Research into social systems is challenging due to their complex nature. Traditional methods of analysis are often difficult to apply effectively as theories evolve over time. This can be due to a lack of appropriate data, or too much uncertainty. It can also be the result of problems which are not yet understood well enough in the general sense so that they can be classified, and an appropriate solution quickly identified. Simulation is one tool that deals well with these challenges, fits in well with the deductive process, and is useful for testing theory. This field is still relatively new, and much of the work is necessarily innovative, although it builds upon a rich and varied foundation. There are a number of existing modelling paradigms being applied to complex social systems research. Additionally, new methods and measures are being devised through the process of conducting research. We expect that readers will enjoy the collection of high quality research works from new and accomplished researchers.    

Hermann Haken (born 1927) is one of the "fathers" of the quantum-mechanical laser theory, formulated between 1962 and 1966, in strong competition with American researchers. Later on, he created Synergetics, the science of cooperation in multicomponent systems. The book concentrates on the development of his scientific work during the first thirty-five years of his career. In 1970 he and his doctoral student Robert Graham were able to show that the laser is an example of a nonlinear system far from thermal equilibrium that shows a phase-transition like behavior. Subsequently, this insight opened the way for the formulation of Synergetics. Synergetics is able to explain, how very large systems show the phenomenon of self-organization that can be mathematically described by only very few order parameters. The results of Haken's research were published in two seminal books Synergetics (1977) and Advanced Synergetics (1983). After the year 1985 Haken concentrated his research on the macroscopic foundation of Synergetics. This led him towards the application of synergetic principles in medicine, cognitive research and, finally, in psychology. A comprehensive bibliography of Hermann Haken's publications (nearly 600 numbers) is included in the book.

The high reliability required in industrial processes has created the necessity of detecting abnormal conditions, called faults, while processes are operating. The term fault generically refers to any type of process degradation, or degradation in equipment performance because of changes in the process's physical characteristics, process inputs or environmental conditions. This book is about the fundamentals of fault detection and diagnosis in a variety of nonlinear systems which are represented by ordinary differential equations. The fault detection problem is approached from a differential algebraic viewpoint, using residual generators based upon high-gain nonlinear auxiliary systems ('observers'). A prominent role is played by the type of mathematical tools that will be used, requiring knowledge of differential algebra and differential equations. Specific theorems tailored to the needs of the problem-solving procedures are developed and proved. Applications to real-world problems, both with constant and time-varying faults, are made throughout the book and include electromechanical positioning systems, the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR), bioreactor models and belt drive systems, to name but a few.

This book examines theoretical and applied aspects of wavelet analysis in neurophysics, describing in detail different practical applications of the wavelet theory in the areas of neurodynamics and neurophysiology and providing a review of fundamental work that has been carried out in these fields over the last decade. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce and review the relevant foundations of neurophysics and wavelet theory, respectively, pointing on one hand to the various current challenges in neuroscience and introducing on the other the mathematical techniques of the wavelet transform in its two variants (discrete and continuous) as a powerful and versatile tool for investigating the relevant neuronal dynamics. Chapter 3 then analyzes results from examining individual neuron dynamics and intracellular processes. The principles for recognizing neuronal spikes from extracellular recordings and the advantages of using wavelets to address these issues are described and combined with approaches based on wavelet neural networks (chapter 4). The features of time-frequency organization of EEG signals are then extensively discussed, from theory to practical applications (chapters 5 and 6). Lastly, the technical details of automatic diagnostics and processing of EEG signals using wavelets are examined (chapter 7). The book will be a useful resource for neurophysiologists and physicists familiar with nonlinear dynamical systems and data processing, as well as for graduat e students specializing in the corresponding areas.

This book provides an accessible introduction to the variational formulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, with a novel emphasis on global descriptions of the dynamics, which is a significant conceptual departure from more traditional approaches based on the use of local coordinates on the configuration manifold. In particular, we introduce a general methodology for obtaining globally valid equations of motion on configuration manifolds that are Lie groups, homogeneous spaces, and embedded manifolds, thereby avoiding the difficulties associated with coordinate singularities. The material is presented in an approachable fashion by considering concrete configuration manifolds of increasing complexity, which then motivates and naturally leads to the more general formulation that follows. Understanding of the material is enhanced by numerous in-depth examples throughout the book, culminating in non-trivial applications involving multi-body systems. This book is written for a general audience of mathematicians, engineers, and physicists with a basic knowledge of mechanics. Some basic background in differential geometry is helpful, but not essential, as the relevant concepts are introduced in the book, thereby making the material accessible to a broad audience, and suitable for either self-study or as the basis for a graduate course in applied mathematics, engineering, or physics.

