Search results for ""diffusion""

Thermodynamics of irreversible Processes provides a thoroughtreatment of the basic axioms of irreversible systems and dealswith specific applications to diffusion of liquids and matter inflow. This volume will prove to be invaluable reading for anyoneworking in the field of irreversible phenomena. Thermodynamics ofIrreversible Processes, presents :- * A lucid review of classical thermodynamics * Rigorous derivations of the fundamental principles ofirreversible thermodynamics * In-depth studies of multicomponent diffusion, with applicationsto non-ideal systems * Thorough treatments of relaxation phenomena and linearviscoelasticity * An essential text for anyone working with irreversiblethermodynamics, rheology and multi-component mixtures Thermodynamics of irreversible Processes is the first advanced textdealing with the applications of irreversible thermodynamics tomulticomponent diffusion and viscoelasticity. Gerard Kuiken haswritten a book which will appeal to students and researchers inchemistry, chemical technology, polymer and materials science,physics and rheology.

Read more less

Canada's federal system, composed of ten provincial governments and three territories, all with varying economies and political cultures, is often blamed for the country's failure to develop coordinated policy responses to key issues. But in other federal and multi-level governance systems, the ability of multiple governments to test a variety of policy responses has been lauded as an effective way to build local and national policy. Despite high-profile examples of policy diffusion in Canada, there has been surprisingly little academic study of policy learning and diffusion among provinces. Featuring cutting-edge research, Provincial Policy Laboratories explores the cross-jurisdictional movement of policies among governments in Canada’s federal system. The book comprises case studies from a range of emerging policy areas, including parentage rights, hydraulic fracturing regulations, species at risk legislation, sales and aviation taxation, and marijuana regulation. Throughout, the contributors aim to increase knowledge about this understudied aspect of Canadian federalism and contribute to the practice of intergovernmental policymaking across the country.

Read more less

This work considers a small random perturbation of alpha-stable jump type nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions over an interval. It has two stable points whose domains of attraction meet in a separating manifold with several saddle points. Extending a method developed by Imkeller and Pavlyukevich it proves that in contrast to a Gaussian perturbation, the expected exit and transition times between the domains of attraction depend polynomially on the noise intensity in the small intensity limit. Moreover the solution exhibits metastable behavior: there is a polynomial time scale along which the solution dynamics correspond asymptotically to the dynamic behavior of a finite-state Markov chain switching between the stable states.

Read more less

Why do very different countries often emulate the same policy model? Two years after Ronald Reagan's income-tax simplification of 1986, Brazil adopted a similar reform even though it threatened to exacerbate income disparity and jeopardize state revenues. And Chile's pension privatization of the early 1980s has spread throughout Latin America and beyond even though many poor countries that have privatized their social security systems, including Bolivia and El Salvador, lack some of the preconditions necessary to do so successfully. In a major step beyond conventional rational-choice accounts of policy decision-making, this book demonstrates that bounded--not full--rationality drives the spread of innovations across countries. When seeking solutions to domestic problems, decision-makers often consider foreign models, sometimes promoted by development institutions like the World Bank. But, as Kurt Weyland argues, policymakers apply inferential shortcuts at the risk of distortions and biases. Through an in-depth analysis of pension and health reform in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Peru, Weyland demonstrates that decision-makers are captivated by neat, bold, cognitively available models. And rather than thoroughly assessing the costs and benefits of external models, they draw excessively firm conclusions from limited data and overextrapolate from spurts of success or failure. Indications of initial success can thus trigger an upsurge of policy diffusion.

Read more less

Hydrodynamics of Time-Periodic Groundwater Flow introduces the emerging topic of periodic fluctuations in groundwater. While classical hydrology has often focused on steady flow conditions, many systems display periodic behavior due to tidal, seasonal, annual, and human influences. Describing and quantifying subsurface hydraulic responses to these influences may be challenging to those who are unfamiliar with periodically forced groundwater systems. The goal of this volume is to present a clear and accessible mathematical introduction to the basic and advanced theory of time-periodic groundwater flow, which is essential for developing a comprehensive knowledge of groundwater hydraulics and groundwater hydrology. Volume highlights include: Overview of time-periodic forcing of groundwater systems Definition of the Boundary Value Problem for harmonic systems in space and time Examples of 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional flow in various media Attenuation, delay, and gradients, stationary points and flow stagnation Wave propagation and energy transport Hydrodynamics of Time-Periodic Groundwater Flow presents numerous examples and exercises to reinforce the essential elements of the theoretical development, and thus is eminently well suited for self-directed study by undergraduate and graduate students. This volume will be a valuable resource for professionals in Earth and environmental sciences who develop groundwater models., including in the fields of groundwater hydrology, soil physics, hydrogeology, geoscience, geophysics, and geochemistry. Time-periodic phenomena are also encountered in fields other than groundwater flow, such as electronics, heat transport, and chemical diffusion. Thus, students and professionals in the field of chemistry, electronic engineering, and physics will also find this book useful.Read an interview with the editors to find out more:https://eos.org/editors-vox/a-foundation-for-modeling-time-periodic-groundwater-flow

