Search results for ""Author John Wiley"

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are no longer confined to use in commercial signage and have now moved firmly, and with unquestioned advantages, into the field of commercial and domestic lighting. This development was prompted in the late 1980s by the invention of the blue LED, a wavelength that had previously been missing from the available LED spectrum and which opened the way to providing white light. Since that point, LED performance (including energy efficiency) has improved dramatically, and now compares with the performance of fluorescent lights - and there remain further performance improvements yet to be delivered. The book begins with the principles of LED lighting, then focuses on issues and challenges. Chapters are devoted to key steps in LED manufacturing: substrate, epitaxy, process and packaging. Photoelectric characterization of LEDs, Lighting with LEDs and the imposition of a certain level of color quality, are the subject of later chapters, and finally there is a detailed discussion of the emergence of OLEDs, or organic LEDs, which have specific capabilities of immediate interest and importance in this field.

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Plastics may undergo an industrial treatment for many reasons including strength, chemical inertness, biodegradability, and heat resistance. Providing an overview of the various treatments utilized in the plastics industry, this title examines the numerous treatments in use as well as the differences in treatments based on the type of plastic and the type of component being treated.

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This book describes the optimization methods most commonly encountered in signal and image processing: artificial evolution and Parisian approach; wavelets and fractals; information criteria; training and quadratic programming; Bayesian formalism; probabilistic modeling; Markovian approach; hidden Markov models; and metaheuristics (genetic algorithms, ant colony algorithms, cross-entropy, particle swarm optimization, estimation of distribution algorithms, and artificial immune systems).

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The mechanical tests presented in this book are essential for determining the basic properties of the materials used. Areas covered include elasticity, tensile and compression tests, hardness, endurance tests and dynamic tests.

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Disaster Management embarks on a comprehensive exploration of proactive approaches to confronting the ever-growing challenges posed by natural and man-made disasters. Drawing on a wealth of interdisciplinary research and practical expertise, this book delves into the core principles of disaster management, offering a roadmap for communities, governments and organizations to enhance their preparedness and mitigation strategies. From risk assessment and early warning systems, to community engagement and infrastructure resilience, each chapter provides actionable insights and case studies that illuminate the path towards building robust resilience frameworks. With a keen focus on adaptability and innovation, this book equips readers with the tools necessary to navigate the complexities of today's dynamic world, fostering a culture of preparedness that can mitigate the impact of disasters and safeguard lives and livelihoods.

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Providing healthcare professionals with cognitive aids, whether a simple checklist or an information system, improves patient care and reduces information-processing constraints for caregivers. However, to achieve these objectives, these aids must be adaptable and ergonomic. Cognitive Aids to Support Healthcare Professionals offers an unprecedented presentation of the different forms of cognitive aids, as well as an analysis of these aids as gateways for channelling resources to support mental activity and a general framework to simply model cognitive aids as Turing machines. Throughout this book, healthcare professionals, executives, hospital managers, healthcare engineers, ergonomists and trainers will find ergonomic advice on the choice or design of cognitive aids, and also, more generally, on the roles that cognitive aids play in activities.

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Monitoring the human body is a key element of digital health science. Low-cost sensors derived from smartphones or smartwatches may give the impression that sensors are readily available; however, to date, very few of them are actually medical devices. Designing medical devices requires us to undertake a specific approach demanding special skills, as it concerns the integrity of the human body. The process is tightly framed by state regulations in order to ensure compliance with quality assessment, risk management and medical ethics requirements. This book aims to give biomedical students an overview on medical devices design. It firstly gives a historical and economical approach, then develops key elements in medical device design with reference to EU and US regulations, and finally describes sensors for the human body. The clinical approach is presented as the central element in medical device qualification and this offers a perspective on the use of numerical

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Algae, macroalgae and microalgae can be valuable biological resources in a new, more environmentally friendly form of agriculture known as agrobiology. Indeed, the biological properties associated with algae are frequently relevant for agricultural and zootechnical purposes. It is this aspect that is behind the current popularity of algae in the development of new agricultural practices that are related to plant and animal production, which are referred to as agrobiology. Algae in Agrobiology offers a current and forward-looking account of algae use: in agriculture and in the sector of land and marine animal production, as algal extracts and molecules in the form of fertilizers or biostimulants for crops with agronomic interest, and as algal compounds in the area of plant and animal health. This book is based on advances in biochemical and agronomic research in order to explain the conventional practices associated with the use of algae in agriculture and livestock breeding. These advances make it possible to establish possible uses for marine algal resources in the agriculture of the future.

