Search results for ""Springer Nature Switzerland AG""

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major global public health problem, affecting nearly one in seven adults in the United States alone. It is a disease that integrates chronic illness at several levels, and the progressive condition is associated with high rates of co-morbidity. This text provides a comprehensive, current state-of-the art review of this field, serving as a valuable resource for primary care providers and non-nephrology clinicians that treat patients with CKD. It is comprised of 24 chapters focused on specific aspects of the disease. The first 2 chapters provide a bit of background on the disease, describing the anatomy and physiology of the kidney as well as the definition and epidemiology of the disease. The following 3 chapters discuss the detection, prevention and progression of the disease. The next 6 chapters describe the relationship of the disease with other conditions and most common co-morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension. The chapters, that follow focus on the CKD associated complications and the CKD within special populations such as the elderly and minorities as well as dietary restrictions and drug dosing. The book concludes with discussion on preparation for renal replacement therapy and preemptive organ transplantation as an alternative to dialysis in the management of the advanced CKD. Written by experts in the field, Approach to Chronic Kidney Disease is a comprehensive guide for clinicians, especially primary care providers including residents and fellows in training, who take care of chronic kidney disease patients. It is also a useful tool for researchers dealing with this challenging field.

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This edited volume on machine learning and big data analytics (Proceedings of ICMLBDA 2021) is intended to be used as a reference book for researchers and practitioners in the disciplines of computer science, electronics and telecommunication, information science, and electrical engineering. Machine learning and Big data analytics represent a key ingredients in the industrial applications for new products and services. Big data analytics applies machine learning for predictions by examining large and varied data sets—i.e., big data—to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends, customer preferences, and other useful information that can help organizations make more informed business decisions.

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This book studies the many different ways in which the lives of the first, third, and fourth generations intersect and the reciprocal benefits that can accrue from establishing positive intergenerational bonds. The unifying feature across the chapters is that the authors view these relationships as a powerful influence on Quality of Life (QoL). The book takes the stance that older adults figure prominently in the QoL of young children, with the latter group defined here as ranging in age from infancy up to and including eight years of age. It examines how bonds with older adults can affect young children’s functioning across developmental domains—physical, emotional, social, and cognitive. It addresses questions of importance to those who have a commitment to the very young such as: “What benefits can young children derive from positive bonds with older adults?”, “How do young children understand the aging process and develop respect for the elderly?”, “How can published research be used to guide both informal and formal interactions between the older generation and the newest one?” and, finally, “How can various stakeholders such as professionals, families, organizations, and communities collaborate to enrich and enlarge the kind and amount of support that older adults provide to the very young child?”

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Skin accounts for approximately 15% of an adult’s total body weight, with a surface of about 2m². It provides an entry and exit barrier to various substances, offers effective protection against harmful substances, microorganisms and ultraviolet radiation, and is also paramount in immunology and body homeostasis, preventing dehydration and loss of essential minerals.The topical route has a number of advantages over oral and parenteral routes: no first-pass metabolism, greater convenience resulting in better treatment compliance, lower side-effect frequency, and prompt dosing cessation if required. However, the stratum corneum allows penetration of only 1 to 5% of substances applied topically, making this application route much less efficient. Lipophilic and small molecules (up to 500 Da) can cross the stratum corneum, since keratinocytes are covered by a lipid matrix, while it is virtually impossible for hydrophilic and large drugs to cross intact, normal skin, which means that passive topical delivery is restricted. To address this, techniques have been developed aimed at optimizing drug skin penetration by means of chemical, mechanical and physical methods, such as adding permeating active agents and using occlusion, iontophoresis, microneedling, lasers and intense pulsed light, and it is now possible to deliver medication to different skin layers or transdermally to the systemic circulation. Drug delivery is a hot topic in dermatology, with a Pubmed search generating 203431 articles. Offering a detailed review of this emerging therapeutic option, including the various methods available, this unique book guides physicians and doctors in selecting the correct technologies, technique and products for each patient.

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This book provides a comprehensive coverage of hybrid high-order methods for computational mechanics. The first three chapters offer a gentle introduction to the method and its mathematical foundations for the diffusion problem. The next four chapters address applications of increasing complexity in the field of computational mechanics: linear elasticity, hyperelasticity, wave propagation, contact, friction, and plasticity. The last chapter provides an overview of the main implementation aspects including some examples of Matlab code. The book is primarily intended for graduate students, researchers, and engineers working in related fields of application, and it can also be used as a support for graduate and doctoral lectures.

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This handbook provides an overview on wood science and technology of unparalleled comprehensiveness and international validity. It describes the fundamental wood biology, chemistry and physics, as well as structure-property relations of wood and wood-based materials. The different aspects and steps of wood processing are presented in detail from both a fundamental technological perspective and their realisation in industrial contexts. The discussed industrial processes extend beyond sawmilling and the manufacturing of adhesively bonded wood products to the processing of the various wood-based materials, including pulp and paper, natural fibre materials and aspects of bio-refinery. Core concepts of wood applications, quality and life cycle assessment of this important natural resource are presented. The book concludes with a useful compilation of fundamental material parameters and data as well as a glossary of terms in accordance with the most important industry standards. Written and edited by a truly international team of experts from academia, research institutes and industry, thoroughly reviewed by external colleagues, this handbook is well-attuned to educational demands, as well as providing a summary of state-of-the-art research trends and industrial requirements. It is an invaluable resource for all professionals in research and development, and engineers in practise in the field of wood science and technology.

