Books published by Springer International Publishing AG

This book assesses how digitalization of public organizations affects their bureaucratic structure and features. Drawing on rich ethnographic data from two highly digitalized government agencies in Denmark, it analyses how digitalization both enhances and distorts fundamental characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy, including division of labour, hierarchy, rules and programmability, and bureaucratic discretion. The book also examines the ways in which digitalization influences demands on employees¿ and managers¿ expertise and relationships with other organizational actors, and demonstrates the implications of digitalization for the enactment of public bureaucratic values such as legality, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. In doing so, it provides an analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing public bureaucracies in the digital age. Above all, the book offers a nuanced understanding of how digital transformation reshapes the public bureaucracy, and thereby one of the foundation stones on which our societies stand.

This book provides fundamental principles, design procedures, and design tools for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with three sections focusing on vehicle design, autopilot design, and ground system design. The design of manned aircraft and the design of UAVs have some similarities and some differences. They include the design process, constraints (e.g., g-load, pressurization), and UAV main components (autopilot, ground station, communications system, sensors, and payload). A UAV designer must be aware of the latest UAV developments; current technologies; know lessons learned from past failures; and they should appreciate the breadth of UAV design options.The contribution of unmanned aircraft continues to expand every day and over 67 countries are developing and employing UAVs for both military and civil/scientific purposes. A UAV system is much more than a reusable air vehicle or vehicles. UAVs are air vehicles, they fly like airplanes and operate in an airplane environment. They are designed like air vehicles; they have to meet critical air vehicle requirements. A designer needs to know how to integrate complex, multi-disciplinary systems, and to understand the environment, the requirements and the design challenges and this book is an excellent overview of the fundamentals from an engineering perspective.This book is meant to meet the needs of newcomers into the world of UAVs. The materials are intended to provide enough information in each area and illustrate how they all play together to support the design of a complete UAV. Therefore, this book can be used both as a reference for engineers entering the field or as a supplementary text for a UAV design course to provide system-level context for each specialized topic.The second edition is extensively revised. Some of the new terminologies, concepts, and specific unmanned aircraft systems are introduced. The revisions make the book clearer and easier to understand, and will add number of new subjects in areas that have become more prominent in the unmanned aviation world.

This book provides a collection of chapters that critically explore the making and development of Africäs independence constitutions through the different phases in their full generality. Since independence, various constitutions from African countries have undergone a succession of changes, triggered by either the domestic or international environment or both. These processes constitute autonomous epochal ¿waves¿ or ¿phases¿ of constitution-making which need to be unpacked, historicised and explored in a systematic manner. This work, intended as a distinctive object of positive analysis, historicizes the independence constitutions of selected African states on either a country-specific or a comparative basis. A historical approach to the continental study of constitutions is rare, meaning the continental coverage of the book is justified by Africäs rich diversity reflected in its multiple monarchical and colonial backgrounds. The book is of interest to academics interested in having a panoramic view of Africa's constitutional development from a historical perspective.

This graduate textbook on the statistical approach to data science describes the basic ideas, scientific principles and common techniques for the extraction of mathematical models from observed data. Aimed at young scientists, and motivated by their scientific prospects, it provides first principle derivations of various algorithms and procedures, thereby supplying a solid background for their future specialization to diverse fields and applications.The beginning of the book presents the basics of statistical science, with an exposition on linear models. This is followed by an analysis of some numerical aspects and various regularization techniques, including LASSO, which are particularly important for large scale problems. Decision problems are studied both from the classical hypothesis testing perspective and, particularly, from a modern support-vector perspective, in the linear and non-linear context alike. Underlying the book is the Bayesian approach and the Bayesian interpretation of various algorithms and procedures. This is the key to principal components analysis and canonical correlation analysis, which are explained in detail. Following a chapter on nonlinear inference, including material on neural networks, the book concludes with a discussion on time series analysis and estimating their dynamic models.Featuring examples and exercises partially motivated by engineering applications, this book is intended for graduate students in applied mathematics and engineering with a general background in probability and linear algebra.

