Books published by Springer International Publishing AG

Blockchain technologies have been rapidly adopted for the creation of cryptocurrencies and have been explored for a myriad of applications. While this is of important economic interest, the computer science behind how blockchains operate to provide security and provenance has been largely inaccessible to economists. This book is a bridge between the computer science and the economics of blockchains.The focus is on the value and the achievement of blockchain consensus; that is, how distributed and independent nodes are able to reach an agreement on what the current state of digital ledgers, that are the product of blockchains, are. The book shows that the goals of computer scientists in designing blockchains place very high weight on security beyond what an economist trained in game theory and mechanism design would require. It shows how blockchains can be redesigned to account for key economic trade-offs, and will be of interest to researchers and students of economics, financial technology and computer science, alongside policymakers.

This book provides a clear and concise explanation of withholding tax and how to leverage best practice to generate improved investment performance. It gives practical guidance to financial service firms and investors to help them understand the issues involved, trends and practicalities of maximizing returns on investment.Most of the $200 billion of withholding tax lost by investors annually is due to lack of awareness and not asking the right questions of their brokers and custodian banks. Financial institutions are also increasingly being held to a higher standard by investors for provision of withholding tax services because of the impact it can have on portfolio performance. This book seeks to raise awareness of the issues and provide more detail about how the system works and what challenges and changes readers should expect in the future.

This book reimagines education in today¿s Artificial Intelligence (AI) world and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Artificial intelligence will drastically affect every industry and sector, and education is no exception. This book aims at how AI may impact the teaching and learning process in education. This book is designed to demystify AI for teachers and learners. This book will help improve education and support institutions in the phenomena of the emergence of AI in teaching and learning. This book presents a comprehensive study of how AI improves teaching and learning, from AI-based learning platforms to AI-assisted proctored examinations. This book provides educators, learners, and administrators on how AI makes sense in their everyday practice. Describing the application of AI in ten key aspects, this comprehensive volume prepares educational leaders, designers, researchers, and policymakers to effectively rethink the teaching and learning process and environments thatstudents need to thrive. The readers of this book never fall behind the fast pace and promising innovations of today¿s most advanced learning technology.

This book places the contemporary fear of climate change in historical perspective, showing that throughout human history the dominant perspective on the future has been one of fear. Across a broad historical sweep, the book describes the varied means employed to predict and control the future: magic, religion, science, and technology. Future Fear traces fear of the future from prehistory to the present, culminating in the contemporary fear of imminent climate change catastrophe. Consideration is also given to hope in a more positive future, revealing that visions of the future have often been a mingling of fear and hope.

This book provides healthcare professionals with a comprehensive guide on how to implement effective mindfulness programming and tactics in their practices and at their institutions. It is designed to fill a gap in the field by providing practical, evidence-based information and guidance for both our patients and ourselves - tailored to the specific needs of healthcare professionals.The book is structured in a practical and sequential manner, each chapter building on the information presented in previous chapters. The guide begins by introducing the concept of mindfulness and its history, followed by an in-depth examination of the benefits of mindfulness meditation for both patients and healthcare professionals. Subsequent chapters delve into the specifics of implementing mindfulness programming within individual patient interactions, practices and medical institutions -- including the selection of the appropriate mindfulness techniques, staff training, and measurement of programming effectiveness. Finally, Mindfulness in Medicine addresses the broader potential impact of mindfulness in contemporary medicine, providing readers with the knowledge we need to make informed decisions about incorporating mindfulness into our work. Mindfulness in Medicine demonstrates the potential of mindfulness meditation to improve patient outcomes, reduce stress and burnout among healthcare professionals, and promote a more holistic approach to medicine.This is an essential guide for any healthcare professional interested in incorporating mindfulness into our practices, careers, and personal self-care tactics.

