The complexity of modern chip design requires extensive use of specialized software throughout the process. To achieve the best results, a user of this software needs a high-level understanding of the underlying mathematical models and algorithms. In addition, a developer of such software must have a keen understanding of relevant computer science aspects, including algorithmic performance bottlenecks and how various algorithms operate and interact. This book introduces and compares the fundamental algorithms that are used during the IC physical design phase, wherein a geometric chip layout is produced starting from an abstract circuit design. This updated second edition includes recent advancements in the state-of-the-art of physical design, and builds upon foundational coverage of essential and fundamental techniques. Numerous examples and tasks with solutions increase the clarity of presentation and facilitate deeper understanding. A comprehensive set of slides is available on the Internet for each chapter, simplifying use of the book in instructional settings. "This improved, second edition of the book will continue to serve the EDA and design community well. It is a foundational text and reference for the next generation of professionals who will be called on to continue the advancement of our chip design tools and design the most advanced micro-electronics." Dr. Leon Stok, Vice President, Electronic Design Automation, IBM Systems Group "This is the book I wish I had when I taught EDA in the past, and the one I'm using from now on." Dr. Louis K. Scheffer, Howard Hughes Medical Institute "I would happily use this book when teaching Physical Design. I know of no other work that's as comprehensive and up-to-date, with algorithmic focus and clear pseudocode for the key algorithms. The book is beautifully designed!" Prof. John P. Hayes, University of Michigan "The entire field of electronic design automation owes the authors a great debt for providing a single coherent source on physical design that is clear and tutorial in nature, while providing details on key state-of-the-art topics such as timing closure." Prof. Kurt Keutzer, University of California, Berkeley "An excellent balance of the basics and more advanced concepts, presented by top experts in the field." Prof. Sachin Sapatnekar, University of Minnesota

Functional verification is an art as much as a science. It requires not only creativity and cunning, but also a clear methodology to approach the problem. The Open Verification Methodology (OVM) is a leading-edge methodology for verifying designs at multiple levels of abstraction. It brings together ideas from electrical, systems, and software engineering to provide a complete methodology for verifying large scale System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. OVM defines an approach for developing testbench architectures so they are modular, configurable, and reusable.

This book is designed to help both novice and experienced verification engineers master the OVM through extensive examples. It describes basic verification principles and explains the essentials of transaction-level modeling (TLM). It leads readers from a simple connection of a producer and a consumer through complete self-checking testbenches. It explains construction techniques for building configurable, reusable testbench components and how to use TLM to communicate between them. Elements such as agents and sequences are explained in detail.

- Provides designers and non-designers with new ideas and tools for creating useful, energy-and-resource-efficient product designs and systems - Offers a critical perspective on the impact of new technologies and product designs - Includes historic and contemporary examples, such as thermostats, electric lighting, air quality sensors, domestic maintenance, and methods of transportation - Written in an engaging, accessible tone for professionals and students.

What makes the Apple iPhone "cool"? Bang & Olufsen and Samsung's televisions "beautiful"? Any of a wide variety of products and services "special"? The answer is not simply functionality or technology, for competitors' products are often as good.
"The Soul of Design" explores the uncanny power of some products to grab and hold attention--to create desire. To understand what sets a product apart in this way, authors Lee Devin and Robert Austin push past personal taste and individual response to adopt a more conceptual approach. They carefully explore the hypothesis that there is something within a "special" product that makes it--well, special. They argue that this "je ne sais quoi" arises from "plot"--the shape that emerges as a product or service arouses and then fulfills expectations. Marketing a special product is, then, a matter of helping its audience perceive its plot and comprehend its qualities.
Devin and Austin provide keys to understanding why some products and services stand out in a crowd and how the companies that make them create these hits. Part One of the book introduces the authors' definition of plot in this context; Part Two breaks down the components needed to build a plot; Part Three describes what makes a plot coherent; Part Four takes on the challenges of making coherent products and services attractive to consumers. Part Four also presents detailed casework, which shows how innovators and makers have successfully brought special products to market.
Readers will come away with a sensible and clear approach to conceiving of artful products and services. This book will help managers and designers think about engaging with plot, taking aesthetic factors into account to provide consumers with more special things.

Composite decisions consist of interconnected parts or subdecisions and correspond to a composite (composable, modular, decomposable) system. The composite decision approach extends the traditional paradigm of decision making of Herbert A. Simon, i.e. choice of the best alternative(s), and realizes a two-stage solving scheme: (a) the selection of alternatives as the best subdecisions or local decisions and (b) composition of the selected local decisions into a composite global decision while taking into account the quality of the local decisions and their compatibility.

