Search results for ""Diffusion""
Princeton University Press Rules for the Global Economy
Rules for the Global Economy is a timely examination of the conditions under which international rules of globalization come into existence, enabling world economic and financial systems to function and stabilize. Horst Siebert, a leading figure in international economics, explains that these institutional arrangements, such as the ones that govern banking, emerge when countries fail to solve economic problems on their own and cede part of their sovereignty to an international order. Siebert demonstrates that the rules result from a trial-and-error process--and usually after a crisis--in order to prevent pointless transaction costs and risks. Using an accessible and nonmathematical approach, Siebert links the rules to four areas: international trade relations, factor movements, financial flows, and the environment. He looks at the international division of labor in the trade of goods and services; flow of capital; diffusion of technology; migration of people, including labor and human capital; protection of the global environment; and stability of the monetary-financial system. He discusses the role of ethical norms and human rights in defining international regulations, and argues that the benefits of any rules system should be direct and visible. Comprehensively supporting rules-based interactions among international players, the book considers future issues of the global rules system.
£22.00
Princeton University Press Social and Economic Networks
Networks of relationships help determine the careers that people choose, the jobs they obtain, the products they buy, and how they vote. The many aspects of our lives that are governed by social networks make it critical to understand how they impact behavior, which network structures are likely to emerge in a society, and why we organize ourselves as we do. In Social and Economic Networks, Matthew Jackson offers a comprehensive introduction to social and economic networks, drawing on the latest findings in economics, sociology, computer science, physics, and mathematics. He provides empirical background on networks and the regularities that they exhibit, and discusses random graph-based models and strategic models of network formation. He helps readers to understand behavior in networked societies, with a detailed analysis of learning and diffusion in networks, decision making by individuals who are influenced by their social neighbors, game theory and markets on networks, and a host of related subjects. Jackson also describes the varied statistical and modeling techniques used to analyze social networks. Each chapter includes exercises to aid students in their analysis of how networks function. This book is an indispensable resource for students and researchers in economics, mathematics, physics, sociology, and business.
£40.50
Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Nonlinear Functional Analysis and its Applications: I: Fixed-Point Theorems
The greatest mathematicians, such as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure. Felix Klein There exists the remarkable possibility that one can master a subject mathemati cally, without really understanding its essence. Albert Einstein Don't give us numbers: give us insight! A contemporary natural scientist to a mathematician Numerous questions in physics, chemistry, biology, and economics lead to nonlinear problems; for example, deformation of rods, plates, and shells; behavior of plastic materials; surface waves of fluids; flows around objects in fluids or gases; shock waves in gases; movement of viscous fluids; equilibrium forms of rotating fluids in astrophysics; determination of the shape of the earth through gravitational measu- ments; behavior of magnetic fields of astrophysical objects; melting processes; chemical reactions; heat radiation; processes in nuclear reactors; nonlinear oscillation in physics, chemistry, and biology; 2 Introduction existence and stability of periodic and quasiperiodic orbits in celestial mechanics; stability of physical, chemical, biological, ecological, and economic processes; diffusion processes in physics, chemistry, and biology; processes with entropy production, and self-organization of systems in physics, chemistry, and biology; study of the electrical potential variation in the heart through measure ments on the body surface to prevent heart attacks; determining material constants or material laws (e. g.
£199.99
World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd Bifurcation Theory And Applications
This book covers comprehensive bifurcation theory and its applications to dynamical systems and partial differential equations (PDEs) from science and engineering, including in particular PDEs from physics, chemistry, biology, and hydrodynamics.The book first introduces bifurcation theories recently developed by the authors, on steady state bifurcation for a class of nonlinear problems with even order nondegenerate nonlinearities, regardless of the multiplicity of the eigenvalues, and on attractor bifurcations for nonlinear evolution equations, a new notion of bifurcation.With this new notion of bifurcation, many longstanding bifurcation problems in science and engineering are becoming accessible, and are treated in the second part of the book. In particular, applications are covered for a variety of PDEs from science and engineering, including the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, the Cahn-Hillard equation, the Ginzburg-Landau equation, reaction-diffusion equations in biology and chemistry, the Benard convection problem, and the Taylor problem. The applications provide, on the one hand, general recipes for other applications of the theory addressed in this book, and on the other, full classifications of the bifurcated attractor and the global attractor as the control parameters cross certain critical values, dictated usually by the eigenvalues of the linearized problems. It is expected that the book will greatly advance the study of nonlinear dynamics for many problems in science and engineering.
£120.00
John Wiley & Sons Inc An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics
An Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics aspires to provide the reader with an intermediate knowledge on stars whilst focusing mostly on the explanation of the functioning of stars by using basic physical concepts and observational results. The book is divided into seven chapters, featuring both core and optional content: Basic concepts Stellar Formation Radiative Transfer in Stars Stellar Atmospheres Stellar Interiors Nucleosynthesis and Stellar Evolution and Chemically Peculiar Stars and Diffusion. Student-friendly features include: Detailed examples to help the reader better grasp the most important concepts A list of exercises is given at the end of each chapter and answers to a selection of these are presented. Brief recalls of the most important physical concepts needed to properly understand stars. A summary for each chapter Optional and advanced sections are included which may be skipped without interfering with the flow of the core content. This book is designed to cover the most important aspects of stellar astrophysics inside a one semester (or half-year) course and as such is relevant for advanced undergraduate students following a first course on stellar astrophysics, in physics or astronomy programs. It will also serve as a basic reference for a full-year course as well as for researchers working in related fields.
£44.95
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital presents a novel interpretation of the good and bad times in the economy, taking a long-term perspective and linking technology and finance in an original and convincing way.Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a 'New Economy' and how these 'opportunity explosions', focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society.By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this seminal book sheds new light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today.A bold interpretation of how the changing relationship between technological advances and financial capital shapes the patterns of economic cycles, this path-breaking book will provide essential insights for business leaders, policymakers, academics and others concerned with managing change in the world economy.
£31.95
Oxford University Press Inc South Asia in World History
It can be said of South Asia what has long been said of its great epic poem, the Mahabharata: "there is nothing in it that cannot be found elsewhere in the world and nothing in the world that cannot be found there." South Asia's historic trans-regional connections to the wider world include the trade between its most ancient civilization with Sumer and central Asia, the diffusion beyond its shores of three of the world's major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), its cultural encounters with the Greeks, Islam, European imperialism, the spread of it cuisine (from crystalized sugar to "curry"), and its architecture (including the world's most recognized building, the Taj Mahal). While these connections have insured that South Asia has always loomed large in the consideration of the world's collective past, its societies are currently undergoing a transformation that may enable them to rival the United States and China as the world's largest economy. This study employs accessible language and an engaging narrative to provide insight into how world historical processes, from changes in environment to the movement of peoples and ideas, have shaped and continue to shape the history of South Asia and its place in the wider world.