This book deconstructs and debunks the lucrative and widespread marriage of quantum physics with pop-spirituality while tracing this pernicious strain of pseudoscience to its source: the founders of quantum mechanics themselves. The association of mystical ideas with modern physics in the self-improvement industry is not new. The "spookiness" of quantum properties like uncertainty and entanglement has proven fertile ground for new-age mystics and alternative medicine advocates who saw a way to put a scientific veneer on their claims. In the early days, the founders of quantum physics accused it of implying an observer-created reality. Later, Taoists and Wu Li dancers were quantized. Then ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda, morphed into "quantum healing." Little wonder The Oprah Winfrey Show told its viewers: think about losing weight, making more money, and falling in love, and you'll become thin, wealthy, and happily married ... all based on quantum physics. Criticism of the pseudoscientific misappropriation of quantum physics has been widespread but inadequate; thus far, the scientific community has failed to account for its own role in the fusion of pop-spirituality and quantum physics. As well as thoroughly exploring and debunking quantum mysticism, this book traces the development of quantum mysticism and pulls no punches in exposing the unwitting role of quantum theory's founders in propagating quantum mysticism.

This colorful and concise little book is uniquely tailored for those who write mathematical texts at any level and are eager to improve their English writing skills. The easy-to-read guide focuses on helping the writer avoid common English mistakes in mathematical writing. With just a few minutes of engaging, light reading each day, the reader will learn to create clearer, more readable, math texts.The book covers 23 crucial topics, ranging from correct article and preposition usage to proper usage of dashes, conjunctions, and prepositions. It also addresses the construction of direct sentences, effective introductory phrases for formulas, and more. As a bonus to the reader, ¿Practice makes perfect¿ exercises relating to each topic are freely accessible on this book¿s Springer website.Appendix A gives a quick tutorial on grammatical terms and constructs. Appendix B looks at ChatGPT and the positive aspects of its powerful capabilities. Additionally, Paul Halmos¿s article on ¿How to write mathematics¿ is included in Appendix C. It deals with the mathematical aspects of writing.

This textbook provides a full treatment of Linear Algebra devoted to undergraduate and graduate physics students. Although the mathematical level is similar to the corresponding mathematical textbooks in regard to definitions, propositions and proofs, it adopts a language and approach more attuned to the reader¿s familiarity with physics lectures and physics textbooks. A distinctive feature is the emphasis placed on the significance of bases within a vector space. As a result, students gain a deeper understanding of how vector indices, despite their abundance, serve not as enemies but as friends since they give additional information about the mathematical objects being used, and facilitate access to tensor formalism.The book offers numerous worked examples and exercises with solution hints to deepen this knowledge.

Over the course of the last 70 years, asset managers¿from activist hedge funds to large passive index fund providers¿have come to own the substantial majority of corporate equities in the United States, and have wielded that ownership to fundamentally reshape the economy.  For most of American history, investing was simple: you purchased shares and left the operation of the company to management.  If you were dissatisfied with the firm's performance, you sold your shares.  With the rise of asset managers, shareholders now attempt to directly change the companies in which they invest. The New Power Brokers chronicles the economic, legal and technological changes at the heart of this transformation in our public markets, and provides fresh perspectives on what those changes mean for corporations, investors and society as a whole. Sahand Moarefy is a corporate attorney and writer.  His work has been featured in various publications, including Foreign Affairs, Lawfare, The Diplomat and American Affairs.  Sahand splits his time between Los Angeles and New York City.

This book presents algorithms and tools that are designed to model and extract information from personal contact networks, which represent which individuals in a population are physically in contact with one another. The authors developed these tools based on research they conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of improving responses to epidemics in the future. The book provides methods for modelling the transmission of infection across a population. The authors explain how an epidemic model can be used to strategically distribute vaccines and minimize the spread of a virus. The book shows how evolutionary computation, graph compression, and network induction can be utilized to manage issues that arise from an epidemic.

This book aims to assess the extent to which work health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) considerations are trivialised on the popular Australian reality TV programme, The Block. Reality TV as a genre plays a core feature in media and cultural studies, but there has not been any research on the impact of reality TV on safety culture, or how HSW issues are portrayed in popular media.This research remedies this deficiency and demonstrates contestants are workers on The Block who perform workplace activities. The work-related activities are concerned with construction, building and renovation work; and specifically, participants engage in what are seemingly routine or ordinary everyday life activities; namely housing construction and domestic or home dwelling renovations. It supports the argument claim that contestants on reality TV are defined as workers, and this definition of worker can be extended to other genres.The book ultimately demonstrates that reality television is trivialising HSW for the purposes of satisfying audience desire to consume popular culture, and these activities perpetuate a poor image of best safety practice.

