Bücher veröffentlicht von Springer

Cultural understandings of soil are diverse and often ambiguous. Cultural framing of soils is common worldwide and is highly consequential. The implications of what place the earth has in people's world view and everyday life can be in line with or in conflict with natural conditions, with scientific views, or with agricultural practices. The main assumption underlying this work is that soil is inescapably perceived in a cultural context by any human. This gives emergence to different significant webs of meaning influenced by religious, spiritual, or secular myths, and by a wide range of beliefs, values and ideas that people hold in all societies. These patterns and their dynamics inform the human-soil relationship and how soils are cared for, protected, or degraded.Therefore, there is need to deal inter-culturally with different sources and types of knowledge and experience regarding soil; a need to cultivate soil awareness and situationally appropriate care through inter- andintra-cultural dialogues and learning. This project focuses on the human and intangible dimensions of soil.To serve this aim, the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) founded a working group on Cultural Patterns of Soil Understanding that has resulted in this book, which presents studies from almost all continents, written by soil scientists and experts from other disciplines. A major objective of this project is to promote intercultural literacy that gives readers the opportunity to appreciate soil across disciplinary and cultural boundaries in an increasingly globalized world. . .

This book comprises the proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering 2022. The contents of this volume focus on specialty conferences in construction, environmental, hydrotechnical, materials, structures, transportation engineering, etc. This volume will prove a valuable resource for those in academia and industry.

This book provides undergraduate physics majors and students of related sciences with a sound understanding of basic electronics and how it is used in the physical sciences. While today few science students go on to careers that demand an ability to design and build electronic circuits, many will use and rely on electronics. As scientists, they will require an appropriate level of fundamental knowledge that enables them, for example, to understand what electronic equipment is doing, to correctly interpret the measurements obtained, and to appreciate the numerous links between electronics and how it is practiced and other areas of science. Discussing electronics in the broader context and from the point of view of the scientist, this book is intended for students who are not planning to become electronics specialists but who will use electronics. It has been written in a relatively informal style and includes many detailed examples, as well assome "outside the box" material, including some ideas from quantum computing, to inspire thought and creativity. A selection of relevant exercises is included at the end of each chapter.In the updated second edition, some sections are clarified and end-of-chapter problems are added. It includes an additional chapter on quantum logic/computing

This book provides for the first time an overview on the current approaches and applications of energy aspects in production and logistics by the use of simulation techniques. During the last decade, the importance of energy in the material flow processes has become more and more important. The pressure to reduce the environmental footprint of production and logistics systems will even intensify in future. Therefore, enterprises have started to integrate the use of energy into their planning processes much more than before, even designing feedback loops, e.g., from energy control to production control. This receives additional attention with the increasing use of renewable, but less reliable, energy sources. Care must be taken to establish processes that aim to use energy when it is available. As an example, many industrial processes like melting or coating have significant energy demands, but could vary the point of time of its consumption within specific limits, leading to a very high complexity. ​ It discusses the construction and application of energy-specific performance indicators and analyzes the input information that needs to be acquired before implementing suitable models. On this basis, concrete technical solutions are introduced.

This book presents a comprehensive guide to Analytic Hierarchy Process with Fuzzy Sets Extensions. Written by prominent researchers, it offers readers a step-by-step approach to decision-making that can be applied to a wide range of real-world problems. With clear explanations and practical examples, this book is an essential resource for researchers, lecturers, and postgraduate students pursuing research on Analytic Hierarchy Process with Fuzzy Sets Extensions. Each chapter in the book provides a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts, including Interval Type-2 Fuzzy AHP, Intuitionistic Fuzzy AHP, Hesitant Fuzzy AHP, Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP, Picture Fuzzy AHP, q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy AHP, Spherical Fuzzy AHP, Circular Intuitionistic Fuzzy AHP, and Decomposed Fuzzy AHP. To foster a better understanding, all the chapters include relevant numerical examples or case studies, making it easy to apply the concepts in practice. Moreover, the book extends all the main aspects of Analytic Hierarchy Process with Fuzzy Sets Extensions, presenting a dynamic snapshot of the field that is expected to stimulate new directions, ideas, and developments. In summary, this book is an essential reference guide for anyone seeking to gain a deep understanding of Analytic Hierarchy Process with Fuzzy Sets Extensions. It is written in a rigorous and scholarly manner, making it a valuable resource for researchers and academics. Order your copy today and discover the practical insights and strategies for decision-making offered by this authoritative volume.

