- Table View
- List View
Sub-Municipal Governance in Europe
by Nikolaos-Komninos Hlepas Norbert Kersting Sabine Kuhlmann Pawel Swianiewicz Filipe TelesThis book explores sub-municipal units' (SMU) role in decision making, decentralized institutional innovation, social innovation and, in rural areas, service delivery. Focusing on fourteen European countries, the book examines the impact of political cultures, administrative traditions and local government systems on the functioning of the SMUs. An under-explored topic in the literature, this book provides a comprehensive, comparative European, thematically broad, descriptive book on sub-municipal governance.
Minimally Invasive Acute Care Surgery
by Kosar A. Khwaja Jose J. DiazThis text is designed to present a comprehensive, up to date and safe approach to managing emergency general surgery patients with a minimally invasive approach. This book bridges the gap between the minimally invasive surgery (MIS) expert who may not routinely be involved in the care of the acute care surgery patient and the ACS expert surgeon who may not have a routine MIS elective practice. The first section reviews the physiology of the acute care surgery patient and the physiologic impact of MIS techniques including pnemoperitoneum in critically ill patients. This review is crucial to assure that the surgeon has a clear understanding of when a MIS approach is safe and when it can be potentially dangerous to the patient. The illustrations are presented in an atlas-style format to describe the surgical procedures. The authors of the various sections are minimally invasive and acute care surgeons from prominent academic centers. The format represents a narrative review with appropriate illustrations and links to online videos.
International Conference on Information Technology and Communication Systems
by Gherabi Noreddine Janusz KacprzykThis book reports on advanced methods and theories in two related fields of research, Information Technology and Communication Systems. It provides professors, scientists, PhD students and engineers with a readily available guide to various approaches in Engineering Science. The book is divided into two major sections, the first of which covers Information Technology topics, including E-Learning, E-Government (egov), Data Mining, Text Mining, Ontologies, Semantic Similarity Databases, Multimedia Information Processing, and Applications. The second section addresses Communication Systems topics, including: Systems, Wireless and Network Computing, Software Security and Monitoring, Modern Antennas, and Smart Grids. The book gathers contributions presented at the International Conference on Information Technology and Communication Systems (ITCS 2017) held at the National School of Applied Sciences of Khouribga, Hassan 1st University, Morocco on March 28-29, 2017. This event was organized with the objective of bringing together researchers, developers, and practitioners from academia and industry working in all areas of Information Technology and Communication Systems. It not only highlights new methods, but also promotes collaborations between different communities working on related topics.
Advances in Nanomaterials: Fundamentals, Properties and Applications
by Ganesh BalasubramanianThis exploratory textbook starts with fundamentals that satisfy the needs of a diverse group of educators, researchers and students aspiring to engage in research and engineering of nanomaterials. It bridges the gap between undergraduate students in science and engineering who have not yet chosen a specific career path, graduate students still considering different disciplines and the cross-cutting scientific topics in nanomaterials. It extends to methods of common practice in the field, spanning experimental, and theoretical techniques. The extensive use of nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, in the future of global technological solutions underscores the relevance of this text aimed at students and researchers with a range of interests. "Advances in Nanomaterials: Fundamentals, Properties and Applications," is ideal for senior undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and general science enthusiasts interested in nanomaterials across contexts ranging from solar energy, structural engineering, to medical devices, to semiconductors.
Narrating Complexity
by Richard Walsh Susan StepneyThis book stages a dialogue between international researchers from the broad fields of complexity science and narrative studies. It presents an edited collection of chapters on aspects of how narrative theory from the humanities may be exploited to understand, explain, describe, and communicate aspects of complex systems, such as their emergent properties, feedbacks, and downwards causation; and how ideas from complexity science can inform narrative theory, and help explain, understand, and construct new, more complex models of narrative as a cognitive faculty and as a pervasive cultural form in new and old media. The book is suitable for academics, practitioners, and professionals, and postgraduates in complex systems, narrative theory, literary and film studies, new media and game studies, and science communication.
