Search results for ""diffusion""

The book will focus on the applications of machine learning for sustainable development. Machine learning (ML) is an emerging technique whose diffusion and adoption in various sectors (such as energy, agriculture, internet of things, infrastructure) will be of enormous benefit. The state of the art of machine learning models is most useful for forecasting and prediction of various sectors for sustainable development.

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One of the most widely circulated items of wisdom literature during the Middle Ages, the Vita Secundi is a Greek text of the second century AD. The substantial introduction to the edition deals with the motives for the work’s translation into Spanish, tracks the extent of its diffusion in Spain, and analyses in detail the textual history of the Spanish version.

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This comprehensive collection presents the classic articles in the economics of invention and innovation. It covers topics related to sources of inventive and innovative activity, including exogenous and endogenous innovation, with an emphasis on R&D activity and the diffusion of new techniques. Professor Link has prepared an original introduction, which offers an authoritative overview of a subject that is of growing importance to both economists and management scientists.

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Presents numerical algorithms, procedures, and techniques required to solve engineering problems relating to the interactions between electromagnetic fields and fluid flow and interdisciplinary technology for aerodynamics, electromagnetics, chemical-physic kinetics, and plasmadynamics Integrates interlinking computational model and simulation techniques of aerodynamics and electromagnetics Combines classic plasma drift-diffusion theory and electron impact ionization modeling for electromagnetic-aerodynamic interactions Describes models of internal degrees of freedom for vibration relaxation and electron excitations

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On December 31, 2015, the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ushered in a new era with the founding of the ASEAN Community (AC). The culmination of 12 years of intensive preparation, the AC was both a historic initiative and an unprecedented step toward the area's regional integration. Political commentators and media outlets, however, greeted its establishment with little fanfare. Implicitly and explicitly, they suggested that the AC was only the beginning: Southeast Asia, they seemed to say, was taking its first steps on a linear process of unification that would converge on the model of the European Union. In The Indonesian Way, Jürgen Rüland challenges this previously unquestioned diffusion of European norms. Focusing on the reception of ASEAN in Indonesia, Rüland traces how foreign policy stakeholders in government, civil society, the legislature, academe, the press, and the business sector have responded to calls for ASEAN's Europeanization, ultimately fusing them with their own distinctly Indonesian form of regionalism. His analysis reframes the nature of ASEAN as well as the discipline of international relations more broadly, writing a narrative of regional integration and norm diffusion that breaks free of Eurocentric thought.

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The simple question "How did the Maya come up with a calendar that had only 260 days?" led Vincent Malmström to discover an unexpected "hearth" of Mesoamerican culture. In this boldly revisionist book, he sets forth his challenging, new view of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican calendrical systems—the intellectual achievement that gave rise to Mesoamerican civilization and culture.Malmström posits that the 260-day calendar marked the interval between passages of the sun at its zenith over Izapa, an ancient ceremonial center in the Soconusco region of Mexico's Pacific coastal plain. He goes on to show how the calendar developed by the Zoque people of the region in the fourteenth century B.C. gradually diffused through Mesoamerica into the so-called "Olmec metropolitan area" of the Gulf coast and beyond to the Maya in the east and to the plateau of Mexico in the west.These findings challenge our previous understanding of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican civilization. Sure to provoke lively debate in many quarters, this book will be important reading for all students of ancient Mesoamerica—anthropologists, archaeologists, archaeoastronomers, geographers, and the growing public fascinated by all things Maya.

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This comprehensive single volume includes seminal articles written by eminent scholars that study the role of standards in the competitive process, the diffusion of standards throughout industry and the role of the public sector in support of standards development.With an original introduction by the editor, this volume is an excellent source of reference and provides an invaluable foundation for students and researchers interested in standards.

