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Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment: 14th EAI International Conference, INTETAIN 2023, Lucca, Italy, November 27, 2023, Proceedings (Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering #560)
by Martin Clayton Mauro Passacantando Marcello SanguinetiThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, INTETAIN 2023 which was held in Lucca, Italy, during November 27, 2023.The 15 full papers presented in this book were selected from 56 submissions. They present novel and innovative work in areas of methods (machine learning, movement), computer-based systems (architectures, software, algorithms), and devices (digital cameras, smartphones). The papers are grouped in sessions of thematic issues on Games and Game-Based learning; Motion Capture; Sports and Competitions; and Interfaces and Applications.
Theatre and Global Development: Performing Partnerships
by Bobby SmithHow do theatre and development partnerships operate? What issues impede collaborations between various institutions and individuals? Why do relations between global North and South partners often fail to reflect important values such as equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit? This is the first book to examine theatre and global development partnerships. It focusses on the UK and East African countries of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, presenting the author’s own experiences, case study analyses and perspectives from practitioners and scholars involved in theatre and development. It argues that simplistic binaries pervade partnerships, whereby the global North is regarded as ‘modern’ and ‘developed’ versus the ‘under-developed’ global South. This results in unequal power relations between collaborators, less effective projects with communities, and a lack of reciprocity and mutual benefit. Consequently, this book revitalises how we conceptualise partnerships. Issues such as widening inequalities, conflict, health and the climate crisis impact all countries. How, then, can we work across borders to support interconnected learning and action on these challenges? In this regard, principles of solidarity and mutual responsibility, as well as critical openness, enable us to reflect honestly about the failures of the partnerships we participate in and move beyond simplistic binaries of global North and South. The book is of importance to applied and socially engaged performance scholars and practitioners, and to development workers interested in arts and social change.
Advertising Literacy for Young Audiences in the Digital Age: A Critical Attitude to Embedded Formats
by Beatriz Feijoo Erika Fernández GómezThis book analyzes how children and adolescents aged between 10 and 17 engage with digital advertising and highlights the importance of promoting advertising literacy to help young audiences recognize advertising and distinguish it from other media content in the digital age. As the advertising sector evolves, incorporating new formats like branded content and influencer marketing, the frontiers between commercial content and regular media become blurred, posing a challenge for children and adolescents to discern persuasive intent in advertising and distinguish advertising from other media content. In this context, it is crucial to assess children and adolescents’ preparedness to navigate digital advertising effectively by understanding their level of advertising literacy. With a higher level of advertising literacy, young audiences can evaluate advertisements, considering factors such as product appeal, presentation, and relevance to their experiences, as well as grasp thepurpose behind advertising and the techniques employed. This contributed volume brings together empirical studies and literature reviews to present an overview of the current research on advertising literacy among boys and girls aged between 10 and 17 in different countries to help educators, policymakers, advertisers, and society at large collaborate in nurturing responsible, informed, and ethically conscious digital citizens. Advertising Literacy for Young Audiences in the Digital Age: A Critical Attitude to Embedded Formats will be of interest to researchers working with media education, media sociology and childhood and adolescence studies. It will also help educators and policymakers develop better strategies to prepare children and adolescents to navigate digital advertising effectively.
Six Sigma and Quality Concepts for Industrial Engineers (Synthesis Lectures on Engineering, Science, and Technology)
by Emre TokgozIndustrial engineers need to have a good foundation in the Six Sigma process to define needs, collect data, measure performance, analyze results, and improve operations in the workplace. This textbook covers the associated Six Sigma, lean, and technology-related concepts that an industrial engineer needs to understand to adopt the changes necessary to remove waste and increase productivity. The book introduces essential basic measurement tools and various process improvement methodologies, including total quality management (TQM), Six Sigma and the DMAIC approach, lean methodology, and Kaizen. Case studies and examples examine manufacturing, health care, and transportation services. Six Sigma and Quality Concepts for Industrial Engineers provides industrial engineering students and practitioners with a practical understanding of Six Sigma and manufacturing improvement concepts.