Composite Systems Decisions describes an educational approach that is based on systems engineering and considered modular design of composite decisions. Divided into four parts, this book contains descriptions of basic systems approaches and examines basic a ~technologicala (TM) problems for composite systems, including: modular hierarchical design; multistage design; multistage planning; redesign/improvement/adaptation; evaluation; and, combinatorial evolution/development.

Applied researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and practitioners in many domains will find Composite Systems Decisions a valuable reference. The basic systems problems, solving schemes, and applied examples contained in the book will also be of interest to various scientists (e.g., mathematicians, computer scientists, economists, social engineers, etc.).

"Empirical Methods in Language Studies" presents 22 papers employing a broad range of empirical methods in the analysis of various aspects of language and communication. The individual texts offer contributions to the description of conceptual strategies, syntax, semantics, non-verbal communication, language learning, discourse, and literature.

This book examines an emerging organizational form called the multi-team system (MTS). This type of aggregation is being increasingly adopted by organizations and agencies that need to respond to complex strategic problems. There has been increasing interest in MTSs over the last decade to the point where there is now a need to (a) describe these organizational forms more fully, (b) build conceptual frames that can guide research, and (c) begin developing tools to improve the study of MTSs. The purpose of this book is to respond to these needs. The book contains a series of chapters that expand prior conceptual frames of MTSs, defining in more detail the compositional and linkage attributes that characterize such units. The book also explores how such systems emerge and develop, as well as the methods for studying MTSs. The intent of the book is to establish and nurture a strong conceptual and methodological foundation that can guide research and practice with MTSs. Because the notion of MTSs cuts across multiple domains, this book will interest scholars in industrial/organizational psychology, organizational science, management and organizational theory, human factors, sociology, organization communications, and public administration.

One of the primary applications of human factors engineering is in the aviation domain, and the importance of human factors has never been greater as U.S. and European authorities seek to modernize the air transportation system through the introduction of advanced automation. This handbook provides regulators, practitioners, researchers, and educators a comprehensive resource for understanding and applying human factors to air transportation.

Accident prevention is a common thread throughout every aspect of our society. However, even with the most current technological developments, keeping people safe and healthy, both at workplaces and at other daily activities, is still a continual challenge. When it comes to work environments, ergonomics and human factors knowledge can play an important role and, therefore, must be included in, or be a part of, the safety management as a cross-disciplinary area concerned with the understanding of actual work situations and potential variables. This multidisciplinary approach will ultimately ensure the safety, health, and well-being of all collaborators. The main goal of this book is to present theories and models, and to describe practices to foster and promote safer work and working environments. This book offers: * Examples of field practices that can be reproduced in other scenarios * Applications of new methods for risk assessment * Methods on how to apply and integrate human factors and ergonomics in accident prevention and safety management * Coverage of human factors and ergonomics in safety culture * New methods for accident analysis This book is a compilation of contributions from invited authors organized in three main topics from eleven countries and is intended to cover specific aspects of safety and human factors management ranging from case studies to the development of theoretical models. Hopefully, the works presented in the book can be an inspiration for translating research into useful actions and, ultimately, making a relevant and tangible contribution to the safety of our daily and work settings.

In our increasingly globally interconnected world, understanding and appreciating the sociocultural context within which individuals make their decisions is critical to developing successful partnerships. The collection of chapters in this volume illustrates how advances in information and social media technologies, as well as modeling and simulation tools, combined with the social sciences, can be leveraged to better understand how sociocultural context influences decision making. The chapters in this volume were contributed by leading experts from academia, industry, and government and provide: Insights into cross-cultural decision making based on recent international events, with grounding in an historical context Discussions of cutting-edge modeling techniques used today by professionals across multiple organizations and agencies Descriptions of specific cross-cultural decision making tools designed for use by laypeople and professionals Case studies on the role of cross-cultural decision making grounded in current events and (in many cases) military applications.

