Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer Nature Singapore

This book explores how identity plays a pivotal role in tourism consumption. Almost all tourism-related consumption studies underestimate or refer inadequately to identity's relationship with tourism consumption. As identity phenomenon is considerably a new subject in the tourism literature, this book examines its relationship with the consumption theory. It is of interest to readers curious about how pre-, during, and post-consumption activities affect a person's identity and vice versa. This book contains an analysis of consumption theories and a summary of literature identifying the phenomenon's evolution through pre-modern, modern, and post-modern periods. In this context, this book aims to enlighten the interactions between identity construction and tourism consumption. The grounded theory, one of the qualitative research approaches, was applied to accomplish the relevant purpose, and in-depth interviews were recruited following the method approach stages to enable the researchers to gain new insights into the subject. By presenting the identity tended tourism consumption model, this book provides a set of profound contributions to the relevant literature and insight for practitioners/decision-makers and entrepreneurs. This book attempts to clarify the tourists' consumption process and understand how the interactions between identity construction and tourism consumption work. The qualitative methodology (grounded theory) allows in-depth analysis and insights of the participants of the study on their definitions of themselves as human beings and as tourists, decisions on their travel plans, their considerations, motivations to travel and destination preferences, interactions with others, vacation activities, evaluations on their travel experiences, et cetera. Therefore, this book appeals to readers of marketing, business operations, sociology, and economics.

This book analyzes housing policy in terms of the quality of housing, theoretically and empirically. The analysis is prompted by the Japanese government's success in increasing the volume of housing through interest rate policy, as is shown by Vector Autoregession (VAR) analysis in this book; consequently, the focus of housing policy in Japan is now the quality of housing. This is the first book to analyze and propose housing monetary policy and housing subsidy policy to improve the quality of housing, which increase the number of houses that are barrier-free and earthquake resistant. This book is also the first to focus on appropriate valuation of housing using hedonic price function and the quality of houses. Using the method of valuation developed and proposed in this book, market clearing prices of houses can be calculated without analytical and theoretical error. Toward this end, the disclosure of information - the offer prices and attributes - of houses is proposed as a housing policy. In addition, in this research the author has developed a method to estimate the hedonic price index and rent index using the quality of houses for the first time in Japan. With hedonic price and rent functions, the author shows the extent to which differences in home ownership investment are caused by differences in information about the property. This finding shows the need to explore an appropriate method of valuation of houses. The propositions of this book can help companies benefit from the use of the hedonic housing valuation and hedonic price and rent indexes.

This book is a definitive, comprehensive understanding to social science research methodology. It covers both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The book covers the entire research process, beginning with the conception of the research problem to publication of findings. The text combines theory and practical application to familiarize the reader with the logic of research design, the logic and techniques of data analysis, and the fundamentals and implications of various data collection techniques. Organized in seven sections and easy to read chapters, the text emphasizes the importance of clearly defined research questions and well-constructed practical explanations and illustrations. A key contribution to the methodology literature, the book is an authoritative resource for policymakers, practitioners, graduate and advanced research students, and educators in all social science disciplines.

Selfie: Poetry, Social Change & Ecological Connection presents the first general theory that links poetry in environmental thought to poetry as an environment. James Sherry accomplishes this task with a network model of connectivity that scales from the individual to social to environmental practices. Selfie demonstrates how parts of speech, metaphor, and syntax extend bidirectionally from the writer to the world and from the writer inward to identities that promote sustainable practices. Selfie shows how connections in the biosphere scale up from operating within the body, to social structures, to the networks that science has identified for all life. The book urges readers to construct plural identifications rather than essential claims of identity in support of environmental diversity.