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The book discusses the impact of genetics, social determinants of health, the environment, and lifestyle in the burden of cardiometabolic conditions in African American and Hispanic/Latinx populations. It includes fully updated and revised chapters on genetics and CVD risk, epidemiology of cardiovascular health, cardiovascular imaging, dyslipidemias and other emerging risk factors, obesity and metabolic syndrome, heart failure, and genetic variations in CVD. Unique aspects within African American and Hispanic/Latinx populations are explored with suggested appropriate therapeutic interventions. New chapters focus on ASCVD risk assessment, emerging precision medicine concepts, the impact of diabetes, resilience and CVD survival, and lifestyle and dieting considerations. Written by a team of experts, the book examines the degree to which biomedical and scientific literature can clarify the impact of genetic variation and environment on cardiovascular disease. The Second Edition of Cardiovascular Disease in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations is an essential resource for physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students in cardiology, internal medicine, family medicine, clinical lipidology, and epidemiology.

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This book provides a unified exposition of some fundamental theoretical problems in high-dimensional statistics. It specifically considers the canonical problems of detection and support estimation for sparse signals observed with noise. Novel phase-transition results are obtained for the signal support estimation problem under a variety of statistical risks. Based on a surprising connection to a concentration of maxima probabilistic phenomenon, the authors obtain a complete characterization of the exact support recovery problem for thresholding estimators under dependent errors.

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This open access book is an outcome of several years of research, practice, and teaching experience of the authors on the challenges that underpin the successful switch to services for manufacturing firms. Ideal for a student as well as a practitioner, the book describes the industrial services ecosystem, the barriers and challenges, and a roadmap for building service excellence. Curated cases are used to describe the current approaches in practice to overcome the barriers. The book also provides several tools, each with a short introduction, that the authors have used successfully in projects to help overcome the servitization barriers. Many of these tools are from management, design thinking, or service design. The service excellence roadmap is based on the development methodology and helps current and future business leaders to create their own individual roadmaps.

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This book contains the proceedings of the 22nd EANN “Engineering Applications of Neural Networks” 2021 that comprise of research papers on both theoretical foundations and cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence. Based on the discussed research areas, emphasis is given in advances of machine learning (ML) focusing on the following algorithms-approaches: Augmented ML, autoencoders, adversarial neural networks, blockchain-adaptive methods, convolutional neural networks, deep learning, ensemble methods, learning-federated learning, neural networks, recurrent – long short-term memory. The application domains are related to: Anomaly detection, bio-medical AI, cyber-security, data fusion, e-learning, emotion recognition, environment, hyperspectral imaging, fraud detection, image analysis, inverse kinematics, machine vision, natural language, recommendation systems, robotics, sentiment analysis, simulation, stock market prediction.

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The book presents recent remediation techniques for heavy metal contamination in wastewater, with a focus on recently-developed and sustainable materials such as metal oxides and their composites, two-dimensional materials, organic-inorganic ion exchange materials, nanomaterials, bagasse, and olive-oil waste chelating materials. Chapters also describe the analysis of heavy metals, membranes for water treatment, sources and impact of heavy metals and opportunities and challenges in heavy metal remediation.

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This brief discusses the benefits and various considerations for participants and justice agencies involved in experiential programs for students. Using case studies and interviews with justice agency administrators, it assesses programs in law enforcement, courts, corrections, and public and private human services agencies. Each chapter discusses how to prepare for the internship, the expectations of the field work, and practical concerns. This brief is appropriate for students in justice studies, criminology and related programs, and for professionals coordinating experiential education.

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Cyclodextrins (CD) are cyclic oligosaccharides containing 6, 7 or 8 glucose units (α, β or γ-CD, respectively) in a truncated molecular shape. Their cyclic molecular structure contains a hydrophilic surface and a hydrophobic cavity at the center that can interact (host) with external hydrophobic compounds (guest molecules). Cyclodextrins have been categorized as Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) in the USA, “natural products” in Japan, and as “novel food” in Australia, New Zealand and EU countries. They are therefore widely used in food production to encapsulate hydrophobic compounds, including solid, liquid and gas molecules, in order to solubilize, stabilize or control the release rate of these components. To date, there has been no comprehensive review of the very large number of studies performed on encapsulation using cyclodextrin powders for food applications in recent years. This text fills that gap for academics in the encapsulation field and for industry professionals who want to gain a solid understanding of encapsulation functionality of cyclodextrin powders. The book consists of 16 chapters in which chapter 1 introduces cyclodextrin properties and its applications in food processing, and chapters 2-16 explore applications of cyclodextrin in encapsulation for many guest compounds. These compounds include gases, flavors, colors, pigments, polyphenols (plant bioactive compounds), essential oils, lipids (cholesterol and polyunsaturated fatty acids), vitamins, fruit ripening controlling compounds, and antifungal and antimicrobial compounds. These chapters also discuss functionalities of cyclodextrin in packaging, masking off-flavor and off-taste, and as dietary fiber. Covering a broad range of cyclodextrin applications and suitable for both newcomers to encapsulation technology and those with experience, Functionality of Cyclodextrins in Encapsulation for Food Applications is a unique and essential reference on this increasingly important topic.

