Using the HTML5 Filesystem API

How scientists are using nature as model and metaphor to reinvent computing: a survey of an emerging field.

Users have become an integral part of technology studies. The essays in this volume look at the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from design to implementation. Using a var

What lessons does the current economic crisis in Sweden offer for other economies? Written in a clear and precise style and using modern theories of macroeconomics and economic policy to analyze Swede

Eva Hesse's distinctive process-based art exerted a powerful influence on minimalist artists of the 1960s and continues to inspire artists today. Using industrial materials such as latex and fibergla

Eva Hesse's distinctive process-based art exerted a powerful influence on minimalist artists of the 1960s and continues to inspire artists today. Using industrial materials such as latex and fibergla

Drawing on nationally representative telephone surveys conducted from 1995 to 2000, James Katz and Ronald Rice offer a rich and nuanced picture of Internet use in America. Using quantitative data, as

This book presents the "great ideas" of computer science, condensing a large amount of complex material into a manageable, accessible form; it does so using the Java programming language. T

Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on thespatial aspects of the economy--that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools--inparticular, modeling

Using qualitative methods to deal with imperfect information. In this book Simon Parsons describes qualitative methods for reasoning under uncertainty, "uncertainty" being a catch-all term for vario

The textile-block system was a fascinating experiment that Frank Lloyd Wrightconducted from about 1922 to 1932 as part of his quest to find a new system of construction using astandardized building ma

Aggregation lies at the heart of macroeconomics. Economists using such aggregates as capital, investment, labor, and even output or GNP assume that such constructions have a sound analytic foundation.

This important study shows that an understanding of product differentiation is crucial to understanding how modern market economies function and that differentiated markets can be analyzed using disc

Using Muncie, Indiana, as a touchstone, David Nye explores how electricity seeped into and redefined American culture.

These original essays summarize a decade of fruitful research and curriculum development using the LISP-derived language Logo. They discuss a range of issues in the areas of curriculum, learning, and

These original essays summarize a decade of fruitful research and curriculum development using the LISP-derived language Logo. They discuss a range of issues in the areas of curriculum, learning, and

Using applied general equilibrium methods to analyze recent debates about the conduct of US foreign trade policy, de Melo and Tarr show that in terms of costs to the economy and to consumers, non-tari

Numerical Techniques in Finance is an innovative book that shows how to create, and how to solve problems in a wide variety of complex financial models. All the models are set up using Lotus 1-2-3; so

Pictures that are made, not taken, are the focus of this exciting collection of works by 90 American artists who are using appropriation, computer technology, performance, and numerous other sources o

Model-Based Control of a Robot Manipulator presents the first integrated treatment of many of the most important recent developments in using detailed dynamic models of robots to improve their control

This collection of 17 essays by the author offers a comprehensive theory of mind, encompassing traditional issues of consciousness and free will. Using careful arguments and ingenious thought-experim

Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive

A cognitive ethnography of how bioengineering scientists create innovative modeling methods.In this first full-scale, long-term cognitive ethnography by a philosopher of science, Nancy J. Nersessian offers an account of how scientists at the interdisciplinary frontiers of bioengineering create novel problem-solving methods. Bioengineering scientists model complex dynamical biological systems using concepts, methods, materials, and other resources drawn primarily from engineering. They aim to understand these systems sufficiently to control or intervene in them. What Nersessian examines here is how cutting-edge bioengineering scientists integrate the cognitive, social, material, and cultural dimensions of practice. Her findings and conclusions have broad implications for researchers in philosophy, science studies, cognitive science, and interdisciplinary studies, as well as scientists, educators, policy makers, and funding agencies. In studying the epistemic practices of scientists, Ner

What life during lockdown reveals about digital inequality.The vast majority of people in wealthy, highly connected, or digitally privileged societies may have crossed the digital divide, but being online does not mean that everyone is equally connected―and digital inequality reflects experience both online and off. In Connected in Isolation Eszter Hargittai looks at how this digital disparity played out during the unprecedented isolation imposed in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. During initial COVID-19 lockdowns the internet, for many, became a lifeline, as everything from family get-togethers to doctor’s visits moved online. Using survey data collected in April and May of 2020 in the United States, Italy, and Switzerland, Hargittai explores how people from varied backgrounds and differing skill levels were able to take advantage of digital media to find the crucial information they needed―to help loved ones, procure necessities, understand rules and risks. Her study reve