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At the end of the Second World War, a new technological trend was born: integrated electronics. This trend relied on the enormous rise of integrable electronic devices. Analog Devices and Circuits is composed of two volumes: the first deals with analog components, and the second with associated analog circuits. The goal here is not to create an overly comprehensive analysis, but rather to break it down into smaller sections, thus highlighting the complexity and breadth of the field. This first volume, after a brief history, describes the two main devices, namely bipolar transistors and MOS, with particular importance given to the modeling aspect. In doing so, we deal with new devices dedicated to radio frequency, which touches on nanoelectronics. We will also address some of the notions related to quantum mechanics. Finally, Monte Carlo methods, by essence statistics, will be introduced, which have become more and more important since the middle of the twentieth century. The second volume deals with the circuits that "use" the analog components that were introduced in Volume 1. Here, a particular emphasis is placed on the main circuit: the operational amplifier.

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The ever-growing number of medical services offered by digital healthcare applications is greatly influencing the medical sector on a global scale. These applications improve patient follow-up through predictive, preventative, personalized, participative and precision medicine. This new therapeutic era provides novel innovative approaches in medical care that can be understood as digital therapy. Digital Therapy thus presents an overview of the many incremental technologies in digital healthcare. Among those covered are humanoid assistance robots developed to meet caring challenges and artificial intelligence techniques that show promising results in the early diagnosis of certain chronic diseases. The book also outlines recommendations for reducing incapacitation in healthsystem management during coronary disease epidemics.

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Health organizations in social, medico-social and health sectors are not immune to the pressures of productivity, efficiency and quality. The race against time, which is far more problematic today than 20 years ago, makes care in the workplace much more difficult to implement, though it is essential. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 only reinforced this stance. Caring Management in Heath Organizations questions the benevolent nature of management, understood here to mean taking care, according a central role to relationships. It takes a political, historical and international perspective on health management, examining successful implementations of this practice in health organizations, with all its difficulties, pitfalls and riches. Other sectors are also explored. This book takes a critical look at the very foundations of "caring management". It opens up the debate between researchers from different backgrounds and professionals in the field.

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This book covers three principal subject areas: smart cities, general contractors and business models. The smart city concept is currently on the rise and cities around the world appear to be in a race to become smart, fast. Converting big cities into smart cities is a move that almost all cities around the globe have made, or will undoubtedly make in the near future, to be able to cope with the various repercussions of urbanization. Smartness is a vague term that could relate to anything and everything, such as infrastructure, people or governance.In this book, we focus our attention on smart buildings - large ones, in particular - and attempt to identify the key problems that France-based construction companies face today, in order to suggest plausible solutions. Our research findings show that no single business model can fit all smart cities worldwide. Using the general contractor business model for smart cities, this book proposes an original solution to managing smart city projects, bringing together architecture, construction and strategy.

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Automatically evaluating the aesthetic qualities of a photograph is a current challenge for artificial intelligence technologies, yet it is also an opportunity to open up new economic and social possibilities. Aesthetics in Digital Photography presents theories developed over the last 25 centuries by philosophers and art critics, who have sometimes been governed by the objectivity of perception, and other times, of course, by the subjectivity of human judgement. It explores the advances that have been made in neuro-aesthetics and their current limitations. In the field of photography, this book puts aesthetic hypotheses up against experimental verification, and then critically examines attempts to "scientifically" measure this beauty. Special attention is paid to artificial intelligence techniques, taking advantage of machine learning methods and large databases.

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At the center of current debates surrounding the social function of museums, questions concerning museum activities and the participation of both inhabitants and the public arise. In 2019, these questions were the subject of many heated debates at the 34th General Assembly of ICOM in Kyoto, which intended to propose a new definition of the museum. As the representations of the tensions between Universalist and Communitarian approaches are not only largely dependent on the historical and socio-political contexts of the various countries concerned, a generational angle must also be considered. It thus seems totally anachronistic to try to defend a dichotomous vision that is far too simplistic. At the heart of these current events and international issues, this collective work studies, in an international context, the values, actions and discourses advocated for participating in processes such as collection, selection, conservation and interpretation of heritage elements linked to the territories, resources, knowledge and know-how of various communities. The analysis of the tensions and asymmetries of power between various groups of actors – politicians, managers, scientists, visitors, representatives of local or diasporic populations, among others – particularly in the context of decolonization policies of museums, is also a major part of this book.

