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Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (GT/CM) have been
widely-researched areas in the past 15 years and much progress has
been made in all branches of GT/CM. Resulting from this research
activity has been a proliferation of techniques for part-machine
grouping, engineering data bases, expert system-based design
methods for identifying part families, new analytical and
simulation tools for evaluating performance of cells, new types of
cell incorporating robotics and flexible automation, team-based
approaches for organizing the work force and much more; however,
the field lacks a careful compilation of this research and its
outcomes. The editors of this book have commissioned leading
researchers and implementers to prepare specific treatments of
topics for their special areas of expertise in this broad-based
philosophy of manufacturing. The editors have sought to be global
both in coverage of topic matters and contributors. Group
Technology and Cellular Manufacturing addresses the needs and
interests of three groups of individuals in the manufacturing
field: academic researchers, industry practitioners, and students.
(1) The book provides an up-to-date perspective, incorporating the
advances made in GT/CM during the past 15 years. As a natural
extension to this research, it synthesizes the latest industry
practices and outcomes to guide research to greater real-world
relevance. (2) The book makes clear the foundations of GT/CM from
the core elements of new developments which are aimed at reducing
developmental and manufacturing lead times, costs, and at improving
business quality and performance. (3) Finally, the book can be used
as a textbook for graduate students in engineering and management
for studying the field of Group Technology and Cellular
Manufacturing.
The Wrong Ape for Early Human Origins examines ways in which the
chimpanzee referential model has exerted a primary influence on
evolutionary theory, dominating portraits of proto- and early human
social life, and in the broader sense, of human nature itself.
Evidence on which this model is based is revisited, along with new
cross-disciplinary findings that point to alternative scenarios for
hominin phylogeny, ecology and subsistence, primeval kinship,
cognition and language, and the respective roles played by
aggression and cooperation as evolutionary drivers. Recent advances
in phylogenetics, evolutionary biology, and new additions to the
fossil record are rendering linear, monotypic models obsolete.
Contemporary theories on species divergence and change over time
are shifting attention from ancient genotypes to factors that
influence gene expression, and from innate prescriptive behaviors
to epigenesis and the capacity for behavioral plasticity. This
broader platform has the potential to fundamentally revise current
notions about the basic nature, phenotypic traits, and lifeways of
ancestral humans. It informs a different profile of our
progenitors—one that reflects greater ecological bandwidth,
reliance on creative niche construction, and hominin agency in the
structuring of ancient reproductive and social groups.
What set our ancestors off on a separate evolutionary trajectory
was the ability to flex their reproductive and social strategies in
response to changing environmental conditions. Exploring new
cross-disciplinary research that links this capacity to critical
changes in the organization of the primate brain, Social DNA
presents a new synthesis of ideas on human social origins -
challenging models that trace our beginnings to traits shaped by
ancient hunting economies, or to genetic platforms shared with
contemporary apes.
What set our ancestors off on a separate evolutionary trajectory
was the ability to flex their reproductive and social strategies in
response to changing environmental conditions. Exploring new
cross-disciplinary research that links this capacity to critical
changes in the organization of the primate brain, Social DNA
presents a new synthesis of ideas on human social origins -
challenging models that trace our beginnings to traits shaped by
ancient hunting economies, or to genetic platforms shared with
contemporary apes.
This book forms the proceedings of the 18th European conference on
irrigation and drainage. Water is not a free commodity, and demand
is becoming more and more intense for its allocation. This book
focuses on the role of irrigation and drainage in the debate on
water, and will be used by planners, designers and policy makers
internationally.
Understanding student and teacher motivation and developing
strategies to foster motivation for students at all levels of
performance are essential to effective teaching. This text is
designed to help prospective and practicing teachers achieve these
goals. Its premise is that current research and theory about
motivation offer hope and possibilities for educators -teachers,
parents, coaches, and administrators-to enhance motivation for
achievement. The orientation draws primarily on social-cognitive
perspectives that have generated much research relevant to
classroom practice. Ideal for any course that is dedicated to, or
includes coverage of, motivation and achievement, the text focuses
on two key roles teachers play in supporting and cultivating
motivation in the classroom: establishing the classroom structure
and instruction that provides the environment for optimal
motivation, engagement, and learning; and helping students develop
the tools that will enable them to be self-regulated learners and
develop their potential. Pedagogical features aid the understanding
of concepts and the application to practice: Strategy boxes present
guidelines and strategies for using the various concepts. Exhibit
boxes include forms for different purposes (for example, goal
setting), examples of teacher beliefs and practices, and samples of
student work. Reflection boxes stimulate readers' thinking about
motivational issues inherent in the topics, their experiences, and
their beliefs. A motivational toolbox at the end of each chapter
helps readers identify important points to think about, lingering
questions, strategies to use now, and strategies to develop in the
future. NEW IN THE THIRD EDITION Updated research and new topics
are added throughout as warranted by current inquiry in the field.
