Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer Nature Singapore

This book explores how the business transformation taking place in Japan is influenced by the digital revolution. The chapters present approaches and examples from sectors commonly understood to be visible arenas of digital transformation¿3D printing and mobility, for instance¿as well as some from not-so-obvious sectors, such as retail, services, and fintech.Business today is facing unprecedented change especially due to the adoption of new, digital technologies, with a noticeable transformation of manufacturing and services. The changes have been brought by advanced robotics, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and digital networks that are growing in size and capability as the number of connected devices explodes. In addition, there are advanced manufacturing and collaborative connected platforms, including machine-to-machine communications. Adoption of digital technology has caused process disruptions in both the manufacturing and services sectors and led to new business models and new products. While examining the preparedness of the Japanese economy to embrace these changes, the book explores the impact of digitally influenced changes on some selected sectors from a Japanese perspective. It paints a big picture in explaining how a previously manufacturing-centric, successful economy adopts change to retain and rebuild success in the global environment. Japan as a whole is embracing, yet also avoiding¿innovating but also restricting¿various forms of digitalization of life and work. The book, with its 12 chapters, is a collaborative effort of individuals contributing diverse points of view as technologists, academics, and managers.

This book introduces a complete quantitative evaluation system of the Whole Petroleum System (WPS) on theory and expounds the correlation and difference between conventional and unconventional oil and gas reservoirs and resources, with large number of well-prepared charts and novel expressions. It has important guiding significance for the exploration and development of conventional and unconventional oil and gas all over the world and provides valuable insights for reader with an interest in petroleum geology.

The book focuses on control synthesis for semi-Markovian switching systems. By using multiple semi-Markovian Lyapunov function approaches, a basic theoretical framework is formed toward the issue of control synthesis for semi-Markovian switching systems. This is achieved by providing an in-depth study on several major topics such as sliding mode control, finite-time control, quantized control, event-triggered control, synchronization, and fuzzy control for semi-Markovian switching systems. The comprehensive and systematic treatment of semi-Markovian switching systems is one of the major features of the book, which is particularly suitable for readers who are interested to learn control theory and engineering. By reading this book, the reader can obtain the most advanced analysis and design techniques for stochastic switching systems.

This book reviews the central role of hypoxia in cancer initiation and progression. It discusses the mechanisms of hypoxia in chemoresistance, radioresistance, angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, metastasis, metabolic, and genomic instability. It also explores the potential of hypoxia in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The book provides an overview of hypoxia imaging, its biological relevance, and mechanism of action. It helps in understanding the molecular mechanisms of the regulation of senescence by hypoxia. It explores the contribution of hypoxia to immune resistance and immune suppression/tolerance and determines the hypoxia-responsive long non-coding RNAs in regulating hypoxic gene expression at chromatin, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional levels. Further, it presents the functional link between hypoxia and miRNA expressions and hypoxia-regulated miRNAs in cancer cell survival in a low oxygen environment. Lastly, it discusses the applications of tumor-on-a-chip technology for the understanding of hypoxia-tumor microenvironment. This book is a valuable source for oncologists and scientists working to understand the role of hypoxia in cancer and therapeutic approaches.

This book introduces various mathematical models used in ecological risk assessment, primarily discussing models used in hazard assessment. The book aims to link ecology and conservation biology with risk assessments, bringing together the knowledge of ecotoxicology and ecology for effective risk assessment. The first part describes population-level assessment in ecological risk assessment. The chapters cover current methodologies for ecological risk assessment, individual-level assessment, population dynamics models for population-level assessment, case studies, mathematical models for population extinctions, the derivation of mean time to extinction (MTE) and their case studies. The second part of the book discusses the mathematical models involved in hazard assessments. It introduces the method of risk assessment using species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), hazard assessment of metals, chemical mixtures using the Michaelis-Menten equation, basic elements of statistics and related topics. Expected readers are risk assessors in governments and public sectors, students and young researchers interested in environmental science. The book is made accessible and easy to follow by beginners in mathematical biology and theoretical ecology.

The book contributes to the sparse academic literature on African and minority language media research. It serves as a compendium of experiences, activities and case studies on the use of native language media. Chapters in this book make theoretical, methodical and empirical contributions about indigenous African language media that are affected by structural factors of politics, technology, culture and economy and how they are creatively produced and appropriated by their audiences across African cultures and contexts. This book explores indigenous African language media about media representations, media texts and contents, practice-based activities, audience reception and participation, television, popular culture and cinema, peace and conflict resolution, health and environmental crisis communication, citizen journalism, ethnic and identity formation, beat analysis and investigative journalism, and corporate communication. There are hardly any similar works that focus on the various issues relating to this body of knowledge. The book provides a valuable companion for scholars in various fields like communication, media studies, African studies, African languages, popular culture, journalism, health and environmental communication.

