This open access brief introduces the basic principles of control theory in a concise self-study guide. It complements the classic texts by emphasizing the simple conceptual unity of the subject. A novice can quickly see how and why the different parts fit together. The concepts build slowly and naturally one after another, until the reader soon ha...
This book focuses on the concepts, tools and techniques needed to successfully model ever-changing time-series data. It emphasizes the need for general models to account for the complexities of the modern world and how these can be applied to a range of issues facing Earth, from modelling volcanic eruptions, carbon dioxide emissions and global temp...
The editors present essential methods and tools to support a holistic approach to the challenge of system upgrades and innovation in the context of high-value products and services. The approach presented here is based on three main pillars: an adaptation mechanism based on a broad understanding of system dependencies; efficient use of system knowl...
This monograph contributes to the scientific misconduct debate from an oblique perspective, by analysing seven novels devoted to this issue, namely: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925), The affair by C.P. Snow (1960), Cantor's Dilemma by Carl Djerassi (1989), Perlmann's Silence by Pascal Mercier (1995), Intuition by Allegra Goodman (2006...
Technical Systems-of-Systems (SoS) – in the form of networked, independent constituent computing systems temporarily collaborating to achieve a well-defined objective – form the backbone of most of today's infrastructure. The energy grid, most transportation systems, the global banking industry, the water-supply system, the military equipm...
This volume analyzes the economic, social, and political challenges that emerging states confront today. Notwithstanding the growing importance of the 'emerging states' in global affairs and governance, many problems requiring immediate solutions have emerged at home largely as a consequence of the rapid economic development and associate...
This book applies for the first time emerging concepts of socioeconomics to analyse an economic sector, namely agriculture. It considers the rational choices of all actors in the system (just as agricultural economists do) and their cultural preferences and constraints (just as rural sociologists do). Socioeconomic concepts are subsequently used to...
This Open Access handbook published at the IAMG's 50th anniversary, presents a compilation of invited path-breaking research contributions by award-winning geoscientists who have been instrumental in shaping the IAMG. It contains 45 chapters that are categorized broadly into five parts (i) theory, (ii) general applications, (iii) exploration a...
These Proceedings offer a selection of peer-reviewed research and survey papers by some of the foremost international researchers in the fields of finance, energy, stochastics and risk, who present their latest findings on topical problems. The papers cover the areas of stochastic modeling in energy and financial markets; risk management with envir...
This is the first book to present field studies on the application of subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM). Each case presents a specific story and focuses on an essential modeling or implementation issue, and most end with implications or suggestions for further studies. Significant variables and success factors are identified that...
This open access volume raises awareness of the histories, geographies, and practices of universities and analyzes their role as key actors in today's global knowledge economy. Universities are centers of research, teaching, and expertise with significant economic, social, and cultural impacts at different geographical scales. Scholars from a ...
This book offers something for everyone working with market segmentation: practical guidance for users of market segmentation solutions; organisational guidance on implementation issues; guidance for market researchers in charge of collecting suitable data; and guidance for data analysts with respect to the technical and statistical aspects of mark...
This book contains the joint proceedings of the Winter School of Hakodate (WSH) 2011 held in Hakodate, Japan, March 15–16, 2011, and the 6th International Workshop on Natural Computing (6th IWNC) held in Tokyo, Japan, March 28–30, 2012, organized by the Special Interest Group of Natural Computing (SIG-NAC), the Japanese Society for Artificial I...
This book brings together research findings from a variety of disciplines in this integrated study of the migration of Ukrainian nationals to the EU. It contextualizes and historicizes this migration against the background of the series of crises experienced by Ukraine and the wider region over the last thirty or so years, from the dissolution of t...
This book investigates why, despite more and more resources devoted to safety training, expectations are not entirely met, particularly in the industrial sectors that have already achieved a high safety level. It not only reflects the most precious viewpoints of experts from different disciplines, different countries, with experiences in various in...