"Lorenzo Veracini advances the field of settler colonial studies with a brilliant body of works that includes his seminal Settler Colonialism of 2010. Perhaps unfashionably but no less urgently, this current expanded edition of 2024 focuses on settler societies. He analyzes our pathological historical violence, systemic domination, ongoing disavowals, and more, to suggest a way forward: what might a transformative politics of recognition mean?"- Susan Slyomovics, University of California Los Angeles, USA."Lorenzo Veracini's book introduced me and endless number of scholars and students to the settler colonial paradigm. It still is the best introduction to settler colonial studies...This theoretical overview is the essential guide for anyone wishing to understand the longevity and relevance of the settler colonial condition for our global society in the past, the present and the future."- Ilan Pappé, University of Exeter, UK."In these times where the concept of 'settler colonialism' is hyper-politicised, it is important to have books marked by scholarship and rigour, but which remain, nonetheless, articulated to an anti-colonial political horizon. This kind of writing has always distinguished the foundational and indispensable work of Lorenzo Veracini."- Ghassan Hage, University of Melbourne, Australia.Exploring the history and politics of a powerful and long-lasting idea: the creation and maintenance of European worlds outside of Europe. This textbook provides a broad overview of settler colonialism in the modern era. The author outlines how the founding of new societies was envisaged and practiced around the world, illustrating the specific ways in which settler colonial projects tried to establish ideal and regenerated political bodies.With an updated introduction and an additional chapter examining decolonisation and Indigenous recognition, this second edition brings the study of settler colonialism up to the present day.Lorenzo Veracini teaches history and politics at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. His research focuses on the comparative history of colonial systems. He has written and co-edited several books on the topic, including The Settler Colonial Present (2015), The World Turned Inside Out (2021), and Colonialism: A Global History (2022). Lorenzo also manages the settler colonial studies blog and was Founding Editor of Settler Colonial Studies.

This textbook provides a solid introduction to the theoretical and empirical aspects of environmental economics and their links to environmental policy. In this second edition, all chapters have been updated and restructured, and new sections have been added to reflect a greater focus on climate policy.Starting from the need to balance the social costs of pollution against the financial costs of emission abatement, the book discusses the major issues that arise in the context of environmental policy - such as the potential and limitations of monetary valuation of the environment (and in particular the contingent valuation method) and the design of environmental policy. With regard to the choice of environmental policy instruments, the book focuses on the price-based instruments preferred by economists, i.e., environmental taxes and emissions trading, discussing in detail not only their many advantages but also their drawbacks.The second edition especially focuses on green industrial policy as a complementary measure to price-based instruments, the distributional effects of environmental policies, and the resulting challenges for political feasibility. Moreover, the book deals extensively with international environmental problems, in particular climate protection, which is a global public good that will be underprovided when certain countries refuse to cooperate and contribute. Approaches to overcoming this underprovision are described in far more detail than in the first edition, both theoretically and empirically - in particular by assessing the functions of the many international environmental agreements in this field. Finally, a new chapter considers adaptation strategies, especially in the water sector, as an additional pillar of climate policy.

This open access book explores the intriguing narrative of Nikola Corporation's startup journey in this insightful case study, examining its rapid ascent and subsequent decline from both a narrative and argumentative perspective. Founded by Trevor Milton, Nikola initially garnered investor interest with promises of a cleaner, sustainable alternative to diesel trucks. However, the company's surge in valuation was short-lived, as accusations from a short seller triggered a trust crisis, exposing alleged deception and raising doubts about the company's technology claims.This case study particularly focuses on the nuances of startup communication, emphasizing the critical importance of effective and trustworthy strategic communication for emerging tech ventures. It provides an in-depth look at the methods and tools necessary for startups to navigate initial skepticism and data limitations without exposing themselves to potential crises. Key insights include crafting compelling startup stories while maintaining trustworthiness, meeting investor information needs in an argumentatively convincing structure, recognizing the risks of blind faith in charismatic founders, and implementing internal checks and balances to safeguard against deception.Nikola's story serves as a cautionary tale, offering valuable lessons for entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars alike. This comprehensive examination sheds light on the challenges faced by startups dependent on emerging technologies and ambitious promises, making it an indispensable addition to the reading list of entrepreneurs.