Read more less

Winner of the Association of Dress Historians Book of the Year Award, 2021 In 1939, fashion became an economic and symbolic sphere of great importance in France. Invasive textile legislation, rationing and threats from German and American couturiers were pushing the design and trade of Parisian style to its limits. It is widely accepted that French fashion was severely curtailed as a result, isolated from former foreign clients and deposed of its crown as global queen of fashion. This pioneering book offers a different story. Arguing that Paris retained its hold on the international haute couture industry right throughout WWII, eminent dress historians and curators come together to show that, amid political, economic and cultural traumas, Paris fashion remained very much alive under the Nazi occupation – and on an international level. Bringing exciting perspectives to challenge a familiar story and introducing new overseas trade links out of occupied France, this book takes us from the salons of renowned couturiers such as Edward Molyneux and Robert Piguet, French Vogue and Le Jardin des Modes and luxury Lyon silk factories, to Rio de Janeiro, Denmark and Switzerland, and the great American department stores of New York. Also comparing extravagant Paris occupation styles to austerity fashions of the UK and USA, parallel industrial and design developments highlight the unresolvable tension between luxury fashion and the everyday realities of wartime life. Showing that Paris strove to maintain world dominance as leader of couture through fashion journalism, photography and exported fashion forecasting, Paris Fashion and World War Two makes a significant contribution to the cultural history of fashion.

Read more less

The Economic Impact of Digital Technologies offers a profoundly illuminating examination of ICT transformations in Europe and its critical role in greater social inequality. It presents scholars and policy makers with original and practical tools to benchmark and assess the ICT diffusion and inclusion process. The core message of book is that a coherent European strategy for embedding ICT technologies in society is long overdue. Social differences in ICT use persist and are in some cases widening, yet despite this fact there is a dearth of research on remedying digital inequalities. This is of particular importance given that relative levels of ICT use, investment and research can often explain variations in economic performance between industrialized countries. The purpose of this book is to fill the gap in the literature by presenting key evidence on the economic benefits (and costs) deriving from investment in an inclusive information society. The authors propose indicators and indexes of digital development and e-Inclusion (and its flip-side e-exclusion) to assess the relationship between inclusive ICT and wider economic and social performance in Europe. Presenting the methodology to monitor countries' performance and ICT use, together with original measures and policy suggestions, this book will be indispensable to policy makers, scholars and postgraduate students in a variety of areas including economic growth, innovation, industrial and organizational studies, information and technology, European studies, and public and social policy.Contents: Preface Introduction 1. Digital Development in Europe: A Theoretical Framework 2. The Internet in Everyday Life 3. A Metrics for Digital Development 4. Digital Inequalities in Europe 5. The Economic Impact of e-Inclusion: A Review of the Literature 6. The Economic Impact of Digital Technologies: An Empirical Analysis on European Countries 7. The Impact of e-Inclusion in Europe: A Scenario Analysis 8. Digital Development: An Overall EU Policy Framework Appendix: EDDI European Digital Development Index: Definition of Methodology References Index With contributions from: Marco Bee, Sara Bentivegna, Giovanni Di Franco, Giuseppe Espa, Rinaldo Evangelista, Roberto Gabriele, Paolo Guerrieri, Valentina Meliciani and Jacques Pelkmans

Read more less

Fractals, Diffusion and Relaxation in Disordered Complex Systems is a special guest-edited, two-part volume of Advances in Chemical Physics that continues to report recent advances with significant, up-to-date chapters by internationally recognized researchers.

Read more less

Fractals, Diffusion, and Relaxation in Disordered Complex Systems is a special guest-edited, two-part volume of Advances in Chemical Physics that continues to report recent advances with significant, up-to-date chapters by internationally recognized researchers.

