Safety of Electromedical Devices: Law - Risks - Opportunities

by Norbert Leitgeb
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On Architecture (Penguin Classics)

by Vitruvius
A new, illustrated edition of a foundational work on architecture, engineering, and urban planning

The only treatise on architecture to have survived from Roman times, Vitruvius' On Architecture provides a fascinating picture of how the Romans planned and built their great structures and cities. Dedicated to Augustus, it sets out all the information an architect of the time needed-from plans for temples, public baths, government buildings, and private homes to the best materials and techniques for building-and introduces longstanding principles of architecture, from the use of nature's harmonies in design to the ideal modular proportions of the human body, which later inspired Leonardo da Vinci. This new translation, accompanied by 100 black-and-white images, captures the clear, pragmatic tone of Vitruvius' writings, showing why the ancient architect and engineer's theories have remained influential for two millennia.

Application of Uncertainty Analysis to Ecological Risks of Pesticides

While current methods used in ecological risk assessments for pesticides are largely deterministic, probabilistic methods that aim to quantify variability and uncertainty in exposure and effects are attracting growing interest from industries and governments. Probabilistic methods offer more realistic and meaningful estimates of risk and hence, potentially, a better basis for decision-making. Application of Uncertainty Analysis to Ecological Risks of Pesticides examines the applicability of probabilistic methods for ecological risk assessment for pesticides and explores their appropriateness for general use. ...

Multiphysics Modeling Using COMSOL: A First Principles Approach

by Roger W. Pryor
Multiphysics Modeling Using COMSOL rapidly introduces the senior level undergraduate, graduate or professional scientist or engineer to the art and science of computerized modeling for physical systems and devices. It offers a step-by-step modeling methodology through examples that are linked to the Fundamental Laws of Physics through a First Principles Analysis approach. The text explores a breadth of multiphysics models in coordinate systems that range from 1D to 3D and introduces the readers to the numerical analysis modeling techniques employed in the COMSOLร�ยฎ Multiphysicsร�ยฎ software. After readers have built and run the examples, they will have a much firmer understanding of the concepts, skills, and benefits acquired from the use of computerized modeling techniques to solve their current technological problems and to explore new areas of application for their particular technological areas of interest.

Gene Flow between Crops and Their Wild Relatives

by Meike S. Andersson
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Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning)

by Mizuko Ito
Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settingsโ€”at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By focusing on media practices in the everyday contexts of family and peer interaction, the book views the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States.

Integrati...

Critical Terms for Media Studies

Communications, philosophy, film and video, digital culture: media studies straddles an astounding array of fields and disciplines and produces a vocabulary that is in equal parts rigorous and intuitive. "Critical Terms for Media Studies" defines, and at times redefines, what this new and hybrid area aims to do, illuminating the key concepts behind its liveliest debates and most dynamic topics. Part of a larger conversation that engages culture, technology, and politics, this exciting collection of essays explores our most critical language for dealing with the qualities and modes of contemporary media. Edited by two outstanding scholars in the field, W.J.T. Mitchell and Mark B.N. Hansen, and featuring a team of distinguished contributors - including N. Katherine Hayles, Johanna Drucker, and Bernard Stiegler - "Critical Terms for Media Studies" offers diverse opportunities for students to understand the language that underpins much of new media. The essays, commissioned expressly for...

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems

by Henry Petroski
From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our worldโ€�s most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns.

Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth i...

Wisdom and Management in the Knowledge Economy (Routledge Research in Strategic Management)

by David Rooney
...

A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players

by Jesper Juul
The enormous popularity of the Nintendo Wii, Guitar Hero, and smaller games like Bejeweled or Zuma has turned the stereotype of the obsessed young male gamer on its head. Players of these casual games are not required to possess an intimate knowledge of video game history or to devote weeks or months to play. At the same time, many players of casual games show a dedication and skill that is anything but casual. In A Casual Revolution, Jesper Juul describes this as a reinvention of video games, and of our image of video game players, and explores what this tells us about the players, the games, and their interaction.

With this reinvention of video games, the game industry reconnects with a general audience. Many of today's casual game players once enjoyed Pac-Man, Tetris, and other early games, only to drop out when video games became more time consuming and complex. For a long time, video games asked players to structure their lives to...

This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future

by John Brockman
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Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning)

by Mizuko Ito
Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settingsโ€”at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By focusing on media practices in the everyday contexts of family and peer interaction, the book views the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States.

Integrati...

Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed

by Gregg Easterbrook
There are signs the recession is about to end. So what comes next? Growth will resume. But economic uncertainty will worsen, making what comes next not just a boom but a nerve-shattering SONIC BOOM.
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Gregg Easterbrook โ€“ who "writes nothing that is not brilliant" (Chicago Tribune) โ€“ is a fount of unconventional wisdom, and over time, he is almost always proven right. Throughout 2008 and 2009, as the global economy was contracting and the experts were panicking, Easterbrook worked on a book saying prosperity is about to make its next big leap. Will he be right again?

SONIC BOOM: Globalization at Mach Speed presents three basic insights. First, if you don't like globalization, brace yourself, because globalization has barely started. Easterbrook contends the world is about to become far more globally linked. Second, the next wave of global change will be primarily positive: economic prosperity, knowledge and freedom will increase m...

Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet

by Joseph Menn
In this disquieting cyber thriller, Joseph Menn takes readers into the murky hacker underground, traveling the globe from San Francisco to Costa Rica and London to Russia. His guides are California surfer and computer whiz Barrett Lyon and a fearless British high-tech agent. Through these heroes, Menn shows the evolution of cyber-crime from small-time thieving to sophisticated, organized gangs, who began by attacking corporate websites but increasingly steal financial data from consumers and defense secrets from governments. Using unprecedented access to Mob businesses and Russian officials, the book reveals how top criminals earned protection from the Russian government....

The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050

by Joel Kotkin
Visionary social thinker Joel Kotkin looks ahead to America in 2050, revealing how the addition of one hundred million Americans by midcentury will transform how we all live, work, and prosper.

In stark contrast to the rest of the world's advanced nations, the United States is growing at a record rate and, according to census projections, will be home to four hundred million Americans by 2050. This projected rise in population is the strongest indicator of our long-term economic strength, Joel Kotkin believes, and will make us more diverse and more competitive than any nation on earth.

Drawing on prodigious research, firsthand reportage, and historical analysis, The Next Hundred Million reveals how this unprecedented growth will take physical shape and change the face of America. The majority of the additional hundred million Americans will find their homes in suburbia, though the suburbs of tomorrow will not resemble the Levittowns of the 1950s or th...

You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto

by Jaron Lanier
Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse.

The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The webโ€�s first designers made crucial choices (such as making oneโ€�s presence anonymous) that have had enormousโ€”and often unintendedโ€”consequences. Whatโ€�s more, these designs quickly became โ€�locked in,โ€� a permanent part of the webโ€�s very structure.

Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are ...

The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

by Jeremy Rifkin
"One of the leading big-picture thinkers of our day" (Utne Reader) delivers his boldest work in this erudite, tough-minded, and far-reaching manifesto.

Never has the world seemed so completely united-in the form of communication, commerce, and culture-and so savagely torn apart-in the form of war, financial meltdown, global warming, and even the migration of diseases.

No matter how much we put our minds to the task of meeting the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world, the human race seems to continually come up short, unable to muster the collective mental resources to truly "think globally and act locally." In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness. The very way our brains are structured disposes us to a way of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world that is no long...

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