Böcker utgivna av Springer International Publishing

This book offers an overview of the most important research and developments in silvopastoral systems of the northern part of South America and Central America, including the most common silvopastoral arrangements in each country and their characteristics in terms of productivity, and environmental and socioeconomic aspects. Featuring a compilation of original research articles, country overviews and reviews of the contribution of silvopastoral systems to different topics, it summarizes the state-of-the-art knowledge regarding various aspects of silvopastoral systems in this region.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of computational engineering, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 29th International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES), held in Shenzhen, China on May 26-29, 2023. ICCES covers all aspects of applied sciences and engineering: theoretical, analytical, computational, and experimental studies and solutions of problems in the physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical, and mathematical sciences. As such, the book discusses highly diverse topics, including composites; bioengineering & biomechanics; geotechnical engineering; offshore & arctic engineering; multi-scale & multi-physics fluid engineering; structural integrity & longevity; materials design & simulation; and computer modeling methods in engineering. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerousexciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

Rap Music and the Youth in Malawi is one of the first book-length studies of Malawian hip hop. It studies the language and content of contemporary Malawian hip hop as a window onto the country's youth culture as Malawian young people negotiate what scholar Alcinda Honwana calls 'waithood,' or the condition, common among Malawian youth, of lacking opportunities to advance from a situation of dependence and being stuck in a state of relative childhood. The book argues that rap music made by Malawian youth music speaks of - and represents, through its very agency - their need to break out of this stagnant state. After situating Malawian hip hop with respect to both other musical genres in the country and to the nation's language in culture, Rap Music and the Youth in Malawi shows how Malawian youth use rap music to create a sense of community, which then becomes a foothold from which they can do activities that get them out of waithood and into the adult world, such as getting involved in the music industry, realizing electoral power, or participating in activism about issues such as violence against people with albinism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Hip hop has been a crucial tool for Malawian youth to build the skills, identity, and agency necessary to exercise their economic, cultural, and civic independence.

This monograph adopts an operational and functional analytic approach to the following problem: given a short exact sequence (group extension) 1 N G H 1 of finite groups, describe the irreducible representations of G by means of the structure of the group extension. This problem has attracted many mathematicians, including I. Schur, A.H. Clifford, and G. Mackey and, more recently, M. Isaacs, B. Huppert, Y.G. Berkovich & E.M. Zhmud, and J.M.G. Fell & R.S. Doran.The main topics are, on the one hand, Clifford Theory and the Little Group Method (of Mackey and Wigner) for induced representations, and, on the other hand, Kirillov's Orbit Method (for step-2 nilpotent groups of odd order) which establishes a natural and powerful correspondence between Lie rings and nilpotent groups. As an application, a detailed description is given of the representation theory of the alternating groups, of metacyclic, quaternionic, dihedral groups, and of the (finite) Heisenberg group. The Little Group Method may be applied if and only if a suitable unitary 2-cocycle (the Mackey obstruction) is trivial. To overcome this obstacle, (unitary) projective representations are introduced and corresponding Mackey and Clifford theories are developed. The commutant of an induced representation and the relative Hecke algebra is also examined. Finally, there is a comprehensive exposition of the theory of projective representations for finite Abelian groups which is applied to obtain a complete description of the irreducible representations of finite metabelian groups of odd order.

Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS), an obstetric emergency associated with significant maternal morbidity and mortality, has increasingly become a global challenge with the rising trend of cesarean deliveries. This book provides a comprehensive review of basic science-related to PAS, discusses modern practice in diagnosis and classification of PAS disorders, and appraise current recommendations on PAS management in view of recent studies, guidelines, and expert opinions.In the last few years, there have been many new updates to practice guidelines including ACOG, RCOG, and FIGO guidelines in addition to several new studies, some of which were unusually multicenter and of large sample size, that are eligible to make major changes in our PAS practice. In addition, the book aims at providing more comprehensive review of all aspects related to PAS from experts, including topics that are deficient in similar books e.g., vascular anatomy, risk reduction, adjuvant treatments.The book provides a single source that provides academic knowledge for researchers and investigators, and clinical guidance to best practice and recent updates in management of women with PAS.