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This book highlights the importance of clusters for the competitiveness of companies and is divided into three interrelated parts. The first part focuses on localization economics, cluster theory, the role of innovation, and innovation partnerships in cluster formations. The second part of the volume presents original research carried out from 2018 to 2020 in the field of both natural clusters and organized clusters. In addition to examining the impact of cluster membership, the contributions also focus on additional factors that may affect the financial performance of companies. In the third part, an additional survey and case studies are presented, to examine the specifics of family businesses in selected industrial districts of the textile, glass, and jewelry industries. A broader overview of the development of dominant industries in the selected districts is provided, for an easier understanding of the relationships of competition among companies and locations in the business clusters. The book evaluates implications for microeconomic and macroeconomic policies and provides proposals for corporate inter-organizational behavior.This volume addresses scholars and researchers of economics, business, and management, as well as policy-makers and practitioners interested in a better understanding of innovation and performance drivers of business clusters.

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This book presents recent developments in nonlinear and complex systems. It provides recent theoretic developments and new techniques based on a nonlinear dynamical systems approach that can be used to model and understand complex behavior in nonlinear dynamical systems. It covers information theory, relativistic chaotic dynamics, data analysis, relativistic chaotic dynamics, solvability issues in integro-differential equations, and inverse problems for parabolic differential equations, synchronization and chaotic transient. Presents new concepts for understanding and modeling complex systems

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This book is the first comprehensive compilation of knowledge on teak biology, ecology, clonal forestry, clonal registration, seed biology, and seed orchards. The teak genetic diversity, the sequenced genome, and transcriptomes from different tissues and their implications in modern tree improvement and material selection have been comprehensively discussed. The book also presents a narrative on wood characterization, wood chemistry, modern silviculture, growth and modelling, and economics of this valued tropical species. Altogether, the book contains about 200 pages over 16 chapters authored by globally reputed experts on the relevant field in this tropical tree. This book is useful to students, teachers, and scientists, and wood-based industries are interested in forestry, biology, seed orchards, breeding, genetic diversity, molecular genetics, in vitro culture, wood chemistry, and structural and functional genomics.

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“It stretches no point to suggest that creativity, innovation and risk-taking will decide our future societal prosperity. We cannot spread those values too widely, so having taught engineering faculty in their first book, these authors now aim to boost the spirit across all disciplines. What a great success for all of us if they succeed.” – Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr., president of Purdue University and former governor of Indiana Despite the relevancy of the entrepreneurial mindset for all career paths, only a small percentage of the higher education student population takes part in entrepreneurially-minded learning opportunities. This gap can be attributed to several factors. From a program perspective, many degrees are already at credit capacity which allows limited room in the existing curriculum to add new courses. From a student perspective, entrepreneurship education is thus positioned as optional and requires extra time (and in some cases tuition) to do so. Finally, from an educator perspective, the majority of faculty members across the university have not been trained in entrepreneurship and may not know where to start.Teaching the Entrepreneurial Mindset Across the University: An Integrative Approach overcomes these challenges by providing higher education faculty with a toolkit, including tips and strategies, to integrate the entrepreneurial mindset into existing courses regardless of discipline. The book is broken into three core parts: Motivation: The importance of the entrepreneurial mindset for all students is established; Design: The Entrepreneurial Mindset Teaching Blueprint is introduced as a tool for integrating entrepreneurially-minded curricular learning experiences within existing courses; Application: Example entrepreneurially-minded curriculum from across the university are provided. By integrating the entrepreneurial mindset across the curriculum, students from all disciplinary backgrounds will be better prepared to enter the workforce, solve complex social issues, and leverage entrepreneurial thinking in their everyday lives. This book is meant for educators who want to make an impact and truly prepare graduates for the real world.

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This book provides empirical evidence and statistical analyses to uncover answers to some of the most debated questions in the NBA. The sports world lives and breathes off of debates on who deserves an MVP award, and which athletes should be considered all-stars. This book provides some statistics-backed perspectives to some of these debates that are specific to the NBA. Was LeBron snubbed of an MVP in the 2010-2011 season? Why has the G.O.A.T. debate turned into LeBron vs. Jordan….Did Kobe get overlooked? How come Klay Thompson didn’t get All-NBA honors in the 2018-2019 season? This book explores these questions and many more with empirical evidence. This book is invaluable for any undergraduate or masters level course in sport analytics, sports marketing, or sports management. It will also be incredibly useful for scouts, recruiters, and general managers in the NBA who would like to use analytics in their work.