Researching Patient Safety and Quality in Health Care: A Nordic Perspective is an anthology based on contributions from leading researchers on quality and safety in healthcare in the Nordic countries together with four internationally renowned patient safety authors. Research on patient safety and quality has been dominated by countries such as the USA, England, Canada, and Australia. This book addresses the current debates in research on patient safety and quality in healthcare from a Nordic perspective. What are the flavours of Nordic research within these topics? What does it add to the international research literature? This book illustrates the unique nature of researching patient safety and quality with the Nordic perspective as well as showcasing representative work. The book presents an overview of the status and evidence of international and Nordic research on quality and safety in healthcare. Four different perspectives are used to present the trends within the research field: a patient perspective, a methodological perspective, a theoretical perspective, and a clinical perspective. The book then presents the status of Nordic research in the field and displays a set of illustrative work and current research topics within the Nordic context, concluding with a discussion of the characteristic features of Nordic research on patient safety and quality in healthcare. The anthology presents an inter-professional perspective and researchers from disciplines such as medical and nursing sciences, humanities, social sciences and engineering. It is written to contribute to the patient safety cause with translational knowledge that will be useful to researchers, policy makers and healthcare managers within Nordic countries and internationally.

This book provides a socio-cultural analysis of the ways in which air traffic controllers formally and informally learn about their work and the active role that organisational cultures play in shaping interpretation and meaning. In particular, it describes the significant role that organizational cultures have played in shaping what is valued by controllers about their work and its role as a filter in enabling or constraining conscious inquiry. The premise of the book is that informal learning is just as important in shaping what people know and value about their work and that this area is frequently overlooked. By using an interpretative research approach, the book highlights the ways in which the social structure of work organisation, culture and history interweaves with learning work to guide and shape what is regarded by controllers as important and what is not. It demonstrates how this social construction is quite different from a top-down corporate culture approach. Technological and organizational reform is leading to changes in work practice and to changes in relationships between workers within the organization. These have implications for anyone wishing to understand the dynamics of organizational life. As such, this study provides insights into many of the changes that are occurring in the nature of work in many different industries. Previous research into learning in air traffic control has centred largely on cognitive individual performance, performance within teams or more recently on performance at a systems level. By tracing the role of context in shaping formal and informal learning, this book shows why interventions at these levels sometimes fail.

Two of the most important yet often overlooked aspects of a medical device are its usability and accessibility. This is important not only for health care providers, but also for older patients and users with disabilities or activity limitations. Medical Instrumentation: Accessibility and Usability Considerations focuses on how lack of usability and accessibility pose problems for designers and users of medical devices, and how to overcome these limitations. Divided into five broad sections, the book first addresses the nature and extent of the problem by identifying access barriers, human factors, and policy issues focused on the existing infrastructure. The subsequent sections examine responses to the problem, beginning with tools for usability and accessibility analysis and principles of design for medical instrumentation. Building on this foundation, the third section focuses on recommendations for design guidelines while the fourth section explores emerging trends and future technologies for improving medical device usability. The final section outlines key challenges, knowledge gaps, and recommendations from accomplished experts in the field presented at the recent Workshop on Accessible Interfaces for Medical Instrumentation. Integrating expert perspectives from a wide array of disciplines, Medical Instrumentation traces a clear roadmap for improving accessibility and usability for a variety of stakeholders and provides the tools necessary to follow it.

A Druid looks at quality control for product and service industries, amplifying from his earlier book Right first time . Some highlights: Quality is a religion, with the same trappings and pitfalls as other religions; humanity can be distorted, but not abolished, by managerial decree and organizatio

Innovative Shear Design presents a new, rational and economical design procedure that offers increased protection against shear for all types of structures. The first part of the book describes the internal forces imposed on any flexurally bent member, and goes on to describe how these can interact with external loading forces to cause failure. The author then details the new design approach, and explains how its implementation can prevent cracking and failure for a given load. The book contains numerous practical examples describing optimum design techniques for all types of structure. Innovative Shear Design is an essential reference for structural designers, architects, academics, and researchers. It will also be a key reference text for students of structural design.

If controversies were to arise, there would be no more need of disputation between two philosophers than between two accountants. For it would su?ce to take their pencils in their hands, and say to each other: 'Let us calculate'. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) Dissertio de Arte Combinatoria (Leipzig, 1666) GottfriedWilhelm Leibniz, oneofthe greatestmathematicians, discussedcalculi ofthoughts. Onlymuchlater, did it becomeevidentthat newtools arenecessary for developing such calculi, e. g., due to the necessity of reasoning under unc- tainty about objects and (vague) concepts. Fuzzy set theory (Lot? A. Zadeh, 1965) and rough set theory (Zdzisla w Pawlak, 1982) represent two di?erent - proaches to vagueness. Fuzzy set theory addresses gradualness of knowledge, expressed by the fuzzy membership, whereas rough set theory addresses gra- larity of knowledge, expressed by the indiscernibility relation. Granular comp- ing (Zadeh,1973,1998)iscurrentlyregardedasa uni?edframeworkfor theories, methodologies and techniques for modeling calculi of thoughts, based on objects called granules. The book "Rough-Granular Computing in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining" written by ProfessorJaroslawStepaniuk is dedicated to methods based on a combination of the following three closely related and rapidly growing - eas: granular computing, rough sets, and knowledge discovery and data mining (KDD). In the book, the KDD foundations based on the rough set approach and granular computing are discussed together with illustrative applications. In searching for relevant patterns or in inducing (constructing) classi?ers in KDD, di?erent kinds of granulesaremodeled. In this modeling process, granulescalled approximation spaces play a special rule.

