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Edible Insects in the Food Sector: Methods, Current Applications and Perspectives
by Giovanni Sogari Cristina Mora Davide MenozziThis book explores one of the most discussed and investigated novel foods in recent years: edible insects. The increasing demand for alternative protein sources worldwide had led the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to promote the potential of using insects both for feed and food, establishing a program called “Edible Insects.” Although several social, environmental, and nutritional benefits of the use of insects in the human diet have been identified, the majority of the population in Western countries rejects the idea of adopting insects as food, predominantly for cultural reasons. Nevertheless, international interest in promoting the consumption of insects has grown significantly, mainly in North America and Europe. This trend is mostly due to increasing attention and involvement from the scientific network and the food and feed industries, as well as governments and their constituents. The book explores the current state of entomophagy and identifies knowledge gaps to inform primary research institutions, students, members of the private sector, and policymakers to better plan, develop, and implement future research studies on edible insects as a sustainable source of food. The case studies and issues presented in this book cover highly up-to-date topics such as aspects of safety and allergies for human consumption, final meat quality of animals fed with insects, the legislative framework for the commercialization of this novel food, and other relevant issues.
Fuzzy Collaborative Forecasting and Clustering: Methodology, System Architecture, and Applications (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology)
by Tin-Chih Toly Chen Katsuhiro HondaThis book introduces the basic concepts of fuzzy collaborative forecasting and clustering, including its methodology, system architecture, and applications. It demonstrates how dealing with disparate data sources is becoming more and more popular due to the increasing spread of internet applications. The book proposes the concepts of collaborative computing intelligence and collaborative fuzzy modeling, and establishes several so-called fuzzy collaborative systems. It shows how technical constraints, security issues, and privacy considerations often limit access to some sources. This book is a valuable source of information for postgraduates, researchers and fuzzy control system developers, as it presents a very effective fuzzy approach that can deal with disparate data sources, big data, and multiple expert decision making.
Information and Communication Technologies (Computational Social Sciences)
by Federico Cecconi Marco CampennìThis book presents the effects of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) and economic processes in macroeconomic dynamics, finance, marketing, industrial policies, and in government economic strategy. The text explores modeling and applications in these fields and also describes, in a clear and accessible manner, the theories that guide the integration among information technology (IT), telecommunications, and the economy, while presenting examples of their applications. Current trends such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data technologies used in economics are also included. This volume is suitable for researchers, practitioners, and students working in economic theory and the computational social sciences.
Changing Age and Career Concepts in the Austrian Banking Industry: A Case Study of Middle-Aged Non-managerial Employees and Managers (Contributions to Management Science)
by Barbara Marina Covarrubias VenegasDemographic change is affecting societies and organizations alike. Although ageing is relevant to all, there is still a tendency for more negative stereotypes to be attributed to older individuals, while positive stereotypes are mainly associated with younger individuals. Further, there are indications of gendered ageism, showing that age prejudices are more likely to affect women. This book argues that, through holistic measures, human resources management is of fundamental importance to an age-friendly and non-age-discriminatory culture. It can be assumed that awareness-raising on age issues also takes into account the gender issue. Drawing on qualitative interviews with employees in the Austrian banking industry and using an analytical framework, the author provides suggestions and implications for organizations to address this situation.
Dissidents in Communist Central Europe: Human Rights and the Emergence of New Transnational Actors (Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements)
by Kacper SzuleckiThis monograph traces the history of the dissident as a transnational phenomenon, exploring Soviet dissidents in Communist Central Europe from the mid-1960s until 1989. It argues that our understanding of the transnational activist would not be what it is today without the input of Central European oppositionists and ties the term to the global emergence and evolution of human rights. The book examines how we define dissidents and explores the association of political resistance to authoritarian regimes, as well as the impact of domestic and international recognition of the dissident figure. Turning to literature to analyse the meaning and impact of the dissident label, the book also incorporates interviews and primary accounts from former activists. Combining a unique theoretical approach with new empirical material, this book will appeal to students and scholars of contemporary history, politics and culture in Central Europe.