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Organization and Pedagogy of Complexity deals with real systems, their architecture, and speaks of those who design, develop and maintain them. After a summary of the architecture proposed by Daniel Krob, president of CESAMES in Paris, France, the book focuses on the sensor and effector equipment that routes and converts the system's information to the place where it is processed. These are the equivalent of the system's sense organs. It also analyzes the roots of complexity from the perspective of combinatorics: in real systems, everything comes down to cases and/or configurations being validated in greater or lesser numbers, but which must be kept under control. This book presents two case studies, giving a global vision of complexity. Finally, it presents a prospective approach that brings the engineering of artificial systems closer to that of biological systems, based on first-hand information provided by Philippe Kourilsky, Emeritus Professor at the Collège de France.

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Archiving has become an increasingly complex process. The challenge is no longer how to store the data but how to store it intelligently, in order to exploit it over time, while maintaining its integrity and authenticity. Digital technologies bring about major transformations, not only in terms of the types of documents that are transferred to and stored in archives, in the behaviors and practices of the humanities and social sciences (digital humanities), but also in terms of the volume of data and the technological capacity for managing and preserving archives (Big Data). Archives in The Digital Age focuses on the impact of these various digital transformations on archives, and examines how the right to memory and the information of future generations is confronted with the right to be forgotten; a digital prerogative that guarantees individuals their private lives and freedoms.

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Forged at the heart of international political bodies by expert researchers, the innovation cluster concept has been incorporated into most public policies in industrialized countries. Based largely on the ideas behind the success of Silicon Valley, several imitative attempts have been made to geographically group laboratories, companies and training in particular fields in order to generate “synergies” between science and industry. In its first part, Innovation in Clusters analyzes the infatuation with the system of clusters that is integral to innovative policies by analyzing its socio historical context, its revival in management and its worldwide expansion, looking at a French example at a local level. In its second part, the book explores a specialized biotechnology cluster dating back to the end of the 1990s. The sociological survey conducted twenty years later sheds a different light on the dynamics and relationships between laboratories and companies, contradicting the commonly held belief that innovation is made possible by geographical proximity.

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The concepts of innovation and export are traditionally considered in isolation, both within companies and within the support organizations dedicated to them. As a result, within this broad research field, very little academic work has focused on how to implement their relationship at an operational level. This book proposes a joint diagnostic tool for SMEs, highlighting good practices to be mastered in order to simultaneously improve innovation and export performance, in the form of a virtuous circle. Innovation and Export focuses on the integration of innovation and export into the strategic management of SMEs, for which the use of synergies is a powerful lever to overcome any difficulties in mobilizing significant resources.

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Comparative anatomy helps to define among surgical procedures, those that are able to restore early walking function using really useful structures, without necessarily respecting the normal anatomy. This book proposes an original vision based on the following ideas : • The cure is complete only if it occurs quickly, which is vital for vulnerable patients. • The surgical goal isn�t the anatomical restitution ad integrum, but to resore the fonction, that of the permanent terrestrial human bipedalism. To identify it, put it back into its evolutionary context and compare it to the anatomo-functional models of our closest relatives, the great apes. • Achieving this dual objective through new surgical techniques (percutaneous and minimally invaseve), associated with biomechanical data for immediate and total support.

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This book, presented in three volumes, examines �environmental� disciplines in relation to major players in contemporary science: Big Data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. Today, there is a real sense of urgency regarding the evolution of computer technology, the ever-increasing volume of data, threats to our climate and the sustainable development of our planet. As such, we need to reduce technology just as much as we need to bridge the global socio-economic gap between the North and South; between universal free access to data (open data) and free software (open source). In this book, we pay particular attention to certain environmental subjects, in order to enrich our understanding of cloud computing. These subjects are: erosion; urban air pollution and atmospheric pollution in Southeast Asia; melting permafrost (causing the accelerated release of soil organic carbon in the atmosphere); alert systems of environmental hazards (such as forest fires, prospective modeling of socio-spatial practices and land use); and web fountains of geographical data. Finally, this book asks the question: in order to find a pattern in the data, how do we move from a traditional computing model-based world to pure mathematical research? After thorough examination of this topic, we conclude that this goal is both transdisciplinary and achievable.