Robust and Adaptive Control (second edition) shows readers how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications, the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-time dynamical systems.The two-part text begins with robust and optimal linear control methods and moves on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Features of the second edition include: sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability under output feedback observer-based loop-transfer recovery (OBLTR) with adaptive augmentation;OBLTR applications to aerospace systems;case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms;realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key featuresof the methods described; andproblem solutions for instructors and MATLAB(R) code provided electronically.The theory and practical applications address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles drawn from the authors' extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging--often open-loop unstable with uncertainties in their dynamics--and thus require both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer.Readers should have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. The second edition contains a background summary of linear systems and control systems and an introduction to state observers and output feedback control, helping to make it self-contained.Robust and Adaptive Control teaches senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.

The book brings together the research completed during 10 editions of International Seminars of Bionics, organized by the School of Architecture of the University of Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, several of them in partnership with the ¿Ion Mincü University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, carried out in Spain and in Romania. The articles here consider advanced bionic design principles, implementing them to an impressive variety of application fields, including, but not limited to, urban planning and landscape, public space, architecture and building structures, design and detailing, application of natural dynamic processes, bio-digital architecture, innovative materials based on living organisms (micro-algae), and nano-modified materials. A particular focus is given to light and perception of light. To illustrate the principles developed, this contributed volume includes descriptions and full-color images of the experimental projects created during the workshops held in the framework of these ISB meetings: Learning from Nature, Integrating Bionics (2009); Adaptability, Efficiency and Biostructures (2010); Bionics and Innovation (2011); Forms and Structures Inspired by Nature (2016, 2017); Furniture Inspired by Natural Models (2018); Relation between Structure and Envelope: Light Structures (2019); Light, from Nature to Architecture. Structures Inspired in Nature (2020); Light in Architecture and Design: A Bionic Perspective (2021); Sustainable Thinking and Bionics (2022).

The volume showcases how basic formulation and solution methods can be used for an improved understanding of stability-affected structures. It also highlights the numerical treatment of the resulting equations, demonstrating and quantifying many aspects of structural stability not available to engineers by the traditional methods. The elaborated theoretical background is also used to show how methods included in commercial software can give misleading conclusions. The book will be of interest to researchers and professionals working in computational modelling of structures. The book includes exercises and projects, appended to each chapter, which further extends its usability as a text book in classroom teaching and for professional courses.

This book explores a process perspective on design and development, grounded in research in design studies, engineering design and systems design.The design and development process is important---it creates all artificial products and systems and determines how well they address human needs. The process perspective set out in this book has value for design and development practice and education, and is in its own right a fascinating topic of investigation.This book expands on the foundations of a process perspective and discusses its realisation in many process models, theories and approaches that have been developed over the years. The chapters provide connected overviews of key concepts and introduce new conceptual frameworks to clarify relationships between the contributions discussed. Practical considerations and competencies required to realise the tangible benefits of a process perspective are also discussed. A unique aspect of this book is that itbrings together many perspectives on the design and development process: those that focus on individual design activity through to those that focus on large-scale development projects; those of research interest and those of practical interest; and those of relevance to design contexts ranging from human-centered design to engineering design and systems design. The chapter bibliographies collect carefully-selected recommendations for further reading on each topic discussed. The book additionally contains many figures presented in colour, visually reflecting each topic's relationship to the new organising frameworks that are introduced.

This book provides readers a good overview of some of most recent advances in the field of hybrid pixelated detectors for X-ray imaging. Coverage includes both technology and applications, with an in-depth review of the research topics conducted at leading research institutions in the world. The conversion of the X-ray signal into an analogue/digital value is discussed, as well as a review of CMOS chips used for X-ray image sensors. Applications of hybrid pixel detectors are discussed, such as medical imaging, high energy physics, space, non-destructive testing and security. Provides coverage of a broad range of topics, from international experts in academia and industry;Includes in-depth analysis of how to optimize X-ray detection and electronics for X-ray detection;Covers both technology and applications in a number of different domains.