Post-Communist Progress and Stagnation at 35: The Case of Romania
by Lavinia Stan Diane VanceaThis book examines Romania’s efforts to consolidate liberal democracy and market economy, as desired by the generation who effected change in 1989 and required by the European Union. The ousting of Nicolae Ceausescu, leader of an autarchic and nationalistic dictatorship, underscored the limitations of politically engineering change when rule of law is weak, institutions are misused, and intolerance and cheating are prevalent. Despite initial hopes, Romania’s transition combined progress and stagnation, missed opportunities, detours, unintended consequences, and success. The contributions illustrate the tenuous relationship between continuity and change in a country that is yet to catch up with its neighbors.
Net Zero Economy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Value Creation: Exploring Strategies, Drivers, and Challenges (CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance)
by Shahbaz Khan Anil Kumar Sunil Luthra Rubee Singh Hemakshi ChokshiThis edited volume brings together contributions from multiple experts in academia to explore the practical implications of the Net Zero Economy for corporate social responsibility and sustainable value creation in today's world. As the world approaches net-zero emissions by 2050, it is crucial for businesses to take corporate social responsibility seriously and make credible attempts to achieve sustainable value creation while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The book provides a comprehensive guide to navigating the complexities of corporate responsibility in the net-zero economy, drawing on the expertise of scholars in sustainable supply chain, environmental sciences, management, sustainable business management, and social sciences. With contributions from multiple experts, it examines the challenges that businesses face in reducing their climate impact and highlights the green growth opportunities that they can take advantage of in the net-zero transition. This edited volume is an essential read for students, research scholars, and industrial professionals working in sustainable development, eco-friendly business management, and corporate social responsibility.
Language Policy as Practice: Advancing the Empirical Turn in Language Policy Research
by Florence Bonacina-PughThis edited book brings together original contributions from scholars working across Language Policy and Planning to advance the recent 'Empirical turn' that has taken place in the field. All the chapters in the volume show how Language Policy can be conceptualized 'as practice' in a variety of domains, ranging from the home to the workplace, schools, and higher education. The authors also suggest further theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments for the discipline in light of this epistemological shift. A Foreword and an Afterword shed light on the theoretical and empirical lineage of this volume and show how this book contributes to the humanization of Language Policy research. This book will be of interest to scholars and post-graduate students working across Language Policy and Planning, Language in Education Policy, and Family Language Policy, as well as those in adjacent fields including Education Policy, Classroom Discourse, Linguistic Anthropology, Sociologyof Education, and Multilingualism.
Administrative Law for the 21st Century: Administrative Law on an Illiberal and Post-Democratic Context
by Suzana Tavares da SilvaThe book provides a discursive reflection on the current challenges facing administrative law, based on a key idea: the defence of the liberal model of society.The author describes the content of her book as a turning point on the traditional standards of the rule of law and the way it impacts on the administrative state and administrative law. Considering the current use (and abuse) of emergency law by governments – based on economic crisis, environmental crisis, pandemic, and the economic situation caused by the Ukraine war – she devises a different balance or equilibrium on the usual separation of powers. Many reasons contribute to this turning point: i) the weaknesses of an open society easily swayed by social networks; ii) social “tribalism” replaces common good and general interest; iii) social tribalism leads to illiberal society, which causes illiberal democracies; iv) illiberal democracies lead to ungovernability which reinforces the role of the government, the emergency law, and some de facto measures.The author looks at many recent decisions from the ECJ and the ECHR and some constitutional and administrative courts, which extends the interest of this work to a wide range of professionals, from scholars to students, from judges to lawyers, filling the gap from an administrative law perspective of the current issues.
Salivary Gland Diseases Ultrasound: How to Carry out a Thorough Examination
by Philippe KatzThis book details how, over the last 25 years, ultrasound examination as become an indispensable means of diagnosing salivary pathology. It presents the new machines equipped with high-frequency probes which now allow a real approach to the pathology and give a macro-photography of the tumor. Doppler ultrasonography can identify vascularization on inflammatory and tumoral processes, and ultrasound elastography now gives new details and helps judge whether tumors are benign or malignant. This book is a step-by-step guide describing best practices, from handling the probe and placing it on the salivary gland to diagnostic imaging, from infection and chronic diseases to cysts and tumors. Aimed at radiologists, ENT specialists, and maxillofacial surgeons, this book points out how the most inexpensive examination can yield maximum detail if carried out thoroughly.