This book presents the proceedings of ICITS 2022 covering different tracks in the field of Sports Engineering and Technology, namely, Instrumentation, Materials, Data Analytics, Biomechanics, Simulation, Equipment Design and Performance Analysis, amongst others. This collection of articles deliberates the key challenges as well as technological innovations that facilitate the enhancement of sporting performance. The readers are expected to gain an insightful view on the current trends, issues, mitigating factors, technological innovations as well as proposed solutions.¿

This book constitutes selected papers presented during the Third China Annual Intelligent Robotics Conference, CCF CIRAC 2022, held in Xi' an, China, in December 2022. The 35 papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from the 120 qualified submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: robot safety; intelligent robot sensing; autonomous robot navigation; artificial intelligence and cloud robot; unmanned cluster collaboration; natural human-computer interaction; other robot-related technologies.

This book showcases cutting-edge research papers from the 9th International Conference on Research into Design (ICoRD 2023) ¿ the largest in India in this area ¿ written by eminent researchers from across the world on design processes, technologies, methods and tools, and their impact on innovation, for supporting design for a connected world. The theme of ICoRD¿23 has been ¿Design in the Era of Industry 4.0¿. Industry 4.0 signifies the fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution was driven by the introduction of mechanical power such as steam and water engines to replace human and animal labour. The second industrial revolution involved introduction of electrical power and organised labour. The third industrial revolution was powered by introduction of industrial automation. The fourth industrial revolution involves introduction of a combination of technologies to enable connected intelligence and industrial autonomy. The introduction of Industry 4.0 dramatically changes the landscape of innovation, and the way design, the engine of innovation, is carried out. The theme of ICoRD¿23 - ¿Design in the Era of Industry 4.0¿ ¿explores how Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies influence the way design is conducted, and how methods, tools, and approaches for supporting design can take advantage of this transformational change that is sweeping across the world. The book is of interest to researchers, professionals, and entrepreneurs working in the areas on industrial design, manufacturing, consumer goods, and industrial management who are interested in the new and emerging methods and tools for design of new products, systems, and services.

Under the contraction of global energy supply brought on by geopolitical situation, this timely book addresses how resource-scarce developing countries respond to challenges in energy security. In particular, for countries underpinning efforts for an autonomous supply of energy, either oil/natural gas, nuclear power or renewable energy, this book revisits the evolution of overseas energy investment of two industrial giants in East Asia, Korea and Japan. It will provide meaningful lessons of how the state sets up policies and navigates political procedures for energy security. While a historical case study, it also offers its readers new insight into the international energy market by taking the stark déjà vu in its repetitive nature and putting it into context.The book provides an in-depth study highlighting the differences in political systems which led to contrasting outcomes. The one with a small number of veto players succeeded in establishing and expanding state-owned oilcompanies while producing policy inconsistency at the same time and vice versa. This comprehensive review of East Asian politics will add value to East Asian Studies by presenting a new approach through a universal theory rather than cultural uniqueness. As a readable case study on energy security, this book will be an essential reference for scholars, policymakers, industry insiders and citizens who are interested in how nations respond to historic challenges in a political and international context.

Although deep learning models have achieved great progress in vision, speech, language, planning, control, and many other areas, there still exists a large performance gap between deep learning models and the human cognitive system. Many researchers argue that one of the major reasons accounting for the performance gap is that deep learning models and the human cognitive system process visual information in very different ways.To mimic the performance gap, since 2014, there has been a trend to model various cognitive mechanisms from cognitive neuroscience, e.g., attention, memory, reasoning, and decision, based on deep learning models. This book unifies these new kinds of deep learning models and calls them deep cognitive networks, which model various human cognitive mechanisms based on deep learning models. As a result, various cognitive functions are implemented, e.g., selective extraction, knowledge reuse, and problem solving, for more effective information processing.This book first summarizes existing evidence of human cognitive mechanism modeling from cognitive psychology and proposes a general framework of deep cognitive networks that jointly considers multiple cognitive mechanisms. Then, it analyzes related works and focuses primarily but not exclusively, on the taxonomy of four key cognitive mechanisms (i.e., attention, memory, reasoning, and decision) surrounding deep cognitive networks. Finally, this book studies two representative cases of applying deep cognitive networks to the task of image-text matching and discusses important future directions.