£18.66
GECMO Charmes Et Sortileges: Magie Et Magiciens
F. AUBAILLE-SALLENAVE, "Al-Khidr, "L'homme au manteau vert" en pays musulmans: ses fonctions, ses caracteres, sa diffusion", P. CHARLIER, "Intemperies et magie en Mesopotamie ancienne", D. DE SMET, "L'alphabet secret des Ismaeliens ou la force magique de l'ecriture", T. FAHD, "La magie comme "source" de la sagesse, d'apres l'oeuvre d'al-Buni", M. GAILLARD, "Foi heroique contre magie demoniaque: une lutte exemplaire", R. LEMAY, "Books of Magic in translation from the Arabic and the birth of a theology of the Sacraments of the Church in the twelfth century", C. MULLER-KESSLER, "Die aramaische Beschworung und ihre Rezeption in den mandaisch-magischen Texten am Beispiel ausgewahlter aramaischer Beschworungsformulare", E. SANZI, "Mithras: a deus invictus among Persia, stars, Oriental cults and magical gems", M. SCHWARTZ, "Qumran, Turfan, Arabic Magic, and Noah's Name", G. SFAMENI GASPARRO, "Magie et magiciens. Le debat entre chretiens et paiens aux premiers siecles de notre ere", N. THIERRY, "Le devenir du carre magique "sator" en Cappadoce dite "archaique"", B. THIERRY de CRUSSOL des EPESSE, "Le sang et les intailles magiques gynecologiques greco-egyptiennes", J. VAN REETH, "Les magazil de Amrit et la Table d'Emeraude", A. WYPUSTEK, "Calumnia magiae. Towards a New Study of the Relationship Between Greek-Roman Magic and Early Christianity".
£84.35
Oro Editions Tramonto
Tramonto is a contemporary single-family home that integrates the natural beauty of the adjacent state park and ocean views. The placement of the home overlooks the canyon, the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains, and the California coastline. The diffusion of the built form defines the approach for this 17,000 sqft single-family residence (14,500 sqft main house and 2,500 sqft accessory building) into the surrounding landscape. The two-acre site embraces the steep topography, contending with the context to inform the building's siting and orientation. The project is terraced into the natural contours of the hillside, breaking up the overall building mass while using its sub-grade structure to reinforce the hillside. The book provides a look into the 17,000 sqft home and its indoor-outdoor lifestyle. Emphasis on significant custom elements highlights the detail-oriented approach that can be found throughout the entirety of the home. From the initial conceptualisation of the exterior form to the construction process and key moments, this book presents the visual story of the home's integration into the Southern California landscape. Tramonto embodies a truly contemporary Southern California attitude, the essential principles of indoor/outdoor living afforded by embracing the temperate region and the natural beauty of the coastal landscape.
£39.95
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Moving Towards the Virtual Workplace: Managerial and Societal Perspectives on Telework
Moving Towards the Virtual Workplace provides the first comprehensive overview of the many impacts of telework/telecommuting adoption, from both a managerial and societal perspective. This book argues that telework will be increasingly adopted in the twenty-first century, representing a far-reaching move toward the virtual workplace, with dramatic implications for the management of the workforce and for society at large.Telework, like mass production, has the potential to change society. It permits the significant reduction of the spatial and temporal constraints faced by the conventional organization of the workplace. The new virtual workplace constitutes a key step in the evolution towards a virtual society.In order to realistically assess telework's diffusion potential, the book studies, both conceptually and empirically, the technological, institutional, organizational and individual-level parameters that influence the decision to adopt telework, and the likelihood of telework's success.The book concludes that telework can have enormous socioeconomic impacts, both as a macro-level tool, reducing road transport externalities, and as a managerial instrument to motivate highly skilled workers in knowledge-based industries. As such this fascinating book will be invaluable to scholars of management, transport, economics and industrial and union relations. The telework and business community, both scholarly and practical will also find the book of great interest.
£106.00
CABI Publishing Maize Technology Development and Transfer: A GIS Application for Research in Planning in Kenya
Scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) have developed powerful new tools to improve the effectiveness of their maize research, enabling the rapid development and successful transfer of maize technology in Kenya. The Kenya Maize Data Base Project (MDBP) was established in 1992 with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the US Agency for International Development. This has allowed scientists to use advanced technology to prioritize and evaluate maize research options more effectively, by taking into account such variables as climatic effects and the socioeconomic conditions of farmers. This book describes in detail the development and application of the MDBP, which uses spatial analysis to integrate data from Geographical Information Systems (GIS) with the results of biological experiments, socioeconomic statistics (including interviews with farmers) and agroclimatic information. This provides a powerful planning tool for targeting new technology to the needs of farmers. The book contains sections on survey methods, ex ante research evaluation and priority setting, and patterns of maize technology diffusion and the impact of research. It concludes with a synthesis of the MDBP results and assessment of future choices. This book is essential reading for maize agronomists, crop modellers, agricultural and development economists, extension workers and planners.
£99.30
University of Toronto Press The Illusive Trade-off: Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation Systems, and Egypt's Pharmaceutical Industry
The Egyptian pharmaceutical industry serves as a case study for understanding the impact of the global intellectual property regime in this fascinating new addition to the University of Toronto Press Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy Series. The Illusive Trade-off examines the Egyptian pharmaceutical industry within a broader context of intellectual property policy making and the multilateral agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). Basma Abdelgafar offers a fascinating discussion of Egypt's role in the trade negotiations that led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization, and makes the case that predominant perspectives on intellectual property rights are based on the false assumption that the innovation process is discrete and segmented. Abdelgafar contends that, in fact, innovation relies upon diffusion, and that inappropriately strong property rights interfere with this process. She uses the case of Egypt's pharmaceutical industry to argue that we must consider relevant aspects of individual countries' systems of innovation as well as public health, if we are to adequately understand the implication of stronger patent protection for the pharmaceutical industries of developing nations. The Illusive Trade-off is an original and important study crossing the disciplines of political science, law, public policy, and public health.
