Handbook of Metaheuristic Algorithms: From Fundamental Theories to Advanced Applications provides a brief introduction to metaheuristic algorithms from the ground up, including basic ideas and advanced solutions. Although readers may be able to find source code for some metaheuristic algorithms on the Internet, the coding styles and explanations are generally quite different, and thus requiring expanded knowledge between theory and implementation. This book can also help students and researchers construct an integrated perspective of metaheuristic and unsupervised algorithms for artificial intelligence research in computer science and applied engineering domains. Metaheuristic algorithms can be considered the epitome of unsupervised learning algorithms for the optimization of engineering and artificial intelligence problems, including simulated annealing (SA), tabu search (TS), genetic algorithm (GA), ant colony optimization (ACO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), and others. Distinct from most supervised learning algorithms that need labeled data to learn and construct determination models, metaheuristic algorithms inherit characteristics of unsupervised learning algorithms used for solving complex engineering optimization problems without labeled data, just like self-learning, to find solutions to complex problems.

To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens. In "Human-Built World," thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential.
Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life.
Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In "Human-Built World," he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.

What child doesn't want to know how things work? Introduce a young reader in your life to how nature works and inspires innovation to help solve some of our toughest engineering challenges. This kid-friendly, beautiful introduction to biomimicry is half playful rhymes and half nonfiction, perfect for ages 5 and up. Nature does it best ... and did it first! Explore the ways we have looked to nature for brilliant new designs and innovations to solve our own conundrums. Each example in nature is paired with a fun, rhyming description, an example of how it has been used by us, and a question to the reader-"what other problems can be solved?" Learn fascinating examples of biomimicry, like:How burrs inspired VelcroHow grooved gecko feet inspired adhesiveHow bumpy whale flippers inspired windmill blades and surfboardsAnd more!Back matter includes:A glossary for words like echolocation and adhesiveA STEM Challenge activity perfect for your home or classroom

By reconsidering the theme of isolation in the philosophy of technology, and by drawing upon recent developments in social ontology, Lawson provides an account of technology that will be of interest and value to those working in a variety of different fields. Technology and Isolation includes chapters on the philosophy, history, sociology and economics of technology, and contributes to such diverse topics as the historical emergence of the term 'technology', the sociality of technology, the role of technology in social acceleration, the relationship between Marx and Heidegger, and the relationship between technology and those with autism. The central contribution of the book is to provide a new ontology of technology. In so doing, Lawson argues that much of the distinct character of technology can be explained or understood in terms of the dynamic that emerges from technology's peculiar constitutional mix of isolatable and non-isolatable components.

Technological Superpower China explores how China is becoming a technological superpower within the global economy by integrating its national R&D programmes with the innovation systems of national and international corporations. Jon Sigurdson provides a thorough and comprehensive analysis of China's knowledge foundation in technology and R&D following its dynamic march forward in the early 1980s. The author describes how China's narrow window of opportunity - before becoming an ageing nation - has prompted the country to hurriedly mobilize resources in the hope of becoming a technological superpower within the next few decades. He examines how advances in higher education, human resources development, technology access through FDI, technology transfer, ICT, space and defence technology and corporate technology are being exploited in the race to emerge as an advanced knowledge economy nation. Exploring the changes in China that are transforming the technological landscape of the country, this book will be a fascinating read for academics, students and researchers interested in China's development, the foundations of its economic growth and its role in regional and political affairs.

Globalization and technological innovation are interdependent processes. Globalization has a fundamental influence on the creation and diffusion of technology which, in turn, affects the interdependence of multinational corporations and where they locate their activities. In this book Rajneesh Narula examines the international aspect of this interdependence at two levels: first, between sites, by examining the role of cross-border initiatives in the innovation process; second, between corporate entities, by studying the dynamics of inter-firm collaboration in research and development.

Narula explores an important paradox. On the one hand, locations and corporations are increasingly interdependent through supranational organizations, regional integration, strategic alliances, and the flow of investments, technologies, ideas and people. The boundaries of both corporations and states are increasingly porous and imprecise, because businesses use alliances and outsourcing, and countries are rarely technologically self-sufficient. On the other hand, locations remain distinct and idiosyncratic, with innovation systems largely nationally bound. Knowledge creation suffers from 'inertia' and, because of the systemic nature of learning, continues to be concentrated in a few locations and firms.

