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A Brief Introduction to Berezin–Toeplitz Operators on Compact Kähler Manifolds (CRM Short Courses)
by Yohann Le FlochThis text provides a comprehensive introduction to Berezin–Toeplitz operators on compact Kähler manifolds. The heart of the book is devoted to a proof of the main properties of these operators which have been playing a significant role in various areas of mathematics such as complex geometry, topological quantum field theory, integrable systems, and the study of links between symplectic topology and quantum mechanics. The book is carefully designed to supply graduate students with a unique accessibility to the subject. The first part contains a review of relevant material from complex geometry. Examples are presented with explicit detail and computation; prerequisites have been kept to a minimum. Readers are encouraged to enhance their understanding of the material by working through the many straightforward exercises.
Bisexuality and the Western Christian Church: The Damage of Silence (Palgrave Studies in Lived Religion and Societal Challenges)
by Carol A. ShepherdThis book critically examines the lived experiences of bisexual Christians across a range of Christian traditions in the UK and the USA. Shepherd assesses whether current data on elevated rates of depressive illnesses among bisexual people also apply to the bisexual Christian community. Drawing on data collected by the author on bisexual Christians across the lifespan, the book uncovers shocking incidences of biphobia and bi erasure in the Church. Widespread ignorance among pastors of middle sexualities outside of the hetero-/homonormative binary is revealed as well as a corresponding absence of appropriate support resources. Bisexuality and the Western Christian Church will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including gender studies, applied theology, sociology and social psychology. It is also important reading for clergy, and LGBT faith organisations. With a Foreword by Eric Anderson, Professor of Sport, Masculinities, and Sexualities, University of Winchester, UK.
Numerical Methods for PDEs: State of the Art Techniques (SEMA SIMAI Springer Series #15)
by Daniele Antonio Di Pietro Alexandre Ern Luca FormaggiaThis volume gathers contributions from participants of the Introductory School and the IHP thematic quarter on Numerical Methods for PDE, held in 2016 in Cargese (Corsica) and Paris, providing an opportunity to disseminate the latest results and envisage fresh challenges in traditional and new application fields. Numerical analysis applied to the approximate solution of PDEs is a key discipline in applied mathematics, and over the last few years, several new paradigms have appeared, leading to entire new families of discretization methods and solution algorithms. This book is intended for researchers in the field.
Epistemic Relativism and Scepticism: Unwinding the Braid
by Steven BlandThis book confronts the threats of epistemic relativism and Pyrrhonian scepticism to analytic philosophy. Epistemic relativists reject absolute notions of knowledge and justification, while sceptics claim that knowledge and justification of any kind are unattainable. If either of these views is correct, then there can be no objective basis for thinking that one set of methods does a better job of delivering accurate information than any other set of methods. Philosophers have generally sought to resist these threats by responding to the argument that seems to motivate both positions: the Agrippan trilemma. Steven Bland argues that this is a mistaken strategy. He surveys the most influential responses to the Agrippan trilemma, and shows that none of them succeeds in undermining epistemic relativism. Bland also offers a new, dialectical strategy of challenging epistemic relativism by uncovering how epistemic methods depend on one another for their applications. By means of this novel analysis, the book concludes that there are principled reasons to prefer naturalistic to non-naturalistic methods, even if these reasons do little to ease the threat of scepticism.
Climate and Energy Governance for the UK Low Carbon Transition: The Climate Change Act 2008
by Thomas L MuinzerThe UK Climate Change Act was the first case of a country implementing blanket legally binding long-term emissions reduction targets in order to combat climate change. This book provides the first accessible and in-depth analysis of the UK’s complex Climate Change Act framework, presenting the discussion in a clear and interdisciplinary manner designed to open the workings of the challenging framework to a broad audience. It discusses the political ‘story’ surrounding the framework, and its treatment in scholarly environmental literature; analyses the technical content of the Act; explores the framework’s international significance, and its internal ‘subnational’ dimensions and impact, engaging the UK’s devolved jurisdictions of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. This first, much-needed interdisciplinary treatment of the framework is both introductory and analytical in nature and will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and general readers of environmental studies, policy and governance.
Combinatorial Algorithms: 22th International Workshop, Iwoca 2011, Victoria, Canada, July 20-22, 2011, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #7056)
by Wing-Kin Sung Hon Wai Leong Costas IliopoulosThis book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the 29th International Workshop on Combinatorial Algorithms, IWOCA 2018, held in Singapore, Singapore, in July 2018. The 31 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 69 submissions. They cover diverse areas of combinatorical algorithms, complexity theory, graph theory and combinatorics, combinatorial optimization, cryptography and information security, algorithms on strings and graphs, graph drawing and labelling, computational algebra and geometry, computational biology, probabilistic and randomised algorithms, algorithms for big data analytics, and new paradigms of computation.
