Covering both the history of mathematics and of philosophy, Descartes's Mathematical Thought reconstructs the intellectual career of Descartes most comprehensively and originally in a global perspective including the history of early modern China and Japan. Especially, it shows what the concept of "mathesis universalis" meant before and during the period of Descartes and how it influenced the young Descartes. In fact, it was the most fundamental mathematical discipline during the seventeenth century, and for Descartes a key notion which may have led to his novel mathematics of algebraic analysis.

In response to new developments in the field, practical teaching experience, and readers' suggestions, the authors of the warmly received Reliablity Evaluation of Engineering Systems have updated and extended the work-providing extended coverage of fault trees and a more complete examination of probability distribution, among other things-without disturbing the original's concept, structure, or style.

The UN designated the decade 2005-2015 as the International Decade for Action - Water for Life. The move was initiated at the third World Water Forum in Kyoto, 2003, and it could prove the most significant and effective outcome of the triennial series of World Water For a yet. Its major aims are: (1) to promote efforts to fulfil recent international commitments, especially in the Millennium Goals, (2) to advance towards a truly integrated, int- national approach to sustainable water management, and (3) to put special emphasis on the role of women in these efforts. Even so, it faces tremendous and, as I write, increasing obstacles. The intense season of hurricanes and tropical storms in 2008 illustrated yet again not only the power of nature, but also the vulnerability of the poorer nations, like Haiti and Jamaica. New Orleans and Texas fared better, not because of the efforts of the International Decade for Natural Disasters (1990-2000) to increase preparedness, but more because the USA had learnt from its own experiences in Hurricane Katrina. The biggest obstacle of all is the burgeoning world population. It took off last century, but it is predicted to reach unimaginable heights this century: at least 10 billion by 2050, maybe 20 billion by 2100. Governments are powerless to halt it, even the Chinese. Achieving water security globally against this backdrop will be a Herculean task.

The resilience of computing systems includes their dependability as well as their fault tolerance and security. It defines the ability of a computing system to perform properly in the presence of various kinds of disturbances and to recover from any service degradation. These properties are immensely important in a world where many aspects of our daily life depend on the correct, reliable and secure operation of often large-scale distributed computing systems. Wolter and her co-editors grouped the 20 chapters from leading researchers into seven parts: an introduction and motivating examples, modeling techniques, model-driven prediction, measurement and metrics, testing techniques, case studies, and conclusions. The core is formed by 12 technical papers, which are framed by motivating real-world examples and case studies, thus illustrating the necessity and the application of the presented methods. While the technical chapters are independent of each other and can be read in any order, the reader will benefit more from the case studies if he or she reads them together with the related techniques. The papers combine topics like modeling, benchmarking, testing, performance evaluation, and dependability, and aim at academic and industrial researchers in these areas as well as graduate students and lecturers in related fields. In this volume, they will find a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in a field of continuously growing practical importance.

This book presents a bibliographical review of the use of Bayesian networks in reliability over the last decade. Bayesian network (BN) is considered to be one of the most powerful models in probabilistic knowledge representation and inference, and it is increasingly used in the field of reliability. After focusing on the engineering systems, the book subsequently discusses twelve important issues in the BN-based reliability methodologies, such as BN structure modeling, BN parameter modeling, BN inference, validation, and verification. As such, it is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners in the field of reliability engineering.

This contributed volume contains the research results of the priority programme (PP) 1480 "Modelling, Simulation and Compensation of Thermal Effects for Complex Machining Processes", funded by the German Research Society (DFG). The topical focus of this programme is the simulation-based prediction and compensation of thermally induced workpiece deviations and subsurface damage effects. The approach to the topic is genuinely interdisciplinary, covering all relevant machining operations such as turning, milling, drilling and grinding. The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners in the field of production engineering, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Process planning determines how a product is to be manufactured and is therefore a key element in the manufacturing process. It plays a major part in determining the cost of components and affects all factory activities, company competitiveness, production planning, production efficiency and product quality. It is a crucial link between design and manufacturing. There are several levels of process planning activities. Early in product engineering and development, process planning is responsible for determining the general method of production. The selected general method of production affects the design constraints. In the last stages of design, the designer has to consider ease of manufacturing in order for it to be economic. The part design data is transferred from engineering to manufacturing and process planners develop the detailed work package for manufacturing a part. Dimensions and tolerances are determined for each stage of processing of the workpiece. Process planning determines the sequence of operations and utilization of machine tools. Cutting tools, fixtures, gauges and other accessory tooling are also specified. Feeds, speeds and other parameters of the metal cutting and forming processes are determined.

