In this open publication it is shown, that sustainable low carbon development is a transformative process that constitutes the shifting from the initially chosen or taken pathway to another pathway as goals have been re-visited and revised to enable the system to adapt to changes. However, shifting entails transition costs that are accrued through ...
This open book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science an...
This open book examines recent advances in how artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have elicited widespread debate over their benefits and drawbacks for humanity. The emergent technologies have for instance implications within medicine and health care, employment, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and armed conflict. While there has been...
This open book shares the experiences of Tropical Legumes III (TLIII) project in facilitating access to seed of improved legume varieties to smallholder farmers through innovation platforms. It highlights practices and guiding principles implemented in eight developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This book details key processes ...
This open book offers a selection of research papers and case studies presented at the 3rd international conference "Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions", held in December 2019 in Bolzano, Italy, and explores the concept of smart and sustainable planning, including top contributions from academics, policy makers, consult...
This open book explores how biometric data is increasingly flowing across borders in order to limit, control and contain the mobility of selected people, namely criminalized populations. It introduces the concept of bio-bordering, using it to capture reverse patterns of bordering and ordering practices linked to transnational biometric data exchang...
How long can humans live? This open access book documents, verifies and brings to life the advance of the frontier of human survival. It carefully validates data on supercentenarians, aged 110+, and semi-supercentenarians, aged 105-109, stored in the International Database on Longevity (IDL). The chapters in this book contribute substantial advance...
This open book provides the first-ever comparative study on criminal policy concerning the illicit trade of tobacco, conducted among four comparatively new EU Member States (Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Romania) and two "old" EU countries (Germany and Italy). The book addresses the national legal frameworks, current criminological situ...
This open book reviews the water-agro-food and socio-eco-system of the Seine River basin (76,000 km2), and offers a historical perspective on the river's long-term contamination. The Seine basin is inhabited by circa 17 million people and is impacted by intensive agricultural practices and industrial activities. These pressures have gradually ...
This open handbook, the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive and carefully curated multidisciplinary genre-spanning view of the state of the field of Critical Menstruation Studies, opening up new directions in research and advocacy. It is animated by the central question: "what new lines of inquiry are possible when we center our attent...
This open methodological book summarises existing analysing techniques using data from PIAAC, a study initiated by the OECD that assesses key cognitive and occupational skills of the adult population in more than 40 countries. The approximately 65 PIAAC datasets that has been published worldwide to date has been widely received and used by an inter...
Written by a group of international experts in the field and the result of over ten years of collaboration, it allows students and readers to gain to gain a detailed understanding of scar and wound treatment - a topic still dispersed among various disciplines. The content is divided into three parts for easy reference. The first part focuses on the...
This open volume aims to methodologically improve our understanding of biodiversity by linking disciplines that incorporate remote sensing, and uniting data and perspectives in the fields of biology, landscape ecology, and geography. The book provides a framework for how biodiversity can be detected and evaluated - focusing particularly on plants -...
This open book presents the proceedings of the 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering held at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, on September 16 - 17, 2019. Intended to foster the synergies between research and education, the conference is one of the joint activities of the BITS Pilani and TU Braunschweig...
This open book describes and reviews the development of the quality control mechanisms and methodologies associated with IEA's extensive program of educational research. A group of renowned international researchers, directly involved in the design and execution of IEA's international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), describe the operatio...
This open book highlights the major outcomes of the fourth edition of the Future of Higher Education - Bologna Process Researchers Conference (January 2020), which has already established itself as a landmark in the European higher education environment. The conference provides a unique forum for dialogue between researchers, experts and policy mak...
This open book focuses on theoretical and empirical intersections between governance, knowledge and space from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions elucidate how knowledge is a prerequisite as well as a driver of governance efficacy, and conversely, how governance affects the creation and use of knowledge and innovation in geographic...
This open access State-of-the-Art Survey presents the main recent scientific outcomes in the area of reversible computation, focusing on those that have emerged during COST Action IC1405 "Reversible Computation - Extending Horizons of Computing", a European research network that operated from May 2015 to April 2019.Reversible computation ...
This open book offers comprehensive information on Wang Yang-ming's life, helping readers identify and grasp the foundations on which his philosophy was established. Though a great man, Wang had an extremely difficult life, full of many hardships. Based on various official histories, Wang's own writings, and his disciples' records, t...
This open book provides a multi-perspective approach to the caravan trade in the Sahara during the 19th century. Based on travelogues from European travelers, recently found Arab sources, historical maps and results from several expeditions, the book gives an overview of the historical periods of the caravan trade as well as detailed information ab...
This open book explores the transformative experiences of participants in the University of Sydney's National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) programs. The establishment of the NCCC was viewed as a critical point of departure for developing an institution-wide agenda of cultural competence. The NCCC's work since its inception reflec...
This open book presents new developments in the field of demographic forecasting, covering both mortality, fertility and migration. For each component emerging methods to forecast them are presented. Moreover, instruments for forecasting evaluation are provided. Bayesian models, nonparametric models, cohort approaches, elicitation of expert opinion...
This open book presents the outcomes of the symposium "New Metropolitan Perspectives", held at Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy on May 26 - 28, 2020.
Addressing the challenge of Knowledge Dynamics and Innovation-driven Policies Towards Urban and Regional Transition, the book presents a multi-disciplinary debate on the n...
The importance of demonstrating the value achieved from IT investments is long established in the Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) literature. However, emerging technologies such as the ever-changing complex area of cloud computing present new challenges and opportunities for demonstrating how IT investments lead to business value...
This open volume makes an important contribution to the ongoing research on hope theory by combining insights from both its long history and its increasing multi-disciplinarity. In the first part, it recognizes the importance of the centuries-old reflection on hope by offering historical perspectives and tracing it back to ancient Greek philosophy....
This open book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.The ...
Types are the central organizing principle of the theory of programming languages. Language features are manifestations of type structure. The syntax of a language is governed by the constructs that define its types, and its semantics is determined by the interactions among those constructs. The soundness of a language design - the absence of ill-d...
This open volume provides a comparative analysis of media systems in the Arab world, based on criteria informed by the historical, political, social, and economic factors influencing a country's media. Reaching beyond classical western media system typologies, Arab Media Systems brings together contributions from experts in the field of media ...
The book is based on "First semester in Numerical Analysis with Julia". The contents of the original book are retained, while all the algorithms are implemented in Python (Version 3.8.0). Python is an open source (under OSI), interpreted, general-purpose programming language that has a large number of users around the world. Python is ran...
This book integrates the vital areas of object-orientation, functional programming, design patterns, and language design. The most important concepts from functional programming are captured with six design patterns: FUNCTION OBJECTS (Black-box behaviour parameterisation) LAZY OBJECTS (Evaluation-by-need semantics) VALUE OBJECTS (Immutable values) ...
Each chapter comprises a separate study on some optimization problem giving both an introductory look into the theory the problem comes from and some new developments invented by author(s). Usually some elementary knowledge is assumed, yet all the required facts are quoted mostly in examples, remarks or theorems....
Introductory statistics courses prepare students to think statistically but cover relatively few statistical methods. Building on the basic statistical thinking emphasized in an introductory course, a second course in statistics at the undergraduate level can explore a large number of statistical methods. This text covers more advanced graphical su...