Chapters are reorganized to provide more coherence and to account
for new findings. New and updated material is included on issues of
educational reform, standards for achievement, and high-stakes
testing, and on achievement goal theory, especially regarding
performance goals and the distinction between performance-approach
and performance-avoidance goals as relevant to classroom practice.
This book forms the proceedings of the 18th European ICID
conference on irrigation and drainage. Water is not a free
commodity and demand is becoming more and more intense for its
allocation. This book focuses on the role of irrigation and
drainage in the debate on water and should be of interest to
planners, designers, policy makers in the water industry, national
and local government, academic researchers and environment
agencies.
This stimulating research review analyses how the theory of the
firm evolved from several core concepts and building blocks that
underpin this important area of economics. It discusses a variety
of perspectives from leading scholars in the field, including the
basic elements of: risk and uncertainty; information and knowledge;
bounded rationality and decision making; motives and incentives;
resources and capabilities; and transactions. The review goes on to
examine how the various elements are integrated into the modern
Theory of the Firm with the notion of organization coming
increasingly to the fore. It focuses on norms; rules and routines;
the entrepreneur; governance; hierarchies; co-operation, teams and
networks; innovation and appropriability. This comprehensive review
will be an invaluable reference tool for all researchers and
students with an interest in the modern theory of the firm,
highlighting how it needs to evolve further to address the
important management and policy issues of our time.
Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing (GT/CM) have been
widely-researched areas in the past 15 years and much progress has
been made in all branches of GT/CM. Resulting from this research
activity has been a proliferation of techniques for part-machine
grouping, engineering data bases, expert system-based design
methods for identifying part families, new analytical and
simulation tools for evaluating performance of cells, new types of
cell incorporating robotics and flexible automation, team-based
approaches for organizing the work force and much more; however,
the field lacks a careful compilation of this research and its
outcomes. The editors of this book have commissioned leading
researchers and implementers to prepare specific treatments of
topics for their special areas of expertise in this broad-based
philosophy of manufacturing. The editors have sought to be global
both in coverage of topic matters and contributors. Group
Technology and Cellular Manufacturing addresses the needs and
interests of three groups of individuals in the manufacturing
field: academic researchers, industry practitioners, and students.
(1) The book provides an up-to-date perspective, incorporating the
advances made in GT/CM during the past 15 years. As a natural
extension to this research, it synthesizes the latest industry
practices and outcomes to guide research to greater real-world
relevance. (2) The book makes clear the foundations of GT/CM from
the core elements of new developments which are aimed at reducing
developmental and manufacturing lead times, costs, and at improving
business quality and performance. (3) Finally, the book can be used
as a textbook for graduate students in engineering and management
for studying the field of Group Technology and Cellular
Manufacturing.
This book is primarily a practical reference book for professional
XSLT developers. It assumes no previous knowledge of the language,
and many developers have used it as their first introduction to
XSLT; however, it is not structured as a tutorial, and there are
other books on XSLT that provide a gentler approach for beginners.
The book does assume a basic knowledge of XML, HTML, and the
architecture of the Web, and it is written for experienced
programmers. There's no assumption that you know any particular
language such as Java or Visual Basic, just that you recognize the
concepts that all programming languages have in common. The book is
suitable both for XSLT 1.0 users upgrading to XSLT 2.0, and for
newcomers to XSLT. The book is also equally suitable whether you
work in the Java or .NET world. As befits a reference book, a key
aim is that the coverage should be comprehensive and authoritative.