Classical Music Radio in the United Kingdom, 1945–1995
by Tony StollerThis book is the first comprehensive account of classical music on all British radio stations, BBC and commercial, between 1945 and 1995. It narrates the shifting development of those services, from before the launch of the Third Programme until after the start of Classic FM, examining the output from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives, as well as recounting some of the stories and anecdotes which enliven the tale. During these fifty years, British classical music radio featured spells of broad, multi-channel classical music radio, with aspirational and mainstream culture enjoying positive interactions, followed by periods of more restricted and exclusive output, in a paradigm of the place of high culture in UK society as a whole. The history was characterised by the recurring tensions between elite and popular provision, and the interplay of demands for highbrow and middlebrow output, and also sheds new light on the continuing relevance of class in Britain. It is an important and unique resource for those studying British history in the second half of the twentieth century, as well as being a compelling and diverting account for enthusiasts for classical music radio.
Proportional Representation
by Friedrich PukelsheimThe book offers a rigorous description of the procedures that proportional representation systems use to translate vote counts into seat numbers. Since the methodological analysis is guided by practical needs, plenty of empirical instances are provided and reviewed to motivate the development, and to illustrate the results. Concrete examples, like the 2009 elections to the European Parliament in each of the 27 Member States and the 2013 election to the German Bundestag, are analyzed in full detail. The level of mathematical exposition, as well as the relation to political sciences and constitutional jurisprudence makes this book suitable for special graduate courses and seminars.
The Big Prostate
by Veeru Kasivisvanathan Ben ChallacombeThis book will explore and explain the best diagnostic and treatment strategies for men with a big prostate. Men are living longer and the opportunity to develop significant benign prostatic hyperplasia is increasing. Men with very large prostates can often be extremely challenging to manage and all urologists and healthcare professionals carrying out general urology and managing men with prostate problems will have come across this issue. There are a number of diagnostic, interventional, and surgical management options available, with some of these being more suited to a large prostate than others. The various treatment strategies and their evidence base are discussed. Valuable tips from expert authors who are experienced in the management of the particularly large prostate are included to allow readers to be confident when managing this increasingly important and prevalent group of patients. This book is of particular use to healthcare practitioners who manage men with BPH in the outpatient or emergency setting, as well as those in the operating theatre who want further tips on how to deal with the particularly big prostate.
Network and System Security
by Zheng Yan Refik Molva Wojciech Mazurczyk Raimo KantolaThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Network and System Security, NSS 2017, held in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2017. The 24 revised full papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 83 initial submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Cloud and IoT Security; Network Security; Platform and Hardware Security; Crypto and Others; and Authentication and Key Management. This volume also contains 35 contributions of the following workshops: Security Measurements of Cyber Networks (SMCN-2017); Security in Big Data (SECBD-2017); 5G Security and Machine Learning (IW5GS-2017); of the Internet of Everything (SECIOE-2017).
Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns: 17th International Conference, CAIP 2017, Ystad, Sweden, August 22-24, 2017, Proceedings, Part II (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10425)
by Michael Felsberg Anders Heyden Norbert KrügerThe two volume set LNCS 10424 and 10425 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns, CAIP 2017, held in Ystad, Sweden, in August 2017. The 72 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 144 submissions The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Vision for Robotics; Motion and Tracking; Segmentation; Image/Video Indexing and Retrieval; Shape Representation and Analysis; Biomedical Image Analysis; Biometrics; Machine Learning; Image Restoration; and Poster Sessions.
Nordic Contributions in IS Research
by Susanne Stigberg Joackim Karlsen Harald Holone Cathrine LinnesThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 8thScandinavian Conference on Information Systems, SCIS 2017, held in Halden, Norway, in August 2017. The 11 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 24 submissions. They focus on so-called "smart" systems that prevail in many areas and influence work processes, communication, leasure activities and lifelong learning, and they deal with questions in design, implementation and adaptation in organizations.