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This comprehensive scientific work embraces, within the generic theme of "educations, territorialities and territories", the vast majority of different facets of the complex relationships between educations and territories that have developed over time. It sheds an original light on the many - and, for some, new - interactions between territories-territories, on the one hand, and educations, on the other hand, which have recently been identified and analyzed. Beyond this main objective, it contributes to improving the fine and differentiated understanding of the concept of territory in the sciences of education and training and, more importantly, it brings innovative developments to the still embryonic theorization of the complex relations between educations. and territories-territorialities. This book shows, in particular, through its surveys, its analyzes and its results, that within all the multiple influences attributed to the different dimensions of the territories, the very discrete territoriality - falling within the symbolic territory - is perhaps finally the the most important territorial vector in terms of education in certain areas (rural Montagnards, for example), particularly as regards educational and vocational guidance, but not only. Lastly, it is not uninteresting to note that the theme it bears is spreading more and more today beyond scientific circles: the problem of inequalities in education and orientation of territorial origin is fueling - recently - the controversies and the reflections of the French educational policy which is thus sometimes echoed - in declarative terms essentially for the moment! - scientific advances in this area

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In the same realm as social ecology, industrial ecology and the circular economy, a new interdisciplinary field is growing: territorial ecology. Based on the analysis of the metabolism of human societies at a local level, it helps us diagnose a socioecosystem. This diagnostic is not only based on what is circulating, but also on how it is organized and why. Who is at the origin of a flow? What are their motivations? Who has the power to make decisions about it? This methodology, taking into account both the material description of human societies and the analysis of decisionmaking processes, might also be relevant for territorial diagnostics. It leads us to a systemic view of the consequences of individual and collective actions on the sustainability of local socio ecosystems. Socio-ecological transition implies a substantial evolution of human societies. Innovation, be it technological, organizational or social, is intrinsically involved in this evolution. However, if transition calls for disruptive rather than incremental innovations, we must also assess these innovations with a systemic view of their consequences.

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There have been considerable developments in information and communication technology. This has led to an increase in the number of applications available, as well as an increase in their variability. As such, it has become important to understand and master problems related to establishing radio links, the layout and flow of source data, the power available from antennas, the selectivity and sensitivity of receivers, etc. This book discusses digital modulations, their extensions and environment, as well as a few basic mathematical tools. An understanding of degree level mathematics or its equivalent is a prerequisite to reading this book. Digital Communication Techniques is aimed at licensed professionals, engineers, Master�s students and researchers whose field is in related areas such as hardware, phase-locked loops, voltage-controlled oscillators or phase noise.

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Thermodynamic Processes 2 is devoted to the study of equilibrium between phases in the case of the four changes of physical state: fusion, boiling or vaporization, sublimation and allotropy or transition. It also includes a section that addresses energy�s relationship to the zero sum aspect of exergy and thermal cycles. This second volume presents scientific and technical examples – both theoretical and industrial – which are the result of a careful selection, accrued over more than three decades of teaching thermodynamics and in collaboration with the industry sector. The didactic exercises and the practical problems are entirely dedicated to the understanding of this science, and the potential applications for the industrial world. This book is a tool for work and reflection essential for the student in training, as well as the engineer or experienced researcher.

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Based around the image of a carousel, this book uses epistemological theory to tackle the paradoxical acceleration and deceleration of time that is experienced by many. The consequence of this paradox is the observance of the past, present and future coinciding, where acceleration is combined with perfect immobility. The Carousel of Time proposes a model that focuses on a complex network of individual actors, and their relation to the analysis, structure and evolution of our socio-cognitive space–time. The first part of the book, "Foundations", presents the key bases of this model, as well as the notions that must be understood and integrated. The book then analyzes the concept of "Space", defining the parameters of the network’s boundaries, and finishes with an exploration of "Time". This third part links the temporality of the network to its spatial characteristics and studies its evolution.

