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This book provides insight into the importance of place and place settings in personal journeys. It explores the worlds of time journeys in different contexts: daily work, community livelihoods, rural-urban migration, disease outbreaks and controls, cruise ship tours, and isolated frontier settings. Besides this, the book also addresses the networks connecting rural and urban places, transcontinental highways and railroads, rural-urban migration and other innovative journeys such as gas station road maps and body maps. The chapters also discuss how eradicating diseases are time/place journeys as is moving from a distant isolated frontier to a metropolis. As such, this book is a must read for those interested in exploring the intersections in and between the humanities and social/policy sciences.

This book explores journeys in a time context with a focus on places, place meanings, and landscapes. Whether the journey relates to ancient or modern trails, roads, or railroads, or a historical or contemporary pilgrimage or a tourist venture in social contexts, the book addresses the importance of places and environmental settings, whereby time itself is described and defined in multiple contexts. The chapters discuss among others archaeological and pre-history settings, tourism settings, and heritage events, as well as regional and transnational migration routes and those used by historical nomadic cultures and postmodern nomads. Some time and place journeys are fluid and dynamic and re-interpreted while for others there is much "sameness" in the visible landscapes. Retaining the past and reconstructing the past are both journeys. That sameness concept is also applied to cultural and political worlds where there is little progress or reform to address social welfare and empowerment. This book opens the door for exploring shallow and deep journeys by those in the humanities and social sciences at local, national, and regional scales.

This book describes the journey concept relating to cultural and social history of Western and non-Western worlds. By including time journeys negotiated by women, racial minorities, artists, and scholars from the humanities and social, natural and physical scientists, the book explores time/space journeys in personal, professional, and cultural life and place experiences. The sixteen chapters in this book offer new insights into time/place worlds in different contexts including history, culture, astronomy, and science fiction. The concept is one where science and art worlds intersect in the emerging worlds of the unknown. With contributors from different disciplines and countries expanding our understanding of this concept, this volume provides a valuable source for disciplinary and interdisciplinary classes and seminars exploring these scholarly frontiers.

This book mainly focuses on the recent trends and sustainability challenges in the valorization of agro-wastes, emphasizing the role of microbial biotechnology. Processing of various kinds of agro-wastes such as lignocellulosic materials, food industry wastes, dairy wastes, etc., into several bioactive compounds, enzymes, biofuels, biogas, biofertilizers, nutraceuticals, nanoparticles, etc., will be discussed elaborately in more detail. This book investigates the theoretical and practical aspects of modern research regarding the valorization of agro-wastes through microbial technology. Moreover, the role of valorization research in circular bio-economy will also be addressed in this book.

This book provides a discussion of privacy in the following three parts: Privacy Issues in Data Aggregation; Privacy Issues in Indoor Localization; and Privacy-Preserving Offloading in MEC. In Part 1, the book proposes LocMIA, which shifts from membership inference attacks against aggregated location data to a binary classification problem, synthesizing privacy preserving traces by enhancing the plausibility of synthetic traces with social networks. In Part 2, the book highlights Indoor Localization to propose a lightweight scheme that can protect both location privacy and data privacy of LS. In Part 3, it investigates the tradeoff between computation rate and privacy protection for task offloading a multi-user MEC system, and verifies that the proposed load balancing strategy improves the computing service capability of the MEC system. In summary, all the algorithms discussed in this book are of great significance in demonstrating the importance of privacy.

With the recent debacle surrounding the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the crypto trading company Alameda Research, the importance of grasping the security and regulation of Web3, cryptocurrency, and blockchain projects has been magnified. To avoid similar economic and security failures in future Web3 projects, this book provides an essential guide and a comprehensive and systematic approach to addressing security concerns. Written by experts in tech and finance, it provides an objective, professional, and in-depth analysis of security and privacy issues associated with Web3 and blockchain projects. The book primarily focuses on Web3 applications and ecosystem components such as the stablecoin, decentralization exchange (DEX), decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT), decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and crypto exchange. It also discusses various security issues and their manifestation in Web3 such as ransomware, supply chain software attacks, AI security, and quantum security. Moreover, it provides valuable countermeasures and best practices for individual users as well as Web3 application development teams to consider when designing and implementing Web3 applications. This book is an excellent resource for a diverse range of readers and will particularly appeal to Web3 developers, architects, project owners, and cybersecurity professionals seeking to deepen their knowledge of Web3 security.

