Search results for ""Author John Wiley"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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There has been a surge in "Living Labs" in recent years including those focusing on the health and autonomy sectors. The aim of these innovative user-centered spaces is the emergence of products and services that meet market needs and support both the efficiency of public health and the competitiveness of enterprises. This book is the result of work involving both field practitioners and academic actors in human sciences and co-design. It highlights the good practices that arise within living labs despite their use of different approaches. This collaborative work has given rise to the Living Lab Health and Autonomy (LLSA) Forum and has allowed for an improved capacity to support an efficient development of this form of design for the actors of health and autonomy, but also of industry and of its investors. This book draws on their experience and the views of experts to illuminate their practices and gives better visibility and legibility to these new players.

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The book investigates the meaning of RRI if little or no valid knowledge about consequences of innovation and technology is available. It proposes a hermeneutical turn to investigate narratives about possible futures with respect to their contemporary meaning instead of regarding them as anticipations of the future.

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The purpose of this book is to clarify the issues related to the environment of mechanical vibrations in the material life profile. In particular, through their simulation testing laboratory, through a better understanding of the physical phenomenon, means to implement to simulate, measurements and interpretations associated results. It is aimed at development of technical consultants, quality and services primarily to those testing laboratories, as well as to all those who are faced with supply reference to the environmental test calls and particularly here, vibration tests. Furthermore it should also interest students of engineering schools in the areas of competence of their future professions affected by vibration.

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This title enriches both areas of research, finance and international management to analyze the choice of location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions. Our research answers the following question: What are the determinants of the location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions?

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Using a general approach, this book supports the student to enable mastery of the methods of analysis of isostatic and hyperstatic structures. To show the performance of the methods of analysis of the hyperstatic structures, selected beams, gantries and reticular structures are selected and subjected to a comparative study by the different methods of analysis of the hyperstatic structures.

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This book presents the principal concepts of operations research (OR), the tools for the planning support and the management of various types of networks. The term "network" is meant to include physical networks, for instance road and rail networks, as well as logical networks that are used in the planning of complex projects. In this case, the vertices of the network correspond to activities and the connections describe temporal relations.

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Wood as an engineering material can be technically defined “as a hygroscopic, orthotropic, biological, and permeable material having extreme chemical diversity and physical complexity with structures, that vary extensively in their shape, size, properties and function”. Therefore, using wood to its best advantage and most efficiency in engineering applications, specific characteristics or chemical, physical and mechanical properties must be considered. The products are divided into two classes, solid wood and composite wood products. Solid wood includes shipbuilding, bridges, flooring, mine timbers, etc. Composite wood products include insulation board, plywood, oriented strand board, hardboard and particle board. In recent years, the machining of wood products has acquired great importance due the short supply of wood and increasing environmental awareness among users and manufacturers. The optimization of the machining process centers around the mechanism of chip formation, tool wear, workpiece surface quality, crack initiation and propagation of different types of wood. Other factors are also humidity, temperature, static preloads, and vibrations that can affect the wood during the machining process. The book provides some fundamentals and recent research advances on machining wood and wood products.

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Synchronous motors are indubitably the most effective device to drive industrial production systems and robots with precision and rapidity. Their control law is thus critical for combining at the same time high productivity to reduced energy consummation. As far as possible, the control algorithms must exploit the properties of these actuators. Therefore, this work draws on well adapted models resulting from the Park’s transformation, for both the most traditional machines with sinusoidal field distribution and for machines with non-sinusoidal field distribution which are more and more used in industry. Both, conventional control strategies like vector control (either in the synchronous reference frame or in the rotor frame) and advanced control theories like direct control and predictive control are thoroughly presented. In this context, a significant place is reserved to sensorless control which is an important and critical issue in tomorrow’s motors.

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Monitoring and diagnosis of electrical machine faults is a scientific and economic issue which is motivated by objectives for reliability and serviceability in electrical drives. This book provides a survey of the techniques used to detect the faults occurring in electrical drives: electrical, thermal and mechanical faults of the electrical machine, faults of the static converter and faults of the energy storage unit. Diagnosis of faults occurring in electrical drives is an essential part of a global monitoring system used to improve reliability and serviceability. This diagnosis is performed with a large variety of techniques: parameter estimation, state observation, Kalman filtering, spectral analysis, neural networks, fuzzy logic, artificial intelligence, etc. Particular emphasis in this book is put on the modeling of the electrical machine in faulty situations. Electrical Machines Diagnosis presents original results obtained mainly by French researchers in different domains. It will be useful as a guideline for the conception of more robust electrical machines and indeed for engineers who have to monitor and maintain electrical drives. As the monitoring and diagnosis of electrical machines is still an open domain, this book will also be very useful to researchers.