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This Guide provides information on special topics that affect the fire safety performance of very tall buildings, their occupants and first responders during a fire. This Guide addresses these topics as part of the overall building design process using performance-based fire protection engineering concepts as described in the SFPE Engineering Guide to Performance Based Fire Protection. This Guide is not intended to be a recommended practice or a document that is suitable for adoption as a code. The Guide pertains to “super tall,” “very tall” and “tall” buildings. Throughout this Guide, all such buildings are called “very tall buildings.” These buildings are characterized by heights that impose fire protection challenges; they require special attention beyond the protection features typically provided by traditional fire protection methods. This Guide does not establish a definition of buildings that fall within the scope of this document.

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The global burden of geriatric hip fractures is enormous. From both the patient's and physician’s perspective, the injury is complex. A hip fracture often changes a patient’s life and/or the life of the patient’s family permanently. From the physician’s perspective, care of geriatric hip fracture patients requires a multidisciplinary team, which is led by the surgeon and which includes internists and other subspecialists within internal medicine, anesthesiologists, nurses, operating room technicians, social workers, physical therapists, and rehabilitation center coordinators and staff. Nowhere in the orthopedic literature is there a text that guides care for these complex patients from injury through recovery. This text is the first to do so by organizing and synthesizing a large body of literature. Its main themes include pre-operative, operative, and post-operative care of the patient who sustains a geriatric hip fracture. Its main objective is to organize the current body of literature into a cohesive whole so that the busy orthopedic surgeon does not have to undertake a literature search each time he or she wants an answer to the myriad questions that characterize a patient’s injury, treatment, and recovery course. With regard to pedagogy, because orthopedic surgeons in training will utilize this book, and because the case study is the central pedagogical tool in the field of orthopedic surgery, this book includes case studies within each chapter, with the author’s preferred treatment and decision-making rationale for each case. Selected video supplements reinforce real-world application of knowledge.Practicing orthopedic surgeons, as well as orthopedic residents and fellows in training, will find Geriatric Hip Fractures: A Practical Approach a highly useful and informative resource.

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This open access book summarizes research being pursued within the SISCODE (Society in Innovation and Science through CO-DEsign) project, funded by the EU under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to set up an analytical, reflective and learning framework to explore the transformations in initiatives and policies emerging from the interaction between citizens and stakeholders. The book provides a critical analysis of the co-design processes activated in 10 co-creation labs addressing societal challenges across Europe. Each lab as a case study of real-life experimentation is described through its journey, starting from the purpose on the ground of the experimentation and the challenge addressed. Specific attention is then drawn on the role of policies and policy maker engagement. Finally, the experimentation is enquired in terms of its output, transformations triggered within the organization and the overall ecosystem, and its outcomes, opening the reasoning towards the lessons learnt and reflections that the entire co-creation journey brought.

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This book discusses all aspects of non-pharmacologic approaches to primary and secondary CVD prevention. It highlights the strength of evidence for particular diet styles in CVD prevention, including plant-based diets, the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet, and low-carbohydrate diets. Chapters present evidence and future directions for diet and nutrition in diseases related to CVD, such as dyslipidemia, cardiometabolic disease (pre-diabetes, the metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes mellitus), and obesity. Finally, the book reviews novel and emerging aspects of dietary intervention in CVD prevention, such as dietary approaches to inflammation and the role of the microbiome in CVD. Up-to-date, evidence-based, and clinically oriented, Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease: Nutritional and Dietary Approaches is an essential resource for physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students in cardiology, clinical nutrition, family medicine, endocrinology, and lipidology.

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The book describes the structure, composition and evolution of the Earth, the main geological processes occurring on it, and how some crucial environmental matters that are amply debated in the media (e.g. pollution, greenhouse effect) can be fully understood by placing them in the holistic context of the system Earth as a whole. It provides basic information on a series of key geological issues, from the structure and composition of the Earth to the large-scale processes that characterize our planet, such as rock alteration and sedimentation, magmatism, geomagnetism, seismicity, plate tectonics, cyclical migration of chemical elements through various Earth reservoirs (Geochemical Cycles), and evolution of the planet from Hadean to present. It intends to reach a wide readership, which is interested in our planet and wish to have a general and comprehensive view of its origin, evolution and activity. Potential readership includes undergraduate and advanced undergraduate students in Geology and other scientific disciplines, and any moderately- to well-educated people interested in the surrounding world and eager to gain a basic knowledge of the Earth and to reach an integrated view of how our planet is working.

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This book comprehensively presents all the necessary information health professionals need to become Certified Asthma Educators. Competent asthma educators must possess a number of skills: they must have appropriate and sound medical and pharmaceutical knowledge; be proficient and effective educators who can influence their patients’ behaviors for the better; and, finally, they need the administrative and organizational skills needed to set up and run efficient clinics at their places of work. The book is divided into three sections to meet those needs: Asthma: The Fundamentals; The Role of Education; and, The Effective Asthma Educator. The first section covers clinical knowledge of asthma, with chapters including lung structure and function, clinical presentation of asthma, and environmental issues in asthma management. The second section delves into the role of educating patients and teaches readers how to best do that with an integrated approach between physician, educator, and patient. The third section looks further into educating techniques with a view of the learning process, considerations for instruction locations, and the role the educator plays overall. The final chapter in the book presents example cases for readers to assess the knowledge they have learned throughout. This second edition serves as both textbook and study guide for certification as well as a long-term reference publication. It has been fully updated from the previous edition with the latest treatment guidelines, medications, and disease monitoring methods. This is an ideal guide for asthma educators, those seeking NAECB certification, and any health professional involved with individuals who have asthma.