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Dynamic unbounded medium-structure interactions occur in manyfields of engineering and physical science, such as wavepropagation in soil-structure and fluid-structure interactions,acoustics and electromagnetism and as diffusion in heat conductionand consolidation. This book presents three novel concepts, basedon the finite-element methodology, to model the unboundedmedium: * The consistent infinitesimal finite-element cell method, aboundary finite-element procedure, requires the discretization ofthe structure-medium interface only and is exact in thefinite-element sense. It is applied to unbounded media governed bythe hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic differentialequations. * The damping-solvent extraction method permits the analysis of abounded medium only. * The doubly-asymptotic multi-directional transmitting boundary isexact for the low- and high-frequency limits at preselected wavepropagation directions. All concepts are explained using simple examples that the readercan follow step by step. A computer program of the consistentinfinitesimal finite-element cell method available on disk analysestwo- and three-dimensional unbounded and bounded media for thescalar and vector wave equations and the diffusion equation in thefrequency and time domains.

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The rapid developments in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over the past 20 years have affirmed its supremacy over most other means of non-invasive exploration of the human body. This progress has had other consequences for imaging physicists: having knowledge about only one of the sides of MRI is nowadays no longer enough to develop new sequences or even to learn more about those that already exist. It is necessary to have a clear and precise view of all the fields explored today by this imaging technique, such as rapid imaging, flows, diffusion, perfusion or even functional MRI.This book aims to allow readers with the basics of physics and mathematics within the field MRI to easily immerse themselves in techniques that are not familiar to them. Pragmatic in approach, moving between the physics underlying the techniques being studied and the clinical examination of images, it will also be of interest to radiologists looking to define protocols or make better use of the images obtained. Contents 1. Flow.2. Diffusion.3. Perfusion.4. Functional MRI. About the Authors Vincent Perrin is a specialist teacher in the fields of physics and chemistry.

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Knowledge, Technological Catch-up and Economic Growth investigates the relationship between knowledge diffusion and economic growth. Using a broad definition of knowledge - encompassing technology, production skills, know-how and firm capabilities - the central argument of the book is that the extent of knowledge diffusion is an important determinant of economic growth. Mark Rogers uses both neoclassical and endogenous growth models to construct testable hypotheses in order to gauge whether countries that are good at acquiring and diffusing new knowledge actually do achieve faster economic growth. His empirical analysis uses new data on communications, international business links, and study abroad in order to proxy absorptive capability and to test these hypotheses. Arguing that existing research on the role of knowledge is underdeveloped, the book aims to convince mainstream economists who perceive knowledge as conceptually vague and too difficult to measure, that the role of knowledge can in fact be analysed and quantified. Making new contributions to the understanding of economic growth, this book will appeal to students, researchers, economists and policy makers with a particular interest in economic performance and the growth process, and knowledge management and technology.

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Artificial neuronal networks open up radical new pathways for image creation. On the basis of textual prompts, machine-learning algorithms like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion generate imagery that is simultaneously familiar and alien. Graphic designer Floyd Schulze uses this rapidly developing technology to recreate architectural icons. In an accompanying essay, Georg Vrachliotis takes up the topic on the theoretical level. Hey Computer! is the first book to deal with AI-generated architectural imagery from an artistic perspective.

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This book investigates best practice across sectors of the economy and their transfers into the context of construction. It examines the development and diffusion of innovation to address adversarial relationships, and the fragmented processes and lack of customer focus, which still characterises much of the industry. It explains how construction must respond to the raft of new management processes expounded throughout the last decade systematically in a bid to acheive a more appropriate approach for business innovation in construction.

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Digital technologies are reshaping every field of social and economic lives, so do they in the world of scientific knowledge. “The New Challenges of Knowledge” aims at understanding how the new digital technologies alter the production, diffusion and valorization of knowledge. We propose to give an insight into the economical, geopolitical and political stakes of numeric in knowledge in different countries. Law is at the center of this evolution, especially in the case of national and international confusion about Internet, Science and knowledge.

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This book examines the molecular dynamics that occur within zeolites. Our understanding of how these marvelous catalysts work has been greatly enhanced by the advent ot new tools such as NMR, scanning-transmission-electron microscopy, and sophisticated computer modelling. By combining recent findings and newly developed models with classical developments in the theory of diffusion, this book provides a complete picture of the physical chemistry of hydrocarbon transformation in zeolites. It should be an excellent guide to those involved in catalyst design.