This book introduces a 'triple-bottom-line' approach to the concept and practice of family business sustainability. It is geared towards a broad audience covering social, economic, and environmental issues, to focus on implementation of sustainable practices. Having this in mind, this book provides possible ways of successfully managing family businesses in a sustainable manner, which should also lead to long-term business longevity. The social perspectives addressed by this book discuss the social responsibility of the family business, using a two-way approach contributing to the development of society. The economic outlook is introduced by aiming at a sustainable competitive advantage with an economic impact, and how a family business should adapt to changes and be proactive to gain economic sustainability. The environmental dimension is focused on actions against global warming and global agreements aimed at businesses to change their policies to prioritize the environment as part of their strategy. This book thus explores possibilities for family firms to add values along all chains in business activities and to contribute to introducing green environment products, or environmentally safe products. Each part of the book represents an important pillar of the family business unit that helps the firm to achieve and sustain its competitive advantage using the triple-bottom-line approach. Besides the objectives and the content, each chapter provides one short story applicable to a chapter's content and a case study for each chapter or topic. As learning tools besides case studies, the book provides key summaries, terminology, group assignments, and projects.

This book presents selected papers from the 17th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management in 2023. The Conference was promoted by ADINGOR (Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Ingeniería de Organización) and organized by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, on July 6th and 7th, 2023. The book provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary research and practical applications in various domains of industry and academia. Spanning a wide array of topics, readers will delve into studies on prosocial choice replication, project risk prioritization through Monte Carlo simulation, linear representation of greenhouse gas emissions, barriers to total productive maintenance implementation, and critical examinations of emerging technologies like ChatGPT and blockchain in educational and industrial contexts. Additionally, case studies explore themes such as influencer impact on student purchasing behavior, lean manufacturing, additive manufacturing parameter definition, and the application of Benford's Law in network science. The book also delves into sustainability concerns, including last-mile delivery solutions, carbon footprint reduction in public transport, and integration of operations strategies into circular supply chains. From advanced optimization models to the role of artificial intelligence in machinery design and workforce scheduling, this compilation serves as a valuable resource for scholars, practitioners, and students alike, offering insights into the forefront of research and innovation shaping contemporary industries and academic disciplines.

This book offers a comprehensive presentation of the theory and methods of risk-averse optimization and control. Problems of this type arise in finance, energy production and distribution, supply chain management, medicine, and many other areas, where not only the average performance of a stochastic system is essential, but also high-impact and low-probability events must be taken into account. The book is a self-contained presentation of the utility theory, the theory of measures of risk, including systemic and dynamic measures of risk, and their use in optimization and control models. It also covers stochastic dominance relations and their application as constraints in optimization models. Optimality conditions for problems with nondifferentiable and nonconvex functions and operators involving risk measures and stochastic dominance relations are discussed. Much attention is paid to multi-stage risk-averse optimization problems and to risk-averse Markov decision problems. Specialized algorithms for solving risk-averse optimization and control problems are presented and analyzed: stochastic subgradient methods for risk optimization, decomposition methods for dynamic problems, event cut and dual methods for stochastic dominance constraints, and policy iteration methods for control problems. The target audience is researchers and graduate students in the areas of mathematics, business analytics, insurance and finance, engineering, and computer science. The theoretical considerations are illustrated with examples, which make the book useful material for advanced courses in the area.

This book provides a remarkable collection of contributions written by some of the most accredited world experts in the modern area of Knotted Fields. Scope of the book is to provide an updated view of some of the key aspects of contemporary research, with the purpose to cover basic concepts and techniques commonly used in the context of Knotted Fields. The material is presented to help the interested reader to become familiar with the fundamentals, from fluid flows to electromagnetism, from knot theory to numerical visualization, while presenting the new ideas and results in an accessible way to beginners and young researchers. No advanced knowledge is required, and at the end of each chapter, key references are provided to offer further information on particular topics of interest. All those keen on modern applications of topological techniques to the study of knotted fields in mathematical physics will find here a valuable and unique source of information. The work will be of interest to many researchers in the field.

This book constitutes the referred proceedings of the 9th Iberoamerican Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI-COLLAB 2023, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during September 13-15, 2023. The 23 full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 84 submissions. They cover a variety of topics related to HCI such as: Emotional Interfaces, Usability, Video Games and Gamification, Computational Thinking, Internet of Things (IoT), Software Engineering, ICT in Education, Augmented and Mixed Virtual Reality for Education, Emotional Interfaces, Adaptive Instructional Systems, Accessibility, Artificial Intelligence in HCI, Industry 4. 0 and HCI, Infotainment Systems, Intelligent Systems, Collaborative Work and Learning, Cognition, and Interaction, among others.

