Courses tagged with "Information environments" (1105)

21G.031 examines the terms "avant garde" and "Kulturindustrie" in French and German culture of the early twentieth century. Considering the origins of these concepts in surrealist and dadaist literature, art, and cinema, the course then expands to engage parallel formations across Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Emphasis on the specific historical conditions that enabled these interventions. Guiding questions are these: What was original about the historical avant-garde? What connections between art and revolution did avant-garde writers and artists imagine? What strategies did they deploy to meet their modernist imperatives? To what extent did their projects maintain a critical stance towards the culture industry?

Surveying key interventions in the fields of poetry, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and music, the readings also include signal moments in critical thought of the last century. Figures to be considered are: Adorno, Aragon, Bataille, Beckett, Brecht, Breton, Bürger, Duchamp, Eisenstein, Ernst, Jünger, Greenberg, Kandinsky, Malevich, Mayakovsky, and Tzara. Taught in English, but students are encouraged to consult original sources when possible.

The emphasis of this course is to use Trace Element Geochemistry to understand the origin and evolution of igneous rocks. The approach is to discuss the parameters that control partitioning of trace elements between phases and to develop models for the partitioning of trace elements between phases in igneous systems, especially between minerals and melt. Subsequently, published papers that are examples of utilizing Trace Element Geochemistry are read and discussed.

This course discusses management methods of relevance to public transportation systems. Topics include strategic planning management, labor relations, maintenance planning and administration, financing, marketing and fare policy, and management information and decision support systems. The course shows how these general management tasks are dealt with in the transit industry and presents alternative strategies. It also identifies alternative arrangements for service provision, including different ways of involving the private sector in public transportation.

This class serves as an introduction to mass transport in environmental flows, with emphasis given to river and lake systems. The class will cover the derivation and solutions to the differential form of mass conservation equations. Class topics to be covered will include: molecular and turbulent diffusion, boundary layers, dissolution, bed-water exchange, air-water exchange and particle transport.

Design, operation, and management of traffic flows over complex transportation networks are the foci of this course. It covers two major topics: traffic flow modeling and traffic flow operations. Sub-topics include deterministic and probabilistic models, elements of queuing theory, and traffic assignment. Concepts are illustrated through various applications and case studies. This is a half-term subject offered during the second half of the semester.

Through a combination of lectures, cases, and class discussions this subject examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. It investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as facilitators of economic development and environmental sustainability. It analyzes a variety of international policy problems including government-business relations; the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; the politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; and transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. It provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to developing policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics.

This class surveys the current concepts, theories, and issues in strategic management of transportation organizations. It provides transportation logistics and engineering systems students with an overview of the operating context, leadership challenges, strategies, and management tools that are used in today's public and private transportation organizations. The following concepts, tools, and issues are presented in both public and private sector cases: alternative models of decision-making, strategic planning (e.g., use of SWOT analysis and scenario development), stakeholder valuation and analysis, government-based regulation and cooperation within the transportation enterprise, disaster communications, systems safety, change management, and the impact of globalization.

Approaching transportation as a complex, large-scale, integrated, open system (CLIOS), this course strives to be an interdisciplinary systems subject in the "open" sense. It introduces qualitative modeling ideas and various techniques and philosophies of modeling complex transportation enterprises. It also introduces conceptual frameworks for qualitative analysis, such as frameworks for regional strategic planning, institutional change analysis, and new technology development and deployment. And it covers transportation as a large-scale, integrated system that interacts directly with the social, political, and economic aspects of contemporary society. Fundamental elements and issues shaping traveler and freight transportation systems are covered, along with underlying principles governing transportation planning, investment, operations, and maintenance.

The main objective of this course is to give broad insight into the different facets of transportation systems, while providing a solid introduction to transportation demand and cost analyses. As part of the core in the Master of Science in Transportation program, the course will not focus on a specific transportation mode but will use the various modes to apply the theoretical and analytical concepts presented in the lectures and readings.

Introduces transportation systems analysis, stressing demand and economic aspects. Covers the key principles governing transportation planning, investment, operations and maintenance. Introduces the microeconomic concepts central to transportation systems. Topics covered include economic theories of the firm, the consumer, and the market, demand models, discrete choice analysis, cost models and production functions, and pricing theory. Application to transportation systems include congestion pricing, technological change, resource allocation, market structure and regulation, revenue forecasting, public and private transportation finance, and project evaluation; covering urban passenger transportation, freight, aviation and intelligent transportation systems.

This course addresses the design of tribological systems: the interfaces between two or more bodies in relative motion. Fundamental topics include: geometric, chemical, and physical characterization of surfaces; friction and wear mechanisms for metals, polymers, and ceramics, including abrasive wear, delamination theory, tool wear, erosive wear, wear of polymers and composites; and boundary lubrication and solid-film lubrication. The course also considers the relationship between nano-tribology and macro-tribology, rolling contacts, tribological problems in magnetic recording and electrical contacts, and monitoring and diagnosis of friction and wear. Case studies are used to illustrate key points.

This course describes the large-scale circulation systems of the tropical atmosphere and analyses the dynamics of such systems. Topics include: Radiative-convective equilibrium; the Hadley and walker circulation; monsoons; tropical boundary layers; theory of the response of the tropical atmosphere to localized sea-surface temperature anomalies; intraseasonal oscillations; equatorial waves; El Niño/Southern Oscillation; easterly waves; and tropical cyclones.

Tumor pathophysiology plays a central role in the growth, invasion, metastasis and treatment of solid tumors. This class applies principles of transport phenomena to develop a systems-level, quantitative understanding of angiogenesis, blood flow and microcirculation, metabolism and microenvironment, transport and binding of small and large molecules, movement of cancer and immune cells, metastatic process, and treatment response.

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