This book offers unprecedented knowledge about how social work practice education has been restructured under the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the adaptations and innovations generated during this time have become a supplementary tool of current social work education worldwide. Based on the European research project "SWooPEd ¿ Social Work Practice Education in Times of Pandemics, and Beyond. Continuities, Changes and Innovations in Europe", this contributed volume provides a unique international perspective from different European countries that are accomplished through insights from authors in other continents.The book addresses topics through a 'glocal' approach, using a comparative perspective and a multi-method design. It adopts the IASSW-IFSW "Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training", as well as considers the heterogeneity of national social work education systems in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Asia and Pacific region. The volume's contents are organized in three sections: In Part I, the authors compare the structures and designs of social work practice education programs and the reactions of the schools of social work to the COVID-19-related restrictive measures on a European level. In Part II, the authors provide in-depth analyses on how the pandemic experimentations have been re-adapted and used in some European countries and which innovations and findings were identified that could be integrated now and in the context of other crises. In Part III, the authors contextualize these experiences and display the paths and analyses from schools in non-European countries, as well as finally identify the crucial current challenges and opportunities for social work practice education at a global level.Social Work Practice Education Beyond the Pandemic is a key reference for the global community of social work education including academics, educators, field instructors, practitioners, and students. It provides an inspiring source for all the innovators in the field of higher education in social work and highlights how social work practice education can be designed in a more resilient and sustainable way that directs social work practice education into the future.

This book serves as a clinical guide for the growing number of Advanced Practice Clinicians (APC) who care for stroke patients. It covers the entire spectrum of stroke care: acute, inpatient, and outpatient, as well as fundamental topics like neuroanatomy and radiology. Each chapter succinctly reviews crucial topics designed to guide APCs of any experience level with clinical decision-making. To further enrich the text, we incorporated guidelines, relevant trial data written in plain language, decision-making algorithms, clinical pearls, and case vignettes. Since this is a book for APCs, each chapter is written in a clear, clinically focused manner by an experienced APC with a collaborating physician. We hope this is a helpful resource not only for APCs in neurology but also for those practicing in other specialties, primary care, and students learning about stroke care.

This book assesses to what extent marketisation in Higher Education can be attributed to Neoliberalism. Higher education sectors in many countries have increasingly relied on market mechanisms in their management and functioning, particularly in their provision of education. Many assume that Neoliberalism, with its pursuit of free markets and competition, is the key driver. Neoliberalism continues to be a popular concept to describe the social, political, and economic worlds around us, but there is little consensus on how it should be defined or understood. The book argues that there is a clear scope for the use of Neoliberalism to describe the direction HE is shifting towards, but it is rather inadequate on its own and not applicable in all areas.

This book brings together a diverse range of findings on current and emerging business concerns when the authors were developing a series of 12 working Analytic Research Consortium (ARC) White Papers. It presents several, differently configured scenarios, drawing on cyber as an example; the use and further optimization of estimative/probabilistic language; communicating analytical insights and other findings concerning ¿(un)certainty¿ to decision-maker end-users; and mitigating risk. It also evaluates in detail today¿s rapidly evolving Gen-AI systems and technologies, e.g. those underlying OpenAI¿s ChatGPT and Google¿s Bard/Gemini. This includes their respective value concerning scenario development and other business-relevant methods, tools and techniques, e.g. ¿Red Teaming¿. The topics discussed are assessed using the multi-methodologies of, firstly, ¿Intelligence Engineering¿ (IE) and, secondly, ¿Strategic Options Analysis¿ (SOA). The latter half of the book introduces an alternative scenario planning process, including use of new computer-software and AI tools. In addition to Gen-AI, we identify that the emerging discipline of Causal AI may work better for foresight and scenario activities.The book is a valuable read for a diverse readership from the public and private sectors, spanning government, the military, law enforcement, education, industry, commerce, retail, and enterprises of all sizes. Also, students at business schools and high-level decision-makers, including politicians, military commanders, and C-Suite leaders in various fields, will benefit from it.

