Boundaries of a Complex World

Boundaries of a Complex World PDF Author: Andrei Ludu
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031073614
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
The 2nd edition of this book provides novel topics and studyies in boundaries of networks and Big Data Systems.The central theme of this book is the extent to which the structure of the free dynamical boundaries of a system controls the evolution of the system as a whole. Applying three orthogonal types of thinking - mathematical, constructivist and morphological, it illustrates these concepts using applications to selected problems from the social and life sciences, as well as economics. In a broader context, it introduces and reviews some modern mathematical approaches to the science of complex systems. Standard modeling approaches (based on non-linear differential equations, dynamic systems, graph theory, cellular automata, stochastic processes, or information theory) are suitable for studying local problems. However they cannot simultaneously take into account all the different facets and phenomena of a complex system, and new approaches are required to solve the challenging problem of correlations between phenomena at different levels and hierarchies, their self-organization and memory-evolutive aspects, the growth of additional structures and are ultimately required to explain why and how such complex systems can display both robustness and flexibility. This graduate-level text addresses a broader interdisciplinary audience, keeping the mathematical level essentially uniform throughout the book, and involving only basic elements from calculus, algebra, geometry and systems theory.

Boundaries of a Complex World

Boundaries of a Complex World PDF Author: Andrei Ludu
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031073614
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book

Book Description
The 2nd edition of this book provides novel topics and studyies in boundaries of networks and Big Data Systems.The central theme of this book is the extent to which the structure of the free dynamical boundaries of a system controls the evolution of the system as a whole. Applying three orthogonal types of thinking - mathematical, constructivist and morphological, it illustrates these concepts using applications to selected problems from the social and life sciences, as well as economics. In a broader context, it introduces and reviews some modern mathematical approaches to the science of complex systems. Standard modeling approaches (based on non-linear differential equations, dynamic systems, graph theory, cellular automata, stochastic processes, or information theory) are suitable for studying local problems. However they cannot simultaneously take into account all the different facets and phenomena of a complex system, and new approaches are required to solve the challenging problem of correlations between phenomena at different levels and hierarchies, their self-organization and memory-evolutive aspects, the growth of additional structures and are ultimately required to explain why and how such complex systems can display both robustness and flexibility. This graduate-level text addresses a broader interdisciplinary audience, keeping the mathematical level essentially uniform throughout the book, and involving only basic elements from calculus, algebra, geometry and systems theory.

A World Without Boundaries

A World Without Boundaries PDF Author: Ge Xiong
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
ISBN: 1634134826
Category : Crimes against humanity
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
More than a century after the Hmong fled atrocities in southern China, they became trapped in a long civil war in Laos and were involved in more than a decade-long alliance with the United States, fighting against the Communists' expansion in Indochina during the Vietnam War. The Hmong who sided with the United States in the war had faced two major impacts. First, the war had caused unimaginable suffering, a great loss of lives, and a dramatic effect on their natural way of life. Second, after the war, those who managed to escape to Thailand had felt their future was in limbo, while those left behind faced starvation, mass massacres, and persecution. In A World Without Boundaries, Xiong weaves descriptive details of haunting and vivid accounts of suffering of a people in a social and political culture that not only perpetuated nepotism, corruption, and wars, but also fostered an inequality among ethnicities, genders, and social economic castes. It is a story of acts of violence, bloodshed, and heartbreak, of love and sacrifice, and above all, of a people who continue to endure many difficulties, yet strive to achieve a better life in an increasingly complex world after they have lost everything. Book jacket.

Leading Across Boundaries

Leading Across Boundaries PDF Author: Russell M. Linden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470396776
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
"...???an invaluable contribution to anyone charged with shaping organizations, big and small." —DON KETTL, author, The Next Government of the United States Praise for LEADING ACROSS BOUNDARIES "Leading Across Boundaries is a terrific resource for nonprofit leaders. It is filled with great stories of collaboration, and also with the how-to's to make them work!" —ARLENE KAUKUS, former president, United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, and a nonprofit consultant "Linden illustrates the importance of collaboration, but drives further into issues of networks to teach us valuable lessons about core interests, trust, leadership, and success. This book is a very valuable and timely resource for practitioners who seek to produce more value from effective collaboration." —STEPHEN GOLDSMITH, Daniel Paul Professor of Government, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and author, The Power of Social Innovation "Linden provides a fresh, practitioner-oriented perspective on the topic of collaboration—especially for those in the public and nonprofit sectors wanting to benefit from Web 2.0 and social-networking technologies. It's a gem of a book and a terrific road map for leading change." —WARREN MASTER, president and editor-in-chief, The Public Manager "Linden uses fabulous examples to illustrate the essential ideas for collaboration and for effective leadership. His discussions of political acumen and the interpersonal side of collaboration are especially enlightening. I've been a manager for a long time, and wish I'd read this book earlier in my career!" —ELLEN SWITKES, assistant vice president emeritus, academic advancement, office of the president, University of California "Trust, transparency, and relationships are keys to successful collaboration. Linden takes these concepts and more and constructs a masterful lesson plan for us to follow." —TIM LONGO, police chief, Charlottesville, Virginia

Practising Social Work in a Complex World

Practising Social Work in a Complex World PDF Author: Robert Adams
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137013443
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This classic textbook provides the clearest and most authoritative introduction available to working in situations characterised not only by risk and change but also by high pressure to deliver successful outcomes. Edited by three of the leading names in Social Work, Robert Adams, Lena Dominelli and Malcolm Payne provide an indispensable guide to successful social work practise. Its coherent and thoughtful coverage of practice situations involving complexity, tension and uncertainty is uniquely geared to the needs of students in the final stages of their qualifying Social Work course, professionals returning to study, or those simply wishing to deepen their professional understanding.