The book is a collection of contributions devoted to analytical, numerical and experimental techniques of dynamical systems, presented at the International Conference on Dynamical Systems: Theory and Applications, held in �ódź, Poland on December 2-5, 2013. The studies give deep insight into both the theory and applications of non-linear dynamical systems, emphasizing directions for future research. Topics covered include: constrained motion of mechanical systems and tracking control; diversities in the inverse dynamics; singularly perturbed ODEs with periodic coefficients; asymptotic solutions to the problem of vortex structure around a cylinder; investigation of the regular and chaotic dynamics; rare phenomena and chaos in power converters; non-holonomic constraints in wheeled robots; exotic bifurcations in non-smooth systems; micro-chaos; energy exchange of coupled oscillators; HIV dynamics; homogenous transformations with applications to off-shore slender structures; novel approaches to a qualitative study of a dissipative system; chaos of postural sway in humans; oscillators with fractional derivatives; controlling chaos via bifurcation diagrams; theories relating to optical choppers with rotating wheels; dynamics in expert systems; shooting methods for non-standard boundary value problems; automatic sleep scoring governed by delay differential equations; isochronous oscillations; the aerodynamics pendulum and its limit cycles; constrained N-body problems; nano-fractal oscillators and dynamically-coupled dry friction.

This book provides a comprehensive overview on emergent bursty patterns in the dynamics of human behaviour. It presents common and alternative understanding of the investigated phenomena, and points out open questions worthy of further investigations. The book is structured as follows. In the introduction the authors discuss the motivation of the field, describe bursty phenomena in case of human behaviour, and relate it to other disciplines. The second chapter addresses the measures commonly used to characterise heterogeneous signals, bursty human dynamics, temporal paths, and correlated behaviour. These definitions are first introduced to set the basis for the discussion of the third chapter about the observations of bursty human patterns in the dynamics of individuals, dyadic interactions, and collective behaviour. The subsequent fourth chapter discusses the models of bursty human dynamics. Various mechanisms have been proposed about the source of the heterogeneities in human dynamics, which leads to the introduction of conceptually different modelling approaches. The authors address all of these perspectives objectively, highlight their strengths and shortcomings, and mention possible extensions to them. The fifth chapter addresses the effect of individual heterogeneous behaviour on collective dynamics. This question in particular has been investigated in various systems including spreading phenomena, random walks, and opinion formation dynamics. Here the main issues are whether burstiness speeds up or slows down the co-evolving processes, and how burstiness modifies time-dependent paths in the system that determine the spreading patterns of any kind of information or influence. Finally in the sixth chapter the authors end the review with a discussion and future perspectives. It is an ideal book for researchers and students who wish to enter the field of bursty human dynamics or want to expand their knowledge on such phenomena.

This volume collects thirteen expository or survey articles on topics including Fractal Geometry, Analysis of Fractals, Multifractal Analysis, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, Probability and Stochastic Analysis, written by the leading experts in their respective fields. The articles are based on papers presented at the International Conference on Advances on Fractals and Related Topics, held on December 10-14, 2012 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The volume offers insights into a number of exciting, cutting-edge developments in the area of fractals, which has close ties to and applications in other areas such as analysis, geometry, number theory, probability and mathematical physics.

Manifolds fall naturally into two classes depending on whether they can be fitted with a distance measuring function or not. The former, metrisable manifolds, and especially compact manifolds, have been intensively studied by topologists for over a century, whereas the latter, non-metrisable manifolds, are much more abundant but have a more modest history, having become of increasing interest only over the past 40 years or so. The first book on this topic, this book ranges from criteria for metrisability, dynamics on non-metrisable manifolds, Nyikos's Bagpipe Theorem and whether perfectly normal manifolds are metrisable to structures on manifolds, especially the abundance of exotic differential structures and the dearth of foliations on the long plane. A rigid foliation of the Euclidean plane is described. This book is intended for graduate students and mathematicians who are curious about manifolds beyond the metrisability wall, and especially the use of Set Theory as a tool.

