Browse Results

Showing 21,876 through 21,900 of 27,783 results

Scalar Fields in Numerical General Relativity: Inhomogeneous Inflation and Asymmetric Bubble Collapse (Springer Theses)

by Katy Clough

This book explores the use of numerical relativity (NR) methods to solve cosmological problems, and describes one of the first uses of NR to study inflationary physics. NR consists in the solution of Einstein’s Equation of general relativity, which governs the evolution of matter and energy on cosmological scales, and in systems where there are strong gravitational effects, such as around black holes. To date, NR has mainly been used for simulating binary black hole and neutron star mergers like those detected recently by LIGO. Its use as a tool in fundamental problems of gravity and cosmology is novel, but rapidly gaining interest. In this thesis, the author investigates the initial condition problem in early universe cosmology – whether an inflationary expansion period could have “got going” from initially inhomogeneous conditions – and identifies criteria for predicting the robustness of particular models. State-of-the-art numerical relativity tools are developed in order to address this question, which are now publicly available.

Scalar Mismatches in Metropolitan Water Governance: A Comparative Study of São Paulo and Mexico City (Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice)

by Francine van den Brandeler

The book provides insights into the particular nature of water-related challenges in metropolitan regions of the Global South and the “scalar mismatches” that prevent their sustainable and inclusive development. It argues for the adoption of a metropolitan water governance approach to assess these challenges, including the drivers and institutions that shape these, and the policy instruments at river basin and urban scales that aim to address these. The cases of Mexico City and São Paulo, as two mega-cities with a wide ranging of water-related challenges, present lessons to other fast growing urban agglomerations on the variety of possible responses as well as obstacles to their effectiveness that receive little attention.

Scale

by Andrew Herod

Geographical scale is a central concept enabling us to make sense of the world we inhabit. Amongst other things, it allows us to declare one event or process a national one and another a global or regional one. However, geographical scales and how we think about them are profoundly contested, and the spatial resolution at which social processes take place – local, regional or global – together with how we talk about them has significant implications for understanding our world. Scale provides a structured investigation of the debates concerning the concept of scale and how various geographical scales have been thought about within critical social theory. Specifically, the author examines how the scales of the body, the urban, the regional, the national, and the global have been conceptualized within Geography and the social sciences more broadly. The first part of the book provides a comprehensive overview of how different theoretical perspectives have regarded scale, especially debates over whether scales are real things or merely mental contrivances and/ or logical devices with which to think, as well as the consequences of thinking of them in areal versus in networked terms. The subsequent five chapters of the book then each takes a particular scale: the body; the urban; the regional; the national; the global and explores how it has been conceptualized and represented discursively for political and other purposes. A brief conclusion draws the book together by posing a number of questions about scale which emerge from the foregoing discussion. The first single-author volume ever written on the subject of geographical scale, this book provides a unique overview in pushing understandings of scale in new and original directions. The accessible text is complimented by didactic boxes, and Scale serves as a valuable pedagogical reference for undergraduate and postgraduate audiences wishing to become familiar with such theoretical issues.

Scale: Understanding the Environment

by Cristian Suteanu

This book provides up-to-date, in-depth and accessible information on the concept of scale, and focuses on its applications in geography, Earth science, environmental science, and other fields in which the environment plays a significant role. Although the book presents methods and applications as a response to practical challenges, it is primarily concept-centered: it identifies a set of distinct, yet related notions of “scale”, analyzing and elucidating their evolving meanings in a systematic way. Concepts are defined with a focus on their practical operational applicability, and the introduction of methods is supported by concrete examples. The book links theoretical insights to illustrating applications, involving a broad range of themes, from maps, fractals, and chaos theory to fine art and literature. It approaches the subject in a spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal context, including a wide diversity of spatial features from Earth and other planets, as well as time series and space-time patterns. This monograph is expected to be useful especially because in practice the various scale-focused concepts are not neatly separated and immiscible. It is therefore helpful for scholars in physical and human geography, Earth and environmental sciences, and other fields, to benefit from a clear conceptual framework that distinguishes and illuminates the various scale-related concepts and their interconnections. Selected chapters can also support a deeper understanding of the concept of scale for graduate and undergraduate students in geography, the natural sciences, and the humanities. Information on recommended additional literature and comments about specific sources offer a guide to further reading on the topics addressed in the book.

Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies

by Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, visionary physicist Geoffrey West found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem.

Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies

by Geoffrey West

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.'An absolutely riveting read . . . groundbreaking' Marcus du Sautoy'This book will expand your thinking from three dimensions to four' Nassim Nicholas Taleb'Scale is a firework display of popular science' Niall Ferguson'This is an important and original book, of immense scope' Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer RoyalScale addresses big, urgent questions about global sustainability, population explosion, urbanization, ageing, cancer, human lifespans and the increasing pace of life, but also encourages us to question the world around us. Why can we live for 120 years but not for a thousand? Why does the pace of life continually increase? Why do mice live for just two or three years and elephants for up to 75? Why do companies behave like mice, and are they all destined to die? Do cities, companies and human beings have natural, pre-determined lifespans? Are we just a fascinating experiment in natural selection that is ultimately doomed to fail? And what is the origin of the magic number 4 that seems to determine much of physiology and life-history from birth to death?Read by Bruce Mann(p) 2017 Penguin Random House

The Scale Model: How to Set Up and Run a Successful Enterprise

by Andy Clayton

The Scale Model does one thing: makes it easy for business entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Using a proven methodology that is easy to understand and implement, business teams can learn how to diagnose and solve barriers to growth. The Scale Model equips CEOs and senior leaders with a framework to assess where the pain points lie in their business, and easy-to-use templates to help them work out the solutions to enable continued growth. The Model has been used by high-growth companies around the world to achieve industry-beating growth in sales and profits, with engaged and aligned teams. In a complicated business environment, the straightforward advice and practical structure of the Scale Model provides for business planning. When you're busy running your business, you want just one place to go to fix it. This is that place. Pick up The Scale Model today, work through the tools inside, and watch your business grow. That's how easy it is.

The Scale Model: How to Set Up and Run a Successful Enterprise

by Andy Clayton

The Scale Model does one thing: makes it easy for business entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Using a proven methodology that is easy to understand and implement, business teams can learn how to diagnose and solve barriers to growth.The Scale Model equips CEOs and senior leaders with a framework to assess where the pain points lie in their business, and easy-to-use templates to help them work out the solutions to enable continued growth. The Model has been used by high-growth companies around the world to achieve industry-beating growth in sales and profits, with engaged and aligned teams. In a complicated business environment, the straightforward advice and practical structure of the Scale Model provides for business planning.When you're busy running your business, you want just one place to go to fix it. This is that place. Pick up The Scale Model today, work through the tools inside, and watch your business grow. That's how easy it is.

Scale-up and Build Your Business: How to Recognise and Overcome the Critical Challenges of Business Growth and Exit

by David Molian

How do business founders not only start a business but ensure sustainable growth for the future? This book provides the tools and understanding that enable successful business growth at the scale-up stage. Scale-up and Build Your Business distils the author’s two decades of working with high-growth, high-performing independently owned and managed businesses, including Cobra Beer, Hotel Chocolat, Belvoir Cordials, Thatcher’s Cider, Pacific Direct and Go Ape. Over many years David Molian and his colleagues have identified both the drivers that accelerate growth and the blockers that prevent it. Through case histories, industry analyses and numerous examples this book details five key challenges faced by ambitious entrepreneurs, and documents how they overcome them. For each key challenge, this book describes the accelerators and bear traps which will help or hinder the journey to successful growth and the creation of long-term, sustainable, independent value that translates into successful exit. The lessons within this book will be invaluable for policymakers, advisors and ambitious business founders who want to turn a start-up into a successful and sustainable company. In a period marked by uncertainty and economic stagnation, this guide is more vital than ever.

Scale-up and Build Your Business: How to Recognise and Overcome the Critical Challenges of Business Growth and Exit

by David Molian

How do business founders not only start a business but ensure sustainable growth for the future? This book provides the tools and understanding that enable successful business growth at the scale-up stage.Scale-up and Build Your Business distils the author’s two decades of working with high-growth, high-performing independently owned and managed businesses, including Cobra Beer, Hotel Chocolat, Belvoir Cordials, Thatcher’s Cider, Pacific Direct and Go Ape. Over many years David Molian and his colleagues have identified both the drivers that accelerate growth and the blockers that prevent it. Through case histories, industry analyses and numerous examples this book details five key challenges faced by ambitious entrepreneurs, and documents how they overcome them. For each key challenge, this book describes the accelerators and bear traps which will help or hinder the journey to successful growth and the creation of long-term, sustainable, independent value that translates into successful exit.The lessons within this book will be invaluable for policymakers, advisors and ambitious business founders who want to turn a start-up into a successful and sustainable company. In a period marked by uncertainty and economic stagnation, this guide is more vital than ever.