Yellow Tourism: Crime And Corruption In The Holiday Sector (Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management)
by Alexis Papathanassis Stavros Katsios Nicoleta Ramona DinuThis book presents the latest research and novel case studies on crime and corruption in the tourism and hospitality industry. It approaches tourism as both a globalised business impacting the livelihood of millions of people, and a highly challenging field of action for national legislators and law enforcement agencies. The global nature and ubiquity of tourism, as well as the core elements of the holiday experience - such as interactions with unknown environments and places, a care-free mind-set, novelty-seeking behaviour and anonymity - render it highly susceptible to victimisation, crime and corruption. Accordingly, the book addresses a comprehensive set of emerging issues, including: conflict and fraud during holidays; criminal and negligence offences at tourists’ expense; exploitation and mistreatment of service workers; deterioration of heritage, cultural and natural resources; and securitisation of tourism.
Social Internet of Things (Internet of Things)
by Alessandro Soro Margot Brereton Paul RoeThe aim of this book is to stimulate research on the topic of the Social Internet of Things, and explore how Internet of Things architectures, tools, and services can be conceptualized and developed so as to reveal, amplify and inspire the capacities of people, including the socialization or collaborations that happen through or around smart objects and smart environments. From new ways of negotiating privacy, to the consequences of increased automation, the Internet of Things poses new challenges and opens up new questions that often go beyond the technology itself, and rather focus on how the technology will become embedded in our future communities, families, practices, and environment, and how these will change in turn.
Bionomics in the Dragon Kingdom: Ecology, Economics and Ethics in Bhutan (Fascinating Life Sciences)
by Ugyen Tshewang Jane Gray Morrison Michael Charles TobiasThis compact and elegant work (equally fitting for both academic as well as the trade audiences) provides a readily accessible and highly readable overview of Bhutan’s unique opportunities and challenges; all her prominent environmental legislation, regulatory statutes, ecological customs and practices, both in historic and contemporary terms. At the same time, Bionomics places the ecological context, including a section on animal rights in Bhutan, within the nation’s Buddhist spiritual and ethical setting. Historic contextualization accents the book’s rich accounting of every national park and scientific reserve, as well as providing up-to-the-minute climate-change related hurdles for the country.Merging the interdisciplinary sciences, engineering and humanities data in a compelling up-to-date portrait of the country, the authors have presented this dramatic compendium against the backdrop of an urgent, global ecological time-frame. It thus becomes clear that the articulated stakes for Bhutan, like her neighboring Himalayan and Indian sub-continental countries (China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar) are immense, as the Anthropocene epoch unfolds, affecting every living being across the planet. Because Bhutan’s two most rewarding revenue streams derive from the sale of hydro-electric power and from tourism, the complexities of modern pressures facing a nation that prides herself on maintaining traditional customs in what has been a uniquely isolated nation are acute.
Empowering Engagement: Creating Learning Opportunities for Students from Challenging Backgrounds
by Clarence Ng Brendan Bartlett Stephen N. ElliottThis book examines promoting engagement for children and adolescents from challenging contexts or who are dealing with challenging conditions. The volume concentrates on three vulnerable groups: marginalized youths who have experienced repeated exclusion and sought their second chance in alternative education; children who are coming from economically, culturally, and linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds; and students with social or emotional issues. It defines engagement as evolving over the course of learning, an interpersonal as well as personal process involving students, learning environment, teachers, and peers. Chapters identify the complex personal, sociocultural, economic, and systemic barriers that keep these vulnerable students from fully engaging in school, and explore the enabling role of collaborative and supported learning activities in building academic success and a foundation for productive adult lives. In addition, chapters present instructional practices based on engagement enablers. Chapters also pinpoint specific learning skills and subject areas that can provide openings for promoting motivation and participation. Featured topics include: The importance of cognitive and social enablers for promoting learning engagement.Engagement in instruction from teachers and testing within classrooms.Student voice and perspective as a reading engagement enabler.Promoting academic engagement and aspiration for challenging and advanced mathematics.Alternative educational programs for re-engaging marginalized youths who “don’t fit”.Empowering Engagement is a must-have resource for researchers, scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and graduate students in the fields of child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, social work, motivation and learning, schooling and pedagogies, and related disciplines.
Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, 15th International Conference (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #800)
by Fernando De La Prieta Sigeru Omatu Antonio Fernández-CaballeroThe 15th International Symposium on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence 2018 (DCAI 2018) is a forum to present applications of innovative techniques for studying and solving complex problems. The exchange of ideas between scientists and technicians from both the academic and industrial sector is essential to facilitate the development of systems that can meet the ever-increasing demands of today’s society. The present edition brings together past experience, current work and promising future trends associated with distributed computing, artificial intelligence and their application in order to provide efficient solutions to real problems.This symposium is organized by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, the Osaka Institute of Technology and the University of Salamanca. The present edition was held in Toledo, Spain, from 20th – 22nd June, 2018.
Stalinism and the Soviet-Finnish War, 1939–40: Crisis Management, Censorship and Control (St Antony's Series)
by Malcolm L. SpencerThis book offers an illuminating bridge between the political and social dimensions of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40. The conflict represented a significant crisis for the Soviet Union, inspiring international condemnation and a significant loss of face for its supporters, both at home and abroad. The focus of this study is not upon the military dynamics of the war, but upon its ability to influence events, interpretations and interactions between agents and institutions within the Soviet Union and the wider international communist movement. Through original archival research, this book considers the ways in which the Soviet leadership reacted to the crisis, the tools at its disposal, and the effectiveness with which it managed to manipulate and control the spread of information through official and unofficial channels. It contributes to a more complete and complex picture of the inter-related nature of Soviet politics, propaganda and mass media in this period.
Feuds and State Formation, 1550–1700: The Backcountry of the Republic of Genoa (Early Modern History: Society and Culture)
by Osvaldo RaggioThis book re-evaluates the role of local agency and provides a new perspective to the political, social and cultural history of state formation, taking a microhistorical approach and through close analysis of archival sources between 1550 to 1700. The backcountry of the Republic of Genoa is a laboratory for gauging the weight and significance of two elements which, according to Charles Tilly and other scholars, have characterized the construction of the modern state: judicial administration and fiscal extraction. The instruments employed in this respect were arbitration and compensation. Interactions between center and periphery occurred within a stratified and discontinuous fabric of fluid jurisdictions and segmented residential topographies, which constituted spaces of mediation. Such spaces were generated by conflicts between kin groups (feuds and factional alignments) and managed both by Genoese officials and by local notables and notaries, who translated a whole set of local practices into judicial procedures. This book offers a rich contextualization of material life, family relationships, economic activities, and power struggles in a corner of the Mediterranean world that was extremely important, but about which very little has been published in English.
Computers Supported Education: 9th International Conference, CSEDU 2017, Porto, Portugal, April 21-23, 2017, Revised Selected Papers (Communications in Computer and Information Science #865)
by Paula Escudeiro Gennaro Costagliola Susan Zvacek James Uhomoibhi Bruce M. McLarenThis book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2017, held in Porto, Portugal, in April 2017. The 22 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 179 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: new educational environments, best practices and case studies of innovative technology-based learning strategies, institutional policies on computer-supported education including open and distance education.
Imaginary Mathematics for Computer Science
by John VinceThe imaginary unit i = √-1 has been used by mathematicians for nearly five-hundred years, during which time its physical meaning has been a constant challenge. Unfortunately, René Descartes referred to it as “imaginary”, and the use of the term “complex number” compounded the unnecessary mystery associated with this amazing object. Today, i = √-1 has found its way into virtually every branch of mathematics, and is widely employed in physics and science, from solving problems in electrical engineering to quantum field theory.John Vince describes the evolution of the imaginary unit from the roots of quadratic and cubic equations, Hamilton’s quaternions, Cayley’s octonions, to Grassmann’s geometric algebra. In spite of the aura of mystery that surrounds the subject, John Vince makes the subject accessible and very readable. The first two chapters cover the imaginary unit and its integration with real numbers. Chapter 3 describes how complex numbers work with matrices, and shows how to compute complex eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Chapters 4 and 5 cover Hamilton’s invention of quaternions, and Cayley’s development of octonions, respectively. Chapter 6 provides a brief introduction to geometric algebra, which possesses many of the imaginary qualities of quaternions, but works in space of any dimension. The second half of the book is devoted to applications of complex numbers, quaternions and geometric algebra. John Vince explains how complex numbers simplify trigonometric identities, wave combinations and phase differences in circuit analysis, and how geometric algebra resolves geometric problems, and quaternions rotate 3D vectors. There are two short chapters on the Riemann hypothesis and the Mandelbrot set, both of which use complex numbers. The last chapter references the role of complex numbers in quantum mechanics, and ends with Schrödinger’s famous wave equation. Filled with lots of clear examples and useful illustrations, this compact book provides an excellent introduction to imaginary mathematics for computer science.
