This book examines the status of trade unions in contemporary China, exploring the degree to which trade unions have been reformed as China is increasingly integrated into the global economy, and discussing the key question of how autonomous China's trade unions are. Based on an extensive, grass-roots survey of local trade union chairpersons, the book reveals that although trade unions in foreign owned firms and in firms dealing with foreign firms are beginning to resemble trade unions in the West, in the majority of firms a state corporatist model of trade unions continues, with chairmen appointed by the party, with many of them occupying simultaneously party and trade union positions, and thinking it right to do so, and having power bases and networks in both the party and the trade union, with initiatives for protecting workers' interests coming from the top down, rather than the bottom up, and with collective negotiation and democratic participation in union affairs continuing to be a mere formality. The book shows how the state - wishing to maintain political stability - continues to regard itself, legitimated by the concepts of "socialism" and "proletarian dictatorship", as the sole arbiter of and protector of workers' rights, with no place for workers protecting their own interests themselves in the harsh environment of the new market economy. The book concludes, however, that because the different model of industrial relations which prevails in foreign owned firms is formally part of the government system, there is the possibility that this new more Western model will in time spread more widely.

This book examines the status of trade unions in contemporary China, exploring the degree to which trade unions have been reformed as China is increasingly integrated into the global economy, and discussing the key question of how autonomous China's trade unions are. Based on an extensive, grass-roots survey of local trade union chairpersons, the book reveals that although trade unions in foreign owned firms and in firms dealing with foreign firms are beginning to resemble trade unions in the West, in the majority of firms a state corporatist model of trade unions continues, with chairmen appointed by the party, with many of them occupying simultaneously party and trade union positions, and thinking it right to do so, and having power bases and networks in both the party and the trade union, with initiatives for protecting workers? interests coming from the top down, rather than the bottom up, and with collective negotiation and democratic participation in union affairs continuing to be a mere formality. The book shows how the state - wishing to maintain political stability - continues to regard itself, legitimated by the concepts of "socialism" and "proletarian dictatorship," as the sole arbiter of and protector of workers? rights, with no place for workers protecting their own interests themselves in the harsh environment of the new market economy. The book concludes, however, that because the different model of industrial relations which prevails in foreign owned firms is formally part of the government system, there is the possibility that this new more Western model will in time spread more widely.

This book presents the latest algorithmic developments in the cell-mapping method for the global analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems, global solutions for multi-objective optimization problems, and global solutions for zeros of complex algebraic equations. It also discusses related engineering and scientific applications, including the nonlinear design of structures for better vibration resistance and reliability; multi-objective, structural-acoustic design for sound abatement; optimal multi-objective design of airfoils for better lift; and optimal multi-objective design of linear and nonlinear controls with or without time delay. The first book on the subject to include extensive Matlab and C++ codes, it presents various implementation algorithms of the cell-mapping method, enabling readers to understand how the method works and its programming aspects. A link to the codes on the Springer website will be provided to the readers.

This volume encloses research articles that were presented at the EVOLVE 2014 International Conference in Beijing, China, July 1 4, 2014. The book gathers contributions that emerged from the conference tracks, ranging from probability to set oriented numerics and evolutionary computation; all complemented by the bridging purpose of the conference, e.g. Complex Networks and Landscape Analysis, or by the more application oriented perspective. The novelty of the volume, when considering the EVOLVE series, comes from targeting also the practitioner s view. This is supported by the Machine Learning Applied to Networks and Practical Aspects of Evolutionary Algorithms tracks, providing surveys on new application areas, as in the networking area and useful insights in the development of evolutionary techniques, from a practitioner s perspective. Complementary to these directions, the conference tracks supporting the volume, follow on the individual advancements of the subareas constituting the scope of the conference, through the Computational Game Theory, Local Search and Optimization, Genetic Programming, Evolutionary Multi-objective optimization tracks."

Global Analysis of Nonlinear Dynamics collects chapters on recent developments in global analysis of non-linear dynamical systems with a particular emphasis on cell mapping methods developed by Professor C.S. Hsu of the University of California, Berkeley. This collection of contributions prepared by a diverse group of internationally recognized researchers is intended to stimulate interests in global analysis of complex and high-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems, whose global properties are largely unexplored at this time.

The book presents the recent achievements on bifurcation studies of nonlinear dynamical systems. The contributing authors of the book are all distinguished researchers in this interesting subject area. The first two chapters deal with the fundamental theoretical issues of bifurcation analysis in smooth and non-smooth dynamical systems. The cell mapping methods are presented for global bifurcations in stochastic and deterministic, nonlinear dynamical systems in the third chapter. The fourth chapter studies bifurcations and chaos in time-varying, parametrically excited nonlinear dynamical systems. The fifth chapter presents bifurcation analyses of modal interactions in distributed, nonlinear, dynamical systems of circular thin von Karman plates. The theories, methods and results presented in this book are of great interest to scientists and engineers in a wide range of disciplines. This book can be adopted as references for mathematicians, scientists, engineers and graduate students conducting research in nonlinear dynamical systems.
- New Views for Difficult Problems
- Novel Ideas and Concepts
- Hilbert's 16th Problem
- Normal Forms in Polynomial Hamiltonian Systems
- Grazing Flow in Non-smooth Dynamical Systems
- Stochastic and Fuzzy Nonlinear Dynamical Systems
- Fuzzy Bifurcation
- Parametrical, Nonlinear Systems
- Mode Interactions in nonlinear dynamical systems

This book presents the latest algorithmic developments in the cell-mapping method for the global analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems, global solutions for multi-objective optimization problems, and global solutions for zeros of complex algebraic equations. It also discusses related engineering and scientific applications, including the nonlinear design of structures for better vibration resistance and reliability; multi-objective, structural-acoustic design for sound abatement; optimal multi-objective design of airfoils for better lift; and optimal multi-objective design of linear and nonlinear controls with or without time delay. The first book on the subject to include extensive Matlab and C++ codes, it presents various implementation algorithms of the cell-mapping method, enabling readers to understand how the method works and its programming aspects. A link to the codes on the Springer website will be provided to the readers.

This book is a result of many years of author's research and teaching on random vibration and control. It was used as lecture notes for a graduate course. It provides a systematic review of theory of probability, stochastic processes, and stochastic calculus. The feedback control is also reviewed in the book. Random vibration analyses of SDOF, MDOF and continuous structural systems are presented in a pedagogical order. The application of the random vibration theory to reliability and fatigue analysis is also discussed. Recent research results on fatigue analysis of non-Gaussian stress processes are also presented. Classical feedback control, active damping, covariance control, optimal control, sliding control of stochastic systems, feedback control of stochastic time-delayed systems, and probability density tracking control are studied. Many control results are new in the literature and included in this book for the first time. The book serves as a reference to the engineers who design and maintain structures subject to harsh random excitations including earthquakes, sea waves, wind gusts, and aerodynamic forces, and would like to reduce the damages of structural systems due to random excitations.
- Comprehensive review of probability theory, and stochastic processes
- Random vibrations
- Structural reliability and fatigue, Non-Gaussian fatigue
- Monte Carlo methods
- Stochastic calculus and engineering applications
- Stochastic feedback controls and optimal controls
- Stochastic sliding mode controls
- Feedback control of stochastic time-delayed systems
- Probability density tracking control