There is today a wide range of pubLications avaiLabLe on the theory of reLiabiLity and the technique of ProbabiListic Safety AnaLysis (PSA). To pLace this work properLy in this context, we must recaLL a basic concept underLying both theory and technique, that of redundancy. ReLiabiLity is something which can be designed into a system, by the introduction of redundancy at appropriate points. John Von Neumann's historic paper of 1952 'ProbabiListic Logics and the Synthesis of ReLiabLe Organisms from UnreLiabLe Components" has served as inspiration for aLL subsequent work on systems reLiabiLity. This paper sings the praises of redundancy as a means of designing reLiabiLity into systems, or, to use Von Neumann's words, of minimising error. Redundancy, then, is a fundamentaL characteristic which a designer seeks to buiLd in by using appropriate structuraL characteristics of the 'modeL" or representation which he uses for his work. But any modeL is estabLished through a process of de Limination and decomposition. FirstLy, a "Universe of Discourse" is delineated; its component eLements are then separated out; and moreover in a probabiListic framework for each eLement each possibLe state is defined and assigned an appropriate possibiLity measure caLLed probability.

Units or systems can fail when they suffer shock and when the total damage exceeds a failure level. Shock and damage models describe catastrophic and degradation failures of units or systems and these reliability models are analyzed using the theory of stochastic processes.

Shock and Damage Models in Reliability Engineering is the first book to describe the reliability properties and maintenance policies associated with shock and damage models. The author is a leading researcher in this field with over thirty yearsa (TM) experience. The book introduces stochastic processes before surveying current developments in shock and damage models. The reliability quantities of each model are explained and their optimization problems are discussed analytically. The maintenance policies of these models are explored in terms of maintenance theory and reliability theory and practical applications of all of these models are revealed with case studies.

Reliability engineers and managers engaged in maintenance work will find Shock and Damage Models in Reliability Engineering a comprehensive reference. As a detailed treatment of this specific area, this book will also be of interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers who are studying reliability engineering and applied stochastic processes.

This volume will define the direction of eddy-current technology in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) in the twenty-first century. It describes the natural marriage of the computer to eddy-current NDE, and its publication was encouraged by favorable responses from workers in the nuclear-power and aerospace industries. It will be used by advanced students and practitioners in the fields of computational electromagnetics, electromagnetic inverse-scattering theory, nondestructive evaluation, materials evaluation and biomedical imaging, among others, and will be based on our experience in applying the subject of computational electromagnetics to these areas, as manifested by our recent research and publications. Finally, it will be a reference to future monographs on advanced NDE that are being contemplated by our colleagues and others. Its importance lies in the fact that it will be the first book to show that advanced computational methods can be used to solve practical, but difficult, problems in eddy-current NDE. In fact, in many cases these methods are the only things available for solving the problems. The book will cover the topic of computational electromagnetics in eddy-current nondestructive evaluation (NDE) by emphasizing three distinct topics: (a) fundamental mathematical principles of volume-integral equations as a subset of computational electromagnetics, (b) mathematical algorithms applied to signal-processing and inverse scattering problems, and (c) applications of these two topics to problems in which real and model data are used. This will make the book more than an academic exercise; we expect it to be valuable to users of eddy-current NDE technology in industries as varied as nuclear power, aerospace, materials characterization and biomedical imaging. We know of no other book on the market that covers this material in the manner in which we will present it, nor are there any books, to our knowledge, that apply this material to actual test situations that are of importance to the industries cited. It will be the first book to actually define the modern technology of eddy-current NDE, by showing how mathematics and the computer will solve problems more effectively than current analog practice.