£50.39
Liverpool University Press Maîtres de leurs ouvrages: l’édition à compte d’auteur à Paris au XVIIIe siècle
Préfacée par Roger ChartierAu XVIIIe siècle, les libraires jouissent d'un monopole inégalé sur le monde du livre à Paris, laissant peu de place aux auteurs qui souhaitent profiter seuls du fruit de leur travail. Toutefois, le vent tourne en 1777: les auteurs acquièrent enfin le droit d'éditer et de vendre leurs propres ouvrages sans l'intermédiaire d'un libraire. Bien que les risques associés à l'édition autonome − longtemps sous-estimée par l'historiographie − aient été réels, cette pratique fait partie du cheminement de quelques centaines d’auteurs avant la Révolution.Après avoir exploré les différents discours traitant de l’émergence de l’auteur moderne, maître de son ouvrage, Marie-Claude Felton démontre comment des écrivains de tous horizons, du plumitif au philosophe, choisissent de garder une mainmise sur les droits et les retombées de leurs œuvres. Elle révèle aussi que les auteurs-éditeurs, sensibles à la qualité matérielle des livres imprimés à leurs frais, en assurent la diffusion tant par le recours à la publicité que par l'organisation des ventes à domicile. Grâce à une analyse minutieuse et originale, Marie-Claude Felton apporte une contribution importante à l’histoire du livre et jette un regard neuf sur la place insoupçonnée qu’occupent les auteurs sur le marché littéraire d’Ancien Régime.
£84.99
Princeton University Press Learning by Example: Imitation and Innovation at a Global Bank
In business, as in other aspects of life, we learn and grow from the examples set by others. Imitation can lead to innovation. But in order to grow innovatively, how do businesses decide what firms to imitate? And how do they choose what practices to follow? Learning by Example takes an unprecedented look at the benchmarking initiative of a major financial institution. David Strang closely follows twenty-one teams of managers sent out to observe the practices of other companies in order to develop recommendations for change in their own organization. Through extensive interviews, surveys, and archival materials, Strang reveals that benchmarking promotes a distinctive managerial regime with potential benefits and pitfalls. He explores the organizations treated as models of best practice, the networks that surround a bank and form its reference group, the ways managers craft calls for change, and the programs implemented in the wake of vicarious learning. Strang finds that imitation does not occur through mindless conformity. Instead, managers act creatively, combining what they see in external site visits with their bank's strategic objectives, interpreted in light of their understanding of rational and progressive management. Learning by Example opens the black box of interorganizational diffusion to show how managers interpret, advocate, and implement innovations
£40.50
Reaktion Books A History of Writing
From the earliest scratches on stone and bone to the languages of computers and the internet, "A History of Writing" offers an investigation into the origin and development of writing throughout the world. Commencing with the first stages of information storage knot records, tally sticks, pictographic storytelling the book then focuses on the emergence of complete writing systems in Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC, and their diffusion to Egypt, the Indus Valley and points east, with special attention given to Semitic writing systems and their eventual spread to the Indian subcontinent. Also documented is the rise of Phoenician and its effect on the Greek alphabet, generating the many alphabetic scripts of the West. Chinese, Korean and Japanese writing systems and scripts are dealt with in depth, as is writing in pre-Colombian America. Also explored are Western Europe's medieval manuscripts and the history of printing, leading to the innovations in technology and spelling rules of the 19th and 20th centuries. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a form that everyone can follow.The author also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for both students and specialists as well as the general reader.
£16.50
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital presents a novel interpretation of the good and bad times in the economy, taking a long-term perspective and linking technology and finance in an original and convincing way.Carlota Perez draws upon Schumpeter's theories of the clustering of innovations to explain why each technological revolution gives rise to a paradigm shift and a 'New Economy' and how these 'opportunity explosions', focused on specific industries, also lead to the recurrence of financial bubbles and crises. These findings are illustrated with examples from the past two centuries: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel and electricity, the emergence of mass production and automobiles, and the current information revolution/knowledge society.By analyzing the changing relationship between finance capital and production capital during the emergence, diffusion and assimilation of new technologies throughout the global economic system, this seminal book sheds new light on some of the most pressing economic problems of today.A bold interpretation of how the changing relationship between technological advances and financial capital shapes the patterns of economic cycles, this path-breaking book will provide essential insights for business leaders, policymakers, academics and others concerned with managing change in the world economy.
£94.00
New Harbinger Publications The Interpersonal Problems Workbook: ACT to End Painful Relationship Patterns
Do you often lash out at people? Do you let your emotions rule your interactions with others? Do you find it difficult to see things from others' point of view? You are not alone. Despite the fact that we all have to deal with other people our daily lives, many of us have difficulties with interpersonal relationships.Written by psychologist and bestselling author Matthew McKay, The Interpersonal Problems Workbook combines research and evidence-based techniques for strengthening relationships in all areas in life-whether it's at home, at work, with a significant other, a parent, or a child. The skills in this workbook are based in both schema therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and are designed to help you connect and communicate effectively with those around them.ACT has been proven effective in helping people improve their relationships with others. The ACT skills detailed in this book include present moment awareness, diffusion, and flexibility-all of which will help you to improve your relationships with others. In this book you will learn what your schema is, and how to act on your values to communicate and get along with others.If you are ready to stop building walls and start connecting with those around you, this book presents powerful, effective tools for change.
£18.99
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Renaissance of Etching
The first comprehensive look at the origins and diffusion across Europe of the etched print during the late 15th and early 16th centuries The etching of images on metal, originally used as a method for decorating armor, was first employed as a printmaking technique at the end of the 15th century. This in-depth study explores the origins of the etched print, its evolution from decorative technique to fine art, and its spread across Europe in the early Renaissance, leading to the professionalization of the field in the Netherlands in the 1550s. Beautifully illustrated, this book features the work of familiar Renaissance artists, including Albrecht Dürer, Jan Gossart, Pieter Breughel the Elder, and Parmigianino, as well as lesser known practitioners, such as Daniel Hopfer and Lucas van Leyden, whose pioneering work paved the way for later printmakers like Rembrandt and Goya. The book also includes a clear and fascinating description of the etching process, as well as an investigation of how the medium allowed artists to create highly detailed prints that were more durable than engravings and more delicate than woodblocks.Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 23, 2019–January 19, 2020)
£50.00
John Wiley & Sons Inc Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations: A Combined Approach
The subject of transport phenomena has long been thoroughly and expertly addressed on the graduate and theoretical levels. Now Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations: A Combined Approach endeavors not only to introduce the fundamentals of the discipline to a broader, undergraduate-level audience but also to apply itself to the concerns of practicing engineers as they design, analyze, and construct industrial equipment. Richard Griskey's innovative text combines the often separated but intimately related disciplines of transport phenomena and unit operations into one cohesive treatment. While the latter was an academic precursor to the former, undergraduate students are often exposed to one at the expense of the other. Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations bridges the gap between theory and practice, with a focus on advancing the concept of the engineer as practitioner. Chapters in this comprehensive volume include: Transport Processes and Coefficients Frictional Flow in Conduits Free and Forced Convective Heat Transfer Heat Exchangers Mass Transfer; Molecular Diffusion Equilibrium Staged Operations Mechanical Separations Each chapter contains a set of comprehensive problem sets with real-world quantitative data, affording students the opportunity to test their knowledge in practical situations. Transport Phenomena and Unit Operations is an ideal text for undergraduate engineering students as well as for engineering professionals.