Targeting Uplift: An Introduction to Net Scores
by René Michel Igor Schnakenburg Tobias von MartensThis book explores all relevant aspects of net scoring, also known as uplift modeling: a data mining approach used to analyze and predict the effects of a given treatment on a desired target variable for an individual observation. After discussing modern net score modeling methods, data preparation, and the assessment of uplift models, the book investigates software implementations and real-world scenarios. Focusing on the application of theoretical results and on practical issues of uplift modeling, it also includes a dedicated chapter on software solutions in SAS, R, Spectrum Miner, and KNIME, which compares the respective tools. This book also presents the applications of net scoring in various contexts, e.g. medical treatment, with a special emphasis on direct marketing and corresponding business cases. The target audience primarily includes data scientists, especially researchers and practitioners in predictive modeling and scoring, mainly, but not exclusively, in the marketing context.
Adaptations of Coastal Cities to Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, Climate Change and Endemic Hazards (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)
by Frederic R. SiegelThis book discusses the identification of, solutions to, and management of threats to high population coastal cities and their seaports from global warming, climate change and endemic hazards. These include prevention of sea water intrusion of freshwater coastal aquifers, emplacement of barriers that mitigate the threats from sea level rise, and inundation of urban centers plus those from storm surges that cause flooding and salination of inshore terrain. The book assesses mitigation of the effects of extreme weather events such as drought, and major flooding from heavy rainfall on coastal urban centers, or on associated drainage basins. It also considers how coastal cities can counter vulnerabilities from other physical hazards (e.g., earthquakes - building codes) and health hazards (e.g., pollution, public health response - preparedness) that may be related to a city’s geological/geographical location and service as a port of entry for goods and travelers (regional and international). The book also cites the high costs of safeguarding citizen and municipal assets, but notes possible sources of potential funding especially from less developed and developing nations. The book is written to give strong background information to students majoring in environmental sciences or those in other majors with interests in the effects of global warming/climate change, and will be of interest to social scientists, think tank personnel, government planners, and lay persons in environmentally oriented organizations.
Maritime Security in East and West Africa: A Tale of Two Regions
by Dirk SiebelsThis book examines the nexus between maritime security and the ‘blue economy’ in sub-Saharan Africa. In recent years, maritime security issues have received increasing attention, but academic and policy-related discussions are largely limited to counter-piracy operations and, to a smaller extent, problems related to illegal fishing. This project offers an essential addition to the current academic and political discourse, combining a broad range of statistics with primary research and findings from more than 40 interviews with key stakeholders. It provides a unique analysis, recognizing that maritime security is not an end in itself but rather linked to economic and immaterial benefits of a more secure environment at sea.
The Atlas of Health Inequalities in Japan (Global Perspectives on Health Geography)
by Tomoki Nakaya Yuri ItoThis new health atlas of Japan presents a series of maps about the health of the contemporary Japanese population, i.e. detailed maps of health indicators in small areas using cartograms. This is the first comprehensive small-area based health atlas about contemporary Japan using vital statistics from 1995-2014. Each map is supplemented with concise explanations written by leading epidemiologists and health geographers in Japan. The book employs various cutting-edge methods in spatial epidemiology, Bayesian spatial smoothing for the reliable mapping of mortality indices, advanced cartographic transformations using the concept of aerial cartograms, and summary statistics of socioeconomic health inequalities. The atlas highlights geographical aspects of social gradients in health by comparing mortality maps with distribution of deprivation index during the recent long-lasting economic stagnation period of Japan known as the lost decades. This health atlas will be a useful resource for international comparisons between Japan and other advanced countries in terms of health and related socioeconomic disparities between regions. It will be of interest to public health practitioners, administrators, researchers and students working on health geography and public health.
Cross-Border Mergers: EU Perspectives and National Experiences (Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation #17)
by Thomas PapadopoulosThis edited volume focuses on specific, crucially important structural measures that foster corporate change, namely cross-border mergers. Such cross-border transactions play a key role in business reality, economic theory and corporate, financial and capital markets law. Since the adoption of the Cross-border Mergers Directive, these mergers have been regulated by specific legal provisions in EU member states. This book analyzes various aspects of the directive, closely examining this harmonized area of EU company law and critically evaluating cross-border mergers as a method of corporate restructuring in order to gain insights into their fundamental mechanisms. It comprehensively discusses the practicalities of EU harmonization of cross-border mergers, linking it to corporate restructuring in general, while also taking the transposition of the directive into account. Exploring specific angles of the Cross-border Mergers Directive in the light of European and national company law, the book is divided into three sections: the first section focuses on EU and comparative aspects of the Cross-border Mergers Directive, while the second examines the interaction of the directive with other areas of law (capital markets law, competition law, employment law, tax law, civil procedure). Lastly, the third section describes the various member states’ experiences of implementing the Cross-border Mergers Directive.
