This book provides a concise introduction to the newly created sub-discipline of solid state physics isotopetronics. The role of isotopes in materials and their properties are describe in this book. The problem of the enigma of the atomic mass in microphysics is briefly discussed. The range of the applications of isotopes is wide: from biochemical process in living organisms to modern technical applications in quantum information. Isotopetronics promises to improve nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices. With numerous illustrations this book is useful to researchers, engineers and graduate students.

Bismuth-containing compounds comprise a relatively unexplored materials system that is expected to offer many unique and desirable optoelectronic, thermoelectric, and electronic properties for innovative device applications. This book serves as a platform for knowledge sharing and dissemination of the latest advances in novel areas of bismuth-containing compounds for materials and devices, and provides a comprehensive introduction to those new to this growing field. Coverage of bismides includes theoretical considerations, epitaxial growth, characterization, and materials properties (optical, electrical, and structural). In addition to the well-studied area of highly mismatched Bi-alloys, the book covers emerging topics such as topological insulators and ferroelectric materials. Built upon fundamental science, the book is intended to stimulate interest in developing new classes of semiconductor and thermoelectric materials that exploit the properties of Bismuth. Application areas for bismide materials include laser diodes for optical communications, DVD systems, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, transistors, quantum well lasers, and spintronic devices.

This book introduces a powerful system that explains how to run a company with a focus on continuous improvement. The results are a satisfied customer base, evolving products and an increase in revenue and profits. These factors determine the success for any company because business transformation involves making fundamental changes in how business is conducted to cope with shifts in the market environment. This a comprehensive book for valuable guidance on framing strategy and overcoming challenges for successful and sustainable implementation of a lean production system, daily management system and lean accounting system in companies to empower the managers to serve their customers with timely delivery of quality products while maximizing profits and easing workloads. The main challenge is ensuring operations colleagues in different functions understand the link between their daily work and the profit and loss statement. In addition, it illustrates how finance personnel can assist the operations team and be a part of the transformation journey. This book is not meant to impart theoretical knowledge of the lean production system, daily management and lean accounting, as there are many books already available that focus on the methodology instead of the implementation. This book empowers people in each function of a company, irrespective of which level they work in the company, and shows them the way to operate on a daily basis to achieve the company's strategy while simultaneously fulfilling their career goals. The book lays out a brief history of the evolution of lean concepts with a focus on lean accounting. This book guides the successful implementation and sustenance of lean and kaizen tools and provides answers to the questions: Who should lead the lean and kaizen implementation in the company? Where should the lean and kaizen journey begin? Which lean and kaizen tools should be implemented first? How important is capacity for the company? How much current capacity is wasted and how much free capacity is available? Where exactly are the resources being wasted in the company? How can the company reduce waste to release capacity for more production? Why should the daily management system and lean accounting system be implemented simultaneously with the lean production system? Why must managers understand the monetary value of their daily activities? Is there an easy way of making a profit and loss statement that is understood at each level in the company? Why is one-day closing of accounts important and how can it be done?

This book deals with the analysis, the design and the implementation of the mechatronic systems. Classical and modern tools are developed for the analysis and the design for such systems. Robust control, H-Infinity and guaranteed cost control theory are also used for analysis and design of mechatronic systems. Different controller such as state feedback, static output feedback and dynamic output feedback controllers are used to stabilize mechatronic systems.

Heuristic algorithms are provided to solve the design of the classical controller such as PID, phase lead, phase lag and phase lead-lag controllers while linear matrix inequalities (LMI) algorithms are provided for finding solutions to the state feedback, static output feedback and dynamic output feedback controllers.

The theory presented in the different chapters of the volume is applied to numerical examples to show the usefulness of the theoretical results. Some case studies are also provided to show how the developed concepts apply for real system.

Emphasis is also put on the implementation in real-time for some real systems that we have developed in our mechatronic laboratory and all the detail is provided to give an idea to the reader how to implement its own mechatronic system.

Mechatronics Systems: Analysis, Design and Implementation is an excellent textbook for undergraduate and graduate students in mechatronic system and control theory and as a reference for academic researchers in control or mathematics with interest in control theory. The reader should have completed first-year graduate courses in control theory, linear algebra, and linear systems. It will also be of great value to engineers practising in fields where the systems can be modeled by linear time invariant systems.