Unique and thorough Includes a CD keyed to examples for clear, effective and interactive learning of SolidWorks software. (Note: Users must have a current version of the SolidWorks software installed on their computer to complete the exercises.) An appendix offers the CSWA exam for certification of skills 14 chapters and two appendices (click the TOC button, above, to view) SolidWorks for Technology and Engineering, Second Edition, provides a comprehensive introduction for students. Little or no prior experience is needed to benefit from this liberally-illustrated work. Use the book in any educational setting from four-year engineering schools to community colleges and vocational / technical schools and industrial training centers. The book is also a reliable reference on the job. It functions well as a self-study manual. Authors Valentino and DiZinno have carefully and thoughtfully arranged the contents in a clear, logical sequence.Many hundreds of well-drawn visuals supplant wordy explanations, demonstrating the power of the software. Many learning aids are included throughout the 500 page book. Key Features Strong graphical illustrations rather than long text and definitions are emphasized. Key definitions are boxed in. Examples provide step-by-step instructions, supported with excellent graphics. Needless cross-referencing has been eliminated. Each example is presented with all explanations appearing on the same page. Exercises are presented at the ends of chapters A CD provided with the text contains files that are keyed in sequence to the selected examples. Students can follow interactively when learning the procedure with the concepts presented in the text. The text contains exercises and materials that are key to preparing students for the Certified SolidWorks Associate (CSWA) exam. Appendix B contains a complete key and sample exam solutions.

The potential of software applications to solve an array of office and administrative problems is increasing faster than the ability of users to exploit it. We need to make systems easier to learn and more comfortable to use. This book reports a major advance in the effort to accomplish both goals. Flexcel enables users to modify access and dialog dynamics to their specific requirements. Relying on a plan recognition feature, the system proposes adaptations or uses of adaptations. The ongoing conflict between the adaptive and the adaptable is resolved in an integration: user and system share the responsibility for the initiatives, decision-making and execution. A "critic" component of the system then analyzes the user's handling of the adaptation tools and suggests improvements. The system offers an environment in which users can explore as they learn. HyPlan implements the context-sensitive help that facilitates learning on demand. When the PLANET plan-recognition feature identifies the kinds of support for work that may possibly be required, HyPlan provides, on request, specific assistance in the form of hypermedia or animated displays and tutorials. Developmental research has shown that users take advantage of opportunities to adapt interfaces only in conjunction with help-functions -- which are accepted when they do not interrupt work. And studies by social scientists have shown that adaptations of technical systems have to be integrated into the overall process of organizational innovation and undertaken cooperatively. This book will stimulate all those concerned with software -- from computational, cognitive, ergonomic, or organizational standpoints -- to reconceive the relationship between design and user support.

This book summarizes the activities of the Generic Intelligent Driver Support (GIDS) Consortium and offers recommendations for successful GIDS implementation. It is based on the GIDS Project, a part of the EC-funded Dedicated Road Infrastructure for Vehicle Safety in Europe Programme.

Moving from theory into practical reality, ergonomics has come of age as a useful tool for generating safe, comfortable, and productive working environments. Tackling both the simple and complex aspects of a variety of workplaces, Office Ergonomics: Practical Applications demonstrates how to create offices that accommodate all workers. The book contains practical advice on how to maintain an office environment that promotes a healthy, safe, and efficient workforce. Covering workstation design, selection, layout, and use, the book details the impact of computers on worker well-being, particularly when used under unfavorable conditions, and discusses how ergonomics can accommodate disabled workers. The author emphasizes the need to offer 'protection' to people involved in manual handling in offices, an issue that is frequently overlooked, and offers advice on how to work satisfactorily in non-office environments. She explores the possible negative outcomes, such as back pain, headaches, and upper limb disorders, of a poorly designed workstation. Walking you through all the features of an office, the book provides insight into the potential problem areas that workers often encounter. The book explains how to identify suitable workstation furniture, test it, trial it, and introduce the final selection so the workforce accepts it. The author draws on first-hand experience dealing with difficulties in many types of office situations to provide straightforward, easily applicable advice on how to improve the workplace to reduce the likelihood of workers experiencing discomfort, ill-health, and dissatisfaction.

