Books published by Springer Verlag, Singapore

Blockchain is an emerging technology platform for developing decentralized applications and data storage, over and beyond its role as the technology underlying the cryptocurrencies. The basic tenet of this platform is that it allows one to create a distributed and replicated ledger of events, transactions, and data generated through various IT processes with strong cryptographic guarantees of tamper resistance, immutability, and verifiability. Public blockchain platforms allow us to guarantee these properties with overwhelming probabilities even when untrusted users are participants of distributed applications with the ability to transact on the platform. Even though, blockchain technology has become popularly known because of its use in the implementation of cryptocurrencies such as BitCoin, Ethereum, etc.; the technology itself holds much more promise in various areas such as time stamping, logging of critical events in a system, recording of transactions, trustworthy e-governance, etc. It introduces theoretical and practical aspects of blockchain technology. The book includes an in-depth insight into the need for decentralization, smart contracts, consensus both permissioned and permissionless, and various blockchain development frameworks, tools, and platforms. It can be used as a learning resource for various examinations and certifications related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. This book explained the nuts and bolts of blockchain technology in lucid language to make students more familiar with the implementation perspective of this much-needed technology.

This book comprehensively covers the history and current developments of space programme of China. It presents the complete story of China's space programme from its origins through to present day activities on the International Space Station. This monograph further discusses the role of China's space strategy in its emergence as a major power on the world stage. The book also presents the context of China's space program within the larger narrative of international space development. The book binds together the diverse political, military, economic and technology aspects into a coherent understanding and explains their role in the establishment and growth of Chinese space programme. Given the contents, this book will be a valuable source of information for students, researchers, and historians in the area of space studies.

This book selects Chinese excellent enterprise management cases, integrating into the education system of business schools, sharing "China's new story" to readers, and boosting the process of national economic construction and enterprise transformation.Chinese enterprises face unprecedented opportunities and challenges under the circumstance of fast-changing technology, economy, and political environment. In the face of various uncertainties, they have risen to prominence and constantly summed up enterprise management concepts and practical experience suitable for their own development to reshape their competitive advantages and enhance their market value.Based on the investigation, this book covers the major theoretical aspects of management principles such as planning, organizing, leading, controlling, and innovation. The 17 selected cases from manufacturing, retailing, technology/big data service, agriculture, and other industries cover strategic management, entrepreneurial management, human-oriented management, information management, and organizational innovation management. We hope that readers can get some valuable practical experience and enlightenment from the practices in these fields.The book also includes two case study guides, which guide readers to form a case study's thinking. It also encourages readers to broaden their learning ideas on management.

This book explores how cultural, social and political change happens through a unique analysis of the 'ethical turn' in skateboarding today. Insights shared by key change-makers and industry insiders cover themes including First Nations, Black and People of Color, skater-run creative innovations, anti-colonialism, anti-racism initiatives, and a growing focus on equity and empowering skaters historically discriminated against due to gender and/or sexuality. These dynamic changes are also connected to conceptual and theoretical frameworks from skate research, journalism, and sociology. This is a must-read for anyone interested in subcultures and social change.

This book presents the use of ABAQUS software in a simplified manner, for use in welding-related issues. Increasing human needs leads to the creation of complicated scientific problems. In the majority of these problems, it is necessary to join different parts and geometries together. Classical methods such as elasticity theory of stress distribution and governing equations of temperature distribution are not appropriate for solving these complicated problems. To overcome these challenges, finite element methods are proposed in order to solve different processes using differential equation. ABAQUS is a user-friendly commercial finite element software for modeling different processes in mechanical, civil, aerospace and other engineering fields. This book contains unified and detailed tutorials for professionals and students who are interested in simulating different welding processes using the ABAQUS finite element software.

This book discusses financial, managerial and engineering aspects associated with project engineering. The book is a text/reference book on courses related to project engineering for undergraduate students of Chemical Engineering programmes. The author has utilized her decade-long professional experience with reputed project consultancy organizations and her academic experience in writing this book. The background of project engineering is described with special emphasis on its interdisciplinary nature. Project management techniques are discussed with the help of worked-out examples. It includes multiple choice questions and information regarding relevant courses in different institutes. The book is useful for undergraduate degree and diploma students as well as for fresh graduate engineering trainees in various process consulting organizations.

This textbook covers all aspects of rhinosporidiosis known till date and puts forward the various aspects of the disease on which further research can be carried out. Detailed descriptions of varied presentations of rhinosporidiosis managed at our institute is provided, accompanied by numerous clinical and intraoperative photographs. This book will serve as a comprehensive source of information related to all aspects of rhinoporidiosis. Experts from multiple specialties have contributed about aspects pertaining to their specialties.

As the crises of capitalism continue to intensify, radical thinkers must conjure realistic and inspirational alternative futures beyond this failing social order. This book presents a stimulating array of essays exploring such post-capitalist futures. With contributions and perspectives from the Global North and Global South, central topics include ecosocialism, ecofeminism, degrowth, community economies, and the Green New Deal. There are also chapters offering analyses of land, energy, technology, universal basic services, and (re)localisation of economies. The book is in three parts. The first presents various alternative paradigms for thinking about - and working toward - post-capitalist futures. The second section offers perspectives on alternative governance strategies and approaches for post-capitalist futures. The closing section gathers various analyses of post-capitalist geographies and resistance. Going beyond critique and instead envisioning alternative imaginaries, this collection should challenge and inspire readers to think and act upon the range of possibilities immanent in our crisis-ridden present.