Scaling

by Grigory Isaakovich Barenblatt

Many phenomena in nature, engineering or society when seen at an intermediate distance, in space or time, exhibit the remarkable property of self-similarity: they reproduce themselves as scales change, subject to so-called scaling laws. It's crucial to know the details of these laws, so that mathematical models can be properly formulated and analysed, and the phenomena in question can be more deeply understood. In this 2003 book, the author describes and teaches the art of discovering scaling laws, starting from dimensional analysis and physical similarity, which are here given a modern treatment. He demonstrates the concepts of intermediate asymptotics and the renormalisation group as natural attributes of self-similarity and shows how and when these notions and tools can be used to tackle the task at hand, and when they cannot. Based on courses taught to undergraduate and graduate students, the book can also be used for self-study by biologists, chemists, astronomers, engineers and geoscientists.

Scaling Methods in Soil Physics

by Yakov Pachepsky David E. Radcliffe H. Magdi Selim

The scaling issue remains one of the largest problems in soil science and hydrology. This book is a unique compendium of ideas, conceptual approaches, techniques, and methodologies for scaling soil physical properties. Scaling Methods in Soil Physics covers many methods of scaling that will be useful in helping scientists across a range of soil-rel

The Scaling of Relaxation Processes (Advances in Dielectrics)

by Friedrich Kremer Alois Loidl

The dielectric properties especially of glassy materials are nowadays explored at widely varying temperatures and pressures without any gap in the spectral range from µHz up to the Infrared, thus covering typically 20 decades or more. This extraordinary span enables to trace the scaling and the mutual interactions of relaxation processes in detail, e.g. the dynamic glass transition and secondary relaxations, but as well far infrared vibrations, like the Boson peak. Additionally the evolution of intra-molecular interactions in the course of the dynamic glass transition is also well explored by (Fourier Transform) Infrared Spectroscopy. This volume within 'Advances in Dielectrics' summarizes this knowledge and discusses it with respect to the existing and often competing theoretical concepts.

Scaling up Business Solutions to Social Problems: A Practical Guide for Social and Corporate Entrepreneurs

by O. Kayser V. Budinich

A silent revolution is underway, as entrepreneurs challenge prevalent notions of business motives and methods to invent market-based solutions to eradicate social injustice. Yet many fail to succeed. Based on original research, the authors uncover why impressive solutions fail to scale up, featuring global case studies and practical solutions.

Scaling up SDGs Implementation: Emerging Cases from State, Development and Private Sectors (Sustainable Development Goals Series)

by Godwell Nhamo Vuyo Mjimba Gbadebo O. A. Odularu

This volume challenges global leaders and citizenry to do more in order to resource the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (AfSD) and its 17 interwoven Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Starting from the concept ‘we cannot manage what we cannot measure’, the book presents some cases showing how to draw national level baselines for the domestication and localisation of the SDGs seeking to provide a clear roadmap towards achieving the 2030 AfSD. Scaling up SDGs Implementation is targeted at the United Nations, national and state governments, sub-national governments, the corporate sector and civil society, including higher education institutes, labour groups, non-governmental organisations and youth movements. The book is cognizant of these institutions’ common, but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities within their socio-political, environmental and economic conditions. The book presents case studies of how the corporate sector has been scaling up SDGs implementation, from the tourism sector, insurance, to the aviation and agricultural sectors. To make sure that no one is left behind, the volume includes cases on solutions for pressing environmental and socio-economic problems ranging from cooperatives in Brazil to the conservation of springs in Zimbabwe. The matter of finding synergies between the climate SDG and the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is elaborated at length. Lastly, the book discusses how institutions of higher education remain critical pillars in SDGs scaling up, with cases of curriculum re-orientation in South Africa to the rolling out of the Women’s University in Africa. In this context, this volume challenges every global citizen and organization to invest every effort into making the implementation of the SDGs a success as we welcome the second four to five year segment down the road to the year 2030.

Scanning SQUID Microscope for Studying Vortex Matter in Type-II Superconductors

by Amit Finkler

Common methods of local magnetic imaging display either a high spatial resolution and relatively poor field sensitivity (MFM, Lorentz microscopy), or a relatively high field sensitivity but limited spatial resolution (scanning SQUID microscopy). Since the magnetic field of a nanoparticle or nanostructure decays rapidly with distance from the structure, the achievable spatial resolution is ultimately limited by the probe-sample separation. This thesis presents a novel method for fabricating the smallest superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) that resides on the apex of a very sharp tip. The nanoSQUID-on-tip displays a characteristic size down to 100 nm and a field sensitivity of 10^-3 Gauss/Hz^(1/2). A scanning SQUID microsope was constructed by gluing the nanoSQUID-on-tip to a quartz tuning-fork. This enabled the nanoSQUID to be scanned within nanometers of the sample surface, providing simultaneous images of sample topography and the magnetic field distribution. This microscope represents a significant improvement over the existing scanning SQUID techniques and is expected to be able to image the spin of a single electron.