Large-Scale 3D Data Integration: Challenges and Opportunities examines the fundamental aspects of 3D geo-information, focusing on the latest developments in 3D GIS (geographic information) and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) systems. This book addresses policy makers, designers and engineers, and individuals that need to overcome obstacles in integrating modeling perspectives and data. Organized into four major parts, the book begins by presenting a historical overview of the issues involved in integrating GIS and AEC. Part II then focuses on the data issue from several viewpoints: data collection; database structures and representation; database management; and visualization. Part III covers the areas of semantics, ontology, and standardization from a theoretical perspective and details many of the best examples of this approach in developing real-world applications. The book concludes with contributions that focus on recent advances in virtual geographic environments and alternative modeling schemes for the potential AEC/GIS interface.

As understanding of the engineering design and configuration processes grows, the recognition that these processes intrinsically involve imprecise information is also growing. This book collects some of the most recent work in the area of representation and manipulation of imprecise information during the syn thesis of new designs and selection of configurations. These authors all utilize the mathematics of fuzzy sets to represent information that has not-yet been reduced to precise descriptions, and in most cases also use the mathematics of probability to represent more traditional stochastic uncertainties such as un controlled manufacturing variations, etc. These advances form the nucleus of new formal methods to solve design, configuration, and concurrent engineering problems. Hans-Jurgen Sebastian Aachen, Germany Erik K. Antonsson Pasadena, California ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to thank H.-J. Zimmermann for inviting us to write this book. We are also grateful to him for many discussions about this new field Fuzzy Engineering Design which have been very stimulating. We wish to thank our collaborators in particular: B. Funke, M. Tharigen, K. Miiller, S. Jarvinen, T. Goudarzi-Pour, and T. Kriese in Aachen who worked in the PROKON project and who elaborated some of the results presented in the book. We also wish to thank Michael J. Scott for providing invaluable editorial assis tance. Finally, the book would not have been possible without the many contributions and suggestions of Alex Greene of Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1 MODELING IMPRECISION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN Erik K. Antonsson, Ph.D., P.E."

As computers proliferate and as the field of computer graphics matures, it has become increasingly important for computer scientists to understand how users perceive and interpret computer graphics. Experimental Design: From User Studies to Psychophysics is an accessible introduction to psychological experiments and experimental design, covering the major components in the design, execution, and analysis of perceptual studies. The book begins with an introduction to the concepts central to designing and understanding experiments, including developing a research question, setting conditions and controls, and balancing specificity with generality. The book then explores in detail a number of types of experimental tasks: free description, rating scales, forced-choice, specialized multiple choice, and real-world tasks as well as physiological studies. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each type and provides examples of that type of experiment from the authors' own work. The book also covers stimulus-related issues, including popular stimulus resources. It concludes with a thorough examination of statistical techniques for analyzing results, including methods specific to individual tasks.

Human error is involved in more than 90 percent of traffic accidents, and of those accidents, most are associated with visual distractions, or looking-but-failing-to-see errors. Human Factors of Visual and Cognitive Performance in Driving gathers knowledge from a human factors psychology standpoint and provides deeper insight into traffic -user behavior and the ways drivers acquire information from the road. Emphasizes Drivers as Visual Information Processors Because driving is an eyes-wide-open task, drivers are exposed to a multitude of visual stimuli along their journey. This information must be correctly processed in order to make the right decisions and perform precise safety maneuvers. With contributions from more than 20 leading experts, this detailed resource discusses road and markings design, new technologies, signage, distraction, safety, situation awareness, workload, driving experience, fatigue, and driving interventions with the goal of improving driving behavior and preventing accidents. Addresses These Key Areas: Visual attention and in-vehicle technologies Interventions to reduce road trauma Avoiding collisions and the failures involved in that endeavor Using jargon-free language that is easily understood, this book compresses research from the past few decades into one accessible resource. It clearly and cohesively provides ergonomics and human factor engineers, industrial designers, and highway and roadway engineers with an overarching understanding of the incessant visual demands drivers face.