£106.95
World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd Bifurcation Theory And Applications
This book covers comprehensive bifurcation theory and its applications to dynamical systems and partial differential equations (PDEs) from science and engineering, including in particular PDEs from physics, chemistry, biology, and hydrodynamics.The book first introduces bifurcation theories recently developed by the authors, on steady state bifurcation for a class of nonlinear problems with even order nondegenerate nonlinearities, regardless of the multiplicity of the eigenvalues, and on attractor bifurcations for nonlinear evolution equations, a new notion of bifurcation.With this new notion of bifurcation, many longstanding bifurcation problems in science and engineering are becoming accessible, and are treated in the second part of the book. In particular, applications are covered for a variety of PDEs from science and engineering, including the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, the Cahn-Hillard equation, the Ginzburg-Landau equation, reaction-diffusion equations in biology and chemistry, the Benard convection problem, and the Taylor problem. The applications provide, on the one hand, general recipes for other applications of the theory addressed in this book, and on the other, full classifications of the bifurcated attractor and the global attractor as the control parameters cross certain critical values, dictated usually by the eigenvalues of the linearized problems. It is expected that the book will greatly advance the study of nonlinear dynamics for many problems in science and engineering.
£61.00
Transcript Verlag Digital Culture & Society (DCS) Vol. 6, Issue 2 – Laborious Play and Playful Work II
As DIY digital maker culture proliferates globally, research on these practices is also maturing. Still, particular terminologies dominate beyond their Western contexts, and technocultural histories of making are often rendered as over-simplified technomyths that render invisible diverse local practices. This special issue brings together contributions that highlight how historicising plays a role in mythmaking and the creation of social imaginaries. The peer-reviewed articles present cultural-historical perspectives, technology and design histories and historiographies, and alternative histories related to postcolonial resistance. The contributions illustrate the relevance of craft to making as a reparative practice after the Salvadoran Civil War and as a leisure activity to spark "innovation" in mid-century corporate culture; the political-economic background to the diffusion and differentiation of community workshops in contemporary Spain and post-war Germany; and the various aesthetics and politics of technology culture manifestos over the years.The issue features an interview with Peter Harper of the Alternative Technology movement by Simon Sadler, as well as an interview with Felix Holm and Suné Stassen on the antecedents of making and design in South Africa. The special issue is rounded off with six short alternative (hi)stories of DIY making including multiple practices, geographies and temporalities.
£30.59
O'Reilly Media Generative AI on Aws: Building Context-Aware Multimodal Reasoning Applications
Companies today are moving rapidly to integrate generative AI into their products and services. But there's a great deal of hype (and misunderstanding) about the impact and promise of this technology. With this book, Chris Fregly, Antje Barth, and Shelbee Eigenbrode from AWS help CTOs, ML practitioners, application developers, business analysts, data engineers, and data scientists find practical ways to use this exciting new technology. You'll learn the generative AI project life cycle including use case definition, model selection, model fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, reinforcement learning from human feedback, and model quantization, optimization, and deployment. And you'll explore different types of models including large language models (LLMs) and multimodal models such as Stable Diffusion for generating images and Flamingo/IDEFICS for answering questions about images. Apply generative AI to your business use cases Determine which generative AI models are best suited to your task Perform prompt engineering and in-context learning Fine-tune generative AI models on your datasets with low-rank adaptation (LoRA) Align generative AI models to human values with reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) Augment your model with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) Explore libraries such as LangChain and ReAct to develop agents and actions Build generative AI applications with Amazon Bedrock
£57.59
University of California Press Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey
Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family’s history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes—the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate)—Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict—Arabs and Jews—have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.
£21.00
Peeters Publishers Morphologie flexionnelle et dialectologie romane: Typologie(s) et modélisation(s)
L'objectif de cette rencontre internationale, dont les actes sont ici publiés dans le volume 22 des Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, est de mettre en valeur le grand potentiel empirique - mais aussi théorique - que représentent les dialectes du vaste continuum roman pour les modélisations en morphologie flexionnelle, dans une perspective qui articule universaux et types. Les contributions réunies dans ce volume offrent d'une part des modélisations de données dialectales à la lumière des modèles contemporains en morphologie flexionnelle (ou «nouvelles morphologies», telles que Paradigm Function Morphology, la Morphologie Exemplariste ou la Grammaire de Graphes), avec notamment, un retour critique sur les classes flexionnelles proposées d'ordinaire par les grammaires structurales des langues romanes de grande diffusion; d'autre part, elles tentent un retour réflexif sur des modèles «canoniques» ou des descriptions monographiques originales, mais encore peu connues ou insuffisamment revisités, comme celle de Jacques Allières sur le verbe gascon (ALG V). Elles explorent le grain fin des types, pour des variétés aussi bien centrales que périphériques de la Romania, au bénéfice de la linguistique générale aussi bien que de ce qu'on peut appeler la dialectologie générale, entendue comme une typologie à haut degré de résolution et de complexité systémique des langues du monde.
£55.69
ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons Inc Digital Color Imaging
This collective work identifies the latest developments in the field of the automatic processing and analysis of digital color images. For researchers and students, it represents a critical state of the art on the scientific issues raised by the various steps constituting the chain of color image processing. It covers a wide range of topics related to computational color imaging, including color filtering and segmentation, color texture characterization, color invariant for object recognition, color and motion analysis, as well as color image and video indexing and retrieval. Contents 1. Color Representation and Processing in Polar Color Spaces, Jesús Angulo, Sébastien Lefèvre and Olivier Lezoray. 2. Adaptive Median Color Filtering, Frédérique Robert-Inacio and Eric Dinet. 3. Anisotropic Diffusion PDEs for Regularization of Multichannel Images: Formalisms and Applications, David Tschumperlé. 4. Linear Prediction in Spaces with Separate Achromatic and Chromatic Information,Olivier Alata, Imtnan Qazi, Jean-Christophe Burie and Christine Fernandez-Maloigne. 5. Region Segmentation, Alain Clément, Laurent Busin, Olivier Lezoray and Ludovic Macaire. 6. Color Texture Attributes, Nicolas Vandenbroucke, Olivier Alata, Christèle Lecomte, Alice Porebski and Imtnan Qazi. 7. Photometric Color Invariants for Object Recognition, Damien Muselet. 8. Color Key Point Detectors and Local Color Descriptors, Damien Muselet and Xiaohu Song. 9. Motion Estimation in Color Image Sequences, Bertrand Augereau and Jenny Benois-Pineau.