This book concentrates on the problem of accurate modeling of linear systems. It presents a thorough description of a method of modeling a linear dynamic invariant system by its transfer function. The first two chapters provide a general introduction and review for those readers who are unfamiliar with identification theory so that they have a sufficient background knowledge for understanding the methods described later. The main body of the book looks at the basic method used by the authors to estimate the parameter of the transfer function, how it is possible to optimize the excitation signals. Further chapters extend the estimation method proposed. Applications are then discussed and the book concludes with practical guidelines which illustrate the method and offer some rules-of-thumb.

This book collects a high-quality selection of contemporary research and case studies on the complexity resulting from human/reliability management in industrial plants and critical infrastructures. It includes: Human-error management issues-considering how to reduce human errors as much as possible. Reliability management issues-considering the ability of a system or component to function under certain conditions for a specified period of time. Thus, the book analyses globally the problem regarding the human and reliability management to reduce human errors as much as possible and to ensure safety and security in critical infrastructures. Accidents continue to be the major concern in "critical infrastructures", and human factors have been proved to be the prime causes to accidents. Clearly, human dynamics are a challenging management function to guarantee reliability, safety and costs reduction in critical infrastructures. The book is enriched by figures, examples and extensive case studies and is a valuable reference resource for those with involved in disaster and emergency planning as well as researchers interested both in theoretical and practical aspects.

This book is a guide to modern production planning methods based on new scientific achievements and various practical planning rules of thumb. Several numerical examples illustrate most of the calculation methods, while the text includes a set of programs for calculating production schedules and an example of a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Despite the relatively large number of books dedicated to this topic, Advanced Planning and Scheduling is the first book of its kind to feature such a wide range of information in a single work, a fact that inspired the author to write this book and publish an English translation. This work consists of two parts, with the first part addressing the design of reference and mathematical models, bottleneck models and multi-criteria models and presenting various sample models. It describes demand-forecasting methods and also includes considerations for aggregating forecasts. Lastly, it provides reference information on methods for data stocking and sorting. The second part of the book analyzes various stock planning models and the rules of safety stock calculation, while also considering the stock traffic dynamics in supply chains. Various batch computation methods are described in detail, while production planning is considered on several levels, including supply planning for customers, master planning, and production scheduling. This book can be used as a reference and manual for current planning methods. It is aimed at production planning department managers, company information system specialists, as well as scientists and PhD students conducting research in production planning. It will also be a valuable resource for students at universities of applied sciences.

Over the past two decades, research in the theory of Petri nets and the development of graphical tools has yielded a powerful methodology. The contributions in Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation present theoretical development of Petri nets as well as in industrial applications to areas such as discrete- event control design, scheduling, performance evaluation and deadlock avoidance. These contributions also include comparative studies of Petri nets and other approaches. A primary theme of this book is to provide a unified approach to the applications of Petri nets in flexible and agile automation and, in that regard, a common notation and terminology is used. The book also allows readers to evaluate the benefits and applicability of state-of-the-art Petri net methods and apply CAD tools to problems of interest. Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation is not only an essential reference for researchers, it is also a very useful tool for engineers, analysts and managers who are responsible for the design, implementation and operation of the next generation of manufacturing systems.

Adaptive Internal Model Control is a methodology for the design and analysis of adaptive internal model control schemes with provable guarantees of stability and robustness. Written in a self-contained tutorial fashion, this research monograph successfully brings the latest theoretical advances in the design of robust adaptive systems to the realm of industrial applications. It provides a theoretical basis for analytically justifying some of the reported industrial successes of existing adaptive internal model control schemes, and enables the reader to synthesise adaptive versions of their own favourite robust internal model control scheme by combining it with a robust adaptive law. The net result is that earlier empirical IMC designs can now be systematically robustified or replaced altogether by new designs with assured guarantees of stability and robustness.

