Design thinking as a user-centric innovation method has become more and more widespread during the past years. An increasing number of people and institutions have experienced its innovative power. While at the same time the demand has grown for a deep, evidence-based understanding of the way design thinking functions. This challenge is addressed by the Design Thinking Research Program between …
Oliver Pamp analyzes the likelihood and extent of pension reforms from a political-economy perspective. It is shown that voters’ preferences for or against reforms are influenced by a societies’ demographic development, the generosity of its existing public pension scheme and its electoral system. The author extensively reviews existing formal models of pension systems, discusses their meri…
This book addresses the challenges of designing high performance analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) based on the “smart data converters” concept, which implies context awareness, on-chip intelligence and adaptation. Readers will learn to exploit various information either a-priori or a-posteriori (obtained from devices, signals, applications or the ambient situations, etc.) for circuit and…
The study deals with the cutting-edge subject of electronic contracts which have the potential to automatically process and control the access rights for (electronic) goods. It shows the design and the implementation of a rights expression exchange framework. The framework allows DRM systems to exchange electronic contracts, formulated in a standardized rights expression language, and thus prov…
This brief presents a unified analytical framework for the evaluation of drive-thru Internet performance and accordingly proposes an optimal spatial access control management approach. A comprehensive overview and in-depth discussion of the research literature is included. It summarizes the main concepts and methods, and highlights future research directions. The brief also introduces a novel c…
This monograph explores a consistent modeling and analytic framework that provides the tools for an improved understanding of the behavior and the building of efficient models of power systems. It covers the essential concepts for the study of static and dynamic network stability, reviews the structure and design of basic voltage and load-frequency regulators, and offers an introduction to pow…
This textbook provides comprehensive, in-depth coverage of the fundamental concepts of electrical engineering. It is written from an engineering perspective, with special emphasis on circuit functionality and applications. Reliance on higher-level mathematics and physics, or theoretical proofs has been intentionally limited in order to prioritize the practical aspects of electrical engineering.…
Now in its third edition, this outstanding textbook explains everything you need to get started using MATLAB®. It contains concise explanations of essential MATLAB commands, as well as easily understood instructions for using MATLAB's programming features, graphical capabilities, simulation models, and rich desktop interface. MATLAB 8 and its new user interface is treated extensively in the bo…
This is a short, focused introduction to MATLAB, a comprehensive software system for mathematical and technical computing. It contains concise explanations of essential MATLAB commands, as well as easily understood instructions for using MATLAB's programming features, graphical capabilities, simulation models, and rich desktop interface. Written for MATLAB 7, it can also be used with earlier (a…
This open access book, published to mark the 15th anniversary of the International Software Quality Institute (iSQI), is intended to raise the profile of software testers and their profession. It gathers contributions by respected software testing experts in order to highlight the state of the art as well as future challenges and trends. In addition, it covers current and emerging technologies …