This book combines and summarizes the myriad rules, regulations, guidance, and guidelines that pertain to the human factor element of vessel design and marine operations. With a focus on physical ergonomics, the book is thoroughly researched and draws on the most current Class rules and industry regulations promulgated by the IMO and other organizations. As such, this book serves as a single point of reference for professionals and students involved in human factors and ergonomics at sea.

This book systematizes the latest findings on the clinical, psychological, and pedagogical features of today's children with special educational needs (SEN) and expands the scientific understanding that characterizes such children. The book develops a system of education and assistance for children with SEN, including children with locomotor disabilities, intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and hearing and visual impairments. The book is intended for heads of educational authorities, parents, specialists working with children with special educational needs, psychologists, teachers, methodologists, specialists in the field of inclusive education, and students and teachers in special education of pedagogical and psychological departments of higher education institutions.

This LNCS 14523 conference volume constitutes the proceedings of the First International Workshop, Epi UAI 2023, in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, August 2023. The 8 full papers together included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 16 submissions. Epistemic AI focuses, in particular, on some of the most important areas of machine learning: unsupervised learning, supervised learning, and reinforcement learning.

This open access volume focuses on the environmental hazards and cultural significance of Potentially Polluting Wrecks (PPWs), and how mitigation efforts have assisted in documenting and preserving the history of these sites. It is an important resource on the subject of Potentially Polluting Wrecks that synthesizes previously published information that was not academically or scientifically produced. This includes numerous international studies of shipwreck databases and threats posed by world war wrecks containing oil and other hazardous materials that could spill. This book evaluates these materials and presents new analyses and investigations with modern technology that assist in locating, documenting, and remediating polluting wreck sites. Consequently, this volume calls for increased ocean exploration missions to locate sunken merchant vessels that may pose pollution hazards and site assessments to determine any potential risks. This book is of interest to government officials, educators, archaeologists and practitioners working in the field of underwater archaeology. This is an open access book.

This open access book focuses on the destruction of our Ocean Heritage from bottom trawling. It brings together the natural and cultural sides of the marine environment to further our understanding of the importance of this heritage, how it is threatened by activities such as bottom trawling, and provides recommendations, such as a moratorium in particularly vulnerable areas that are currently unprotected. It is a unique publication in integrating cultural heritage into a discussion where the primary focus has been the destruction of natural heritageThe book is divided into three sections that discuss, respectively, the international legal context, history and ecological impact of bottom trawling, case studies highlighting the impact of these destructive activities on underwater cultural heritage, and finally recommended future steps and how to use the damage presented here to halt future devastation. This book is a valuable tool for resource managers and representatives of governments and international organizations in their efforts to establish the moratoria called for. This book is also of interest to educators, archaeologists and practitioners working in the field of underwater cultural heritage.This is an open access book.

Networks of today are going through a rapid evolution and there are many emerging areas of information networking and their applications. Heterogeneous networking supported by recent technological advances in low power wireless communications along with silicon integration of various functionalities such as sensing, communications, intelligence, and actuations are emerging as a critically important disruptive computer class based on a new platform, networking structure and interface that enable novel, low-cost and high-volume applications. Several of such applications have been difficult to realize because of many interconnection problems. To fulfill their large range of applications different kinds of networks need to collaborate and wired and next generation wireless systems should be integrated in order to develop high performance computing solutions to problems arising from the complexities of these networks. This book covers the theory, design and applications of computer networks, distributed computing, and information systems.The aim of the book ¿Advanced Information Networking and Applications¿ is to provide latest research findings, innovative research results, methods and development techniques from both theoretical and practical perspectives related to the emerging areas of information networking and applications.

This book provides a historical presentation of Old Quantum Theory and early Quantum Mechanics integrated with comments and examples that help contextualize and understand the physics discussed. It consists in a detailed analysis of the usual topics that have most contributed to the birth and the development of Quantum Mechanics (black-body spectrum, atomic models, EPR paradox, etc.), but also dealing with ideas, concepts and results that are not usually treated (vortex atoms, discussion on the meaning of the term "electron", non-quantum models of the Compton effect, etc.). The time span taken into consideration goes mainly from the 1880s to the 1940s; but some brief notes on more recent results are also presented in the appendixes. The work is based on nearly 800 original documents - books, papers, letters, newspapers - whose content is not only partially reported, but also explained, and inserted in the historical, social and disciplinary context of the time. Together with a rigorous historical framework, the book offers also an educational discussion of the physical aspects presented. Indeed, there are some specific sections and subsections with pedagogical observations. This book is intended for students pursuing STEM degrees, particularly those seeking an understanding of the genesis and rationale behind quantum mechanics. But it is surely also addressed to professional physicists who are eager to reconsider the cultural foundations underlying the quantum view of the world. We are thus thinking of inquiring minds, people who teach quantum physics, and individuals involved in quantum technologies.

