This is the fifth collection of articles by Eliyahu Ashtor to be published by Variorum and focuses on the fundamental question of why, during the later Middle Ages, technology and industry declined, even collapsed, in the Muslim Levant, while simultaneously making enormous progress in the Christian West. An indefatigable researcher in archives all over the Mediterranean, Ashtor amassed quantities of data on this subject, and began to propose causal links between, on the one hand, demographic trends, types of political regime, economic policies and attitudes towards innovation, and on the other, the progress or decline of technology and industry. Although his work was cut short by his death in 1984, the information that Ashtor has made available, for instance on the sugar and the alkali industries, and the questions and hypotheses he has suggested will provide a vital basis for continuing research. The final article, dealing more specifically with the history of commerce, represents in effect a summation of the author's views on the role of the Jews in the trade of the Mediterranean. La cinquieme collection d'articles d'Eliyahu Ashtor A Atre publiee par Variorum (pour les deux volumes encore disponibles, voir p.00) se concentre sur la raison fondamentale pour laquelle, durant le Bas Moyen Age, la technologie et l'industrie dans le Levant musulman etaient en declin, voire mAme en plein effondrement, alors qu'elles faisaient simultanement d'enormes progres dans l'Ouest chretien. Cherchiste infatiguable des archives mediterraneennes, Ashtor a amasse quantite d'informations A ce sujet et a commence A suggerer l'existence de lien de cause entre: d'une part, les tendances demongraphiques, les types de regimes politiques, la politique economique et les attitudes vis-A -vis du changement et, d'autre part, le progres ou le declin de la technologie et de l'industrie. Bien que son travail ait ete interrompu par sa mort en 1984,

The world, of late, has seen a productivity slowdown. Many countries continue to recover from various shocks in the macro business environment, along with structural changes and inward looking policies. In contemporary times of growth slumps, various exits and protectionist regimes, this book engages with the study of productivity dynamics in the emerging and industrialized economies. The essays address the crucial aspects, such as the roles of human capital, investment accounting and datasets, that help understanding of productivity performance of global economy and its several regions. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners and professionals in the field of economic growth, productivity and development studies. This will also be an important reference on empirical industrial economics in both India and the world.

Get more out of your coding with GitHub For today's coders, GitHub is a must. The world's largest software development platform, GitHub helps developers store, track, and collaborate on software projects. In this easy-to-follow Dummies guide, you'll find insight into creating repositories, establishing projects, collaborating, incorporating open-source resources, and establishing yourself as a valued member of the GitHub community. With a working knowledge of GitHub, you'll be a better, more employable programmer. The simple instructions and interactive examples in this book will get you there quickly. Get the instructions you need for using GitHub to collaborate on software projects Become more attractive to employers with knowledge and experience in the largest development platform Set up GitHub Desktop, create a repository, and launch your first project Use GitHub Skills courses to learn new tricks, for beginners to pros You've learned how to write a little code--now learn how to share it with GitHub.

Many of our interactions in the twenty-first century - both good and bad - take place by means of institutions, technology, and artefacts. We inhabit a world of implements, instruments, devices, systems, gadgets, and infrastructures. Technology is not only something that we make, but is also something that in many ways makes us. The discipline of ethics must take this constitutive feature of institutions and technology into account; thus, ethics must in turn be embedded in our institutions and technology. The contributors to this book argue that the methodology of 'designing in ethics' - addressing and resolving the issues raised by technology through the use of appropriate technological design - is the way to achieve this integration. They apply their original methodology to a wide range of institutions and technologies, using case studies from the fields of healthcare, media and security. Their volume will be important for philosophical practitioners and theorists alike.

This study shows the impact resistance of polypropylene toughened by an ethylene-propylene elastomer. The objective was to modify polystyrene with linear thermoplastic elastomer of styrene-isoprene-styrene triblock copolymer and polystyrene with ethylene-propylene rubber by weight by melt blending.

Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0 explores recent advancements in blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI) as well as their crucial impacts on realizing Industry 4.0 goals. The book explores AI applications in industry including Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology. Chapters explore how AI (machine learning, smart cities, healthcare, Society 5.0, etc.) have numerous potential applications in the Industry 4.0 era. This book is a useful resource for researchers and graduate students in computer science researching and developing AI and the IIoT.