Model Validation and Uncertainty Quantification, Volume 3: Proceedings of the 41st IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Structural Dynamics, 2023, the third volume of ten from the Conference brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. The collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Model Validation and Uncertainty Quantification, including papers on: Introduction of Uncertainty QuantificationUncertainty Quantification in DynamicsModel Form Uncertainty and Selection incl. Round Robin ChallengeSensor and Information FusionVirtual Sensing, Certification, and Real-Time MonitoringSurrogate Modeling

The book highlights several challenges and opportunities in the field of software engineering for serious games. It covers a wide range of topics from game design principles to software architecture, testing, and deployment and is structured into two parts. While Part I delves into various aspects of designing, maintaining, adapting, and evaluating games in serious contexts; Part II focuses on the experiences of realizing and using games in serious contexts.One of the primary challenges is to develop effective methods for evaluating serious games and measuring their impact and outcomes. Another challenge is to design serious games that are both engaging and effective, which requires a deep understanding of game design principles and instructional design. The book also emphasizes the need to develop effective software engineering practices for serious game development and the importance of gamification in improving user engagement and motivation. The potential of serious games for addressing societal challenges such as cybersecurity and healthcare is also highlighted. Despite these challenges, the book also identifies several opportunities for the field, including the potential of serious games to provide new and innovative approaches to learning and the potential of serious games to address real-world problems in new and effective ways.This book is intended for software engineers, game developers, educators, and anyone interested in how games in serious contexts can be effectively created. Overall, the chapters in the book provide a valuable snapshot of the current state of the field and offer insights into where it may be headed in the future.

This new book aims at inspiring managers and passionate, influential (new) leaders to re-think how to address communication markets, challenge the way how to orchestrate communication instruments, find new ways to communicate the New, and cultivate a positive communication culture. Leadership communication is a critical success factor of senior management teams and (new) leaders (game changer, pioneers) in the digital and human age to better interact and connect with others; drive innovation and adoption processes; and empower young minds with joy, abundance, and wisdom. In the classical view, leadership communication is part of management communication which means leaders primarily use instruments focusing on teams, presentations, and negotiations. In the modern view, however, new leadership communication also encompasses social media and innovation communication. It dives deeper into ground rules for effective leadership communication and key themes, such as virtual communication, innovation and leadership, and communication model innovation. Be the inspiration! Become a new leader and shape the world.

This book is the outcome of 25 years of research on how to model and use context in real-world applications on a spectrum from technology-centered (SEPT, SART) to human-centered (e.g. FlexMIm) applications, that is, from well-defined domains to more fuzzy ones. It presents: - an operational definition of context that initiated a conceptual framework associated with an implementation framework, the Contextual-Graphs (CxG) formalism - the use of the research for designing a future type of AI systems, namely the context-based intelligent assistant systems There is a large international and interdisciplinary community of individuals convinced by the promises of bottom-up approaches as an alternative to the current top-down approaches in AI mainly. Practitioners will discover a tool easy to understand and use. Researchers will dispose of a comprehensive conceptual framework facilitating its extension on aspects not yet covered beyond group activity modeling, in the realm of the research on AI systems.

This book contains and summarizes research carried out within the DFG Priority Programme 1897: "Calm, Smooth and Smart - Novel Approaches for Influencing Vibrations by Means of Deliberately Introduced Dissipation". The contributions help reduce unwanted vibrations by developing novel approaches for influencing them and lead to a "calm, smooth and smart" behaviour of technical units. "Calm" represents the demand to avoid or at least to severely reduce unwanted noise generated by technical installations. "Smooth" ensures a still comfortable and jerk-free operation of them. Finally, "smart" means that the introduced damping devices not only help to achieve the desired vibrational behaviour of the overall technical systems, but also that they take over additional functional tasks. The results presented in this volume summarize the state-of-the-art and provide motivation for future research. The book is intended for experienced researchers as well as for doctoral and post-doctoral students in engineering, mathematics and physics, as well as industrial researchers interested in the field.

Readers will find in this book a comprehensive text on the intersection of genetic and agriculture, addressing the different levels at which DNA is studied for agricultural purposes. The different subdivisions of genetics (molecular, Mendelian, quantitative and populations) are all discussed in the light of agriculture research and practice. Agricultural Genetics aims to be a support for advanced and undergraduate students taking courses on biology, genetics and breeding applied to agriculture, both for plant sciences and animal sciences.