This book offers a novel multi-portfolio approach and stochastic programming formulations for modeling and solving contemporary supply chain risk management problems. The focus of the book is on supply chain resilience under propagated disruptions, supply chain viability under severe crises, and supply chain cybersecurity under direct and indirect cyber risks. The content is illustrated with numerous computational examples, some of which are modeled on real-world supply chains subject to severe multi-regional or global crises, such as pandemics. In the computational examples, the proposed stochastic programming models are solved using an advanced algebraic modeling language AMPL and GUROBI solver. The book seamlessly continues the journey begun in the author's previously published book "Supply Chain Disruption Management: Using Stochastic Mixed Integer Programming." It equips readers with the knowledge, tools, and managerial insights needed to effectively model and address modern supply chain risk management challenges. As such, the book is designed for practitioners and researchers who are interested in supply chain risk management. Master's and Ph.D. students in disciplines like supply chain management, operations research, industrial engineering, applied mathematics, and computer science will also find the book a valuable resource.

This book covers the theory, design and applications of computer networks, distributed computing and information systems. Networks of today are going through a rapid evolution and there are many emerging areas of information networking and their applications. Heterogeneous networking supported by recent technological advances in low-power wireless communications along with silicon integration of various functionalities such as sensing, communications, intelligence and actuations is emerging as a critically important disruptive computer class based on a new platform, networking structure and interface that enable novel, low-cost and high-volume applications. Several such applications have been difficult to realize because of many interconnection problems. To fulfill their large range of applications, different kinds of networks need to collaborate and wired and next-generation wireless systems should be integrated in order to develop high-performance computing solutions to problems arising from the complexities of these networks.This book aims to provide the latest research findings, innovative research results, methods and development techniques from both theoretical and practical perspectives related to the emerging areas of information networking and applications.

This book presents fundamental relations between random walks on graphs and field theories of mathematical physics. Such relations have been explored for several decades and remain a rapidly developing research area in probability theory.The main objects of study include Markov loops, spanning forests, random holonomies, and covers, and the purpose of the book is to investigate their relations to Bose fields, Fermi fields, and gauge fields. The book starts with a review of some basic notions of Markovian potential theory in the simple context of a finite or countable graph, followed by several chapters dedicated to the study of loop ensembles and related statistical physical models. Then, spanning trees and Fermi fields are introduced and related to loop ensembles. Next, the focus turns to topological properties of loops and graphs, with the introduction of connections on a graph, loop holonomies, and Yang-Mills measure. Among the main results presented is an intertwining relation between merge-and-split generators on loop ensembles and Casimir operators on connections, and the key reflection positivity property for the fields under consideration.Aimed at researchers and graduate students in probability and mathematical physics, this concise monograph is essentially self-contained. Familiarity with basic notions of probability, Poisson point processes, and discrete Markov chains are assumed of the reader.​

The two-volume set IFIP AICT 703 and 704 constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 13th IFIP TC 12 International Conference on Intelligent Information Processing XII, IIP 2024, held in Shenzhen, China, during May 3-6, 2024. The 49 full papers and 5 short papers presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 58 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Volume I: Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing; Neural and Evolutionary Computing; Recommendation and Social Computing; Business Intelligence and Risk Control; and Pattern Recognition.Volume II: Image Understanding.

Written by leading experts in this field, this proceedings volume originates from a workshop held in Toulouse on March 1¿2, 2023, organized by the ESIM European project (Energy Storage Inside Molecule(s)). The book explores the intersection and convergence of various perspectives, disciplines, and research areas related to a modern version of the Maxwell demon at the nanoscale. It presents interdisciplinary perspectives on topics such as intramolecular thermodynamics and single molecule motive power and overviews the realm of single objects, be it atoms or molecules, while also emphasizing on theoretical and experimental approaches, with or without the presence of supporting surfaces. Notably, this comprehensive collection represents the first instance where such intertwined contributions on diverse versions of the Maxwell demon are discussed within the context of the nanoscale. It is of great use to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers who are interested in single molecule mechanics.