It is designed to give you all the details, not just an overview of
the 20 percent of the language that most people use 80 percent of
the time. It's designed so that you will keep coming back to the
book whenever you encounter new and challenging programming tasks,
not as a book that you skim quickly and then leave on the shelf. If
you like detail, you will enjoy this book; if not, you probably
won't. But as well as giving the detail, this book aims to explain
the concepts, in some depth. It's therefore a book for people who
not only want to use the language but who also want to understand
it at a deep level. The book aims to tell you everything you need
to know about the XSLT 2.0 language. It gives equal weight to the
things that are new in XSLT 2.0 and the things that were already
present in version 1.0. The book is about the language, not about
specific products. However, there are appendices about Saxon (the
author's own implementation of XSLT 2.0), about the Altova XSLT 2.0
implementation, and about the Java and Microsoft APIs for
controlling XSLT transformations, which will no doubt be upgraded
to handle XSLT 2.0 as well as 1.0. A third XSLT 2.0 processor,
Gestalt, was released shortly before the book went to press, too
late to describe it in any detail. But the experience of XSLT 1.0
is that there has been a very high level of interoperability
between different XSLT processors, and if you can use one of them,
then you can use them all. In the previous edition we split XSLT
2.0 and XPath 2.0 into separate volumes. The idea was that some
readers might be interested in XPath alone. However, many bought
the XSLT 2.0 book without its XPath companion and were left
confused as a result; so this time, the material is back together.
The XPath reference information is in self-contained chapters, so
it should still be accessible when you use XPath in contexts other
than XSLT. The book does not cover XSL Formatting Objects, a big
subject in its own right. Nor does it cover XML Schemas in any
detail. If you want to use these important technologies in
conjunction with XSLT, there are other books that do them justice.
This book contains twenty chapters and eight appendixes (the last
of which is a glossary) organized into four parts. The following
section outlines what you can find in each part, chapter, and
appendix. Part I: Foundations: The first part of the book covers
essential concepts. You should read these before you start coding.
If you ignore this advice, as most people do, then you read them
when you get to that trough of despair when you find it impossible
to make the language do anything but the most trivial tasks. XSLT
is different from other languages, and to make it work for you, you
need to understand how it was designed to be used. Chapter 1: XSLT
in Context: This chapter explains how XSLT fits into the big
picture: how the language came into being and how it sits alongside
other technologies. It also has a few simple coding examples to
keep you alert. Chapter 2: The XSLT Processing Model: This is about
the architecture of an XSLT processor: the inputs, the outputs, and
the data model. Understanding the data model is perhaps the most
important thing that distinguishes an XSLT expert from an amateur;
it may seem like information that you can't use immediately, but
it's knowledge that will stop you making a lot of stupid mistakes.
Chapter 3: Stylesheet Structure: XSLT development is about writing
stylesheets, and this chapter takes a bird's eye view of what
stylesheets look like. It explains the key concepts of rule-based
programming using templates, and explains how to undertake
programming-in-the-large by structuring your application using
modules and pipelines. Chapter 4: Stylesheets and Schemas: A key
innovation in XSLT 2.0 is that stylesheets can take advantage of
knowledge about the structure of your input and output documents,
provided in the form of an XML Schema. This chapter provides a
quick overview of XML Schema to describe its impact on XSLT
development. Not everyone uses schemas, and you can skip this
chapter if you fall into that category. Chapter 5: The Type System:
XPath 2.0 and XSLT 2.0 offer strong typing as an alternative to the
weak typing approach of the 1.0 languages. This means that you can
declare the types of your variables, functions, and parameters, and
use this information to get early warning of programming errors.
This chapter explains the data types available and the mechanisms
for creating user-defined types. Part II: XSLT and XPath Reference:
This section of the book contains reference material, organized in
the hope that you can easily find what you need when you need it.