This book presents inductive and hybrid levitation micro-systems and their applications in micro-sensors and -actuators. It proposes and discusses analytical and quasi-finite element techniques for modeling levitation micro-systems based on the Lagrangian formalism. In particular, micro-bearings, -actuators, -accelerators and -accelerometers based on inductive levitation are comprehensively described with accompanying experimental measurements.

All machining process are dependent on a number of inherent process parameters. It is of the utmost importance to find suitable combinations to all the process parameters so that the desired output response is optimized. While doing so may be nearly impossible or too expensive by carrying out experiments at all possible combinations, it may be done quickly and efficiently by using computational intelligence techniques. Due to the versatile nature of computational intelligence techniques, they can be used at different phases of the machining process design and optimization process. While powerful machine-learning methods like gene expression programming (GEP), artificial neural network (ANN), support vector regression (SVM), and more can be used at an early phase of the design and optimization process to act as predictive models for the actual experiments, other metaheuristics-based methods like cuckoo search, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, and others can be used to optimize these predictive models to find the optimal process parameter combination. These machining and optimization processes are the future of manufacturing. Data-Driven Optimization of Manufacturing Processes contains the latest research on the application of state-of-the-art computational intelligence techniques from both predictive modeling and optimization viewpoint in both soft computing approaches and machining processes. The chapters provide solutions applicable to machining or manufacturing process problems and for optimizing the problems involved in other areas of mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering, making it a valuable reference tool. This book is addressed to engineers, scientists, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the potential of recently developed powerful computational intelligence techniques towards improving the performance of machining processes.

Chemical sensors are integral to the automation of myriad industrial processes and everyday monitoring of such activities as public safety, engine performance, medical therapeutics, and many more. This 5 volume reference work covering simulation and modeling will serve as the perfect complement to Momentum Press's 6 volume reference works 'Chemical Sensors: Fundamentals of Sensing Materials' and 'Chemical Sensors: Comprehensive Sensor Technologies', which present detailed information related to materials, technologies, construction and application of various devices for chemical sensing. This 5 volume comprehensive reference work analyzes approaches used for computer simulation and modeling in various fields of chemical sensing and discusses various phenomena important for chemical sensing such as bulk and surface diffusion, adsorption, surface reactions, sintering, conductivity, mass transport, interphase interactions, etc. In this work it will be shown that theoretical modeling and simulation of the processes, being a basic for chemical sensors operation, could provide considerable progress in choosing both optimal materials and optimal configurations of sensing elements for using in chemical sensors. Each simulation and modeling volume in the present series reviews modeling principles and approaches peculiar to specific groups of materials and devices applied for chemical sensing. Volume 3: Solid State Devices covers phenomenological and molecular modelling of processes which control sensing characteristics and parameters of various solid state chemical sensors including surface acoustic wave, MIS, microcantilever, thermoelectric-based devices and sensor array aimed for electronic nose design. Modeling of nanomaterials and nanosystems promising for solid state chemical sensors design is analyzed as well.

This text provides an in-depth overview of sustainability in machining processes, challenges during machining of difficult-to-cut materials and different ways of green machining in achieving sustainability. It discusses important topics including green and sustainable machining, dry machining, textured cutting coated tools for machining, solid lubricants-based machining, gas-cooled machining, cryogenic cooling for intelligent machining, artificial neural network for machining, big data based machining, and hybrid intelligent machining. This book- Covers advances in sustainable machining such as gas-cooled machining, near dry machining, and minimum quantity lubrication. Explores use of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence for machining processes. Provides case studies and experimental design as well as results with analysis focusing on achieving sustainability. Discusses artificial intelligence and machine learning based machining processes. Cover the latest applications of sustainable manufacturing for a better understanding of the concepts. The text is primarily written for senior undergraduate, graduate students, and researchers in the fields of mechanical, manufacturing, industrial, production engineering and materials science.

In 1982, ownership of Matchbox die cast toys, the most popular metal vehicles in the world, passed from Lesney to Universal. The toys produced under Universal's ownership are documented in this thorough text. It includes the vehicles and a wide variety of other toys manufactured under the Matchbox logo, including infants' educational toys, dolls, and puzzles. This is the third in a series (preceded by Lesney's Matchbox Toys: The Superfast years, 1969-1982 and Lesney's Matchbox toys, Regular Wheel Years, 1947-1969, published by Schiffer Publishing) of marvelous Matchbox books by Charlie Mack. In this revised edition, he has gathered fine color photographs of all the vehicles, their variations, and the other toys produced by Universal. Additional materials include lists of places of interest for the collector to visit and mail order sources.

