Search results for ""World Scientific Publishing""

This is a sequel to the author's book entitled “Entropy Demystified” (Published by World Scientific, 2007). The aim is essentially the same as that of the previous book by the author: to present Entropy and the Second Law as simple, meaningful and comprehensible concepts. In addition, this book presents a series of “experiments” which are designed to help the reader discover entropy and the Second Law. While doing the experiments, the reader will encounter three most fundamental probability distributions featuring in Physics: the Uniform, the Boltzmann and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. In addition, the concepts of entropy and the Second Law will emerge naturally from these experiments without a tinge of mystery. These concepts are explained with the help of a few familiar ideas of probability and information theory.The main “value” of the book is to introduce entropy and the Second Law in simple language which renders it accessible to any reader who can read and is curious about the basic laws of nature. The book is addressed to anyone interested in science and in understanding natural phenomenon. It will afford the reader the opportunity to discover one of the most fundamental laws of physics — a law that has resisted complete understanding for over a century. The book is also designed to be enjoyable.There is no other book of its kind (except “Entropy Demystified” by the same author) that offers the reader a unique opportunity to discover one of the most profound laws — sometimes viewed as a mysterious — while comfortably playing with familiar games. There are no pre-requisites expected from the readers; all that the reader is expected to do is to follow the experiments or imagine doing the experiments and reach the inevitable conclusions.

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The book surveys mathematical relations between classical and quantum mechanics, gravity, time and thermodynamics from various points of view and many sources (with appropriate attribution). The emergence theme is developed with an emphasis on the meaning via mathematics. A background theme of Bohemian mechanics and connections to the quantum equivalence principle of Matone et al. is also developed in great detail. Some original work relating the quantum potential and Ricci flow is also included.

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This unique ground-breaking work, authored by renowned Harvard-based researchers G I Papakostas and M Fava, represents, by far, the most comprehensive compilation to date of medical studies and reports involving the use of antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder, one of the most prevalent and devastating medical illnesses afflicting mankind today. Given the breadth of the scientific literature focusing on the use of antidepressants for major depressive disorder, this work represents an invaluable tool for clinicians as well as scientists in search of a reference manual to help guide them through the field. The book is organized into four parts; each part focusing on a separate theme that will facilitate the reader to precisely access particular information of interest, whether be it clinical or scientific in nature. Each part is then sub-divided into several thematic chapters, which are enriched with tables and figures citing results from the most influential studies in the field. Finally, clinical and research “pearls” are listed throughout the book in bullet-point fashion to help summarize the available knowledge-base in a user-friendly format.

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The book's objective is to present the capabilities of state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation and scanning probe microscopy techniques, together with general theory work, in elucidating the fundamental electronic and structural properties of semiconductor and metal surfaces, interfaces, nanostructures, layers and diverse biological systems.

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In this monograph, the author presents univariate and multivariate probabilistic inequalities with coverage on basic probabilistic entities like expectation, variance, moment generating function and covariance. These are built on the recent classical form of real analysis inequalities which are also discussed in full details. This treatise is the culmination and crystallization of the author's last two decades of research work in related discipline. Each of the chapters is self-contained and a few advanced courses can be taught out of this book. Extensive background and motivations for specific topics are given in each chapter. A very extensive list of references is also provided at the end.The topics covered in this unique book are wide-ranging and diverse. The opening chapters examine the probabilistic Ostrowski type inequalities, and various related ones, as well as the largely discusses about the Grothendieck type probabilistic inequalities. The book is also about inequalities in information theory and the Csiszar's f-Divergence between probability measures. A great section of the book is also devoted to the applications in various directions of Geometry Moment Theory. Also, the development of the Grüss type and Chebyshev-Grüss type inequalities for Stieltjes integrals and the applications in probability are explored in detail. The final chapters discuss the important real analysis methods with potential applications to stochastics. The book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students, and it is also seen as an invaluable reference book to be acquired by all science libraries as well as seminars that conduct discussions on related topics.

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This book focuses on reliability and radiation effects in compound semiconductors, which have evolved rapidly during the last 15 years. It starts with first principles, and shows how advances in device design and manufacturing have suppressed many of the older reliability mechanisms.It is the first book that comprehensively covers reliability and radiation effects in optoelectronic as well as microelectronic devices. It contrasts reliability mechanisms of compound semiconductors with those of silicon-based devices, and shows that the reliability of many compound semiconductors has improved to the level where they can be used for ten years or more with low failure rates.

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Superconductivity remains one of the most interesting research areas in physics and stood as a major scientific mystery for a large part of this century. This book, written for graduate students and researchers in the field of superconductivity, discusses important aspects of the experiment and theory surrounding superconductivity. New experimental investigations of magnetic and thermodynamic superconducting properties of mesoscopic samples are explored with the help of recent developments in nanotechnologies and measurement techniques, and the results are predicted based upon theoretical models in nanoscale superconducting systems. Topics of special interest include high-Tc superconductivity, two-gap superconductivity in magnesium diborades, room-temperature superconductivity, mechanism of superconductivity and mesoscopic superconductivity. Particular attention is given to understanding the symmetry and pairing in superconductors. The theory of the Josephson effect is presented and its application in quantum computing are analyzed.

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Drawing on the studies by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS), this book titled Balanced, Sustainable and Competitiveness Enhancement Study for Vietnam: A Critical Evaluation with Development Potentials, which is a joint research collaboration between the National Research Project on Improving Vietnam's Competitiveness and ACI-LKYSPP-NUS, provides a detailed assessment of the Vietnamese economy. We contend that Vietnam is at a critical juncture in its development whereby a new wave of far-reaching reforms is required to address persistent structural weaknesses and unleash the country's economic potentials. In addition, Vietnam's new growth model must tackle widening regional disparities which puts Vietnam at risk of becoming one country with two economies where the southern region of Vietnam pulls too far ahead of its northern and central counterparts. Based on our analysis, we propose a comprehensive policy roadmap for Vietnam to achieve balanced and sustainable development for enhanced competitiveness. The successful completion of this reform agenda will set Vietnam firmly on a dynamic growth path which will allow the country to catch up with the more advanced ASEAN member states by 2040.