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How Journalists Use Twitter: The Changing Landscape of U.S. Newsrooms shows how leading reporters and editors at four major metropolitan newspapers are embracing Twitter as a key tool in their daily routines and how the social media platform influences coverage. This book builds on social media research by analyzing newsroom work through the lens of four different communications theories—diffusion of innovation, boundary, social capital and agenda-setting theories. This book will be of interest to scholars of communication, journalism, and new media.

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Innovation is crucial for small enterprises to become and remain competitive in the global economy. In this book, the authors have combined theoretical insights with comprehensive case studies on innovation among small-scale enterprises in developing countries, paying particular attention to technological change in clusters of small firms.The authors deliberately use a broad definition of innovation in order to emphasise the fact that technological change and innovation adoption takes place on a wider scale and in a greater number of forms than is frequently assumed. The unusual case studies such as the Kenyan food processing sector, furniture making in Nicaragua and tile manufacturing in Indonesia highlight the patterns of innovation adoption and diffusion, and serve as a unique and fascinating backdrop to the study. The authors pay specific attention to innovation by small enterprises in times of economic crisis and go on to assess the mechanisms employed to promote innovation. They demonstrate that although radical innovation among small enterprises occurs on a limited scale, innovation through gradual incremental improvements in production processes and products is continuous. Innovation and Small Enterprises in the Third World will be widely read by academics, researchers and policymakers concerned with innovation adoption and diffusion, and third world development issues.

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Dedicated to SiC-based 1D nanostructures, this book explains the properties and different growth methods of these nanostructures. It details carburization of silicon nanowires, a growth process for obtaining original Si-SiC core-shell nanowires and SiC nanotubes of high crystalline quality, thanks to the control of the siliconout-diffusion. The potential applications of these particular nano-objects is also discussed, with regards to their eventual integration in biology, energy and electronics.

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Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, these classic essays deal not only with Paul Kristeller's specialty, Renaissance humanism and philosophy, but also with Renaissance theories of art. The focus of the collection is on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance. For this volume the author has written a new preface, a new essay, and an afterword.

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This two-volume set is an indispensable selection of recent and classic research papers exploring the link between globalization and productivity growth. The editors' careful selection includes articles that focus on the impact of globalization on aggregate productivity, openness, international technology diffusion, and trade adjustment and productivity growth. Other topics include inward and outward foreign direct investment, international outsourcing and the critical relationship between exporting and productivity. The set will be an essential reference point for researchers, students and policy-makers concerned with globalization and productivity.

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Photorefractive polymer composites are an unusually sensitive class of photopolymers. Physics of Photorefraction in Polymers describes our current understanding of the physical processes that produce a photorefractive effect in key composite materials. Topics as diverse as charge generation, dispersive charge transport, charge compensation and trapping, molecular diffusion, organic composite structure, and nonlinear optical wave coupling are all developed from a physical perspective. Emphasis is placed on explaining how these physical processes lead to observable properties of the polymers, and the authors discuss various applications, including holographic archiving.

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Why do societies benefit differently from knowledge? How exactly does social interaction interfere with knowledge acquisition and diffusion? This original Handbook brings together a wide range of differing approaches to shed light on these questions and others relating to the role and relevance of knowledge in economic analysis. By illuminating the philosophical roots of the various notions of knowledge employed by economists, this Handbook helps to disentangle conceptual and typological issues surrounding the debate on knowledge among economists. Wide-ranging in scope, it explores fundamental aspects of the relationship between knowledge and economics - such as the nature of knowledge, knowledge acquisition and knowledge diffusion. This important compendium embraces various fields and traditions of economic analysis and discusses the role of knowledge in 21 papers from outstanding international scholars. Advanced scholars and postgraduate students interested in cross-fertilization between different fields of economic analysis will find this Handbook of considerable importance. Contributors: A. Amin, R. Arena, M. Augier, M.C. Becker, T. Brenner, T. Broekel, P. Cohendet, G. Dosi, J. Durieu, V. Dutraive, M. Egidi, A. Festre, D. Foray, T. Knudsen, N. Lazaric, B.J. Loasby, B.-A. Lundvall, P. Nightingale, B. Nooteboom, A. Orlean, R. Patalano, L. Ragni, S. Rizzello, P.P. Saviotti, P. Solal, A. Spada, U. Witt

