Books published by Springer

This book presents advanced methodologies for analyzing attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine across 10 countries spanning both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, employing cutting-edge Big Data and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) techniques. Serving as an important resource for policymakers, it addresses attitudes towards and causes of growing vaccine hesitancy --a pressing concern identified by the World Health Organization as a top 10 global health threat. Moreover, the book sheds light on key factors associated with positive vaccine attitudes, aiming to bolster vaccine uptake rates. The authors explore the role of happiness in shaping health-related decision-making, offering actionable policy recommendations for governments. By sharing best-case practices, they equip policymakers and health officials worldwide with the necessary strategies to address future pandemics effectively.

This proceedings volume gathers selected, peer-reviewed papers presented at the Dynamical Systems Theory and Applications International Conference - DSTA 2021, held virtually on December 6-9, 2021, organized by the Department of Automation, Biomechanics, and Mechatronics at Lodz University of Technology, Poland. This volume focuses on numerical and analytical approaches, while Volume I concentrates on studies on applications.Being a truly international conference, this 16th iteration of DSTA received submissions from authors representing 52 countries. The program covered both theoretical and experimental approaches to widely understood dynamical systems, including topics devoted to bifurcations and chaos, control in dynamical systems, asymptotic methods in nonlinear dynamics, stability of dynamical systems, lumped mass and continuous systems vibrations, original numerical methods of vibration analysis, non-smooth systems, dynamics in life sciences and bioengineering, as well as engineering systems and differential equations.DSTA conferences aim to provide a common platform for exchanging new ideas and results of recent research in scientific and technological advances in modern dynamical systems. Works contained in this volume can appeal to researchers in the field, whether in mathematics or applied sciences, and practitioners in myriad industries.

This self-contained text introduces Euclidean Fourier Analysis to graduate students who have completed courses in Real Analysis and Complex Variables. It provides sufficient content for a two course sequence in Fourier Analysis or Harmonic Analysis at the graduate level. In true pedagogical spirit, each chapter presents a valuable selection of exercises with targeted hints that will assist the reader in the development of research skills. Proofs are presented with care and attention to detail. Examples are provided to enrich understanding and improve overall comprehension of the material. Carefully drawn illustrations build intuition in the proofs. Appendices contain background material for those that need to review key concepts. Compared with the author's other GTM volumes (Classical Fourier Analysis and Modern Fourier Analysis), this text offers a more classroom-friendly approach as it contains shorter sections, more refined proofs, and a wider range of exercises. Topics include the Fourier Transform, Multipliers, Singular Integrals, Littlewood-Paley Theory, BMO, Hardy Spaces, and Weighted Estimates, and can be easily covered within two semesters.

This proceedings volume gathers selected, peer-reviewed papers presented at the Dynamical Systems Theory and Applications International Conference - DSTA 2021, held virtually on December 6-9, 2021, organized by the Department of Automation, Biomechanics, and Mechatronics at Lodz University of Technology, Poland. This volume concentrates on studies on applications, while Volume II focuses on numerical and analytical approaches.Being a truly international conference, this 16th iteration of DSTA received submissions from authors representing 52 countries. The program covered both theoretical and experimental approaches to widely understood dynamical systems, including topics devoted to bifurcations and chaos, control in dynamical systems, asymptotic methods in nonlinear dynamics, stability of dynamical systems, lumped mass and continuous systems vibrations, original numerical methods of vibration analysis, nonsmooth systems, dynamics in life sciences and bioengineering, as well as engineering systems and differential equations.DSTA conferences aim to provide a common platform for exchanging new ideas and results of recent research in scientific and technological advances in modern dynamical systems. Works contained in this volume can appeal to researchers in the field, whether in mathematics or applied sciences, and practitioners in myriad industries.