Comparing and Aligning Process Representations: Foundations and Technical Solutions (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing #323)
by Han van der AaThis doctoral thesis focuses on the spread of process information in organizations and, in particular, on the mitigation of the problems caused by the spread of information on a single process over numerous models, documents, and systems.Processes within organizations can be highly complex chains of inter-related steps, involving numerous stakeholders and information systems. Due to this complexity, having access to the right information is vital to the proper execution and effective management of an organization’s business processes. The main contributions of this thesis are five techniques that focus on the alignment and comparison of process information from different informational artifacts. Each of these techniques tackles a specific scenario involving multiple informational artifacts that contain process information in different representation formats.
Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems: 20th IFIP WG 1.02 International Conference, DCFS 2018, Halifax, NS, Canada, July 25–27, 2018, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10952)
by Stavros Konstantinidis Giovanni PighizziniThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Descriptional Complexity of Formal Systems, DCFS 2018, held in Halifax, NS, Canada, in July 2018. The 19 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 24 submissions.DCFS is an annual international working conference concerning the descriptional complexity of formal systems and structures and its applications. Topics of interest are related to all aspects of descriptional complexity and much more.
Dams in Brazil: Social and Demographical Impacts (SpringerBriefs in Latin American Studies)
by Guillaume LeturcqThe book focuses on the human and social effects of the construction of hydroelectric dams in Brazil. It discusses themes such as forced migrations, how the families of the victims of the dams adapt to new living areas, the struggle of families with the relocation of their homes and the fact that they are neglected by builders and government. These discussions are carried out in a comparative perspective between Southern and Northern Brazil, where contexts and living conditions are quite different. The book's main objective is to analyze the movements, adaptations and life changes in families suffering from the effects of dams throughout Brazil. This is the first book that analyzes the relationship dam-space with the intent to understand how dams affect the territory. The book is organized in three chapters: the dams’ effects in Brazil and the territorial impacts; human and social consequences of dam construction; a regional comparison of the effects of dams between the South and the North of the country.
Polymers for Food Applications
by Tomy J. GutiérrezThis book presents an exhaustive review on the use of polymers for food applications. Polymer-based systems for food applications such as: films, foams, nano- and micro-encapsulated, emulsions, hydrogels, prebiotics, 3D food printing, edible polymers for the development of foods for people with special feeding regimes, sensors, among others, have been analyzed in this work.
Advances in Design for Inclusion: Proceedings of the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Design for Inclusion, July 21-25, 2018, Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida, USA (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #776)
by Giuseppe Di BucchianicoThis book addresses a range of topics in design, such as universal design, design for all, digital inclusion, universal usability, and accessibility of technologies for people regardless of their age, financial situation, education, geographic location, culture and language. It especially focuses on accessibility for people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, and visual impairments, ageing populations, and mobility for those with special physical needs. The book explores some of the overlaps between inclusive design and web accessibility to help managers, designers, developers, policy makers, and researchers optimize their efforts in these areas. Based on the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Design for Inclusion, held on July 21–25, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, USA, it discusses new design technologies and highlights the disparate needs of the individuals within a community. Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, it is a valuable resource for readers from various backgrounds, providing them a timely, practice-oriented guide to design for inclusion.
Advances in Human Factors in Wearable Technologies and Game Design: Proceedings of the AHFE 2018 International Conferences on Human Factors and Wearable Technologies, and Human Factors in Game Design and Virtual Environments, Held on July 21–25, 2018, in Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Studios, Orlando, Florida, USA (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #795)
by Tareq Z. AhramThis book focuses on the human aspects of wearable technologies and game design, which are often neglected. It shows how user centered practices can optimize wearable experience, thus improving user acceptance, satisfaction and engagement towards novel wearable gadgets. It describes both research and best practices in the applications of human factors and ergonomics to sensors, wearable technologies and game design innovations, as well as results obtained upon integration of the wearability principles identified by various researchers for aesthetics, affordance, comfort, contextual-awareness, customization, ease of use, ergonomy, intuitiveness, obtrusiveness, information overload, privacy, reliability, responsiveness, satisfaction, subtlety, user friendliness and wearability. The book is based on the AHFE 2018 Conference on Human Factors and Wearable Technologies and the AHFE 2018 Conference on Human Factors in Game Design and Virtual Environments , held on July 21–25, 2018 in Orlando, Florida, and addresses professionals, researchers, and students dealing with the human aspects of wearable, smart and/or interactive technologies and game design research.