The Ecosystem of e-Business: 17th Workshop on e-Business, WeB 2018, Santa Clara, CA, USA, December 12, 2018, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing #357)
by Jennifer J. Xu Bin Zhu Xiao Liu Michael J. Shaw Han Zhang Ming FanThis book constitutes revised selected papers from the 17th Workshop on e-Business, WeB 2018, which took place in Santa Clara, CA, USA, in December 2018. The purpose of WeB is to provide an open forum for e-Business researchers and practitioners world-wide, to share topical research findings, explore novel ideas, discuss success stories and lessons learned, map out major challenges, and collectively chart future directions for e-Business. The WeB 2018 theme was “The Ecosystem of e-Business: Technologies, Stakeholders, and Connections.”There was a total of 47 submissions and 41 papers were presented at the conference. Of these, 19 revised papers are presented in this volume. These contributions are organized in the following topical sections: social, policy, and privacy issues; e-market; FinTech; and artificial intelligence.
Large Scale Optimization in Supply Chains and Smart Manufacturing: Theory and Applications (Springer Optimization and Its Applications #149)
by Jesús M. Velásquez-Bermúdez Marzieh Khakifirooz Mahdi FathiIn this book, theory of large scale optimization is introduced with case studies of real-world problems and applications of structured mathematical modeling. The large scale optimization methods are represented by various theories such as Benders’ decomposition, logic-based Benders’ decomposition, Lagrangian relaxation, Dantzig –Wolfe decomposition, multi-tree decomposition, Van Roy’ cross decomposition and parallel decomposition for mathematical programs such as mixed integer nonlinear programming and stochastic programming. Case studies of large scale optimization in supply chain management, smart manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 are investigated with efficient implementation for real-time solutions. The features of case studies cover a wide range of fields including the Internet of things, advanced transportation systems, energy management, supply chain networks, service systems, operations management, risk management, and financial and sales management. Instructors, graduate students, researchers, and practitioners, would benefit from this book finding the applicability of large scale optimization in asynchronous parallel optimization, real-time distributed network, and optimizing the knowledge-based expert system for convex and non-convex problems.
Handbook of Innovative Career Counselling
by Jacobus G. MareeThis book examines a topic widely regarded as the most pressing in career counselling today, i.e., how to ensure that everyone receives career counselling and that all workers have the opportunity to engage in sustainable, decent work. The author holds that career counselling should not only advance workers’ self- and career construction, helping them design successful career-lives and make social contributions, and live purposeful lives – it should also expound new theoretical approaches and interventions. Furthermore, the book criticizes global society for overlooking the basic needs of many workers, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. An important feature of the book is its emphasis on promoting a creative and innovative approach to career counselling so as to better answer contemporary career-related questions. It offers guidance on how to advance entrepreneurship and help workers develop critical thinking, curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and communication skills. In this way the book promotes innovation in career counselling and maps the way forward in a theoretical and practical manner that helps clients ‘flourish’ rather than merely ‘survive’ in turbulent times impacted by the fourth wave in psychology, career counselling, the economy, as well as the 4th industrial revolution (Work 4.0).
Tactical Management in Complexity: Managerial and Informational Aspects (Contributions to Management Science)
by Renata Petrevska NechkoskaThis book draws on the author’s own experience as a practitioner, collaborations with professionals from small and medium-sized businesses with international scope in North Macedonia and Belgium, and academic research. Its goal is to bring together tactical management and information systems research in complex environments. By developing the “DENICA” managerial method it re-introduces tactics as an important managerial function and underestimated source of competitive advantage. The book also offers a roadmap for dynamic reconfiguration of the managerial systems in complex environment, while considering adaptability, sustainability and effectiveness in the process. Furthermore, the book introduces a methodological “kaleidoscope” which combines IS methodology with the managerial sciences, offering a model that can be adapted and replicated to specific contexts in order to achieve fitting solutions. Real-world case studies from North Macedonia and Belgium apply these methods and illustrate their practical implications.
Revival of a City: Coventry in a Globalising World (Palgrave Studies in Economic History)
by Jason Begley Tom Donnelly David Jarvis Paul SissonsIn 2021 Coventry celebrates being the national City of Culture. Modern Coventry is a product of successive rounds of industrial, economic and social developments driven by regional, national and global forces. This book presents a timely opportunity to reflect on this rich, and often misunderstood, history.The book examines the development of industry, services, infrastructure and social transformation, and the role which globalising forces have played in influencing these, particularly since the 1950s. It looks at the experiences of the city of Coventry in responding to the challenges of socioeconomic change, technological advances, reconstruction and renewal.Issues of investment, economic decline, reconstruction, employment change and local and national governance are all considered in assessing the story of modern Coventry, a city influenced by new industries and development opportunities while still being shaped by its historical economic challenges. By focusing on the case of Coventry this book contributes to debates surrounding urban structural change, economic diversification and resilience from the perspective of a medium-sized city.
