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This book provides an introduction to the role of diversity in complex adaptive systems. A complex system--such as an economy or a tropical ecosystem--consists of interacting adaptive entities that produce dynamic patterns and structures. Diversity plays a different role in a complex system than it does in an equilibrium system, where it often merely produces variation around the mean for performance measures. In complex adaptive systems, diversity makes fundamental contributions to system performance. Scott Page gives a concise primer on how diversity happens, how it is maintained, and how it affects complex systems. He explains how diversity underpins system level robustness, allowing for multiple responses to external shocks and internal adaptations; how it provides the seeds for large events by creating outliers that fuel tipping points; and how it drives novelty and innovation. Page looks at the different kinds of diversity--variations within and across types, and distinct community compositions and interaction structures--and covers the evolution of diversity within complex systems and the factors that determine the amount of maintained diversity within a system. Provides a concise and accessible introduction Shows how diversity underpins robustness and fuels tipping points Covers all types of diversity The essential primer on diversity in complex adaptive systems
Essential overview of American Indian societies during the Archaic period across central North America.
New England archaeology has not always been everyone's cup of tea; only late in the Golden of nineteenth-century archaeology, as archaeology's focus turned westward, did a few pioneers look northward as well, causing a brief flurry of investigation and excavation. Between 1892 and 1894, Charles C. Willoughby did some exemplary excavations at three small burial sites in Bucksport, Orland, and Ellsworth, Maine, and made some models of that activity for exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair. These activities were encouraged by E Putnam, director of the Harvard Peabody Museum and head of anthropology at the "Columbian" Exposition. Even earlier, another director of the Peabody, Jeffries Wyman, spawned some real interest in the shellheaps of the Maine coast, but that did not last very long. Twentieth-century New England archaeology, specifically in Maine, was--for its first fifty years--rather low key too, with short-lived but important activity by Arlo and Oric (a Bates Harvard student) prior to World War Later, I. another Massachusetts institution, the Peabody Foundation at Andover, took some minor but responsible steps toward further understanding of the area's prehistoric past.
Life on earth is characterized by three striking phenomena that demand explanation: adaptation—the marvelous fit between organism and environment; diversity—the great variety of organisms; and complexity—the enormous intricacy of their internal structure. Natural selection explains adaptation. But what explains diversity and complexity? Daniel W. McShea and Robert N. Brandon argue that there exists in evolution a spontaneous tendency toward increased diversity and complexity, one that acts whether natural selection is present or not. They call this tendency a biological law—the Zero-Force Evolutionary Law, or ZFEL. This law unifies the principles and data of biology under a single framework and invites a reconceptualization of the field of the same sort that Newton’s First Law brought to physics. Biology’s First Law shows how the ZFEL can be applied to the study of diversity and complexity and examines its wider implications for biology. Intended for evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and other scientists studying complex systems, and written in a concise and engaging format that speaks to students and interdisciplinary practitioners alike, this book will also find an appreciative audience in the philosophy of science.