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Shandong is a thriving economic centre with a Gross Regional Domestic Product of RMB 6.3 trillion in 2015, the third-highest in China. It is also the third-largest province by land area in the country with the second-largest resident population of 98,470,000. With such impressive characteristics, Shandong's urbanisation rate had quickly expanded from 45 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2017. As such, in line with the growing affluence of the province, the people's ever-growing demand for urban development in areas such as infrastructure, public services, education and environmental protection has exceeded the provision of such facilities.In view of these developments, the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS) developed Shandong's first city-level index which assesses the levels of urban development and liveability for each city. The ranking and simulation analysis via the Urban Composite Development Index for 17 Shandong cities was constructed to provide an empirically robust framework to better understand the quality of urban development of Shandong cities in a comprehensive and rigorous manner, while at the same time highlight important policy implications for further growth and development. Further, this publication incorporates key elements which ensures that the construction of the index is unique, empirically sound and relevant to Shandong's development in the context of China.Overall, the analysis provided in this book relates to the broad dimensions of urban development of Shandong cities and can stand up to academic scrutiny as it is based on rigorous methodological foundations. In addition, the study will remain accessible and appealing to policymakers as it offers tailored policy recommendations based on the analysis that will enable them to take appropriate policy interventions in each city to improve their overall performance in urban development. This research will help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each city and empower policymakers to formulate more effective development strategies.

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The World Scientific Reference of Hybrid Materials is a set of 3 volumes, which covers the fascinating area of materials science at the intersection between purely polymeric, organic or inorganic materials. The rapidly developing research on hybrid materials is largely driven by the steadily increasing need of multifunctional materials in various branches of technology. However, much of the research is also driven by the curiosity of the researchers and the long lasting wish to merge the most beneficial properties of the various materials into one. The flexibility of polymers could, for example, be merged with the electronic conductivity of metals or the mechanical resistance of ceramics, which will be of great value for the industries.This reference covers the areas of synthesis of such hybrid materials, which take benefit from each of the consisting ingredients, and overviews some of the emerging applications based on the materials. Much of the current research is still in its infancy, but hybrid materials are already now considered to be the key enabler for important future developments, for example flexible electronics. With this perspective, this reference aims at giving the general public an overview over the topics of relevance in this field, but also attracting new researchers to this intriguing scientific area.