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Stabilization of atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to safe levels will require, at least in the longer term, some kind of technological revolution. This, in turn, can only be achieved through investments in the research, development and demonstration (RD&D) of carbon-free energy technologies. Innovation under Uncertainty presents original research and insights on the uncertain future of carbon-free energy technologies. The authors, by means of structured interviews with technology experts, portray a probabilistic landscape of future technologies' costs, potentials and limits to diffusion.This book collates the results of interviews with more than a hundred and twenty energy technology experts on a wide range of topics, from the impact of public European RD&D investment on the future cost of different low-carbon energy technologies to issues such as technological and diffusion barriers. The results offer important and concrete insights and recommendations concerning the potential role for public expenditure in innovation to bring clean generation technologies to the market.This unprecedented collection of qualitative and quantitative estimates will be invaluable to academics and policy makers drafting future energy policies, and integrated assessment and energy modelers characterizing the future development of different technological options.Contributors: L. Aleluia, V. Bosetti, M. Bunn, M. Catenacci, L.A. Diaz, G. Fiorese, A. Lee, E. Verdolini,

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This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Numerical Methods and Applications, NMA 2022, held in Borovets, Bulgaria, in August 2022.The 30 revised regular papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions for inclusion in this book. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: numerical search and optimization; problem-driven numerical method: motivation and application, numerical methods for fractional diffusion problems; orthogonal polynomials and numerical quadratures; and Monte Carlo and Quasi-Monte Carlo methods.

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Cases in Consumer Behaviour Cases in Consumer Behaviour contains a selection of case studies which examine different aspects of the behaviour of European consumers. These case studies consider, amongst other issues, personal consumer decisions and interactive household decision making; cultural and social effects on consumer behaviour; new product development and diffusion in different countries; marketing communications; and consumer satisfaction and welfare. This casebook is closely related to, and is recommended for use with, Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective by Gerrit Antonides and W. Fred van Raaij.

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This book explains the state-of-the-art algorithms used to simulate biological dynamics. Each technique is theoretically introduced and applied to a set of modeling cases. Starting from basic simulation algorithms, the book also introduces more advanced techniques that support delays, diffusion in space, or that are based on hybrid simulation strategies.This is a valuable self-contained resource for graduate students and practitioners in computer science, biology and bioinformatics. An appendix covers the mathematical background, and the authors include further reading sections in each chapter.

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Clear explanation of reaction kinetics for liquids, gases, and solids Thermodynamics of Materials provides a comprehensive reference for chemical engineers and others whose work involves materials science. Volume 2 reviews macroscopic thermodynamics before moving on to the more complex behavior of defects and interfaces. The kinetics of liquids and gases are explored through discussion of evaporation, diffusion, and molecular movement, while solids are explored through in-depth explanations of nucleation, spinodal decomposition, and reaction kinetics. Concise, with clearly-defined equations and constants, this guide is an invaluable reference for both theoretical and practical applications.

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Established by the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art (ADIAF) and organised in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, this is one of the most prestigious contemporary art prizes in the world. This year's edition offers an insight into the art scene in France, with the opportunity to discover the unique creations of Mohamed Bourouissa, Clément Cogitore, Thu-Van Tran and Marie Voignier. The exhibition is a reflection of common concerns: rewriting the narrative in the midst of media saturation and applying new conditions to memory experiences. Text in English and French.

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A Dictionary of Nigerian Arabic lists (from English into Nigerian Arabic) approximately 6,000 lexemes with some illustrative sentences. The dictionary gives evidence of a dialect change in a diachronic span of nearly 50 years; this particular dialect reflects the confluence of Eastern and Western Arabic (Lake Chad to Kano). The work is geared to be of use to the specialist in comparative Arabic dialectology and to the general linguist interested in Afroasiatic data from a synchronic point of view as well as to the Africanist dealing with linguistic diffusion and borrowing.