In this global society, manufacturers compete in many ways, and information infrastructures play a critical role in ensuring the right information is available at the right time and the right place to support informed decision making. The traditional approach that assumes all information can be located on a single mainframe and accessed by everybody in the enterprise has fallen by the wayside, and new infrastructures supporting extended or virtual enterprises and globally distributed supply chains are becoming increasingly vital to successful, competitive organizations. Functions, data, and information must be made be available to all without regard to location, accessibility, or the ability to view in a native format. This book is a result of a conference, which brought together a number of leading experts from around the world that work on topics related to the design, implementation, and use of information infrastructures for manufacturing. These experts presented their views on the state of the art, and on a wide variety of topics related to the title. The topics range from the establishment of a generic enterprise framework, which can be used for the design of a supporting information infrastructure to details of how geometric surfaces should be merged together. Although not an exhaustive publication, we believe that the publications in this book represent the state of the art in this research is essential reading for anyone who is attempting the design or development of an information infrastructure for all aspects of Manufacturing.

This book introduces model studies associated with laser surface processing such as conduction limited heating, surface re-melting, Marangoni flow and its effects on the temperature field, re-melting of multi-layered surfaces, laser shock processing, and practical applications. The book provides insight into the physical processes involved with laser surface heating and phase change in laser irradiated region. It is written for engineers and researchers working on laser surface engineering.

The central purpose of this book is to impart knowledge, skills and practical - plementation methods for the planning and operation of adaptable production - cilities and factories. It addresses planning methods and procedures for various types of production facility up to and including entire factories, and is aimed at practicing factory planners and students alike. The book provides facts and demonstrates practical processes using case studies for the purposes of illustration, so that ultimately skills can be acquired that make independent practical implementation and app- cation possible. It is based on up-to-the-minute practical experience and univ- sally applicable knowledge of the planning and technological design of adaptable production facilities (manufacturing and assembly) and factories. In comparison to existing, thematically-similar reference books, what is in- vative about this manual is that it provides the impulse for a more flexible pl- ning approach for the efficient design of adaptable production facilities using - sponsive, unconventional planning and organizational solutions. The book aims to provide a way of integrating systematic and situation-driven planning methods in a meaningful way. Situation-driven planning is becoming increasingly important to production facilities in these fast-moving times of change, in particular in terms of resource and energy efficiency. Existing technical and organizational course of action in terms of resources (both human and technical) need to be selected for the specific case at hand, and changes (to workshops, products, processes and equ- ment) need to be managed.

This handbook focuses on a series of concepts, models and technologies which can be used to improve current practice in life cycle engineering in manufacturing companies around the world. Experts on the main issues relating to life cycle engineering have produced a superb collection of chapters. All the contributing authors are researchers and engineers in the fields of manufacturing paradigms, enterprise integration, product life cycle and technologies for life cycle engineering. Academics and researchers will find this book to be a valuable reference tool. The book illustrates those key factors that ensure successful enterprise and product life cycle integration. Due to the book being developed as a joint industry and university project, its approach should be helpful to both practising professionals and academics. An overview of life cycle engineering concepts, models, methodologies and practices that have been proved to significantly improve the integration and productivity of manufacturing companies have been clearly explained in this handbook. This book will be essential for engineers, designers, product support personnel dealing with enterprise engineering projects. It will also be of immense use to lecturers and senior lecturers working in the fields of enterprise integration, product development, concurrent engineering and integrated manufacturing systems.

Atomic Information Technology revaluates current conceptions of the information technology aspects of the nuclear industry. Economic and safety research in the nuclear energy sector are explored, considering statistical methods which incorporate Monte-Carlo simulations for practical applications. Divided into three sections, Atomic Information Technology covers: Atomic economics and management, Atomic safety and reliability, and Atomic safeguarding and security. Either as a standalone volume or as a companion to conventional nuclear safety and reliability books, Atomic Information Technology acts as a concise and thorough reference on statistical assessment technology in the nuclear industry. Students and industry professionals alike will find this a key tool in expanding and updating their understanding of this industry and the applications of information technology within it.

