Diversity and Complexity

Diversity and Complexity PDF Author: Scott E. Page
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400835143
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
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

Diversity and Complexity in Prehistoric Maritime Societies

Diversity and Complexity in Prehistoric Maritime Societies PDF Author: Bruce J. Bourque
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0585275742
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Archaic Societies

Archaic Societies PDF Author: Thomas E. Emerson
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 143842700X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 895

Get Book Here

Book Description
Essential overview of American Indian societies during the Archaic period across central North America.

Biology's First Law

Biology's First Law PDF Author: Daniel W. McShea
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226562271
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy

Diversity and Complexity in Feminist Therapy PDF Author: Maria P P Root
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317714199
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

The Diversity Bonus

The Diversity Bonus PDF Author: Scott E. Page
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691191530
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book Here

Book Description
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

Addressing Cultural Complexities in Practice

Addressing Cultural Complexities in Practice PDF Author: Pamela A. Hays
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Part of PsycBOOKS collection.

Web Engineering

Web Engineering PDF Author: San Murugesan
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3540451447
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Social Diversity within Multiliteracies

Social Diversity within Multiliteracies PDF Author: Fenice B. Boyd
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317693302
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using a multiliteracies theoretical framework highlighting social diversity and multimodality as central in the process of meaning making, this book examines literacy teaching and learning as embedded in cultural, linguistic, racial, sexual, and gendered contexts and explores ways to foster learning and achievement for diverse students in various settings. Attending simultaneously to topics around two overarching and interrelated themes—languages and language variations, and cultures, ethnicities, and identities—the chapter authors examine the roles that multiliteracies play in students’ lives in and out of classrooms. In Part I, readers are asked to examine beliefs and dispositions as related to different languages, language varieties, cultures, ethnicities, and identities. Part II engages readers in examining classroom and community practices related to different languages and language varieties, cultures, ethnicities, and identities.

Spin Glasses and Complexity

Spin Glasses and Complexity PDF Author: Daniel L. Stein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400845637
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.