This monograph explores the analysis and design of model-free optimal control systems based on reinforcement learning (RL) theory, presenting new methods that overcome recent challenges faced by RL.  New developments in the design of sensor data efficient RL algorithms are demonstrated that not only reduce the requirement of sensors by means of output feedback, but also ensure optimality and stability guarantees.  A variety of practical challenges are considered, including disturbance rejection, control constraints, and communication delays.  Ideas from game theory are incorporated to solve output feedback disturbance rejection problems, and the concepts of low gain feedback control are employed to develop RL controllers that achieve global stability under control constraints.Output Feedback Reinforcement Learning Control for Linear Systems will be a valuable reference for graduate students, control theorists working on optimal control systems, engineers, and applied mathematicians.

The Second Edition of the handbook incorporates notable research advances throughout its comprehensive, up-to-date examination of this diverse and maturing field. Integrative state-of-the-art models document the complex interplay of risk and protective factors and other variables contributing to normal and pathological development. New and updated chapters describe current refinements in assessment methods and offer the latest research findings from neuroscience. In addition, the Second Edition provides readers with a detailed review across the spectrum of salient topics, from the effects of early deprivation to the impact of puberty.As the field continues to shift from traditional symptom-based concepts of pathology to a contemporary, dynamic paradigm, the Second Edition addresses such key topics pertinent to childhood anxiety as:nbsp;        Early childhood disorders, including failure to thrive and attachment disorders.nbsp;        Aggression, ADHD, and other disruptive conditions. nbsp;        Developmental models of depression, anxiety, self-injury/suicide, and OCD. nbsp;        The autism spectrum and other chronic developmental disorders. nbsp;        Child maltreatment and trauma disorders. The Handbook of Child and Adolescent Anxiety Disorders, Second Edition of the handbook is a discipline-defining, forward-looking, essential resource for researchers, clinicians, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in such fields as developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, child and school psychology, educational psychology, and pediatrics.

This book, which is the first of two volumes, presents, in a unique way, some of the most relevant research tools of modern analysis. This work empowers young researchers with all the necessary techniques to explore the various subfields of this broad subject, and introduces relevant frameworks where these tools can be immediately deployed.Volume I starts with the foundations of modern analysis. The first three chapters are devoted to topology, measure theory, and functional analysis. Chapter 4 offers a comprehensive analysis of the main function spaces, while Chapter 5 covers more concrete subjects, like multivariate analysis, which are closely related to applications and more difficult to find in compact form. Chapter 6 deals with smooth and non-smooth calculus of functions; Chapter 7 introduces certain important classes of nonlinear operators; and Chapter 8 complements the previous three chapters with topics of variational analysis. Each chapter of this volume finishes with a list of problems - handy for understanding and self-study - and historical notes that give the reader a more vivid picture of how the theory developed. Volume II consists of various applications using the tools and techniques developed in this volume.By offering a clear and wide picture of the tools and applications of modern analysis, this work can be of great benefit not only to mature graduate students seeking topics for research, but also to experienced researchers with an interest in this vast and rich field of mathematics.

Behavioral neuroendocrinologists are interested in the interactions between hormones and behaviors. This unique book tracks the development of behavioral neuroendocrinology from the first recognized paper in the field by Arnold Berthold in 1849 to the major contributors of the past century. It traces the history and development of the field by exploring the women and men who conducted the studies that revealed these hormone-behavioral relationships. Most chapters are written by the individuals who knew these pioneers best, and describe their stories and discuss the ways in which their work has shaped the field. Now is the perfect time for this book. The field is burgeoning and interest in the development of theoretical perspectives is thriving. Moreover, although this field was dominated by men early on, it has become a field with near sexual parity among its faculty, society membership, and leadership, and thus serves as an example of equitable science, training, and advocacy.  

Networks are pervasive. Very large scale integrated (VLSI) systems are no different, consisting of dozens of interconnected subsystems, hundreds of modules, and many billions of transistors and wires. Graph theory is crucial for managing and analyzing these systems. In this book, VLSI system design is discussed from the perspective of graph theory. Starting from theoretical foundations, the authors uncover the link connecting pure mathematics with practical product development. This book not only provides a review of established graph theoretic practices, but also discusses the latest advancements in graph theory driving modern VLSI technologies, covering a wide range of design issues such as synchronization, power network models and analysis, and interconnect routing and synthesis.Provides a practical introduction to graph theory in the context of VLSI systems engineering;Reviews comprehensively graph theoretic methods and algorithms commonly used during VLSI product development process;Includes a review of novel graph theoretic methods and algorithms for VLSI system design.