Presents reasons for the supply chain disruption from various perspective and includes case studies along with an historical perspective for guidance Explores how the supply chain will take shape post COVID-19 Discusses likely future scenarios of new and emerging supply chains Describes various MCDM tools used to make complex decisions by companies to stay ahead Offers domain experts' opinions and views to help in formulating real-time strategies

This book focusses on Industry 4.0 which is one of the most challenging trends for all categories of manufacturing enterprises. In this book, variety of mechatronic solutions are discussed to develop a manufacturing control system for small and medium-sized enterprises as they impose to improve their capabilities by integration into Industry 4.0 standards.

This book delivers a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of several types of materials that are widely used in the current era of supercapacitors; namely, architectured carbon materials, transition metal oxides and conducting polymers. It provides readers with a complete introduction to the fundamentals of supercapacitors, including the development of new electrolytes and electrodes, while highlighting the advantages, challenges, applications and future of these materials. This book is part of the Handbook of Nanocomposite Supercapacitor Materials. Supercapacitors have emerged as promising devices for electrochemical energy storage, playing an important role in energy harvesting for meeting the current demands of increasing global energy consumption. The handbook covers the materials science and engineering of nanocomposite supercapacitors, ranging from their general characteristics and performance to materials selection, design and construction. Covering both fundamentals and recent developments, this handbook serves a readership encompassing students, professionals and researchers throughout academia and industry, particularly in the fields of materials chemistry, electrochemistry, and energy storage and conversion. It is ideal as a reference work and primary resource for any introductory senior-level undergraduate or beginning graduate course covering supercapacitors.

This book studies the collision, coalescence and deposition of nanoparticles in stagnation flames. With the help of synthesis experiments, in-situ laser diagnostics and molecular dynamics simulations, it investigates the growth of nanoparticles in flames and their deposition in boundary layers at a macroscopic flow field scale, as well as particle and molecular scale issues such as the interaction force between particles, how the collision rate is enhanced by attractive forces, and how the nano-scale coalescence process is influenced by the high surface curvature - all of which are crucial to understanding nanoparticle transport phenomena at high temperatures. The book also reports on a novel in-situ laser diagnostics phenomenon called phase-selective laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and related applications for tracing gas-to-particle transitions and measuring local particle volume fractions in nano-aerosols.

This book guides process-industry professionals from the implementation of the basic foundations of Continuous Improvement (CI) through to an organization where CI is a "way of life" and a defining feature of the culture of the organization. The readers of this book are seeking solutions to such pressing issues as: * Eliminating accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Elimination of accidents and near misses. * Reducing customer complaints. * Improving customer delivery performance. * Introducing new products. * Improving staff productivity. * Removing costs to meet the budget. * Dealing with absence and poor morale. * Improving staff retention. This book provides them with guidance on how to address issues in these areas in a way that enables improvements to be realized quickly but not at the expense of a long-term goal of a sustainable Continuous Improvement culture. In addition, this book presents the implementation of CI as a cyclical journey with no endpoint. The stages are ordered in a sequence that enables the reader to get started in their area of the company and build up the elements without the need for an overall organizational strategy at the beginning. Continuous Improvement is a vast subject with many takes on principles, approaches, and tools. This book is about how all the fundamentals of these areas fit together and, as such, covers only some of them. However, within the bibliography, I have signposted the books that have guided me during my career and which go into the principles, approaches, and tools further.

The learning objectives of this book are to: Show how individual objectives drive towards the organizational objectives Answer the question, "How do I influence leadership and get everyone on board"? Build on the principles of enterprise excellence Understand the relationship between behaviors, systems, principles, and how they drive to results Learn how KBIs drive KPIs and how this leads to excellent results.

This book contains a selection of papers presented at the Second National Conference on Sensors held in Rome 19-21 February 2014. The conference highlighted state-of-the-art results from both theoretical and applied research in the field of sensors and related technologies. This book presents material in an interdisciplinary approach, covering many aspects of the disciplines related to sensors, including physics, chemistry, materials science, biology and applications.

