Deconstructing “Ideal Power Europe”: The EU and Arab Change criticizes the dominant discourse on European foreign policy, which represents the EU as a force for good in world politics. Using a poststructuralist approach, it deconstructs the EU’s representation as “an ideal power” through an analysis of European foreign policy on the Southern Mediterranean before and after the Arab uprisings. In this endeavor, it displaces three major discourses which construct the EU as “ideal”: the “postmodern and post-sovereign EU”, “the EU as a model/a virtuous example”, and, “the EU as a normative power” discourses. The major argument of the book is that the “ideal power Europe” meta-narrative is especially produced and reproduced in the EU’s approach towards the Southern Mediterranean, and, it manifests itself through the rhetoric of “responsibility” and “universality” in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. The book also provides an analysis of how the “ideal power Europe” meta-narrative feeds into and legitimizes European governmentality in the world, in general, and, in the case of the Southern Mediterranean after the Arab uprisings, in particular. Arguing that the depiction of the EU as postmodern/post-sovereign, as a model/an exemplar, and as a normative power pertains to the representation of a “regulatory ideal”, it elucidates how the EU pursues hegemonic practices in the Southern Mediterranean. It further manifests how the EU’s governmentality is marked by a securitized, depoliticizing, and technocratic approach which feeds into and gets legitimized by the dominant discourse on European foreign policy; reproducing the EU’s “ideal” identity vis-à-vis its “imperfect” Arab other.

About the use of business ideals as a means for economic growth and profit in large corporations.

A comprehensive introduction to the principles underlying statistical analyses in the fields of economics, business, and econometrics. The selection of topics is specifically designed to provide students with a substantial conceptual foundation, from which to achieve a thorough and mature understanding of statistical applications within the fields. After introducing the concepts of probability, random variables, and probability density functions, the author develops the key concepts of mathematical statistics, notably: expectation, sampling, asymptotics, and the main families of distributions. The latter half of the book is then devoted to the theories of estimation and hypothesis testing with associated examples and problems that indicate their wide applicability in economics and business. Includes hundreds of exercises and problems.

Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.

Over the last ten years, there has been growing concern about potential biological attacks on the nation's population and its military facilities. It is now possible to detect such attacks quickly enough to permit treatment of potential victims prior to the onset of symptoms. The capability to "detect to warn", that is in time to take action to minimize human exposure, however, is still lacking. To help achieve such a capability, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to assess the development path for "detect to warn" sensors systems. This report presents the results of this assessment including analysis of scenarios for protecting facilities, sensor requirements, and detection technologies and systems. Findings and recommendations are provided for the most probable path to achieve a detect-to-warn capability and potential technological breakthroughs that could accelerate its attainment.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2016, held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in September 2016. The 12 full papers, 18 short papers, and 37 demo and poster papers accepted were carefully reviewed and selected from 81 submissions. IVA 2016 also includes three workshops: Workshop on Chatbots and Conversational Agents (WOCHAT), Can you feel me now? Creating Physiologically Aware Virtual Agents (PAVA), and Graphical and Robotic Embodied Agents for Therapeutic Systems, GREATS16. Intelligent Virtual Aspects (IVAs) are intelligent digital interactive characters that can communicate with humans and other agents using natural human modalities such as facial expressions, speech, gestures, and movement. They are capable of real-time perception, cognition, emotion and action that allow them to participate in dynamic social environments. Constructing and studying IVAs requires tools from a wide range of fields such as computer science, psychology, cognitive science, communication, linguistics, interactive media, human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence.