This open access book provides an overview of childlessness throughout Europe. It offers a collection of papers written by leading demographers and sociologists that examine contexts, causes, and consequences of childlessness in countries throughout the region.The book features data from all over Europe. It specifically highlights patterns of ch...
This open access book provides an exploration of the consequences of the ontological differences between natural and social objects (sometimes described as objects of nature and objects of thought) in the workings of causal and agency relationships. One of its important and possibly original conclusions is that causal and agency relationships do no...
This open access book addresses several questions regarding the implementation of human and organisational factors (HOF) so that recent improvements in industrial safety can be built upon. It addresses sources of frustration in senior management with high expectations of operational recommendations and disquiet on the part of HOF specialists strugg...
This open access book provides the first comprehensive collection of papers that provide an integrative view on cybersecurity. It discusses theories, problems and solutions on the relevant ethical issues involved. This work is sorely needed in a world where cybersecurity has become indispensable to protect trust and confidence in the digital infras...
This is an open access book. Lewis F Richardson (1981-1953), a physicist by training, was a pioneer in meteorology and peace research and remains a towering presence in both fields. This edited volume reviews his work and assesses its influence in the social sciences, notably his work on arms races and their consequences, mathematical models, the s...
This book examines key aspects of international cooperation to enhance nuclear safety, security, safeguards, and non-proliferation, thereby assisting in development and maintenance of the verification regime and fostering progress toward a nuclear weapon-free world. The book opens by addressing important political, institutional, and legal dimensio...
This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2016, held in Edinburgh, UK, in May 2016.While agile development has already become mainstream in industry, this field is still constantly evolving and continues to spur an enormous interest both in industry and academia. To this end, ...
This open access book presents the key aspects of statistics in Wasserstein spaces, i.e. statistics in the space of probability measures when endowed with the geometry of optimal transportation. Further to reviewing state-of-the-art aspects, it also provides an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of this current topic, as well as an overvie...
This Open Access book combines expertise in information literacy with expertise in education and teaching to share tips and tricks for the development of good information literacy teaching and training in universities and libraries. It draws on research, knowledge and pedagogical practice from academia, to teach students how to sift through informa...
Sustainability imposes an unprecedented challenge on society and has become the driving force of an urgent search for innovative solutions in all branches of economy. Manufacturing plays a key role in many areas of human living, and it is both part of the problem and of the solution. This book offers an overview of the broad field of research on s...
Communication is increasingly moving beyond 'ways of seeing' to 'ways of feeling'. This Open Access book provides social design insights and implications for HCI research and design exploring digitally mediated touch communication. It offers a socially orientated map to help navigate the complex social landscape of digitally me...
Based on a study among higher-educated adult children of lower-class Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands, this open access book explores processes of identification among social climbers with ethnic minority backgrounds. Using both survey data and open interviews with these 'minority climbers', the study details the context...
This publication addresses the global challenges of food and water security in a rapidly changing and complex world. The essays highlight the links between bio-physical and socio-cultural processes, making connections between local and global scales, and focusing on the everyday practices of eating and drinking, essential for human survival. Writte...
This open access book explores how contemporary integration policies and practices are not just about migrants and minority groups becoming part of society but often also reflect deliberate attempts to undermine their inclusion or participation. This affects individual lives as well as social cohesion. The book highlights the variety of ways in whi...
This open access book highlights the importance of visions of alternative futures in music teacher education in a time of increasing societal complexity due to increased diversity. There are policies at every level to counter prejudice, increase opportunities, reduce inequalities, stimulate change in educational systems, and prevent and counter pol...
This open access report explores the nature and extent of students' misconceptions and misunderstandings related to core concepts in physics and mathematics and physics across grades four, eight and 12. Twenty years of data from the IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and TIMSS Advanced assessments are anal...
This book illustrates the benefits to be gained from digitally networked communication for health, education and transitioning economies in developing nations (Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea) and developed nations. Growing powers of e-citizenship can help build sustainable futures. This small volume provides a collection of examples and ideas fr...
This book analyses intellectual property and innovation governance in the development of six key industries in India and China. These industries are reflective of the innovation and economic development of the two economies, or of vital importance to them: the IT Industry, the film industry, the pharmaceutical industry, plant varieties and food sec...
This book introduces readers to the regional geology of Hanggai, Xianxia and Chuancun, the area between China's northern Zhejiang Province and southern Anhui Province and explores the strata, magmatic rocks and tectonic structures in 1:50,000 scale geological maps. Based on studies of multiple stratigraphic divisions, the standard stratigraphi...
This open access book summarizes the multi-disciplinary results of one of China's main primatological research projects on the endemic Tibetan macaque (Macaca thibetana), which had continued for over 30 years, but which had never been reported on systematically. Dedicated to this exceptional Old World monkey, this book makes the work of Chines...
This book is about public open spaces, about people, and about the relationship between them and the role of technology in this relationship. It is about different approaches, methods, empirical studies, and concerns about a phenomenon that is increasingly being in the centre of sciences and strategies – the penetration of digital technologies in...
This book records the state of the art in research on mathematics-related affect. It discusses the concepts and theories of mathematics-related affect along the lines of three dimensions. The first dimension identifies three broad categories of affect: motivation, emotions, and beliefs. The book contains one chapter on motivation, including discuss...
This Open Access book, Responsible innovation provides benefits for society, for instance more sustainable products, more engagement with consumers and less anxiety about emerging technologies. As a governance tool it is mostly driven by research funders, including the European Commission, under the term "responsible research and innovation&qu...
This open access book provides an alternative theoretical framework of irregular migration that allows to overcome many of the contradictions and theoretical impasses displayed by the majority of approaches in current literature. The analytical framework allows moving from an interpretation biased by methodological nationalism, to a more general sy...
How does the brain orchestrate perceptions, thoughts, and actions from the activity of its neurons? Addressing these challenging issues requires methods with sufficiently high temporal and spatial resolution of neuronal activity in both local and global networks as well as theories to advance understanding how different levels of brain dynamics int...
This volume argues for the need of a common ground that bridges leadership studies, curriculum theory, and Didaktik. It proposes a non-affirmative education theory and its core concepts along with discursive institutionalism as an analytical tool to bridge these fields. It concludes with implications of its coherent theoretical framing for future e...
This open access book offers an essential overview of brain, head and neck, and spine imaging. Over the last few years, there have been considerable advances in this area, driven by both clinical and technological developments. Written by leading international experts and teachers, the chapters are disease-oriented and cover all relevant imaging mo...
This book presents a synopsis of six emerging themes in adult mathematics/numeracy and a critical discussion of recent developments in terms of policies, provisions, and the emerging challenges, paradoxes and tensions. It also offers an extensive review of the literature adult mathematics education. Why do adults want to learn mathematics? Did they...
This free book provides up-to-date information on best practice to improve experimental design and quality of research in non-clinical pharmacology and biomedicine....
This open access book comprises 10 high-level papers on research and innovation within the Flexitranstore Project that were presented at the FLEXITRANSTORE special session organized as part of the 21st International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering.FLEXITRANSTORE (An Integrated Platform for Increased FLEXIbility in smart TRANSmission grids wit...
Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, which in recent years has been the engine of global economic growth , this volume surveys trends and prospects in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with particular reference to achieving inclusive growth and the greening of economies. Underlying the increasing pressure for new models of TV...