This book will appeal to students of business and management studies, globalization, technical change and information and communication technologies. Drawing on a wide variety of data at the corporate and national level, it also spells out important lessons for policy makers and managers concerned with industrial and technology policy, as well as those interested in theorganization of research and development.

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.

Ideal for undergraduate students in philosophy and science studies, "Philosophy of Technology" offers an engaging and comprehensive overview of a subject vital to our time.
An up-to-date, accessible overview of the philosophy of technology, defining technology and its characteristics.
Explores the issues that arise as technology becomes an integral part of our society.
In addition to traditional topics in science and technology studies, the volume offers discussion of technocracy, the romantic rebellion against technology.
Complements "The Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition: An Anthology," edited by Robert C. Scharff and Val Dusek (Blackwell, 2003).

Fossil fuels may be keeping the world running, but they're also destroying the planet. What viable alternatives do we have, and what technological breakthroughs are on the horizon? In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide WIRED journalist Nicole Kobie outlines the environmental threats we face through our reliance on carbon-based energy, and considers whether and when sustainable energy can take its place. She looks at the major technologies currently available - solar, wind and geothermal among them - explaining how they work and what potential they possess. She shows how electricity supply is being transformed by advances in storage and distribution. She assesses how each form of energy is being adapted to serve our industrial and domestic needs. And she addresses the fundamental question: can the world's energy supply become fully sustainable within the next decade?

Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Radiation Sources, Exposure and Health Effects 3. Spent Fuel Management 4. High-level Waste Management 5. Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-level Waste 6. Transuranic Waste Management 7. Low-Level Waste Management 8. Uranium Ore Mill Tailings Management 9. Mixed Wastes 10. Environmental Restoration 11. Transportation 12. Decontamination and Decomissioning Appendicies Index

In this extraordinary introduction to the study of the philosophy of technology, Andrew Feenberg argues that techonological design is central to the social and political structure of modern societies. Environmentalism, information technology, and medical advances testify to technology's crucial importance.
In his lucid and engaging style, Feenberg shows that technology is the medium of daily life. Every major technical changes reverberates at countless levels: economic, political, and cultural. If we continue to see the social and technical domains as being seperate, then we are essentially denying an integral part of our existence, and our place in a democratic society.
Questioning Tecchnology convinces us that it is vital that we learn more about technology the better to live with it and to manage it.

This edited volume is intended to address in a comprehensive and integrated manner three major areas of national and international security research from an information systems-centric perspective: legal and policy frameworks; intelligence and security informatics; and emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection. The discussions are replete with real-world case studies and examples that present the concepts using an integrated, action-oriented and theory-based approach to validate the frameworks presented and to provide specific insights on the technical approaches and organizational issues under investigation.
This book is intended to be used as both a textbook and a comprehensive research handbook. The contributors to this edited volume are renowned experts in their respective fields. Most of the chapters contained in this book provide an updated comprehensive survey of the related field and also specific findings from cutting-edging innovative research. To facilitate its adoption as a textbook, all the authors have included specific discussion questions that could be utilized to stimulate discussions and potentially further research in the area.
*Addresses three major areas of national and international security research from an information systems-centric perspective
*Focuses on legal and policy frameworks, intelligence and security informatics, and emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection
*Real-world case studies are used as examples to provide specific insights

In a crucial sense, all machines are time machines. The essays in Media Infrastructures and the Politics of Digital Time develop the central concept of hardwired temporalities to consider how technical networks hardwire and rewire patterns of time. Digital media introduce new temporal patterns in their features of instant communication, synchronous collaboration, intricate time management, and continually improved speed. They construct temporal infrastructures that affect the rhythms of lived experience and shape social relations and practices of cooperation. Interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, the volume draws together insights from media and communication studies, cultural studies, and science and technology studies while staging an important encounter between two distinct approaches to the temporal patterning of media infrastructures, a North American strain emphasizing the social and cultural experiences of lived time and a European tradition, prominent especially in Germany, focusing on technological time and time-critical processes.