More than a fashion accessory or means to tell the time, the wristwatch has become a statement of identity; politician or celebrity, scientist or sportsman, what you choose to wear on your wrist speaks volumes about who you are. The World's Most Expensive Watches presents some of the most extravagant, intricate, collectable, decadent, or just plain interesting modern-day timepieces that sit at the top of the price spectrum. Starting at a threshold price of about $200,000, it is a trip through the last decade or so of watches whose values soar incredibly to prices of $5 million dollars or more. Additionally, there is a selection of notable watches that yielded extremely high prices at auction - many of which are historically relevant. A stunning collection that is both informative and entertaining; with detailed descriptions of individual watches and articles that usefully deconstruct the price tag with an explanation of the relevance of craftsmanship and complexity of design, as well as the importance of exclusivity, prestige and collectability. Prepare to be impressed by a larger-than-life-look at some relatively small items that command not only huge prices but kudos and respect, in all areas of a global society fascinated with using accessorising to create identity. This is the second expanded and updated edition.

Intelligent systems are systems that, given some data, are able to learn from that data. This makes it possible for complex systems to be modeled and/or for performance to be predicted. In turn, intelligent systems functionality can be controlled through learning/training, without the need for a priori knowledge of their structure. Intelligent Systems for Machine Olfaction: Tools and Methodologies introduces new, state-of-the art applications of intelligent systems to researchers and developers in the area of machine olfaction. Readers will benefit from in-depth analyses of fundamental theories, potential trends, and key literature in the field, making this work both a source of application examples that can be readily implemented and a practical guide for the implementation of solutions in other scenarios.

"Two of the most important trends in sensor development in recent years have been advances in micromachined sensing elements of all kinds, and the increase in intelligence applied at the sensor level. This book addresses both, and provides a good overview of current technology." -- I&CS

Featuring chapters on physics, structure, sound and design specifics, "Technology of the Guitar" also includes coverage of historical content, composition of strings and their effects on sound quality, and important designs. Additionally, author Mark French discusses case studies of historically significant and technologically innovative instruments.

This is a complete reference useful for a broad range of readers including guitar manufacturer employees, working luthiers, and interested guitar enthusiasts who do not have a science or engineering background.

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Increasing legislative and environmental pressure requires businesses to become more responsive to products that either have been returned or that are at the end of their useful lives. Life cycles are getting shorter, and efficient handling can save large amounts of money since many materials can be extracted and reused or redistributed. Reverse logistics (RL) and closed loop supply chains (CLSC) have garnered growing interest as a way to manage this reverse flow of product in a cost effective way. Introduction to Management of Reverse Logistics (RL) and Closed Loop Supply Chain(CLSC) Processes provides an overall treatment of CLSC and RL, a qualitative and quantitative presentation of the size and dimensions of the overall market and industry, and a look at future trends. The author discusses key issues and trends in management and operation, strategic, tactical, and operational issues for implementation, and a pragmatic evaluation of the realities of running a CLSC or an RL business. Since most supply chains are not designed to handle reverse materials flows effectively, this is a crucial resource for managers who wish to ensure a smooth flow of materials while extracting the maximum value from returned and end-of-life goods.

Dynamics is a science concerned with movement and changes. In the most general approach it relates to life processes as well as behavior in nature in rest. It governs small particles, technical objects, conversion of matter and materials but also concerns people, groups of people in their individual and, in particular, social dimension.

In dynamics we always have to do with causes or stimuli for motion, the rules of reaction or behavior and its result in the form of trajectory of changes.

This book is devoted to dynamics of a wide class of specific but very important objects such as electromechanical systems. This is a very rigorous discipline and has a long tradition, as its theoretical bases were formulated in the first half of the XIX century by d' Alembert, Lagrange, Hamilton, Maxwell and other prominent scientists, but their crucial results were based on previous pioneering research of others such as Copernicus, Galileo, Newton...

This book in its theoretical foundations is based on the principle of least action which governs classical as well as relativistic mechanics and electromagnetism and leads to Lagrange's equations which are applied in the book as universal method to construct equations of motion of electromechanical systems. It gives common and coherent grounds to formulate mathematical models for all lumped parameters' electromechanical systems, which are vital in our contemporary industry and civilized everyday life.