This edited book provides the readers with the concepts and in-depth knowledge of plant disease assessment and conventional and modern technologies that aid in precise and accurate phytomathometery. This book discusses the evolution of plant disease assessment procedures from the primary visual estimation-based assessment to modern approaches, their practical application for reliable disease quantification, yield loss estimation, and the efficacy of disease control strategies for sustainable crop protection. Significant information is provided on the major aspects of the topic, including remote sensing, imaging techniques, molecular phytopathometery, microarray, and immunotechnology. The book helps plant scientists, plant pathologists, practitioners, researchers, and students in disease quantification, developing predictive models for plant disease epidemics, assessing crop losses, and the magnitude of plant disease control methods.This book describes the classical plant disease assessment methods based on visual observations. It Provides information regarding the modern and emerging technologies in Phytopathometery, precision, and accuracy. This book also discusses the application of disease assessments in predictive models, disease warning systems, expert systems, and decision support systems in applied plant pathology.

This book re-conceptualizes teaching through an engagement with Jean-Paul Sartre's early existentialist thought. Against the grain of teacher accountability, it turns to the demanding account of being human in Sartre's thought, on the basis of which an alternative account of teaching can be developed. It builds upon Sartre's key concepts related to the self, freedom, bad faith, and the Other, such that they might open up original ways of thinking about the practices of teaching. Indeed, given the everyday complexities that characterize teaching, as well as the vulnerabilities and uncertainty that it so often involves, this book ultimately aims to create a space in which to reimagine forms of accounting that move from technicist ways of thinking to existential sensitivity in relation to one's practice as a teacher.

This book reports the establishment of a single-atomic layer metal of In and a novel (In, Mg) ultrathin film on Si(111) surfaces. A double-layer phase of In called "e;rect"e; has been extensively investigated as a two-dimensional metal. Another crystalline phase called "e;hex"e; was also suggested, but it had not been established due to difficulty in preparing the sample. The author succeeded in growing the large and high-quality sample of the hex phase and revealed that it is a single-layer metal. The author also established a new triple-atomic layer (In, Mg) film with a nearly freestanding character by Mg deposition onto the In double layer. This work proposes a novel method to decouple ultrathin metal films from Si dangling bonds.The present study demonstrates interesting properties of indium itself, which is a p-block metal both with metallicity and covalency. In this book, readers also see principles of various surface analysis techniques and learn how to use them and analyze the results in the real systems. This book is useful to researchers and students interested in surface science, particularly ultrathin metal films on semiconductor surfaces.

This book investigates two types of static multi-fidelity surrogates modeling approaches, sequential multi-fidelity surrogates modeling approaches, the multi-fidelity surrogates-assisted efficient global optimization, reliability analysis, robust design optimization, and evolutionary optimization. Multi-fidelity surrogates have attracted a significant amount of attention in simulation-based design and optimization in recent years. Some real-life engineering design problems, such as prediction of angular distortion in the laser welding, optimization design of micro-aerial vehicle fuselage, and optimization design of metamaterial vibration isolator, are also provided to illustrate the ability and merits of multi-fidelity surrogates in support of engineering design. Specifically, lots of illustrative examples are adopted throughout the book to help explain the approaches in a more "e;hands-on"e; manner. This book is a useful reference for postgraduates and researchers of mechanical engineering, as well as engineers of enterprises in related fields.

This book considers new analytics and AI approaches in the areas of inventory control, logistics, and supply chain management. It provides valuable insights for the retailers and managers to improve business operations and make more realistic and better decisions. It also offers a number of smartly designed strategies related to inventory control and supply chain management for the optimal ordering and delivery policies. The book further uses detailed models and AI computing approaches for demand forecasting to planning optimization and digital execution tracking. One of its key features is use of real-life examples, case studies, practical models to ensure adoption of new solutions, data analytics, and AI-lead automation methodologies are included.The book can be utilized by retailers and managers to improve business operations and make more accurate and realistic decisions. The AI-based solution, agnostic assessment, and strategy will support the companies for better alignment and inventory control and capabilities to create a strategic road map for supply chain and logistics. The book is also useful for postgraduate students, researchers, and corporate executives. It addresses novel solutions for inventory to real-world supply chain and logistics that retailers, practitioners, educators, and scholars will find useful. It provides the theoretical and applicable subject matters for the senior undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, practitioners, and professionals in the area of artificial intelligent computing and its applications in inventory and supply chain management, inventory control, and logistics. 