Meaning and Aging: Humanist Perspectives (Studies in Humanism and Atheism)
by Anja Machielse Joachim DuyndamThe main objective of this book is to add, from a humanist perspective, new interdisciplinary insights and research results to the current academic debate on aging. The collection aims to enhance and complement the predominantly biomedical and sociological debates and provide a more comprehensive and highly topical view on aging and old age. By purveying a meaning-in-life perspective to the current debate we want to enrich and to deepen the research on aging, thus aspiring to an ideal of meaningful aging. The starting point of this book is a humanistic meaning frame for addressing basic needs of a meaningful existence, such as having goals in life, a sense of self-worth, connectedness with others, moral justification, a certain degree of understanding (comprehensibility), direction and influence with a view to cohesion in life, and not in the least place: (living) pleasure or excitement. Taken together, the essays show that experiencing a meaningful life contributes to one’s mentalresilience, conceived as the ability to realize a humane individuality (autonomy) in thinking and acting in situations of adversity and vulnerability, particularly those faced by older people.
Climate Change and Human Adaptation in India: Sustainability and Public Policy (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Sanjeev Sharma Kaushal Kumar Sharma Vijendra Kumar Pandey Rupendra SinghThis contributed volume presents an attempt to understand climatic variability and induced risk to livelihood of communities and to offer insights on how catastrophic conditions and crises can be mitigated through public policy interventions. The case studies herein offer insights into different spheres and domains affected by climate change and present models of adaptation possibilities. The book is divided into three thematic sections. The first contains chapters that deal with assessing the effects of climate change. The second section offers perspectives on adaptation and governance, vulnerability in the context of sustainable livelihoods. The third and last section looks at Policy and Governance, with respect to climatic change adaptation and mitigations. The lessons contained in this volume are useful to a wide audience including research scholars, students, policymakers, and planners.
Structural System Analysis: Su-Field Analysis. TRIZ
by Vladimir PetrovThis book provides a comprehensive exploration of SU-Field Analysis, a groundbreaking framework that delves into the intricate realms of fields, substances, and interactions. It commences with an introduction to the fundamental concepts (Chapter 1), followed by an elucidation of the basic configurations (Chapter 2) and an in-depth examination of various SU-Field systems (Chapter 3). Within Chapter 3, the text delves into the SU-Field model for fields, types of SU-Field systems for measurement and detection, and various SU-Field models. Subsequently, the book delves into the critical subject of eliminating harmful interactions (Chapter 4), discussing trends, introducing innovative solutions like S3, and exploring the use of substances and fields to decelerate detrimental effects. In Chapter 5, the focus shifts to finding desired effects, while Chapter 6 unveils the Law of Increasing Degree of SU-Field, elucidating its general trends and the forcing of substances and fields. Further insights into this law are presented in Chapter 6.4. Additionally, the book touches upon SU-Field Analysis in the context of information systems (Chapter 7) and introduces a new SU-Field structure (Chapter 8). The latter includes discussions on general concepts, parametric analysis, patterns of control elements, energy and information control, knowledge development, and structural analysis of information processing systems. Throughout, the book offers readers a comprehensive and detailed understanding of SU-Field Analysis, making it an invaluable resource for those seeking to explore this groundbreaking field.
YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 2023: Law and the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions #2023)
by Eduardo Gill-Pedro Andreas MobergArtificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to radically transform our society. It may lead to a massive increase in the capabilities of humankind and allow us to address some of our most intractable challenges. It may also entail profound disruption to structures and processes that have sustained our society over centuries. These developments present a unique challenge to the socio-economic constitutional arrangements which govern our world at national, regional and international level. The deployment of increasingly powerful AI systems, able to function with increasing degree of autonomy, has led to concerns over loss of human control of important societal processes, over the disruption of existing economic, social and legal relationships, and over the empowerment of some societal actors at the expense of others, together with the entrenchment of situations of domination or discrimination. It has also made increasingly clear how tremendous the potential benefits, that these technologies may bring, are to those who successfully develop and deploy them. There is therefore great pressure on governments, international institutions, public authorities, civil society organisations, industry bodies and individual firms to introduce or adapt mechanisms and structures that will avoid the potentially negative outcomes of AI and achieve the positive ones. These mechanisms and structures, which have been given the umbrella term ‘AI governance’, cover a wide range of approaches, from individual firms introducing ethical principles which they volunteer to abide by, to the European Union legislating an AI Act, which will prohibit certain types of AI applications and impose binding obligations on AI developers and deployers. The fast pace of innovation in the development of AI technologies is mirrored by the fast pace of development of the emerging field of AI governance, where traditional legislation by public bodies is complemented with more innovative approaches, such ashybrid and adaptive governance, ethical alignment, governance by design and the creation of regulatory sandboxes. The chapter “AI and Sensitive Personal Data Under the Law Enforcement Directive: Between Operational Efficiency and Legal Necessity” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Advances in Real-Time Intelligent Systems: Real-Time Intelligent Systems 2023 (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #950)
by Pit Pichappan Ricardo Rodriguez Jorge Yao-Liang ChungThe current information society is transitioning to an intelligent society where real-world and real-data applications have a profound influence. Real-time computing has an enormous impact on the future information society. Unimaginable applications have been emerging in real-time applications in the last two years. Logical reasoning and inference-making activities by machines have become a reality. Complex and heterogeneous data are being processed and infused into machine intelligence, bringing machine intelligence equal to human intelligence. Real-time data and real-time intelligence are the crux of the current research. This book of 41 papers in real-time intelligent systems addresses various issues ranging from real-time algorithms to various applications in real-time intelligence. The contributions of this book will mark a significant impact in the near-future research in real-time intelligence.
Migrants with a Precarious Status: Evolving Approaches of European Cities (IMISCOE Research Series)
by Sarah Spencer Ilker Ataç Zach Bastick Adrienne Homberger Simon Güntner Maren Kirchhoff Marie Mallet-GarciaThis open access book is an exploration of city responses to migrants with a precarious status in Europe. It provides new evidence and analysis from research on three cities in Austria, Germany and the UK: Vienna, Frankfurt and Cardiff. The book explores strategies and services of municipal authorities towards precarious migrants and their cooperation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in service provision. It focuses on healthcare, education, housing and access to advice; and particular attention is given to the situation of women.The book develops the concept of precarity in relation to migration status, and of horizontal governance arrangements within municipal authorities. It explores the tension between exclusion and inclusion of migrants who have limited rights of access to welfare services, and contributes evidence on the factors shaping municipal policy making, as well as on the framing of rationales for providing access to essential services.
The Resilience of Cultural Landscapes: Perspectives from UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Springer Geography)
by Fabrizio AimarThis book explores the possibility of building the resilience of the UNESCO cultural landscapes, both using theoretical conceptions and practical strategies and actions. Two case studies have been selected, one in Italy and one in China, which have then been explored for the first time in such a comparative way. Different notions of landscape, as well as the driving force of changes affecting these landscapes, are examined and compared. Moreover, the perceptions of the local communities regarding these landscapes are examined, using online questionnaires with over 400 participants. This research highlights the need for an integrated management system, building stronger rural communities able to manage change and continuity. Five pillars to build the resilience of these landscapes have been provided, with schemes and figures, requiring a people-centered approach in their management. This book demonstrates strong connections between identity and landscape resilience, especially in inlandareas where the sense of identity is most prominent. Furthermore, it is structured to make it possible to replicate this investigation in ordinary case studies, i.e. ordinary landscapes. Scholars and professionals interested in cultural landscapes and heritage conservation are target of this book, as well as site managers.