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Old St Paul’s and Culture is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that looks predominantly at the culture of Old St Paul’s and its wider precinct in the early modern period, while also providing important insights into the Cathedral’s medieval institution. The chapters examine the symbolic role of the site in England’s Christian history, the London book trade based in and around St Paul’s, the place of St Paul’s commercial indoor playhouse within the performance culture of sixteenth and seventeenth-century London, and the intersection of religion and politics through events such as civic ceremonies and occasional sermons. Through the organising theme of culture, the authors demonstrate how the site, as well as the people and trades occupying the precinct, can be positioned within wider fields of representations, practices, and social networks. A focus on St Paul’s is therefore about more than just the specific site on Ludgate Hill: it is about those practices and representations connected to it, which either extended beyond or originated in places other than the Cathedral environs. This points to the range of localised, regional, national, and transnational relationships in which the precinct and its people were situated and to which they contributed.

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This volume presents selected papers presented during the 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics (ICTG). The papers address the geotechnical challenges in design, construction, maintenance, monitoring, and upgrading of roads, railways, airfields, and harbor facilities and other ground transportation infrastructure with the goal of providing safe, economic, environmental, reliable and sustainable infrastructures. This volume will be of interest to postgraduate students, academics, researchers, and consultants working in the field of civil and transport infrastructure.

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This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education.The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects.

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The main focus of this book is on presenting advances in fuzzy statistics, and on proposing a methodology for testing hypotheses in the fuzzy environment based on the estimation of fuzzy confidence intervals, a context in which not only the data but also the hypotheses are considered to be fuzzy. The proposed method for estimating these intervals is based on the likelihood method and employs the bootstrap technique. A new metric generalizing the signed distance measure is also developed. In turn, the book presents two conceptually diverse applications in which defended intervals play a role: one is a novel methodology for evaluating linguistic questionnaires developed at the global and individual levels; the other is an extension of the multi-ways analysis of variance to the space of fuzzy sets. To illustrate these approaches, the book presents several empirical and simulation-based studies with synthetic and real data sets. In closing, it presents a coherent R package called “FuzzySTs” which covers all the previously mentioned concepts with full documentation and selected use cases. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to all researchers whose work involves advanced fuzzy statistical methods.

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This book lists current and potential biomedical uses of computational intelligence methods. These methods are used in diagnostics and treatment of such diseases as cancer, cardiac diseases, pneumonia, stroke, and COVID-19. Many biomedical problems are difficult; so, often, the current methods are not sufficient, new methods need to be developed. To confidently apply the new methods to critical life-and-death medical situations, it is important to first test these methods on less critical applications. The book describes several such promising new methods that have been tested on problems from agriculture, computer networks, economics and business, pavement engineering, politics, quantum computing, robotics, etc. This book helps practitioners and researchers to learn more about computational intelligence methods and their biomedical applications—and to further develop this important research direction.

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This edited book analyses the relationship between discourse and conflict, exploring both how language may be used to promote conflict and also how it is possible to avoid or mitigate conflict through tactical use of language. Bringing together contributions from both established scholars and emerging voices in the fields of Discourse Analysis and Conflict Studies, it argues for a discourse approach to making sense of conflict and disagreement in the modern world. ‘Conflict’ is understood here as having a national or global focus and consequences, and includes verbal aggression and hate speech, as well as physical confrontation between political and ethnic groups or states over values, claims to status, power and resources. Themes explored in the volume include the language of conflict, hate speech in online and offline media, and discourse and peace-building, and the chapters examine various national contexts, including Lithuania, Brazil, Belgium, North Macedonia, Sri Lanka, the USA and Afghanistan. The chapters cover conflict-related topics within the fields of Political Science, International Relations, Sociology, Media Studies, and Applied Linguistics, and the book will be of interest to students, researchers and experts in these and related fields, as well as professionals in conflict and peace-building/peace-keeping.

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This book collects a set of reflections concerning the planning of contemporary cities by urban design, with a special emphasis on some needs and shortcomings emerged during the coronavirus pandemic. With the ultimate goal of designing accessible, inclusive and welcoming green cities, it discusses the urgent need for new systems of public spaces across the city, together with alternative solutions for individual mobility (especially slow mobility) and social interaction. It is intended for a broad readership, including designers, engineers, architects, social scientists, stakeholders, and public administrators, who deal with various aspects of the realization of the City 4.0.

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This book fills a major gap in research into smoking and tobacco control in China. In recent decades, few studies have explored the significance of geographical factors and the role they have played either in affecting the prevalence of smoking or in tobacco control responses to the smoking epidemic in China. In light of this, the book investigates the importance of national, regional and local environmental factors affecting smoking in China. It shows how geographical, social and institutional contexts have influenced the implementation and success of tobacco control initiatives, and situates smoking trends in China in a broader global context. The authors synthesize Chinese and western research on the smoking epidemic and uniquely focus on the importance of environmental factors and Chinese cultural perspectives in understanding smoking behaviour and the ineffectiveness of many tobacco control initiatives, especially how these conflict with Chinese economic policy. The book is aimed at academic and policy audiences both internationally and inside China, and will be of interest to a wide audience, not only geographers, but also epidemiologists, sociologists and others working in public health.