How meaning works―from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music―and how meaning is connected to truth.We communicate through language, connecting what we mean to the words we say. But humans convey meaning in other ways as well, with facial expressions, hand gestures, and other methods. Animals, too, can get their meanings across without words. In What It All Means, linguist Philippe Schlenker explains how meaning works, from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music. He shows that these extraordinarily diverse types of meaning can be studied and compared within a unified approach―one in which the notion of truth plays a central role. “It’s just semantics” is often said dismissively. But Schlenker shows that semantics―the study of meaning―is an unsung success of modern linguistics, a way to investigate some of the deepest questions about human nature using tools from the empirical a

Technology companies claim to connect people through touchscreens, but by conflating physical contact with emotional sentiments, they displace the constructed aspects of devices and women and other oppressed individuals’ critiques of how such technologies function.Technology companies and device designers correlate touchscreens and online sites with physical contact and emotional sentiments, promising unmediated experiences in which the screen falls away in favor of visceral materiality and connections. While touchscreens are key elements of most people’s everyday lives, critical frameworks for understanding the embodied experiences of using them are wanting. In Touch Screen Theory, Michele White focuses on the relation between physically touching and emotionally feeling to recenter the bodies and identities that are empowered, produced, and displaced by these digital technologies and settings. Drawing on detailed cases and humanities methods, White shows how and why gender, race, and

Discover the hidden electrical world inside your nervous system using DIY, hands-on experiments, for all ages. No MD or PhD required!The workings of the brain are mysterious: What are neural signals? What do they mean? How do our senses really sense? How does our brain control our movements? What happens when we meditate? Techniques to record signals from living brains were once thought to be the realm of advanced university labs . . . but not anymore! This book allows anyone to participate in the discovery of neuroscience through hands-on experiments that record the hidden electrical world beneath our skin and skulls. In How Your Brain Works, neuroscientists Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo offer a practical guide―accessible and useful to readers from middle schoolers to college undergraduates to curious adults―for learning about the brain through hands-on experiments. Armed with some DIY electrodes, readers will get to see what brain activity really looks like through simple neuroscience e

How “nudges” by government can empower citizens without manipulating their preferences or exploiting their biases.We’re all familiar with the idea of “nudging”―using behavioral mechanisms to encourage people to make certain choices―popularized by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their bestselling 2008 book Nudge. This approach, also known as “libertarian paternalism,” goes beyond typical programs that simply provide information and incentives; nudges can range from automatic enrollment in a pension plan to flu-shot scheduling. In Nudging, Riccardo Viale explores the evolution of nudging and proposes new approaches that would empower citizens without manipulating them paternalistically. He shows that we can use the tools of the behavioral sciences without abandoning the principle of conscious decision-making. Viale discusses the work of Herbert Simon, Gerd Gigerenzer, Daniel Kahneman, and Amos Tversky that laid the foundation of behavioral economics, describes how policy makers have

The second edition of a rigorous and example-driven introduction to topics in economic dynamics that emphasizes techniques for modeling dynamic systems.This text provides an introduction to the modern theory of economic dynamics, with emphasis on mathematical and computational techniques for modeling dynamic systems. Written to be both rigorous and engaging, the book shows how sound understanding of the underlying theory leads to effective algorithms for solving real-world problems. The material makes extensive use of programming examples to illustrate ideas, bringing to life the abstract concepts in the text. Key topics include algorithms and scientific computing, simulation, Markov models, and dynamic programming. Part I introduces fundamentals and part II covers more advanced material. This second edition has been thoroughly updated, drawing on recent research in the field.New for the second edition:“Programming-language agnostic” presentation using pseudocode.New chapter 1 covering