This book introduces a new Model-Based Reliability System Engineering (MBRSE) methodology, including its concept connotation, basic theory and technologies, framework of integrated platform and engineering application cases. Different from traditional Reliability System Engineering (RSE) methods that mainly rely on the management of documents, MBRSE is model centric method, with which the design for hexability (including ¿reliability, maintainability, testability, supportability, environmental adaptability and safety¿) is performed by the revolution of united models in complete R&D fields and the process of closed- loop failure mitigation. This method can integrate all techniques and approaches of reliability engineering into the main process of R&D, and therefore is considered as a generalized hexability design and analysis tool. Furthermore, the future perspectives in the development of MBRSE are also presented through the combination of Digital Twin technology. The main objective of the book is to provide the readers who have engaged in theoretical and technical researches, project management and engineering design applications of reliability engineering, as well as for teachers, senior undergraduates and postgraduates in colleges and universities working on reliability engineering and system engineering.

This book showcases cutting-edge research papers from the 9th International Conference on Research into Design (ICoRD 2023) ¿ the largest in India in this area ¿ written by eminent researchers from across the world on design processes, technologies, methods and tools, and their impact on innovation, for supporting design for a connected world. The theme of ICoRD¿23 has been ¿Design in the Era of Industry 4.0¿. Industry 4.0 signifies the fourth industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution was driven by the introduction of mechanical power such as steam and water engines to replace human and animal labour. The second industrial revolution involved introduction of electrical power and organised labour. The third industrial revolution was powered by introduction of industrial automation. The fourth industrial revolution involves introduction of a combination of technologies to enable connected intelligence and industrial autonomy. The introduction of Industry 4.0 dramatically changes the landscape of innovation, and the way design, the engine of innovation, is carried out. The theme of ICoRD¿23 - ¿Design in the Era of Industry 4.0¿ ¿explores how Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies influence the way design is conducted, and how methods, tools, and approaches for supporting design can take advantage of this transformational change that is sweeping across the world. The book is of interest to researchers, professionals, and entrepreneurs working in the areas on industrial design, manufacturing, consumer goods, and industrial management who are interested in the new and emerging methods and tools for design of new products, systems, and services.

This book focuses on the distributed control and estimation of large-scale networked distributed systems and the approach of distributed model predictive and moving horizon estimation. Both principles and engineering practice have been addressed, with more weight placed on engineering practice. This is achieved by providing an in-depth study on several major topics such as the state estimation and control design for the networked system with considering time-delay, data-drop, etc., Distributed MPC design for improving the performance of the overall networked system, which includes several classic strategies for different scenarios, details of the application of the distributed model predictive control to smart grid system and distributed water network. The comprehensive and systematic treatment of theoretical and practical issues in distributed MPC for networked systems is one of the major features of the book, which is particularly suited for readers who are interested to learn practical solutions in distributed estimation and optimization of distributed networked systems. The book benefits researchers, engineers, and graduate students in the fields of chemical engineering, control theory and engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, chemical engineering, and computer engineering, etc.

Based on the ethical thinking of the pre-Qin Dynasty, this book discusses the formation and development of traditional Chinese ethics, the refinement of the Confucian ethical normative system and the establishment of its orthodoxy, as well as the deepening and maturation of feudal ethics. The book is simple in style and clear in context. It contains not only the essence of traditional Chinese morality but also the achievements of modern civilization. It analyzes the implications of traditional Chinese ethics on the governance and moral construction of modern society and can be used as a reference for governance and revitalization of the country and moral development.

This book presents high-quality peer-reviewed papers from the International Conference on Electronics, Biomedical Engineering, and Health Informatics (ICEBEHI) 2022 held at Surabaya, Indonesia, virtually. The contents are broadly divided into three parts: (a) Electronics, (b) Biomedical Engineering, and (c) Health Informatics. The major focus is on emerging technologies and their applications in the domain of biomedical engineering. It includes papers based on original theoretical, practical, and experimental simulations, development, applications, measurements, and testing. Featuring the latest advances in the field of biomedical engineering applications, this book serves as a definitive reference resource for researchers, professors, and practitioners interested in exploring advanced techniques in the fields of electronics, biomedical engineering, and health informatics. The applications and solutions discussed here provide excellent reference material for future product development.

This book covers the notion of the digital twin, which has the potential to alter the way systems are governed and manufactured. It also addresses the metaverse as an emerging technology with its roots in literature, cross-platform avatars, and artificial intelligence-oriented cybersecurity issues. The untapped potential of the metaverse and digital twins as enabling technologies for the next-generation industries is emphasized in various chapters. Digital twin technology enables manufacturers to comprehend their products throughout product design better, integrate simulation, tracking, and optimization in real-time, and appropriately analyze operations. Especially for complicated products or systems, testing on a digital twin is more efficient (more accessible, quicker, less error-prone, and less expensive). The product is examined in its virtual version before it is displayed in the actual world. Additionally, the digital twin minimizes operational expensesand increases the longevity of equipment and assets. By prolonging the life of the thing, they represent and enhance its working efficiency; it may minimize operating costs and prospective capital spending. The digital twin idea is becoming a reality as it has begun to be used in several industries, including energy, manufacturing, construction, transportation, aerospace, smart cities, healthcare, cyber security, finance, and agriculture. Academic and industrial experts highlighted the most compelling use cases of digital twins and metaverses and the challenges inherent in their implementation. Readers who want to make more effective systems will find the book useful. Also, people who want to get an idea and vision of how technology will change our lives will benefit from this book.

The book presents a historical account of the colonial foundation of African economy and diplomacy. It reveals how the colonial companies and their agents penetrated different parts of Africa and entrenched Western colonialism and imperialism. Ironically, the arrival of these colonial companies became a driver of colonial labour migration as the educated and few privileged African people have to move towards the location of the colonial companies in order to eke-out improved standard of living. It presents the dynamics of import and export trade as promoted by the colonial companies. Consequently, the second part of the book raised the nature of relations amongst some independent African states. First, it reveals the deep-rooted challenge of poverty, migration problem, xenophobia in South Africa and resource conflicts within sovereign border areas of Nigeria and Cameroon as well as the Ethiopian dam crisis with Egypt, as some negative effects of colonialism on some African states. Secondly, it advocated for the advancement of African sports diplomacy, balancing of Chinese African trade diplomacy and improved labour migration within Africa as some paths to sustainable diplomacy in continent.

This book examines the correlation of the coronavirus disease-19 [CE1] [AAS2] (COVID-19) infection with sleep, circadian rhythm, and sleep disorders. The chapters of the book explore sleep problems during the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with psychological distress and also review the prevalence of clinical cases of insomnia, anxiety, and depression in COVID-19 patients. The book further presents the correlation between sleep, circadian rhythms, and immunity that contributes toward more severe COVID-19. It summarizes the evidence on the interplay between circadian biology, sleep, and COVID-19. The chapters of the book discuss the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Towards the end, the book presents studies on the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunotropic properties of melatonin and provides mechanistic insights into the potential therapeutic use of melatonin during the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The last chapter describes the publication output of sleep-related research during the pandemic and provides an overview and trends on sleep and covid-19 publication output. This book is an excellent source for neurologists, sleep specialists, and public health specialists.

This book presents select peer-reviewed papers from the International Conference on Robotics, Control, and Computer Vision (ICRCCV 2022). The contents focus on the latest research in the field of Robotics, their control, and computer vision in the context of robotics. The contributed papers have been arranged to give a flow to the reader. This book will be useful for students, researchers, and professionals from multidisciplinary fields such as mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics.

Bamboo is considered one of the most sustainable and versatile building materials, driving the development of multiple techniques for its study and utilization. With new techniques to better analyze, comprehend, and exploit its uses, the plant can be used in numerous applications. From direct building material to composites, this book explores the latest developments in the application of bamboo in the sustainable construction industry.

This important reference work maps the terrain of disability across the world by providing an overview of issues, concerns and developments in the domains of society, culture, medicine, law, policy, justice, education, economics, and science and technology. It is a truly inclusive volume bringing together perspectives from researchers, activists, professionals, service providers, international development experts and policymakers based in the global North and South, and it particularly focuses on the voices of the principal stakeholders---disabled persons themselves. Working from an interdisciplinary matrix, this book reviews historical developments, contemporary practices and policies . It addresses hitherto unchartered areas in the disability discourse that will be significant in the years to come. In the modern world, the social and medical responses to disability have been separation, segregation and incarceration of disabled people. These responses are reflected in practices of special education, building of asylums, medical classifications and sheltered employment. Current thinking on disability is based on the need to overcome such segregation through the enactment of human rights and socially just programmes, policies and laws such as inclusive education, affirmative action, reasonable accommodation, and supported decision-making. This book explores:· The evolution of the concept of disability over space and time and identifies approaches to disability, debility, equality and equity;· Broad trends in research on disability across the world;· New directions in work on disability;· The emergence of a global disability movement and its etiology;· Intersections of disability with other demographic variables like gender, race, caste, and age; and· Historical and socio-economic interfaces with colonialism, globalization, and social development. Spread over14 sections and spanning more than 80 chapters, this volume is the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference work available on the subject.

This book engages a multidisciplinary approach to understand Gandhi in addressing specific contemporary societal issues. The issues highlighted in the book through thirteen distinct, yet interrelated, themes offer solutions to the societal challenges through the prism of Gandhian  thought process. This edited book explores how ideas Gandhi expressed over a century ago can be applied today to issues from the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to peaceful resolution of conflicts. In particular, it looks at the contemporary societies' critical issues and offers solutions through the prism of Gandhian ideas. Written in an accessible style, this book reintroduces Gandhi to today's audiences in relevant terms.

This book highlights the gains that a citizenship approach offers to the study of democracy in Indonesia, demonstrating that the struggle for citizenship and the historical development of democracy in the country are closely interwoven. The book arises from a research agenda aiming to help Indonesiäs democracy activists by unpacking citizenship as it is produced and practiced through movements against injustice, taking the shape of struggles by people at grassroots levels for cultural recognition, social and economic injustice, and popular representation. Such struggles in Indonesia have engaged with the state through both discursive and non-discursive processes. The authors show that while the state is the common focal point, these struggles are fragmented across different sectors and subject positions. The authors thus propose that developing chains of solidarity is highly important to motivating a democracy that not only has sovereign control over public affairs, but also robust channels and organisations for political representation. In advocating the development of transformative agendas, organisations, and strategies as an important need, and an enduring challenge, for the realization of citizenship, this book is timely and relevant to the study of contemporary Indonesia's socio-political landscape. It is relevant to students and scholars in political science, anthropology, sociology, human geography and development studies.

This book presents empirical research on teaching, learning and assessment, and teacher development practices in Pakistan.  Despite extensive academic research conducted in Pakistan over the last decade, there is a dearth of internationally published literature on English language teaching in the country. This book covers current research priorities and initiatives concerning English language teaching, learning and assessment, empirical developments, and major professional development initiatives, both in Pakistan and involving the work of Pakistani scholars based in abroad. It highlights the impacts that development efforts are having in the ELT world in Pakistan. The respective chapters cover a diverse range of topics, including: continuous professional development (CPD), identity construction, English language policy, curriculum development, and innovative ELT approaches and methodologies used in Pakistan. This volume provides valuable insights for TESOL and applied linguistics scholars and practitioners working in the field of ELT, both in Pakistan and elsewhere in the globalized world. 

This book highlights the approaches for achieving trans-disciplinary research integration for "e;semi-arid dryland agriculture systems"e; under changing climates, while also identifying the elements of a collaborative research agenda that are needed to advance global food security. The book emphasizes climate change being a reality and how drylands are bearing the brunt in diverse ways. The major impact of dryland agriculture is on communities that need to: avoid the short- and long-term impacts of the changing climate; adapt strategies that can minimize these impacts; and be able to mitigate climate change, for which they need climate smart interventions. These interventions are only realized through knowledge and experience sharing among stakeholders from different sectors and backgrounds. It is in this context that the publication was seen as a necessity in order to bring together ideas that will transform lives and build adaptation capacities, thereby providing the much-needed products in communities leading to development

This book presents the latest knowledge and expert guidance on all aspects of inherited retinal diseases, including molecular genetics, diagnosis, clinical features, general principles of treatment, novel treatment methods, and genetic counseling. Recent years have witnessed great advances in understanding of the genetic and cytological background of these diseases. Genetic analysis methods such as next generation sequencing have remarkably reduced the cost and time required for massive analysis of patients' samples. Studies on gene therapy and stem cell therapy have been successfully carried out in animal models, and gene therapy is now available for Leber congenital amaurosis caused by RPE65 mutations. Against this background, Inherited Retinal Disease will be an invaluable up-to-date resource for ophthalmologists, medical students, and researchers in ocular inflammation. In addition to supplying essential information on each individual disorder, it features many interesting cases contributed by global leaders in the field as well as clinical photographs obtained with newer imaging techniques and numerous images of rare but clinically important diseases.