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This open access book analyses barriers and challenges associated with the financing of clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa. By considering various economic, financial, political, environmental and social factors, it explores the consequences of energy poverty across the region and maps the real and perceived investment risks for potential capital providers, both domestic and international. Furthermore, it analyses risk mitigation strategies and innovative financing structures available to the public and private sectors, which are aimed at leveraging capital in the clean energy sector at scale and fostering the creation of an enabling business and investment environment.More specifically, the present book analyses how to (i) enhance capital allocation in projects and organisations that foster clean energy access in the region, (ii) mobilize private capital at scale and (iii) decrease the cost of financing through risk mitigation strategies. Going beyond traditional approaches, the book also considers socioeconomic and cultural aspects associated with investment barriers across the subcontinent. Moreover, it urges the public and private spheres to become more actively involved in tackling this pressing development issue, and provides policy recommendations for the public sector, including proposals for business model evolution at multilateral agencies and development institutions. It will appeal to a wide readership of both academics and professionals working in the energy industry, the financial sector and the political sphere, as well as to general readers interested in the ongoing debate about energy, sustainable development and finance.

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This book is the result of a multi-year research project led and sponsored by the University of Chieti-Pescara, National Chengchi University, University of Salamanca, and Osaka University. It is the fifth volume to emerge from that international project, held under the aegis of the United Nations Academic Impact in 2020. All the essays in this volume were (virtually) discussed at the University of L’Aquila―as the venue of the 2nd International Conference on Decision Economics, a three-day global gathering of approximately one hundred scholars and practitioners—and were subjected to thorough peer review by leading experts in the field. The essays reflect the extent, diversity, and richness of several research areas, both normative and descriptive, and are an invaluable resource for graduate-level and PhD students, academics, researchers, policymakers and other professionals, especially in the social and cognitive sciences. Given its interdisciplinary scope, the book subsequently delivers new approaches on how to contribute to the future of economics, providing alternative explanations for various socio-economic issues such as computable humanities; cognitive, behavioural, and experimental perspectives in economics; data analysis and machine learning as well as research areas at the intersection of computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, and statistics; agent-based modelling and the related. The editors are grateful to the scientific committee for its continuous support throughout the research project as well as to the many participants for their insightful comments and always probing questions. In any case, the collaboration involved in the project extends far beyond the group of authors published in this volume and is reflected in the quality of the essays published over the years.

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Now in a fully revised and expanded second edition, this comprehensive text remains a timely and major contribution to the literature that addresses the neuromechanisms, predispositions, and latest developments in the evaluation and management of concussive injuries. Concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury, continues to be a significant public health concern with increased attention focusing on treatment and management of this puzzling epidemic as well as controversies within the field. The book is comprised of five thematic sections: current developments in evaluation; biomechanical mechanisms; neural substrates, biomarkers, genetics and brain imaging; pediatric considerations; and clinical management and rehabilitation. Since the publication of the original edition in 2014, much has changed regarding the current understanding of mild traumatic brain injury including development of more precise imaging modalities, development and classification of new biomarkers, and updates to clinical treatment and management of athletic concussion. This new edition will include new chapters targeting the influence of genetics on concussive injury, as well as an expansion on the knowledge of pediatric response to concussion and the influence of repetitive subconcussive impacts on athlete health. An invaluable contribution to the literature, Concussions in Athletics: From Brain to Behavior reestablishes itself as a state-of-the-art reference that will be of significant interest to a wide range of clinicians, researchers, administrators, and policy makers, and this updated version aims to narrow the gap between research findings and clinical management of sports-related concussion and other mild traumatic brain injury. The second edition also attempts to broaden the scope of the knowledge to apply to more professionals and pre-professionals in the fields of neuroscience, neuropsychology, and other allied health professionals that closely work with athletes and sports medicine professionals.

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This textbook teaches in one, coherent presentation the three distinct topics of analysis of electronic circuits, mathematical numerical algorithms and coding in a software such as MATLAB®. By combining the capabilities of circuit simulators and mathematical software, the author teaches key concepts of circuit analysis and algorithms, using a modern approach. The DC, Transient, AC, Noise and behavioral analyses are implemented in MATLAB to study the complete characteristics of a variety of electronic circuits, such as amplifiers, rectifiers, hysteresis circuits, harmonic traps and passes, polyphaser filters, directional couplers, electro-static discharge and piezoelectric crystals. This book teaches basic and advanced circuit analysis, by incorporating algorithms and simulations that teach readers how to develop their own simulators and fully characterize and design electronic circuits. Teaches students and practitioners DC, AC, Transient, Noise and Behavioral analyses using MATLAB; Shows readers how to create their own complete simulator in MATLAB by adding materials learned in all 6 chapters of the book; Balances theory, math and analysis; Introduces many examples such as noise minimization, parameter optimization, power splitters, harmonic traps and passes, directional couplers, polyphase filters and electro-static discharge that are hardly referenced in other textbooks; Teaches how to create the fundamental analysis functions such as linear and nonlinear equation solvers, determinant calculation, random number generation and Fast Fourier transformation rather than using the built-in native MATLAB codes.