Understanding Complex Urban Systems takes as its point of departure the insight that the challenges of global urbanization and the complexity of urban systems cannot be understood - let alone 'managed' - by sectoral and disciplinary approaches alone. But while there has recently been significant progress in broadening and refining the methodologies for the quantitative modeling of complex urban systems, in deepening the theoretical understanding of cities as complex systems, or in illuminating the implications for urban planning, there is still a lack of well-founded conceptual thinking on the methodological foundations and the strategies of modeling urban complexity across the disciplines. Bringing together experts from the fields of urban and spatial planning, ecology, urban geography, real estate analysis, organizational cybernetics, stochastic optimization, and literary studies, as well as specialists in various systems approaches and in transdisciplinary methodologies of urban analysis, the volume seeks to advance the discussion on multidisciplinary approaches to urban modeling. While engaging with the 'state of the art' in their respective fields, the contributions are specifically written for both experts from a broad range of disciplines as well as for urban practitioners who feel the need for new approaches given the uncertainty of current developments.

Using phase-plane analysis, findings from the theory of topological horseshoes and linked-twist maps, this book presents a novel method to prove the existence of chaotic dynamics. In dynamical systems, complex behavior in a map can be indicated by showing the existence of a Smale-horseshoe-like structure, either for the map itself or its iterates. This usually requires some assumptions about the map, such as a diffeomorphism and some hyperbolicity conditions. In this text, less stringent definitions of a horseshoe have been suggested so as to reproduce some geometrical features typical of the Smale horseshoe, while leaving out the hyperbolicity conditions associated with it. This leads to the study of the so-called topological horseshoes. The presence of chaos-like dynamics in a vertically driven planar pendulum, a pendulum of variable length, and in other more general related equations is also proved.

This compact monograph is focused on disturbance attenuation in nonsmooth dynamic systems, developing an H approach in the nonsmooth setting. Similar to the standard nonlinear H approach, the proposed nonsmooth design guarantees both the internal asymptotic stability of a nominal closed-loop system and the dissipativity inequality, which states that the size of an error signal is uniformly bounded with respect to the worst-case size of an external disturbance signal. This guarantee is achieved by constructing an energy or storage function that satisfies the dissipativity inequality and is then utilized as a Lyapunov function to ensure the internal stability requirements. Advanced H Control is unique in the literature for its treatment of disturbance attenuation in nonsmooth systems. It synthesizes various tools, including Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs partial differential inequalities as well as Linear Matrix Inequalities. Along with the finite-dimensional treatment, the synthesis is extended to infinite-dimensional setting, involving time-delay and distributed parameter systems. To help illustrate this synthesis, the book focuses on electromechanical applications with nonsmooth phenomena caused by dry friction, backlash, and sampled-data measurements. Special attention is devoted to implementation issues. Requiring familiarity with nonlinear systems theory, this book will be accessible to g raduate students interested in systems analysis and design, and is a welcome addition to the literature for researchers and practitioners in these areas.

This authoritative treatment covers theory, optimal estimation and a range of practical applications. The first book on the subject, and written by leading researchers, this clear and rigorous work presents a comprehensive theory for both the stability boundary and the stability regions of a range of nonlinear dynamical systems including continuous, discrete, complex, two-time-scale and non-hyperbolic systems, illustrated with numerical examples. The authors also propose new concepts of quasi-stability region and of relevant stability regions and their complete characterisations. Optimal schemes for estimating stability regions of general nonlinear dynamical systems are also covered, and finally the authors describe and explain how the theory is applied in applications including direct methods for power system transient stability analysis, nonlinear optimisation for finding a set of high-quality optimal solutions, stabilisation of nonlinear systems, ecosystem dynamics, and immunisation problems.

This treatment of modern topics related to the control of nonlinear systems is a collection of contributions celebrating the work of Professor Henk Nijmeijer and honoring his 60th birthday. It addresses several topics that have been the core of Professor Nijmeijer's work, namely: the control of nonlinear systems, geometric control theory, synchronization, coordinated control, convergent systems and the control of underactuated systems. The book presents recent advances in these areas, contributed by leading international researchers in systems and control. In addition to the theoretical questions treated in the text, particular attention is paid to a number of applications including (mobile) robotics, marine vehicles, neural dynamics and mechanical systems generally. This volume provides a broad picture of the analysis and control of nonlinear systems for scientists and engineers with an interest in the interdisciplinary field of systems and control theory. The reader will benefit from the expert participants' ideas on important open problems with contributions that represent the state of the art in nonlinear control.