This book illustrates how to achieve effective dimension reduction and data clustering. The authors explain how to accomplish this by utilizing the advanced dynamic graph learning technique in the era of big data. The book begins by providing background on dynamic graph learning. The authors discuss why it has attracted considerable research attention in recent years and has become well recognized as an advanced technique. After covering the key topics related to dynamic graph learning, the book discusses the recent advancements in the area. The authors then explain how these techniques can be practically applied for several purposes, including feature selection, feature projection, and data clustering.

Significant health-industry human resource needs increase the reliance on family and friends to support older adults hoping to age in place. This book explores how recent improvements in integrated home technologies have the potential to address those challenges. The book considers how embedded home sensors can be used to monitor the health and wellbeing of older adults and how that can be used to assist with supporting safety and well-being. The content is designed to help multiple stakeholders in the supportive smart home space to better understand the complexity of this field and the need for transdisciplinary collaboration. These stakeholders include the older adults who will benefit from supportive smart home technology; informal and formal caregiver and healthcare professionals concerned about the older adult's well-being; researchers from multiple disciplines in the supportive smart home area and their funders; companies looking to develop solutions and servicesor expand their offerings; policy makers who want to ensure privacy and equity in access and a successful integration of these technologies into the evolving health and social services sectors; and students, the future leaders in AgeTech. Overall, the intent of the book is to inspire engineers, computer scientists, industrial designers, clinicians and healthcare providers, social scientists, students, policy makers, and older adults and their caregivers to collaborate in advancing the supportive smart home space to develop more options for aging in place.

This book brings together a series of chapters that provides updated information on adaptation practices against climate change in agriculture and livestock. Information on some new aspects like conservation of carnivorous plants, climate-smart millets production, advances in genomic interventions for climate resilient crops, perceptions on disease and pests under changing climate, role of neglected crops in climate resilient agriculture, nanotechnology in sustainable agriculture, use of crop wild relatives for developing climate resilient crops have been discussed. It also presents detailed information carbon sequestration practices and green consumption behaviour for sustainable development. The last chapter of book mentions about an innovative agronomic technique under rainfed conditions for sustainable yield advantage in soybean crop.

This book comprises the proceedings of the third TMM_CH International Conference on "Transdisciplinary Multispectral Modelling and Cooperation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage." This book showcases the latest advancements in non-destructive testing and structural techniques across a wide range of applications within the realm of cultural heritage. The conference, held at the esteemed Eugenides Foundation in Athens, Greece, brought together scientists, engineers, architects, archeologists, conservators, geologists, art historians, and other stakeholders. Thirteen sessions and panel discussions featuring 142 esteemed panelists provided a platform for the exchange of ideas. With a significant online presence and approximately 50,000 online viewers, the conference had a profound impact on a global scale. This book serves as a valuable resource, presenting recent scientific breakthroughs, non-destructive techniques, and technologies that contribute to the holistic preservation of our world's cultural heritage.

This unique book offers a comprehensive guide to the fascinating world of polystomatid flatworms. It introduces the reader to the individual life histories of polystomes and the chronological advances in our knowledge, with descriptions of species discovered over the past centuries. It equips newcomers to the field with basic protocols and techniques for collecting, processing and interpreting material. It also presents the history of research on this group of parasites, provides information on the discovery of each polystome and acknowledges the authors that have made major contributions. For the established researcher in the field, it offers a reference book containing taxonomic data, measurements and drawings of all known polystomes. The authors have brought together all the available material, creating a resource that will stimulate research and revive the global focus on this unique group of parasites. Thus, this work provides an essential reference for both established researchers and newcomers to the field.