This book provides systematic comparative research of antifraud laws and context at EU countries using a Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to predict illegal activities in ERDF and CF. It also details a map of corruption risk with the goal of  reducing corruption and fraud in the management of European Regional Development Funds and Cohesion Funds through the incorporation of adequate measures and strategies derived from the resulting of EUMODFRAUD EU Project. The authors analyse the specific situations, observe the risks and finally, propose an innovative method that allows predicting fraudulent acts, which will be of interest to both academics, researchers, and policy makers in financial services, public finance, and financial crime.  

This book critically assesses arguments for the existence of the God of classical theism, develops an innovative account of objects' persistence, and defends new arguments against classical theism. The authors engage the following classical theistic proofs: Aquinas's First Way, Aquinas's De Ente argument, and Feser's Aristotelian, Neo-Platonic, Augustinian, Thomistic, and Rationalist proofs.  The authors also provide the first systematic treatment of the 'existential inertia thesis'.  By connecting the thesis to relativity theory and recent developments in the philosophy of physics, and by developing a variety of novel existential-inertia-friendly explanations of persistence, they mount a formidable new case against classical theistic proofs. Finally, they defend new arguments against classical theism based on abstract objects and changing divine knowledge. The text appeals to students, researchers, and others interested in classical theistic proofs, the existence and nature of God, and the ultimate explanations of persistence, change, and contingency.

This edited volume explores and extends themes in contemporary educational research on teacher preparation and the evolution in social justice education to antiracist pedagogy. These times call for teacher education to reconsider how the work devoted to social justice is explicit and intentional about its commitment to a racially just society. What does it mean for teacher education to seize this moment to confront racism and inequities that continue to perpetuate in society and school? The book highlights efforts that are being augmented to prepare teacher candidates and future faculty to address systemic racism in their teaching practices. 

This book primarily aims to discuss emerging topics in statistical methods and to booster research, education, and training to advance statistical modeling on interval-censored survival data. Commonly collected from public health and biomedical research, among other sources, interval-censored survival data can easily be mistaken for typical right-censored survival data, which can result in erroneous statistical inference due to the complexity of this type of data. The book invites a group of internationally leading researchers to systematically discuss and explore the historical development of the associated methods and their computational implementations, as well as emerging topics related to interval-censored data. It covers a variety of topics, including univariate interval-censored data, multivariate interval-censored data, clustered interval-censored data, competing risk interval-censored data, data with interval-censored covariates, interval-censored data from electric medical records, and misclassified interval-censored data. Researchers, students, and practitioners can directly make use of the state-of-the-art methods covered in the book to tackle their problems in research, education, training and consultation.

This book presents current evidence of new perspectives for the prevention and appropriate management of depression in people across the life course. Special attention has been dedicated to facilitating factors for the development of health system capacity and the effectiveness of the different types of interventions. The first part of the book reviews the innovations in global prevention and non-pharmacological treatments for children, adolescents, and youths. The second part reviews interventions for adults across the lifespan, including older adults and caregivers. Despite the efforts to tackle depression, the COVID-19 pandemic directly or indirectly affected the mental health of the population, including an increase in the incidence of depressive disorders, which are underdiagnosed and undertreated in young and older people. Because of the characteristics of adolescence and older adulthood, people can consider depression signs and symptoms as natural, neglecting a proper diagnosis. To address these challenges in the clinical management of depression, Prevention and Early Treatment of Depression Through the Life Course presents a life course perspective on the analysis and treatment of depression to help clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals understand the mechanisms associated with the onset of depression and identify/develop proper evidence-based treatments for different ages and in different circumstances.

This book explores the construction of agreement in the argumentative process, aiming to investigate how the activation of shared knowledge, values and beliefs leads to the creation of a common ground between the speaker and the audience in the pursuit of persuasion. In the first part of the book, the authors examine agreement from a historical and theoretical perspective, setting in relation major ancient and contemporary approaches to argumentation, with special regard for the notions of ethos, objects of agreement, starting points and topoi, all with a focus on their deployment in discourse. This is complemented with a compendium of linguistic resources that can be exploited for the discursive construction of agreement, offering a principled selection of structures across different levels of language description. The second part of the book is devoted to the investigation of actual uses of agreement in a choice of institutional genres within the domain of the US presidential elections: the Presidential Announcement, the TV debate and the Inaugural Address. Due to their political relevance and cultural salience, these genres provide an ideal interface for observing the interplay of discursive and argumentative components, against the backdrop of a shared cultural heritage, rich with intertextual references. The application of the theoretical framework developed in the first part of the book to the analysis of real political discourse carried out in the second is the distinguishing feature of this volume, making it of interest to linguists and argumentation scholars, as well as to political scientists and communicators.

