The highly sophisticated techniques of modern engineering are normally conceived of in practical terms. Corresponding to the instrumental function of technology, they are designed to direct the forces of nature according to human purposes. Yet, as soon as the realm of mere skills is exceeded, the intended useful results can only be achieved through planned and preconceived action processes involving the deliberately considered application of well designed tools and devices. This is to say that in all complex cases theoretical reasoning becomes an indispensable means to accomplish the pragmatic technological aims. Hence the abstracting from the actual concrete function of technology opens the way to concentrate attention on the general conceptual framework involved. If this approach is adopted the relevant knowledge and the procedures applied clearly exhibit a logic of their own. This point of view leads to a methodological and even an epistemological analysis of the theoretical structure and the specific methods of procedure characteristic of modern technology. Investigations of this kind, that can be described as belonging to an ana lytical philosophy of technology, form the topic of this anthology. The type of research in question here is closely akin to that of the philosophy of science. But it is an astonishing fact that the commonly accepted and carefully investigated philosophy of science has not yet found its counterpart in an established philosophy of technology."

For many years, the dominant fault model in automatic test pattern gen eration (ATPG) for digital integrated circuits has been the stuck-at fault model. The static nature of stuck-at fault testing when compared to the extremely dynamic nature of integrated circuit (IC) technology has caused many to question whether or not stuck-at fault based testing is still viable. Attempts at answering this question have not been wholly satisfying due to a lack of true quantification, statistical significance, and/or high computational expense. In this monograph we introduce a methodology to address the ques tion in a manner which circumvents the drawbacks of previous approaches. The method is based on symbolic Boolean functional analyses using Or dered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs). OBDDs have been conjectured to be an attractive representation form for Boolean functions, although cases ex ist for which their complexity is guaranteed to grow exponentially with input cardinality. Classes of Boolean functions which exploit the efficiencies inherent in OBDDs to a very great extent are examined in Chapter 7. Exact equa tions giving their OBDD sizes are derived, whereas until very recently only size bounds have been available. These size equations suggest that straight forward applications of OBDDs to design and test related problems may not prove as fruitful as was once thought."

The goal of the research out of which this monograph grew, was to make annealing as much as possible a general purpose optimization routine. At first glance this may seem a straight-forward task, for the formulation of its concept suggests applicability to any combinatorial optimization problem. All that is needed to run annealing on such a problem is a unique representation for each configuration, a procedure for measuring its quality, and a neighbor relation. Much more is needed however for obtaining acceptable results consistently in a reasonably short time. It is even doubtful whether the problem can be formulated such that annealing becomes an adequate approach for all instances of an optimization problem. Questions such as what is the best formulation for a given instance, and how should the process be controlled, have to be answered. Although much progress has been made in the years after the introduction of the concept into the field of combinatorial optimization in 1981, some important questions still do not have a definitive answer. In this book the reader will find the foundations of annealing in a self-contained and consistent presentation. Although the physical analogue from which the con cept emanated is mentioned in the first chapter, all theory is developed within the framework of markov chains. To achieve a high degree of instance independence adaptive strategies are introduced."

Written to inspire and cultivate the ability to design and analyse feasible control algorithms for a wide range of engineering applications, this comprehensive text covers the theoretical and practical principles involved in the design and analysis of control systems. This second edition introduces 4IR adoption strategies for traditional intelligent control, including new techniques of implementing control systems. It provides improved coverage of the characteristics of feedback control, root-locus analysis, frequency-response analysis, state space methods, digital control systems and advanced controls, including updated worked examples and problems.

Features:

• Describes very timely applications and contains a good mix of theory, application, and computer simulation.
• Covers all the fundamentals of control systems.
• Takes a transdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approach.
• Explores updates for 4IR (Industry 4.0) and includes better experiments and illustrations for nonlinear control systems.
• Includes homework problems, case studies, examples, and a solutions manual.