Rethinking the Internet of Things was a 2014 Jolt Award Finalist, the highest honor for a programming book. And the amazing part is that there is no code in the book.
Over the next decade, most devices connected to the Internet will not be used by people in the familiar way that personal computers, tablets and smart phones are. Billions of inter...
Light and light based technologies have played an important role in transforming our lives via scientific contributions spanned over thousands of years. In this book we present a vast collection of articles on various aspects of light and its applications in the contemporary world at a popular or semi-popular level. These articles are written by th...
This book summarizes the results of 3 years of agricultural and forestry reconstructive efforts and applied research conducted directly in the affected areas of Fukushima following the Great East Japan Earthquake. It describes fast and effective revival methods and technologies from tsunami and radiation damages, demonstrated through the collaborat...
Break down the misconceptions of the Internet of Things by examining the different security building blocks available in Intel Architecture (IA) based IoT platforms. This book reviews the threat pyramid, secure boot, chain of trust, and the SW stack leading up to defense-in-depth.
The IoT presents unique challenges in implementing security and Inte...
This book describes how the numerous arrivals of asylum seekers since 2015 shaped reception and integration processes in Europe. It addresses the structuration of asylum and reception systems, and spaces and places of reception on European, national, regional and local level. It also analyses perceptions and discourses on asylum and refugees, their...
This book presents the first detailed study of one of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance cartography, Martin Waldseemüller's Carta marina of 1516. By transcribing, translating into English, and detailing the sources of all of the descriptive texts on the map, as well as the sources of many of the images, the book makes the map ava...
This book disseminates some of the results of the European H2020 AiRT Project (Technology transfer of RPAs for the creative industry). In particular, it presents findings related to mitigating safety and security concerns when civil drones are piloted by the service sector (mainly, the creative industry). European policies regarding drones generall...
The aim of the book is to present contributions in theory, policy and practice to the science and policy of sustainable intensification by means of technological and institutional innovations in agriculture. The research insights re from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The purpose of this book is to be a reference for students, scholars and prac...
This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses t...
This twenty-third ICMI Study addresses for the first time mathematics teaching and learning in the primary school (and pre-school) setting, while also taking international perspectives, socio-cultural diversity and institutional constraints into account. One of the main challenges of designing the first ICMI primary school study of this kind is the...
This book summarizes work being undertaken within the collaborative MODAClouds research project, which aims to facilitate interoperability between heterogeneous Cloud platforms and remove the constraints of deployment, portability, and reversibility for end users of Cloud services. Experts involved in the project provide a clear overview of the MOD...
This book discusses a variety of important but unprecedented ways in which psychology can be useful to philosophy. The early chapters illustrate this theme via comparisons between Chinese and Western philosophy. It is argued that the Chinese notion of a heart-mind is superior to the Western concept of mind, but then, more even-handedly, the relativ...
By examining the implementation dynamics of EU Readmission Agreements (EURAs), this book addresses the practical reasons why irregular immigrants cannot be expelled. EURAs are one of the vital legal instruments framing EU external migration law with regard to the expulsion of irregular immigrants, yet their implementation has met with various obsta...
This book presents computer programming as a key method for solving mathematical problems. There are two versions of the book, one for MATLAB and one for Python. The book was inspired by the Springer book TCSE 6: A Primer on Scientific Programming with Python (by Langtangen), but the style is more accessible and concise, in keeping with the needs o...
This book reports on the results of an extended survey conducted across Europe within the framework of the APPRAISAL FP7 project to determine the extent to which an integrated assessment approach to air quality is being adopted, on the one hand, by regional and local authorities to develop air quality plans and, on the other, by researchers. Follow...
It argues that the main purpose of educational research is to improve student learning, and that international comparative studies are no exception....
This book presents the results from the second cycle of the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2016). Using data from 24 countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America, the study investigates the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in a range of countries in the second decade of the 2...