This open access book is the product of an international study which offers a state-of-the-art summary of mathematics teacher collaboration with respect to theory, research, practice, and policy. The authors - leading researchers and teachers on mathematics teacher collaboration - represent a wide range of countries and cultures. Chapters explore the various forms of teacher collaboration; the diversity of settings and groupings in which mathematics teacher collaboration occurs; the tools and resources that support mathematics teacher collaboration and are the product of collaboration; and the breadth of outcomes of such collaboration. Teachers' experiences and learning in collaborative settings are represented through their own voices as well as the voices of researchers. Forms and outcomes of collaboration are considered through a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. The authors reflect on the policy implications of this work and suggest new directions of research that take into account contextual, cultural, national and political dimensions that impact teachers' work and learning through collaboration. The book is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who are interested in the power of teacher collaboration, and its history and potential for promoting educational innovations and equitable experiences for all teachers and learners.

This book constitutes selected papers from the 20th European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern Conference, EMCIS 2023, which was held in Dubai, UAE, during December 11-12, 2023. EMCIS covers technical, organizational, business, and social issues in the application of information technology and is dedicated to the definition and establishment of Information Systems (IS) as a discipline of high impact for IS professionals and practitioners. It focuses on approaches that facilitate the identification of innovative research of significant relevance to the IS discipline following sound research methodologies that lead to results of measurable impact. The 43 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 126 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Part I: Metaverse; blockchain technology and applications; digital governance; healthcare information systems; artificial intelligence; Part II: Big data and analytics; digital services and social media; innovative research projects; managing information systems; smart cities.

This monograph introduces readers to core theories and applications in the chatbot AI context. Although AI is attracting significant attention, there is a literature gap and lack of practical guidelines on the key drivers of chatbot efficiency and agency capacity. There is a caveat between algorithmic explanations and actionable understanding, despite the acknowledged importance of inherently human-centric properties. Addressing these gaps, this state-of-the-art book offers a distinctive combination of content, theory, practice evaluation, and a holistic framework encompassing cognitive, emotional and social aspects, focusing on how to enhance AI agency and user experience. The framework aims to drive design, encouraging development of intelligent systems, techniques to evaluate chatbot with purposes, to appropriately meet user needs and market demand for responsible and explainable AI, XAI. Avenues for transforming business and life by implementing new generation AI systems are further discussed, as well as recommendations to overcome consumer resistance and advice for policy measures to reduce risks given the AI boost. While the community is still in an exploratory mode, we hope "The Rise of AI User Applications: Chatbots Integration Foundations and Trends" provides the needed understanding and will inspire researchers across disciplines to combine their efforts and work together on this very intriguing topic.

Based on a series of themes and case studies, this book aims to illustrate the impact of sports policies and practices on individuals and their identities, and to analyze the potential solutions offered by International human rights law (IHRL) for these infringements. It bridges the gap between IHRL and sports studies, and will be useful to scholars in both fields, especially those unfamiliar with each other's work. Furthermore, by investigating the context of sport and its governance, this collection offers a series of valuable insights, enabling the development of an interpretation of 'law in context' for legal scholars in the field of human rights. As the governance and regulation of sport are seen as illustrations of other forms of normativity, this book also contributes to the conversation about the transnational dimension of law and legal orders. In this respect, it illustrates that normative autonomy in the field of sport, associated with the idea of lex sportiva, tends to be relative regarding IHRL. The sporting environment is not disconnected from major contemporary social issues: it constitutes a public space in which injustices can be denounced, but also the theater in which prejudices are perpetuated against various parties, such as athletes or workers. IHRL commonly addresses attacks on individual dignity and social justice issues by guaranteeing rights to individuals and offering them protection mechanisms. In this context, can IHRL solve the problems encountered in the sporting environment? This is the question that animates this volume. This is an open access book.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 30th International Conference on MultiMedia Modeling, MMM 2024, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, during January 29-February 2, 2024.The 120 full papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 297 submissions. The MMM conference were organized in topics related to multimedia modelling, particularly: audio, image, video processing, coding and compression; multimodal analysis for retrieval applications, and multimedia fusion methods.