Labour's Immigration Policy
by Erica ConsterdineThis book explains how and why the New Labour governments transformed Britain's immigration system from a highly restrictive regime to one of the most expansive in Europe, otherwise known as the Managed Migration policy. It offers the first in-depth and candid account of this period of dramatic political development from the actors who made policy during 'the making of the migrant state. ' Drawing on document analysis and over 50 elite interviews, the book sets out to explain how and why this radical policy change transpired, by examining how organized interests, political parties and institutions shaped and changed policy. This book offers valuable insights to anyone who wants to understand why immigration is dominating the political debate, and will be essential reading for those wanting to know why governments pursue expansive immigration regimes.
Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns: 17th International Conference, CAIP 2017, Ystad, Sweden, August 22-24, 2017, Proceedings, Part I (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10424)
by Michael Felsberg Anders Heyden Norbert KrügerThe two volume set LNCS 10424 and 10425 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns, CAIP 2017, held in Ystad, Sweden, in August 2017. The 72 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 144 submissions The papers are organized in the following topical sections: Vision for Robotics; Motion and Tracking; Segmentation; Image/Video Indexing and Retrieval; Shape Representation and Analysis; Biomedical Image Analysis; Biometrics; Machine Learning; Image Restoration; and Poster Sessions.
Eugenics at the Edges of Empire
by Diane B. Paul John Stenhouse Hamish G. SpencerThis volume explores the history of eugenics in four Dominions of the British Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These self-governing colonies reshaped ideas absorbed from the metropole in accord with local conditions and ideals. Compared to Britain (and the US, Germany, and Scandinavia), their orientation was generally less hereditarian and more populist and agrarian. It also reflected the view that these young and enterprising societies could potentially show Britain the way -- if they were protected from internal and external threat. This volume contributes to the increasingly comparative and international literature on the history of eugenics and to several ongoing historiographic debates, especially around issues of race. As white-settler societies, questions related to racial mixing and purity were inescapable, and a notable contribution of this volume is its attention to Indigenous populations, both as targets and on occasion agents of eugenic ideology.
Handbook of Islamic Education (International Handbooks Of Religion And Education Ser. #7)
by Holger Daun Reza ArjmandThis Handbook traces and presents the fundamentals of Islam and their history and background, and provides a global and holistic, yet, detailed picture of Islamic education around the world. It introduces the reader to the roots and foundations of Islamic education; the responses of Islamic educational institutions to different changes from precolonial times, through the colonial era up to the contemporary situation. It discusses interactions between the state, state-run education and Islamic education, and explores the Islamic educational arrangements existing around the world. The book provides in-depth descriptions and analyses, as well as country case studies representing some 25 countries.The work reflects the recent series of changes and events with respect to Islam and Muslims that have occurred during the past decades. The globalization of Islam as a religion and an ideology, the migration of Muslims into new areas of the globe, and the increasing contacts between Muslims and non-Muslims reinforce the need for mutual understanding. By presenting Islamic education around the world in a comprehensive work, this Handbook contributes to a deeper international understanding of its varieties.
New Era for Robust Speech Recognition
by Shinji Watanabe Marc Delcroix Florian Metze John R. HersheyThis book covers the state-of-the-art in deep neural-network-based methods for noise robustness in distant speech recognition applications. It provides insights and detailed descriptions of some of the new concepts and key technologies in the field, including novel architectures for speech enhancement, microphone arrays, robust features, acoustic model adaptation, training data augmentation, and training criteria. The contributed chapters also include descriptions of real-world applications, benchmark tools and datasets widely used in the field. This book is intended for researchers and practitioners working in the field of speech processing and recognition who are interested in the latest deep learning techniques for noise robustness. It will also be of interest to graduate students in electrical engineering or computer science, who will find it a useful guide to this field of research.
Electronic Government: 16th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, EGOV 2017, St. Petersburg, Russia, September 4-7, 2017, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10428)
by Marijn Janssen, Karin Axelsson, Olivier Glassey, Bram Klievink, Robert Krimmer, Ida Lindgren, Peter Parycek, Hans J. Scholl and Dmitrii TrutnevThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 16th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Government, EGOV 2017, held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in September 2017, in conjunction with the 9th International Conference on eParticipation, ePart 2017.The 34 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 74 submissions. The papers are clustered under the following topical sections: Smart Governance, Government and Cities; Service delivery; Organizational aspects; Infrastructures; Big and Open Linked Data; Open Government; and Evaluation.
