Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer Nature Singapore

For the past decade and a half, the world has witnessed a precipitous decline of democratic countries and the consequent rise of autocrats. How Autocrats Rise: Sequences of Democratic Backsliding challenges the conventional wisdom and offers an institutional-ideological approach to understand the phenomenon, examines the steps of emergent autocrats, and analyzes the methods of legitimizing their rules. Employing the new framework, the book provides incisive analyses of four countries located in four different regions with dissimilar national features ¿ Bangladesh, Bolivia, Hungary, and Turkey, and demonstrates that political developments in these countries have followed a similar, specific pattern resulting in various shades of autocracy. Theoretically enriched and empirically grounded, this exceptionally timely book makes significant contribution to the democratic backsliding literature while offering insights on how to forestall an autocratic era.

This book explores Chinese soft power and public diplomacy, and the way that it has played out in the context of the US-China relationship. As tensions between the two countries have grown in recent years, Chinese foreign policy has oscillated between confrontation and conciliation. In this work, which integrates all facets of Chinäs public diplomacy especially towards United States, the author explores the past and future of Chinese soft power, in a text that will interest diplomats, scholars and journalists.

This book is the sequel to a well-received book titled ¿Integrated Approaches to Peace and Sustainability¿ that aims to further advance the understanding of the dynamic interactions between various components of peace and sustainability. How are peace and sustainability linked to each other, and what are the key parameters that define the nexus between them? This book addresses those questions through a combination of theoretical studies and empirical research that contextualize peace and sustainability issues amid global transformations. The conceptual and empirical linkages between peace and sustainability are widely recognized in academic and policy circles. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development confirms this recognition. However, many of the initiatives on peace and sustainability operate in silos, undermining the positive and mutually reinforcing relationship between them. Enhanced integration of peace and sustainability components is imperative for addressing complex challenges that come with global transformations that are manifested environmentally, socially, politically, and economically across levels. It is, therefore, crucial to identify the pathways that enhance the peace-promoting potential of sustainability and the sustainability-promoting potential of peace. The contributions in this edited book elaborate on such pathways by offering insights related to different social, economic, and environmental aspects of the peace-sustainability nexus. Given its inter- and trans-disciplinary focus, the book is of interest to policymakers and researchers working in different areas of peace and sustainability. It contributes to ongoing academic and policy discussions surrounding the outcomes of and challenges to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security, CANS 2023, which was held in October/November 2023 in Augusta, GA, USA.The 25 papers presented were thoroughly revised and selected from the 54 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: Schemes I; Basic Primitives; Security; MPC with Cards; Blockchain; MPC and Secret Sharing; Schemes II.

This book focuses on the development of high-performance carbon electrodes for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). By proposing folded-graphene as the high-density cathode with excellent rate capability, it provides insight into the interplay between oxygen functional groups and folded texture. It also highlights the superiority of ether electrolytes matching with carbon anodes, which are shown to deliver largely improved electrochemical performance. The achievements presented offer a valuable contribution to the carbon-based electrodes in SIBs.

This book includes selected papers from the Hong Kong Association for Educational Communications and Technology (HKAECT) 2023 International Conference. It provides readers with a collection of insightful chapters which delves into the realms of data visualization, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). It also reflects on the dynamic shifts in online learning, blended learning, and self-directed learning. Part one of the volume includes case studies and examples of the integration of advanced technologies, such as data visualization, generative AI, and mixed reality in education. Part two shares experiences and observations from educators who embrace online learning, blended learning, and independent learning. Part three investigates the influences digital education has on learning, teaching, and society as a whole. The book paves a path for thought-provoking discussions on the future of education in a digitally connected world. It is a vital resource for educators, administrators, policymakers, and learners seeking to navigate and thrive in the rapidly evolving world of digital education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th Chinese Conference on Image and Graphics Technologies and Applications, IGTA 2023, held in Beijing, China, during August 17¿19, 2023.The 35 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 129 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: image processing and enhancement techniques; machine vision and 3D reconstruction; image/video big data analysis and understanding; computer graphics; visualization and visual analysis; virtual reality and human-computer interaction; and applications of image and graphics.