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The role of optical instruments is very important and affects all areas of human activity, from scientific analysis (such as spectrometry) to recreation and leisure pursuits like photography and television. Optical components are often an essential part of the instrument, but are not always visible. It is therefore useful and important to understand how they work. In this book the reader will find both a review of the most important components currently used, the theoretical foundation for their application, and an example of evolution. To do this, we first supply the basic knowledge in optics necessary for the understanding of the instruments: geometrical optics, photometry, colorimetry, image analysis and processing, as well as a short description of the sources used: lamps, lasers and semiconductor sources. Optical systems such as zoom lens under different illuminations are discussed. As a first example of application, the evolution of microscopy, up to the most recent technological progress, are given.

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Semiconductor flash memory is an indispensable component of modern electronic systems which has gained a strategic position in recent decades due to the progressive shift from computing to consumer (and particularly mobile) products as revenue drivers for Integrated Circuits (IC) companies. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the different technological approaches currently being studied to fulfill future memory requirements. Two main research paths are identified and discussed. Different "evolutionary paths" based on the use of new materials (such as silicon nanocrystals for storage nodes and high-k insulators for active dielectrics) and of new transistor structures (such as multi-gate devices) are investigated in order to extend classical floating gate technology to the 32 nm node. "Disruptive paths" based on new storage mechanisms or new technologies (such as phase-change devices, polymer or molecular cross-bar memories) are also covered in order to address 22 nm and smaller IC generations. Finally, the main factors at the origin of these phenomena are identified and analyzed, providing pointers on future research activities and developments in this area.

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Although complexity makes up the very fabric of our daily lives and has been more or less addressed in a wide variety of knowledge fields, the approaches developed in the Natural Sciences and the results obtained over the past century have not yet permeated Management Sciences very much. The main features of the phenomena that the Natural Sciences deal with are: non-linear behavior, self-organization and chaos. They are analyzed with the framing of what is called “systems thinking”, popularized by the mindset pertaining to cybernetics. All pioneers in systems thinking either had direct or indirect connections with Biology, which is the discipline considered complex par excellence by the public. When applying these concepts to Operations Management Systems and modeling organizations by BDI (Beliefs, Desires, Intentions) agents, the lack of predictability in the conduct of change management that is prone to bifurcations (tipping points) in terms of organizational structures and in forecasting future activities, reveals them to be ingrained in the interplay of complexity and chaos.

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Under certain scenarios on the subject of CO2 emissions, by the end of the century the atmospheric concentration could triple its pre-industrial level. The very large numerical models intended to anticipate the corresponding climate evolutions are designed and quantified from the laws of physics. However, little is generally known about these: genesis of clouds, terms of the greenhouse effect, solar activity intervention, etc. This book deals with the issue of climate modeling in a different way: using proven techniques for identifying black box-type models. Taking climate observations from throughout the millennia, the global models obtained are validated statistically and confirmed by the resulting simulations. This book thus brings constructive elements that can be reproduced by anyone adept at numerical simulation, whether an expert climatologist or not. It is accessible to any reader interested in the issues of climate change.

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Over the past decade, ZnO as an important II-VI semiconductor has attracted much attention within the scientific community over the world owing to its numerous unique and prosperous properties. This material, considered as a “future material”, especially in nanostructural format, has aroused many interesting research works due to its large range of applications in electronics, photonics, acoustics, energy and sensing. The bio-compatibility, piezoelectricity & low cost fabrication make ZnO nanostructure a very promising material for energy harvesting.

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Combinatorial optimization is a multidisciplinary scientific area, lying in the interface of three major scientific domains: mathematics, theoretical computer science and management. The three volumes of the Combinatorial Optimization series aim to cover a wide range of topics in this area. These topics also deal with fundamental notions and approaches as with several classical applications of combinatorial optimization. Concepts of Combinatorial Optimization, is divided into three parts: - On the complexity of combinatorial optimization problems, presenting basics about worst-case and randomized complexity; - Classical solution methods, presenting the two most-known methods for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems, that are Branch-and-Bound and Dynamic Programming; - Elements from mathematical programming, presenting fundamentals from mathematical programming based methods that are in the heart of Operations Research since the origins of this field.