Design automation of electronic and hybrid systems is a steadily growing field of interest and a permanent challenge for researchers in Electronics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science. System Design Automation presents some recent results in design automation of different types of electronic and mechatronic systems. It deals with various topics of design automation, ranging from high level digital system synthesis, through analogue and heterogeneous system analysis and design, up to system modeling and simulation. Design automation is treated from the aspects of its theoretical fundamentals, its basic approach and its methods and tools. Several application cases are presented in detail. The book consists of three chapters: High-Level System Synthesis (Digital Hardware/Software Systems). Here embedded systems, distributed systems and processor arrays as well as hardware-software codesign are treated. Also three special application cases are discussed in detail; Analog and Heterogeneous System Design (System Approach and Methodology). This chapter copes with the analysis and design of hybrid systems comprised of analog and digital, electronic and mechanical components; System Simulation and Evaluation (Methods and Tools). In this chapter object-oriented Modelling, analog system simulation including fault-simulation, parameter optimization and system validation are regarded. The contents of the book are based on material presented at the Workshop System Design Automation (SDA 2000) organised by the Sonderforschungsbereich 358 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at TU Dresden.

In the following pages I have endeavored to show the impact on philosophy of tech nology and science; more specifically, I have tried to make up for the neglect by the classical philosophers of the historic role of technology and also to suggest what positive effects on philosophy the ahnost daily advances in the physical sciences might have. Above all, I wanted to remind the ontologist of his debt to the artificer: tech nology with its recent gigantic achievements has introduced a new ingredient into the world, and so is sure to influence our knowledge of what there is. This book, then, could as well have been called 'Ethnotechnology: An Explanation of Human Behavior by Means of Material Culture', but the picture is a complex one, and there are many more special problems that need to be prominently featured in the discussion. Human culture never goes forward on all fronts at the same time. In our era it is unquestionably not only technology but also the sciences which are making the most rapid progress. Philosophy has not been very successful at keeping up with them. As a consequence there is an 'enormous gulf between scientists and philosophers today, a gulf which is as large as it has ever been. ' (1) I can see that with science moving so rapidly, its current lessons for philosophy might well be outmoded tomorrow."

The second half of this century will remain as the era of proliferation of electronic computers. They did exist before, but they were mechanical. During next century they may perform other mutations to become optical or molecular or even biological. Actually, all these aspects are only fancy dresses put on mathematical machines. This was always recognized to be true in the domain of software, where "machine" or "high level" languages are more or less rigourous, but immaterial, variations of the universaly accepted mathematical language aimed at specifying elementary operations, functions, algorithms and processes. But even a mathematical machine needs a physical support, and this is what hardware is all about. The invention of hardware description languages (HDL's) in the early 60's, was an attempt to stay longer at an abstract level in the design process and to push the stage of physical implementation up to the moment when no more technology independant decisions can be taken. It was also an answer to the continuous, exponential growth of complexity of systems to be designed. This problem is common to hardware and software and may explain why the syntax of hardware description languages has followed, with a reasonable delay of ten years, the evolution of the programming languages: at the end of the 60's they were" Algol like" , a decade later "Pascal like" and now they are "C or ADA-like". They have also integrated the new concepts of advanced software specification languages.

What are the borders of risk? How is the perception of risk related to new technologies and digital changing? This book discusses these topics, moving from theories to research data, looking for concrete answers now, or taking a picture of reality. The volume is divided into three main sections: Exploring the Edges of Risk, according to sociological, psychological and artificial intelligence perspective; Technological and Digital Risks, exploring social media, cyberbullying, hate speech, social bots on digital platforms; Risk in the Cities, working with risk and deviance, risk communication, environmental and nuclear risks. Inside, research data from Europe, USA and Mexico are discussed.

This unique book deals with the migration of existing hard IP from one technology to another, using repeatable procedures. It will allow CAD practitioners to quickly develop methodologies that capitalize on the large volumes of legacy data available within a company today.

How can we promote people-centered governance in Africa? Cell phones/ information and communications technology (ICT) are shown to be linked to neoliberal understandings of more democratic governance structures, defined by the Worldwide Governance Indicators as: the rule of law, corruption-control, regulation quality, government effectiveness, political stability/no violence, and voice and accountability. However, these indicators fall short: they do note emphasize gender equity or pro-poor policies. Writing from an African feminist scholar-activist perspective, Assata Zerai emphasizes the voices of women in two ways: (1) she examines how women's access to ICT makes a difference to the success of people-centered governance structures; and (2) she demonstrates how African women's scholarship, too often marginalized, must be used to expand and redefine the goals and indicators of democratice governance in African countries. Challenging the status quo that praises the contributions of cell phones to the diffusion of knowledge and resultant better governance in Africa, this book is an important read for scholars of politics and technology, gender and politics, and African Studies.