Despite the advances in precision medicine and the progressive tailoring of multimodal therapies, surgery still remains the mainstay treatment in the majority of pediatric solid tumors and plays a key role in the multidisciplinary evaluation and management of pediatric oncology patients. The surgeons will face a variety of challenging situations in many aspects of the treatment of a child with cancer. Whether in the emergency department, evaluating a new patient or in the operating room, a clear and concise decision-making plan needs to be developed to assure optimal care and survival.The Survival Handbook in Pediatric Surgical Oncology is to provide an up-to-dated, portable, easy to read and schematic overview of the main topics of the surgeon's role in pediatric oncology, delivering a quick reference guide especially designed for pediatric surgery residents, fellows and young practitioners.The wide coverage of general aspects of the field, like epidemiology, basic oncology, anesthesia and imaging, will be completed with a detailed but brief analysis of most prevalent solid tumors. Other important topics will also be treated, like oncological emergencies and fertility considerations. The chapters will be in charge of key opinion leaders in every topic, looking to deliver only the crucial information, in order to help in the bedside decision making plan.This handbook will be an important partner for many pediatric surgeons around the world, because in this kind of disease it¿s crucial to act quickly and correctly in order to assure the right diagnosis and start treatment as soon as possible.

This book builds on the perspective that, for Indigenous peoples, relations to the land are familial, intimate, intergenerational, spiritual, instructive, and life nourishing, and it is these relations that Western societies sought to destroy as part of their colonial projects of territorial conquest and exploitation of resources. Positioning storytelling as a research methodology and a model of decolonial practice, this edited collection seeks to explore the following key questions: how does Indigenous storytelling contribute to understanding Indigenous identity and the crucial role of the land in Indigenous ways of life? How can Indigenous storytelling subvert colonial narratives of the land? How can Indigenous storytelling contribute to addressing colonial exploitations of the land and its resources? Can Indigenous storytelling become a rich mode for the investigation of current climate crises? And, finally, how does storytelling assist Indigenous peoples in restoring their intimate relations to the land and its natural gifts? Through critical analysis of a unique range of Indigenous storytelling practices, including fiction, performative art, new media platforms, archaeological findings and personal live-experienced stories, this collection aims to examine the interplay between colonialism and current environmental challenges, and to expose the impacts ¿ past, present, and future ¿ of Western worldviews on Indigenous connections to the land, whilst simultaneously bringing to the fore Indigenous ethos of care and land custodianship.

This book focuses on global mobility and the worldwide articulation of family life, understood as dimensions of social change that come off from the private sphere of individuals and reverberate to the point of transforming the composition of national populations. Delving into the interrelation of migration and life courses, the volume investigates how individual mobility paths are intertwined with family matters and the way population movements are embedded in a myriad of intimate and household affairs. The inquiry is based on qualitative data and specifically focused on the migratory flow between Morocco and Italy through an exploration that encompasses a range of interrelated issues such as: transnational marriages, intimacy, love, daily domestic life, the formation of second generations and citizenship. Providing an exhaustive analysis of such phenomena, the book portrays cultural diversity in a nuanced manner and, in so doing, contributes to de-politicize widely stigmatized traits of migrant families.

This book presents one of the most extensive MRI image collections of wrist pathology, including common, less frequent, unusual and combined pathology to enhance the common knowledge of radiologists and wrist surgeons to an expert level. Additionally, the comprehensive overview allows the reader to compare MRI exams in the clinic to the provided extensive database and helps with diagnostic and clinical solutions. The currently available basic theoretical information can already be found in many other publications, and will be limited to the essentials that are needed to explain and/or understand the MR images. This book goes beyond the basic information and aims to provide a unique guide for a wide range of wrist pathologies. In addition, rather difficult test images are added at the end in order to encourage the reader to closely observe and analyse key details in the images.