Read more less

This series provides the chemical physics field with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Fractals, Diffusion, and Relaxation in Disordered Complex Systems is a special guest-edited, two-part volume of Advances in Chemical Physics that continues to report recent advances with significant, up-to-date chapters by internationally recognized researchers. This special volume includes chapters on: Dielectic Relaxation Phenomena in Complex Materials Evolution of the Dynamic Susceptibility in Super-Cooled Liquids and Glasses Slow Relaxation, Anomalous Diffusion, and Aging in Equilibrated or Non-equilibrated Environments Aging and Non-Ergodicity Behavior of Blinking Quantum Dot The Continuous Time Random Walk Versus the Generalized Master Equation

Read more less

This book offers a modern treatment of diffusion in solids, covering such core topics as the transport of mass through the lattice of a crystalline solid. Part I of the book develops basic concepts in diffusion field theory and illustrates them with several applications, while Part II focuses on key solid-state principles needed to apply diffusion theory to real materials.

Read more less

The competitive forces generated by globalization act to promote the cross-national diffusion of human resource management 'best practices'. In particular, high performance work practices have come to be viewed as the standard as companies in many parts of the world have endeavored to 'Americanize' their employment and management systems. Yet cultural, institutional, and ideological forces continue to offer resistance to the global convergence of HR practices. This volume contains papers from authors in Europe, Asia, Africa, and US who explore diffusion in a variety of national contexts. Different methodologies and perspectives provide a range of interpretations regarding diffusion and convergence.

Read more less

To solve the climate crisis, the world must make a wholesale shift to renewable energy technologies. With surging growth in emerging markets, this transformation takes on even greater urgency. The challenges – and opportunities – are immense. Selling Solar considers how such a shift might happen. Focusing on the case of solar photovoltaics, it shows how, at the start of the twenty-first century, this promising technology began to diffuse rapidly in select emerging markets, after years of struggling to take off. What were the initial barriers to diffusion? How were they overcome? Who did it? And how can this success be replicated? Drawing on literature on innovation diffusion and entrepreneurship, the author answers these questions, showing how entrepreneurs affected profound technological change not just through the solar systems they sold, but through the example they set to both new market entrants and policymakers. In analyzing how this happened, this book offers important lessons for the diffusion of a range of renewable energy technologies in emerging markets, and for the advancement of the sector as a whole. Selling Solar is essential reading for anyone who believes in a renewable energy future and wants it sooner rather than later.

Read more less

In an era when knowledge can travel with astonishing speed, the need for analysis of intellectual property (IP) law—and its focus on patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and issues of copyright—has never been greater. But as Robert M. Farley and Davida H. Isaacs stress in Patents for Power, we have long overlooked critical ties between IP law and one area of worldwide concern: military technology. This deft blend of case studies, theoretical analyses, and policy advice reveals the fundamental role of IP law in shaping how states create and transmit defense equipment and weaponry. The book probes two major issues: the effect of IP law on innovation itself and the effect of IP law on the international diffusion, or sharing, of technology. Discussing a range of inventions, from the AK-47 rifle to the B-29 Superfortress bomber to the MQ-1 Predator drone, the authors show how IP systems (or their lack) have impacted domestic and international relations across a number of countries, including the United States, Russia, China, and South Korea. The study finds, among other results, that while the open nature of the IP system may encourage industrial espionage like cyberwarfare, increased state uptake of IP law is helping to establish international standards for IP protection. This clear-eyed approach to law and national security is thus essential for anyone interested in history, political science, and legal studies.

Read more less

Despite the growth of digital media, traditional FM radio airplay still remains the essential way for musicians to achieve commercial success. Climbing the Charts examines how songs rise, or fail to rise, up the radio airplay charts. Looking at the relationships between record labels, tastemakers, and the public, Gabriel Rossman develops a clear picture of the roles of key players and the gatekeeping mechanisms in the commercial music industry. Along the way, he explores its massive inequalities, debunks many popular misconceptions about radio stations' abilities to dictate hits, and shows how a song diffuses throughout the nation to become a massive success. Contrary to the common belief that Clear Channel sees every sparrow that falls, Rossman demonstrates that corporate radio chains neither micromanage the routine decision of when to start playing a new single nor make top-down decisions to blacklist such politically inconvenient artists as the Dixie Chicks. Neither do stations imitate either ordinary peers or the so-called kingmaker radio stations who are wrongly believed to be able to make or break a single. Instead, Rossman shows that hits spread rapidly across radio because they clearly conform to an identifiable style or genre. Radio stations respond to these songs, and major labels put their money behind them through extensive marketing and promotion efforts, including the illegal yet time-honored practice of payoffs known within the industry as payola. Climbing the Charts provides a fresh take on the music industry and a model for understanding the diffusion of innovation.