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Einteilung der Antibiotika.- Generika - Handelsnamen.- Handelsnamen. - Generika.- Leitsätze der Antibiotika.- Häufigste Fehler bei der Antibiotikatherapie.- Wichtige Infektionen - wichtige mikrobiologische Diagnostik.- Zusammenarbeit mit Mikrobiologen.- Resistenz klinisch wichtiger Erreger.- Häufigste Erreger - Antibiotikaauswahl.- Antibiotika, Antimykotika: Spektrum Dosierung Nebenwirkungen Kosten.- Antibiotikatherapie der wichtigsten Infektionen bei Kindern und Erwachsenen.- Therapie der häufigsten bakteriellen Endokarditiden.- Mindestbehandlungsdauer von bakteriellen Infektionen.- Versagen der Antibiotikatherapie.- Differentialdiagnose, Fieber unklarer Genese.- Dosierung von Antibiotika bei eingeschränkter Nierenfunktion.- Antibiotikatherapie bei Hämodialyse, Peritonealdialyse und kontinuierlicher Hämofiltration.- Antibiotikatherapie in der Schwangerschaft und Stillzeit.- Antibiotika bei Lebererkrankungen.- Diffusion von Antibioti

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A great book about an even greater book is a rare event in publishing. Robert Darnton’s history of the Encyclopédie is such an occasion. The author explores some fascinating territory in the French genre of histoire du livre, and at the same time he tracks the diffusion of Enlightenment ideas. He is concerned with the form of the thought of the great philosophes as it materialized into books and with the way books were made and distributed in the business of publishing. This is cultural history on a broad scale, a history of the process of civilization.In tracing the publishing story of Diderot’s Encyclopédie, Darnton uses new sources—the papers of eighteenth-century publishers—that allow him to respond firmly to a set of problems long vexing historians. He shows how the material basis of literature and the technology of its production affected the substance and diffusion of ideas. He fully explores the workings of the literary market place, including the roles of publishers, book dealers, traveling salesmen, and other intermediaries in cultural communication. How publishing functioned as a business, and how it fit into the political as well as the economic systems of prerevolutionary Europe are set forth. The making of books touched on this vast range of activities because books were products of artisanal labor, objects of economic exchange, vehicles of ideas, and elements in political and religious conflict.The ways ideas traveled in early modern Europe, the level of penetration of Enlightenment ideas in the society of the Old Regime, and the connections between the Enlightenment and the French Revolution are brilliantly treated by Darnton. In doing so he unearths a double paradox. It was the upper orders in society rather than the industrial bourgeoisie or the lower classes that first shook off archaic beliefs and took up Enlightenment ideas. And the state, which initially had suppressed those ideas, ultimately came to favor them. Yet at this high point in the diffusion and legitimation of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution erupted, destroying the social and political order in which the Enlightenment had flourished.Never again will the contours of the Enlightenment be drawn without reference to this work. Darnton has written an indispensable book for historians of modern Europe.

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Despite our admiration for Renaissance achievement in the arts and sciences, in literature and classical learning, the rich and diversified philosophical thought of the period remains largely unknown. This volume illuminates three major currents of thought dominant in the earlier Italian Renaissance: classical humanism (Petrarch and Valla), Platonism (Ficino and Pico), and Aristotelianism (Pomponazzi). A short and elegant work of the Spaniard Vives is included to exhibit the diffusion of the ideas of humanism and Platonism outside Italy. Now made easily accessible, these texts recover for the English reader a significant facet of Renaissance learning.

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This outstanding text provides students with the essential foundation in the historical geography of the United States. Distinguished scholar Richard L. Nostrand skillfully synthesizes decades of historical geography research in an engaging and thought-provoking overview for general readers and scholars alike. His regional geography framework emphasizes the three themes central to cultural geography—cultural ecology, cultural diffusion, and cultural landscape—to explain the formation and change of culture regions in the United States. He shows convincingly that regions are a valuable pedagogical device for developing students’ understanding of place and context.

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This is a companion volume to the same author’s A Dictionary of Nigerian Arabic. It lists the approximately 6,000 lexemes with some illustrative sentences alphabetically, from Arabic to English, using the same transcription as the previous work. This dictionary is designed to be of use to specialists in comparative Arabic dialectology and Semitic linguistics as well as to the general linguist interested in Afroasiatic data from a synchronic point of view. In addition, the volume will be of interest to the Africanist dealing with linguistic diffusion and borrowing.