It's not designed for sequential reading, though you might well
want to leaf through the pages to discover what's there. Chapter 6:
XSLT Elements: This monster chapter lists all the XSLT elements you
can use in a stylesheet, in alphabetical order, giving detailed
rules for the syntax and semantics of each element, advice on
usage, and examples. This is probably the part of the book you will
use most frequently as you become an expert XSLT user. It's a "no
stone unturned" approach, based on the belief that as a
professional developer you need to know what happens when the going
gets tough, not just when the wind is in your direction. Chapter 7:
XPath Fundamentals: This chapter explains the basics of XPath: the
low-level constructs such as literals, variables, and function
calls. It also explains the context rules, which describe how the
evaluation of XPath expressions depends on the XSLT processing
context in which they appear. Chapter 8: XPath: Operators on Items:
XPath offers the usual range of operators for performing
arithmetic, boolean comparison, and the like. However, these don't
always behave exactly as you would expect, so it's worth reading
this chapter to see what's available and how it differs from the
last language that you used. Chapter 9: XPath: Path Expressions:
Path expressions are what make XPath special; they enable you to
navigate around the structure of an XML document. This chapter
explains the syntax of path expressions, the 13 axes that you can
use to locate the nodes that you need, and associated operators
such as union, intersection, and difference. Chapter 10: XPath:
Sequence Expressions: Unlike XPath 1.0, in version 2.0 all values
are sequences (singletons are just a special case). Some of the
most important operators in XPath 2.0 are those that manipulate
sequences, notably the "for" expression, which translates one
sequence into another by applying a mapping. Chapter 11: XPath:
Type Expressions: The type system was explained in Chapter 5; this
chapter explains the operations that you can use to take advantage
of types. This includes the "cast" operation which is used to
convert values from one type to another.A big part of this chapter
is devoted to the detailed rules for how these conversions are
done. Chapter 12: XSLT Patterns: This chapter returns from XPath to
a subject that's specific to XSLT. Patterns are used to define
template rules, the essence of XSLT's rule-based programming
approach. The reason for explaining them now is that the syntax and
semantics of patterns depends strongly on the corresponding rules
for XPath expressions. Chapter 13: The Function Library: XPath 2.0
includes a library of functions that can be called from any XPath
expression; XSLT 2.0 extends this with some additional functions
that are available only when XPath is used within XSLT. The library
has grown immensely since XPath 1.0. This chapter provides a single
alphabetical reference for all these functions. Chapter 14: Regular
Expressions: Processing of text is an area where XSLT 2.0 and XPath
2.0 are much more powerful than version 1.0, and this is largely
through the use of constructs that exploit regular expressions. If
you're familiar with regexes from languages such as Perl, this
chapter tells you how XPath regular expressions differ. If you're
new to the subject, it explains it from first principles. Chapter
15: Serialization: Serialization in XSLT means the ability to
generate a textual XML document from the tree structure that's
manipulated by a stylesheet. This isn't part of XSLT processing
proper, so (following W3C's lead) it's separated it into its own
chapter. You can control serialization from the stylesheet using an
declaration, but many products also allow you to control it
directly via an API. Part III: Exploitation: The final section of
the book is advice and guidance on how to take advantage of XSLT to
write real applications. It's intended to make you not just a
competent XSLT coder, but a competent designer too. The best way of
learning is by studying the work of others, so the emphasis here is
on practical case studies. Chapter 16: Extensibility: This chapter
describes the "hooks" provided in the XSLT specification to allow
vendors and users to plug in extra functionality. The way this
works will vary from one implementation to another, so we can't
cover all possibilities, but one important aspect that the chapter
does cover is how to use such extensions and still keep your code
portable. Chapter 17: Stylesheet Design Patterns: This chapter
explores a number of design and coding patterns for XSLT
programming, starting with the simplest "fill-in-the-blanks"
stylesheet, and extending to the full use of recursive programming
in the functional programming style, which is needed to tackle
problems of any computational complexity. This provides an
opportunity to explain the thinking behind functional programming
and the change in mindset needed to take full advantage of this
style of development. Chapter 18: Case Study: XMLSpec: XSLT is
often used for rendering documents, so where better to look for a
case study than the stylesheets used by the W3C to render the XML
and XSLT specifications, and others in the same family, for display
on the web? The resulting stylesheets are typical of those you will
find in any publishing organization that uses XML to develop a
series of documents with a compatible look-and-feel. Chapter 19:
Case Study: A Family Tree: Displaying a family tree is another
typical XSLT application. This example with semi-structured data-a
mixture of fairly complex data and narrative text-that can be
presented in many different ways for different audiences. It also
shows how to tackle another typical XSLT problem, conversion of the
data into XML from a legacy text-based format. As it happens, this
uses nearly all the important new XSLT 2.0 features in one short
stylesheet. But another aim of this chapter is to show a collection
of stylesheets doing different jobs as part of a complete
application. Chapter 20: Case Study: Knight's Tour: Finding a route
around a chessboard where a knight visits every square without ever
retracing its steps might sound a fairly esoteric application for
XSLT, but it's a good way of showing how even the most complex of
algorithms are within the capabilities of the language. You may not
need to tackle this particular problem, but if you want to
construct an SVG diagram showing progress against your project
plan, then the problems won't be that dissimilar. Part IV:
Appendices: A ppendix A: XPath 2.0 Syntax Summary: Collects the
XPath grammar rules and operator precedences into one place for
ease of reference. Appendix B: Error Codes: A list of all the error
codes defined in the XSLT and XPath language specifications, with
brief explanations to help you understand what's gone wrong.