£138.95
Archaeopress From Mine to User: Production and Procurement Systems of Siliceous Rocks in the European Neolithic and Bronze Age: Proceedings of the XVIII UISPP World Congress (4-9 June 2018, Paris, France) Volume 10 Session XXXIII-1&2
From Mine to User: Production and Procurement Systems of Siliceous Rocks in the European Neolithic and Bronze Age presents the papers from Session XXXIII of the 18th UISPP World Congress (Paris, June 2018). 23 authors contribute nine papers from Parts 1 and 2 of the Session. The first session ‘Siliceous rocks: procurement and distribution systems’ was aimed at analysing one of the central research issues related to mining, i.e. the production systems and the diffusion of mining products. The impact of extraction on the environment, group mobility and the numbers involved in the exploitation phase were considered; mining products were also examined with a view to identifying local and imported/exported products and the underlying social organization relating to the different fields of activity. The second session ‘Flint mines and chipping floors from prehistory to the beginning of the nineteenth century’ focused on knapping activities. The significance of the identification of knapping workshops in the immediate vicinity of mine shafts and of their presence in villages as well as in intermediary places between the two was considered in the analysis of chaîne opératoire sequences. The potential of product quality and artefact distribution to contribute to the understanding of the social organisation of the communities being studied was also examined.
£41.67
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Biotechnology, Agriculture and the Developing World: The Distributional Implications of Technological Change
How will the industrial changes implicit within new biotechnologies affect modern agriculture? This book investigates these changes and provides an economic analysis of the industrial and distributional impacts of new biotechnologies, addressing in detail the significant consequences for developing countries.One of the most important facets of biotechnological change is the development of new technologies for appropriating the value of innovations in related industries. In agriculture these new appropriation technologies are known as 'genetic use restriction technologies', which enable the innovator to capture the value of innovative plant varieties by preventing their reproduction after purchase. This book analyses the implications of such technologies in terms of global agricultural production, the rate of innovation at the technological frontier and, in particular, the diffusion of these innovations across the globe. The authors set forth the economic and institutional framework within which innovations are occurring, focusing on the impacts on the least technologically advanced nations and their incentives to conserve genetic resources for use in future research and development.This stimulating book should be widely read by agricultural and resource economists, development economists, and scholars and researchers of environmental economics. Policymakers in developing countries will also gain valuable insights into the distribution of the potential benefits from biotechnology.
£111.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The Elgar Companion to Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals
Complex geopolitical debate surrounds the role of intellectual property (IP) in advancing and achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Summarising and advancing this discourse, this prescient Companion is a thorough examination of how IP law interacts, influences and impacts each of the seventeen SDGs.This comprehensive Companion brings together an array of leading international experts to assess and interrogate how IP law impacts each specific SDG in turn. Providing in-depth analysis and invaluable insight, chapters explore IP’s role in ending poverty and inequality, improving food security, ensuring a sustainable environment, better regulating gene patents, and supporting health and well-being through access to medicines. This Companion deftly explores a variety of models of technology transfer and diffusion. Ultimately, the book provides a realistic overview of current progress towards the SDGs and a blueprint to reform IP institutions, agreements and laws to achieve a more sustainable future.The Elgar Companion to Intellectual Property and the Sustainable Development Goals will be an essential resource for academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers interested in the unique intersection between IP law and sustainable development. It will also prove a highly informative read for researchers specialising in development studies, as well as legal practitioners working in private law, public law, technology law, comparative law and international law.
£260.00
Emerald Publishing Limited Multimodality, Meaning, and Institutions
The insight that institutions, and the communicative practices that create, sustain, and challenge them, are multimodal accomplishments has garnered increasing attention from scholars in organization and management research over the last decade. Traditional understanding of social knowledge and meaning as being constituted primarily through verbal discourse has been challenged and extended by work that has promoted the centrality of visual, material, and other sign systems (e.g., audio, gestures, layout) for constructing social reality. While some discursive approaches to organizations and institutions have acknowledged the existence and relevance of modes other than the verbal for some time, systematic research on multimodality has remained rather sparse. In particular, the interaction and orchestration of multiple modes remains terra incognita with considerable empirical, methodological, and theoretical stakes. Together, 54A and 54B of Research in the Sociology of Organizations investigate these issues with innovative research that focuses on the relationship between different modes in the emergence, diffusion, maintenance, and challenge of social meanings and institutions. Individual contributions demonstrate the potential of multimodal approaches to rejuvenate and extend the study of institutions, they revisit research on classic phenomena in organization theory through a multimodal lens, and advance the design of relevant and rigorous methods of analysis for the study of multimodal communicative practices.
£88.66
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic
Based on research by a leading geographer and specialist in diffusion theory, The Slow Plague discloses the geographic dimension of the AIDS pandemic. It provides a lucid description of the HIV, its origins, and the extent to which it has now permeated our lives. The author shows how the virus jumps from city to city, creating regional epicenters from which it spreads into surrounding areas. Four case studies at different geographic scales demonstrate the devastating effects of the disease. In Africa the situation is catastrophic, in Thailand it is rapidly becoming so. In the US there are over 300,000 people with AIDS and more than one million infected by the HIV. The relationships between poverty, drugs and HIV infection are brought out poignantly in a chapter about the Bronx. The author argues that a real understanding of AIDS has been hampered by conscious or unconscious beliefs that those affected are, and will continue to be, confined to specific minority groups and to parts of the Third World. He shows that such views have led to fundamental misconceptions about the pattern of the spread of the disease and about those who will be most at risk, now and in the immediate future.
£37.95
Taylor & Francis Inc Stochastic Simulations of Clusters: Quantum Methods in Flat and Curved Spaces
Unravels Complex Problems through Quantum Monte Carlo MethodsClusters hold the key to our understanding of intermolecular forces and how these affect the physical properties of bulk condensed matter. They can be found in a multitude of important applications, including novel fuel materials, atmospheric chemistry, semiconductors, nanotechnology, and computational biology. Focusing on the class of weakly bound substances known as van derWaals clusters or complexes, Stochastic Simulations of Clusters: Quantum Methods in Flat and Curved Spaces presents advanced quantum simulation techniques for condensed matter.The book develops finite temperature statistical simulation tools and real-time algorithms for the exact solution of the Schrödinger equation. It draws on potential energy models to gain insight into the behavior of minima and transition states. Using Monte Carlo methods as well as ground state variational and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) simulations, the author explains how to obtain temperature and quantum effects. He also shows how the path integral approach enables the study of quantum effects at finite temperatures.To overcome timescale problems, this book supplies efficient and accurate methods, such as diagonalization techniques, differential geometry, the path integral method in statistical mechanics, and the DMC approach. Gleaning valuable information from recent research in this area, it presents special techniques for accelerating the convergence of quantum Monte Carlo methods.