Read more less

The Diffusion of Military Power examines how the financial and organizational challenges of adopting new methods of fighting wars can influence the international balance of power. Michael Horowitz argues that a state or actor wishing to adopt a military innovation must possess both the financial resources to buy or build the technology and the internal organizational capacity to accommodate any necessary changes in recruiting, training, or operations. How countries react to new innovations--and to other actors that do or don't adopt them--has profound implications for the global order and the likelihood of war. Horowitz looks at some of the most important military innovations throughout history, including the advent of the all-big-gun steel battleship, the development of aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons, and the use of suicide terror by nonstate actors. He shows how expensive innovations can favor wealthier, more powerful countries, but also how those same states often stumble when facing organizationally complicated innovations. Innovations requiring major upheavals in doctrine and organization can disadvantage the wealthiest states due to their bureaucratic inflexibility and weight the balance of power toward smaller and more nimble actors, making conflict more likely. This book provides vital insights into military innovations and their impact on U.S. foreign policy, warfare, and the distribution of power in the international system.

Read more less

Chapter 9 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.Since their first appearance in 2011, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been at the centre of a great deal of media attention, owing to their disruptive potential in education. As university-level courses delivered free-of charge on digital platforms, they have also been the occasion of conflicting views regarding the quality of education and the future configuration of higher education systems. Based on new empirical research, including qualitative interviews as well as quantitative data from learners across several MOOCs, this book contributes to the debate by providing a comparative study of the diffusion and social implications of MOOCs in the USA, where everything started, and in Europe, where MOOCs were belatedly adopted by higher education institutions but now exhibit remarkable growth. Investigating the impact of MOOCs at macro level, on national higher education systems, as well as the social implications of MOOCs at micro level, with particular attention to the opportunities offered to learners to acquire knowledge and skills The Diffusion and Social Implications of MOOCs provides an encompassing comparative investigation of the specificity and social implications of the diffusion of MOOCs in two geographically and institutionally diverse contexts. As such, it will appeal to social scientists with interests in new technologies and higher education.

Read more less

Researchers from diverse research communities in cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, MR-diffusion tensor imaging, and algorithm development have contributed articles that explore the potential for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure and model white matter tracts in the human brain. The most advanced uses of diffusion tensor-weighted magnetic resonance imaging for modeling white matter neural connectivity and tractography are assessed; in addition, the authors discuss (1) methods for integrating DTI of white matter into cognitive and clinical neuroscience data and models, (2) how to promote new advances in DTI techniques for applications relevant to cognitive and clinical neuroscience, and (3) how to implement new advances in DTI in readily accessible software that can be distributed to the cognitive and clinical neuroscience communities. These reports represent the interdisciplinary approach taken at the workshop to the refinement of emerging MR DTI techniques specifically for the purposes of analyzing white matter networks noninvasively. It is hoped that this volume will encourage collaborations that will enhance the capacity for greater applications, developments, and impact of DTI, thus extending the reach of the workshop that preceded it. NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.

Read more less

This book is about is more than a subdiscipline within the field of economics---it is about a new field named "public choice political economy" that gradually evolved during the 1970s and 1980s at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. What is the field Public Choice Political Economy all about? How did it originate? Who were the main architects and builders? What values and work habits motivated the work? Finally, how did the facts about the development of public choice political economy stack up against what we know about science in general and how it has developed? The authors of the essays included in this volume, originally came together in May of 2000 in Blacksburg to celebrate their scientific achievements and take pride in the regimen of research and the processes that brewed at the legendary Public Choice center in Virginia. This location provided what turned out to be a fortuitous combination of obscurity and rustic quiet for original thoughts and concentrated debates. Inspired by the pioneer attitudes of the Virginians and the dedication and work ethic of James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, a core group of renegade social scientists broke new ground and started a revolution in thought. The big questions about economizing behavior, constitutional limitations on an overreaching bureaucracy and the possible design and redesign of institutions to harness self-interested behavior for the benefit of all are touched on and placed in historical context. The resulting public choice movement occurred first in economics and later extended to political science and beyond. This may have been one of the most important developments in twentieth century social science. The book concludes with Nobel laureate, James Buchanan's thoughts about what had transpired largely but not exclusively under his guidance. Other contributors include, Richard B. McKenzie, Geoffrey Brennan, Stephen Medema and Robert Sugden. Professors Pitt, Salehi-Isfahani and Eckel provide a useful introduction to this collection.These essays and comments were originally published in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology in January of 2004 as an "invited volume." The book should be of great interest to historians of economics and the social sciences.

