Arab world who provide vital information on cancer statistics and risk factors, available clinical care pathways and infrastructure, and prevention programs in their individual countries. The chapters also address specific challenges in each country and insights into future directions to achieve optimal care with conventional and novel diagnostics and therapies to keep up with the era of precision medicine.
Canadian Semantic Web
This book covers a variety of well known topics of interest to practitioners in industry and research scientists. The range of topics includes languages, tools and methodologies for the semantic Web, semantic Web-based ontology management and engineering, semantic Web services, practical applications of the semantic Web techniques, artificial intelligence methods and tools for the semantic Web, software agents on the semantic Web, visualization and modeling of the semantic Web. The goal of this book is to provide a state-of-the-art review of the research as well as to introduce topics of interest to experts.
Calibrating the Cosmos : How Cosmology Explains Our Big Bang Universe
Calibrating the Cosmos describes hard science, but is gently written. It explains in clear, non-mathematical language the measurements and the interpretation of the resulting data that have led to the current understanding of the origin, evolution and properties of our expanding Big Bang universe. Many people have a sketchy idea of the work of cosmologists, but Professor Levin’s experience in teaching both scientific and liberal arts students has enabled him to impart much of our current thinking without resorting to difficult mathematics. Theoretical concepts are emphasized, in particular the symmetries of homogeneity and isotropy enjoyed by our universe on the largest scales, how these symmetries lead to only one quantity being needed to describe the growth of the universe from its infancy to the present time, and how the so-called parameters of the universe are the ingredients used to construct the model universes to which ours – the real thing – is compared.
Business Models and Corporate Reporting : Defining the Platform to Illustrate Value Creation
This book discusses the role of business models in corporate reporting. It illustrates the evolution of non-financial reporting, the importance of business model reporting, and the main conceptualisations of business models. It also offers a methodological contribution to the assessment of business model reporting. Finally, it discusses the main implication of business model reporting for different categories of subjects and some challenges related to this kind of disclosure
Business Ethics : The Ethical Revolution of Minority Shareholders
The empirical part of the book presents four cases of US, French and Israeli companies, most of them in high-tech, in which the minority shareholders lose almost all of their investments. The cases are based on current events and try to find the common aspects and basic rules that govern the wrongdoing to minority shareholders.The book concludes that once the minority shareholders, who are ultimately all of us, are assisted by the new vehicles of Ethics, and are properly organized, motivated and conscious of their strengths, they will be able to win their fight and safeguard their interests.
Building the Inclusive City : Governance, Access, and the Urban Transformation of Dubai
This book is an anthropological urban study of the Emirate of Dubai, its institutions, and their evolution. It provides a contemporary history of disability in city planning from a non-Western perspective and explores the cultural context for its positioning. Three insights inform the author’s approach. First, disability research, much like other urban or social issues, must be situated in a particular place
Building for well-being : Exploring health-focused rating systems for design and construction professionals
The first introduction to health-focused building standards for design and construction professionals. More than a summary of the state of the field, this practical resource guides designers, builders, developers, and owners through considerations for incorporating WELL®, Fitwel®, and other systems from the planning phase to ground-breaking and beyond.Drawing on the authors’ backgrounds in sustainable design and public health, chapters on the evolution of the green building movement and the relationship between health and the built environment provide vital context for understanding health-focused standards and certifications. The final chapter looks toward the future of health and the built environment.
Building a Future with BRICs : The Next Decade for Offshoring
In 2003, Goldman Sachs published a startling report on the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) region: These four countries would be larger than the G6 economics within 40 years, muscling their way to economic dominance over the coming decades, and powering past developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. This book focuses on the technology and technology-enabled services that underpin this social and economic revolution. The editor analyses the reasons why these four countries are in a unique position to lead a 21st century growth in international services. He then features 12 chapters written by the most important chief executives from the BRICs service economy. Indian technology leaders, such as Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Shiv Nadar (HCL), and Rajendra Pawar (NIIT), feature alongside their peers from Brazil, Russia, and China outlining their views on the next decade for offshoring.
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.