Corporations are increasingly dedicated to implementing more robust climate change practices in an era characterized by natural resource constraints, socio-environmental challenges, and mounting climate change pressures. This book provides a timely exploration of theoretical and empirical perspectives on global climate governance and corporate eco-innovation activities. It illustrates how corporations are actively addressing climate change by enhancing their climate governance systems and integrating eco-innovation into their operations, significantly impacting financial decision-making, policies, performance, risk management, and other crucial indicators. In this context, eco-innovation represents a corporation's ability to reduce environmental costs and burdens for its customers. It plays a vital role in helping firms improve energy and environmental efficiency, mitigate energy consumption, reduce carbon emissions, and minimize ecological harm during and after production. Additionally, eco-innovation can create new market opportunities by enhancing existing environmental technologies. Furthermore, the shift from conventional corporate governance to a heightened focus on corporate climate governance mechanisms, such as the establishment of ecological committees, the implementation of cli-mate incentives for managers and executives, and the publication of sustainability or climate change reports, proves to be an effective strategy for motivating firms to become more dedicated to environmental protection and eco-innovation initiatives.

Financial markets play a critical role in climate finance as they are a major source of funding for many of the projects and initiatives aimed at addressing climate change. For instance, banks and investors can provide loans and capital to companies that are developing renewable energy projects, building energy-efficient infrastructure, or implementing climate-smart agricultural practices. Moreover, the importance of climate finance in financial markets goes beyond just funding environmental initiatives. Investors and financial institutions are increasingly factoring in climate risks and opportunities into their decision-making processes, including assessing the financial risks posed by climate change and the potential impact of new regulations and policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.This book is a collection of recent developments in climate change and climate finance. As the global community seeks to address the impacts of climate change, financial institutions are being called upon to play a larger role in supporting the transition to a sustainable economy. This includes incorporating climate risks into investment decisions, developing new financial products that support climate-friendly investments, and promoting greater transparency and accountability in the financial sector. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of how climate change is impacting the global financial system and explores the potential solutions that can help address these challenges. The contributions aim to examine the complex interplay between climate change and finance, and the potential for innovative financial instruments and policies to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

This volume sheds light on the world of organizational politics, political leadership, and the pivotal roles played by employees and political leaders in managing diverse groups. It picks up where influential scholars like Edgar Schein, Harry Triandis, Bernard Bass, Robert House, Shalom Schwartz, and Geert Hofstede left off, providing a timely and transparent exploration of these crucial topics. In a rapidly evolving landscape, characterized by renewed interest in political skill, people management, leadership and management, diversity training, organizational culture, workplace incivility, ambivalence alliance, and career development, the book emerges as an invaluable resource, assembling a group of renowned contributors in the field, who have conducted extensive social research. It offers a comprehensive view of contemporary organizational politics, psychology at work, DEI, political skill/will, HRM, leadership effectiveness, organizational behavior and culture, relationships in the workplace and emotions in politics, favoritism, workplace incivility, ambivalent alliance, people analytics, and office politics, and competition. The book discusses the ongoing struggle between knowledge-driven scholarship and dogmatic ideology in the workplace and beyond. As organizations grapple with the challenges of today's business environment, the book therefore is an indispensable guide for scholars, consultants, and leaders committed to driving continuous improvement and navigating the complex intersection of politics and leadership in the modern workplace.

The book examines female entrepreneurship in the nineteenth century. Economic history has long accorded women entrepreneurs a very minor place, relegating them to the status of historical anecdotes. The hypothesis of women's withdrawal from the business sphere after the eighteenth century has long dominated. However, this view has recently been subject to a fundamental questioning. Women did in fact actively contribute to economic development by occupying key positions in the business sphere as independent workers, investors and entrepreneurs. Businesswomen were no exception in the nineteenth century. They ran businesses of all sizes and in a wide range of industrial sectors. This book helps to bring nineteenth-century women entrepreneurs out of invisibility, by examining their entrepreneurial practices and shedding light on the role of the legal framework in which they operated. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of economic history, business history, history of law, and economics and management sciences in general, interested in a better understanding of female entrepreneurship in the nineteenth century.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First EAI International Conference on Safe, Secure, Ethical, Responsible Technologies and Emerging Applications, SAFER-TEA 2023, held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, during October 25-27, 2023. The 24 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 75 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: Regulations and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Resource-constrained Networks and Cybersecurity, Emerging Artificial Intelligence Applications, Reviews.