"The essays collected in this book are sparkling, imaginative pieces of journalism that just happen to be about technology. People steeped in the world of AJAX or Massively Mulitplayer Online Games will find a lot to value here, but so will readers simply in search of good writing."
--James Fallows, National Correspondent for "Atlantic Monthly"
"The human experience is being shaped by our symbiotic relationship to technology. What makes this collection wonderful is that it's not about the technology, per se, but it's about this changing human experience. I will look forward to it every year."
--Po Bronson, author of "What Should I Do With My Life?"
"The Best of Technology Writing 2006" brings together some of the most important, timely, and just plain readable writing in the fast-paced, high-stakes field of technology. The first annual collection to target this vibrant and versatile area, "The Best of Technology Writing 2006" features innovative work from an unusually diverse array of writers: best-selling authors, noted academics, and indie journalists and bloggers. The culmination of an open, on-line nominating process, this collection covers topics ranging from jetpacks, to the ethics of genetically cloned pets, to the meaning of life in the information age. By turns epic and intimate, serious and playful, "The Best of Technology Writing 2006" captures the vitality, importance, and complexity of technology today. Koerner
Featuring contributions from: David A. BellDavid BernsteinMike DaiseyJoshua DavisJay DixitDaniel EngberDan FerberSteven JohnsonSteven LevyFarhad ManjooLisa MargonelliDavid McNeillJustin MullinsKoranteng Ofosu-AmaahAdam L. PenenbergDanielH. PinkEvan RatliffAlex RossJim RossignolJesse SunenblickEdward TennerClive ThompsonJoseph TurowRichard Waters Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor for "Wired," a columnist for both "New York Times" and "Slate," and a fellow at the New America Foundation. His first book will be published by Henry Holt & Company in 2008.

digitalculturebooks is an imprint of the University of Michigan Press and the Scholarly Publishing Office of the University of Michigan Library dedicated to publishing innovative and accessible work exploring new media and its impact on society, culture, and scholarly communication. Visit the website at www.digitalculture.org.

Who owns your genes? What does climate science imply for policy? Do corporations conduct honest research? Should we teach intelligent design? Humans are creating a new world through science. The kind of world we are creating will not simply be decided by expanding scientific knowledge, but will depend on views about good and bad, right and wrong. These visions, in turn, depend on critical thinking, cogent argument and informed judgement. In this book, Adam Briggle and Carl Mitcham help readers to cultivate these skills. They first introduce ethics and the normative structure of science and then consider the 'society of science' and its norms for the responsible conduct of research and the treatment of human and animal research subjects. Later chapters examine 'science in society' - exploring ethical issues at the interfaces of science, policy, religion, culture and technology. Each chapter features case studies and research questions to stimulate further reflection.

It seems that just about every new technology that we bring to bear on improving our lives brings with it some downside, side effect or unintended consequence. These issues can pose very real and growing ethical problems for all of us. For example, automated facial recognition can make life easier and safer for us - but it also poses huge issues with regard to privacy, ownership of data and even identity theft. How do we understand and frame these debates, and work out strategies at personal and governmental levels? Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics addresses one of today's most pressing problems: how to create and use tools and technologies to maximize benefits and minimize harms? Drawing on the author's experience as a technologist, political risk analyst and historian, the book offers a practical and cross-disciplinary approach that will inspire anyone creating, investing in or regulating technology, and it will empower all readers to better hold technology to account.

Ideal for undergraduate students in philosophy and science studies, "Philosophy of Technology" offers an engaging and comprehensive overview of a subject vital to our time.
An up-to-date, accessible overview of the philosophy of technology, defining technology and its characteristics.
Explores the issues that arise as technology becomes an integral part of our society.
In addition to traditional topics in science and technology studies, the volume offers discussion of technocracy, the romantic rebellion against technology.
Complements "The Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition: An Anthology," edited by Robert C. Scharff and Val Dusek (Blackwell, 2003).

This book offers fresh insight into women's mastery of technologies commonly associated with men, with important implications for institutional efforts to identify and support technical proficiency among girls and women. The work is structured across five original case studies featuring: breast cancer survivors in Newfoundland who constructed a wooden dragon boat using hand and power tools; Egyptian women who used information and communication technologies for political action during the Revolution of 2011; pioneer female audio engineers in the United States working in live concert and studio venues; U.S. female commercial airline pilots who mastered the complexity of flying large aircraft; and a university-educated woman working in sewer maintenance and repair for the City of Detroit in the 1970s. The case studies capture women's own voices and present a range of historical and geographic locations. A major contribution of this volume is the multidisciplinary analytical framework used to explain women's motivation to engage with non-traditional technologies, the role of peer and political support in encouraging persistence, and informal as well as formal knowledge and skill acquisition. Above all, it is a story of women's empowerment - individually and collectively. This is a unique book suitable for undergraduates and graduates in the fields of Women's and Gender Studies; Science, Technology and Society (STS) Studies; Engineering Education; and Adult Education.