Open access. This open-access book discusses vulnerability and the protection-inclusion dilemma of including those who suffer from serious poverty, severe stigma, and structural violence in research. Co-written with representatives from indigenous peoples in South Africa and sex workers in Nairobi, the authors come down firmly on the side of inclusion. In the spirit of leaving no one behind in research, the team experimented with data collection methods that prioritize research participant needs over researcher needs. This involved foregoing the collection of personal data and community researchers being involved in all stages of the research. In the process, the term 'vulnerability' was illuminated across significant language barriers as it was defined by indigenous peoples and sex workers themselves. The book describes a potential alternative to exclusion from research that moves away from traditional research methods. By ensuring that the research is led by vulnerable groups for vulnerable groups, it offers an approach that fosters trust and collaboration with benefits for the community researchers, the wider community as well as research academics. Those living in low-income settings, in dire situations that are summarized with the term 'vulnerability' know best what their problems are and which priorities they have. To exclude them from research for their own protection is a patronizing approach which insinuates that researchers and research ethics committees know best. The team from this book have shown that minimally risky and minimally burdensome research tailored towards the needs of highly marginalized and stigmatized communities can be scientifically valuable as well as inclusive and equitable. I congratulate them. Prof. Klaus Leisinger, President Global Values Alliance, Former personal advisor to Kofi Annan on corporate responsibility

The book reviews the algebra, trigonometry, and basic calculus students need to be successful in solving problems. Next, a review of kinematics and Newton's laws are discussed, and numerous examples are solved. Mechanisms include the slider crank, offset slider crank, gears and gear trains, belts and chains, and cams. A graphical and analytical approach is taken when covering slider crank mechanisms. The book uses vectors and Kennedy's theorem to solve a variety of included examples. Gears and gear trains as well as belts and chains are discussed. Finally, cams using graphical and analytical techniques are introduced. The concluding chapter gives multiple projects used in the class to capture the lectures and computer modeling using Excel and MATLAB.

This book provides extended frameworks and models to help with the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries. The book first discusses the extent to which conventional ICT theories can be rigid in nature, often unable to handle the constant advances in technology, and technology adoption, implementation, usage, and disposal, not to mention different needs and cost availability in developing countries. The authors go on to show how new and revised models, tested in many societies in developing countries, can solve this mismatch. The authors provide examples of successful ICT adoption in developing country settings, in the areas of agriculture, culture, forestry, education, economics, health, and governance. The authors also show how techniques from persuasive design, philosophical designs, and motivational designs have been adjusted to facilitate successful ICT adoption, implementation, usage, and disposal in targeted regions.

This book provides a valuable resource on the design of neuromorphic intelligence, which serves as a computational foundation for building compact and low-power brain-inspired intelligent systems. The book introduces novel spiking neural network learning algorithms, including spike-based learning based on the multi-compartment model and spike-based learning with information theory. These offer important insights and academic value for readers to grasp the latest advances in neural-inspired learning. Additionally, the book presents insights and approaches to the design of scalable neuromorphic architectures, which are crucial foundations for achieving highly cognitive and energy-efficient computing systems. Furthermore, the book introduces representative large-scale neuromorphic systems and reviews several recently implemented large-scale digital neuromorphic systems by the authors, providing corresponding application scenarios.

The Three-volume set LNCS 14596, 14597 and 14598 constitutes the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win, iConference 2024, which was hosted virtually by University of Tsukuba, Japan and in presence by Jilin University, Changchun, China, during April 15-26, 2024. The 36 full papers and 55 short papers are presented in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 218 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Volume I: Archives and Information Sustainability; Behavioural Research; AI and Machine Learning; Information Science and Data Science; Information and Digital Literacy. Volume II: Digital Humanities; Intellectual Property Issues; Social Media and Digital Networks; Disinformation and Misinformation; Libraries, Bibliometrics and Metadata. Volume III: Knowledge Management; Information Science Education; Information Governance and Ethics; Health Informatics; Human-AI Collaboration; Information Retrieval; Community Informatics; Scholarly, Communication and Open Access.

This book organizes and explains, in a systematic and pedagogically effective manner, recent advances in path integral solution techniques with applications in stochastic engineering dynamics. It fills a gap in the literature by introducing to the engineering mechanics community, for the first time in the form of a book, the Wiener path integral as a potent uncertainty quantification tool. Since the path integral flourished within the realm of quantum mechanics and theoretical physics applications, most books on the topic have focused on the complex-valued Feynman integral with only few exceptions, which present path integrals from a stochastic processes perspective. Remarkably, there are only few papers, and no books, dedicated to path integral as a solution technique in stochastic engineering dynamics. Summarizing recently developed techniques, this volume is ideal for engineering analysts interested in further establishing path integrals as an alternative potent conceptual and computational vehicle in stochastic engineering dynamics.