This book offers a modern approach to the theory of continuous-time stochastic processes and stochastic calculus. The content is treated rigorously, comprehensively, and independently. In the first part, the theory of Markov processes and martingales is introduced, with a focus on Brownian motion and the Poisson process. Subsequently, the theory of stochastic integration for continuous semimartingales was developed. A substantial portion is dedicated to stochastic differential equations, the main results of solvability and uniqueness in weak and strong sense, linear stochastic equations, and their relation to deterministic partial differential equations. Each chapter is accompanied by numerous examples. This text stems from over twenty years of teaching experience in stochastic processes and calculus within master's degrees in mathematics, quantitative finance, and postgraduate courses in mathematics for applications and mathematical finance at the University of Bologna. The book provides material for at least two semester-long courses in scientific studies (Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, Statistics, Economics, etc.) and aims to provide a solid background for those interested in the development of stochastic calculus theory and its applications. This text completes the journey started with the first volume of Probability Theory I - Random Variables and Distributions, through a selection of advanced classic topics in stochastic analysis.

"Fascinating details and anecdotes accompany this engaging account of the emergence of dramatic new ideas and forms in music over the centuries..."David Politzer, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics."A thought-provoking, stimulating, and highly original exploration of deep metaphorical links between music and physics...Highly recommended."Prof. Ian Stewart FRS, author, What¿s the Use?"An astonishing book!"Tristan Murail, composer and co-creator of the "spectral" technique.Have you ever wondered about the connection between Pauli's exclusion principle and Schoenberg's dodecaphony? Or the symphonic echoes of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in the compositions of Stockhausen and Cage? This book not only poses these questions but skillfully uncovers the artistic answers, exploring interdisciplinary connections that bridge the gap between modern physics and contemporary music. Dive into philosophical discourses on time, witness the metamorphosis of Boolean algebra, bits, and qubits into musical notation, and discover the limitations of the 12-tone scale mirrored in the speed of light. The author's unique methodology offers a fresh perspective, linking the language of mathematics and physics to the creation of musical scores.This book transcends the boundaries of physics and music, revealing the inevitable fusion of modern physics and avant-garde music in the twentieth century. Through meticulous research, the author showcases the profound impact of revolutionary ideas such as quantum physics and relativity on all aspects of life and demonstrates that modern physics and contemporary music were born not out of chance¿their emergence and development were inevitable events. Delving into the historical accounts, he explores the musical endeavors of great physicists like Max Planck and Albert Einstein, unraveling the quantum entanglement of physics mirrored in the extended techniques of contemporary music and unveiling the musical universe of Werner Heisenberg through captivating personal encounters with his descendants.Crafted for general readers and seasoned experts alike, the book maintains clarity and style, ensuring accessibility without sacrificing depth. This pioneering exploration not only draws connections between modern physics and music but also serves as a unique bridge for scientists, musicians, and the curious general audience. Requiring no formal background in physics or music, the book is a compelling read for those intrigued by the uncharted territories where science and art converge, offering a concise and illuminating journey into the shadows of the void.