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Over the last three decades, wine economics has emerged as a growing field within agricultural economics, but also in other fields such as finance, trade, growth, environmental economics and industrial organization. Wine has a few characteristics that differentiate it from other agricultural commodities, rendering it an interesting topic for economists in general. Fine wine can regularly fetch bottle prices that exceed several thousand dollars. It can be stored a long time and may increase in value with age. Fine wine quality and prices are extraordinarily sensitive to fluctuations in the weather of the year in which the grapes were grown. And wine is an experience good, i.e., its quality cannot be ascertained before consumption. As a result, consumers often rely on 'expert opinion' regarding quality and maturation prospects.This handbook takes a broad approach and familiarizes the reader with the main research strands in wine economics.After a general introduction to wine economics by Karl Storchmann, Volume 1 focuses on the core areas of wine economics. The first papers shed light on the relevance of the vineyard's natural environment for wine quality and prices. 'Predicting the Quality and Prices of Bordeaux Wine' by Orley Ashenfelter is a classic paper and may be the first wine economics publication ever. Ashenfelter shows how weather influences the quality and the price of Bordeaux Grands Crus wine. Since the weather condition of the year when the grapes were grown is known, an econometric analysis may be constructed. It turns out this model outperforms expert opinion, i.e., critical vintage scores. At best, expert opinion reflects public information. The subsequent papers, by Ashenfelter and Storchmann, Gergaud and Ginsburgh, and Cross, Plantinga and Stavins, tackle the terroir question. That is, they examine the relevance of a vineyard's physical characteristics for wine quality and prices, but from various dimensions and with different results. Next, Alston et al. analyze a question of great concern in the California wine industry: the causes and consequences of the rising alcohol content in California wine. Is climate change the culprit?The next chapter presents three papers that apply hedonic price analyses to fine wine. Combris, Lecocq and Visser show that Bordeaux wine market prices are essentially determined by the wines' objective characteristics. Costanigro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer differentiate their hedonic analysis for various market segments. Ali and Nauges incorporate reputational variables into their pricing model and distinguish between short- and long-run price effects.The next section of this volume deals with one of the unique characteristics of wine — its long storage life, which makes it potentially an investment asset. Studying wine's increasing role as an alternative asset class, Sanning et al., Burton and Jacobsen, Masset and Weisskopf, Masset and Henderson, and Fogarty all examine the rate of return to holding wine as well as the related risks. Since these papers analyze different wines and different time periods there is no 'one message.' However, all point out that, while wine may diversify an investor's portfolio, wine's returns do not beat common stock in the long run.The last two chapters examine the role of wine experts. First, Ashenfelter and Quandt revisit the 1976 'Judgment of Paris' and show that aggregating the assessments of several judges should go beyond 'adding points.' Depending on the method employed, the results may vary, and some measure of statistical precision is essential for interpreting the reliability of the results. In two different papers, Cicchetti and Quandt respond to the necessity to provide statistical tools for the assessment of wine tastings.In a seminal paper, Hodgson reports a remarkable field experiment in which similar wines were placed before judges at a major competition. The results have the shocking implication that how medals are awarded at a major California wine fair is not far from being random. Ashton analyzes the performance of professional wine judges and finds little support for the idea that experienced wine judges should be regarded as experts.Do experts scores influence the price of wine? The answer to this question is less obvious then commonly thought since expert opinion oftentimes only repeats public information such as wine quality that results from the weather that produced the wine grapes. Hadj Ali, Lecocq, and Visser as well as Dubois and Nauges find that high critical scores exert only small effects on wine prices. However, Roberts and Reagans show that a high critical exposure reduces the price-quality dispersion of wineries.Lecocq and Visser analyze wine prices and find that 'characteristics that are directly revealed to the consumer upon inspection of the bottle and its label explain the major part of price differences.' Expert opinion and sensory variables appear to play only a minor role. In an experimental setting using two Vickrey auctions, Combris, Lange and Issanchou confirm the leading role of public information, i.e., the label remains a key determinant for champagne prices. In a provocative and widely discussed study drawing on blind tasting results of some 5,000 wines, Goldstein and collaborators find that most consumers prefer less expensive over expensive wine.Finally, Weil examines the value of expert wine descriptions and lets several hundred subjects match the wines and their descriptors. His results suggest that the ability to assign a certain description to the matching wine is more or less random.Volume 2 covers the topics reputation, regulation, auctions, and market organizational. Landon and Smith, Anderson and Schamel, and Schamel analyze the impact of current quality and reputation (i.e., past quality) on wine prices from different regions. Their results suggest that prices are more influenced by reputation than by current quality. Costanigro, McCluskey and Goemans develop a nested framework for jointly examining the effects of product, firm and collective reputation on market prices.The following four papers deal with regulatory issues in the US as well as in Europe. While Riekoff and Sykuta shed light on the politics and economics of the three-tier system of alcohol distribution and the prohibition of direct wine shipments in the US, Deconinck and Swinnen analyze the European planting rights system. The political economy of European wine regulation is then covered by Melonie and Swinnen, before Anderson and Jensen shed light on Europe's complex system of wine industry subsidies.The next chapter is devoted to wine auctions. In three different papers, Fevrier, Roos and Visser, Ashenfelter, and Ginsburgh analyze the effects of specific auction designs on the resulting hammer prices. The papers focus on multi-unit ascending auctions, absentee bidders, and declining price anomalies.The last chapter, supply and organization, is devoted to a wide range of issues. First, Heien illuminates the price formation process in the California winegrape industry. Then, Frick analyzes if and how the separation of ownership and control affects the performance of German wineries.Vink, Kleynhans and Willem Hoffmann introduce us to various models of wine barrel financing, particularly to the Vincorp model employed in South Africa. Galbreath analyzes the role of women in the wine industry. He finds that (1) women are underrepresented and (2) that the presence of a female CEO increases the likelihood of women in winemaker, viticulturist, and marketing roles in that firm. Gokcekus, Hewstone, and Cakal draw on crowdsourced wine evaluations, i.e., Wine Tracker data, and show that private wine assessments are largely influenced by peer scores lending support to the assumption of the presence of a strong herding effect.Mahenc refers to the classic model of information asymmetries and develops a theoretical model highlighting the role of informed buyers in markets that are susceptible to the lemons problem. Lastly, in their paper 'Love or Money?' Scott, Morton and Podolny analyze how the presence of hobby winemakers may distort market outcomes. Hobby winemakers produce higher quality wines, charge higher prices, and enjoy lower financial returns than professional for-profit winemakers. As a result, profit-oriented winemakers are discouraged from locating at the high-quality end of the market.

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Thermal and mechanical packaging — the enabling technologies for the physical implementation of electronic systems — are responsible for much of the progress in miniaturization, reliability, and functional density achieved by electronic, microelectronic, and nanoelectronic products during the past 50 years. The inherent inefficiency of electronic devices and their sensitivity to heat have placed thermal packaging on the critical path of nearly every product development effort in traditional, as well as emerging, electronic product categories. Successful thermal packaging is the key differentiator in electronic products, as diverse as supercomputers and cell phones, and continues to be of pivotal importance in the refinement of traditional products and in the development of products for new applications. The Encyclopedia of Thermal Packaging, compiled in four multi-volume sets (Set 1: Thermal Packaging Techniques, Set 2: Thermal Packaging Tools, Set 3: Thermal Packaging Applications, and Set 4: Thermal Packaging Configurations) provides a comprehensive, one-stop treatment of the techniques, tools, applications, and configurations of electronic thermal packaging. Each of the author-written volumes presents the accumulated wisdom and shared perspectives of a few luminaries in the thermal management of electronics. The four sets in the Encyclopedia of Thermal Packaging will provide the novice and student with a complete reference for a quick ascent on the thermal packaging "learning curve," the practitioner with a validated set of techniques and tools to face every challenge, and researchers with a clear definition of the state-of-the-art and emerging needs to guide their future efforts. This encyclopedia will, thus, be of great interest to packaging engineers, electronic product development engineers, and product managers, as well as to researchers in thermal management of electronic and photonic components and systems, and most beneficial to undergraduate and graduate students studying mechanical, electrical, and electronic engineering. Set 3: Thermal Packaging Applications The third set in the Encyclopedia includes two volumes in the planned focus on Thermal Packaging Applications and a single volume on the use of Phase Change Materials (PCM), a most important Thermal Management Technique, not previously addressed in the Encyclopedia. Set 3 opens with Heat Transfer in Avionic Equipment, authored by Dr Boris Abramzon, offering a comprehensive, in-depth treatment of compact heat exchangers and cold plates for avionics cooling, as well as discussion on recent developments in these heat transfer units that are widely used in the thermal control of military and civilian airborne electronics. Along with a detailed presentation of the relevant thermofluid physics and governing equations, and the supporting mathematical design and optimization techniques, the book offers a practical guide for thermal engineers designing avionics cooling equipment, based on the author's 20+ years of experience as a thermal analyst and a practical design engineer for Avionics and related systems. The Set continues with Thermal Management of RF Systems, which addresses sequentially the history, present practice, and future thermal management strategies for electronically-steered RF systems, in the context of the RF operational requirements, as well as device-, module-, and system-level electronic, thermal, and mechanical considerations. This unique text was written by 3 authors, Dr John D Albrecht, Mr David H Altman, Dr Joseph J Maurer, with extensive US Department of Defense and aerospace industry experience in the design, development, and fielding of RF systems. Their combined efforts have resulted in a text, which is well-grounded in the relevant past, present, and future RF systems and technologies. Thus, this volume will provide the designers of advanced radars and other electronic RF systems with the tools and the knowledge to address the thermal management challenges of today's technologies, as well as of advanced technologies, such as wide bandgap semiconductors, heterogeneously integrated devices, and 3D chipsets and stacks. The third volume in Set 3, Phase Change Materials for Thermal Management of Electronic Components, co-authored by Prof Gennady Ziskind and Dr Yoram Kozak, provides a detailed description of the numerical methods used in PCM analysis and a detailed explanation of the processes that accompany and characterize solid-liquid phase-change in popular basic and advanced geometries. These provide a foundation for an in-depth exploration of specific electronics thermal management applications of Phase Change Materials. This volume is anchored in the unique PCM knowledge and experience of the senior author and placed in the context of the extensive solid-liquid phase-change literature in such diverse fields as material science, mathematical modeling, experimental and numerical methods, and thermofluid science and engineering.