£190.00
John Wiley & Sons Inc Thermodynamic Degradation Science: Physics of Failure, Accelerated Testing, Fatigue, and Reliability Applications
Thermodynamic degradation science is a new and exciting discipline. This book merges the science of physics of failure with thermodynamics and shows how degradation modeling is improved and enhanced when using thermodynamic principles. The author also goes beyond the traditional physics of failure methods and highlights the importance of having new tools such as “Mesoscopic” noise degradation measurements for prognostics of complex systems, and a conjugate work approach to solving physics of failure problems with accelerated testing applications. Key features: • Demonstrates how the thermodynamics energy approach uncovers key degradation models and their application to accelerated testing. • Demonstrates how thermodynamic degradation models accounts for cumulative stress environments, effect statistical reliability distributions, and are key for reliability test planning. • Provides coverage of the four types of Physics of Failure processes describing aging: Thermal Activation Processes, Forced Aging, Diffusion, and complex combinations of these. • Coverage of numerous key topics including: aging laws; Cumulative Accelerated Stress Test (CAST) Plans; cumulative entropy fatigue damage; reliability statistics and environmental degradation and pollution. Thermodynamic Degradation Science: Physics of Failure, Accelerated Testing, Fatigue and Reliability Applications is essential reading for reliability, cumulative fatigue, and physics of failure engineers as well as students on courses which include thermodynamic engineering and/or physics of failure coverage.
£81.95
University of California Press Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey
Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family's history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes - the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate) - Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict - Arabs and Jews - have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.
£22.50
Birkhauser Verlag AG Special Functions of Mathematical (Geo-)Physics
Special functions enable us to formulate a scientific problem by reduction such that a new, more concrete problem can be attacked within a well-structured framework, usually in the context of differential equations. A good understanding of special functions provides the capacity to recognize the causality between the abstractness of the mathematical concept and both the impact on and cross-sectional importance to the scientific reality. The special functions to be discussed in this monograph vary greatly, depending on the measurement parameters examined (gravitation, electric and magnetic fields, deformation, climate observables, fluid flow, etc.) and on the respective field characteristic (potential field, diffusion field, wave field). The differential equation under consideration determines the type of special functions that are needed in the desired reduction process. Each chapter closes with exercises that reflect significant topics, mostly in computational applications. As a result, readers are not only directly confronted with the specific contents of each chapter, but also with additional knowledge on mathematical fields of research, where special functions are essential to application. All in all, the book is an equally valuable resource for education in geomathematics and the study of applied and harmonic analysis. Students who wish to continue with further studies should consult the literature given as supplements for each topic covered in the exercises.
£80.99
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Elgar Encyclopedia on the Economics of Knowledge and Innovation
A landmark reference work in the field, this Elgar Encyclopedia presents over 60 entries from scholars that have shaped the economics of innovation as a distinct and specialised field of investigation. Comprehensive and accessible, it further elaborates the relationship between the economics of knowledge and the economics of innovation.The Encyclopedia offers an overview of the classical origins of the early economics of technical change, and the role of Schumpterian legacies and the Arrovian economics of knowledge as indispensable ingredients to understanding innovation. The entries demonstrate that the analysis of the full array of feedbacks, interactions and transactions that take place within economic systems show how and why out-of-equilibrium conditions in both factor and product markets are the cause and consequence of the introduction and diffusion of innovations.This will be a critical read for economics scholars, particularly those focusing on knowledge and innovation as it offers an understanding of the definitions of key terms in the field, the founding tenets of the topic, and the economics of knowledge and innovation in more specific contexts. It will also be a useful reference tool for business school students.Key Features: Contributions from 67 scholars in the field of the economics of knowledge and innovation Informative table offering thematic groupings of the entries in a thorough introduction Provides readers with the framework to elaborate innovation policies and firms’ strategies
£229.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Handbook on Heritage, Sustainable Tourism and Digital Media
Exploring the impact of the rise of digital media over the last few decades, this timely Handbook highlights the major role it plays in preserving and protecting heritage as well as its ability to promote and support sustainable tourism at heritage sites. Particularly relevant at this time due to the diffusion of smartphones and use of social media, chapters look at the experience and expectation of being ‘always on’, and how this interacts with heritage and tourism. Interdisciplinary contributions from leading scholars analyse how heritage and cultural destinations can benefit from digital media providing a range of relevant services and experiences, which can increase access to information for people participating in and visiting heritage sites. With critical overview chapters introducing and synthesizing connected topics in the Handbook, it further offers insights on how digital media can improve the experiences of visitors, connect both residents and visitors to heritage sites, remove barriers among actors in the field of heritage and tourism, and educate relevant stakeholders. Utilizing critical case studies throughout the text, this Handbook will be an invigorating read for social and cultural geography scholars as well as those focusing more specifically on digital media, heritage and tourism. Practitioners and policy makers working in heritage and tourism will find advice to integrate digital media into their actions.
£198.00
Princeton University Press Snow Crystals: A Case Study in Spontaneous Structure Formation
A definitive new investigation of the science of snowflakes by the world’s leading expertA snowflake’s sophisticated symmetry emerges when crystalline ice grows from water vapor within the winter clouds. While certain iconic snowflake shapes are visually familiar to us, microscopic close-ups of falling snow reveal a rich menagerie of lesser-known forms, including slender needle clusters, hollow columns, bullet rosettes, triangular crystals, and exotic capped columns. What explains the myriad and unusual structures of snowflakes that materialize under different atmospheric conditions? In Snow Crystals, Kenneth Libbrecht delves into the science of snowflakes, examining why ice crystals grow the way they do, how patterns emerge, and what they illuminate about the fundamental physics of crystal growth, structure formation, and self-assembly.Libbrecht—the world’s foremost expert on snowflakes—describes the full range of physical processes underlying their occurrence. He explores such topics as the centuries-long development of snow crystal science, the crystalline structure of ice, molecular dynamics at the ice surface, diffusion-limited growth, surface attachment kinetics, computational models of snow crystal growth, laboratory techniques for creating and studying snow crystals, different types of natural snowflakes, and photographing snow crystals. Throughout, Libbrecht’s extensive detailed discussions are accompanied by hundreds of beautiful full-color images.From the molecular dynamics of surface premelting to the aerodynamics of falling snow, Snow Crystals chronicles the continuing quest to fully understand this fascinating phenomenon.