This book is intended for students, academics, authors, and research-oriented professionals to store, organize, and manage their references for research papers, theses, dissertations, journal articles, and other publications. Its purpose is to educate readers about effective use of information technology in reference management - the process of storing, managing, retrieving and citing scientific references. It also provides step-by-step instruction on using EndNote, a popular reference management software.Since the publication of the third edition, substantial changes have taken place in the field of reference management. EndNote has released a new version - EndNote 21. The web-based knowledge databases such as Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and Google Scholar are also being used far more frequently. The fourth edition of EndNote 1-2-3 Easy! incorporates updated instructions and screenshots to ensure that the readers continue to find this a user-friendly book providing accurate and reliable information.For first-time users of EndNote 20, this book is a comprehensive and well-illustrated instruction manual for getting started, including detailed instructions on installation, creating reference libraries, and ultimately creating complete and accurate citation-based bibliographies necessary to achieve successful peer reviewed publications.  For existing "power users" of current and earlier versions of EndNote, this book provides quick and easy access to a comprehensive compendium of nuanced and advanced features of this powerful software, with an emphasis on providing greater ease and control in coordinating and curating research materials and bibliographies with research collaborators and scientific writing teams.

This guide complements traditional project management by focusing on the critical pre-project stage. It addresses a major challenge: only 12% of projects finish on time and within budget, often due to poor initial pre-project analysis. This leads to wasted resources. The content offers proven best practices for implementing ISO 56007 recommendations, enhancing project calibration, selection, and overall success rates.Liberating innovators from the constraints of traditional business plans, the guide suggests, along with ISO 56007, a "Concept/Opportunity Case" as an investor-friendly alternative. This template is rooted in the robust IpOp Decision Tree, an ISO 56007-recommended checklist of 11 fundamental questions to thoroughly address essential decision-makers' concerns. This rigorous method ensures reliable project selection and optimal resource allocation.The IpOp Model serves as a structured roadmap, enabling project managers and innovators to transform ideas into compelling projects. It provides clear guidance for making informed decisions, whether to pivot or abandon projects that aren¿t viable. By following ISO 56007 recommendations, the IpOp Model helps navigate uncertainties and manage critical project factors effectively.Ideal for decision-makers, project managers, executives, professionals, intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs engaged in project management and innovation, this guide is an essential tool for any pre-project analysis and for turning innovative ideas into successful projects.

This book is about how statistics play a role in life, whether in business, psychology, biology, economics, or just about anything short of basket weaving. You cannot make a trip to the doctor, watch a football game, or even go to the grocery store without some statistic staring you down. Your age, weight, and cholesterol make you a high risk for diabetes ¿ the chance that your team will win the game is 12.5 percent ¿ 4 out of 5 dentists like this toothpaste. What does it all mean? Adventures in Statistics: How We Live in a World of Numbers tells you what all those numbers mean. But the book does not spit out a bunch of mathematical formulas; the book tells stories. Stories that explain statistics through popular culture, sports, and history.Yoüre confused about that false positive warning in that drug commercial, the 2007 comedy Juno explains how medical tests ¿ including pregnancy tests ¿ fail and why. Not clear about what your coworkers are talking about when they say, ¿black swans.¿ the 1997 blockbuster Titanic makes sense of the concept.Adventures in Statistics: How We Live in a World of Numbers shows how professionals in medicine, business, politics, sports, and many other fields use numbers. So, just about everyone would gain from reading this book, perhaps even basket weavers.

The exciting discoveries and newest revelations in the field of archeoastronomy present fascinating examples of the importance of astronomy to the ancient Maya Civilization. Through technological advancements made in the archeoastronomy community, this book will allow you to uncover a time capsule from an ancient past. In a clear and comprehensible manner you will read about art and architecture from various important Maya cities, drawn from diverse time periods and from different geographical areas of Mesoamerica. The topics covered include new findings in wide variety of fields; including the history's of astronomy, science, art, architecture, literature and religion. You will explore in this book how the motions of the heavens were closely watched and notated by Maya astronomers and how those celestial objects determined the patterns of everyday life, religious rites, community festivals, agriculture, even birth and death! This book will open your mind to a deeper awareness and an even greater admiration for the Maya ingenuity in preserving their astronomical knowledge and passing it on to assist future generations. These latest findings will broaden our perception of the Maya cultures of the Pre-classic and their development through the Classic period and the remarkable changes that occurred throughout their 3000 years of history.