This book mainly discusses the background of e-commerce, the basic knowledge of e-commerce, the basic models of e-commerce, the basic principles of e-commerce and the cases of e-commerce. This book has formed a theoretical system of e-commerce with a clear integration boundary. The introduction of the systematic theory is guided by the background of e-commerce, centered on the model of e-commerce, paved with the principles of e-commerce and integrated with the cutting-edge cases. This book defines the basic concepts, models and principle of e-commerce in the form of mathematical analysis and analyzes the basic theory of e-commerce from the perspective of mathematical model. This enables readers to form an abstract understanding of the connotation and extension of e-commerce. It establishes a knowledge system with the background of social ecology, engineering ecology and innovative ecology, taking the models of e-commerce as the core, the principles of e-commerce as the process, the architecture of e-commerce as the platform and the operation and management of e-commerce as the means to integrate the knowledge into application. This book uses case study to comprehensively analyze and apply the knowledge system involved in e-commerce, combining theoretical research with engineering research. Through this book, readers can systematically master all kinds of theories involved in e-commerce. This book aims at different professional and diverse reader groups. It can be used as the basic books for students of various e-commerce-related specialties.

This book conducts a comparative analysis of social and economic changes in the welfare state transformations in China and India, at national and sub-national levels. Discussions are made based on impacts from the social and economic changes in the last century and the fourth industrial revolution on welfare state transformations in China and India, the world's two largest countries in terms of population and density.First-hand empirical work is conducted by a group of scholars from India and China, which draws on inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural academic traditions to deepen social, cultural and legal understanding between the two countries.This book would appeal to undergraduate and graduate students in comparative sociology, political science, law and comparative welfare studies as well as researchers in these fields, as well as researchers in policy think-tanks and research institutes and officials in government and non-governmental organizations.

This book attempts to establish an inter-disciplinary discourse evaluation framework to analyze multi-dimensional discursive features along 4 dimensions in Chinese and American banks' CSR reports: sentiment, readability, CSR keyword, and visualization. It analyzes Chinese and American banks' different discursively constructed CSR images via the employment of various discursive features in CSR reports within their different contexts. Lastly, it examines the effects of Chinese and American banks' discursively constructed CSR images on capital markets, with an inter-disciplinary approach of linguistics, management, and economics. Theoretically, this book contributes to the development of institutional identity's cross-disciplinary research. Additionally, it reveals the problem-solving function of discourse. This sheds light on theoretical research into both corporate governance and business discourse. Practically, this book contributes to the improvement of Chinese banks' awareness in CSR disclosure and the establishment of Chinese banks' international images. Since more and more Chinese companies in different sectors are choosing overseas listings, findings in this book also have practical implications for their information disclosure, international images construction, and corporate value enhancement through corporate narratives, such as annual reports and IPO prospectuses. 

The book introduces techniques, devices, device structures and therapeutic in dural arteriovenous fistulas. During past 4 decades, neurovascular or endovasuclar surgery developed fast and provide effective and minimally invasive treatment of dural arteriovenous fistulas. The treatment of dural arteriovenous fistulas has also seen substantial evolution, increasing the number of dural arteriovenous fistulas that can be treated successfully with minimally invasive therapy. Authors introduces the great advances in the techniques, devices and treatment concepts, which shows striking therapeutic benefit for dural arteriovenous fistulas. In each technique, authors introduce methods, cases, result, discussion and conclusion. The CT scan, MR imaging, angiography and surgical figures are provided in each chapter.Attending physicians, fellows, residents, medical students will benefit from reading this text.

This is the first of its kind book that describes key elements of enterprise data and analytics strategy, and prescribes a pragmatic approach to define the strategy for large enterprises. The book is based on successful digital transformation experience of multiple Fortune 500 and other large enterprises. It is estimated that more than 50% of data and analytics initiatives fail globally because of the inherent complexity of such initiatives. Some of the questions that enterprises struggle with are: How to define enterprise data and analytics strategy? What are the key elements that should be considered while doing so? Why one-size-fits-all approach does not work for all enterprises? How to align data and analytics initiative with the business strategy of the CEO? How to establish a futuristic technology and architecture foundation, given the exponential rate of innovation in data and analytics technologies? How to define the right data and analytics organization model? Why data and analytics organization and processes need to be different from other functions? How to manage organizational change to ensure success of data and analytics initiative? How to define a business value measurement framework and calculate ROI from data and analytics initiative? What are the key skills required in a data and analytics leader to wade through political and other challenges of a large enterprise? This book will help executives, chief digital/analytics officers, data and analytics professionals, and consultants, in answering the above questions. It will help them in addressing various dilemmas that they face every day and making their enterprises data-driven.

This book illustrates the latest developments in literacy and language assessment in the digital context, and subsequently presents a rigorous validation study on a newly proposed form of assessment (scenario-based assessment, SBA) that seeks to respond to the contextual change of literacy activities. It combines theories and innovative practices in both the literacy and language assessment sectors.The empirical validation study on SBA, presented here, can help readers understand how digital scenarios can be realized in assessment practices with the aid of computer technology, and how the scenario settings in the digital context can affect EFL learners' reading-to-writing performance. In this way, it can facilitate the reconceptualization of L2 literacy in the digital context. Moreover, the evidence and critical examination presented here can offer readers more comprehensive insights into the value or validity of a given innovative approach before it is adopted in their contexts.   

This book connects the Biblical Paul's work as an educator with the revival of interest in Paul's impact on contemporary social and cultural experience, sometimes referred to as 'Paul's new moment'. It presents Paul's letters as being the testament of an educator who brought a radical emancipatory approach to the communities with whom he lived and worked. The book draws on history, philosophy, New Testament studies, and social theory to present the case for Paul as the initiator of a pedagogy of the event. This book explores the concept of a pedagogy of the event, and provides a case study of success in its implementation.

This book provides up-to-date developments in the stability analysis and (anti-)synchronization control area for complex-valued neural networks systems with time delay. It brings out the characteristic systematism in them and points out further insight to solve relevant problems. It presents a comprehensive, up-to-date, and detailed treatment of dynamical behaviors including stability analysis and (anti-)synchronization control. The materials included in the book are mainly based on the recent research work carried on by the authors in this domain.The book is a useful reference for all those from senior undergraduates, graduate students, to senior researchers interested in or working with control theory, applied mathematics, system analysis and integration, automation, nonlinear science, computer and other related fields, especially those relevant scientific and technical workers in the research of complex-valued neural network systems, dynamic systems, and intelligent control theory.

This book is a compass for resource rich-developing countries, taking Mongolia as a case study. Policy aspects of the development of the mining sector in developing countries such as Mongolia and its impact on the economy and society are reviewed. The book deals with specific industry policies and challenges identified by policy makers, its characteristics and policy recommendations moving forward with an emphasis on the importance of evidence-based policy making (EBPM). It begins with the country's development strategy and the role of the mining industry, highlighting the fact that major strategic and policy documents still suffer from ambiguity and clear guidance as well as gaps in policy directions. The book also highlights the need for policy makers to improve transparency initiatives. Authors emphasize transparency or lack thereof in mining contracts, taxation, trading, and marketing and provide specific policy recommendations and alternative policy actions. The macroeconomic and social impact of the mining sector and the role of foreign direct investment is also discussed. Particularly, utilizing in-house economic analytical tools, the role and impact of resource revenue management policy in Mongolia is evaluated. Further, the impact of mining projects on the livelihood of local households as well as the importance of obtaining a social license to operate is discussed.This monograph is recommended for readers who want an in-depth comprehensive understanding of the mining sector, EBPM, and key lessons learned in managing natural resources in Mongolia.

This book introduces cutting-edge studies on the spectrum of sex. The sex spectrum can be understood as an interwoven mechanism sustaining graded phenotypes between the two sexes. The book overviews three elements that develop the sex spectrum: genetics, the endocrine system, and the environment. Part I discusses the genetic regulation during sex determination, which often results in a mixture of two sexes or sex reversal. The evolutionary aspects of the genetic determinants are also discussed. Part II presents the involvement of endocrine regulation in the sex spectrum, which covers a broad range of phenotypic events, including sexual behavior and metabolism. Interestingly, sex hormones can also act as sex determinants. Finally, Part III shows that intrinsic factors, such as sex-determining genes and sex hormones, are not the only factors in sex development. The environment surrounding organisms, such as symbiosis and metabolism, act on the sex as critical factors, generating the sex spectrum. Determination and development of the two sexes have been a topic of great interest and a long-standing issue in biology. The book updates the conventional view that biological sex is fixed after birth and sets new perspectives for understanding sex as a spectrum manifested in multiple phenomena. Each chapter contributed by leading experts explains the sex spectrum in various organisms and their underlying mechanisms from the latest ongoing studies. The book provides a valuable resource for not only experts in developmental biology, physiology, and medical science, but also non-scientists and anyone interested in the topic.

This book considers that contextual factors are important for the achievement of social justice and it recognizes that vulnerability to which children are exposed is a phenomenon throughout the planet, particularly in the South. It presents a theoretical review of social justice as well as different situations of vulnerability children experience in their daily lives in which they can be injured, affecting their well-being and the exercise of their rights. It examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, considered as a vulnerable group warranting special social policy considerations. It also presents the need to change power structures in knowledge production and decision-making processes to achieve social justice for children; the importance of investing in children; the exclusion of children from participation in certain activities and the shame of not being able to participate in equal conditions with others;  the lives of migrant children belonging to ethnic minorities exposed to language barriers and access to technological devices; and the analysis of the process of social re-integration of children from conditions of armed conflict. The book concludes that governments need to assume social justice as part of universal human interests, providing security, conditions for well-being, and guaranteeing social justice for all children.

This book presents select proceedings of the Indian Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Conference (IGGEC-21). Various topics covered in this book include geotechnical engineering, earthquake geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering, ground improvement, transportation geotechnics, waste management and sustainable engineering. The book will be a valuable reference for researchers and professionals in the discipline of civil, materials, geoenvironmental engineering, landfills, hydrogeology, ground improvement and earthquake geotechnical engineering.

This book presents novel contributions in the development of solid-state-transformer (SST) technology both for medium-voltage (MV) and low-voltage (LV) utility grid interfaces, which can potentially augment the grid modernization process in the evolving power system paradigm. For the MV interface, a single-stage AC-DC SST submodule topology has been proposed, and its modulation and soft-switching possibilities are analysed, experimentally validated and adequately benchmarked. A control scheme with power balance capability among submodules is developed for MV grid-connected single-stage AC-DC SST for smooth operation under inevitable parameter drift scenario, and experimental validation shows excellent performance under drastic load change conditions. A novel machine learning-aided multi-objective design optimization framework for grid-connected SST is developed and experimentally validated, which equips a power electronics design engineer with meagre computational resources to find out the most optimal SST design in a convenient time-frame. This book has also contributed towards the development of dual-active-bridge (DAB)-type and non-DAB-type LV grid-interfaced isolated AC-DC converters by providing solutions to specific topology and modulation-related shortcomings in these two types of topologies. A comprehensive comparison of the DAB and non-DAB-type LVAC-LVDC converters reveals the superiority of DAB-type conversion strategy.