The eye is a complex sensory organ, which enables visual perception of the world. Thus the eye has several tissues that do different tasks. One of the most basic aspects of eye function is the sensitivity of cells to light and its transduction though the optic nerve to the brain. Different organisms use different ways to achieve these tasks. In this sense, eye function becomes a very important evolutionary aspect as well. This book presents the different animal models that are commonly used for eye research and their uniqueness in evaluating different aspects of eye development, evolution, physiology and disease.
* Presents information on the major animal models used in eye research including invertebrates and vertebrates
* Provides researchers with information needed to choose between model organisms
* Includes an introductory chapter on the different types of eyes, stressing possible common molecular machinery

SIIE is an international forum of Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking and English-speaking researchers devoted to investigate and implement the use of computers in education. In 1999 the Symposium was held in Aveiro, Portugal. In the year 2000 it was celebrated in Puertollano, Spain. Other meetings preceded this Symposium, namely, the "Simposio de Investigacao e Desenvolvimento de Software Educativo" held in Lisbon, Coimbra and Evora, two Congresses held in Spain and organised by ADIE: Encuentro de Informatica Educativa, in Madrid and the so successful ConieD'99 held in Puertollano in 1999. A collection of Conied'99 papers is also published in this collection with the title "Computers in Education in the 21st Century" (2000). ADIE (Association for the Development of Computers in Education) undertook the organisation of the congresses and symposiums on Computers in Education. It is an association which organises meetings for researchers in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. ADIE publishes "Revista de Ensenanza y Tecnologia" in Latin America quarterly."

Vulnerability Assessment of Physical Protection Systems will describe the entire vulnerability assessment (VA) process, from the start of planning through final analysis and out brief to senior management. The text will draw heavily on the principles introduced in the author's best-selling Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection Systems and allow readers to apply those principles and conduct a VA that is aligned with system objectives and achievable with existing budget and personnel resources. The book will address the full spectrum of a VA, including negotiating tasks with the customer, project management and planning of the VA, team membership, step-by-step details for performing the VA, data collection and analysis, important notes on how to use the VA to suggest design improvements and generate multiple design options. The text will end with a discussion of how to out brief the results to senior management in order to gain their support and demonstrate the return on investment of their security dollar. Several new tools will be introduced to help readers organize and use the information at their sites and allow them to mix the physical protection system with other risk management measures to reduce risk to an acceptable level at an affordable cost and with the least operational impact.
- Guides the reader through the topic of physical security doing so with a unique, detailed and scientific approach
- Takes the reader from beginning to end and step-by-step through a Vulnerability Assessment
- Over 150 figures and tables to illustrate key concepts

This book explores the mobile ethnography of Dar es Salaam, where consultants and politicians have planned and implemented a bus rapid transit (BRT) system for two decades. It analyses the dual processes of assembling BRT in the Tanzanian metropolis and establishing BRT as a policy model of and for the Global South. The book elucidates how policy models are constructed and circulated around the globe and depicts the processes by which they are translated between, and materialise within, specific contexts. It presents the case of BRT to demonstrate how technocrats shape these processes through persuasive work aimed at disseminating and stabilising this transport model, and how local actors influence its adaptation in Dar es Salaam. The book adopts a 'double mobility' approach to show how this ethnography follows travelling consultants, circulating policies and moving buses to explore the fluidity of the BRT model. Linking key debates in policy mobility studies and Science and Technology Studies, enriched with postcolonial perspectives and geographies of transport and infrastructure, it offers new insights into the technopolitics of planning and implementing infrastructure systems. This book will appeal to academics and students of human geography, transport studies, science and technology studies, and African and development studies interested in the technopolitics of transport planning.