£99.00
Pennsylvania State University Press Aromas of Asia: Exchanges, Histories, Threats
A uniquely powerful marker of ethnic, gender, and class identities, scent can also overwhelm previously constructed boundaries and transform social-sensory realities within contexts of environmental degradation, pathogen outbreaks, and racial politics. This innovative multidisciplinary volume critically examines olfaction in Asian societies with the goal of unlocking its full potential as an analytical frame and lived phenomenon.Featuring contributions from international scholars with deep knowledge of the region, this volume conceptualizes Asia and its borders as a dynamic, transnationally connected space of olfactory exchange. Using examples such as trade along the Silk Road; the diffusion of dharmic religious traditions out of South Asia; the waves of invasion, colonization, and forced relocation that shaped the history of the continent; and other “sensory highways” of contact, the contributors break down essentializing olfactory tropes and reveal how scent functions as a category of social and moral boundary-marking and boundary-breaching within, between, and beyond Asian societies. Smell shapes individual, collective, and state-based memory, as well as discourses about heritage and power. As such, it suggests a pervasive and powerful intimacy that contributes to our understanding of the human condition, mobility, and interconnection.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Khoo Gaik Cheng, Jean Duruz, Qian Jia, Shivani Kapoor, Adam Liebman, Lorenzo Marinucci, Peter Romaskiewicz, Saki Tanada, Aubrey Tang, and Ruth E. Toulson.
£86.36
Columbia University Press The Columbia History of the Twentieth Century
In the parade of highlights with which many have tried to sum up the twentieth century, the overarching patterns and fundamental transformations often fail to come into focus. The Columbia History of the 20th Century, however, is much more than a chronicle of the previous century's front-page news. Instead, the book is a series of twenty-three linked interpretive essays on the most significant developments in modern times--ranging from athletics to art, the economy to the environment. Rather than presenting a linear narrative, each author uncovers patterns of worldwide change. James Mayall, for example, writes on nationalism from the rise of European fascism to the rise of Asian and African nations; Sheila Fitzpatrick traces the history of communism and socialism in Moscow and Havana. In her chapter on women and gender, Rosalind Rosenberg covers the progress of women's rights throughout the world, from Middle Eastern activism to the American feminist movement. Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim's history of sports traces the spread of Western sports to all corners of the globe and the West's appropriation of such activities as martial arts. In each, the important strands of history--events, ideas, leading figures, issues--come together to offer an illuminating look at cultural connection, diffusion, and conflict, showing in stark relief how this period has been unlike any preceding era of human history.
£112.50
Columbia University Press America’s Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations
In the parade of highlights with which many have tried to sum up the twentieth century, the overarching patterns and fundamental transformations often fail to come into focus. The Columbia History of the 20th Century, however, is much more than a chronicle of the previous century's front-page news. Instead, the book is a series of twenty-three linked interpretive essays on the most significant developments in modern times--ranging from athletics to art, the economy to the environment.Rather than presenting a linear narrative, each author uncovers patterns of worldwide change. James Mayall, for example, writes on nationalism from the rise of European fascism to the rise of Asian and African nations; Sheila Fitzpatrick traces the history of communism and socialism in Moscow and Havana. In her chapter on women and gender, Rosalind Rosenberg covers the progress of women's rights throughout the world, from Middle Eastern activism to the American feminist movement. Jean-Marc Ran Oppenheim's history of sports traces the spread of Western sports to all corners of the globe and the West's appropriation of such activities as martial arts. In each, the important strands of history--events, ideas, leading figures, issues--come together to offer an illuminating look at cultural connection, diffusion, and conflict, showing in stark relief how this period has been unlike any preceding era of human history.
£49.50
Peeters Publishers La Neologie Lexicale Berbere (1945-1995)
La premiere partie de l'ouvrage comprend: (1) des generalites sur la langue berbere, et en particulier des rappels de systhematique oA' sont exposes les principales procedures traditionnelles de generation lexicale; (2) un chapitre sur l'amenagement linguistique qui contient des generalites ainsi que des developpements concernant le berbere. La deuxieme partie presente, selon l'ordre chronologique, les materiaux neologiques berberes produits depuis un demi-siecle: les premiers neologismes (1945), les pages lexicales du Bulletin de l'Academie berbere de Paris, la grammaire berbere de Mammeri (1976), l'Amawal (1974-1980), le Lexique francais-berbere de mathematiques (1984), la traduction berbere de la Declaration universelle des droits de l'homme (1990), le Vocabulaire de l'education de Boudris (1993), quelques materiaux neologques touaregs (Mali, Niger), etc. La mise en situation historique et l'analyse interne des materiaux produits constituent l'essentiel de cette partie qui contient aussi des elements d'approche critique. La troisieme partie concerne l'usage des neologismes. Un premier chapitre expose des etudes de cas qui abordent separement les principaux canaux de diffusion: la poesie, la neo-chanson berbere, la radio, la litterature moderne, le theatre, les revues et bulletins culturels, la presse politique kabyle et la television. Le second chapitre contient des elements d'analyse et des conclusions. La quatrieme et derniere partie contient un bilan linguistique global et une typologie des neologismes berberes, ainsi qu'un chapitre de propositions que pourrait integrer une perspective de resaississement de l'action neologique.
£55.50
Peeters Publishers Housing and Habitat in the Ancient Mediterranean: Cultural and Environmental Responses
This volume presents the outcome of the international conference 'Housing and Habitat in the Mediterranean World: responses to different environments' that celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Monash University Centre in Prato in 2011. It incorporates comparative and recent research on the housing in the Mediterranean world investigating social, cultural and environmental aspects. The topics of the contributions deal with the development and internationalisation of domestic architecture in the Mediterranean, the transformation and diffusion of different housing typologies, the implications for social interaction, and the adaptation to varying regional environments of Classical models of housing. The contributors present new archaeological data and fresh interpretations, various theories, methods and evidence to investigate the characteristics of and change in social space and dynamics in both the urban and rural environment. Rather than dealing with one discrete region or time frame, the aim of the conference and these papers is diachronic, incorporating data from around the entire region and ranging broadly across the 1st millennium BCE to Late Antiquity. In so doing, regional characteristics can be highlighted but also compared with contemporary developments throughout the region and long-term trends, both local and again regional, can be identified. The volume illustrates different priorities in the study of housing and habitat that hopefully will prove stimulating to all researchers concerned with the lived-in environment.
