Work-Life Integration

Work-Life Advantage analyses how employer-provision of ‘family-friendly’ working arrangements – designed to help workers better reconcile work, home and family – can also enhance firms’ capacities for learning and innovation, in pursuit of long-term competitive advantage and socially inclusive growth. Brings together major debates in labour geography, feminist geography, and regional learning in novel ways, through a focus on the shifting boundaries between work, home, and family Addresses a major gap in the scholarly research surrounding the narrow ‘business case’ for work-life balance by developing a more socially progressive, workerist ‘dual agenda’ Challenges and disrupts masculinist assumptions of the “ideal worker” and the associated labour market marginalization of workers with significant home and family commitments Based on 10 years of research with over 300 IT workers and 150 IT firms in the UK and Ireland, with important insights for professional workers and knowledge-intensive companies around the world

Application integration assembles methods and tools for organizing exchanges between applications, and intra- and inter-enterprise business processes. A strategic tool for enterprises, it introduces genuine reactivity into information systems facing business changes, and as a result, provides a significant edge in optimizing costs. This book analyzes various aspects of application integration, providing a guide to the alphabet soup behind EAI, A2A, B2B, BAM, BPM, ESB and SOA. It addresses the problems of choosing between the application integration solutions and deploying them successfully. It supplies guidelines for avoiding common errors, exploring the differences between received wisdom and the facts on the ground. The overview of IT urbanization will help introduce English-speaking audiences to a powerful approach to information system flexibility developed in France. A key chapter approaches the analysis and interoperation of service levels in integration projects, while the discussion on deployment methodologies and ROI calculation anchors the theory in the real world. Application Integration: EAI, B2B, BPM and SOA relies on concrete examples and genuine experiences to demonstrate what works – and what doesn’t – in this challenging, topical and important IT domain.

Many regard the ways in which paid work can be combined or ‘balanced’ with other parts of life as an individual concern and a small, rather self-indulgent problem in today’s world. Some feel that worrying about a lack of time or energy for family relationships or friendships is a luxury or secondary issue when compared with economic growth or development. In the business world and among many Governments around the world, the importance of paid work and the primacy of economic competitiveness, whatever the personal costs, is almost accepted wisdom. Profits and short term efficiency gains are often placed before social issues of care or human dignity. But what about the impact this has on men and women’s well being, or the long-term sustainability of people, families, society or even the economy? Drawing from interviews and group meetings in seven diverse countries – India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, the UK and USA – this book explores the multiple difficulties in combining paid work with other parts of life and the frustrations people experience in diverse settings. There is a myth that ‘work-life balance’ can be achieved through quick fixes rather than challenging the place of paid work in people’s lives and the way work actually gets done. As well as exploring contemporary problems, this book attempts to seed hope and new ways of thinking about one of the key challenges of our time.

A uniquely accessible book for general measure and integration, emphasizing the real line, Euclidean space, and the underlying role of translation in real analysis Measure and Integration: A Concise Introduction to Real Analysis presents the basic concepts and methods that are important for successfully reading and understanding proofs. Blending coverage of both fundamental and specialized topics, this book serves as a practical and thorough introduction to measure and integration, while also facilitating a basic understanding of real analysis. The author develops the theory of measure and integration on abstract measure spaces with an emphasis of the real line and Euclidean space. Additional topical coverage includes: Measure spaces, outer measures, and extension theorems Lebesgue measure on the line and in Euclidean space Measurable functions, Egoroff's theorem, and Lusin's theorem Convergence theorems for integrals Product measures and Fubini's theorem Differentiation theorems for functions of real variables Decomposition theorems for signed measures Absolute continuity and the Radon-Nikodym theorem Lp spaces, continuous-function spaces, and duality theorems Translation-invariant subspaces of L2 and applications The book's presentation lays the foundation for further study of functional analysis, harmonic analysis, and probability, and its treatment of real analysis highlights the fundamental role of translations. Each theorem is accompanied by opportunities to employ the concept, as numerous exercises explore applications including convolutions, Fourier transforms, and differentiation across the integral sign. Providing an efficient and readable treatment of this classical subject, Measure and Integration: A Concise Introduction to Real Analysis is a useful book for courses in real analysis at the graduate level. It is also a valuable reference for practitioners in the mathematical sciences.

UAS Integration into Civil Airspace Explores current Unmanned Air Systems policies with a view to developing a common airspace access and integration strategy UAS Integration into Civil Airspace: Policy, Regulations and Strategy examines the current state of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) airspace access and integration around the world, focusing on the efforts that have produced a regulatory response to the demand for access. This analysis discusses the proposed architectures for a common strategic and analytical thread that may serve as templates for the entire community, as well as for regulators and policymakers who must balance the needs and demands of UAS users with the general public’s right to safe skies and privacy. An understanding of the market forces and business cases that are fuelling the development of the technology is also covered with a focus on the economics of the industry. The book presents a strategy for airspace access and integration that will facilitate humanitarian, environmental, social and security uses of unmanned aircraft systems on a global scale. Key features: Discusses existing and evolving policies and regulations from nations around the world for operating Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in civil airspace Examines the current status of technological developments such as UTM and U-space and explores the technological potential in the years to come Presents a comprehensive airspace integration strategy that balances the many conflicting interests in the UAS world, with due regard for safety, utility and affordability UAS Integration into Civil Airspace: Policy, Regulations and Strategy is essential reading for all professionals involved in UAS industry, as well as students in mechanical engineering and law.