Product acquisition involves an examination of the support cost of major equipment over its total life years. Depending on the type of equipment, support costs may range from 10 to 100 times the cost of acquisition. "Life Cycle Costing: Techniques, Models and Applications" offers a comprehensive approach to the entire field, and treats it in such a way that the reader requires no previous knowledge to understand the contents. It covers all advances and recent progress in life cycle costing from its history and definitions to current approaches. It is fully referenced for deeper study in any specific area (there are over 1150 references with an appendix) and contains more than 50 examples with their solutions. Subjects covered include reliability improvement warranty, computer hardware and software costing, vehicles life cycle costing, reliability engineering, life cycle costing in the aircraft industry, and processing systems costing. This work is intended for all engineers and senior students of engineering or business administration, administrators, cost analysts, researchers, academics, and anyone involved with equipment procurement.

Bringing a unique perspective to the burgeoning ethical and legal issues surrounding the presence of artificial intelligence in our daily lives, the book uses theory and practice on animal rights and the rights of nature to assess the status of robots. Through extensive philosophical and legal analyses, the book explores how rights can be applied to nonhuman entities. This task is completed by developing a framework useful for determining the kinds of personhood for which a nonhuman entity might be eligible, and a critical environmental ethic that extends moral and legal consideration to nonhumans. The framework and ethic are then applied to two hypothetical situations involving real-world technology-animal-like robot companions and humanoid sex robots. Additionally, the book approaches the subject from multiple perspectives, providing a comparative study of legal cases on animal rights and the rights of nature from around the world and insights from structured interviews with leading experts in the field of robotics. Ending with a call to rethink the concept of rights in the Anthropocene, suggestions for further research are made. An essential read for scholars and students interested in robot, animal and environmental law, as well as those interested in technology more generally, the book is a ground-breaking study of an increasingly relevant topic, as robots become ubiquitous in modern society. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/ISBN, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book provides the reader with some insights into the many styles of field effect transistors (FETs) being used. It offers a rudimentary understanding of their operation and performance. The book explains the complex terminology that defines the various FET parameters.

Being an Astronaut is lots of fun But astronauts use maths every day to help them journey into space. Practice the maths you'll need Learn amazing facts about astronauts Discover how maths is used in real situations

The dream of control over human behaviour is an old dream, shared by many cultures. This fascinating account of the histories of human engineering describes how technologies of managing individuals and groups were developed from the nineteenth century to the present day, ranging from brainwashing and mind control to Dale Carnegie's art of dealing with people. Derksen reveals that common to all of them is the perpetual tension between the desire to control people's behaviour and the resistance this provokes. Thus to influence other people successfully, technology had to be combined with tact: with a personal touch, with a subtle hint, or with outright deception, manipulations are made palatable or invisible. Combining psychological history and theory with insights from science and technology studies and rhetorical scholarship, Derksen offers a fresh perspective on human engineering that will appeal to those interested in the history of psychology and the history of technology.

In The Future of Change, Ray Brescia identifies a series of "social innovation moments" in American history. Through these moments-during which social movements have embraced advances in communications technologies-he illuminates the complicated, dangerous, innovative, and exciting relationship between these technologies, social movements, and social change. Brescia shows that, almost without fail, developments in how we communicate shape social movements, just as those movements change the very technologies themselves. From the printing press to the television, social movements have leveraged communications technologies to advance change. In this moment of rapidly evolving communications, it's imperative to assess the role that the Internet, mobile devices, and social media can play in promoting social justice. But first we must look to the past, to examples of movements throughout American history that successfully harnessed communications technology, thus facilitating positive social change. Such movements embraced new communications technologies to help organize their communities; to form grassroots networks in order to facilitate face-to-face interactions; and to promote positive, inclusive messaging that stressed their participants' shared dignity and humanity. Using the past as prologue, The Future of Change provides effective lessons in the use of communications technology so that we can have the best communicative tools at our disposal-both now and in the future.

As more Africans get online, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are increasingly hailed for their transformative potential. Yet, the fascination for the possibilities of promoting more inclusive forms of development in the information age have obfuscated the reality of the complex negotiations among political and economic actors who are seeking to use technology in their competition for power. Building on over ten years of research in Ethiopia, Iginio Gagliardone investigates the relationship between politics, development, and technological adoption in Africa's second most populous country and its largest recipient of development aid. The emphasis the book places on the 'technopolitics' of ICTs, and on their ability to embody and enact political goals, offers a strong and empirically grounded counter-argument to prevalent approaches to the study of technology and development that can be applied to other cases in Africa and beyond.