This work focuses on the preservation of attractors and saddle points of ordinary differential equations under discretisation. In the 1980s, key results for autonomous ordinary differential equations were obtained - by Beyn for saddle points and by Kloeden & Lorenz for attractors. One-step numerical schemes with a constant step size were considered, so the resulting discrete time dynamical system was also autonomous. One of the aims of this book is to present new findings on the discretisation of dissipative nonautonomous dynamical systems that have been obtained in recent years, and in particular to examine the properties of nonautonomous omega limit sets and their approximations by numerical schemes - results that are also of importance for autonomous systems approximated by a numerical scheme with variable time steps, thus by a discrete time nonautonomous dynamical system.

This work introduces a new method for analysing measured signals: nonlinear mode decomposition, or NMD. It justifies NMD mathematically, demonstrates it in several applications and explains in detail how to use it in practice. Scientists often need to be able to analyse time series data that include a complex combination of oscillatory modes of differing origin, usually contaminated by random fluctuations or noise. Furthermore, the basic oscillation frequencies of the modes may vary in time; for example, human blood flow manifests at least six characteristic frequencies, all of which wander in time. NMD allows us to separate these components from each other and from the noise, with immediate potential applications in diagnosis and prognosis. Mat Lab codes for rapid implementation are available from the author. NMD will most likely come to be used in a broad range of applications.

This book presents a new approach to the analysis of networks, which emphasizes how one can compress a network while preserving all information relative to the network's spectrum. Besides these compression techniques, the authors introduce a number of other isospectral transformations and demonstrate how, together, these methods can be applied to gain new results in a number of areas. This includes the stability of time-delayed and non time-delayed dynamical networks, eigenvalue estimation, pseudospectra analysis and the estimation of survival probabilities in open dynamical systems. The theory of isospectral transformations, developed in this text, can be readily applied in any area that involves the analysis of multidimensional systems and is especially applicable to the analysis of network dynamics. This book will be of interest to Mathematicians, Physicists, Biologists, Engineers and to anyone who has an interest in the dynamics of networks.

This book is the offspring of a summer school school "Macroscopic and large scale phenomena: coarse graining, mean field limits and ergodicity", which was held in 2012 at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. The focus lies on mathematically rigorous methods for multiscale problems of physical origins. Each of the four book chapters is based on a set of lectures delivered at the school, yet all authors have expanded and refined their contributions. Francois Golse delivers a chapter on the dynamics of large particle systems in the mean field limit and surveys the most significant tools and methods to establish such limits with mathematical rigor. Golse discusses in depth a variety of examples, including Vlasov--Poisson and Vlasov--Maxwell systems. Lucia Scardia focuses on the rigorous derivation of macroscopic models using $\Gamma$-convergence, a more recent variational method, which has proved very powerful for problems in material science. Scardia illustrates this by various basic examples and a more advanced case study from dislocation theory. Alexander Mielke's contribution focuses on the multiscale modeling and rigorous analysis of generalized gradient systems through the new concept of evolutionary $\Gamma$-convergence. Numerous evocative examples are given, e.g., relating to periodic homogenization and the passage from viscous to dry friction. Martin Goell and Evgeny Verbitskiy conclude this volume, taking a dynamical systems and ergodic theory viewpoint. They review recent developments in the study of homoclinic points for certain discrete dynamical systems, relating to particle systems via ergodic properties of lattices configurations.

This monograph set presents a consistent and self-contained framework of stochastic dynamic systems with maximal possible completeness. Volume 1 presents the basic concepts, exact results, and asymptotic approximations of the theory of stochastic equations on the basis of the developed functional approach. This approach offers a possibility of both obtaining exact solutions to stochastic problems for a number of models of fluctuating parameters and constructing various asymptotic buildings. Ideas of statistical topography are used to discuss general issues of generating coherent structures from chaos with probability one, i.e., almost in every individual realization of random parameters. The general theory is illustrated with certain problems and applications of stochastic mathematical physics in various fields such as mechanics, hydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, acoustics, optics, and radiophysics.