This is the first scholarly monograph marking the social justice turn in technical and professional communication (TPC). Social justice often draws attention to structural oppression, but to enact social justice as technical communicators, first, we must be able to trace daily practice to the oppressive structures it professionalizes, codifies, and normalizes. Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn moves readers from conceptual explorations of oppression and justice to a theoretical framework that allows for the concepts to be applied and implemented in a variety of practical contexts. It historicizes the recent social justice turn in TPC scholarship, models a social justice approach to building theories and heuristics, and presents scenarios that illustrate how to develop sustainable practices of activism and social justice. Its commitment to coalition building, inclusivity, and socially just practices of citation and activism will support scholars, teachers, and practitioners not only in understanding how the work of technical communication is often complicit in oppression but also in recognizing, revealing, rejecting, and replacing oppressive practices.

The Landmark Water Use and Treatment Resource-Fully Updated for Optimizing Water Processes This industry-standard resource from the world's leading water management company offers practical guidance on the use and treatment of water and wastewater in industrial and institutional facilities. Revised to align with the latest regulations and technologies, The Nalco Water Handbook, Fourth Edition, explains water management fundamentals and clearly shows how to improve water quality, minimize usage, and optimize treatment processes. Throughout, new emphasis is placed on today's prevailing issues, including water scarcity, stressors, and business risk. Covers all essential water treatment topics, including: * Water management fundamentals * The business case for managing water * Water sources, stressors, and quality * Basic water chemistry * Impurity removal * Steam generation * Cooling water systems * Safety for building water systems * Post-treatment * Energy in water systems * Water applications across various industries

"A Companion to American Technology" is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that analyze the hard-to-define phenomenon of 'technology' in America. 22 original essays by expert scholars cover the most important features of American technology, including developments in automobiles, television, and computing. This book analyzes the ways in which technologies are organized, such as in the engineering profession, government, medicine and agriculture. It includes discussions of how technologies interact with race, gender, class, and other organizing structures in American society.

Focusing on six steps for effective innovation, this volume presents guidelines for a new worldclass approach for developing technologies. From technology strategy to concept creation and selection, the authors cover each innovation activity, taking you step by step through the effective methods. They provide a clear focus on robustness development and technology transfer, which leads to the commercialization activity. Diagrams and case studies through the text clearly illustrate the concepts. "Effective Innovation: The Development of Successful Engineering Technologies" is a comprehensive and invaluable resource. "This book is a 'must' read for engineers in any organization from the Chief Technology Officer on down and compelling reading for the lead innovators in an organization. The authors describe the comprehensive framework of the most powerful methods to help organizations their management, innovators and inventors to 'leap frog' to superior technical innovation capabilities and results." - James R Norton, Managing Director, BLN Associates.

Our technology shapes the way we live, interact, work, play, and even worship. Technology and its power are both old and new-as is the wisdom we need to envision, design, build, and use it well. For Christians passionate about developing technology, it's not always clear how their faith and work intersect. How can designing and using technology actually be a way of loving God and our neighbors? Veteran engineers and teachers Ethan Brue, Derek Schuurman, and Steve VanderLeest provide a field guide for fellow explorers working with technology. Using numerous case studies, historical examples, and personal stories, they explore issues such as: biblical themes and passages that relate to technology the ethics and norms involved in technology design how engineering and technology tap into human dreams for a better world Along the way they acknowledge the challenges arising from technology but also point to the wonderful possibilities it offers us and its ability to contribute to the common good. For Christians studying and working in engineering, computer science, technical design, architecture, and related fields, this book is packed with wisdom and practical guidance. By sharing what they have learned, the authors encourage readers to ask harder questions, aspire to more noble purposes, and live a life consistent with their faith as they engage with technology.

The philosophy of technology has been dominated by metaphysical analyses of the "essence" of technology and by moral/critical reflections on the consequences of technology for individual and social forms of life. To develop a more internally oriented philosophy of technology, the authors in this volume believe that an empirical turn is necessary, similar to the turn witnessed in the philosophy of science. In this volume, authors explore the various ways in which empirical data can be used in ontological, epistemological, ethical or more general discussions in the philosophy of technology. All the chapters in the volume therefore contribute to an empirical turn in the philosophy of technology.