Read more less

`In Alfred Marshall's theory of the human mind, the development of knowledge is conditioned, though not determined, by the context in which it occurs; by a natural extension, so is the interpretation, response to and use of knowledge. That is the organising principle of this book, and no one is better equipped to apply it than the team which produced The Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall. What we can learn from these studies has wide application in economics - and beyond.'---Brian Loasby, University of Stirling, UK`The team responsible for producing the exemplary Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall in 2006 has now assembled this complementary volume which contains an equally authoritative collection of studies dealing with the fortuna or intellectual and cultural impact of Marshallian economics in Britain, Europe, North America, Australasia, and Asia. Together the books make an invaluable contribution to the reassessment of Marshall's reputation and the diffusion of his economic ideas.'---Donald Winch, University of Sussex, UKThis is a unique and detailed book which surveys the diffusion and reception of Alfred Marshall's ideas and the ways they have influenced the development of economic science up to the present day.This is an accessible and extremely readable work offering an interesting perspective on the national traditions of economic thought, in both English and non-English speaking countries, as well as on the work of leading economists. As this work demonstrates, the variety of responses elicited by Alfred Marshall's thought testifies to its richness as well as to the plurality of conceptions of the role and tasks of economics in different times and places. This book complements the authors' previous work The Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall.The Impact of Alfred Marshall's Ideas will appeal to researchers and academics at all levels of economics and especially the history of economic thought.

Read more less

The authors of this unique volume provide a timely and valuable perspective on how technology and the Internet revolution are changing business and spurring development across the world, especially in emerging countries. Utilizing a framework grounded in rigorous theory, they provide a fine-grained understanding of electronic commerce adoption processes by public and private sector entities in developing countries. In so doing, they consider how each exchange encounter is shaped by, and in turn shapes, relational characteristics that form the basis for growth and development. Using a resource-based view of economies, the authors hypothesize that differences in the adoption of electronic commerce technologies in developing economies can be attributed to a sense-and-respond capability of governments with respect to new technologies, which they term 'technological opportunism'. One of their main objectives is to establish the distinctiveness of technology opportunities from related constructs, such as innovativeness, and show that it offers a significantly better explanation of technology adoption and diffusion than do existing constructs. The book examines a number of developing countries' experiences with electronic government, bringing real life experience to the adoption of an e-government model by looking at the issue from strategic as well as operational perspectives. The volume's ground-breaking research and conclusions will be of great interest to professionals, researchers and students in the areas of e-commerce and economic development; government officials of developing and newly industrialized countries contemplating e-government initiatives; and information technology managers.

Read more less

This comprehensive two-volume reference covers the application of the finite element method to incompressible flows in fluid mechanics, addressing the theoretical background and the development of appropriate numerical methods applied to their solution. Volume One provides extensive coverage of the prototypical fluid mechanics equation: the advection-diffusion equation. For both this equation and the equations of principal interest - the Navier-Stokes equations (covered in detail in Volume Two) - a discussion of both the continuous and discrete equations is presented, as well as explanations of how to properly march the time-dependent equations using smart implicit methods. Boundary and initial conditions, so important in applications, are carefully described and discussed, including well-posedness. The important role played by the pressure, so confusing in the past, is carefully explained. The book explains and emphasizes consistency in six areas: * consistent mass matrix * consistent pressure Poisson equation * consistent penalty methods * consistent normal direction * consistent heat flux * consistent forces Fully indexed and referenced, this book is an essential reference tool for all researchers, students and applied scientists in incompressible fluid mechanics.