Natural Language Processing in Biomedicine: A Practical Guide (Cognitive Informatics in Biomedicine and Healthcare)
by Hua Xu Dina Demner FushmanThis textbook covers broad topics within the application of natural language processing (NLP) in biomedicine, and provides in-depth review of the NLP solutions that reveal information embedded in biomedical text. The need for biomedical NLP research and development has grown rapidly in the past two decades as an important field in cognitive informatics. Natural Language Processing in Biomedicine: A Practical Guide introduces the history of the biomedical NLP field and takes the reader through the basic aspects of NLP including different levels of linguistic information and widely used machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The book details common biomedical NLP tasks, such as named entity recognition, concept normalization, relation extraction, text classification, information retrieval, and question answering. The book illustrates the tasks with real-life use cases and introduces real-world datasets, novel machine learning and deep learning algorithms, and large language models. Relevant resources for corpora and medical terminologies are also introduced. The final chapters are devoted to discussing applications of biomedical NLP in healthcare and life sciences. This textbook therefore represents essential reading for students in biomedical informatics programs, as well as for professionals who are conducting research or building biomedical NLP systems.
Carpal Instability: The Comprehensive Case-Based Approach
by Jeffrey YaoThis case-based guide is the most comprehensive, up-to-date work focusing on the topic of carpal instability. This work presents all aspects of the conditions including anatomy, physical examination, classification, kinematics, and nonsurgical and surgical methods of management. A wide variety of topics are presented, such as dynamic, static acute, and chronic reducible scapholunate ligament injury, subacute lunotriquetral ligament injury, perilunate injury, SLAC wrist, and more. For each topic, the traditional options as well as the most cutting-edge treatment modalities are discussed in detail, illustrated with numerous clinical and intraoperative photos. Written by a world-class international group of authors comprised of the most widely known experts in the field of carpal instability from around the world, this practical guide will serve as the authoritative resource for young and senior surgeons alike.
Habits: Their Definition, Neurobiology, and Role in Addiction
by Youna VandaeleThis book explores the multiple facets of habit from diverse and complementary theoretical frameworks. It provides a complete overview of the cognitive, computational, and neural processes underlying the formation of distinct forms of habit. The objective of the book is to cover (1) the multiple definitions of the habit construct and the relation between different habit-related concepts, (2) the underlying brain circuits of habits, and (3) the possible involvement of habits in psychiatric disorders such as alcohol and substance use disorder. This book will be of interest to all researchers in behavioral and computational neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry who are interested in associative learning and decision making, under normal and pathological conditions.
Facility Location Under Uncertainty: Models, Algorithms and Applications (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science #356)
by Shuming Wang Francisco Saldanha-da-GamaThis textbook provides researchers, post-graduate students, and practitioners with a systematic framework for coping with uncertainty when making facility location decisions. In addition to in-depth coverage of models and solution techniques, application areas are discussed. The book guides readers through the field, showing how to successfully analyze new problems and handle new applications. Initially, the focus is on base models and concepts. Then, gradually, more comprehensive models and more involved solution algorithms are discussed. Throughout the book, two perspectives are intertwined: the paradigm for capturing uncertainty, and the facility location problem at hand. The former includes stochastic programming, robust optimization, chance-constrained programming, and distributional robust optimization; the latter includes classical facility location problems and those arising in many real-world applications such as hub location, location routing, andlocation inventory.
The Future of Entrepreneurship in Southern Africa: Technological and Managerial Perspectives (Palgrave Studies in Technology and Innovation in Africa)
by Robert Ebo Hinson Patient RambeThis edited collection examines the impact of new technologies and new managerial and policy perspectives on entrepreneurial development in Southern Africa, paying particular attention to small and medium sized enterprises, which contribute significantly to GDP and employment, but often find it difficult to survive beyond the first five years. Chapters are divided in two parts, the first covering technological perspectives and the second managerial perspectives. Africa’s cultural and geographic diversity is taken into account, with authors from Ghana, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe providing regional case studies and the editors synthesising these discussions in a concluding chapter that touches on sustainability and development to working lives and livelihoods across the region. Exploring critical issues of entrepreneurial human capital development, innovation, technology, legislative frameworks and marketing strategies, this book will be of great interest to researchers, students and policymakers.