The 3rd and updated edition of this book represents a new and unique scientific reference for the medical community on how to understand rationale and applications of noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV). Its aim is to establish the indications of NIMV in critically ill patients in weaning from invasive MV. Nowadays, there is a growing evidence-based medicine that recommends use of NIMV in patients after extubation or in difficult weaning patients also affected by comorbidities. This book has been conceived with the vision or providing the best resources for everyone working in ICUs even if belonging to different specialties (intensive care, anesthesiology, pneumology, emergency medicine, etc.). Considering the enormous increase of literature on this topic, authors have selected major key topics related to NIMV, excluding those with low rate of interest, have updated previous topics and have introduced new items collecting them in a practical book analyzingmajor key topics for a correct practical applications. A new gaze has been devoted to emergency medicine and prehospital applications and technical developments (new ventilation modes: neurology adaptive modes, average support mode and to the development of synchronization and patient-ventilator interaction result). A section dedicated to sleep medicine - due to the new interesting studies on NIV-CPAP adaptation studies, clinical impacts of CPAP devices and ventilatory modes representing an essentials development for a new adequate analysis - is now included. A part devoted to clinical indications based on the observation of new clinical indications in anesthesiology and pneumology in NIV as complementary technique for procedures like bronchoscopy, pre-oxygenation and difficult endotracheal intubations is also now foreseen.

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Conference on Operations Research (OR 2022), which was held at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, on September 6-9, 2022. KIT's Institute for Operations Research (IOR) hosted the conference together with the Institute for Industrial Production (IIP), the Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics (IAI), and the Institute for Material Handling and Logistics (IFL). The respective papers discuss classical mathematical optimization, statistics and simulation techniques. These are complemented by computer science methods, and by tools for processing data, designing and implementing information systems. The book also examines recent advances in information technology, which allow big data volumes to be processed and enable real-time predictive and prescriptive business analytics to drive decisions and actions. Lastly, it includes problems modeled and treated while taking into account uncertainty, risk management, behavioral issues, etc.

This second edition of Some Unusual Topics in Quantum Mechanics builds upon the topics covered in the first, with additional chapters that delve deeper into the mathematical foundations of the subject. New topics include Hilbert spaces and unbounded operators, minimum uncertainty states, path integrals in general coordinates, Fock spaces, second quantization, relativistic particle states, and quantum fields. Historical insights are also included, such as a pre-history of matrix mechanics and Pauli's proof of the H-atom spectrum using O(4) symmetry. Finally, readers are introduced to Bell's inequality and the non-locality in quantum mechanics that is revealed through its violation. These topics are rarely covered in introductory textbooks but are crucial to developing a student's interest and deeper understanding of quantum mechanics. This book serves as valuable supporting material for graduate-level core courses on the subject.

This unique book opens with a presentation of the current etiology and pathogenesis of clubfoot and vertical talus. Practical approaches to these pediatric congenital disorders are discussed. It includes in-depth discussions of the various age-appropriate treatment strategies along with genetic research for children of all ages. Treatment of deformity recurrences and non-isolated conditions will be explored. Additional chapters cover techniques in both initial treatment and the treatment of clubfoot and vertical talus relapse. Bracing and physical therapy strategies will be discussed. Written and edited by leading researchers and clinicians, this text is essential for all treating pediatric foot and ankle conditions.

What actually is a p-value for? And what is a significant result? This book answers such questions by providing a compact introduction to inferential statistics. Our major focus is on the logic of inferential statistics and hypothesis testing: We cover the logic behind statistical tests, we then walk through the most common procedures (t-test, analysis of variance with and without repeated measures, correlation/regression) and discuss pitfalls of data analysis. The book thus helps developing a solid understanding of how common test procedures work, and how to interpret their results correctly. Hands-on examples from everyday research - including exemplary calculations with the programs SPSS and R - supplement each chapter. In addition to classical methods, we briefly discuss recent developments in psychological research methods.This book is a translation of the original German 3rd edition of "Inferenzstatistik Verstehen" by Markus Janczyk and Roland Pfister. It is based on an AI-powered machine translation (by the service DeepL.com), with thorough follow-up editing by both authors.

The book addresses comprehensively the normal and pathological MRI appearance of the structures of the anterior compartment of the knee, potential sources of pain, in a systematic way, on anatomical layers, from superficial to deep, respectively, from prepatellar soft tissues to intra-articular structures (the synovial lining, patellar and trochlear cartilage). Anterior knee pain can affect any age group and causes a non-specific clinical picture, making it difficult to establish a precise diagnosis and proper management. MRI is currently the standard gold investigation and findings of common an uncommon causes of anterior knee pain are presented.Written by a radiologist and an orthopaedic surgeon with longstanding experience in MRI of musculoskeletal pathology and in sports traumatology, respectively, the book also presents a unique selection of 80 clinical cases of common and less common pathological conditions of anterior knee pain and subdivided in four groups, according to age, from children and adolescents to older adults.Radiologists and orthopaedic surgeons, as well as sport medicine specialists and physiatrists, will find in this book an invaluable tool for their clinical practice.