Advances in Acoustics and Vibration II: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration (ICAV2018), March 19-21, 2018, Hammamet, Tunisia (Applied Condition Monitoring #13)
by Tahar Fakhfakh Chafik Karra Slim Bouaziz Fakher Chaari Mohamed HaddarThe book provides readers with a snapshot of recent research and industrial trends in field of industrial acoustics and vibration. Each chapter, accepted after a rigorous peer-review process, reports on a selected, original piece of work presented and discussed at the Second International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration (ICAV2018), which was organized by the Tunisian Association of Industrial Acoustics and Vibration (ATAVI) and held March 19-21, in Hammamet, Tunisia. The contributions cover advances in both theory and practice in a variety of subfields, such as: smart materials and structures; fluid-structure interaction; structural acoustics as well as computational vibro-acoustics and numerical methods. Further topics include: engines control, noise identification, robust design, flow-induced vibration and many others. This book provides a valuable resource for both academics and professionals dealing with diverse issues in applied mechanics. By combining advanced theories with industrial issues, it is expected to facilitate communication and collaboration between different groups of researchers and technology users.
Business Governance and Society: Analyzing Shifts, Conflicts, And Challenges
by Rajagopal Ramesh BehlThis volume critically analyzes the convergence of technology, business practices, public policies, political ideologies, and societal values for improving business performance at the global-local paradigm. It also enriches knowledge on contemporary business strategies against conventional wisdom of managing companies today. Shifts in the global economic and political order have significantly affected the business patterns within developed, developing, and emerging markets. The reversal of political ideologies from liberal to protectionist business frameworks are disrupting the trade flows that were rooted in the international economy since the mid-twentieth century.The essays contemplate developing new visions and business perspectives to match with the changing political ideologies in emerging markets. This volume will serve as a valuable tool to readers looking for global market management strategies to generate cost-effective business models and create convergence with political and social values to drive better governance of businesses.
Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine: Principles and Procedures (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy)
by Veli-Pekka Parkkinen Christian Wallmann Michael Wilde Brendan Clarke Phyllis Illari Michael P Kelly Charles Norell Federica Russo Beth Shaw Jon WilliamsonThis book is open access under a CC BY license. This book is the first to develop explicit methods for evaluating evidence of mechanisms in the field of medicine. It explains why it can be important to make this evidence explicit, and describes how to take such evidence into account in the evidence appraisal process. In addition, it develops procedures for seeking evidence of mechanisms, for evaluating evidence of mechanisms, and for combining this evaluation with evidence of association in order to yield an overall assessment of effectiveness. Evidence-based medicine seeks to achieve improved health outcomes by making evidence explicit and by developing explicit methods for evaluating it. To date, evidence-based medicine has largely focused on evidence of association produced by clinical studies. As such, it has tended to overlook evidence of pathophysiological mechanisms and evidence of the mechanisms of action of interventions. The book offers a useful guide for all those whose work involves evaluating evidence in the health sciences, including those who need to determine the effectiveness of health interventions and those who need to ascertain the effects of environmental exposures.
Exploring the Universe: A Collection Of Research Reviews On Contemporary Astrophysics And Space Science (Astrophysics And Space Science Proceedings Ser. #53)
by Sudipta Sasmal Banibrata MukhopadhyayThis Festschrift dedicated to the 60th birth anniversary of Prof. Sandip K. Chakrabarti, a well-known Indian astrophysicist, presents a collection of contributions by about fifty scientists who work on diverse topics in contemporary astrophysics and space science including new and low-cost balloon borne experiments, planetary science, astrochemistry and the origin of life, ionospheric research and earthquake predictions, relativistic astrophysics around black holes, and finally, the observational signatures and radiative properties of compact objects. All the authors are well known scholars in their respective subject and are all PhD students of Prof. Sandip K. Chakrabarti. The book demonstrates a two-dimensional evolution of research areas triggered by Sandip Chakrabarti over the past few decades. The first dimension represents the evolution and diversification of Chakrabarti’s own research in which new students were trained. A second dimension arises from the evolution of the research topics pursued by Chakrabarti’s fifty odd doctoral students, many of whom have become renowned scientists in their own right, after starting with a certain subject under Chakrabarti and then migrating to completely new subjects with dexterity.The editors have compiled and edited the articles appropriately to some extent to suit the spirit of this Festschrift on the one hand and to keep balance in diverse topics on the other. Thus this volume also provides an overview for whosoever wishes to enter the important subjects of compact objects, astrochemistry, ionospheric science or space exploration in near space. New graduates, PhD scholars, teachers and researchers will benefit from this volume. Moreover it is a record of tremendous success of a school in a range of vast topics.