In this book we take a fresh look at imitation. With the knowledge of some 20 years of research after Chomsky's initial critique of the behavioristic approach to language learning, it is time to explore imitation once again. How imitation is viewed in this book has changed greatly since the 1950s and can only be under stood by reading the various contributions. This reading reveals many faces, many forms, many causes, and many functions of imitation-cognitive, social, information processing, learning, and biological. Some views are far removed from the notion that an imitation must occur...

In recent years, due primarily to the proliferation of computers, dynamical systems has again returned to its roots in applications. It is the aim of this book to provide undergraduate and beginning graduate students in mathematics or science and engineering with a modest foundation of knowledge. Equations in dimensions one and two constitute the majority of the text, and in particular it is demonstrated that the basic notion of stability and bifurcations of vector fields are easily explained for scalar autonomous equations. Further, the authors investigate the dynamics of planar autonomous...

Textbooks, even excellent ones, are a reflection of their times. Form and content of books depend on what the students know already, what they are expected to learn, how the subject matter is regarded in relation to other divisions of mathematics, and even how fashionable the subject matter is. It is thus not surprising that we no longer use such masterpieces as Hurwitz and Courant's Funktionentheorie or Jordan's Cours d'Analyse in our courses. The last two decades have seen a significant change in the techniques used in the theory of functions of one complex variable. The important role...

Mathematics is playing an ever more important role in the physical and biological sciences, provoking a blurring of boundaries between scientific disciplines and a resurgence of interest in the modern as well as the clas- sical techniques of applied mathematics. This renewal of interest, both in research and teaching, has led to the establishment of the series: Texts in Applied Mathematics (TAM). The development of new courses is a natural consequence of a high level of excitement on the research frontier as newer techniques, such as numerical and symbolic computer systems, dynamical systems,...

Mathematics is playing an ever more important role in the physical and biological sciences, provoking a blurring of boundaries between scientific disciplines and a resurgence of interest in the modern as weil as the clas- sical techniques of applied mathematics. This renewal of interest, bothin research and teaching, has led to the establishment of the series: Texts in Applied Mathematics (TAM). The development of new courses is a natural consequence of a high Ievel of excitement on the research frontier as newer techniques, such as numerical and symbolic computer systems, dynamical systems,...

(NOTES)This text focuses on the topics which are an essential part of the engineering mathematics course: ordinary differential equations, vector calculus, linear algebra and partial differential equations. Advantages over competing texts: 1. The text has a large number of examples and problems - a typical section having 25 quality problems directly related to the text. 2. The authors use a practical engineering approach based upon solving equations. All ideas and definitions are introduced from this basic viewpoint, which allows engineers in their second year to understand concepts that...

Mathematics is playing an ever more important role in the physical and biologi- cal sciences, provoking a blurring of boundaries between scientific disciplines and a resurgence of interest in the modern as well as the classical techniques of applied mathematics. This renewal of interest, both in research and teaching, has led to the establishment of the series Texts in Applied Mathematics (TAM). The development of new courses is a natural consequence of a high level of excitement on the research frontier as newer techniques, such as numerical and symbolic computer systems, dynamical systems,...

This book discusses both the theory and applications of Markov chains. The author studies both discrete-time and continuous-time chains and connected topics such as finite Gibbs fields, non-homogeneous Markov chains, discrete time regenerative processes, Monte Carlo simulation, simulated annealing, and queueing networks are also developed in this accessible and self-contained text. The text is firstly an introduction to the theory of stochastic processes at the undergraduate or beginning graduate level. Its primary objective is to initiate the student to the art of stochastic modelling. The...

Symmetry has always played an important role in mechanics, from fundamental formulations of basic principles to concrete applications. The theme of the book is to develop the basic theory and applications of mechanics with an emphasis on the role of symmetry. In recent times, the interest in mechanics, and in symmetry techniques in particular, has accelerated because of developments in dynamical systems, the use of geometric methods and new applications to integrable and chaotic systems, control systems, stability and bifurcation, and the study of specific rigid, fluid, plasma and elastic...

Research in robust control theory has been one of the most active areas of mainstream systems theory since the late 70s. This research activity has been at the confluence of dynamical systems theory, functional analysis, matrix analysis, numerical methods, complexity theory, and engineering applications. The discipline has involved interactions between diverse research groups including pure mathematicians, applied mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers. This research effort has produced a rather extensive set of approaches using a wide variety of mathematical techniques, and...