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Recent advances in the disciplines of computer science (e.g., quantum theory, artificial intelligence), biotechnology and nanotechnology have deeply modified the structures of knowledge from which military capabilities are likely to develop. This book discusses the implications of disruptive technologies for the defence innovation ecosystem. Two complementary dimensions of the defence innovation ecosystem are highlighted: the industrial and intra-organizational. On the industrial scale, there is a shift in the ecology of knowledge underpinning the defence industrial and technological base (DITB). At the intra-organizational level, it is the actors’ practices that change and, through them, their skills and the processes by which they are acquired and transferred. In this context, the sources and legitimacy of innovation are being transformed, in turn requiring sometimes radical adaptations on the part of the various actors, including companies, military services, research communities and governmental agencies, which make up the defence innovation ecosystem.

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The theory of viscoelasticity has been built up as a mechanical framework for modeling important aspects of the delayed behavior of a wide range of materials. This book, primarily intended for civil and mechanical engineering students, is devoted specifically to linear viscoelastic behavior within the small perturbation framework. The fundamental concepts of viscoelastic behavior are first presented from the phenomenological viewpoint of the basic creep and relaxation tests within the simple one-dimensional framework. The linearity and non-ageing hypotheses are introduced successively, with the corresponding expressions of the constitutive law in the form of Boltzmann’s integral operators and Riemann’s convolution products respectively. Applications to simple quasi-static processes underline the dramatic and potentially catastrophic consequences of not taking viscoelastic delayed behavior properly into account at the design stage. Within the three-dimensional continuum framework, the linear viscoelastic constitutive equation is written using compact mathematical notations and takes material symmetries into account. The general analysis of quasi-static linear viscoelastic processes enhances similarities with, and differences from, their elastic counterparts. Simple typical case studies illustrate the importance of an in-depth physical understanding of the problem at hand prior to its mathematical analysis.

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It may seem obvious that the human being has always been present in anthropology. This book, however, reveals that he has never really been a part of it. Theoretical Anthropology or How to Observe a Human Being establishes the foundations and conditions, both theoretical and methodological, which make it possible to consider the human being as a topic of observation and analysis, for himself as an entity, and not in the perspective of understanding social and cultural phenomena. In debate with both anthropologists and philosophers, this book describes and analyzes the human being as a “volume”. To this end, a specific lexicon is built around the notions of volume, volumography and volumology. These notions are further illustrated and enriched by several drawings.

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Almost every month, a new optimization algorithm is proposed, often accompanied by the claim that it is superior to all those that came before it. However, this claim is generally based on the algorithm's performance on a specific set of test cases, which are not necessarily representative of the types of problems the algorithm will face in real life. This book presents the theoretical analysis and practical methods (along with source codes) necessary to estimate the difficulty of problems in a test set, as well as to build bespoke test sets consisting of problems with varied difficulties. The book formally establishes a typology of optimization problems, from which a reliable test set can be deduced. At the same time, it highlights how classic test sets are skewed in favor of different classes of problems, and how, as a result, optimizers that have performed well on test problems may perform poorly in real life scenarios.

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Social representations, beliefs, values and knowledge are just some of the aspects that affect how the beneficiaries of preventative health measures perceive their wellbeing. Health Education and Prevention questions and analyzes these concepts in order to consider new ways of theorizing patients’ conceptions of their health. From a methodological point of view, these analyses are put into practice with the design of prevention tools and devices. The use of a corpora of photographs is particularly meaningful in this respect. This book offers an authoritative perspective by noting important points of vigilance in training, and especially by distinguishing instructive contents conducive to the development of an explicit health pedagogy for more effective prevention measures. A model for categorizing situations integrating both educational and healthcare paths is also proposed.

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Mathematical morphology has developed a powerful methodology for segmenting images, based on connected filters and watersheds. We have chosen the abstract framework of node- or edge-weighted graphs for an extensive mathematical and algorithmic description of these tools.Volume 2 proposes two physical models for describing valid flooding on a node- or edge-weighted graph, and establishes how to pass from one to another. Many new flooding algorithms are derived, allowing parallel and local flooding of graphs. Watersheds and flooding are then combined for solving real problems. Their ability to model a real hydrographic basin represented by its digital elevation model constitutes a good validity check of the underlying physical models. The last part of Volume 2 explains why so many different watershed partitions exist for the same graph. Marker-based segmentation is the method of choice for curbing this proliferation. This book proposes new algorithms combining the advantages of the previous methods which treated node- and edge-weighted graphs differently.