The Dappled World

The Dappled World PDF Author: Nancy Cartwright
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139936360
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
It is often supposed that the spectacular successes of our modern mathematical sciences support a lofty vision of a world completely ordered by one single elegant theory. In this book Nancy Cartwright argues to the contrary. When we draw our image of the world from the way modern science works - as empiricism teaches us we should - we end up with a world where some features are precisely ordered, others are given to rough regularity and still others behave in their own diverse ways. This patchwork makes sense when we realise that laws are very special productions of nature, requiring very special arrangements for their generation. Combining classic and newly written essays on physics and economics, The Dappled World carries important philosophical consequences and offers serious lessons for both the natural and the social sciences.

Signals and Boundaries

Signals and Boundaries PDF Author: John H. Holland
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026230497X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
An overarching framework for comparing and steering complex adaptive systems is developed through understanding the mechanisms that generate their intricate signal/boundary hierarchies. Complex adaptive systems (cas), including ecosystems, governments, biological cells, and markets, are characterized by intricate hierarchical arrangements of boundaries and signals. In ecosystems, for example, niches act as semi-permeable boundaries, and smells and visual patterns serve as signals; governments have departmental hierarchies with memoranda acting as signals; and so it is with other cas. Despite a wealth of data and descriptions concerning different cas, there remain many unanswered questions about "steering" these systems. In Signals and Boundaries, John Holland argues that understanding the origin of the intricate signal/border hierarchies of these systems is the key to answering such questions. He develops an overarching framework for comparing and steering cas through the mechanisms that generate their signal/boundary hierarchies. Holland lays out a path for developing the framework that emphasizes agents, niches, theory, and mathematical models. He discusses, among other topics, theory construction; signal-processing agents; networks as representations of signal/boundary interaction; adaptation; recombination and reproduction; the use of tagged urn models (adapted from elementary probability theory) to represent boundary hierarchies; finitely generated systems as a way to tie the models examined into a single framework; the framework itself, illustrated by a simple finitely generated version of the development of a multi-celled organism; and Markov processes.

Simple Rules

Simple Rules PDF Author: Donald Sull
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544409906
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Outlines an approach to high-performance problem-solving and decision-making that draws on insights from survival guides, pop culture and other sources. Co-written by the award-winning author of The Upside of Turbulence. 75,000 first printing.

Beyond Boundaries

Beyond Boundaries PDF Author: Miguel Nicolelis
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9781429950794
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A pioneering neuroscientist shows how the long-sought merger of brains with machines is about to become a paradigm-shifting reality Imagine living in a world where people use their computers, drive their cars, and communicate with one another simply by thinking. In this stunning and inspiring work, Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis shares his revolutionary insights into how the brain creates thought and the human sense of self—and how this might be augmented by machines, so that the entire universe will be within our reach. Beyond Boundaries draws on Nicolelis's ground-breaking research with monkeys that he taught to control the movements of a robot located halfway around the globe by using brain signals alone. Nicolelis's work with primates has uncovered a new method for capturing brain function—by recording rich neuronal symphonies rather than the activity of single neurons. His lab is now paving the way for a new treatment for Parkinson's, silk-thin exoskeletons to grant mobility to the paralyzed, and breathtaking leaps in space exploration, global communication, manufacturing, and more. Beyond Boundaries promises to reshape our concept of the technological future, to a world filled with promise and hope.

Contested Boundaries

Contested Boundaries PDF Author: Timothy D. Hall
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822315223
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The First Great Awakening in eighteenth-century America challenged the institutional structures and raised the consciousness of colonial Americans. These revivals gave rise to the practice of itinerancy in which ministers and laypeople left their own communities to preach across the countryside. In Contested Boundaries, Timothy D. Hall argues that the Awakening was largely defined by the ensuing debate over itinerancy. Drawing on recent scholarship in cultural and social anthropology, cultural studies, and eighteenth-century religion, he reveals at the center of this debate the itinerant preacher as a catalyst for dramatic change in the religious practice and social order of the New World. This book expands our understanding of evangelical itinerancy in the 1740s by viewing it within the context of Britain's expanding commercial empire. As pro- and anti-revivalists tried to shape a burgeoning transatlantic consumer society, the itinerancy of the Great Awakening appears here as a forceful challenge to contemporary assumptions about the place of individuals within their social world and the role of educated leaders as regulators of communication, order, and change. The most celebrated of these itinerants was George Whitefield, an English minister who made unprecedented tours through the colonies. According to Hall, the activities of the itinerants, including Whitefield, encouraged in the colonists an openness beyond local boundaries to an expanding array of choices for belief and behavior in an increasingly mobile and pluralistic society. In the process, it forged a new model of the church and its social world. As a response to and a source of dynamic social change, itinerancy in Hall's powerful account provides a prism for viewing anew the worldly and otherworldly transformations of colonial society. Contested Boundaries will be of interest to students and scholars of colonial American history, religious studies, and cultural and social anthropology.

Trust in a Complex World

Trust in a Complex World PDF Author: Charles C. Heckscher
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198708556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
This title explores current conflicts and confusions of relations and identities, using both general theory and specific cases. It argues that we are at a catalysing moment in a long transition from a community in which the prime rule was tolerance, to one with a commitment to understanding; from one where it was considered wrong to argue about cultural differences, to one where such arguments are essential.