Scarcity: A History from the Origins of Capitalism to the Climate Crisis

by Fredrik Albritton Jonsson Carl Wennerlind

A sweeping intellectual history of the concept of economic scarcity—its development across five hundred years of European thought and its decisive role in fostering the climate crisis.Modern economics presumes a particular view of scarcity, in which human beings are innately possessed of infinite desires and society must therefore facilitate endless growth and consumption irrespective of nature’s limits. Yet as Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind show, this vision of scarcity is historically novel and was not inevitable even in the age of capitalism. Rather, it reflects the costly triumph of infinite-growth ideologies across centuries of European economic thought—at the expense of traditions that sought to live within nature’s constraints.The dominant conception of scarcity today holds that, rather than master our desires, humans must master nature to meet those desires. Albritton Jonsson and Wennerlind argue that this idea was developed by thinkers such as Francis Bacon, Samuel Hartlib, Alfred Marshall, and Paul Samuelson, who laid the groundwork for today’s hegemonic politics of growth. Yet proponents of infinite growth have long faced resistance from agrarian radicals, romantic poets, revolutionary socialists, ecofeminists, and others. These critics—including the likes of Gerrard Winstanley, Dorothy Wordsworth, Karl Marx, and Hannah Arendt—embraced conceptions of scarcity in which our desires, rather than nature, must be mastered to achieve the social good. In so doing, they dramatically reenvisioned how humans might interact with both nature and the economy.Following these conflicts into the twenty-first century, Albritton Jonsson and Wennerlind insist that we need new, sustainable models of economic thinking to address the climate crisis. Scarcity is not only a critique of infinite growth, but also a timely invitation to imagine alternative ways of flourishing on Earth.

Scarcity and Growth: The Economics of Natural Resource Availability (RFF Environmental and Resource Economics Set)

by Harold J. Barnett Chandler Morse

In this classic study, the authors assess the importance of technological change and resource substitution in support of their conclusion that resource scarcity did not increase in the Unites States during the period 1870 to 1957. Originally published in 1963

Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered (RFF Environmental and Resource Economics Set)

by V. Kerry Smith

Current views on resource availability are examined, along with the original Barnett-Morse thesis of resource supply. Originally published in 1979

Scarcity and Modernity (Routledge Library Editions: Environmental and Natural Resource Economics)

by Nicholas Xenos

Originally published in 1989. In this book Nicholas Xenos argues that the assumption that scarcity is a universal human condition is far from universal but rather a product of western influence. Informed by the work of Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Girard, and Sahlins, this historical narrative of scarcity incorporates interpretations of texts and practices from eighteenth-century London to contemporary New York. Lucid and elegant in style, Scarcity and Modernity will appear to those with interests in social and political thought and cultural criticism.

Scarlet Experiment: Birds and Humans in America

by Jeff Karnicky

Emily Dickinson’s poem “Split the Lark” refers to the “scarlet experiment” by which scientists destroy a bird in order to learn more about it. Indeed, humans have killed hundreds of millions of birds—for science, fashion, curiosity, and myriad other reasons. In the United States alone, seven species of birds are now extinct and another ninety-three are endangered. Conversely, the U.S. conservation movement has made bird-watching more popular than ever, saving countless bird populations; and while the history of actual physical human interaction with birds is complicated, our long aesthetic and scientific interest in them is undeniable. Since the beginning of the modern conservation movement in the mid-nineteenth century, human understanding of and interaction with birds has changed profoundly. In Scarlet Experiment, Jeff Karnicky traces the ways in which birds have historically been seen as beautiful creatures worthy of protection and study and yet subject to experiments—scientific, literary, and governmental—that have irrevocably altered their relationship with humans. This examination of the management of bird life in America from the nineteenth century to today, which focuses on six bird species, finds that renderings of birds by such authors as Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Christopher Cokinos, have also influenced public perceptions and actions. Scarlet Experiment speculates about the effects our decisions will have on the future of North American bird ecology.