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Aquaporins are channel proteins that facilitate the diffusion of water and small uncharged solutes across cellular membranes. Plant aquaporins form a large family of highly divergent proteins that are involved in many different physiological processes. This book will summarize the recent advances regarding plant aquaporins, their phylogeny, structure, substrate specificity, mechanisms of regulation and roles in various important physiological processes related to the control of water flow and small solute distribution at the cell, tissue and plant level in an ever-changing environment.

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This book describes the development of systems of magnetic resonance imaging using the higher magnetic field strength of 3 tesla, in comparison to the current gold standard of 1.5 tesla. These new systems of MRI make it possible to perform with high spatial, temporal and contrast resolution not only morphological examinations but also functional studies on spectroscopy, diffusion, perfusion, and cortical activation, thus helping research and providing an important tool for routine diagnostic activity. At the same time the new systems offer unparalleled sensitivity and specificity in the numerous conditions of neuroradiological interest.

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Originally published in 1986, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations became an immediate classic, creating a new conceptual framework for understanding contemporary insutrial relations in the United States. In their introduction to the new edition, the authors assess the evolution of industrial relations and human resource practives, focusing particularly on the policy impoications of recent changes. They discuss the diverse forms of work restructuring in the American economy, the reasons why the diffusion of participatory work reorganization has been so modest, work practices among sophisticated nonunion employers, union membership declines, and public policy debates.

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This Proceedings contains a selection of papers presented at the joint meeting of The American Ceramic Society's (ACerS) Glass and Optical Materials Division (GOMD) and the 18th University Conference on Glass, held in Rochester, NY on May 20-23, 2007. The theme of the University Conference was Mass Transport Phenomena in Glasses and Glass-Forming Melts and included contributions on topics such as gas diffusion and solubility, crystallization behavior, ionic conductivity, and chemical durability. The GOMD program included sessions devoted to optical materials, biological interactions with glass, and glass structure.

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The book is devoted to kinetics and thermodynamics of the processes with participation of some biological compounds and their synthetic analogues. Aspects of their acting as model enzymes, molecular receptors, photo sensitizers, pharmocophores, and biopharmaceutical compounds are under consideration. Quantitative characteristics of transfer of cations, anions and small organic molecules, fermentative catalysis, diffusion of the drug molecular through biological membranes are found. Mechanisms of the processes are discussed. Biological activity of studied compounds is evaluated. Bio-damages of materials as well as adhesions of microorganisms on materials surface are investigated.

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A Geography of the Hutterites in North America explores the geographical diffusion of the Hutterite colonies from the “bridgehead” of Dakota Territory in 1874 to the present distribution across North America. Looking further than just maps of location, this book analyzes the relationship between parent and daughter colonies as the Hutterite population continues to grow and examines the role of cultural and demographic forces in determining the diffusion process. Throughout this geographical analysis, Simon M. Evans pays due attention to the Hutterites’ contribution to the cultural landscape of the Canadian Prairies and the American Great Plains, as well as the interactions that the Hutterites have with the land, including their agricultural success. With over forty years of research and personal interactions with more than a hundred Hutterite colonies, Evans offers a unique insight into the significant role that the Hutterites have in North America, both currently and historically. This study goes beyond the history, life, and culture of this communal brotherhood to present a new geographical analysis that reports on current and ongoing research within the field. The first narrative to be published regarding Hutterites in nearly a decade, A Geography of the Hutterites in North America is a valuable resource for scholars and students alike.

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What sort of information did people in early modern England seek? In The Practical Renaissance Donna Seger explores the diffusion and reception of prescriptive publications over the 16th and 17th centuries. Published in an age of dynamic religious and political change, these texts demonstrate the universal desire for health and wealth, a fortified body and an orderly household. Showing how classical and continental information had been "Englished" over time, this book shows how new publications supplanted these traditional ideas with more empirical and authoritative knowledge. Published in an age of dynamic religious and political change, these texts, which include plague tracts, husbandry handbooks, printed recipe books, and navigation manuals, demonstrate the universal desire for health and wealth, a fortified body and an orderly household. Divided into three parts, the opening chapters explore factors which affected the diffusion of practical knowledge via prescriptive texts. Part two focuses on the interaction between new discoveries and traditional authority, and the final section considers debates in the ‘medical marketplace’, the term ‘knowledge-mongerer’ and the commodification of knowledge at this time. A thorough exploration into the popular and pragmatic expressions of the period, The Practical Renaissance offers a new window into the movement in which knowledge and information became power.