Now in its sixth edition, this textbook presents the tools and concepts used in multivariate data analysis in a style accessible for non-mathematicians and practitioners. Each chapter features hands-on exercises that showcase applications across various fields of multivariate data analysis. These exercises utilize high-dimensional to ultra-high-dimensional data, reflecting real-world challenges in big data analysis.For this new edition, the book has been updated and revised and now includes new chapters on modern machine learning techniques for dimension reduction and data visualization, namely locally linear embedding, t-distributed stochastic neighborhood embedding, and uniform manifold approximation and projection, which overcome the shortcomings of traditional visualization and dimension reduction techniques.Solutions to the book's exercises are supplemented by R and MATLAB or SAS computer code and are available online on the Quantlet and Quantinar platforms. Practical exercises from this book and their solutions can also be found in the accompanying Springer book by W.K. Härdle and Z. Hlávka: Multivariate Statistics - Exercises and Solutions.

This book provides expert advice on the practical implementation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and systematically analyses its various provisions.

This Open Access edited volume addresses the important role of education in society through the lens of theoretical concepts developed by Norbert Elias. This book sets out to challenge dominant perspectives within the sociology of education by reorientating traditional debates about socialisation, childhood, early years education, care, schooling and the curriculum, focusing on the relational learning processes that lie at the heart of pedagogic relationships between parents, teachers, children and peers. It also offers an innovative perspective on some of the key debates in childhood studies, bringing together and relating the different aspects of childhood through a generational lens. Authors from different countries follow young children as they grow up and learn how to become civilized in institutions in contemporary society, discussing how from one generation to the next they learn from adults and their peers an enormous social fund of knowledge about their world.

This textbook introduces topological defects and solitons at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in physics and materials science. It avoids the formal mathematics of topology, and instead concentrates on the physical properties of these topological structures.The first half of the book concentrates on fundamental principles of defects and solitons, and illustrates these principles with a single example¿the xy model for 2D magnetic order. It begins by defining the concept of a winding number, and uses this concept to describe the topology of defects (vortices or disclinations) and solitons (domain walls), carefully identifying the similarities and differences between these two types of topological structures. It then goes on to discuss physical properties of defects and solitons, including free energy, dynamics, statistical mechanics, and coupling with curvature. It shows how these concepts emerge from a theory with variable magnitude of order, and hence how topology can be viewed as an approximation to physics.The second half goes on to explore a wider range of topological defects and solitons. First, it considers more complex types of order¿2D nematic liquid crystals, 3D magnetic or liquid-crystal order, 2D or 3D crystalline solids¿and shows how each type of order leads to specific topological structures. Next, it discusses defects and solitons that are characterized by 2D or 3D measuring surfaces, not just 1D loops, including hedgehogs, skyrmions, and hopfions. These structures are more complex, but they can still be understood using the same fundamental principles. A final chapter describes the formation of phases with regular arrays of defects or solitons.

This book describes the current picture of healthcare and how medicine can develop in the 21st century to provide traditional hospital services differently with the use of clinical-digital transformation. Technological and social developments are enabling doctors, patients, tech developers, entrepreneurs and policy makers to recognise that care delivery can be achieved in novel and interesting ways far from the classic bricks and mortar approach. There are multiple triggers for change including the ageing population, limitations of existing clinical capacity and the COVID pandemic, accelerating the use of remote technologies, along with patient demands and expectations being higher than ever. With the speed of development of so many new technologies, it is hard to keep track of them, plus there is a need to scrutinize their claims and true potential for significant improvements in care delivery. The increasing global emphasis on the use of 'virtual wards', a way of remotely monitoring patients in their own homes and freeing up hospital beds, raises questions about the use of such systems of care and how they may be prone to safety failures and higher costs. The rush to use them needs to be balanced with the right level of evaluation and assurance. The Virtual Hospital explores the many approaches by which traditional medical practice is changing and the potential for new technologies (everything from biohacking to AI) to disrupt the existing paradigm. The goal is to assess and challenge whether the claims for such developments are robust and beneficial, rather than merely praising how shiny and clever the future looks. Consequently, this book is of enormous value to all involved in the provision of care, from physicians, nurses and healthcare planners to data scientists and healthcare leaders in all clinical settings.