This book offers a comparative study of state strategies in relation to urban redevelopment projects associated with sports mega-events in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It examines urban governance strategies employed to dispossess working-class communities of their land and counteract the subsequent emergence of discontent in various national contexts, offering an intricate analysis of the mechanisms of class dominance operating across diverse regions of the globe. This is based on the application of Gramscian theory concerning the capitalist state and its fluid interplay between coercion and consent. Juxtaposing historical trajectories in the execution of redevelopment initiatives linked to large-scale sporting events, the book offers an in-depth examination of the state-civil society relations shaping the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Parks, alongside the regeneration initiatives concerning the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro and the Ellis Park stadiumin Johannesburg ¿ respectively earmarked for the 2014 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. Drawing on insights from a range of disciplines and an explicitly Gramscian analytical framework, this book will appeal to students and scholars in urban planning, sport sociology, development studies, and human geography.

This multi-authored book aims to illustrate the social, economic, and ecological factors that should determine and be determined by design in the implementation of a sustainable circular economy and society. We take design to refer to a continuum of perspectives and applications from industrial design to policy design, and this broad perspective invites theoretical and methodological contributions from a range of fields. In addition to bringing scholarly diversity to circularity, we expand and challenge the mainstream circular economy narrative of material efficiencies and green growth to include the demands of inclusive growth and ecological boundaries consistent with sustainable development. Readers from within and beyond design, conscious of the limitations of circular green growth will find new inspiration in this book regarding the nature of a sustainable circular economy and society and the broad design agenda that must be implemented to enable a just and informed circular transition.

This book deals with the concept of medical ultrasound imaging and discusses array signal processing in ultrasound. Signal processing using different beamforming techniques in order to achieve a desirable reconstructed image and, consequently, obtain useful information about the imaging medium is the main focus of this book. In this regard, the principles of image reconstruction techniques in ultrasound imaging are fully described, and the required processing steps are completely expanded and analyzed in detail. Simulation results to compare the performance of different beamformers are also included in this book to visualize their differences to the reader. Other advanced techniques in the field of medical ultrasound data processing, as well as their corresponding recent achievements, are also presented in this book. Simply put, in this book, processing of medical ultrasound data from different aspects and acquiring information from them in different manners are covered and organized in different chapters. Before going through the detailed explanation in each chapter, it gives the reader an overview of the considered issue and focuses his\her mind on the challenge ahead. The contents of the book are also presented in such a way that they are easy for the reader to understand. This book is recommended for researchers who study medical ultrasound data processing.

This book highlights the use of commercially available recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) extracted from multiple construction and demolition sites, considering it as a viable alternative to conventional aggregate. It further describes the advanced techniques, such as, scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray microtomography shedding light on the deep-rooted causes of inferior macro-mechanical performance of RAC and the advantages of particle packing method design approach in this regard. It then describes the improved properties of RAC with the help of macro-mechanical performance studies, microstructural characterization and fracture analysis. The systematic and in-depth presentation of the use of recycled coarse aggregate as an alternative to conventional aggregate for the preparation of structural concrete will guide researchers on subsequent research in RAC and provide assistance to structural engineers and concrete manufacturers for the usage of RAC.

This edited book is a comprehensive collection of information on host plant resistance to insects in major field crops. The focus of the book is to make the audience aware of the latest developments in host plant resistance in major field crops and how it can be used for sustainable pest management solutions. It deals with the insect-plant interactions, plant defence responses to herbivore attacks, plant phenotyping, and breeding for insect resistance.Insects are an important group of biotic stresses that limit crop productivity in many regions of the world. At present, they are largely managed by synthetic insecticides which have their own adverse effects including insecticide resistance, pest resurgence, environmental pollution, and pesticide residues, to name a few. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop alternate pest management strategies that can provide a sustainable solution to pest problems. Host plant resistance is considered an important pest management strategy as it offers an effective, economical, and environmental friendly solution to pest problems. This book is of interest to postgraduate students, crop entomologists, and breeders working on host plant resistance to insect pests. It is also valuable for teachers, researchers, and climate change scientists.The book serves as an additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, ecology, and environmental sciences. Agricultural experts from around the world, as well as policymakers, will also find this book helpful.