A book about how businesses and other organizations can improve their performance by tapping the power of differences in how people think. What if workforce diversity is more than simply the right thing to do? What if it can also improve the bottom line? Because it can. The autuor presents overwhelming evidence: teams that include different kinds of thinkers outperform homogenous groups on complex tasks, producing what he calls diversity bonuses. These bonuses include improved problem solving, increased innovation, and more accurate predictions - all of which lead to better results. Drawing on research in economics, psychology, computer science, and many other fields, the book also tells the stories of businesses and organizations that have tapped the power of diversity to solve complex problems. The result changes the way we think about diversity at work-and far beyond
Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy is an unprecedented new book that focuses on incorporating, appreciating, and building on the differences among women. Multicultural in content and authorship, this intellectually and emotionally stimulating volume breaks new ground in the development of theory in feminist therapy. Chapters run the gamut from highly theoretical works that challenge us to examine the validity of current male, Western psychological theories, to the very personal story of one woman’s struggle with oppression and her respect for the differences between her experiences of oppression and other women’s experiences. You will also find provocative, creative, and diverse chapters that address women’s development as it relates to their ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, sexual, and age differences. The one pervasive truth throughout this unique book is that feminist therapy must be based on the experiences of all women in order to be truly representative of women in the United States. Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy is a first step in moving feminist therapy to a more inclusive, global perspective and back into a more political and activist stance against the oppression that we all want to defeat. more from mq: introduces feminist therapists and other interested feminist behavioral scientists to an anti-racist and multicultural perspective on feminist therapy, both at the level of theory and practice. This volume is unique in several ways. One of them is in the emphasis on the development of a theoretical model for feminist therapy. While much has been and continues to be written about applications of feminist therapy, theory-building has been neglected. This volume focuses on the necessity of taking an explicitly anti-racist and multicultural perspective for such theory to be truly feminst. A second unique aspect--very close and detailed attention to feminist therapy practice with people of color, both within and outside of US culture. While this issue has been addressed in a piece-meal fashion elsewhere, or has been addressed primarily by activists challenging racism within feminist therapy, this volume offers the work of feminist therapists themselves applying feminist analyses and principles. Volume is also unique in the degree to which its author represent a diverse group within feminist therapy. This volume is not only multicultural in its intent, but also in its creation.HPP Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy is an unprecedented new book that focuses on incorporating, appreciating, and building on the differences among women. Multicultural in content and authorship, this intellectually and emotionally stimulating volume breaks new ground in the development of theory in feminist therapy. Chapters run the gamut from highly theoretical works that challenge us to examine the validity of current male, Western psychological theories, to the very personal story of one woman’s struggle with oppression and her respect for the differences between her experiences of oppression and other women’s experiences. You will also find provocative, creative, and diverse chapters that address women’s development as it relates to their ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, sexual, and age differences. The one pervasive truth throughout this unique book is that feminist therapy must be based on the experiences of all women in order to be truly representative of women in the United States. Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy is a first step in moving feminist therapy to a more inclusive, global perspective and back into a more political and activist stance against the oppression that we all want to defeat.
Spin glasses are disordered magnetic systems that have led to the development of mathematical tools with an array of real-world applications, from airline scheduling to neural networks. Spin Glasses and Complexity offers the most concise, engaging, and accessible introduction to the subject, fully explaining what spin glasses are, why they are important, and how they are opening up new ways of thinking about complexity. This one-of-a-kind guide to spin glasses begins by explaining the fundamentals of order and symmetry in condensed matter physics and how spin glasses fit into--and modify--this framework. It then explores how spin-glass concepts and ideas have found applications in areas as diverse as computational complexity, biological and artificial neural networks, protein folding, immune response maturation, combinatorial optimization, and social network modeling. Providing an essential overview of the history, science, and growing significance of this exciting field, Spin Glasses and Complexity also features a forward-looking discussion of what spin glasses may teach us in the future about complex systems. This is a must-have book for students and practitioners in the natural and social sciences, with new material even for the experts.
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This book gives a unique account of the emerging field of Web engineering by presenting 25 thoroughly reviewed papers drawn from two recent workshops on the topic together with introductory and motivating surveys and a list of Web engineering resources in chapters on - Web engineering: introduction and perspectives - Web-based system development: process and methodology - Managing information on the Web - Development tools, skills, and case studies - Performance, testing, and Web metrices - Web maintenance and reuseThe book will appeal equally to researchers, students, professionals and practitioners in industry interested in developing, maintaining, and using advanced Web-based systems and applications.
In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups--and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions and predictions those that draw upon the very qualities that make each of us unique? The answers lie in diversity--not what we look like outside, but what we look like within, our distinct tools and abilities. The Difference reveals that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality. Page shows how groups that display a range of perspectives outperform groups of like-minded experts. Diversity yields superior outcomes, and Page proves it using his own cutting-edge research. Moving beyond the politics that cloud standard debates about diversity, he explains why difference beats out homogeneity, whether you're talking about citizens in a democracy or scientists in the laboratory. He examines practical ways to apply diversity's logic to a host of problems, and along the way offers fascinating and surprising examples, from the redesign of the Chicago "El" to the truth about where we store our ketchup. Page changes the way we understand diversity--how to harness its untapped potential, how to understand and avoid its traps, and how we can leverage our differences for the benefit of all.