This innovative textbook on the theories, approaches and methodologies that inform political geography is brought together by past and present editors of the journal of the same name. The book fills the current gap in the literature through a reflection on the ¿doing¿ of political geography: its very practice. The book includes chapters authored by leading and emerging voices in the field and covers themes to guide students across various degree levels, as well as university staff and faculty, in a logical and practical manner. The textbook allows students to develop critical thinking and reflect on important aspects of the practice of the sub-discipline. It presents how theories, approaches and methodologies are adopted by researchers in practice, equipping political geographers at all stages to develop their own individual research projects.Download the SN More Media app for free, scan a link with play button and access audio directly on your smartphone or tablet.

This edited volume provides a comprehensive and detailed insight into the Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESOL) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It describes a variety of challenges that native speakers of Arabic face when learning the English language and presents contemporary teaching strategies for supporting them. The book provides analyses of TESOL syllabi and policies currently adopted in the UAE¿s K-12 education sector, addressing strengths and areas which can be improved. The book also includes a critical discussion about the difficulties of implementing Western-based TESOL methodologies in a Middle Eastern context, from the perspectives of real-world practitioners. By presenting a combination of research-based and theory-based chapters, this book is a great resource to TESOL-related graduate students, teachers-in-training, educational leaders and policy makers in the UAE and beyond.

The vast majority of investors in the capital market do so, at least in part, via mutual funds. In the US market alone, there are currently thousands of mutual funds to choose from. Thus, the task of mutual fund selection is of central importance. It is a notoriously difficult task, because the past return parameters are very noisy estimates of the future parameters. This book presents the state-of-the-art research in this field. It describes recent academic findings and translates them into practical guidelines for mutual fund selection, and will be of interest to researchers alongside professional investors and fund ranking agencies.

This book explores vulnerability in many forms and among diverse understudied vulnerable populations worldwide from different perspectives, particularly from non-western contexts. It examines characteristics and profiles of vulnerable populations, intervention strategies, and recommendations for public policy actions in developing and emerging countries. As the world becomes increasingly connected and localities become more diverse, researchers and practitioners working to ameliorate human suffering cannot rely on one-size-fits-all solutions, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable members of society. The book argues the need for interdisciplinary research and action, and it challenges popular discourse on vulnerable groups and intervention strategies in Western societies and developed countries. In particular, it includes a Latin American perspective seldom considered in research about vulnerability worldwide. With interdisciplinary contributors from four continents, working in diverse fields such as social psychology, pedagogy, community psychology, medicine, sociology, clinical psychology, anthropology, and social work, this edited collection brings together theoretical and applied research evidence on three vulnerable population categories: physical vulnerability, psychological vulnerability, and social vulnerability. The book not only presents exhaustive solutions to any of the problems discussed therein, but it also offers examples of the considerations that should be afforded when working with groups who have unique vulnerabilities. Among the topics covered in the chapters: Poor Doctor-Patient Communication: How Social Vulnerability Turns into Physical Vulnerability Art Therapy: Focus to Decrease Vulnerability Condition and Increase Sense of Community Pedagogical Guidelines for Vulnerability in Postmodernity Working with Vulnerable Populations: Final Reflections and Implications Working with Vulnerable Populations: A Multicultural Perspective presents case studies, original research, and literature reviews that would engage students and professionals interested in social work, psychology, community organizing, public health, allied health professions, and other helping professions. Readers will gain insight into how work being conducted in various localities speaks to the challenges they may face in their own work or research. By exploring the unique issues facing vulnerable populations around the globe, we can apply those same considerations in our own communities.