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Nowhere can the cataclysmic reversals in international competitiveness since the Second World War be traced more clearly than in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan. Surveying the development of the steel, automobile, and semiconductor industries in each of these countries, Jeffrey A. Hart illuminates the role of national policy in a changing world. Hart describes the global structure of production and consumption in the five major capitalist countries and offers a rich comparative history of their industrial policymaking. He concludes that variations in statesocietal arrangements—and the impact these differences have on the creation and diffusion of new technologies—provide the best explanation for divergences in international competitiveness. In Japan, state and business are allied, but labor is marginalized, whereas in Germany, labor and business are allied, and the state is decentralized. Yet both countries have become increasingly competitive because they have developed institutional mechanisms for technology diffusion. France's state-led system, in contrast, is linked with only moderate competitiveness. The decline of competitiveness in the United States and Britain, Hart concludes, may be attributed to state-societal arrangements that have allowed one actor-labor in Britain, business in the United States-to dominate policymaking. Rival Capitalists will be an invaluable source for policymakers and business analysts as well as scholars and students of political economy, international relations, industrial organization, industrial sociology, and comparative politics.

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This book brings together computer models and simulation approaches that allow the investigation of a wide range of innovation related issues, and hence will be of interest for academics and researchers from a variety of innovation related disciplines.'- Mercedes Bleda, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social SimulationChristopher Watts and Nigel Gilbert explore the generation, diffusion and impact of innovations, which can now be studied using computer simulations.Agent-based simulation models can be used to explain the innovation that emerges from interactions among complex, adaptive, diverse networks of firms, people, technologies, practices and resources. This book provides a critical review of recent advances in agent-based modeling and other forms of the simulation of innovation. Elements explored include: diffusion of innovations, social networks, organizational learning, science models, adopting and adapting, and technological evolution and innovation networks. Many of the models featured in the book can be downloaded from the book's accompanying website.Bringing together simulation models from several innovation-related fields, this book will prove a fascinating read for academics and researchers in a wide range of disciplines, including: innovation studies, evolutionary economics, complexity science, organization studies, social networks, and science and technology studies. Scholars and researchers in the areas of computer science, operational research and management science will also be interested in the uses of simulation models to improve the understanding of organization.

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This volume provides a recent study of mathematical research on semiconductor equations. With recent developments in semiconductor technology, several mathematical models have been established to analyze and to simulate the behavior of electron flow in semiconductor devices. Among them, a hydrodynamic, an energy-transport and a drift-diffusion models are frequently used for the device simulation with the suitable choice, depending on the purpose of the device usage. Hence, it is interesting and important not only in mathematics but also in engineering to study a model hierarchy, relations among these models. The model hierarchy has been formally understood by relaxation limits letting the physical parameters, called relaxation times, tend to zero. The main concern of this volume is the mathematical justification of the relaxation limits. Precisely, we show that the time global solution for the hydrodynamic model converges to that for the energy-transport model as a momentum relaxation time tends to zero. Moreover, it is shown that the solution for the energy-transport model converges to that for the drift-diffusion model as an energy relaxation time tends to zero. For beginners' help, this volume also presents the physical background of the semiconductor devices, the derivation of the models, and the basic mathematical results such as the unique existence of time local solutions.Published by Mathematical Society of Japan and distributed by World Scientific Publishing Co. for all markets