Safety Culture and Leading Indicators for Safety in the Maritime and Offshore Environment (Springer Series on Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Shipbuilding and Shipping #20)
by Alexander OlsenThis book provides guidance and insight into the development process for safety indicators to comply with general classification rule requirements. The utilisation of this guidance will provide tangible benefits as the marine and offshore industry is able to realise the positive results of tangible safety indicators that are developed correctly and managed appropriately throughout the lifecycle of the vessel or platform. In the marine and offshore industry, design and equipment configurations vary from one system to the next, and systems are in many cases increasingly complex. There are gaps in codes and standards which may lag technological innovations and there are issues related to interfaces between systems. Safety indictors such as risk analyses, FMEA, job safety analyses, management of change procedures, HSQE, technical manuals and reliability-based maintenance provide a formalised approach to identify hazardous situations, address the gaps and interconnection variances, and improve safety, environmental performance and operational downtime. The majority of Classification Societies (‘Class’) require their clients to develop and submit safety indicators as part of the classification requirements for certain systems and to obtain certain special notations.
Analyzing Education, Sustainability, and Innovation: Multidisciplinary Research Perspectives (SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology)
by Andreas Öchsner Azman Ismail Mohd Amran Mohd Daril Fatin Nur Zulkipli Rahimah MahatThis book describes a diverse array of studies unravelling the intricate interplay of education, sustainability, and organizational dynamics. From innovative teaching methodologies to sustainability trends and the pandemic's impact, this compendium offers a rich tapestry of insights. This book traverses through a compendium of studies that intricately dissect the synergy between education, sustainability, and organizational dynamics. This book is ideal for academics, practitioners, and curious minds seeking a deeper understanding of these vital contemporary forces.
Futures Thinking and Organizational Policy, Volume 2: Case Studies for Managing Rapid Change in Social Media, Shift in Wealth and Government Instability
by Zane L. Berge Deborah A. SchreiberThe case studies in this Volume 2 book support the premise that organizational policies are what ensure institutionalization and sustainability of futures thinking in corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions. Futures thinking here reflects a systems approach utilized by organizational leaders to observe and interpret signals of change or disruption, identify trigger points of impact, employ foresight methodologies to build scenarios of the future and plan action, and then ultimately translate/actualize the most viable scenarios into successful business outcomes. What is new in the field of futures thinking today is not the general source of change (i.e., technology, globalization, and workforce well-being), but the tumultuous level of disruption occurring due to three phenomena—explosive use of social media, shift in great wealth, and government instability. Scholars and practitioners alike will find the case studies in this book provide nuanced insights into such disruptions, as well as discussion of best practices to ensure successful business solutions.
Automatic Control with Experiments (Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing)
by Victor Manuel Hernández-Guzmán Ramón Silva-Ortigoza Jorge Alberto Orrante-SakanassiThis book offers an enhanced and comprehensive understanding of control theory and its practical applications. The theoretical chapters on control tools have been meticulously revised and improved to provide a clearer and more insightful exploration of the fundamental concepts and ideas. The explanations have been refined, and new examples have been added to aid comprehension. Additionally, a new chapter on discrete-time systems has been included, delving into an important aspect of control theory. Advanced topics in control are also covered in greater detail, ensuring a comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. The section on experimental applications has been revamped to showcase the application of control ideas in various scenarios. Several chapters have been replaced with fresh content that focuses on controlling new and different experimental prototypes. These examples illustrate how control concepts can be effectively applied in real-world situations. Furthermore,this book introduces a new approach for control of non-minimum phase systems and explores the concept of differential flatness for multiple-input multiple-output systems. Additionally, a fascinating application involving a wheeled pendulum mobile robot has been included. While some chapters have been replaced, the second edition retains the chapters on the control of DC motors and the control of a magnetic levitation system. However, the material in the former chapter is mostly new, and the latter chapter is entirely supported by new control concepts and ideas.