Advanced Technologies in Practical Applications for National Security (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control #106)
by Aleksander Nawrat Karol Jędrasiak Damian BereskaThis book presents advanced technologies used in practice to enable early recognition and tracking of various threats to national security. It discusses practical applications, examples and recent challenges in the application fields using sophisticated sensory devices, embedded designs and airborne and ground unmanned vehicles. Undeniably rapid advances in the development of sophisticated sensory devices, significant increases of computing power available to embedded designs and the development of airborne and ground unmanned vehicles offer almost unlimited possibilities for fighting various types of pathologies affecting our societies. The book provides scientists, researchers, engineers and graduate students involved in computer vision, image processing, data fusion, control algorithms, mechanics, data mining, navigation and integrated circuit (IC) with numerous valuable, useful and practical suggestions and solutions.
Algorithms and Programs of Dynamic Mixture Estimation: Unified Approach to Different Types of Components (SpringerBriefs in Statistics)
by Ivan Nagy Evgenia SuzdalevaThis book provides a general theoretical background for constructing the recursive Bayesian estimation algorithms for mixture models. It collects the recursive algorithms for estimating dynamic mixtures of various distributions and brings them in the unified form, providing a scheme for constructing the estimation algorithm for a mixture of components modeled by distributions with reproducible statistics. It offers the recursive estimation of dynamic mixtures, which are free of iterative processes and close to analytical solutions as much as possible. In addition, these methods can be used online and simultaneously perform learning, which improves their efficiency during estimation. The book includes detailed program codes for solving the presented theoretical tasks. Codes are implemented in the open source platform for engineering computations. The program codes given serve to illustrate the theory and demonstrate the work of the included algorithms.
Two-Scale Approach to Oscillatory Singularly Perturbed Transport Equations (Lecture Notes in Mathematics #2190)
by Emmanuel FrénodThis book presents the classical results of the two-scale convergence theory and explains – using several figures – why it works. It then shows how to use this theory to homogenize ordinary differential equations with oscillating coefficients as well as oscillatory singularly perturbed ordinary differential equations. In addition, it explores the homogenization of hyperbolic partial differential equations with oscillating coefficients and linear oscillatory singularly perturbed hyperbolic partial differential equations. Further, it introduces readers to the two-scale numerical methods that can be built from the previous approaches to solve oscillatory singularly perturbed transport equations (ODE and hyperbolic PDE) and demonstrates how they can be used efficiently. This book appeals to master’s and PhD students interested in homogenization and numerics, as well as to the Iter community.
Boron Isotopes: The Fifth Element (Advances in Isotope Geochemistry)
by Horst Marschall Gavin FosterThis new volume on boron isotope geochemistry offers review chapters summarizing the cosmochemistry, high-temperature and low-temperature geochemistry, and marine chemistry of boron. It also covers theoretical aspects of B isotope fractionation, experiments and atomic modeling, as well as all aspects of boron isotope analyses in geologic materials using the full range of solutions and in-situ methods. The book provides guidance for researchers on the analytical and theoretical aspects, as well as introducing the various scientific applications and research fields in which boron isotopes currently play a major role. The last compendium to summarize the geochemistry of boron and address its isotope geochemistry was published over 20 years ago (Grew &Anovitz, 1996, MSA Review, Vol. 33), and there have since been significant advances in analytical techniques, applications and scientific insights into the isotope geochemistry of boron. This volume in the "Advances in Isotope Geochemistry" series provides a valuable source for students and professionals alike, both as an introduction to a new field and as a reference in ongoing research. Chapters 5 and 8 of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4. 0 license at link. springer. com
Finance in Central and Southeastern Europe
by Srećko Goić Anastasios Karasavvoglou Persefoni PolychronidouThis book describes specific problems and proposes solutions for different areas of finance in Central and Southeastern European countries. Covering a broad spectrum of topics, from monetary economics and electronic money to capital markets, banking and insurance, it comprises theoretical and empirical contributions by authors from nine countries - Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia and Greece. Intended for academics as well as policy makers and practitioners it offers new perspectives on Central and Southeastern European finance research.