This book provides a step-by-step guide to implementing lean at SMEs using an approach that has been tested and fine-tuned at over a hundred organizations across India, South East Asia and the Middle East. The book approaches Lean through an implementation project cycle flow and enables the reader to understand the imperative for Lean, how to diagnose current operations, how to plan and deploy Lean and shows a path for long-term sustenance. Diverse situations such as meeting the demand fluctuations, designing a facility, or improving profit margin etc. are included in the case studies from multiple sectors, to ensure that every reader finds a situation similar to their organizational situation. While the publicly available literature on lean offers a large collection of tools and techniques, given each organization¿s unique context, the choice of the right sequence of tools differ. The book offers guidelines in terms of which solutions work in which context, backed by real-cases, which is a big help to the resource constrained SMEs. This book is an equally good resource for the organizations that have already implemented lean, as it provides realistic pointers about sustaining, tackling supply chain uncertainties and going beyond Lean by integrating emerging technologies and management principles. It is an excellent resource for students and researchers studying this area and also for corporates, professionals and industry watchers.

This book studies healthy aging in China based on analyses of the datasets of eight waves of longitudinal survey in 1998-2018 with worldwide largest sample of oldest-old. It consists of four parts. The first part reports the 6th, 7th, and 8th surveys of "e;Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey"e; (CLHLS), with the largest sample of oldest-old aged 80+ in the world and comparable sample of young-old aged 65-79, trends and characteristics of physical health and mental health of older adults in China based on analyses of the CLHLS datasets. The second part focuses on analyses and discussions of the influencing factors of healthy aging from perspectives of families, socioeconomics and community environments. The third part reports studies on the gender and age differences in main chronic diseases' prevalence rates, inflammation, anti-oxidation, trace elements, effects of the nutritional dietary structure and the environmental selenium on health among the older adults. The fourth part focuses on the analyses and discussions of policy recommendations to face the serious challenges of the population aging in China and the database of the eight waves of CLHLS from 1998 to 2018, which are available free of charge to scholars, practitioners and general public for scientific research and socioeconomic planning. This book is easy to read and to understand by researchers and the general public, and no special professional background is required.

This book constitutes peer-reviewed proceedings of the International Conference on Emerging Electronics and Automation (E2A) 2021. The book presents new ideas, research findings, and novel techniques in the fields of sensors and instrumentation, automation and control, artificial intelligence, MEMS sensors, soft computing, signal processing, and communication. It includes contributions received from both academia and industry. The proceedings will be helpful for beginners as well as advanced researchers in the area of automation and other allied fields.

This textbook is based upon a philosophical method of logical deduction from basic principles such as scarcity, individual choice and subjectivism.  This textbook attempts to show that all complex phenomena of economic theory such as prices of consumer goods and factors of production, saving and consumption, interest and profit, can be explained by the same primitive psychological principles of scarcity and substitution on the margin that could be used to describe economizing Robinson Crusoe on a desert island or two cavemen catching fish or exchanging apples for oranges. This textbook distils the essence of economic science prevailing in price theory before the 1930s, which the authors' argue is superior to currently popular mainstream theory into a readable and student-friendly textbook format.This is an introductory textbook written in the tradition of Menger, Bohm-Bawerk, Mises and Hayek, instead in the tradition of Alfred Marshall and John Maynard Keynes, as almost all modern textbooks are. The authors offer a text not predicated on physics envy; on an attempt to liken economics to the physical sciences, on the basis of "e;empirical evidence"e;, statistics and verification. 

This book consists of selected peer-reviewed articles from the International Conference on Computer Vision, High Performance Computing, Smart Devices and Networks (CHSN-2020), held at JNTU, Kakinada, India. The theme and areas of the conference include vast scope for latest concepts and trends in communication engineering, information theory and networks, signal, image and speech processing, wireless and mobile communication, Internet of Things, and cybersecurity for societal causes and humanitarian applications.