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The topic of NoSQL databases has recently emerged, to face the Big Data challenge, namely the ever increasing volume of data to be handled. It is now recognized that relational databases are not appropriate in this context, implying that new database models and techniques are needed. This book presents recent research works, covering the following basic aspects: semantic data management, graph databases, and big data management in cloud environments. The chapters in this book report on research about the evolution of basic concepts such as data models, query languages, and new challenges regarding implementation issues.

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Agricultural, energy or mineral commodities are traded internationally in two market categories: physical markets and financial markets. More specifically, on the financial markets, contracts are negotiated, the price of which depends on the price of a commodity. These contracts are called derivatives (futures, options contracts, swaps). This book presents, on the one hand, the characteristics of these derivatives and the markets on which they are traded and, on the other hand, those transactions that typically combine an action on the physical market and a transaction on the corresponding financial market. The understanding of commodity financial markets mainly relies on the resources of economic analysis, especially the financial economy, because the use of this discipline is essential to understanding the major operations that are conducted daily by the operators of these markets: traders, producers, processors, financiers.

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Throughout history, engineers have been defined as those who bring technological innovation to society. However, the concept of innovation and the role of the engineer are now changing as a result of globalization, the digital revolution, growing inequalities and environmental concerns. Training Engineers for Innovation therefore analyzes the ways in which the educational systems for engineers are adapting to these new demands, as well as the conditions in which this training has developed. This book brings together the works of a consortium of researchers dedicated to the subject area as part of the Innov’Ing 2020 project. Its contributors present various means to devise effective pedagogies adapted to a holistic approach to innovation which incorporates the technical, economic, social, ethical and environmental dimensions of engineering.

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Today, the reliability of systems has become a major issue in most industrial applications. The theoretical approach to estimating reliability was largely developed in the 1960s for maintenance-free systems, and more recently, in the late 1990s, it was developed for maintenance-based systems. Customers’ expectations concerning reliability (as well as maintenance, safety, etc.) are growing ever more demanding over the generations of systems. However, the theoretical methods used to handle the systems are not suitable when aging mechanisms are present. This book proposes a theoretical approach to estimate all of these quantities correctly. In addition to the theoretical aspect, it details a number of issues that any industrial system will meet sooner or later, whether due to design flaws, the batch of components, manufacturing problems or new technologies that result in the aging of mechanisms during their operational use.

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While the topic of heat and mass transfer is an old subject, the way the book introduces the concepts, linking them strongly to the real world and to the present concerns, is particular. The scope of the different developments keeps in mind a practical energy engineering view.

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The reader will find in this collection a clear exposition of the method of the Screen Constant by Nuclear Charge Unit which can be applied in a simple and immediate way to many fields of Physics in relation to atomic spectroscopy.

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This book argues for a prospective turn in ergonomics to challenge the established fields of strategic design (SD) and management. Its multi-disciplinary outlook builds upon concepts derived from Management, Innovation and Design Science. Differences, similarities and relationships between strategic design and prospective ergonomics are reviewed using existing theories and frameworks from design, ergonomics, and strategic and innovation management. To complement the theory, 12 cases have been analyzed in greater depth according to 4 main dimensions of analysis. Outcomes have shown that innovating through the Prospective Ergonomics (PE) approach is about finding the right balance between, on the one hand, meeting primary objectives such as profit maximization or solving the design problem, and on the other, acknowledging that human activity is bounded by rationality. This means that humans have diverse motives.

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This book covers various modern theoretical, technical, practical and technological aspects of computerized numerical control and control systems of deterministic and stochastic dynamical processes.

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The purpose of this book is to draw up a picture of the transformations in the innovation systems induced by globalization - or globalization. We understand the latter as the existence of new macroeconomic solidarities. These are attested since about the middle of the 1980s, with the observation of a tripolar world drawn up by Kenichi Ohmae. The book intends to explain all theories of globalization, as well as to clarify its relations with innovation. It constitutes an unprecedented synthesis on this theme, illustrated by examples from many sectors of activity.