Elections, Voting Rules and Paradoxical Outcomes
by William V. Gehrlein Dominique LepelleyThis monograph studies voting procedures based on the probability that paradoxical outcomes like the famous Condorcet Paradox might exist. It is well known that hypothetical examples of many different paradoxical election outcomes can be developed, but this analysis examines factors that are related to the process by which voters form their preferences on candidates that will significantly reduce the likelihood that such voting paradoxes will ever actually be observed. It is found that extreme forms of voting paradoxes should be uncommon events with a small number of candidates. Another consideration is the propensity of common voting rules to elect the Condorcet Winner, which is widely accepted as the best choice as the winner, when it exists. All common voting rules are found to have identifiable scenarios for which they perform well on the basis of this criterion. But, Borda Rule is found to consistently work well at electing the Condorcet Winner, while the other voting rules have scenarios where they work poorly or have a very small likelihood of electing a different candidate than Borda Rule. The conclusions of previous theoretical work are presented in an expository format and they are validated with empirically-based evidence. Practical implications of earlier studies are also developed.
The Future of Higher Education in the Middle East and Africa: Qs Middle East And North Africa Professional Leaders In Education Conference
by Mandy Mok Kevin J. Downing Habib M. FardounThis book addresses some of the challenges posed by the globalization of higher education. It examines the emergence and resulting challenges of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) and of the decision to use English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) as part of a strategic policy of internationalization. It looks at survival challenges caused by globalization and expansion, the diversity challenge, the concept of marginality and how marginality can lead to creativity, teaching and encouraging entrepreneurialism, the tools needed for internationalizing higher education in developing countries, innovative approaches, the intelligent use of technology, and finally, the value of non-constraint engagement in driving teaching and course quality improvements. The expansion of higher education and the increasingly international body of students and staff continue to inspire and drive the development of global higher education systems. Whilst these systems began locally, many are now engaging with the challenges of retaining their local flavour whilst embracing the march of globalisation. The challenge is to find local solutions that also meet the requirements of the rapid development of what might be termed the ‘massification’ of international higher education. This book reflects these contemporary challenges through its variety of topics taken from countries as diverse as Hong Kong, Panama, South Africa, USA and Saudi Arabia. The topics are as diverse as some of the local solutions but each chapter represents a response to a rapidly changing global landscape.
Guide to Security in SDN and NFV
by Shao Ying Zhu Sandra Scott-Hayward Ludovic Jacquin Richard HillThis book highlights the importance of security in the design, development and deployment of systems based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), together referred to as SDNFV. Presenting a comprehensive guide to the application of security mechanisms in the context of SDNFV, the content spans fundamental theory, practical solutions, and potential applications in future networks. Topics and features: introduces the key security challenges of SDN, NFV and Cloud Computing, providing a detailed tutorial on NFV security; discusses the issue of trust in SDN/NFV environments, covering roots of trust services, and proposing a technique to evaluate trust by exploiting remote attestation; reviews a range of specific SDNFV security solutions, including a DDoS detection and remediation framework, and a security policy transition framework for SDN; describes the implementation of a virtual home gateway, and a project that combines dynamic security monitoring with big-data analytics to detect network-wide threats; examines the security implications of SDNFV in evolving and future networks, from network-based threats to Industry 4. 0 machines, to the security requirements for 5G; investigates security in the Observe, Orient, Decide and Act (OODA) paradigm, and proposes a monitoring solution for a Named Data Networking (NDN) architecture; includes review questions in each chapter, to test the reader's understanding of each of the key concepts described. This informative and practical volume is an essential resource for researchers interested in the potential of SDNFV systems to address a broad range of network security challenges. The work will also be of great benefit to practitioners wishing to design secure next-generation communication networks, or to develop new security-related mechanisms for SDNFV systems.