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Volume 1 covers statistical methods related to unit roots, trend breaks and their interplay. Testing for unit roots has been a topic of wide interest and the author was at the forefront of this research. The book covers important topics such as the Phillips-Perron unit root test and theoretical analyses about their properties, how this and other tests could be improved, and ingredients needed to achieve better tests and the proposal of a new class of tests. Also included are theoretical studies related to time series models with unit roots and the effect of span versus sampling interval on the power of the tests. Moreover, this book deals with the issue of trend breaks and their effect on unit root tests. This research agenda fostered by the author showed that trend breaks and unit roots can easily be confused. Hence, the need for new testing procedures, which are covered.Volume 2 is about statistical methods related to structural change in time series models. The approach adopted is off-line whereby one wants to test for structural change using a historical dataset and perform hypothesis testing. A distinctive feature is the allowance for multiple structural changes. The methods discussed have, and continue to be, applied in a variety of fields including economics, finance, life science, physics and climate change. The articles included address issues of estimation, testing and/or inference in a variety of models: short-memory regressors and errors, trends with integrated and/or stationary errors, autoregressions, cointegrated models, multivariate systems of equations, endogenous regressors, long-memory series, among others. Other issues covered include the problems of non-monotonic power and the pitfalls of adopting a local asymptotic framework. Empirical analyses are provided for the US real interest rate, the US GDP, the volatility of asset returns and climate change.

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This is an introductory book dealing with collective phenomena in many-body systems. A gas of bosons or fermions can show oscillations of various types of density. These are described by different combinations of field variables. Especially delicate is the competition of these variables. In superfluid 3He, for example, the atoms can be attracted to each other by molecular forces, whereas they are repelled from each other at short distance due to a hardcore repulsion. The attraction gives rise to Cooper pairs, and the repulsion is overcome by paramagnon oscillations. The combination is what finally led to the discovery of superfluidity in 3He. In general, the competition between various channels can most efficiently be studied by means of a classical version of the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation.A gas of electrons is controlled by the interplay of plasma oscillations and pair formation. In a system of rod- or disc-like molecules, liquid crystals are observed with directional orientations that behave in unusual five-fold or seven-fold symmetry patterns. The existence of such a symmetry was postulated in 1975 by the author and K Maki. An aluminium material of this type was later manufactured by Dan Shechtman which won him the 2014 Nobel prize. The last chapter presents some solvable models, one of which was the first to illustrate the existence of broken supersymmetry in nuclei.

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This is a calculus-based textbook on general physics. It contains all the major subjects covered in an intermediate or advanced course on general physics. It also embraces the most recent developments in science and technology. With this book, students can have a better understanding of physics principles and a broad view on the applications of physics ideas. Through coherent and humorous elucidation of physics principles, this book makes learning general physics a fun and interesting activity.

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Donald Trump has called for a turnaround in the foreign policy of the United States (US). A key reason is that US foreign engagements have in recent decades proved of little benefit to the US middle and working classes.Trump's opponents have challenged him to prove that he can offer a better alternative to the foreign policy which has been pursued by the US since the Second World War.This volume shows that a sane US foreign policy that adjusts US postwar trajectory can be accomplished if leaders have the courage and integrity to do so. The principles and many details of an alternative policy based on democratic nationalism are described in this book. Democratic nationalism presumes that the US is a large family in which the needs of members of the family have a certain legitimate priority over those of people abroad.While Donald Trump has raised the level of discussion of these ideas in US public life, he does not have a monopoly on them. The shifts in the US foreign policy which are envisioned in this book can be made by any president and any political party. The shifts and the considerations which motivate them are deserving of careful attention by any US chief executive. This is not a Republican agenda, nor a Democratic one. We believe that it is a US agenda.