Appendix C: Backward Compatibility: The list of things you need to
look out for when converting applications from XSLT 1.0. Appendix
D: Microsoft XSLT Processors: Although the two Microsoft XSLT
processors don't yet support XSLT 2.0, we thought many readers
would find it useful to have a quick summary here of the main
objects and methods used in their APIs. Appendix E: JAXP: the Java
API for XML Processing: JAXP is an interface rather than a product.
Again, it doesn't have explicit support yet for XSLT 2.0, but Java
programmers will often be using it in XSLT 2.0 projects, so the
book includes an overview of the classes and methods available.
Appendix F: Saxon: At the time of writing Saxon (developed by the
author of this book) provides the most comprehensive implementation
of XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0, so its interfaces and extensions are
covered in some detail. Appendix G: Altova: Altova, the developers
of XML Spy, have an XSLT 2.0 processor that can be used either as
part of the development environment or as a freestanding component.
This appendix gives details of its interfaces. Appendix H: Glossary
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included
as part of eBook file.
Questions relating to the existence and nature of firms have become
major issues in economics in recent years. In this major new work,
Neil Kay provides original explanations for many individual
phenomena in this area. The analysis is set in the context of an
integrative framework for analysing the boundaries and structure of
the firm. The book analyses the firm as a complex system in which
links composed of shared resources constitute basic building
blocks. The evolution of the firm from simple beginnings to complex
system is then studied in a number of areas, including vertical
integration, diversification, multi- national enterprise, joint
venture, alliance, network, and internal organization. Neil Kay's
analysis advances current theories of the firm and will be
essential reading for students and academics in the areas of
business economics, strategic management, and organization theory.
Understanding student and teacher motivation and developing
strategies to foster motivation for students at all levels of
performance are essential to effective teaching. This text is
designed to help prospective and practicing teachers achieve these
goals. Its premise is that current research and theory about
motivation offer hope and possibilities for educators -teachers,
parents, coaches, and administrators-to enhance motivation for
achievement. The orientation draws primarily on social-cognitive
perspectives that have generated much research relevant to
classroom practice. Ideal for any course that is dedicated to, or
includes coverage of, motivation and achievement, the text focuses
on two key roles teachers play in supporting and cultivating
motivation in the classroom: establishing the classroom structure
and instruction that provides the environment for optimal
motivation, engagement, and learning; and helping students develop
the tools that will enable them to be self-regulated learners and
develop their potential. Pedagogical features aid the understanding
of concepts and the application to practice: Strategy boxes present
guidelines and strategies for using the various concepts. Exhibit
boxes include forms for different purposes (for example, goal
setting), examples of teacher beliefs and practices, and samples of
student work. Reflection boxes stimulate readers' thinking about
motivational issues inherent in the topics, their experiences, and
their beliefs. A motivational toolbox at the end of each chapter
helps readers identify important points to think about, lingering
questions, strategies to use now, and strategies to develop in the
future. NEW IN THE THIRD EDITION Updated research and new topics
are added throughout as warranted by current inquiry in the field.
Chapters are reorganized to provide more coherence and to account
for new findings. New and updated material is included on issues of
educational reform, standards for achievement, and high-stakes
testing, and on achievement goal theory, especially regarding
performance goals and the distinction between performance-approach
and performance-avoidance goals as relevant to classroom practice.
What is the nature of the firm? Why do firms adopt certain
strategies in preference to others? What are the competitive
implications of large firm mergers and alliances for government
policy? These are extremely important and highly topical questions
which tend to be treated separately in most contemporary analysis.
However, in this new book based on his original research, Neil Kay
shows how these questions are closely inter-related and explores
the implications this has for the formulation of corporate strategy
and public policy.
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