Read more less

The book series European Studies in the Caucasus offers innovative perspectives on regional studies of the Caucasus. By embracing the South Caucasus as well as Turkey and Russia, it moves away from a traditional viewpoint of European Studies that considers the countries of the region as objects of Europeanisation. This second volume demonstrates this by looking into forms of inter-regionalism in the Black Sea-South Caucasus area in fields of economic cooperation, Europeanisation of energy and environmental policies, discussing how the region is addressed in the elaboration of a new German Eastern Policy. In the section on norm diffusion, the contributors assess the normative power strategy of the EU and its paradoxes in the region, its impact on civil society development in Armenia, and democracy promotion in Georgia. In the section on legal approximation, issues of a global climate change regime and competition law in Georgia as well as penitentiary governance reform in the South Caucasus according to EU standards and policies are analysed. All contributions also review regional or local contestations for the topics discussed here.

Read more less

This book focuses on the spread of public and private environmental and food safety regulations from Europe and North America to Asia and Africa. It explores the growth of policy diffusion and standard alignment on sustainability observed in non-Western follower countries in a globalizing world.The book examines the role of both developed and developing non-Western countries as followers that adopt food safety, environmental and sustainability policies under different conditions to those of the originating country. Chapters analyse non-state forms of transnational regulation, and how these have diffused to non-Western countries. They showcase how standard alignment efforts lead to multiple localized regulations determined by specific circumstances, highlighting the dilemma in designing policy in an era of globalization.The use of in-depth case studies by renowned experts will make this book an important read for political science and economics scholars interested in trade, standards and international regulation. Policy-makers concerned with issues of sustainability in follower countries will find the book’s lessons on how to adapt policies helpful.

Read more less

Despite the growth of digital media, traditional FM radio airplay still remains the essential way for musicians to achieve commercial success. Climbing the Charts examines how songs rise, or fail to rise, up the radio airplay charts. Looking at the relationships between record labels, tastemakers, and the public, Gabriel Rossman develops a clear picture of the roles of key players and the gatekeeping mechanisms in the commercial music industry. Along the way, he explores its massive inequalities, debunks many popular misconceptions about radio stations' abilities to dictate hits, and shows how a song diffuses throughout the nation to become a massive success. Contrary to the common belief that Clear Channel sees every sparrow that falls, Rossman demonstrates that corporate radio chains neither micromanage the routine decision of when to start playing a new single nor make top-down decisions to blacklist such politically inconvenient artists as the Dixie Chicks. Neither do stations imitate either ordinary peers or the so-called kingmaker radio stations who are wrongly believed to be able to make or break a single. Instead, Rossman shows that hits spread rapidly across radio because they clearly conform to an identifiable style or genre. Radio stations respond to these songs, and major labels put their money behind them through extensive marketing and promotion efforts, including the illegal yet time-honored practice of payoffs known within the industry as payola. Climbing the Charts provides a fresh take on the music industry and a model for understanding the diffusion of innovation.

Read more less

By now, planners everywhere know - more or less - what the ingredients of a sustainable city are, in theory. The problem is that only bits of solutions are being implemented in the cities that most need them, the majority of which are located in the Global South. This book examines issues related to policy transfer in urban transport planning in Southeast Asia. The metropolitan regions of four major capitals - Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Bangkok - are considered. The book assesses the in-bound and out-bound transfer of sustainable transport planning policies, concepts, and tools. The investigation focuses on who transfers policy and why, what elements of policy are transferred, in what direction and to what degree, and what barriers does transfer face. It also discusses how policy transfer processes in the transportation planning arena can be improved.

Read more less

This open access book analyses the global diffusion of social policy as a process driven by multiplex ties between countries in global social networks. The contributions analyze links between countries via global trade, colonial history, similarity in culture, and spatial proximity. Networks are viewed as the structural backbone of the diffusion process, and diffusion is anlaysed via several subfields of social policy, in order to interrogate which network dimensions drive this process. The focus is on a global perspective of social policy diffusion via networks, and it is the first book to explicitly follow this macro-quantitative perspective on diffusion at a global scale whilst also comparing different networks. The collection tests the network structures in terms of their relevance to the diffusion process in different subfields of social policy such as old age and survivor pensions, labor and labor markets, health and long-term care, education and training, and family and gender policy.The book will therefore be invaluable to students and researchers of global social policy, sociology, political science, international relations, organization theory and economics.