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The primary goal of this text book is to ensure that any physical science student, even one who has never heard of the subject, should be able to learn what ultrafast spectroscopy is, why optics related to the subject requires special attention, how to use the basic ideas of the subject in laboratory-based ultrafast spectroscopy experiments, how to interpret the experimental observations and so on. This book gives a more than adequate introduction to mathematical representation of an ultrafast pulse, chirp, time-band width product, nonlinear optical effects, dispersion effects, construction of ultrafast laser, ultrafast measurement techniques and different ultrafast processes of chemical interest.

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Based on a new perspective, this book explores the theory of internationalization of technological innovation in four aspects, namely strategy, organization, resource allocation and environment, and analyzes the development rules and key points of management in the internationalization of technological innovation for Chinese firms. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies, this book proposes an evolutionary model of the internationalization of technological innovation. It is hoped that the proposed model will be of value to the advancement of the internationalization of technological innovation for the Chinese firms and will contribute to the enrichment and improvement of the theories in technological innovation.

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With the alarming increase in cancer diagnoses and genetic illnesses, traditional drug agents and their delivery media need to be re-evaluated to address a quickly evolving field. With newer smart materials for the controlled release of macromolecules, peptides, genetic material, etc. further complications arise, such as material performance, synthesis, functionalization and targeting, biological identity, and biocompatibility.The book provides a comprehensive overview of the recent developments on 'smart' targeting and drug delivery systems with a variety of carriers like nanoparticles, membranes, and hydrogels. It contains detailed descriptions on the recent trends in this field in the ongoing battle with catastrophic diseases like cancer. This field of research has been in its infancy and continues to face growth, and with it, further challenges and difficulties along the way toward maturity, which are accurately introduced in this book.

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Volume 1 of 'The Strategic Analysis of Financial Markets,' — Framework, is premised on the belief that markets can be understood only by dropping the assumptions of rationality and efficient markets in their extreme forms, and showing that markets still have an inherent order and inherent logic. But that order results primarily from the 'predictable irrationality' of investors, as well as from people's uncoordinated attempts to profit. The market patterns that result do not rely on rationality or efficiency.A framework is developed for understanding financial markets using a combination of psychology, statistics, game and gambling analysis, market history and the author's experience. It expresses analytically how professional investors and traders think about markets — as games in which other participants employ inferior, partially predictable strategies. Those strategies' interactions can be toxic and lead to booms, bubbles, busts and crashes, or can be less dramatic, leading to various patterns that are mistakenly called 'market inefficiencies' and 'stylized facts.'A logical case is constructed, starting from two foundations, the psychology of human decision making and the 'Fundamental Laws of Gambling.' Applying the Fundamental Laws to trading leads to the idea of 'gambling rationality' (grationality), replacing the efficient market's concept of 'rationality.' By classifying things that are likely to have semi-predictable price impacts (price 'distorters'), one can identify, explore through data analysis, and create winning trading ideas and systems. A structured way of doing all this is proposed: the six-step 'Strategic Analysis of Market Method.' Examples are given in this and Volume 2.Volume 2 of 'The Strategic Analysis of Financial Markets' — Trading System Analytics, continues the development of Volume 1 by introducing tools and techniques for developing trading systems and by illustrating them using real markets. The difference between these two Volumes and the rest of the literature is its rigor. It describes trading as a form of gambling that when properly executed, is quite logical, and is well known to professional gamblers and analytical traders.But even those elites might be surprised at the extent to which quantitative methods have been justified and applied, including a life cycle theory of trading systems. Apart from a few sections that develop background material, Volume 2 creates from scratch a trading system for Eurodollar futures using principles of the Strategic Analysis of Markets Method (SAMM), a principled, step-by-step approach to developing profitable trading systems. It has an entire Chapter on mechanical methods for testing and improvement of trading systems, which transcends the rather unstructured and unsatisfactory 'backtesting' literature. It presents a breakout trend following system developed using factor models. It also presents a specific pairs trading system, and discusses its life cycle from an early, highly profitable period to its eventual demise. Recent developments in momentum trading and suggestions on improvements are also discussed.

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Triggered by the US subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, the Financial Tsunami is the most serious global financial crisis since the Great Depression. This book studies financial stability in terms of its determining factors, causal mechanisms and institutional requirements. It aims at understanding how to construct a mechanism for maintaining long-term financial stability.The book focuses on economic analysis of the understanding what China can and should do to safeguard its economic and financial stability. In its assessment and discussion of financial stability in China, this book takes full account of China's specific conditions and constructs an index system for the country. It also reflects on the country's monetary policy, government functions and behavior, fluctuations in real estate prices, and financial security network design.The book contributes to better understanding of financial stability in transition economies. It proposes a systematic solution to financial instability in China and strategies for building a mechanism to maintain financial stability in the country.

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Communication networks and distributed system technologies are undergoing rapid advancements. The last few years have experienced a steep growth in research on different aspects in these areas. Even though these areas hold great promise for our future, there are several challenges that need to be addressed. This review volume discusses important issues in selected emerging and matured topics in communication networks and distributed systems. It will be a valuable reference for students, instructors, researchers, engineers and strategists in this field.

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This book provides a calculus-based perspective on classical mechanics and the theory of relativity. Unlike most conventional textbooks, the discussion on theory is pared down to a minimum in favor of detailed, guided solutions of problems illustrating salient points, subtleties and principles. By working through the 900 carefully selected problems, the serious learner will hence be stimulated, challenged and enlightened. Great emphasis is placed on the pedagogical value of solving problems in a number of ways, on the careful and detailed analysis of problems, on dimensional considerations, and on basic principles underlying every topic treated.The book is aimed at first-year undergraduate students in physics and engineering. Advanced Placement students in high schools will also find this book rewarding and challenging. Instructors too will be able to recharge their batteries and refresh their reservoir of problems for recitation classes, or delve into it for their own amusement and edification.