Centuries ago, when penguins were first encountered by European explorers, they were not thought to be birds but rather a fish-like relative. Subsequent accumulation of knowledge has shown penguins to be an avian species with unrivaled aquatic attributes, owing to a number of evolutionary adaptations: shape change, low drag, ability to regulate buoyancy, and extraordinary surface compliancy from their featheration. They are indeed the most extremely specialized diving bird, having given up flight (which otherwise is hugely advantageous) to the benefit of underwater prowess (such as speed, maneuverability and an ability to exploit an extraordinary range of depths). This flightlessness, however, also comes with costs that are substantial for a seabird (such as the inability to cover large distances quickly in reaction to ephemeral prey); and the energy needed to cope with moving through an aqueous environment, which is more resistant than air. For penguins, the high energetic costs inexploiting the ocean environment thus makes them especially sensitive to changes in food availability or their access to their prey. While a number of "penguin books" cover the natural history, mainly of breeding aspects, few address in much detail the incredible aquatic nature of these creatures. A huge amount of information has been amassed over recent past decades thanks to dramatic advances in microelectronics, bio-logging and maturation of some long-term studies of penguin life history. This work represents an integration of all these data with charts, maps and graphs, along with richly illustrated photos by experts in the field.

This volume presents advanced bio/medical sciences with a particular value for translating research achievements into daily medical practice in the framework of Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (3PM/PPPM). First two decades of the 21st century are characterised by epidemics of non-communicable diseases such as many hundreds of millions of patients diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases and the type 2 diabetes mellitus, breast, lung, liver and prostate malignancies, neurological, sleep, mood and eye disorders, amongst others. Consequent socio-economic burden is tremendous. Unprecedented decrease in age of maladaptive individuals has been reported. The absolute majority of expanding non-communicable disorders carry a chronic character, over a couple of years progressing from reversible suboptimal health conditions to irreversible severe pathologies and cascading collateral complications. The paradigm change from reactive to predictive preventive and personalised medicine is essential to promote population health by application of individualised patient profiling, multi-parametric analysis leading to cost-effective targeted prevention. To this end, inadequate data for risk assessment on speed and urgency of COVID-19, combined with increased globalization of human society, led to the rapid spread of COVID-19. Despite an abundance of digital methods that could be used in slowing or stopping this virus and future pandemics, the world remains unprepared, and lessons have not been learned from previous cases of pandemics. The book presents PPPM strategies which might be of great clinical utility for future pandemics.In a long-term way, a significantly improved healthcare economy is one of the clear benefits of the proposed paradigm shift; a tight collaboration between all stakeholders including scientific community, healthcare providers, patient organisations, policy-makers and educators is analysed for the smooth implementation of the 3PM concepts. Further issues linked to big data management and medical ethics have to be carefully treated in the context of application of artificial intelligence in medicine.

This new multithematic book in the series Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery offers an update on several basic and clinical problems in neurosurgery. The main topics are cerebral tumors, epilepsy and vascular malformations. The first chapter will deal with the burden of childhood cancer across the globe, a particular relevant problem in times where economic restrictions and the increased difficulties to access cure are the direct impact of the Covid19 pandemic. A very detailed chapter will provide new guidelines for neuroimaging investigations for intracerebral pathological conditions of surgical interest in the pediatric population. The technical aspects and technological advances in the surgical management of cerebral midline tumors will be covered by several chapters focusing of the optic pathways' tumors, third ventricle tumors, mesencephalon and pineal body tumors. An update on Chiari malformations and syringomyelia, on the surgical management of epilepsyand on cerebral aneurysms and pediatric spinal vascular malformations will be provided in the remaining contributions. All chapters contribute to an important advancement in the relevant fields, thus offering a valuable contribution to the management of difficult clinical conditions.