The International PROLAMAT Conference is an internationally well known event for demonstrating and evaluating activities and progress in the field of discrete manufacturing. Sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), the PROLAMAT is traditionally held every three years and it includes the whole area of advanced software technology for Design and Manufacturing in Discrete Manufacturing. Past editions of the International PROLAMA T Conference have explored: -Manufacturing Technology, -Advances in CAD/CAM, -Software for Discrete Manufacturing, -Software for Manufacturing. The Eight International PROLAMAT held in 1992 (Tokyo), focused on the theme of Man in CIM. The 1995 PROLAMAT (Berlin), featured the theme of Life Cycle Modelling for Innovative Products and Processes. This past emphasis on human aspects and innovation provides a strong foundation for the next PROLAMAT. Under the title: The globalization of manufacturing in the digital communications era of the 21th century: innovation, agility and the virtual enterprise, the 1998 conference expands the PROLAMAT scope to include teams and virtual enterprises which come together across space and time to develop new products and bring them to global markets. Manufacturing issues and information models have long been part of concurrent engineering; they are increasingly important in new product innovation and in the development of manufacturing plans and processes which span multiple companies along with multiple time zones.

Cooperative working environments and their development are becoming increasingly important and ever more frequent in different industrial sectors and this book provides a scientific approach for managing Team Engineering. Meta-cognitive knowledge and networks are identified as the key resources enabling engineering teams to work effectively and to reduce engineering time and this book illustrates how computer support can aid cooperative work within the context of practical methodologies and examples. The fields covered in the book include: * State-of-the-art research in cooperative learning tools; * Practical examples and methodologies illustrating the implementation of cooperative networks; and * An interdisciplinary approach to team engineering. This valuable new book is sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and will be essential reading for researchers, engineers, technical managers involved in the development of advanced applications for engineering and manufacturing, and software design and engineering.

Six years passed by since the NATO ASI on "Liquid and Amorphous Metals" was held in Zwiesel, Germany, in September 1979. The present one is the second NATO School devoted to research on disordered condensed matter, mainly liquid and amorphous metals. This time the title contains the word "materials" to explicitely include those aspects of the glassy state of insulators either shared with metallic glasses - e.g. the glass tran sition - or on the border line with metallic systems - e.g. the metal non-metal transition. The long period which purposely elapsed between the two Institutes indi cates the intention not to have "just another conference," but to review the state of affairs in the field with a somewhat more durable scope. This is especially important to help basic research to bridge towards applica tions and to introduce young researchers in this field. In fact, while the understanding of these materials and their properties is a tremendous challenge for experimental and theoretical physicists, glassy substances offer an enormous potential in-the development of new materials for tech nical applications. To this end, the Institute has brought together insiders and peers from allover the world to discuss basic principles and latest results and to help correlate future research effort. Another important aim was to intro duce newcomers to the field."

Cooperative working environments and their development are becoming increasingly important and ever more frequent in different industrial sectors and this book provides a scientific approach for managing Team Engineering. Meta-cognitive knowledge and networks are identified as the key resources enabling engineering teams to work effectively and to reduce engineering time and this book illustrates how computer support can aid cooperative work within the context of practical methodologies and examples. The fields covered in the book include: State-of-the-art research in cooperative learning tools; Practical examples and methodologies illustrating the implementation of cooperative networks; and An interdisciplinary approach to team engineering. This valuable new book is sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and will be essential reading for researchers, engineers, technical managers involved in the development of advanced applications for engineering and manufacturing, and software design and engineering.

Six years passed by since the NATO ASI on "Liquid and Amorphous Metals" was held in Zwiesel, Germany, in September 1979. The present one is the second NATO School devoted to research on disordered condensed matter, mainly liquid and amorphous metals. This time the title contains the word "materials" to explicitely include those aspects of the glassy state of insulators either shared with metallic glasses - e.g. the glass tran sition - or on the border line with metallic systems - e.g. the metal non-metal transition. The long period which purposely elapsed between the two Institutes indi cates the intention not to have "just another conference," but to review the state of affairs in the field with a somewhat more durable scope. This is especially important to help basic research to bridge towards applica tions and to introduce young researchers in this field. In fact, while the understanding of these materials and their properties is a tremendous challenge for experimental and theoretical physicists, glassy substances offer an enormous potential in-the development of new materials for tech nical applications. To this end, the Institute has brought together insiders and peers from allover the world to discuss basic principles and latest results and to help correlate future research effort. Another important aim was to intro duce newcomers to the field."