Scattering Amplitudes in Quantum Field Theory (Lecture Notes in Physics #1021)

by Simon Badger Johannes Henn Jan Christoph Plefka Simone Zoia

This open access book bridges a gap between introductory Quantum Field Theory (QFT) courses and state-of-the-art research in scattering amplitudes. It covers the path from basic definitions of QFT to amplitudes, which are relevant for processes in the Standard Model of particle physics. The book begins with a concise yet self-contained introduction to QFT, including perturbative quantum gravity. It then presents modern methods for calculating scattering amplitudes, focusing on tree-level amplitudes, loop-level integrands and loop integration techniques. These methods help to reveal intriguing relations between gauge and gravity amplitudes and are of increasing importance for obtaining high-precision predictions for collider experiments, such as those at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as for foundational mathematical physics studies in QFT, including recent applications to gravitational wave physics.These course-tested lecture notes include numerous exercises with solutions. Requiring only minimal knowledge of QFT, they are well-suited for MSc and PhD students as a preparation for research projects in theoretical particle physics. They can be used as a one-semester graduate level course, or as a self-study guide for researchers interested in fundamental aspects of quantum field theory.

Scattering Theory

by Harald Friedrich

This book presents a concise and modern coverage of scattering theory. It is motivated by the fact that experimental advances have shifted and broadened the scope of applications where concepts from scattering theory are used, e.g. to the field of ultracold atoms and molecules, which has been experiencing enormous growth in recent years, largely triggered by the successful realization of Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute atomic gases in 1995. In the present treatment, special attention is given to the role played by the long-range behaviour of the projectile-target interaction, and a theory is developed, which is well suited to describe near-threshold bound and continuum states in realistic binary systems such as diatomic molecules or molecular ions. The level of abstraction is kept as low as at all possible, and deeper questions related to mathematical foundations of scattering theory are passed by. The book should be understandable for anyone with a basic knowledge of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. It is intended for advanced students and researchers, and it is hoped that it will be useful for theorists and experimentalists alike.

Scattering Theory for Transport Phenomena (Mathematical Physics Studies)

by Hassan Emamirad

The scattering theory for transport phenomena was initiated by P. Lax and R. Phillips in 1967. Since then, great progress has been made in the field and the work has been ongoing for more than half a century. This book shows part of that progress. The book is divided into 7 chapters, the first of which deals with preliminaries of the theory of semigroups and C*-algebra, different types of semigroups, Schatten–von Neuman classes of operators, and facts about ultraweak operator topology, with examples using wavelet theory.Chapter 2 goes into abstract scattering theory in a general Banach space. The wave and scattering operators and their basic properties are defined. Some abstract methods such as smooth perturbation and the limiting absorption principle are also presented. Chapter 3 is devoted to the transport or linearized Boltzmann equation, and in Chapter 4 the Lax and Phillips formalism is introduced in scattering theory for the transport equation. In their seminal book, Lax and Phillips introduced the incoming and outgoing subspaces, which verify their representation theorem for a dissipative hyperbolic system initially and also matches for the transport problem. By means of these subspaces, the Lax and Phillips semigroup is defined and it is proved that this semigroup is eventually compact, hence hyperbolic. Balanced equations give rise to two transport equations, one of which can satisfy an advection equation and one of which will be nonautonomous. For generating, the Howland semigroup and Howland’s formalism must be used, as shown in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 is the highlight of the book, in which it is explained how the scattering operator for the transport problem by using the albedo operator can lead to recovery of the functionality of computerized tomography in medical science. The final chapter introduces the Wigner function, which connects the Schrödinger equation to statistical physics and the Husimi distribution function. Here, the relationship between the Wigner function and the quantum dynamical semigroup (QDS) can be seen.

The Scavengers' Manifesto

by Anneli Rufus Kristan Lawson

Destined to become the bible for a bold new subculture of eco-minded people who are creating a lifestyle out of recycling, reusing, and repurposing rather than buying new. An exciting new movement is afoot that brings together environmentalists, anticonsumerists, do-it-yourselfers, bargain-hunters, and treasure-seekers of all stripes. You can see it in the enormous popularity of many websites: millions of Americans are breaking free from the want-get-discard cycle by which we are currently producing approximately 245 million tons of waste every day (that's 4. 5 pounds per person, per day!). In The Scavengers' Manifesto, Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson invite readers to discover one of the most gratifying (and inexpensive) ways there is to go green. Whether it's refurbishing a discarded wooden door into a dining-room table; finding a bicycle on freecycle. org; or giving a neighbor who just had a baby that cute never-used teddy bear your child didn't bond with, in this book Rufus and Lawson chart the history of scavenging and the world-changing environmental and spiritual implications of "Scavenomics," and offer readers a framework for adopting scavenging as a philosophy and a way of life. .

Refine Search

Showing 21,876 through 21,900 of 27,783 results