This book is a collection of the up-to-date experience and knowledge about the implementation of sustainable business excellence in a particular context of SMEs. The book uses empirical and practical approach to tackle this issue, which is underdeveloped in the literature. Hence, it could constitute a relevant reference for SMEs managers seeking to manage their operations sustainably, efficiently and resiliently. The book also integrates the smart component to the sustainable business excellence and proves for those who are still skeptical that SMEs could benefit from smart and digital technology in the favor of sustainability and business excellence. Overall, we build on successful initiatives we experienced in real life to guide SMEs in order to be sustainable smart and resilient in the post COVID context which is highly demanding in terms of business excellence and efficiency.

This textbook for courses in gas dynamics will be of interest to students and teachers in aerospace and mechanical engineering disciplines. It provides an in-depth explanation of compressible flows and ties together various concepts to build an understanding of the fundamentals of gas dynamics. The book is written in an easy to understand manner, with pedagogical aids such as chapter overviews, summaries, and descriptive and objective questions to help students evaluate their progress. The book contains example problems as well as end-of-chapter exercises. Detailed bibliographies are included at the end of each chapter to provide students with further resources. The book can be used as a core text in engineering coursework and also in professional development courses.

This book highlights the environmental footprints and best practices in sustainable agriculture. This first volume includes forty-four interesting chapters that present agriculture in the light of food security, circular economy, sustainability, food exports and imports written by leading experts in the field. It provides and interesting read for researchers, policy makers and professionals in the area of agriculture and economy.

This book introduces important results and techniques in property testing, where the goal is to design algorithms that decide whether their input satisfies a predetermined property in sublinear time, or even in constant time - that is, time is independent of the input size. This book consists of three parts. The first part provides an introduction to the foundations of property testing. The second part studies the testing of specific properties on strings, graphs, functions, and constraint satisfaction problems. Vectors and matrices over real numbers are also covered. The third part is more advanced and explains general conditions, including full characterizations, under which properties are constant-query testable.The first and second parts of the book are intended for first-year graduate students in computer science. They should also be accessible to undergraduate students with the adequate background. The third part can be used by researchers or ambitious graduate students who want to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of property testing.

Recycling is the need of the hour and it is an inevitable destination at the end of the life of any product. Today, recycling can happen at postindustrial and post-consumer states and the importance of recycled products in the market has gained significant importance. Recycled products dominate the array of sustainable products in today's context. Even though there are commercial implications for recycling, one of the very important and obvious reasons to go for recycling and to have recycled products is to have the benefits on environmental sustainability. It is highly important to assess the environmental footprints of recycled products and further improve the environmental benefits of such recycled products. This book presents five interesting chapters pertaining to the environmental footprints of various recycled products.

This book deals with the contemporary subject of perception of risk and its influence on accidents and disasters. The contents examine the conventional viewpoints on human errors, incubation of errors, complexity and organisational deviance as a cause for accidents. Work of Mary Douglas with regard to risk, Charles Perrow's work on the normal accident theory and Diane Vaughan's theory on normalisation of deviance are examined from a fresh perspective in this book. It also discusses prominent accidents in aviation, space, nuclear energy, automotive and healthcare, using the pandemic and Boeing 737 Max as a backdrop to study accidents and disasters. It further explores the background and similarities to these events and addresses the core issues such as the state of regulation, the worldview of the sociologists, and proposes that mental models of complex systems, avarice and risk for gain as other possibilities for accidents. Using the concept of nudge in behavioural economics and the Elinor Ostrom¿s viewpoint on regulating for common good, it suggests a way forward through the High Reliability Organisation Theory (HRO) leading to enhanced risk perception. The book will be of interest to those who would like to understand the need to incorporate risk perception into regulation, engineers and scientists, professionals and policy makers working in the areas of disaster and risk management, technology areas like aviation, nuclear plants, space and healthcare, students of the sociology of risk and of course the general reader.

Analytics is changing the landscape of businesses across sectors globally. This has led to the stimulation of interest of scholars and practitioners worldwide in this domain. The emergence of 'big data', has fanned the usages of machine learning techniques and the acceptance of 'Analytics Enabled Decision Making'. This book provides a holistic theoretical perspective combined with the application of such theories by drawing on the experiences of industry professionals and academicians from around the world. The book discusses several paradigms including pattern mining, clustering, classification, and data analysis to name a few. The main objective of this book is to offer insight into the process of decision-making that is accelerated and made more precise with the help of analytics.

This book brings a much-needed re-examination of the concepts of social fairness and justice in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Through careful analysis of issues as diverse as the allocation of vaccines through the global system COVAX, women and gender, migrants and refugees, the environment, and social justice, the authors bring novel perspectives on openness, freedom, and well-being. This ambitious collection combines political, economic, historical, philosophical, and cultural analyses to examine whether it is possible to envision a "fair society" after the global COVID-19 pandemic.