This second edition of Particles in the Dark Universe has been substantially enhanced with several new chapters that delve into crucial aspects of particle physics in the Universe. These additions encompass the role of primordial black holes in the early universe, tracing their formation to decay, unification theories, a comprehensive historical overview of cosmological models, an extensive examination of the physics of the graviton, and an educational exploration of gravitational phenomena such as Unruh-type or Hawking radiation. Additionally, this edition incorporates 30 new exercises and provides a comprehensive presentation of inflationary models, along with a pedagogical insight into the mechanism of baryogenesis.Structured in a logical sequence, this book offers a thorough and instructional exploration of particle physics within the early universe. It initiates by elucidating the thermal history of the universe, delving into pivotal concepts like Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and inflation. Subsequently, it meticulously addresses both direct and indirect detection methods of dark matter, followed by an in-depth analysis of neutrino physics. The book further scrutinizes potential candidates for dark matter and their interactions.Designed for theoretical physicists engaged in particle physics within the universe, dark matter detection, astrophysical constraints, and those interested in models of inflation or reheating, this book also caters to astrophysicists involved in quantum field theory computations. It encompasses all essential elements required for computing various physical processes, providing mathematical tables, necessary thermodynamic functions for the early universe, and Feynman rules. Consequently, this book serves as an intersecting point between astrophysics, particle physics, and cosmology.

This textbook presents the spectral theory of self-adjoint operators on Hilbert space and its applications in quantum mechanics. Based on a course taught by the author in Paris, the book not only covers the mathematical theory but also provides its physical interpretation, offering an accessible introduction to quantum mechanics for students with a background in mathematics. The presentation incorporates numerous physical examples to illustrate the abstract theory. The final two chapters present recent findings on Schrödinger¿s equation for systems of particles.While primarily designed for graduate courses, the book can also serve as a valuable introduction to the subject for more advanced readers. It requires no prior knowledge of physics, assuming only a graduate-level understanding of mathematical analysis from the reader.

This book considers ethical educational leadership dilemmas that impact the workplace cultures influencing school districts' success. As school systems become increasingly demographically, racially, and culturally diverse, the need intensifies for educational leaders to lead their school communities in an ethical manner, developing workplace cultures characterized by psychological and emotional safety. Based on research and extensive experience working with school districts in Canada, Germany, Finland, and the United States, Yee and Yee deliver vignettes from various school contexts illustrating ethical leadership dilemmas and leader responses indicative of both toxic and healthy workplace cultures. Finally, the authors present key lessons learned from healthy educational workplaces, illustrating next steps and a call to action for implementing and maintaining ethical school district leadership practices.

This book explores the histories and presents of gender dysphoria and euphoria as clinical and theoretical concepts as well as lived experience. It outlines how euphoria emerged as a concept, what its relationship to dysphoria is, and how it shows up in the body, in relationships, and as a framework for liberation. Using the concept of the Möbius Strip as an explanatory model of the interconnectedness of gender, the authors explore how gender as a concept encompasses multiplicity, duality, and non-linearity despite its supposed singularity. Rather than viewing euphoria and dysphoria as two poles of a continuum, this volume introduces the notion that they are in fact a blended experience which oscillates between distinctiveness and relationality. Critically engaging with clinical theory, gender studies, crip theory, spirituality, and political movements, this book is ideal for academics from a variety of fields, including psychology, sociology, gender studies, trans studies, cultural studies, as well as practitioners and clinicians, especially those who work with trans people.

This book presents an innovative framework for enhancing creativity in decision-making by applying systems thinking principles and tools. It is based on the premise that creativity is not a fixed trait that some people have and others don't, but a skill that can be learned and improved with practice and guidance. The book also argues that decision-making is not a linear or mechanical process that can be reduced to simple rules or formulas, but a dynamic and creative process that requires holistic and systemic thinking.The work also shows that systems thinking is not a complicated or abstract theory that only experts can use, but a practical and powerful tool that anyone can apply to understand and improve complex situations. The framework consists of six steps: problem identification, idea generation, idea selection, idea development, idea implementation, and monitoring and evaluating results and feedback.Readers will learn to use the framework to solve complex problems and generate innovative ideas in any context and domain. Through the systematic integration of existing models into a unified framework, the book contributes to ongoing dialogues regarding effective decision-making processes. It critically evaluates prominent models like the Creative Problem-Solving Model, the Rational Decision Making Model, and the Intuitive Decision Making Model. Researchers seeking insights into incorporating creativity into decision-making will find this book to be a valuable scholarly resource.