Includes a foreword by Major General David A. Rubenstein. From the editor: "71F, or "71 Foxtrot," is the AOC (area of concentration) code assigned by the U.S. Army to the specialty of Research Psychology. Qualifying as an Army research psychologist requires, first of all, a Ph.D. from a research (not clinical) intensive graduate psychology program. Due to their advanced education, research psychologists receive a direct commission as Army officers in the Medical Service Corps at the rank of captain. In terms of numbers, the 71F AOC is a small one, with only 25 to 30 officers serving in any given year. However, the 71F impact is much bigger than this small cadre suggests. Army research psychologists apply their extensive training and expertise in the science of psychology and social behavior toward understanding, preserving, and enhancing the health, well being, morale, and performance of Soldiers and military families. As is clear throughout the pages of this book, they do this in many ways and in many areas, but always with a scientific approach. This is the 71F advantage: applying the science of psychology to understand the human dimension, and developing programs, policies, and products to benefit the person in military operations. This book grew out of the April 2008 biennial conference of U.S. Army Research Psychologists, held in Bethesda, Maryland. This meeting was to be my last as Consultant to the Surgeon General for Research Psychology, and I thought it would be a good idea to publish proceedings, which had not been done before. As Consultant, I'd often wished for such a document to help explain to people what it is that Army Research Psychologists "do for a living." In addition to our core group of 71Fs, at the Bethesda 2008 meeting we had several brand-new members, and a number of distinguished retirees, the "grey-beards" of the 71F clan. Together with longtime 71F colleagues Ross Pastel and Mark Vaitkus, I also saw an unusual opportunity to capture some of the history of the Army Research Psychology specialty while providing a representative sample of current 71F research and activities. It seemed to us especially important to do this at a time when the operational demands on the Army and the total force were reaching unprecedented levels, with no sign of easing, and with the Army in turn relying more heavily on research psychology to inform its programs for protecting the health, well being, and performance of Soldiers and their families."

This book is written primarily for people who are creating the future high-tech world by designing, building, and marketing innovative products. More specifically, it is for all engineers, engineering managers, entrepreneurs and intapreneurs. The book provides insight into the problems entrepreneurs face and gives a model for successful startup companies in a formal checklist.

Inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies depends on greater economic competitiveness. Although the gap is closing gradually, the standards of living in WB6 are well below those of the OECD and EU. Accelerating the rate of socio-economic convergence will require a holistic and growth oriented approach to policy making. This is the fourth study of the region (formerly under the title 'Competitiveness in South East Europe') and it comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 15 policy areas key to strengthening their competitiveness. It enables WB6 economies to compare economic performance against regional peers, as well as EU-OECD good practices and standards, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations. The regional profile presents assessment findings across five policy clusters crucial to accelerating socio-economic convergence of the WB6 by fostering regional co-operation: business environment, skills, infrastructure and connectivity, digital transformation and greening. Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment, offering each WB6 economy an in-depth analysis of their policies supporting competitiveness. They also track the implementation of the previous 2021 study's recommendations and provide additional ones tailored to the economies’ evolving challenges. These recommendations aim to inform structural economic reforms and facilitate the region’s socio-economic convergence towards the standards of the EU and OECD.

Reliability-Centered Maintenance provides valuable insights into current preventive maintenance practices and issues, while explaining how a transition from the current "preserve equipment" to "preserve function" mindset is the key ingredient in a maintenance optimization strategy. This book defines the four principal features of RCM and describes the nine essential steps to achieving a successful RCM program. There is an easy to follow example illustrating the Classical RCM systems analysis process using the water treatment system for a swimming pool. As well as the use of software in the system analysis process, making a specific recommendation on a software product to use. Additionally, this new edition possesses an appendix devoted to discussing an economic model that has been used successfully to decide the most cost effective use of maintenance. Top Level managers, engineers, and especially technicians who rely on PM programs in their plant operations can't afford to miss this inclusive guide to Reliability-Centered Maintenance. - Includes detailed instructions for implementing and sustaining an RCM program for extremely cost effective manufacturing - Presents seven real-world cross-industry RCM sucess case studies that have profited from this plan - Provides essential information on how RCM focuses your maintenance organization to become a recognized "center for profit" - Offers over 35 accumulated years of the authors' experiences in Lessons Learned for the proper use of RCM (and pitfalls to avoid)

The goal of these notes is to give a reasonahly com plete, although not exhaustive, discussion of what is commonly referred to as the Hopf bifurcation with applications to spe cific problems, including stability calculations. Historical ly, the subject had its origins in the works of Poincare [1] around 1892 and was extensively discussed by Andronov and Witt [1] and their co-workers starting around 1930. Hopf's basic paper [1] appeared in 1942. Although the term "Poincare Andronov-Hopf bifurcation" is more accurate (sometimes Friedrichs is also included), the name "Hopf Bifurcation" seems more common, so we have used it. Hopf's crucial contribution was the extension from two dimensions to higher dimensions. The principal technique employed in the body of the text is that of invariant manifolds. The method of Ruelle Takens [1] is followed, with details, examples and proofs added. Several parts of the exposition in the main text come from papers of P. Chernoff, J. Dorroh, O. Lanford and F. Weissler to whom we are grateful. The general method of invariant manifolds is common in dynamical systems and in ordinary differential equations: see for example, Hale [1,2] and Hartman [1]. Of course, other methods are also available. In an attempt to keep the picture balanced, we have included samples of alternative approaches. Specifically, we have included a translation (by L. Howard and N. Kopell) of Hopf's original (and generally unavailable) paper.