Africa on the Move: Migration, Translocal Livelihoods and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Springer Geography)
by Malte Steinbrink Hannah NiedenführThis book discusses migration and space-spanning social network relationships as normal realities of life in African societies. It offers an overview of the research landscape and introduces an agency-centered theoretical model that provides a conceptual framework for translocality. The authors Malte Steinbrink and Hannah Niedenführ plead for a translocal approach to social transformation, showing how the translocality of livelihoods is shaping the lives of half a billion people on the continent and impacting local conditions. Using an action-oriented approach, the book analyzes the effects of translocal livelihoods on diverse aspects of economic, environmental and social change in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. The study thus makes an innovative contribution not only to migration research and development studies but also to the discussion around the policy and practice of development cooperation and planning. It is time to rethink development in light of translocal realities. The book appeals to scholars and researchers in geography, sociology, policy-making and planning, development studies, migration research and rural development.
Transactional Lean: A Systematic Approach to Industrialize Office Processes
by Bruno G. RüttimannThis book goes beyond searching for Muda by Gemba walk; the aim is to industrialize the office environment in view of the new digitalization challenge by applying the same principles of Lean industry. Whereas the basic process theory remains valid, the Lean tools have to be adapted and transposed to the office characteristics where not machines but employees are at the center of the transactions. Here, a new, already successfully applied, integrated, industry-derived, and systematic approach is presented. It will not only boost office effectiveness and productivity as well as shortening lead-time of office routines far beyond simple Muda elimination, but it will also prepare the processes in view of the upcoming digitalization era.
Intelligent Computing: Proceedings of the 2019 Computing Conference, Volume 1 (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #997)
by Kohei Arai Rahul Bhatia Supriya KapoorThis book presents the proceedings of the Computing Conference 2019, providing a comprehensive collection of chapters focusing on core areas of computing and their real-world applications. Computing is an extremely broad discipline, encompassing a range of specialized fields, each focusing on particular areas of technology and types of application, and the conference offered pioneering researchers, scientists, industrial engineers, and students from around the globe a platform to share new ideas and development experiences. Providing state-of-the-art intelligent methods and techniques for solving real- world problems, the book inspires further research and technological advances in this important area.
Derivatives and Internal Models: Modern Risk Management (Finance and Capital Markets Series)
by Hans-Peter Deutsch Mark W. BeinkerNow in its fifth edition, Derivatives and Internal Models provides a comprehensive and thorough introduction to derivative pricing, risk management and portfolio optimization, covering all relevant topics with enough hands-on, depth of detail to enable readers to develop their own pricing and risk tools. The book provides insight into modern market risk quantification methods such as variance-covariance, historical simulation, Monte Carlo, hedge ratios, etc., including time series analysis and statistical concepts such as GARCH Models or Chi-Square-distributions. It shows how optimal trading decisions can be deduced once risk has been quantified by introducing risk-adjusted performance measures and a complete presentation of modern quantitative portfolio optimization. Furthermore, all the important modern derivatives and their pricing methods are presented; from basic discounted cash flow methods to Black-Scholes, binomial trees, differential equations, finite difference schemes, Monte Carlo methods, Martingales and Numeraires, terms structure models, etc. The fifth edition of this classic finance book has been comprehensively reviewed. New chapters/content cover multicurve bootstrapping, the valuation and hedging of credit default risk that is inherently incorporated in every derivative—both of which are direct and permanent consequences of the financial crises with a large impact on our understanding of modern derivative valuation. The book will be accompanied by downloadable Excel spread sheets, which demonstrate how the theoretical concepts explained in the book can be turned into valuable algorithms and applications and will serve as an excellent starting point for the reader’s own bespoke solutions for valuation and risk management systems.