Research on organic electronics (or plastic electronics) is driven by the need to create systems that are lightweight, unbreakable, and mechanically flexible. With the remarkable improvement in the performance of organic semiconductor materials during the past few decades, organic electronics appeal to innovative, practical, and broad-impact applications requiring large-area coverage, mechanical flexibility, low-temperature processing, and low cost. Thus, organic electronics appeal to a broad range of electronic devices and products including transistors, diodes, sensors, solar cells, lighting, displays, and electronic identification and tracking devices A number of commercial opportunities have been identified for organic thin film transistors (OTFTs), ranging from flexible displays, electronic paper, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart cards, to low-cost disposable electronic products, and more are continually being invented as the technology matures. The potential applications for «plastic electronics» are huge but several technological hurdles must be overcome. In many of these applications, transistor serves as a fundamental building block to implement the necessary electronic functionality. Hence, research in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) or organic field effect transistors (OFETs) is eminently pertinent to the development and realization of organic electronics. This book presents a comprehensive investigation of the production and application of a variety of polymer based transistor devices and circuits. It begins with a detailed overview of Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFTs) and discusses the various possible fabrication methods reported so far. This is followed by two major sections on the choice, optimization and implementation of the gate dielectric material to be used. Details of the effects of processing on the efficiency of the contacts are then provided. The book concludes with a chapter on the integration of such devices to produce a variety of OTFT based circuits and systems. The key objective is to examine strategies to exploit existing materials and techniques to advance OTFT technology in device performance, device manufacture, and device integration. Finally, the collective knowledge from these investigations facilitates the integration of OTFTs into organic circuits, which is expected to contribute to the development of new generation of all-organic displays for communication devices and other pertinent applications. Overall, a major outcome of this work is that it provides an economical means for organic transistor and circuit integration, by enabling the use of a well-established PECVD infrastructure, while not compromising the performance of electronics. The techniques established here are not limited to use in OTFTs only; the organic semiconductor and SiNx combination can be used in other device structures (e.g., sensors, diodes, photovoltaics). Furthermore, the approach and strategy used for interface optimization can be extended to the development of other materials systems.

The latest tools and techniques for addressing the challenges of 21st century power generation, renewable sources and distribution systems Renewable energy technologies and systems are advancing by leaps and bounds, and it’s only a matter of time before renewables replace fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources. Written for practicing engineers, researchers and students alike, this book discusses state-of-the art mathematical and engineering tools for the modeling, simulation and control of renewable and mixed energy systems and related power electronics. Computational methods for multi-domain modeling of integrated energy systems and the solution of power electronics engineering problems are described in detail. Chapters follow a consistent format, featuring a brief introduction to the theoretical background, a description of problems to be solved, as well as objectives to be achieved. Multiple block diagrams, electrical circuits, and mathematical analysis and/or computer code are provided throughout. And each chapter concludes with discussions of lessons learned, recommendations for further studies, and suggestions for experimental work. Key topics covered in detail include: Integration of the most usual sources of electrical power and related thermal systems Equations for energy systems and power electronics focusing on state-space and power circuit oriented simulations MATLAB® and Simulink® models and functions and their interactions with real-world implementations using microprocessors and microcontrollers Numerical integration techniques, transfer-function modeling, harmonic analysis, and power quality performance assessment MATLAB®/Simulink®, Power Systems Toolbox, and PSIM for the simulation of power electronic circuits, including for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar sources Written by distinguished experts in the field, Integration of Renewable Sources of Energy, 2nd Edition is a valuable working resource for practicing engineers interested in power electronics, power systems, power quality, and alternative or renewable energy. It is also a valuable text/reference for undergraduate and graduate electrical engineering students.

From the earliest days of aviation where the pilot would drop simple bombs by hand, to the highly agile, stealthy aircraft of today that can deliver smart ordnance with extreme accuracy, engineers have striven to develop the capability to deliver weapons against targets reliably, safely and with precision. Aircraft Systems Integration of Air-Launched Weapons introduces the various aspects of weapons integration, primarily from the aircraft systems integration viewpoint, but also considers key parts of the weapon and the desired interactions with the aircraft required for successful target engagement. Key features: Addresses the broad range of subjects that relate directly to the systems integration of air-launched weapons with aircraft, such as the integration process, system and subsystem architectures, the essential contribution that open, international standards have on improving interoperability and reducing integration costs and timescales Describes the recent history of how industry and bodies such as NATO have driven the need for greater interoperability between weapons and aircraft and worked to reduce the cost and timescales associated with the systems integration of complex air-launched weapons with aircraft Explores future initiatives and technologies relating to the reduction of systems integration costs and timescales The systems integration of air-launched weapons with aircraft requires a multi-disciplinary set of engineering capabilities. As a typical weapons integration life-cycle spans several years, new engineers have to learn the skills required by on-the-job training and working with experienced weapons integrators. Aircraft Systems Integration of Air-Launched Weapons augments hands-on experience, thereby enabling the development of subject matter expertise more quickly and in a broader context than would be achieved by working through the life-cycle on one specific project. This book also serves as a useful revision source for experienced engineers in the field.

Written by a highly regarded author with industrial and academic experience, this new edition of an established bestselling book provides practical guidance for students, researchers, and those in chemical engineering. The book includes a new section on sustainable energy, with sections on carbon capture and sequestration, as a result of increasing environmental awareness; and a companion website that includes problems, worked solutions, and Excel spreadsheets to enable students to carry out complex calculations.