This book describes a new type of computer aided VLSI design tool, called a VLSI System Planning, that is meant to aid designers dur ing the early, or conceptual, state of design. During this stage of design, the objective is to define a general design plan, or approach, that is likely to result in an efficient implementation satisfying the initial specifications, or to determine that the initial specifications are not realizable. A design plan is a collection of high level design decisions. As an example, the conceptual design of digital filters involves choosing the type of algorithm to implement (e. g. , finite impulse response or infinite impulse response), the type of polyno mial approximation (e. g. , Equiripple or Chebyshev), the fabrication technology (e. g. , CMOS or BiCMOS), and so on. Once a particu lar design plan is chosen, the detailed design phase can begin. It is during this phase that various synthesis, simulation, layout, and test activities occur to refine the conceptual design, gradually filling more detail until the design is finally realized. The principal advantage of VLSI System Planning is that the increasingly expensive resources of the detailed design process are more efficiently managed. Costly redesigns are minimized because the detailed design process is guided by a more credible, consistent, and correct design plan.

Public trust in the institutions that mediate civic life-from governing bodies to newsrooms-is low. In facing this challenge, many organizations assume that ensuring greater efficiency will build trust. As a result, these organizations are quick to adopt new technologies to enhance what they do, whether it's a new app or dashboard. However, efficiency, or charting a path to a goal with the least amount of friction, is not itself always built on a foundation of trust. Meaningful Inefficiencies is about the practices undertaken by civic designers that challenge the normative applications of "smart technologies" in order to build or repair trust with publics. Based on over sixty interviews with change makers in public serving organizations throughout the United States, as well as detailed case studies, this book provides a practical and deeply philosophical picture of civic life in transition. The designers in this book are not professional designers, but practitioners embedded within organizations who have adopted an approach to public engagement Eric Gordon and Gabriel Mugar call "meaningful inefficiencies," or the deliberate design of less efficient over more efficient means of achieving some ends. This book illustrates how civic designers are creating meaningful inefficiencies within public serving organizations. It also encourages a rethinking of how innovation within these organizations is understood, applied, and sought after. Different than market innovation, civic innovation is not just about invention and novelty; it is concerned with building communities around novelty, and cultivating deep and persistent trust. At its core, Meaningful Inefficiencies underlines that good civic innovation will never just involve one single public good, but must instead negotiate a plurality of publics. In doing so, it creates the conditions for those publics to play, resulting in people truly caring for the world. Meaningful Inefficiencies thus presents an emergent and vitally needed approach to creating civic life at a moment when smart and efficient are the dominant forces in social and organizational change.

This book provides an analysis of the legal and policy dimensions of open access to research, education and public sector information with a focus on Nigeria. Kunle shows how open access has evolved across the world and how such initiatives could be implemented in Nigeria and other countries in the developing world. The author argues for a platform where Nigerians are able to freely connect to the 'global library', through the open access dual platforms of self-archiving and open access publishing, thereby providing access to knowledge. The importance of connecting local works to the 'global library' to increase visibility and impact of such works is also underscored. This book furthers our understanding of open educational resources as alternative avenues to accessing education and seeks to foster citizenry participation, good governance, accountability, democratic values and spur creativity and innovation through open governance and access to public sector information. Providing a framework for open access in developing countries, Open Access to Knowledge in Nigeria is an important read for scholars interested in knowledge production in Africa, development of the knowledge economy and the open access and Access to Knowledge movements.

"Key Productivity and Performance Strategies to Advance Your STEM Career" shares valuable knowledge and insight on best practices used by high performing individuals in the STEM fields to enhance their professional endeavors. The strategies contained in this book are based on Lesia L. Crumpton-Young's experience and expertise as a STEM professional and a certified Life and Career Coach.

This book includes real-life examples from STEM professionals of career hurdles and efficient solutions to reaching your career goals. It covers effective goal setting, decision making, and how best to overcome doubt and criticism, as well as practical advice on critical path analysis and resource allocation. "Key Productivity and Performance Strategies to Advance Your STEM Career" also includes a five-year career planning tool along with additional problem statements and exercises, making it a valuable resource those involved in the STEM fields.
Includes a five-year career planning tool, additional problem statements, and exercisesDiscusses topics such as decisive decision making, setting clear and concise goals, objectives, and targets, and how to efficiently allocate resources