This book aims to help psychology students build their skills to conduct research and analyses using Microsoft Excel¿s Data Analysis Toolpak. Concise yet comprehensive, this accessible textbook walks students through basic research methodology, central tendency, variability, standardized scores, t-tests (independent and related samples), One-way Analysis of Variance (between-groups and repeated measures), the Pearson correlation, and Chi Square analyses. Each chapter includes examples of research questions to be addressed, the rationale for the analysis, a step-by-step analysis of the dataset in equation format and using Microsoft Excel, and how to present results in APA (7th Edition) style.The extensive didactic material encompasses end-of-chapter questions, learning outcomes, sidebar boxes with common mistakes to avoid, and biographical sketches of those who developed research methods and statistical techniques. Students and instructors will also benefit from a companion website where PowerPoint slides and additional exercises, datasets, and resources are available. Ideal for undergraduate psychology courses, this textbook can also be of use for those interested in learning more about statistical research and its practical application at university and beyond.Test your knowledge with questions and answers about the book with Springer Nature Flashcards.

This book provides a concise but thorough introduction to partial differential equations which model phenomena that vary in both space and time. The author begins with a full explanation of the fundamental linear partial differential equations of physics.  The text continues with methods to understand and solve these equations leading ultimately to the solutions of Maxwell's equations. The author then addresses nonlinearity and provides examples of separation of variables, linearizing change of variables, inverse scattering transform, and numerical methods for select nonlinear equations. Next, the book presents rich sources of advanced techniques and strategies for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations. This second edition includes updates, additional examples, and a new chapter on reaction-diffusion equations. Ultimately, this book is an essential resource for readers in applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering who are interested in learning about the myriad techniques that have been developed to model and solve linear and nonlinear partial differential equations.In addition, this book: Includes MATLAB code to help the reader visualize, provide analytic solutions, and help better understand the theory Provides exercises, figures, tables, and worked examples to enhance reader understanding Presents previously unpublished material using functional analysis, including the Hartman-Grobman Flow Theorem

This book offers a comprehensive overview of formulation applied within the mental health nursing context. It presents a contemporary outlook on the role of the mental health nurse, exploring and reflecting on the foundational values-based and person-centred principles of mental health nurse education and practice. Through this timely and accessible textbook, the authors demonstrate how a variety of theories can be used to enhance formulation in practice, ensuring mental health assessment and intervention are meaningfully connected to support patient recovery. Including service user experiences and viewpoints throughout, each chapter also benefits from tailored discussion points to enable learners to develop critical thinking around formulation. An invaluable guide to the field, it provides a clear, up to date and thought-provoking overview of formulation, essential for students and practitioners in clinical psychology or psychotherapy, as well as clinicians working in all areas of mental health and social care, psychology, therapy, and counselling.

Either/or thinking is a major stumbling block to human development and understanding. In this book Kelso & Engstrøm offer a whole new way of looking at the world, awakening a ¿sixth sense¿ that people didn¿t realize they had. It draws on the profound relationship between nature¿s many complementary contraries and the paradigm shifting science of coordination called Coordination Dynamics. The human brain~mind, through the multi- and metastable modes of its coordination dynamics, gives rise to a sentient faculty called the squiggle sense. Nature's contraries are perceived not only as opposing polar states, but as coexisting complementary tendencies, symbolized by the squiggle (~). Use this book to nudge your brain~mind into its metastable mode again and again, to better perceive the complementary dances of contraries, and to transcend the detrimental narrow-mindedness of polarized, either/or thinking. As a "Metastabilian" you can wield your squiggle sense to enhance and advance your life!

This book introduces an intuitive, self-sustained oscillator model and applies it to describe some of the most critical performance metrics of LC oscillators, such as phase noise, entrainment, and pulling. It also covers the related topics of magnetic coupling and inductor design. The author emphasizes the basic principles and illuminates them with approximate calculations, adopting a design-oriented approach that imparts intuition and complements simulations. This book constitutes a novel and fresh perspective on the subject and can be helpful to electrical engineering students and practicing engineers. It also serves as a bridge between the mathematical treatises of the subject and the more practical circuit-oriented approaches.