The most powerful computers in the world are not only used for scientific research, defence, and business, but also in game playing. Computer games are a multi-billion dollar industry. Recent advances in computational intelligence paradigms have generated tremendous interest among researchers in the theory and implementation of games. Game theory is a branch of operational research dealing with decision theory in a competitive situation. Game theory involves the mathematical calculations and heuristics to optimize the efficient lines of play. This book presents a sample of the most recent research on the application of computational intelligence techniques in games. This book contains 7 chapters. The first chapter, by Chen, Fanelli, Castellano, and Jain, is an introduction to computational intelligence paradigms. It presents the basics of the main constituents of compu tational intelligence paradigms including knowledge representation, probability-based approaches, fuzzy logic, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and rough sets. In the second chapter, Chellapilla and Fogel present the evolution of a neural network to play checkers without human expertise. This chapter focuses on the use of a population of neural networks, where each network serves as an evaluation function to describe the quality of the current board position. After only a little more than 800 generations, the evolutionary process has generated a neural network that can play checkers at the expert level as designated by the u.s. Chess Federation rating system. The program developed by the authors has also competed well against commercially available software."

'Micro-scaled Products Development via Microforming' presents state-of-the-art research on microforming processes, and focuses on the development of micro-scaled metallic parts via microforming processes. Microforming refers to the fabrication of microparts via micro-scaled plastic deformation and presents a promising micromanufacturing process. When compared to other micromanufacturing processes, microforming offers advantages such as high productivity and good mechanical properties of the deformed microparts. This book provides extensive and informative illustrations, tables and photos in order to convey this information clearly and directly to readers. Although the knowledge of macroforming processes is abundant and widely used in industry, microparts cannot be developed by leveraging existing knowledge of macroforming because the size effect presents a barrier to this knowledge transfer. Therefore systematic knowledge of microforming needs to be developed. In tandem with product miniaturization, the demand on microparts has been increased for their wide applications in many industries, including automotive, bio-medical, aerospace and consumer electronics industries. Micromanufacturing technologies have thus become more and more important. This book is intended for postgraduates, manufacturing engineers and professionals working in the areas of manufacturing and materials processing.

Focusing on shocks modeling, burn-in and heterogeneous populations, Stochastic Modeling for Reliability naturally combines these three topics in the unified stochastic framework and presents numerous practical examples that illustrate recent theoretical findings of the authors. The populations of manufactured items in industry are usually heterogeneous. However, the conventional reliability analysis is performed under the implicit assumption of homogeneity, which can result in distortion of the corresponding reliability indices and various misconceptions. Stochastic Modeling for Reliability fills this gap and presents the basics and further developments of reliability theory for heterogeneous populations. Specifically, the authors consider burn-in as a method of elimination of 'weak' items from heterogeneous populations. The real life objects are operating in a changing environment. One of the ways to model an impact of this environment is via the external shocks occurring in accordance with some stochastic point processes. The basic theory for Poisson shock processes is developed and also shocks as a method of burn-in and of the environmental stress screening for manufactured items are considered. Stochastic Modeling for Reliability introduces and explores the concept of burn-in in heterogeneous populations and its recent development, providing a sound reference for reliability engineers, applied mathematicians, product managers and manufacturers alike.

Despite the numerous competitive advantages of one-of-a-kind production (OKP), the low efficiency and high costs associated with OKP companies threaten to push their business opportunities into the hands of cheaper overseas suppliers.

"One-of-a-Kind Production" introduces a novel strategy and technology to help OKP companies to efficiently mass-produce customized products. In "One-of-a-Kind Production, " case studies from OKP companies are used to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the OKP strategy and technology. These case studies include: a structural steel construction company, a manufacturer of specifically ordered compressors and refrigeration systems, a customized high pressure vessel manufacturing company, anda custom window and door manufacturer.

To help readers understand OKP strategy and technology, the authors offer a year s free access to the OKP Management and Control Software System. This system is based on a new integrated production control and management concept, namely product production structure. It is a useful tool and "One-of-a-Kind Production" is a valuable guide for production engineers and managerial staff in manufacturing companies, as well as for university researchers and graduate students.