Read more less

This open access book analyses the global diffusion of social policy as a process driven by multiplex ties between countries in global social networks. The contributions analyze links between countries via global trade, colonial history, similarity in culture, and spatial proximity. Networks are viewed as the structural backbone of the diffusion process, and diffusion is anlaysed via several subfields of social policy, in order to interrogate which network dimensions drive this process. The focus is on a global perspective of social policy diffusion via networks, and it is the first book to explicitly follow this macro-quantitative perspective on diffusion at a global scale whilst also comparing different networks. The collection tests the network structures in terms of their relevance to the diffusion process in different subfields of social policy such as old age and survivor pensions, labor and labor markets, health and long-term care, education and training, and family and gender policy.The book will therefore be invaluable to students and researchers of global social policy, sociology, political science, international relations, organization theory and economics.

Read more less

INTRODUCTORY APPLICATIONS OF PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS With Emphasis on Wave Propagation and Diffusion This is the ideal text for students and professionals who have somefamiliarity with partial differential equations, and who now wishto consolidate and expand their knowledge. Unlike most other textson this topic, it interweaves prior knowledge of mathematics andphysics, especially heat conduction and wave motion, into apresentation that demonstrates their interdependence. The result isa superb teaching text that reinforces the reader's understandingof both mathematics and physics. Rather than presenting themathematics in isolation and out of context, problems in this textare framed to show how partial differential equations can be usedto obtain specific information about the physical system beinganalyzed. Designed for upper-level students, professionals and researchers inengineering, applied mathematics, physics, and optics, ProfessorLamb's text is lucid in its presentation and comprehensive in itscoverage of all the important topic areas, including: * One-Dimensional Problems * The Laplace Transform Method * Two and Three Dimensions * Green's Functions * Spherical Geometry * Fourier Transform Methods * Perturbation Methods * Generalizations and First Order Equations In addition, this text includes a supplementary chapter of selectedtopics and handy appendices that review Fourier Series, LaplaceTransform, Sturm-Liouville Equations, Bessel Functions, andLegendre Polynomials.

Read more less

This book studies the adoption and diffusion of gender quotas in Latin America and beyond. Gender quotas are institutional mechanisms intended to increase the proportion of women rapidly and effectively in key decision-making political posts. Since the 1980s, gender quotas have been implemented in various governmental bodies and, more commonly, in legislatures. Starting in Northern Europe, these policies have expanded to other European countries and later to thirteen Latin American countries. Yet, whereas gender quotas in most European countries – with the exception of Belgium and France – have been adopted voluntarily by some political parties, in Latin America national legislation mandates all parties to include in their lists a quota for women candidates to legislatures. Although recent scholarship on gender quotas has been devoted to the adoption of gender quotas in a variety of countries, little has been done on Central and South America, despite the fact that the legislative «quota wave» originated there. Diffusion of Gender Quotas in Latin America and Beyond remedies that situation and provides a rich comparative analysis of this policy proliferation in Latin America as well as outside this region by also examining the adoption of legislative quotas in Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia.

Read more less

The Asia Pacific has emerged as one of the most dynamic regions in the world, presenting a variety of social and economic experiences and responses to global pressures. In this book twelve country case studies explore the ways in which national science, technology and innovation policies are evolving in response to globalization. The editors argue that the national innovation system (NIS) perspective is driving policy regimes toward new approaches in policy intervention. Underlying the new policy agenda is a concern with reframing the role for science, technology and innovation institutions including higher education and integrating local community, national and global technology objectives.Presenting a broad analysis, the book will be of great interest to policy analysts and practitioners concerned with science, technology and innovation policy. It will also appeal to academic and postgraduate students concerned with innovation and industrial development, as well as scholars and practitioners engaged in regional development and international business in the Asia pacific region.

Read more less

The tale of the combat between the Storm-god and the Sea that began circulating in the early second millennium BCE was one of the most well-known ancient Near Eastern myths. Its widespread dissemination in distinct versions across disparate locations and time periods - Syria, Egypt, Anatolia, Ugarit, Mesopotamia, and Israel - calls for analysis of all the textual variants in order to determine its earliest form, geo-cultural origin, and transmission history. In undertaking this task, Noga Ayali-Darshan examines works such as the Astarte Papyrus, the Pišaiša Myth, the Songs of Hedammu and Ullikummi, the Baal Cycle, Enūma eliš, and pertinent biblical texts. She interprets these and other related writings philologically according to their provenance and comparatively in the light of parallel texts. The examination of this story appearing in all the ancient Near Eastern cultures also calls for a discussion of the theology, literature, and history of these societies and the way they shaped the local versions of the myth.