This book revises and expands upon the prior edition, The Navier-Stokes Problem. The focus of this book is to provide a mathematical analysis of the Navier-Stokes Problem (NSP) in R^3 without boundaries. Before delving into analysis, the author begins by explaining the background and history of the Navier-Stokes Problem. This edition includes new analysis and an a priori estimate of the solution. The estimate proves the contradictory nature of the Navier-Stokes Problem. The author reaches the conclusion that the solution to the NSP with smooth and rapidly decaying data cannot exist for all positive times. By proving the NSP paradox, this book provides a solution to the millennium problem concerning the Navier-Stokes Equations and shows that they are physically and mathematically contradictive.

This book presents a collection of latest case studies on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR) and metaverse applications in various industries. AR, VR, XR and Metaverse are changing the business landscape, providing opportunities for businesses to offer unique services and experiences to their customers. The case studies explore business uses of the technology across multiple industries such as healthcare, tourism, hospitality, events, fashion, entertainment, retail, education and video gaming. The volume includes solutions of different maturities as well as those from startups to large enterprises thereby providing a thorough view of how AR, VR, XR and Metaverse can be used in business.

Do you want to know how to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data into business valuation? This book will help you do so step-by-step.The book primarily aims at reaching two types of audiences: practitioners and students in finance (graduate and undergraduate level). Practitioners in finance will find interest in the book, as it will give them access to academic knowledge in a format that suits them. Academic research has made substantial advances in the field of business valuation and ESG. The book intends to transform this knowledge into practical and rigorous methodologies for taking ESG into account when valuing a company. Graduate and undergraduate courses have recently developed in business schools, universities, and engineering schools. These courses usually directly refer to academic articles or valuation companies' website documentation, but not to academic books. Therefore, the book will allow students to have access to centralized and organized information about business valuation and ESG.Readers without prior knowledge of business valuation will be guided through the ESG integration process. They will first be introduced to the concept of value and the reasons for incorporating ESG into the value. They will then learn simple financial methods to value firms and see step-by-step use cases. For instance, the reader will learn how to value a firm in the renewable energy sector using cash flow and multiple valuation methods. After building knowledge of standard business valuation, readers will better understand ESG data and ratings. The reader will then learn how to integrate ESG into business valuation using cash flow and multiples approaches. Again, the reader will be able to replicate these methods as the book will provide practical cases for integrating ESG data in business valuation. Finally, for the readers that intend to go a bit further, they will learn about the academic research advances in ESG and businessvaluation.

This textbook is an introductory guide to applied machine learning, specifically for biology students. It familiarizes biology students with the basics of modern computer science and mathematics and emphasizes the real-world applications of these subjects. The chapters give an overview of computer systems and programming languages to establish a basic understanding of the important concepts in computer systems. Readers are introduced to machine learning and artificial intelligence in the field of bioinformatics, connecting these applications to systems biology, biological data analysis and predictions, and healthcare diagnosis and treatment. This book offers a necessary foundation for more advanced computer-based technologies used in biology, employing case studies, real-world issues, and various examples to guide the reader from the basic prerequisites to machine learning and its applications.

The rise of China poses a significant challenge to the existing, Western-dominated world economic order. The effectiveness of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is contingent on a smooth transition of the world¿s economic center toward the Asia-Pacific Region. For Western investors, the vast market opportunities can be tempting. However, the lack of experience and knowledge of international management in China ¿ a country with radically different business rules and cultural background ¿ poses a substantial risk.This book provides comprehensive insights into the fast-changing business world in China. Based on the authors¿ theoretical knowledge and invaluable years of practical experience, it discusses the various options for doing business in China, with current examples that demonstrate how European SMEs can successfully position themselves between multinational companies and local competitors. It also highlights new opportunities arising from Chinäs international involvement (New Silk Road, RCEP) and addresses risk management for European SMEs operating in China. Moreover, it sheds light on how to form relationships of mutual trust between Chinese policymakers and their advisors/cooperation partners from abroad.Readers with an interest in doing business in China will find this book particularly valuable.