£127.04
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Public Procurement and Innovation: The Role of Institutions
Max Rolfstam examines the increasing emphasis on public procurement as a means to stimulate innovation and the theoretical implications of this policy development. While 'regular' public procurement may be regarded as the outcome of anonymous market processes, public procurement of innovation must be understood as a special case of innovation, where social processes - and consequently the institutions governing these social processes - need to be considered. This book contributes to our understanding with a detailed institutional analysis of the public procurement of innovation.The author draws on an institutional framework that underscores the importance of conducting a multilevel institutional analysis. Unlike earlier studies that reduced public procurement challenges to a legal issue, this book offers insights of a more holistic nature.Academics, students and researchers with an interest in innovation policy will find this book to be an informative and fascinating read. It will also provide an invaluable reference tool on how public procurement can be used as an innovation policy tool for policy makers at both national and EU levels.Contents 1. Introduction 2. Public Procurement of Innovation Theory 3. Legal Institutions for Public Procurement of Innovation 4. Public Procurement of Innovation Diffusion 5. Public Procurement of Innovation as Collaboration 6. Public Procurement of Innovation as Endogenous-Exogenous Knowledge Conversion 7. Success Factors Public Procurement of Innovation 8. Concluding Remarks References Index
£99.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The Future of Economic Growth: As New Becomes Old
In this book, Robert Boyer follows the origins, course and collapse of the 'new economy' and proposes a new interpretation of US dynamism during the 1990s. He argues that the diffusion of information and communication technologies is only part of a story that also requires understanding of the transformation of the financial system, the reorganization of the management of firms and the emergence of a new policy mix. The book includes a long-term retrospective analysis of technological innovation, and an international comparison of OECD countries delivers an unconventional and critical assessment of the hope and the hype of the 'new economy'. The book proposes that the US way is not necessarily the only efficient one, as demonstrated by the experience of the Nordic countries, which manage to combine economic efficiency with social justice. The author argues that European economies would do well to take note and to explore a promising growth regime for the twenty-first century, one built upon health, education, training and leisure, this comprising the 'anthropogenetic model'.The Future of Economic Growth is a challenging and thought-provoking book, and as such will be of interest to many academics, researchers and students within the field of economics. It will be particularly relevant to those with an interest in macroeconomics, industrial organisation and the theory of the firm, and growth theory.
£37.95
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Complexity and Ecosystem Management: The Theory and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems
The quality of ecosystems is affected by the actions of different stakeholders who use them in a variety of ways. In order to understand this complex relationship between humans and nature, it is vital to understand the complexity of the interacting agents. The authors in this book attempt to do this by applying multi-agent systems to the problems of ecosystem management. The multi-agent approach to ecosystem management is a relatively new and rapidly developing field which takes a formal computational approach towards the interaction of humans with their environment. The authors highlight some of the promising new methodologies which are emerging in the field from disciplines such as computer science and computational social science. They move on to address a number of important topics including diffusion processes, common-pool resources, land use change and the participatory use of models, in an attempt to solve contemporary management issues. They clearly demonstrate the potential utility of multi-agent systems in the context of theoretical problems and practical case studies. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the theory and application of multi-agent systems for ecosystem management. It will prove indispensable for ecological economists, natural resource and social scientists, and policymakers. It will also appeal to students and scholars who are interested in modelling the human dimensions of global environmental change.
£126.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Elgar Encyclopedia of European Union Public Policy
A holistic and extensive exploration of both the dynamic and incremental changes in EU public policy and the decision processes surrounding them, this Elgar Encyclopedia is the definitive reference work in the field of EU public policy.Unifying theoretical insights with empirical phenomena, this pioneering Encyclopedia begins by engaging with the multi-level structure of the EU’s polity and identifies how this affects public policy, considering the role of various non-state actors in EU policymaking, and the concepts of Europeanization and policy diffusion. Offering a theoretical introduction to policy integration, it examines intergovernmentalism, neofunctionalism, and postfunctionalism, alongside an innovative analysis of policy styles and the effects of recent crises on EU public policy, including COVID-19 and populism. Chapters conclude by reflecting on policy implementation and dynamics, and the impact of feedback on public policies and institutions.Ultimately demonstrating that the study of public policy in the EU has produced a set of EU-specific analytical perspectives, this timely book will guide further research avenues into EU public policy for students and scholars interested in (EU) public policy, public administration and comparative politics, alongside informing the decision-making of policymakers globally.Key Features:Accessible format split into 9 thematic partsFully cross-referenced with select bibliographies for further readingEntries written by an international and interdisciplinary group of over 90 preeminent experts in the field of public policy
£260.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd UN-ASEAN Coordination: Policy Transfer and Regional Cooperation Against Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia
Despite the high frequency of their interactions, the policy coordination process between the United Nations (UN) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been underexamined in global and regional governance and ASEAN studies literature. To chart this important terrain, this incisive book contributes to scholarship by investigating UN-ASEAN policy coordination in the case of trafficking in persons (TIP).Guangyu Qiao-Franco advances a conceptual framework designed to explore the coordination between the UN and ASEAN, based on theories of policy transfer, norm diffusion, regime complex, and institutional interaction. By examining an extensive case study that traces developments in Southeast Asian regional governance since the early 1980s, this book contains rich information on the UN and ASEAN’s TIP policies, lobbying and involvement of various actors, and the specific historical contexts of regional policy debates. Featuring analysis based on empirical data collected through 79 interviews with key participants in the TIP policy process across Southeast Asia, the book reveals the black box of ASEAN policymaking that has led to positive changes in human trafficking governance.This dynamic book will interest students and scholars of international relations, law, criminology, and migration studies. Its consideration of how disparate regional states might collaborate on human trafficking issues will further benefit practitioners and professionals working in governments of ASEAN member states, international organisations, and NGOs.
£80.00
John Wiley & Sons Inc Beginning Partial Differential Equations
A broad introduction to PDEs with an emphasis on specialized topics and applications occurring in a variety of fields Featuring a thoroughly revised presentation of topics, Beginning Partial Differential Equations, Third Edition provides a challenging, yet accessible, combination of techniques, applications, and introductory theory on the subjectof partial differential equations. The new edition offers nonstandard coverageon material including Burger’s equation, the telegraph equation, damped wavemotion, and the use of characteristics to solve nonhomogeneous problems. The Third Edition is organized around four themes: methods of solution for initial-boundary value problems; applications of partial differential equations; existence and properties of solutions; and the use of software to experiment with graphics and carry out computations. With a primary focus on wave and diffusion processes, Beginning Partial Differential Equations, Third Edition also includes: Proofs of theorems incorporated within the topical presentation, such as the existence of a solution for the Dirichlet problem The incorporation of Maple™ to perform computations and experiments Unusual applications, such as Poe’s pendulum Advanced topical coverage of special functions, such as Bessel, Legendre polynomials, and spherical harmonics Fourier and Laplace transform techniques to solve important problems Beginning of Partial Differential Equations, Third Edition is an ideal textbook for upper-undergraduate and first-year graduate-level courses in analysis and applied mathematics, science, and engineering.
£98.00