From these remarks it seems that the book is general and theoretical but in fact it is a very practical one concerning modern electrical drives in a broad sense, including electromechanical energy conversion, induction motor drives, brushless DC drives with a permanent magnet excitation and switched reluctance machines (SRM). And of course their control, which means shaping of their trajectories of motion using modern tools, their designed autonomy in keeping a track according to our programmed expectations.

The problems presented in the book are widely illustrated by characteristics, trajectories, dynamic courses all computed by use of developed simulation models throughout the book. There are some classical subjects and the history of the discipline is discussed but finally all modern tools and means are presented and applied.

More detailed descriptions follow in abstracts for the particular chapters.

The author hopes kind readers will enjoy and profit from reading this book.

Our work life is changing. Every day new companies, technologies, and ideas emerge that impact how, where, and most importantly, why we work. Despite this exciting evolution, people remain the heart of change. People are tricky. People don't seem to evolve as fast as global trends. People get Stuck. Teams have people moving at different speeds with different levels of adoption in our evolving workplace. Some evolve and some don't. Teams get Stuck. Leaders, managers, and teammates struggle with this resistance and get frustrated. Frustrated people impact the performance of every organization. Organizations get Stuck. Why? The answer is deeply human and biological, rooted in the way our brain interacts with everything in the world, even work. When people feel they are losing something, they react by getting Stuck. Stuck connects over 20 years of research on our brain's reaction to the evolving workplace with real stories of people journeying through the challenge of being Stuck. The organizations, leaders, and managers who understand these concepts will evolve with the future. Those organizations will understand LOSS as a tool to achieve business WINs. This book addresses a critical concept that closes a gap in other popular business publications. Many books tell leaders and managers the process of how to change their organizations. However, many of these books lack a key mechanism for understanding human interactions. The mechanism is a biological function developed through evolution called attachment - the human need to connect to different tangible and intangible objects for support. Attachment is the reason that people connect with leaders and corporate culture, but also what creates a deep sense of loss during even the smallest changes. Stuck offers a complete understanding of attachment and how it impacts individuals, relationships, and organizations. The root of the challenge is the human need to connect to different tangible and intangible objects for support. The basis of the need for support is grounded in our need for attachment. Those who learn to understand loss through attachment behavior and the attachments of others will succeed. In addition, this book provides original data-based evidence from assessments conducted with nearly 20,000 respondents and original stories from the application of attachment concepts in more than 150 organizations across all sectors around the globe. It shines a light on attachment and use it as a lens to better understand our workplace. Stuck is not an academic study. It is a practical guide for leading the brain through change. For the first time, the authors tell stories that demonstrate their research and offer a roadmap for how to leverage attachment research to drive business success. Stuck provides not only the deep lessons from the authors' research, but clear steps for readers to use the lessons of attachment in their own work. In this way, the book serves as a guide to those leaders, managers, and employees who are ready to be unStuck.

This book presents device design, layout design, FEM analysis, device fabrication, and packaging and testing of MEMS-based piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters. It serves as a complete guide from design, FEM, and fabrication to characterization. Each chapter of this volume illustrates key insight technologies through images. The book showcases different technologies for energy harvesting and the importance of energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks. The design, simulation, and comparison of three types of structures - single beam cantilever structure, cantilever array structure, and guided beam structure have also been reported in one of the chapters. In this volume, an elaborate characterization of two-beam and four-beam fabricated devices has been carried out. This characterization includes structural, material, morphological, topological, dynamic, and electrical characterization of the device. The volume is very concise, easy to understand, and contains colored images to understand the details of each process.

Nanorobots can be defined as intelligent systems with overall dimensions at or below the micrometer range that are made of assemblies of nanoscale components with individual dimensions ranging between 1 to 100 nm. These devices can now perform a wide variety of tasks at the nanoscale in a wide variety of fields including but not limited to fields such as manufacturing, medicine, supply chain, biology, and aerospace. Nanorobotics: Current Approaches and Techniques offers a comprehensive overview of this emerging interdisciplinary field with a wide ranging discussion that includes nano-manipulation and industrial nanorobotics, nanorobotic manipulation in biology and medicine, nanorobotic sensing, navigation and swarm behavior and CNT, and protein and DNA-based nanorobotics.