Stock Market Short-Termism: Law, Regulation, and Reform
by Kim M. WilleyConsideration of harmful short-termism in capital markets is prevalent amongst legal and business academics. It is also garnering increased attention in corporate board rooms and executive suites, and from the investing public. As a result, correcting perceived short-termism in capital markets has become a rationale for reform used by regulators across the globe. Despite the considerable attention given to this phenomenon, there has not yet been a comprehensive book analyzing the perceived short-termism problem, its sources and causes, and reform efforts undertaken to date. This book fills this gap by documenting the rise of the short-termism discussion, analyzing the significance of the problem, and considering the proposed legal remedies. Based on this analysis, a framework for effective short-termism reform is offered.
Integrating Christian Faith and Work: Individual, Occupational, and Organizational Influences and Strategies (Palgrave Studies in Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment)
by Sharlene G. Buszka Timothy EwestThough the majority of Americans claim faith in God and adults spend the majority of their time working, these two important dimensions of life are rarely effectively integrated. It is important for people of every faith tradition to consider how, when and if their faith and work are to be integrated. This is especially true as research shows that the integration of faith and spirituality in the workplace results in numerous benefits for individuals, organizations and society - if done respectfully. This book presents key research insights concerning integration influences and strategies for Christians who seek to integrate their faith and their work. Specifically, it discusses how individual, occupational and organizational factors influence faith and work integration, and suggests diverse ways to integrate the Christian faith at work. The Faith and Work Integration Spheres of Influence Model is presented as a tool to guide individuals in better understanding how to develop their own personal plan for faith and work integration within the context of limiting or enabling occupational and organizational factors. It also suggests areas for further research on this topic. Readers will learn how Christian faith and work integration can be maximized based on individual attributes, occupational characteristics, and organizational factors.
Road Vehicle Automation 6 (Lecture Notes in Mobility)
by Gereon Meyer Sven BeikerThis is the sixth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. The contents have been provided by researchers, engineers and analysts from all around the world. Topics covered include public sector activities, human factors and challenges, ethical, legal, energy and technology perspectives, vehicle systems development, as well as transportation infrastructure and planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium held on July 9-12, 2018 in San Francisco, CA (USA).
Strategic Capability Response Analysis: The Convergence of Industrié 4.0, Value Chain Network Management 2.0 and Stakeholder Value-Led Management
by David Walters Deborah HelmanThis book integrates Industrié 4.0, Value Chain Network Management 2.0, and Stakeholder Value-Led Management into a method, offering organizations an opportunity to be more analytical when making strategic decisions for operations management activities. Strategic Capability Response Analysis embraces the value expectations of all stakeholders in a business enterprise and links them together with a demand-supply-response relationship. This convergence delivers a focused “agile-rolling-value proposition” that optimizes the expectations and the resources of its stakeholder constituents. The use of Strategic Capability Response Analysis considers the implications of the changing environment of value chain network management for the digital age. Industrié 4.0 has presented numerous opportunities across all industries to improve both the effectiveness of strategic decisions and the efficiency of their implementation to the network stakeholders. As Industrié 4.0 is changing the characteristics of decision making, the proposed model considers the impact of alternative solutions on the core business model components of performance, profitability, productivity, producibility, partnerships and preservation. The book includes case studies to highlight current management problems and how this approach can be used to help resolve those issues.
Granular Knowledge Cube: An Expert Finder System for Knowledge Carriers (Fuzzy Management Methods)
by Alexander DenzlerThis book introduces a novel type of expert finder system that can determine the knowledge that specific users within a community hold, using explicit and implicit data sources to do so. Further, it details how this is accomplished by combining granular computing, natural language processing and a set of metrics that it introduces to measure and compare candidates’ suitability. The book describes profiling techniques that can be used to assess knowledge requirements on the basis of a given problem statement or question, so as to ensure that only the most suitable candidates are recommended. The book brings together findings from natural language processing, artificial intelligence and big data, which it subsequently applies to the context of expert finder systems. Accordingly, it will appeal to researchers, developers and innovators alike.
Advances in Information Systems Development: Designing Digitalization (Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation #34)
by Bo Andersson Björn Johansson Chris Barry Michael Lang Henry Linger Christoph SchneiderThis volume features a collection of papers on emerging concepts, significant insights, novel approaches and ideas in information systems research. It examines advances in information systems development in general, and their impact on the development of new methods, tools and management. The book contains invited papers selected from the 27th International Conference on Information Systems Development (ISD) held in Lund, Sweden, August 22 - 24, 2018. The revised and expanded papers present research that focuses on methods, tools and management in information systems development. These issues are significant as they provide the basis for organizations to identify new markets, support innovative technology deployment, and enable mobile applications to detect, sense, interpret and respond to the environment.