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This book invites the reader to look differently at two seemingly mundane resources: soil and water. Water possesses extraordinary properties which form the foundations of life itself. Without water, there would be no life, and without soils, no terrestrial life. The interaction between soils and water is therefore fundamental to the habitability of Earth’s land surface. Through in-depth analyses and experimentation, Soils as a Key Component of the Critical Zone 3 explores the circulation of water in soils. Through its properties, soil directs the path of water, leading it to wet soils or not, be absorbed by plants, infiltrate or runoff, concentrate in certain areas or flood. The potentially catastrophic consequences of such floods are often due to the absence or insufficiency of prevention measures. This book thus shows the ways in which the relationship between water, life and soils is much more than a simple series of interactions or phenomena at interfaces and in fact constitutes a system with definite properties.

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Communication is a crucial issue in our complex societies tinted by distrust. It is the core of democratic life and almost all human and social actions. Therefore it is essential for communication to be responsible. But responsible communication cannot only be conceived as a deontological issue, framed by ethical compliance requirements or good practices promotion. It should be considered with all the virtualities of communication, from conversation to consideration, going through narrative, interpretation and argumentation. Indeed each of these communicational capacities has its properties, assets, complementarities and limitations. They constitute different ways to be responsive. This book offers a contribution to the debate of Theory of Deliberative Theory (TDD), reexamined here within its different inspiration sources, notably the opposition between communicational turn and system, the fact of moral pluralism and the public reason.

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The objective of the book is to provide all the elements to evaluate the performance of production availability and reliability of a system, to integrate them and to manage them in its life cycle. By the examples provided (case studies) the main target audience is that of the petroleum industries (where I spent most of my professional years). Although the greatest rigor is applied in the presentation, and justification, concepts, methods and data this book is geared towards the user.

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"Creative competitive intelligence" is an information-seeking and monitoring activity of an information environment for the purpose of creativity and innovation. It involves the process leading up to the development of an informational supply adapted to the inspiration of creative or innovative personnel. This dynamic aims for the recognition of novelties (ideas, products, technologies, etc.), the identification of new players in the world of creation and innovation, and the identification of forgotten or neglected developmental paths. This book is aimed at readers who already have some experience of innovation and who are now looking for new ways to discover new products under development, anticipate the design of future products, identify unexplored tracks of inventions, develop and analyze innovation strategies, or recognize the emergence of budding artists.

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Internationalization is a strategic issue for companies as it is today the central axis for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Market expansion and the growing importance of emerging markets offer new development opportunities for SMEs to use innovative strategies - such as head-deck strategies - to effectively penetrate these markets. This book focuses on understanding these new strategies. Why do SMEs use head-of-bridge strategies in order to internationalize? How do they deploy such strategies abroad? Based on the example of five manufacturing SMEs, which are at different stages of internationalization, this book highlights the main motivations, stages of deployment but also difficulties encountered in this direction. This book is a tool for assessing potential locations and provide managers with a new alternative in terms of internationalization, enabling rapid identification of key stakeholders, adapting their international development plan and anticipating potential pitfalls.

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The major innovations which have occurred between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century represent a fresh challenge to the responsibility of innovators. Innovators have disrupted, and continue to disrupt the world through the growth of technology, DNA sequencing, genetic engineering, the management of large databases, different forms of intrusion into our private lives, etc. It is up to them take full responsibility for their actions, and question what they are accomplishing, why they are accomplishing it, to what end and with what means. Such questionings are those found in a practice conducted by Ancient philosophers: spiritual exercises. These were internal or external discourses, enabling individuals to act, think, to know how to behave and how to master oneself. It is surely toward these practices innovators of today should turn in order to innovate with wisdom.

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Despite the traditional opposition between play and work, games and their structure are increasingly used in workplaces. This phenomenon of using game elements or mechanisms in other contexts than games is named “gamification”. In workplaces, the gamification is supposed to abolish the separation between work and leisure or between constraint and pleasure. This book reviews a century of game theories in the social sciences and analyzes the uses of games in workplaces. We critically question the explicit functions (learning, experimentation…) which are supposed to be conveyed by games. Finally, we show that game, understood as a structure, could have efficient social functions in the workplace.

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