This book sheds light on the complexities of the European Union's (EU) influence in a world dominated by global power politics. Written by an EU diplomat, it explores the dynamic landscape of soft power, with a focus on key regions such as the Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership, Southern Neighborhood, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Presenting the economic, diplomatic, and cultural dimensions, the book critically evaluates the EU's effectiveness in shaping behavior amid intensifying global power competition. With a unique perspective gained from on-the-ground experience in Kosovo, Ukraine, and Rwanda, the author navigates the EU's responses to challenges, including Russia's hard power approach. A must-read for policymakers and diplomats, this book blends academic analysis with practical insights, offering valuable lessons and recommendations for mastering the language of power in today's global politics. Ideal for students and professionals, it provides a comprehensive explorationof EU foreign policy dynamics.

This volume discusses strategic approaches and relevant decisions of business, government, and civil society to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which were adopted by all UN member states in 2015. The book presents the proceedings of the 4th International Scientific Conference on Sustainable Development (ESG 2023), St. Petersburg 2023. At present, the economies of different countries are in a zone of turbulence and the current agenda pushes the transformation of all customary systems to maintain and keep the achieved positions. This volume brings together material on sustainable development in economics and finance as well as industry. It is intended for scholars and professionals involved in public and corporate finance, financial accounting and auditing, sustainable development risk management, as well as economic growth, macroeconomics, monetary policy in a sustainable development environment, public and corporate governance and economics, corporate communications and public relations.

This textbook introduces the widely used numerical technique FEM in various engineering disciplines for the analysis of structures, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and other physical phenomena. Appropriate for interested senior undergraduate engineering students and beginner graduate students in a one-semester introductory course, this book provides a clear understanding of the main issues in FEM. Looking at the FEM as a variational approximation method that uses localized piecewise polynomial basis functions for the solution of boundary-value problems (BVP) and initial boundary-value problems (IBVP), the book uses examples to apply this technique to various problems of physical interest, e.g., elasticity, heat conduction, advection-diffusion, etc. One-dimensional (1D) problems are presented first to make it easier to grasp the fundamental concepts associated with the formulation and application of the FEM; then, the methodology is extended to more challenging 2D and 3D problems that involve somewhat greater mathematical complexity. For simplicity, the book deals with problems that are specified in terms of a single set of state variables, such as displacements or temperature. Finally, due to the introductory nature of this text, only linear problems are considered.

This book is about the current state of research in online assessment. The growth of this field is set to accelerate exponentially with emerging opportunities for automatic data collection and analysis. Yet, the future of online assessment faces major challenges including, perhaps most importantly, the extent to which assessments, when enabled by technology, can serve simultaneously the needs of learners, teachers and those of the enterprise of education. This book details, specifically, the multiple ways in which online assessment can be utilized, such as:Providing virtual coaching or tutoringOffering appropriate scaffoldingAllowing analysis of student decision-making Providing the mechanism for students to review and comment on each others digital creationsCreating a space for online discussionProviding expert coaching for modeling and animation workWith the increased availability of vast and highly varied amounts of data from learners, teachers, learning environments, and administrative systems within educational settings, further opportunities arise for advancing pedagogical assessment practice (Ifenthaler et al., 2018). This book fully details these opportunities, as well as privileges and constraints of analytics-enhanced assessment, harnessing formative as well as summative data from learners and their contexts in order to facilitate learning processes in near real-time and help decisionmakers to improve learning environments.

This book offers a thorough understanding of Hierarchical Archimedean Copulas (HACs) and their practical applications. It covers the basics of copulas, explores the Archimedean family, and delves into the specifics of HACs, including their fundamental properties. The text also addresses sampling algorithms, HAC parameter estimation, and structure, and highlights temporal models with applications in finance and economics. The final chapter introduces R, MATLAB, and Octave toolboxes for copula modeling, enabling students, researchers, data scientists, and practitioners to model complex dependence structures and make well-informed decisions across various domains.

This book covers the following subjects: growth curve modeling, directional dependence, dyadic data modeling, item response modeling (IRT), and other methods for the analysis of dependent data (e.g., approaches for modeling cross-section dependence, multidimensional scaling techniques, and mixed models). It presents contributions on handling data in which the postulate of independence in the data matrix is violated. When this postulate is violated and when the methods assuming independence are still applied, the estimated parameters are likely to be biased, and statistical decisions are very likely to be incorrect. Problems associated with dependence in data have been known for a long time, and led to the development of tailored methods for the analysis of dependent data in various areas of statistical analysis. These include, for example, methods for the analysis of longitudinal data, corrections for dependency, and corrections for degrees of freedom. Researchers and graduate students in the social and behavioral sciences, education, econometrics, and medicine will find this up-to-date overview of modern statistical approaches for dealing with problems related to dependent data particularly useful.