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Sensor networks have many interesting applications with great utility; however, their actually deployment and realization rely on continuous innovations and solutions to many challenging problems. Thus, sensor networks have recently attracted the attention of many researchers and practitioners. The compilation of the Handbook on Sensor Networks will meet the demand of the sensor network community for a comprehensive reference and summary of the current state of the area.The Handbook on Sensor Networks is a collection of approximately 40 chapters on sensor network theory and applications. The book spans a wide spectrum and includes topics in medium access control, routing, security and privacy, coverage and connectivity, modeling and simulations, multimedia, energy efficiency, localization and tracking, design and implementation, as well as sensor network applications.

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The aim of this book is to explain the unusual properties of both pure liquid water and simple aqueous solutions, in terms of the properties of single molecules and interactions among small numbers of water molecules. It is mostly the result of the author's own research spanning over 40 years in the field of aqueous solutions. An understanding of the properties of liquid water is a prelude to the understanding of the role of water in biological systems and for the evolvement of life.The book is targeted at anyone who is interested in the outstanding properties of water and its role in biological systems. It is addressed to both students and researchers in chemistry, physics and biology.

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This proceedings volume contains selected talks and poster presentations from the 9th International Conference on Path Integrals — New Trends and Perspectives, which took place at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, during the period September 23-28, 2007. Continuing the well-developed tradition of the conference series, the present status of both the different techniques of path integral calculations and their diverse applications to many fields of physics and chemistry is reviewed. This is reflected in the main topics in this volume, which range from more traditional fields such as general quantum physics and quantum or statistical field theory through technical aspects like Monte Carlo simulations to more modern applications in the realm of quantum gravity and astrophysics, condensed matter physics with topical subjects such as Bose-Einstein condensation or quantum wires, biophysics and econophysics. All articles are successfully tied together by the common method of path integration; as a result, special methodological advancements in one topic could be transferred to other topics.

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Explanation of the basic concepts and methods of statistics requires a reasonably good mathematical background, at least at a first-year-level knowledge of calculus. Most of the statistical software explain how to conduct data analysis, but do not explain when to apply and when not to apply it. Keeping this in view, we try to explain the basic concepts of probability and statistics for students with an understanding of a first course in calculus at the undergraduate level.Designed as a textbook for undergraduate and first-year graduate students in statistics, bio-statistics, social sciences and business administration programs as well as undergraduates in engineering sciences and computer science programs, it provides a clear exposition of the theory of probability along with applications in statistics. The book contains a large number of solved examples and chapter-end exercises designed to reinforce the probability theory and emphasize statistical applications.

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This handbook covers the vast field of business information systems, focusing particularly on developing information systems to capture and integrate information technology together with the people and their businesses.Part I of the book, “Health Care Information Systems”, focuses on providing global leadership for the optimal use of health care information technology (IT). It provides knowledge about the best use of information systems for the betterment of health care services. Part II, “Business Process Information Systems”, extends the previous theory in the area of process development by recognizing that improvements in intra-organizational business processes need to be complemented by corresponding improvements in inter-organizational processes. Part III deals with “Industrial Data and Management Systems” and captures the main challenges faced by the industry, such as the changes in the operations paradigm of manufacturing and service organizations. Finally, Part IV, “Evaluation of Business Information Systems”, discusses the empirical investigation into the adoption of systems development methodologies and the security pattern of the business systems along with the mathematical models.

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The debate between divine action, or faith, and natural selection, or science, is garnering tremendous interest. This book ventures well beyond the usual, contrasting American Protestant and atheistic points of view, and also includes the perspectives of Jews, Muslims, and Roman Catholics. It contains arguments from the various proponents of intelligent design, creationism, and Darwinism, and also covers the sensitive issue of how to incorporate evolution into the secondary school biology curriculum. Comprising contributions from prominent, award-winning authors, the book also contains dialogs following each chapter to provide extra stimulus to the readers and a full picture of this “hot” topic, which delves into the fundamentals of science and religion.

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The book provides a short introduction to the sol-gel process, principles in modification of the sols and technical details of the application on textiles, covering in particular the chemical content of the topic. New properties of textiles gained from nanosols are summarized and explained in a broad range, focusing on the mechanical and thermal stability, repellent properties, optical properties, antistatic coatings and bioactive coatings. An active discussion is held on the bioactive modifications, because this wide and interesting field offers a high potential for many new applications, e.g. in medicine. Besides basic research, this book will also provide examples on the transition of academic research to customer products.

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This book consists of the lectures for a two-semester course on quantum field theory, and as such is presented in a quite informal and personal manner. The course starts with relativistic one-particle systems, and develops the basics of quantum field theory with an analysis of the representations of the Poincaré group. Canonical quantization is carried out for scalar, fermion, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge theories. Covariant quantization of gauge theories is also carried out with a detailed description of the BRST symmetry. The Higgs phenomenon and the standard model of electroweak interactions are also developed systematically. Regularization and (BPHZ) renormalization of field theories as well as gauge theories are discussed in detail, leading to a derivation of the renormalization group equation. In addition, two chapters — one on the Dirac quantization of constrained systems and another on discrete symmetries — are included for completeness, although these are not covered in the two-semester course.

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This book shows the advanced methods of numerical simulation of waves and fronts propagation in inhomogeneous solids and introduces related important ideas associated with the application of numerical methods for these problems. Great care has been taken throughout the book to seek a balance between the thermomechanical analysis and numerical techniques. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in continuum mechanics and engineering. Necessary prerequisites for this text are basic continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. Some elementary knowledge of numerical methods for partial differential equations is also preferable.