This book presents collaborative research works carried out by experimentalists and theorists around the world in the field of nonlinear dynamical systems. It provides a forum for applications of nonlinear systems while solving practical problems in science and engineering. Topics include: Applied Nonlinear Optics, Sensor, Radar & Communication Signal Processing, Nano Devices, Nonlinear Biomedical Applications, Circuits & Systems, Coupled Nonlinear Oscillator, Precision Timing Devices, Networks, and other contemporary topics in the general field of Nonlinear Science. This book provides a comprehensive report of the various research projects presented at the International Conference on Applications in Nonlinear Dynamics (ICAND 2016) held in Denver, Colorado, 2016. It can be a valuable tool for scientists and engineering interested in connecting ideas and methods in nonlinear dynamics with actual design, fabrication and implementation of engineering applications or devices.>

This text focuses on a variety of topics in mathematics in common usage in graduate engineering programs including vector calculus, linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations, approximation methods, vector spaces, linear algebra, integral equations and dynamical systems. The book is designed for engineering graduate students who wonder how much of their basic mathematics will be of use in practice. Following development of the underlying analysis, the book takes students through a large number of examples that have been worked in detail. Students can choose to go through each step or to skip ahead if they so desire. After seeing all the intermediate steps, they will be in a better position to know what is expected of them when solving assignments, examination problems, and when on the job. Chapters conclude with exercises for the student that reinforce the chapter content and help connect the subject matter to a variety of engineering problems. Students have grown up with computer-based tools including numerical calculations and computer graphics; the worked-out examples as well as the end-of-chapter exercises often use computers for numerical and symbolic computations and for graphical display of the results.

This book presents a method for evaluating Selberg zeta functions via transfer operators for the full modular group and its congruence subgroups with characters. Studying zeros of Selberg zeta functions for character deformations allows us to access the discrete spectra and resonances of hyperbolic Laplacians under both singular and non-singular perturbations. Areas in which the theory has not yet been sufficiently developed, such as the spectral theory of transfer operators or the singular perturbation theory of hyperbolic Laplacians, will profit from the numerical experiments discussed in this book. Detailed descriptions of numerical approaches to the spectra and eigenfunctions of transfer operators and to computations of Selberg zeta functions will be of value to researchers active in analysis, while those researchers focusing more on numerical aspects will benefit from discussions of the analytic theory, in particular those concerning the transfer operator method and the spectral theory of hyperbolic spaces.

The Theory of Dynamical Systems was first introduced by the great mathematician Henri Poincaré as a qualitative study of differential equations. For more than forty years, Jacob Palis has made outstanding contributions to this area of mathematics. In the 1970s, following in the wake of Stephen Smale, he became one of the major figures in developing the Theory of Hyperbolic Dynamics and Structural Stability. This volume presents a selection of Jacob Palis’ mathematical contributions, starting with his PhD thesis and ending with papers on what is widely known as the Palis Conjecture. Most of the papers included in the present volume are inspired by the earlier work of Poincaré and, more recently, by Steve Smale among others. They aim at providing a description of the general structure of dynamical systems. Jacob Palis, whose work has been distinguished with numerous international prizes, is broadly recognized as the father of the Latin American School of Mathematics in Dynamical Systems and one of the most important scientific personalities on the continent. In 2010 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for his fundamental contributions in the Mathematical Theory of Dynamical Systems, which has been the basis for many applications in various scientific disciplines.

The notes of this book originate from three series of lectures given at the Centre de Recerca Matematica (CRM) in Barcelona. The first one is dedicated to the study of periodic solutions of autonomous differential systems in Rn via the Averaging Theory and was delivered by Jaume Llibre. The second one, given by Richard Moeckel, focusses on methods for studying Central Configurations. The last one, by Carles Simo, describes the main mechanisms leading to a fairly global description of the dynamics in conservative systems. The book is directed towards graduate students and researchers interested in dynamical systems, in particular in the conservative case, and aims at facilitating the understanding of dynamics of specific models. The results presented and the tools introduced in this book include a large range of applications.

The use of pattern recognition and classification is fundamental to many of the automated electronic systems in use today. However, despite the existence of a number of notable books in the field, the subject remains very challenging, especially for the beginner. Pattern Recognition and Classification presents a comprehensive introduction to the core concepts involved in automated pattern recognition. It is designed to be accessible to newcomers from varied backgrounds, but it will also be useful to researchers and professionals in image and signal processing and analysis, and in computer vision. Fundamental concepts of supervised and unsupervised classification are presented in an informal, rather than axiomatic, treatment so that the reader can quickly acquire the necessary background for applying the concepts to real problems. More advanced topics, such as semi-supervised classification, combining clustering algorithms and relevance feedback are addressed in the later chapters. This book is suitable for undergraduates and graduates studying pattern recognition and machine learning.