Environmental Policy and Technical Change assesses the impact of environmental policy on technical change in cleaner technology. It focuses in particular on the possibility of inducing radical change in technology - a topic that is likely to move to the centre of the policy debate as people discover that incremental changes are not enough to achieve environmental sustainability.This innovative book sheds new light on the relationship between clean technology and environmental policy. It adopts an approach which combines a balance of both theoretical models of innovation and diffusion with empirical case studies. Dr Kemp examines policies such as subsidies, tradeable quotas, pollution taxes and emission standards in how they affect technical choices. Suggestions are offered on how environmental policies may be (re)designed towards the efficient conservation of environmental qualities by encouraging innovation in environmental benign technology. This important book will be essential reading for both researchers and environmental economists concerned with environmental policy and technical innovation.

Silicon Valley wants us to believe that technology will revolutionize our cities and the ways we move around. Autonomous vehicles will make us safer, greener, and more efficient. On-demand services like Uber and Lyft will eliminate car ownership. Micromobility devices like electric scooters will be at every corner, and drones will deliver goods and services. Meanwhile visionaries like Elon Musk promise to eliminate congestion with tunnels, and Uber help with flying cars. The future of transport is frictionless, sustainable, and according to Paris Marx, a threat to our ideas of what a society should be. Road to Nowhere exposes the problems with tech's visions of the future and argues that we cannot allow ourselves to be continually distracted by technological fantasies that delay the collective solutions we already know are effective. Technological solutions to social problems and the people who propose them must be challenged if we are to build cities and transportation systems which serve the public good. In response, Paris Marx offers a vision for a more collective way of organizing transportation systems which considers the needs of poor, marginalized, and vulnerable peoples. The book also argues that rethinking mobility can be the first step in a broader reimagining of how we organize our social, economic, and political systems to serve the many, not the few.

Carbon Dots in Agricultural Systems integrates and crystallizes the emerging knowledge and application strategies of carbon dots as a powerful tool in agriculture systems. The book includes practical insights into the synthesis of carbon dots from indigenous raw materials and how to employ them in agriculture systems to increase crop productivity and provide renewable and cost-effective strategies that meet agricultural needs. Presented by an international team of experts, this resource updates on the latest in synthesis, physical, chemical and optical properties, along with the effects and mechanisms of carbon dots, all further explained in real-world studies. Finally, the book highlights emerging innovative topics which are of great relevance to scientists, academicians and innovators in agriculture (soil science, agricultural chemistry and agronomy) and biotechnology for further research and development.

Intelligent Edge Computing for Cyber Physical Applications introduces state-of-the-art research methodologies, tools and techniques, challenges, and solutions with further research opportunities in the area of edge-based cyber-physical systems. The book presents a comprehensive review of recent literature and analysis of different techniques for building edge-based CPS. In addition, it describes how edge-based CPS can be built to seamlessly interact with physical machines for optimal performance, covering various aspects of edge computing architectures for dynamic resource provisioning, mobile edge computing, energy saving scenarios, and different security issues. Sections feature practical use cases of edge-computing which will help readers understand the workings of edge-based systems in detail, taking into account the need to present intellectual challenges while appealing to a broad readership, including academic researchers, practicing engineers and managers, and graduate students.

This book presents a global and historical perspective of energy flows during the last millennium. The search for sustainable energy is a key issue dominating today's energy regime. This book details the historical evolution of energy, following the overlapping and slow flowing transitions from one regime to another. In doing so it seeks to provide insight into future energy transitions and the means of utilizing sustainable energy sources to reduce humanity's fossil fuel footprint. The book begins with an examination of the earliest and most basic forms of energy use, namely, that of humans metabolizing food in order to work, with the first transition following the domestication and breeding of horses and other animals. The book also examines energy sources key to development during the industrialization and mechanization, such as wood and coal, as well as more recent sources, such as crude oil and nuclear energy. The book then assesses energy flows that are at the forefront of sustainability, by examining green sources, such as solar, wind power and hydropower. While it is easy to see energy flows in terms of "revolutions," transitions have taken centuries to evolve, and transitions are never fully global, as, for example, wood remains the primary fuel source for cooking in much of the developing world. This book not only demonstrates the longevity of energy transitions but also discusses the possibility for reducing transition times when technological developments provide inexpensive and safe energy sources that can reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy transitions, sustainable energy and environmental and energy history.