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In this collection, scientists and engineers from across industry, academia, and government present their latest improvements and innovations in all aspects of metal forming science and technology, with the intent of facilitating linkages and collaborations among these groups. Chapters cover the breadth of metal forming topics, from fundamental science to industrial application.

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This book is a comprehensive and easy-to-read guide to obstetrics and gynecology in developing countries. Although significant progress has been made towards the reduction of maternal mortality and morbidity globally, they are still unacceptably high in developing countries. This can be directly or indirectly tied to poor quality maternal health care and lack of access to cost-effective, comprehensive healthcare. Health practitioners in developing countries also contend with trying to keep abreast of recent developments in obstetrics and gynecology while dealing with lack of time, resources, and access to relevant information. This textbook was thus created by experts in obstetrics and gynecology with extensive experience in African clinical settings and consultants in developed countries to teach proper and accurate diagnosis, treatment and management of gynecologic and obstetric health issues within the context of developing countries.This second edition has been fully updated throughout with an added 25+ chapters that cover topics such as reproductive health, gynecological cancers and research methods. The book is divided into six sections: Women’s Reproductive Health; Obstetrics; Medical and Surgical Disorders in Pregnancy; General Gynecology; Gynecological Malignancies; Health Systems Organization, Research Methodology and Biostatistics. These section topics have been carefully covered by expert authors with the use of valid scientific data, policy instruments, and adapted to the cultural and social context of developing countries, with particular in depth coverage of conditions that have greater prevalence and incidence in developing countries. Each chapter also focuses on filling gaps in knowledge with a distinct pedagogical approach, starting with a set of learning objectives and ending with key takeaways for the chapter.This is an ideal guide for residents, medical students, practitioners of obstetrics and gynecology, midwives, general practitioners, and pediatricians, particularly those working in developing companies.

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This book examines ten materials—flint, clay, iron, gold, glass, cement, rubber, polyethylene, aluminum, and silicon—explaining how they formed, how we discovered them, why they have the properties they do, and how they have transformed our lives. Since the dawn of the Stone Age, we have shaped materials to meet our needs and, in turn, those materials have shaped us.The fracturing of flint created sharp, curved surfaces that gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge. Molding clay and then baking it in the sun produced a means of recording the written word and exemplified human artistic imagination. As our ability to control heat improved, earthenware became stoneware and eventually porcelain, the most prized ceramic of all. Iron cast at high temperatures formed the components needed for steam engines, locomotives, and power looms—the tools of the Industrial Revolution. Gold has captivated humans for thousands of years and has recently found important uses in biology, medicine, and nanotechnology. Glass shaped into early and imperfect lenses not only revealed the microscopic world of cells and crystals, but also allowed us to discover stars and planets beyond those visible with the naked eye. Silicon revolutionized the computer, propelling us into the Information Age and with it our interconnected social networks, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.Written by a materials scientist, this book explores not just why, but also how certain materials came to be so fundamental to human society. This enlightening study captivates anyone interested in learning more about the history of humankind, our ingenuity, and the materials that have shaped our world.

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This book, the first of its kind, surveys the career of the renowned Australian-German theatre and opera director Barrie Kosky. Its nine chapters provide multidisciplinary analyses of Barrie Kosky’s working practices and stage productions, from the beginning of his career in Melbourne to his current roles as Head of the Komische Oper Berlin and as a guest director in international demand. Specialists in theatre studies, opera studies, musical theatre studies, aesthetics, and arts administration offer in-depth accounts of Kosky’s unusually wide-ranging engagements with the performing arts – as a director of spoken theatre, operas, musicals, operettas, as an adaptor, a performer, a writer, and an arts manager. Further, this book includes contributions from theatre practitioners with first-hand experience of collaborating with Kosky in the 1990s, who draw on interviews with members of Gilgul, Australia’s first Jewish theatre company, to document this formative period in Kosky’s career. The book investigates the ways in which Kosky has created transnational theatres, through introducing European themes and theatre techniques to his Australian work or through bringing fresh voices to the national dialogue in Germany’s theatre landscape. An appendix contains a timeline and guide to Kosky’s productions to date.

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This textbook offers a rigorous presentation of mathematics before the advent of calculus. Fundamental concepts in algebra, geometry, and number theory are developed from the foundations of set theory along an elementary, inquiry-driven path. Thought-provoking examples and challenging problems inspired by mathematical contests motivate the theory, while frequent historical asides reveal the story of how the ideas were originally developed. Beginning with a thorough treatment of the natural numbers via Peano’s axioms, the opening chapters focus on establishing the natural, integral, rational, and real number systems. Plane geometry is introduced via Birkhoff’s axioms of metric geometry, and chapters on polynomials traverse arithmetical operations, roots, and factoring multivariate expressions. An elementary classification of conics is given, followed by an in-depth study of rational expressions. Exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions complete the picture, driven by inequalities that compare them with polynomial and rational functions. Axioms and limits underpin the treatment throughout, offering not only powerful tools, but insights into non-trivial connections between topics. Elements of Mathematics is ideal for students seeking a deep and engaging mathematical challenge based on elementary tools. Whether enhancing the early undergraduate curriculum for high achievers, or constructing a reflective senior capstone, instructors will find ample material for enquiring mathematics majors. No formal prerequisites are assumed beyond high school algebra, making the book ideal for mathematics circles and competition preparation. Readers who are more advanced in their mathematical studies will appreciate the interleaving of ideas and illuminating historical details.