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The genesis and diffusion of innovation depends upon the density of the cognitive and market relationships among individuals, organisations and institutions at both the micro- and macro-economic level. By addressing the nature of these relationships, which include cooperation, competition and power, this book presents an important and progressive enquiry into the economic and social origins of innovation.The authors in the book stress the importance of cognitive and economic linkages in the assessment and analysis of innovation within the enterprise, within local and national economies and at the international level. They present a series of interesting studies of research labs, enterprises and networks, systems of innovation and innovative milieux to present emerging ideas from different theoretical traditions. They also demonstrate how specific actors, such as the State or certain individual enterprises, are able to determine the process of diffusion, coordination and standardisation of knowledge and technologies. Thus, economic and political power is a key notion that permeates the book. Taking the renewal of technologies and markets as a starting point, the book also clearly shows that military programmes and industries constitute one of the engines of capitalist economies.This book will interest and inform a broad readership of scholars and students working on the economics and management of innovation, the economics of technology policy and business studies.

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Worlds of E-Commerce Economic, Geographical and Social Dimensions THOMAS R. LEINBACH and STANLEY D. BRUNN, both of the University of Kentucky, USA Worlds of Electronic Commerce attempts to capture the enormous international impact of the recent explosion in information and communication technologies. It stands alone as the first book to tackle the major economic, social, and political issues that electronic commerce raises from interdisciplinary and international perspectives. Including contributions from leading international scholars from geography, economics, and public policy, it addresses theoretical and conceptual issues and presents case studies on how retailing, job searches, banking and finance, telecommunications, and government regulation are changing with the introduction and diffusion of the Internet and various electronic services. References to rapid developments in these fields are drawn from the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Russia, and the developing world. The implications of these developments on consumer behaviour, existing and new firms, regulatory agencies, and interstate economic development are also discussed. In summary, the book presents an excellent background for those wanting scholarly treatments of (a) the background of e-commerce, (b) the growing importance of Information and Communication Technologies, and (c) case studies related to specific services making use of e-commerce. READERSHIP: Academics and Students in Information Economies, Information and Communications Technologies, Economics, Marketing, Retailing, Advertising, Communications, Technology Diffusion, Geography Dealing with Electronic Commerce

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Geographies of Media and Communication From the invention of the telegraph to the emergence of the Internet, communications technologies have transformed the ways that people and places relate to each other. Geographies of Media and Communication is the first textbook to treat all aspects of geography’s variegated encounter with communication. Connecting geographical ideas with communication theories such as intertextuality, audience-centered theory, and semiotics, Paul C. Adams explores media representations of places, the spatial diffusion of communication technologies, and the power of communication technologies to transform places, and to dictate who does and does not belong in them.

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An award-winning professor’s introduction to essential concepts of calculus and mathematical modeling for students in the biosciences This is the first of a two-part series exploring essential concepts of calculus in the context of biological systems. Michael Frame covers essential ideas and theories of basic calculus and probability while providing examples of how they apply to subjects like chemotherapy and tumor growth, chemical diffusion, allometric scaling, predator-prey relations, and nerve impulses. Based on the author’s calculus class at Yale University, the book makes concepts of calculus more relatable for science majors and premedical students.

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The research on gaseous electronics reaches back more than 100 years. With the growing importance of gas lasers in so many research and industrial applications as well as power systems generating, transmitting, and distributing huge blocks of electrical power, the body of literature on cross sections, drift and diffusion, and ionization phenomena continues to bloom. Searching through this vast expanse of data is a daunting and time-consuming task. With this in mind, eminent researcher Gorur Govinda Raju presents an authoritative survey of the ballooning literature on gaseous electrical discharge.Gaseous Electronics: Theory and Practice begins with an overview of the physics underlying the collisions involved in discharge, scattering, ion mobilities, and the various cross-sections and relations between them. A discussion follows on experimental techniques used to measure collision cross-sections, covering the techniques related to the data presented in later chapters. In an unprecedented collection of data and analysis, the author supplies comprehensive cross-sections for rare gases such as Argon, Helium, Krypton, and Xenon; various diatomics; and complex molecules and industrial gases including hydrocarbons. He further includes discussions and analyses on drift and diffusion of electrons, ionization coefficients, attachment coefficients, high-voltage phenomena, and high-frequency discharges. Based on more than 40 years of experience in the field, Gaseous Electronics: Theory and Practice places a comprehensive collection of data together with theory and modern practice in a single, concise reference.

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