How biomedical research using various animal species and in vitro cellular systems has resulted in both major successes and translational failure.In Model Systems in Biology, comparative neurobiologist Georg Striedter examines how biomedical researchers have used animal species and in vitro cellular systems to understand and develop treatments for human diseases ranging from cancer and polio to Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Although there have been some major successes, much of this “translational” research on model systems has failed to generalize to humans. Striedter explores the history of such research, focusing on the models used and considering the question of model selection from a variety of perspectives―the philosophical, the historical, and that of practicing biologists. Striedter reviews some philosophical concepts and ethical issues, including concerns over animal suffering and the compromises that result. He traces the history of the most widely used animal and in

An argument that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things.Discard studies is an emerging field that looks at waste and wasting broadly construed. Rather than focusing on waste and trash as the primary objects of study, discard studies looks at wider systems of waste and wasting to explore how some materials, practices, regions, and people are valued or devalued, becoming dominant or disposable. In this book, Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky argue that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things. They show how the theories and methods of discard studies can be applied in a variety of cases, many of which do not involve waste, trash, or pollution. Liboiron and Lepawsky consider the partiality of knowledge and offer a theory of scale, exploring the myth that most waste is municipal solid waste produced by consumers; discuss peripheries, centers, and power, using cont

How we can create artificial intelligence with broad, robust common sense rather than narrow, specialized expertise.It’s sometime in the not-so-distant future, and you send your fully autonomous self-driving car to the store to pick up your grocery order. The car is endowed with as much capability as an artificial intelligence agent can have, programmed to drive better than you do. But when the car encounters a traffic light stuck on red, it just sits there―indefinitely. Its obstacle-avoidance, lane-following, and route-calculation capacities are all irrelevant; it fails to act because it lacks the common sense of a human driver, who would quickly figure out what’s happening and find a workaround. In Machines like Us, Ron Brachman and Hector Levesque―both leading experts in AI―consider what it would take to create machines with common sense rather than just the specialized expertise of today’s AI systems. Using the stuck traffic light and other relatable examples, Brachman and Levesq

A novel defense of abduction, one of the main forms of nondeductive reasoning.With this book, Igor Douven offers the first comprehensive defense of abduction, a form of nondeductive reasoning. Abductive reasoning, which is guided by explanatory considerations, has been under normative pressure since the advent of Bayesian approaches to rationality. Douven argues that, although it deviates from Bayesian tenets, abduction is nonetheless rational. Drawing on scientific results, in particular those from reasoning research, and using computer simulations, Douven addresses the main critiques of abduction. He shows that versions of abduction can perform better than the currently popular Bayesian approaches―and can even do the sort of heavy lifting that philosophers have hoped it would do. Douven examines abduction in detail, comparing it to other modes of inference, explaining its historical roots, discussing various definitions of abduction given in the philosophical literature, and addres

This book offers a thoroughly updated guide to the MPI (Message-Passing Interface) standard library for writing programs for parallel computers. Since the publication of the previous edition ofUsing M

This book offers a practical guide to the advanced features of the MPI (Message-Passing Interface) standard library for writing programs for parallel computers. It covers new features added in MPI-3,

Although military operations have dominated media coverage of the war on terrorism, amuch broader array of policy options may hold the key to reducing the appeal of global terroristnetworks, particula

Randomization is an important tool in the design of algorithms, and the ability of randomization to provide enhanced power is a major research topic in complexity theory. Noam Nisan continues the inve

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) specification is widely used for solving significant scientific and engineering problems on parallel computers. There exist more than a dozen implementations on co

This book is a comprehensive introduction to all the components of a high-performance parallel linear algebra library, as well as a guide to the PLAPACK infrastructure. PLAPACK is a library infrastr

Technology has long played a central role in the formation of Americans' sense of selfhood. From the first canal systems through the moon landing, Americans have, for better or worse, derived unity from the common feeling of awe inspired by large-scale applications of technological prowess. American Technological Sublime continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America. Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely.American Technological Sublime is a study of the politics of perception in industrial society. Arranged chronologically, it suggests that the sublime itself has a history - that sublime experiences are emotional configurations that emerge from new social and technological