This book provides a systematic review of the research literature related to the effectiveness of organizational policies and programs on work-life balance (WLB). It discusses policies and practices related to workload management, flextime, flexplace, alternative job arrangements, and family care. Based on the evidence, the authors make specific recommendations to organizational executives and HR directors to design and implement work-life balance policies and programs to maximize their effectiveness and help employees achieve their optimal level of work-life balance. Specifically, the authors discuss how to: (1) identify employees with greater need for WLB programs, (2) evaluate environmental circumstances for WLB programs (3) design effective WLB policies and programs, (3) facilitate effective implementation of WLB policies and programs, (4) provide management support for WLB policies and programs, and (5) evaluate performance of WLB policies and programs. Written lucidly by experts in the field and with many case studies and examples, this book appeals to a wide range of academic and professional readers.

This volume contains twenty-six lectures on basic anatomy and physiology for first-year university students. Topics included are standard for anatomy and physiology courses, including cells and tissues, a brief review of chemistry, thermoregulation and homeostasis, the musculo-skeletal system, structure and function of blood vessels, respiration, the reproductive system, and more.Also included are sixteen worksheets with homework exercises that complement the lectures. Suggested answers to all the worksheets are also included at the end of the book.This is an ideal book for professors teaching basic anatomy and physiology courses as well as researchers, students, and professionals looking to brush up on the subject. The book complements the already published, Martin Caon (2020) "Examination Questions and Answers in Basic Anatomy and physiology: 2900 Multiple Choice Questions and 64 Essay Topics. 3rd Ed." Springer ISBN 978-3-030-47313-6

This book provides a well-researched, well-structured, interesting, and informative narrative depicting the little-known yet successful efforts of the Captain Arve Staxrud Norwegian Arctic Rescue Expedition of 1913 that searched for and saved members of the Lieutenant Herbert Schro¿der-Stranz German Arctic Expedition of 1912 in Spitsbergen (Svalbard). The book portrays the cooperative and strategic endeavors of the humans and animals involved in the Staxrud expedition who worked together to save human lives on the icy fjords and glaciers of the far north during an unseasonable time of year for exploratory expeditions. It examines and analyzes the unpreparedness and lack of training that resulted in the failure of the Schro¿der-Stranz expedition. It compares and contrasts concurrent rescue expeditions that failed, including the Kurt Wegener expedition and the Theodor Lerner expedition. It describes the crucial role of animals in both the Norwegian and German expeditions, as well as German interest and Norwegian activity in Spitsbergen leading up to the expeditions. And it reconstructs the interaction and organization of principal officers, overwintering experts, Norwegians, Sämi, draft reindeer teams, and experienced sledge dogs who made the Staxrud rescue mission a success and who created and enabled improved search and rescue capabilities for Spitsbergen and for the future of the Arctic archipelago.

The Cenozoic history of South America faunas mainly rests on the evidence yielded by the study of fossil mammals. Following the seminal work of William D. Matthew, George G. Simpson established the slogan "Splendid Isolation" for describing the evolutionary history of South American faunas. He envisaged South America (as well as other Southern Hemisphere landmasses) as dead ends in the evolution and geographical expansion of animals and plants that since the Mesozoic come in successive migratory waves from the North.More than 40 years passed away from the last important contribution by Simpson (1980). Since then, in spite to the exponential increase in biological, paleontological and geological knowledge, and an incredibly new number of fossils, his scheme remained almost unpolluted and most recent books regarding the palaeobiogeography of South American vertebrates follow this paradigm nearly without criticism.However, the factthat South America was joined to Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India during most of the Cretaceous, and that it was still connected Australia (via Antarctica) and probably Africa up to the Paleogene, together with the large number of shared biotic components between these landmasses, point in favor of a different paleobiogeographical scenario.The book aims to demonstrate that during the Paleogene (and most of the Neogene) the nature and evolutionary history of South American vertebrates is by far much more intricate than previously envisaged. As will be shown, new evidence suggests that southern landmasses may have played an important role in the early evolution and radiation of extant mammal clades.  This book is not written to conform with the ideal of a technical manual or a review, and is not carried forward to collect all that has been said before. The main goals are to criticize the current Palaeobiogeographic Model of Vertebrate Settlement of South America, and to propose a new vision based on the evidence provided by the natural world in the last decades.