Postharvest Technology of Perishable Horticultural Commodities describes all the postharvest techniques and technologies available to handle perishable horticultural food commodities. It includes basic concepts and important new advances in the subject. Adopting a thematic style, chapters are organized by type of treatment, with sections devoted to postharvest risk factors and their amelioration. Written by experts from around the world, the book provides core insights into identifying and utilizing appropriate postharvest options for maximum results.

Advances in the Technology of Managing People: Contemporary Issues in Business presents a wide ranging examination of emerging technological trends in the workplace. Using a combination of research study results, case studies, literature reviews, and conceptual papers, the book examines contemporary issues and emerging trends within management technology. Each chapter focuses on a different technological issue or trend within business management from a variety of perspectives, including management, HR, ethical, and organizational behavior viewpoints. Issues explored in the book include: Workplace Productivity with Balanced Scorecard Actions Managing Emerging Technology and Organization with Agility Freelance Economy E-Mentoring 2.0 Virtual Team Success with the Power of Technology Advancements Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace Ambient Intelligence Changes the Office Environment Disruptive Innovations and Blockchain Quantum Leadership. Pamela Ann Gordon and Julie A Overbey curate an excellent reference for research scholars, practitioners, and organizational leaders seeking to understand the impact of technology on contemporary organizations.

These notes contain lectures on the theory of group representations and its applications to the physics of atoms, molecules and crystals, given at Purdue University, Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy) and Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria (Valparaiso, Chile) on and off over a period of over 25 years. The topics selected reflect my special interests and their scope is limited by the time available to the students. The style is somewhat concise and will require careful attention on the part of the reader.

Open Source Innovation (OSI) has gained considerable momentum within the last years. Academic and management practice interest grows as more and more end-users consider and even participate in Open Source product development like Linux, Android, or Wikipedia. Open Source Innovation: Phenomenon, Participant Behaviour, Impact brings together rigorous academic research and business importance in scrutinizing OCI from three perspectives: The Phenomenon, Participants' Behavior, and Business Implications. The first section introduces OCI artefacts, including who is participating and why, and provides a systematic overview of the literature. The second section stresses the behaviour of participants, highlighting participation progression, community selection, user entrepreneurship and fair behaviour, and answering key questions like how to manage governance rules, openness and community design aspects. The third explores the impact and implications of OSI for firms and economies by evaluating business models, uncovering opportunities for firms to interact with communities, and presenting value capture mechanisms. Open Source Innovation provides a full picture of the movement to help readers understand and engage with OSI from the micro perspective of individuals, to the community, to the macro perspective of firms and economies.

Forged at the heart of international political bodies by expert researchers, the innovation cluster concept has been incorporated into most public policies in industrialized countries. Based largely on the ideas behind the success of Silicon Valley, several imitative attempts have been made to geographically group laboratories, companies and training in particular fields in order to generate "synergies" between science and industry. In its first part, Innovation in Clusters analyzes the infatuation with the system of clusters that is integral to innovative policies by analyzing its socio historical context, its revival in management and its worldwide expansion, looking at a French example at a local level. In its second part, the book explores a specialized biotechnology cluster dating back to the end of the 1990s. The sociological survey conducted twenty years later sheds a different light on the dynamics and relationships between laboratories and companies, contradicting the commonly held belief that innovation is made possible by geographical proximity.

An Entrepreneur Best Book of the Year Facebook makes us lonely. Selfies breed narcissism. On Twitter, hostility reigns. Pundits and psychologists warn that digital technologies substantially alter our emotional states, but in this lively investigation of changing feelings about technology, we learn that the gadgets we use don't just affect how we feel-they can profoundly change our sense of self. When we say we're bored, we don't mean the same thing as a Victorian dandy. Could it be that political punditry has helped shape a new kind of anger? Luke Fernandez and Susan Matt take us back in time to consider how our feelings of loneliness, boredom, vanity, and anger have evolved in tandem with new technologies. "Technologies have been shaping [our] emotional culture for more than a century, argue computer scientist Luke Fernandez and historian Susan Matt in this original study. Marshalling archival sources and interviews, they trace how norms (say, around loneliness) have shifted with technological change." -Nature "A powerful story of how new forms of technology are continually integrated into the human experience." -Publishers Weekly