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In the last 20 years the disciplines of particle physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics and cosmology have grown together in an unprecedented way. A brilliant example is nuclear double beta decay, an extremely rare radioactive decay mode, which is one of the most exciting and important fields of research in particle physics at present and the flagship of non-accelerator particle physics.While already discussed in the 1930s, only in the 1980s was it understood that neutrinoless double beta decay can yield information on the Majorana mass of the neutrino, which has an impact on the structure of space-time. Today, double beta decay is indispensable for solving the problem of the neutrino mass spectrum and the structure of the neutrino mass matrix. The potential of double beta decay has also been extended such that it is now one of the most promising tools for probing beyond-the-standard-model particle physics, and gives access to energy scales beyond the potential of future accelerators.This book presents the breathtaking manner in which achievements in particle physics have been made from a nuclear physics process. Consisting of a 150-page highly factual overview of the field of double beta decay and a 1200-page collection of the most important original articles, the book outlines the development of double beta decay research — theoretical and experimental — from its humble beginnings until its most recent achievements, with its revolutionary consequences for the theory of particle physics. It further presents an outlook on the exciting future of the field.

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This book contains 22 peer-reviewed articles that cover a spectrum of contemporary subjects relevant to atmospheric sciences, with specific applications to the Asia-Pacific region. The majority of these papers consist of a review of a scientific sub-field in atmospheric sciences, while some contain original contributions. All of the accepted papers were subject to scientific reviews and revisions.The book is divided into 2 traditional fields in atmospheric sciences: atmospheric dynamics and meteorology; and atmospheric physics and chemistry. The authors of these papers are distinguished alumni of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the National Taiwan University, residing in the USA and Taiwan. This book is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences that occurred in 2004.Papers in atmospheric dynamics and meteorology cover the following subjects: El Niño/Southern Oscillation, air/sea interactions, convection in the tropics, meiyu frontal systems, tropical cyclones/typhoons, data assimilations, and mesoscale modeling. In atmospheric physics and chemistry, subjects range from aerosols/clouds interactions, heat budgets in the context of air/sea interactions, atmospheric radiative transfer, remote sensing of the oceans, Asian dust outbreaks and clouds, reviews of cloud microphysics and urban ozone formations, to a satellite GPS system for typhoon studies and weather predictions.

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This book is a spin-off from a highly successful seminar series jointly organized by the Division of Economics of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) of Singapore. The seminars discuss contemporary domestic and regional economic issues and public policies that are relevant to the everyday lives of Singaporeans. The wish to introduce these economic issues to a broader audience outside the confinement of a lecture theatre, came to fruition, with the completion of this book.This book contains 13 chapters that are grouped under three sections. Under the section, “Public Policies and Economic Issues of Singapore”, Singapore's public policies in the areas of healthcare, Central Provident Fund, and monetary policy are explored, as well as issues concerning Singapore's economic development, such as economic transformation, innovation and capital accumulation are discussed. The second section, “Singapore and the Region in a Globalized World”, looks at the challenges and opportunities presented to Singapore and the region in an increasingly globalized world. Current issues on the sub-prime crisis and Asian monetary integration are also discussed. The last section, “Other Economic Issues”, consists of papers in specific areas such as economics of medical decisions, economics of love, and the role of exchange rates in foreign direct investment.

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This is a biography of Bernard G Sarnat, SB, MD, MS, DDS, FACS, a remarkable man who lived for most of the 20th century. Born in 1912 in the USA, he was the son of immigrant parents from Belarus, a former republic of the USSR. He received his MD degree from the University of Chicago, and his MS and DDS degrees from the University of Illinois. Dr Sarnat was a practitioner in the formative years of modern plastic surgery as well as an internationally known biological researcher in the area of craniofacial biology. He was one of the first bone researchers to apply the stain alizarin red S to document the pattern of dental and bone growth, and has published over 220 research papers dealing with bone and teeth biology.Bernard G Sarnat: 20th Century Plastic Surgeon and Biological Scientist is the story of not only a successful physician-scientist, but also a warm and caring individual who is dedicated to his family, as revealed by the many personal details in this biography. Thus, this biography is intended not just for researchers in the biology of bone and teeth, but also for medical and dental students as well the general reader interested in science and medicine.

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This book focuses on the research topics investigated during the three-year research project funded by the Italian Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca (MIUR: Ministry of Education, University and Research) under the FIRB project RBNE01CW3M. With the aim of introducing newer perspectives of the research on complexity, the final results of the project are presented after a general introduction to the subject. The book is intended to provide researchers, PhD students, and people involved in research projects in companies with the basic fundamentals of complex systems and the advanced project results recently obtained.

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This volume focuses on the importance of historical enquiry for the appreciation of philosophical problems concerning mathematics. It contains a well-balanced mixture of contributions by internationally established experts, such as Jeremy Gray and Jens Hoyrup; upcoming scholars, such as Erich Reck and Dirk Schlimm; and young, promising researchers at the beginning of their careers. The book is situated within a relatively new and broadly naturalistic tradition in the philosophy of mathematics. In this alternative philosophical current, which has been dramatically growing in importance in the last few decades, unlike in the traditional schools, proper attention is paid to scientific practices as informing for philosophical accounts.

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This volume is a collection of the Nobel Lectures delivered by the prizewinners, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches at the award ceremonies in Stockholm for the period 2001 - 2005. Each Nobel Lecture is based on the work for which the laureate was awarded the prize. This volume of inspiring lectures should be on the bookshelf of every keen student, teacher and professor of economics as well as of those in related fields.Below is a list of the prizewinners during the period 2001 - 2005 with a description of the works which won them their prizes:(2001) George A Akerlof, A Michael Spence & Joseph Stiglitz — for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information; (2002) Daniel Kahneman — for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty & Vernon L Smith — for having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms; (2003) Robert F Engle III — for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH) & Clive W J Granger — for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration); (2004) Finn E Kydland & Edward C Prescott — for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles; (2005) Robert J Aumann & Thomas C Schelling — for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis.