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This book addresses age-based persecution of children as a crime against humanity in connection with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (persecution - with some variation in the elements of the crime - is an existing offence under the Rome Statute of the permanent International Criminal Court, the statutes of various international criminal tribunals i.e. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and under the statutes of other international criminal courts (i.e. the Special Court of Sierra Leone)). The book introduces a completely original concept in international criminal law, however, in discussing age-based persecution of children as an international crime against humanity where (i) the particular discrete child collective is targeted ‘as such’ for international atrocity crimes or (ii) individual children are targeted based on their age-based group identity as it intersects with other perpetrator – targeted characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion etc.

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This book presents the proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021), held online on June 13-18, 2021. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing the following topics: Working with Computer Systems, Human Modelling and Simulation, Neuroergonomics, Biomechanics, Affective Design, Anthropometry, Advanced Imaging.

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This open access book explores new research directions in social inequality and urban segregation. With the goal of fostering an ongoing dialogue between scholars in Europe and China, it brings together an impressive team of international researchers to shed light on the entwined processes of inequality and segregation, and the implications for urban development. Through a rich collection of empirical studies at the city, regional and national levels, the book explores the impact of migration on cities, the related problems of social and spatial segregation, and the ramifications for policy reform. While the literature on both segregation and inequality has traditionally been dominated by European and North American studies, there is growing interest in these issues in the Chinese context. Economic liberalization, rapid industrial restructuring, the enormous growth of cities, and internal migration, have all reshaped the country profoundly. What have we learned from the European and North American experience of segregation and inequality, and what insights can be gleaned to inform the bourgeoning interest in these issues in the Chinese context? How is China different, both in terms of the nature and the consequences of segregation inequality, and what are the implications for future research and policy? Given the continued rise of China’s significance in the world, and its recent declaration of war on poverty, this book offers a timely contribution to scholarship, identifying the core insights to be learned from existing research, and providing important guidance on future directions for policy makers and researchers.

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The British General Election of 2019 is the definitive account of one of the most consequential and controversial general elections in recent times, when Boris Johnson gambled everything calling an early election to 'Get Brexit Done', and emerged triumphant. Drawing upon cutting-edge research and wide-ranging elite interviews, the new author team provides a compelling and accessible narrative of this landmark election and its implications for British politics, built on unparalleled access to all the key players, and married up to first-class data analysis. The 21st volume in a prestigious series dating back to 1945, it offers something for everyone from Westminster insiders and politics students to the interested general reader.

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The book encompasses the different concepts and designs using magnets for surgical purposes. It provides a concise yet comprehensive summary of the current status of the field that will help guide patient management and stimulate investigative efforts. The text reviews new data about interventions in all medical and surgical fields. Written by experts in their fields, topics focus on endoluminal and laparoscopic operations, techniques from vascular and GI anastomosis. The book demonstrates the use of magnets to treat a variety of diseases such as reflux, back pain, and fecal incontinence. The reader will learn how to retract and gain exposure, dissect tissue planes, achieve hemostasis, and create anastomosis in a totally different way. Physical properties of external surface and internal magnets are discussed. The authors emphasize the importance of partnering with industry leaders to develop novel surgical tools.By harnessing the power of attraction, the energy and might of magnets, Magnetic Surgery serves as a valuable resource for clinicians, surgeons and researchers in biomedical engineering interested in this form of energy and physical metal properties. In utilizing these properties, the book seeks to improve surgical outcomes of patients worldwide.

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Over 30 years Ronald F. Duska has established himself as one of the leading scholars in business ethics. This book presents Duska’s articles the years on ethics, business ethics, teaching ethics, agency theory, postmodernism, employee rights, and ethics in accounting and the financial services industry. These reflect his underlying philosophical concerns and their application to real-world challenges — a method that might be called an Aristotelian common-sense approach to ethical decision making.

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This book describes the fundamentals of THz communications, spanning the whole range of applications, propagation and channel models, RF transceiver technology, antennas, baseband techniques, and networking interfaces. The requested data rate in wireless communications will soon reach from 100 Gbit/s up to 1 Tbps necessitating systems with ultra-high bandwidths of several 10s of GHz which are available only above 200 GHz. In the last decade, research at these frequency bands has made significant progress, enabling mature experimental demonstrations of so-called THz communications, which are thus expected to play a vital role in future wireless networks. In addition to chapters by leading experts on the theory, modeling, and implementation of THz communication technology, the book also features the latest experimental results and addresses standardization and regulatory aspects. This book will be of interest to both academic researchers and engineers in the telecommunications industry.

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