This book introduces the synthesis of functional mesoporous carbon-based films and their applications in energy systems. In the last decades, the consumption of fossil fuels has led to many problems such as the energy crisis and climate change. The rapidly increasing energy demands and environmental issues have attracted lots of attention to develop new functional materials for sustainable energy technology. Mesoporous carbon-based films show unique properties and have been regarded as a promising material applied in highly efficient energy storage and conversion systems. Interfacial assembly strategies are usually employed to construct such film devices. In this book, recent developments in synthesis of mesoporous carbon-based film devices through interfacial assembly strategies are illustrated. Additionally, the applications of mesoporous carbon-based film devices for electrochemical energy systems including batteries and electrocatalysis are introduced to demonstrate their potential, as well as describing the mechanisms to enhance the performance of these systems. Finally, some challenges and future outlooks are presented to inspire better development and contributions to this field in coming years. Given its scope, this book appeals to undergraduate students, graduate students, engineers, and researchers involved in related fields.

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Experimental and Computational Mechanics in Engineering (ICECME 2022), held as a virtual conference and organized by Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on September 14¿15, 2022.This book, prepared by international scientists and engineers, covers the latest advances in computational mechanics, metallurgy and material science, energy systems, manufacturing processing systems, industrial and system engineering, biomechanics, artificial intelligence, micro-/nano-engineering, micro-electro-mechanical system, machine learning, mechatronics, and engineering design. This book is intended for academics, including graduate students and researchers, as well as industrial practitioners working in the areas of experimental and computational mechanics.

This book renders a comprehensive understanding of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from their embryonic development through adult maintenance to aging, in the studies conducted in zebrafish and mammals. Hematopoiesis provides a paradigm for understanding the development, maintenance, regeneration, aging and malignant transformation of mammalian organs. Sitting at the apex of the hematopoiesis hierarchy tree, HSCs orchestrate their proliferation, self-renewal, and differentiation to produce all the blood cell lineages throughout life, which represents the best example for somatic stem cell studies. In this book, key regulatory mechanisms for HSC self-renewal and differentiation are overviewed in an array of fields including epigenetics, metabolism and microenvironment regulation. It also highlights the HSC heterogeneity and clonal dynamics from the recent advanced single-cell technologies. This book elaborates on the research history of HSC studies and reveals how the insights from HSC studies shed light on their clinic application. It presents great value from the bench to the clinic.

Fatigue occurs under cyclic loading and can significantly degrade the operational capability and safety of metallic aircraft components and structures. This book provides summaries of some metallic aircraft structural integrity issues, innovative but established examples of maintaining operational capability¿airworthiness, and assessments of safe in-service fatigue lives. These topics are based on a through-life fatigue management philosophy that ensures safe and continued operation, including during life extensions that are almost inevitably required. This philosophy is underpinned by observations of the behaviour of fatigue cracks in actual structures subjected to realistic service loading conditions. The book includes topics like aircraft design requirements, individual aircraft fatigue loads monitoring, airframe fatigue testing, sources of fatigue-nucleating discontinuities, and prediction of fatigue crack growth from these discontinuities. All these aspects contribute to discussing methods of assuring the structural integrity and operational capability of realistically cracked structures. The book also discusses the exponential behaviour of lead or dominant cracks¿those leading to first failure¿and the practical significance of differences between fatigue fracture topographies produced under constant amplitude and variable amplitude loading. The book can be a valuable reference for researchers and professionals interested in aircraft fatigue management and allied fields.

This book tackles global economic and social issues from a perspective that may seem obvious but which no author has yet taken: that we humans are living beings. In today¿s artificially globalized world, we have increasingly lost sight of our original humanity. Despite the serious environmental, social, and political problems we are facing, we cannot stop focusing on economic growth, efficiency, and liberalization. In doing so, we continue to make the world ¿slicker¿ and more unstable. This book identifies these conventional values and ways of thinking as the root cause underlying many of today¿s challenges, and it offers the perspective of a ¿bumpier¿ and more organic human existence that provides a greater sense of traction and stability.The book begins with a discussion of global systems and structures, proposing a ¿world with two systems¿ to limit the effects of artificially constructed globalization. The second part examines the modern welfare state, outlining a process to revive democracy and social capital by making social issues the business of everyday citizens. The third and final part focuses on human well-being, emphasizing physicality and the Japanese concept of kata as keys to restoring our humanity.Rather than searching for specific solutions through specialized knowledge, this book makes use of the author¿s broad perspective acquired through many years of public policy research and reform. It asserts that knowledge should be acquired through hands-on experience and in studies based on real-world situations, involving people at the forefront of society¿s challenges, whether politicians, businesspeople, scientists, craftspeople, or farmers.In both its analysis of humanity¿s problems and the solutions it offers, this book takes an entirely new yet utterly natural approach to steering humanity off the global economic superhighway.

This book is the first academic monograph on the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST, or Chinäs ¿sky eye¿), which discusses the research on cable-driven and rigid parallel robots in detail. Taking the final scale model of the FAST feed support system as the object, it introduces the theoretical and engineering research on optimal design, accuracy improvement, and control of the cable-driven and rigid parallel robots, striving to clearly illustrate the core technology of the FAST feed support system, as well as the theoretical methodology and engineering technology of cable-driven and rigid parallel mechanisms. The theoretical innovation and technological breakthroughs of the cable-driven and rigid parallel robots directly support the implementation of the feed support system, which is one of the three major innovations of the FAST. This book is geared toward the high-performance development trend of robotics and follows the complete development process of the design, control, and engineering practice of the FAST feed support system. It systematically elaborates the core theories and technologies, such as dynamic modeling, precision analysis, dimension synthesis, vibration suppression control, and inertia matching of cable-driven and rigid parallel robots. This book elaborates on theoretical research and engineering practice, which have significant inspiration and reference effects. It guides readers to gain engineering experience and practical knowledge. The intended readership includes researchers, postgraduate students, undergraduate students, technology enthusiasts, etc.

Future epidemics are inevitable, and it takes months and even years to collect fully annotated data. The sheer magnitude of data required for machine learning algorithms, spanning both shallow and deep structures, raises a fundamental question: how big data is big enough to effectively tackle future epidemics? In this context, active learning, often referred to as human or expert-in-the-loop learning, becomes imperative, enabling machines to commence learning from day one with minimal labeled data. In unsupervised learning, the focus shifts toward constructing advanced machine learning models like deep structured networks that autonomously learn over time, with human or expert intervention only when errors occur and for limited datäa process we term mentoring. In the context of Covid-19, this book explores the use of deep features to classify data into two clusters (0/1: Covid-19/non-Covid-19) across three distinct datasets: cough sound, Computed Tomography (CT) scan, and chest x-ray (CXR). Not to be confused, our primary objective is to provide a strong assertion on how active learning could potentially be used to predict disease from any upcoming epidemics. Upon request (education/training purpose), GitHub source codes are provided.

This book includes articles from the Third International Conference on Sustainable Civil Engineering and Architecture (ICSSEA 2023), held at Da Nang City, Vietnam, on July 19-21, 2023. The conference brings together international experts from both academia and industry to share their knowledge and expertise, facilitate collaboration, and improve cooperation in the field. The book focuses on the most recent developments in sustainable architecture and civil engineering, including offshore structures, structural engineering, building materials, and architecture.

This book provides recent theoretical results and applications of the consensus control for nonlinear leader-following systems. Combining adaptive control technique, fuzzy logic systems, neural networks with the other control techniques or approaches, this book investigates the consensus control problem of leader-following systems and proposes the corresponding control scheme. This book intends to provide the readers a good understanding on consensus control based on adaptive control technology. This book can serve as a reference for the main research issues and results on nonlinear multi-agent systems including leader-following systems for researchers devoting to various areas of control theory, as well as a material for graduate and undergraduate students interested in nonlinear multi-agent systems including leader-following systems and their applications. Some prerequisites for reading this book include nonlinear system theory, matrix theory, mathematics, basic graph theory, and soon.

This book examines the ways in which North American Indigenous identity has been (re)imagined, represented, and negotiated in German, Croatian, Italian, Polish, and Czech culture. Employing a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach and drawing on a range of mediäfrom literature, comics, and film to photography, painting, and the performative arts¿across different historical and cultural backgrounds, it aims to both contribute innovative scholarship on Indigenous studies in Europe and open a new avenue in the field by focusing on Central European settings that have received little or no critical attention to date. The book¿s novelty also comes from its focus on the latest developments in the field, including the ¿Ravensburger/Winnetou controversy,¿ which swept across Europe in 2022, echoing the 2017 Canadian debate over Indigenous appropriation and free speech. It seeks to provide a sound reference and lay the groundwork for future scholarship by opening up a conversation on how Indigenous identities have been portrayed in Central European literature and media texts. To this end, it not only addresses generalized expectations about North American Indigenous people underlying (Central) European public discourse and imagination but also questions whether and to what extent some of the ingrained stereotypical views and practices, such as hobbyism, have been challenged in the face of Indigenous resurgence, rapidly changing media and information-sharing realities, and global cultural shifts. The closing interview with Métis playwright, actor, and director Bruce Sinclair underscores one of the book¿s key goals¿to spark an informed cross-cultural dialogue that will reveal the mechanisms of, as well as the contradictions and tensions inherent in, the politics of Indigenous representation in (Central) European cultural industries and encourage (Central) Europeans to confront their own cultural assumptions and attitudes.

This book discusses Metaverse Technology, which is one of the emerging technologies around the world, through its concepts, definitions, architectural layers, economic implications, and presents comparison points with other allied areas like Web 3.0, Digital Twin, Blockchain, Multiverse, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Everything and Hyperautomation.The book also presents several use-cases and adoption areas of Metaverse technology, along with global outlook of top companies implementing this technology through major platforms and tools. The potential use of this technology for Public Sector is also explored in this book, apart from the suggested business framework for its adoption. Potential misuse and ethical concerns have also been summarised. This introductory book on Metaverse, written with a multidisciplinary approach, will provide readers with a clear understanding of what the Metaverse is, what technologies are involved in its creation, and its current aswell as potential future applications, in a very simple manner.

This book presents and discusses the results of the ¿Plans to Pedagogy¿ (P2P) project that was implemented across 13 diverse Australian and New Zealand schools, each with a unique school context and specific learning environment issue. The project employed a participatory approach, where academic researchers partnered with school leaders and staff in each school to co-design, implement, and evaluate research targeting the school¿s chosen issue. It explores and analyses the case studies from the project and discusses a range of topics, including how space can be used as a pedagogic tool, determining the affordances of learning environments to engage students, how teacher collaboration can be enhanced in flexible spaces, and how furniture influences student engagement and teacher pedagogies. It also provides school leaders with authentic examples of how research can be utilised to drive evidence-based discussions about teacher practices and student learning. Finally, it also illustrates how teachers can design and implement powerful studies that underpin better pedagogies in their schools.

This book is a monograph on contemporary utilitarianism, focusing on its evolving path and logic. It describes the evolution of utilitarianism from the classical model to the contemporary model and then summarizes the characteristics of contemporary utilitarianism, revealing its advantages and disadvantages. This book points out that the best characteristic of contemporary utilitarianism is to give up traditional view of individualism and take balanced attitude to the relationship between individual and community. The change makes the goal of contemporary utilitarianism from the pursuit of maximizing the sum of individual utilities to optimal social utility. Therefore, the contemporary utilitarianism gradually evolves a public philosophy with multiple interests structure, which provides a new way to solve the contradiction between personal interest and public interest.Utilitarianism is still an important political philosophy in western society, but its existing defects actually make it difficult to have a transformative impact on western institutional structure and system. The target audience of this book are students and researchers majoring in politics and ethics.