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Image processing and image analysis are typically important fields in information science and technology. By “image processing”, we generally understand all kinds of operation performed on images (or sequences of images) in order to increase their quality, restore their original content, emphasize some particular aspect of the information or optimize their transmission, or to perform radiometric and/or spatial analysis. By “image analysis” we understand, however, all kinds of operation performed on images (or sequences of images) in order to extract qualitative or quantitative data, perform measurements and apply statistical analysis. Whereas there are nowadays many books dealing with image processing, only a small number deal with image analysis. The methods and techniques involved in these fields of course have a wide range of applications in our daily world: industrial vision, material imaging, medical imaging, biological imaging, multimedia applications, satellite imaging, quality control, traffic control, and so on

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Compact Antennas for Wireless Communications and Terminals deals with compact microwave antennas and, more specifically, with the planar version of these antennas. Planar antennas are the most appropriate type of antenna in modern communication systems and more generally in all applications requiring miniaturization, integration and conformation such as in mobile phone handsets. The book is suitable for students, engineers and scientists eager to understand the principles of planar and small antennas, their design and fabrication issues, and modern aspects such as UWB antennas, reconfigurable antennas and diversity issues.

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This series of five volumes proposes an integrated description of physical processes modeling used by scientific disciplines from meteorology to coastal morphodynamics. Volume 1 describes the physical processes and identifies the main measurement devices used to measure the main parameters that are indispensable to implement all these simulation tools. Volume 2 presents the different theories in an integrated approach: mathematical models as well as conceptual models, used by all disciplines to represent these processes. Volume 3 identifies the main numerical methods used in all these scientific fields to translate mathematical models into numerical tools. Volume 4 is composed of a series of case studies, dedicated to practical applications of these tools in engineering problems. To complete this presentation, volume 5 identifies and describes the modeling software in each discipline.

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This series of five volumes proposes an integrated description of physical processes modeling used by scientific disciplines from meteorology to coastal morphodynamics. Volume 1 describes the physical processes and identifies the main measurement devices used to measure the main parameters that are indispensable to implement all these simulation tools. Volume 2 presents the different theories in an integrated approach: mathematical models as well as conceptual models, used by all disciplines to represent these processes. Volume 3 identifies the main numerical methods used in all these scientific fields to translate mathematical models into numerical tools. Volume 4 is composed of a series of case studies, dedicated to practical applications of these tools in engineering problems. To complete this presentation, volume 5 identifies and describes the modeling software in each discipline.

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Combinatorial optimization is a multidisciplinary scientific area, lying in the interface of three major scientific domains: mathematics, theoretical computer science and management. The three volumes of the Combinatorial Optimization series aims to cover a wide range of topics in this area. These topics also deal with fundamental notions and approaches as with several classical applications of combinatorial optimization. Concepts of Combinatorial Optimization, is divided into three parts: On the complexity of combinatorial optimization problems, that presents basics about worst-case and randomized complexity; Classical solution methods, that presents the two most-known methods for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems, that are Branch-and-Bound and Dynamic Programming; Elements from mathematical programming, that presents fundamentals from mathematical programming based methods that are in the heart of Operations Research since the origins of this field.

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Combinatorial optimization is a multidisciplinary scientific area, lying in the interface of three major scientific domains: mathematics, theoretical computer science and management. The three volumes of the Combinatorial Optimization series aims to cover a wide range of topics in this area. These topics also deal with fundamental notions and approaches as with several classical applications of combinatorial optimization. “Applications of Combinatorial Optimization” is presenting a certain number among the most common and well-known applications of Combinatorial Optimization.

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After WWII, the United States of America proposed their way of life, based on an unlimited consumption of land, goods, and energy, as a model for the entire world. Nowadays, this expansionist model has reached its limits. This book provides a comprehensive study of the geographical basis of the American settlements, assuming that part of the U.S. overshooting is related to geography because of harsh climates and the continental size of the Nation, but another part is the result of a cultural habits of expansion and segregation. Urban Sprawl, for instance, is the real Achille's heel of America, because it challenges the cultural revolution required by sustainability. From the continental physiography to the New Orleans – Katrina case, this book explores these issues with maps and charts created with the help of a nationwide multiscalar GIS.

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