Read more less

In times of economic turbulence, an organization's ability to learn from its environment and adopt innovations enhances its competitive advantage as well its ability to improve its performance. This book focuses specifically on the contribution learning and innovation in management accounting can contribute to the success of the organization. However, all management accounting innovations may not be successful. The success of an innovation is contingent upon whether the learning and implementation processes have been properly integrated. When they are not, an innovation that has been successful in one organization may fail in another. An integrative framework is developed for studying management accounting process innovations. The framework draws on theories from organizational sociology. It focuses on the impact of the innovation on the organization along two important dimensions. First, to what degree does the innovation alter the organization's management accounting system (labeled as extent)? Second, what portion of the organization is affected by the change (labeled as scope)? We classified these dimensions on a continuum ranging from high or low. This yields a 2x2 contingency framework. The book examines each of the resulting four situations using both Argyris's typology of single and double loop learning as well as the variety of theories used to explain the adoption, or failure to adopt, a particular innovation, e.g., Rogers, Sandberg, in an organization. Recent management accounting innovations such as Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) are used to illustrate the concepts and examples drawn from organizational practices. ABC and BSC are used as examples of management accounting innovations to illustrate why they are more successful in some organizations but not in others.

Read more less

Jerry is excited about taking his young son Stevie to watch the big match. But when trouble breaks out between the fans, Jerry and Stevie can’t escape the shouting, fighting and flying glass. And then Stevie gets lost in the crowd. What will Jerry do next? And what will happen to Stevie? SERIES INFORMATION This inspiring story from award-winning author Niall Griffiths is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to practice their reading skills and build up their reading confidence. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less

Ben and his family are walking in the woods when they are blinded by a dazzling light. Ben wakes up to find they have been abducted by aliens. He and his wife Anne are in a space zoo! But there is no sign of their son Jack, who is in even greater danger from the aliens. Will Ben and Anne be able to escape from the zoo and rescue Jack before it is too late? SERIES INFORMATION This action-packed story from popular author Rob Childs is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to practice their reading skills and build up their reading confidence. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less

Matt loves going to the pub to watch football and drink with his mates. Actually being in the stadium when the action kicks off is even better. But after a match the crowd can get violent, and soon Matt will have to decide between his love for the game and his love for his daughter. SERIES INFORMATION This page-turning story is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for older teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to improve their reading confidence and tackle longer stories. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less

Across the centuries and throughout the world, the Apostles’ Creed has united Christians in affirming the basic beliefs of the faith. Even though it was not actually written by the apostles, the Apostles’ Creed summarises the apostolic teaching about the gospel. This study guide invites you to use the creed to explore the Bible’s central teachings and discover the gospel in a new way.

Read more less

Liam loves visiting the local pet shop and is desperate to have his own snake. Then one day, Mr Nash, the owner of the shop, disappears. What has happened to Mr Nash? And how far will Liam go to get what he wants? SERIES INFORMATION This fast-paced story from Carnegie Medal-nominated author Matt Dickinson is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to practice their reading skills and build up their reading confidence. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less

Barry is trying to get used to life on the outside. All he wants it to make up with his sister and lead a normal life. But with no money, no job and the local drug dealer after him, will Barry be able to keep out of trouble? Bare Freedom, is the sequel to Forty-six Quid and a Bag of Dirty Washing also by Andy Croft. SERIES INFORMATION This page-turning story is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to improve their reading confidence and tackle longer stories. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less

Barry is looking forward to his first weekend out of prison. Free at last! He has nothing to lose but his £46 discharge grant, a bag of dirty washing, and all the promises he has made to himself when he was inside . . . If you enjoy this book, you can find out what happens to Barry next in the sequel, Bare Freedom. SERIES INFORMATION This page-turning story is part of the Diffusion books range, written especially for teenagers and adults who want to improve their reading skills. Easy-to-read, with short chapters, the books in the series enable learners to improve their reading confidence and tackle longer stories. They are also a brilliant choice for anyone learning English as an additional language. The books also include discussion and reflection questions that help readers to understand the story and to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Buying this book will support our project to help people in prison improve both their reading skills and their life chances. To find out more visit https://spckpublishing.co.uk/diffusion-books

Read more less