The textbook presents basic concepts of signals and systems in a clear manner, based on the author's 15+ years of teaching the undergraduate course for engineering students. To attain full benefit from the content, readers should have a strong knowledge of calculus and be familiar with integration, differentiation, and summation operations. The book starts with an introduction to signals and systems and continues with coverage of basic signal functions and their manipulations; energy, power, convolution, and systems; Fourier analysis of continuous time signals and digital signals; Laplace transform; and Z transforms. Practical applications are included throughout. The book is also packed with solved examples, self-study exercises, and end of chapter problems.

The book focuses the latest endeavors relating researches and developments conducted in fields of control, robotics, and automation. Through ten revised and extended articles, the present book aims to provide the most up-to-date state-of-the-art of the aforementioned fields allowing researcher, Ph.D. students, and engineers not only updating their knowledge but also benefiting from the source of inspiration that represents the set of selected articles of the book.The deliberate intention of editors to cover as well theoretical facets of those fields as their practical accomplishments and implementations offers the benefit of gathering in a same volume a factual and well-balanced prospect of nowadays research in those topics. A special attention toward ¿Intelligent Robots and Control¿ may characterize another benefit of this book.

This book presents a philosophical analysis of the different forms of political resistance and protest. It explores the normative space of resistance that is beyond self-defense and civil disobedience, and proposes the concept of ¿resistance violence¿ as a separate and special normative category. Instances that fall under this category can be, accordingly justified, even if they prove to be practically ineffective, by appealing to their role in preserving or upholding the dignity of the resistors or those who they aim to protect. Margaret Betz draws from important and interesting historical examples to establish the concept, and proposes to apply it to better understand contemporary struggles against injustice.

In the second edition of this book, the concept of resource-based sustainability has once again been expanded to include further references to modern management theories. The author shows that overcoming the dilemmas that sustainability creates for companies and all organizations leads to more complex decisions that also require higher levels of awareness. The concept of sustainable leadership is closely related to the resource approach. Finally, readers will learn how to tell a compelling transformation narrative toward sustainability.

This book will be the first dedicated study of the remarkable role of Georgian caricature in the equally remarkable Queen Caroline controversy of 1820-21. When the newly crowned George IV, formerly the Prince of Wales, refused to recognise his estranged wife Caroline as the rightful queen of the Britain, her refusal to rescind her claim to the throne provoked a huge campaign of sympathy and support that almost toppled the government. The British people rallied round the ¿injured¿ queen in their hundreds of thousands, and massed rallies, processions, protests and petitioning became daily news.The Queen Caroline controversy was the zenith of the ¿Golden Age¿ of caricature, a tour-de-force of imagination, wit, inventiveness and sheer political mischief. In image after image, Caroline triumphs over her cowardly and conniving enemies, subverting gender and political hierarchies, and giving a presence and voice to her unenfranchised followers. This book therefore aims tochronicle and analyse this achievement.

This book offers an original empirical study into the gendered and sexual experiences of Iranian Muslim women going through menopause. Using a biographical lifecourse lens, it explores the processes through which these experiences are shaped by hegemonic gender norms, as well as how these women express their agency. Centering the voices of Iranian Muslim women, this book links sexuality, ageing, and the body to the matter of menopause, conceived here as a gendered, embodied and lived phenomenon characterised both by cultural constraint and by individual reflexive body techniques. By considering gender and sexuality as vectors of power with internal politics, inequalities, and oppression alongside embodied practice, the author shows how the life course provides a trajectory of sex and sexuality that routes both in time, space, social and cultural context.

Punchdrunk on the Classics: Experiencing Immersion in The Burnt City and Beyond draws attention to Punchdrunk¿s use of ancient Greek literature in their creation of immersive theatre. The book documents and analyses the effects of utilising Greek tragedy within both Punchdrunk¿s creative development windows, and the company¿s final staged productions. It features material stretching from The House of Oedipus (2000) right through to The Burnt City (2022-23), on which the author worked as dramaturg. Chapters include rehearsal studies, explorations of how Greek literature can shape an audience¿s experience in immersive theatre, and considerations of how The Burnt City might change our understanding of the poetics of immersion in antiquity. Overall, Punchdrunk on the Classics provides an unparalleled depth of insight into an individual Punchdrunk production, and highlights the until-now overlooked significance of antiquity within Punchdrunk¿s practice.