This book contains visionary and best papers from the workshops held at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, AAMAS 2023, held in London, UK, during May 29-June 2, 2023.The 12 regular papers, 5 best papers and 7 visionary papers, presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of more than 110 contributions to the workshops. They focus on emerging topics and new trends in the area of autonomous agents and multiagent systems and stem from the following workshops: - Workshop on Autonomous Robots and Multirobot Systems (ARMS)- Workshop on Adaptive and Learning Agents (ALA)- Workshop on Interdisciplinary Design of Emotion Sensitive Agents (IDEA)- Workshop on Rebellion and Disobedience in Artificial Intelligence (RaD-AI)- Workshop on Neuro-symbolic AI for Agent and Multi-Agent Systems (NeSyMAS)- Workshop on Multiagent Sequential Decision Making under Uncertainty (MSDM)- Workshop on Citizen-Centric Multi-Agent Systems (C-MAS)

Presents an introduction to of formal mathematical logic and set theoryPresents simple yet nontrivial results in modern model theoryProvides introductory remarks to all results, including a historical background

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Large-Scale Scientific Computations, LSSC 2023, held in Sozopol, Bulgaria, during June 5-9, 2023. The 49 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: preconditioning and multilevel methods; fractures and mixed dimensional modeling: discretizations, solvers, and methodology; machine learning and model order reduction for large scale predictive simulations; fractional differential problems: theoretical aspects, algorithms and applications; variational analysis and optimal control; stochastic optimal control and numerical methods in economics and finance; tensor methods for big data analytics and low-rank approximations of PDEs solutions; applications of metaheuristics to large-scale problems; large-scale models: numerical methods, parallel computations and applications; HPC and HPDA: algorithms and applications.

This book focuses on different aspects of cooperatives in Switzerland and their contribution to meeting overarching societal challenges. It seeks to identify how cooperatives can tackle grand societal challenges and extends the body of research on cooperatives. The discussions are highlighted in the context of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The respective chapters cover topics such as cooperatives in Switzerland (historical roots, current landscape, embeddedness in profit/nonprofit organizations, participatory governance and legal aspects), grand societal challenges and cooperatives, and the future with and of cooperatives. This is an open access book.

Revolutionizing the field of complex system optimization and management, this book introduces the innovative concept of cyber-collaborative protocols (CCP), representing a new approach to managing the complexity of interconnected systems. Departing from traditional methods, this book emphasizes collaboration, efficiency, and intelligence within cyber-physical systems (CPS), with a specific focus on precision agriculture and agricultural robotics systems (ARS). With a combination of theoretical foundations and practical applications, the book explores CCP's unique advantages and potential to enhance system effectiveness to address real-world critical issues such as food security. This book is an essential resource for diverse audiences, including academics and students in the fields of complex systems design and management, as well as professionals and practitioners. Importantly, the book provides a forward-looking perspective on the role of engineered collaboration in complex CPS.

In a world increasingly characterized by rapid change and constant challenges, maintaining good physical and mental health is more important than ever. "Essentials in Health & Mental Health" is a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted landscape of health and well-being, delving into key aspects that affect individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and circumstances. Through the lens of 20 meticulously crafted chapters, this book takes you on a journey to understand the essential elements that contribute to our overall health, from the invisible struggles of loneliness and mental health problems to the impact of global events like the COVID-19 pandemic. The book begins with an eye-opening chapter that sheds light on the pervasive nature of loneliness and its profound impact on the functioning of individuals. The authors delve into the various costs of loneliness and uncover the under-recognized association between loneliness and mental health problems. In a world interconnected like never before, these insights are essential for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of human well-being.