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This book presents a self-contained and unified introduction to the properties of analytic functions. Based on recent research results, it provides many examples of functional equations to show how analytic solutions can be found.Unlike in other books, analytic functions are treated here as those generated by sequences with positive radii of convergence. By developing operational means for handling sequences, functional equations can then be transformed into recurrence relations or difference equations in a straightforward manner. Their solutions can also be found either by qualitative means or by computation. The subsequent formal power series function can then be asserted as a true solution once convergence is established by various convergence tests and majorization techniques. Functional equations in this book may also be functional differential equations or iterative equations, which are different from the differential equations studied in standard textbooks since composition of known or unknown functions are involved.

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The book presents a coherent treatment of Markov random walks and Markov additive processes together with their applications. Part I provides the foundations of these stochastic processes underpinned by a solid theoretical framework based on Semiregenerative phenomena. Part II presents some applications to queueing and storage systems.

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Chaos is considered as one of the most important concepts in modern science. It originally appeared only in computer simulation (the famous Lorenz equation of 1963), but this changed with the introduction of Chua's oscillator (1986) — a simple electronic circuit with the ability to generate a vast range of chaotic behaviors. With Chua's circuit, chaos became a physical phenomenon, readily understood and represented in mathematical language. Yet, even so, it is still difficult for the non-specialist to appreciate the full variety of behaviors that the system can produce.This book aims to bridge the gap. A gallery of nearly 900 “chaotic attractors” — some generated by Chua's physical circuit, the majority through computer simulation of the circuit and its generalizations — are illustrated as 3D color images, time series and fast Fourier transform algorithms. For interested researchers, also presented is the information necessary to replicate the behaviors and images. Finally, how the fractal richness can be plied to artistic ends in generating music and interesting sounds is shown; some examples are included in the DVD-ROM which comes with the book.The contents have also appeared in the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos (2007).

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If you think the future is a mystery, think again. With a solid foothold in realism, an extraordinary insight into scientific and technological developments, and a dry sense of humor, Nobel laureate Professor Gerard 't Hooft confidently dissects fact from fiction and shows us what our future might really hold. Professor 't Hooft takes the reader firmly by the hand and, within the boundaries of solid physics and proven laws of nature, takes us on a ride into the world of the future, which holds remarkable surprises for us all. “Do you dream of intergalaxy space travel, time warps, and mini-mes?” 't Hooft asks. “Then please, get yourself some more science fiction books, for fiction it is. But for those who are interested in the real world, let me tell you what we CAN expect for the future.” We meet robots with a sense of irony, ride elevators into space, and build floating cities; let us just say that Playing with Planets, which is translated from the original Dutch edition by Professor 't Hooft's daughter Saskia, supports the old adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

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This unique book fills a vital gap present in most study and examination guides — it offers inspiration and motivation to make the student want to excel. As such, it is a valuable complement to the author's other book, Scholars' Secrets. The author shares his personal story about how he overcame poverty and parental abuse, and progressed from doing badly in primary school to topping his class in postgraduate studies. He also features stories about “famous failures” — people who succeeded in life despite having little or no formal education, such as Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and multi-billionaire Li Ka Shing. Thus, academic qualifications are by no means the “be all and end all”. Ultimately, the difference lies in PRAISE, a life skills model developed by the author for excellence and success. Through the six key concepts of Prizedream, Rules, Analysis, Invincibility, Strategy and Excellence, this model will help you overcome whatever obstacles you face, as it leads you out of mediocrity and conformity towards your unique vision.Related Title:• Scholars' Secrets

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This volume comprises refereed papers and abstracts from the 7th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG7), held in Barcelona in March 2008. As the leading international conference in the field, the biennial EVOLANG meeting is characterized by an invigorating, multidisciplinary approach to the origins and evolution of human language, and brings together researchers from many fields including anthropology, archeology, artificial life, biology, cognitive science, computer science, ethology, genetics, linguistics, neuroscience, paleontology, primatology, psychology and statistical physics.The latest theoretical, experimental and modeling research on language evolution is presented in this collection. It includes contributions from leading scientists such as Derek Bickerton, Rudolf Botha, Camilo Cela Conde, Francesco d'Erico, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Simon Kirby, Gary Marcus, Friedemann Pulvermüller and Juan Uriagereka.

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This book is written primarily for engineers and researchers who use statistical robust design for quality engineering and Six Sigma, and for statisticians who wish to know about the wide range of applications of experimental design in industry. It is a valuable guide and reference material for students, managers, quality improvement specialists and other professionals interested in Taguchi's robust design methods as well as the implementation of Six Sigma. This book can also be useful to those who would like to learn about the role of Robust Design within the Six Sigma (Improve phase) methodology and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) (Optimize) methodology. It combines classical experimental design methods with those of Taguchi's robust designs, demonstrating their prowess in DFSS and suggesting new directions for the development of statistical design and analysis.

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Learning and performing profoundly affect our results and actions. Yet getting the balance right is a challenge to individuals and organisations. While performing is about meeting the demands placed upon us, learning expands our capacity to meet future demands. Everyday successes and failures are shaped by the way we balance learning and performing. More than just actions, balance involves a set of values that are fundamental to the successful operation of organisations. These values are key dimensions around which organisational cultures form. Unfortunately, achieving balance is like a dance going wrong in organisations around the world: we have been following the same pattern for so long that we are now struggling to establish better ways of going about it.This intriguing book is a collection of essays from leading consultants, practitioners and scholars offering practical approaches, fresh insights and strategies to proposed solutions for sustained organisational growth and competitive advantage. The book explains the nature of the learning and performance “dance” and its importance to organisations today, and is an indispensable resource for managing the dilemmas and tensions faced by individuals and organisations.

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