Books published by Springer

The core of this three-volume book deals with damage-associated molecular patterns abbreviated "DAMPs", which are unique molecules that save life and fight for survival of all organisms on this planet by triggering robust inflammatory/immune defense responses upon any injury, including those caused by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. However, these molecules also have a dark side: when produced in excess upon severe insults, they can trigger serious human diseases. The three volumes present current understanding of the importance of DAMP-promoted immune responses in the etiopathogenesis of human diseases and explore how this understanding is impacting diagnosis, prognosis, and future treatment. This third volume addresses the potential of DAMPs in clinical practice, as therapeutic targets and therapeutics, by focusing on a description of antigen-related diseases, which are pathogenetically dominated by DAMPs, that is, infectious and autoimmune disorders and allograftrejection (as an undesired function of these molecules), as well as tumor rejection (as the desired function of these molecules). The book is written for professionals from all medical and paramedical disciplines who are interested in the introduction of innovative data from modern inflammation and immunity research into clinical practice. In this sense, the book reflects an approach to translational medicine. The readership will include all practitioners and clinicians, in particular, ICU clinicians, infectiologists, microbiologists, virologists, hematologists, rheumatologists, diabetologists, neurologists, transplantologists, oncologists, and pharmacists. Also available: Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases - Vol. 1: Injury-Induced Innate Immune Responses; Damage-Associated Molecular Patterns in Human Diseases - Vol. 2: Danger Signals as Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Therapeutic Targets.

This volume gathers the latest advances, innovations and applications in the field of sustainable construction materials and structures, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 75th RILEM Annual Week (75RW 2021), held in Merida, Mexico on August 29 - September 3, 2021. It covers topics such as supplementary cementitious materials, durability and Life Cycle assessment in urban and marine conditions, additive manufacturing of concrete in construction, structural performance and design, non-Portland cements and Alkali activated cementitious materials and eco-concrete, cultural heritage, non-destructive testing techniques, bituminous materials, and construction materials (polymers, timber, bamboo, recycling and masonry). The contributions, which were selected through a rigorous international peer-review process, share exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster new multidisciplinary collaborations.

Maize is one of the most generally grown cereal crops at global level, followed by wheat and rice. Maize is the major crop in China both in terms of yield and acreage. In 2012, worldwide maize production was about 840 million tons. Maize has long been a staple food of most of the global population (particularly in South America and Africa) and a key nutrient resource for animal feed and for food industrial materials. Maize belts vary from the latitude 58° north to the latitude 40° south, and maize ripens every month of the year. Abiotic and biotic stresses are common in maize belts worldwide. Abiotic stresses (chiefly drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures), together with biotic stresses (primarily fungi, viruses, and pests), negatively affect maize growth, development, production and productivity. In the recent past, intense droughts, waterlogging, and extreme temperatures have relentlessly affected maize growth and yield. In China, 60% of the maize planting area is prone to drought, and the resultant yield loss is 20%-30% per year; in India, 25%-30% of the maize yield is lost as a result of waterlogging each year. The biotic stresses on maize are chiefly pathogens (fungal, bacterial, and viral), and the consequential syndromes, like ear/stalk rot, rough dwarf disease, and northern leaf blight, are widespread and result in grave damage. Roughly 10% of the global maize yield is lost each year as a result of biotic stresses. For example, the European corn borer [ECB, Ostrinianubilalis (Hübner)] causes yield losses of up to 2000 million dollars annually in the USA alone in the northern regions of China, the maize yield loss reaches 50% during years when maize badly affected by northern leaf blight. In addition, abiotic and biotic stresses time and again are present at the same time and rigorously influence maize production. To fulfill requirements of each maize-growing situation and to tackle the above mentions stresses in an effective way sensibly designed multidisciplinary strategy for developing suitable varieties for each of these stresses has been attempted during the last decade. Genomics is a field of supreme significance for elucidating the genetic architecture of complex quantitative traits and characterizing germplasm collections to achieve precise and specific manipulation of desirable alleles/genes. Advances in genotyping technologies and high throughput phenomics approaches have resulted in accelerated crop improvement like genomic selection, speed breeding, particularly in maize. Molecular breeding tools like collaborating all omics, has led to the development of maize genotypes having higher yields, improved quality and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Through this book, we bring into one volume the various important aspects of maize improvement and the recent technological advances in development of maize genotypes with high yield, high quality and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses

This book offers a complete focus on the radiographic analysis of the abdominal wall and hernias. An estimated 20 million hernias are repaired annually throughout the world. As the technology utilized to complete hernia repairs becomes more complex, surgeons are required to have a more thorough understanding of the radiographic anatomy and diagnostic modalities used to evaluate hernias. Furthermore, the amount that now goes into the preoperative planning of hernias for complex repairs (such robotic and open transversus abdominis muscle release procedures) requires an understanding of radiology and the ability to identify nuances of anatomy offered by the imaging. The use of mesh and extent of re-do hernia repairs has also complicated radiographic evaluation of hernias. The text is a comprehensive review of abdominal wall imaging broken down into individual types of hernia. Each hernia type is discussed with consideration to the best type of imaging evaluation, unique radiographic findings and considerations prior to repair. Representative images, diagrams and videos are used to point out anatomy and features of the hernia. This text offers the first-of-its-kind standardized approach to evaluating hernias radiographically. Most importantly, each hernia and chapter is approached with the surgeon in mind, meaning, authors explain the radiology based on anatomy and with a plan for surgical repair on the horizon. Select chapters include illuminating videos to give context to the text. This is an ideal guide for practicing surgeons and trainees treating patients with hernias.

The book reviews clinical trial methodology as it pertains to drug development in psychiatry. The reader will understand the process of drug development in psychiatry from discovery through marketing with the help of clinically relevant examples. The reader will appreciate the history of drug development in psychiatry dating back to the era of serendipitous discovery and culminating in an era of new and highly focused targets. Readers will understand how drug development in psychiatry has changed and adapted with the discovery of novel mechanism of action drugs. Novel drugs and disease targets have changed the way developers and regulatory agencies think about clinical trial methodology.The book elucidates how biomarkers, genetics and advances in neuroscience and neuroimaging have influenced drug development approaches, which will ultimately change the practice of psychiatry. The book will be broken down into the following sections: a. Prior to the 1960s - Drug discovery by chance observationb. The last 50 years - refined targeting of CNS drugs without the discovery of mechanistically new drugsc. The future - the discovery and development of mechanistically new drugs. The examination of new targets, genetics and biomarkers.

"This book is a remarkable achievement" Gerd GigerenzerThis book offers practical approaches to working in a new field of knowledge - Civic Statistics - which sets out to engage with, and overcome well documented and long-standing problems in teaching quantitative skills. The book includes 23 peer-reviewed chapters, written in coordination by an international group of experts from ten countries. The book aims to support and enhance the work of teachers and lecturers working both at the high school and tertiary (university) levels. It is designed to promote and improve the critical understanding of quantitative evidence relevant to burning social issues - such as epidemics, climate change, poverty, migration, natural disasters, inequality, employment, and racism.Effective citizen engagement with social issues requires active participation and a broad understanding of data and statistics about societal issues. However, many statistics curricula are not designed to teach relevant skills nor to improve learners' statistical literacy. Evidence about social issues is provided to the public via print and digital media, official statistics offices, and other information channels, and a great deal of data is accessible both as aggregated summaries and as individual records. Chapters illustrate the approaches needed to teach and promote the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and enabling processes associated with critical understanding of Civic Statistics presented in many forms. These include: statistical analysis of authentic multivariate data; use of dynamic data visualisations; deconstructing texts about the social and economic well-being of societies and communities. Chapters discuss: the development of curricula and educational resources; use of emerging technologies and visualizations; preparation of teachers and teaching approaches; sources for relevant datasets and rich texts about Civic Statistics; ideas regarding future research, assessment, collaborations between different stakeholders; and other systemic issues.

This book describes the adoption process of TRIZ under challenging conditions and under serious limitations. It presents the integration of TRIZ with other techniques to solve problems in the Latin America industry. The chapters contain some industrial cases that explain the adoption process of TRIZ. They also describe the restrictions or limits on the use and adoption of TRIZ. This book describes a strategy to apply the TRIZ tools for product or service design. Case studies from different universities and enterprises are presented to facilitate the assimilation of the TRIZ concepts and tools.

This volume highlights the latest advances and innovations in the field of soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 5th International Conference on New Developments in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ZM), held in Nicosia, Northern Cyprus on June 30-July 2, 2022. It covers a diverse range of topics such as soil properties and characterization; shallow and deep foundations; soil improvement; excavations, support systems, earth-retaining structures and underground systems; earthquake geotechnical engineering; stability of slopes and landslides; fills and embankments; environmental preservation, water and energy; modelling and analyses in geotechnical engineering. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, present a wealth of exciting ideas that will open novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.

This book brings together new thinking and research on religious education's complex and evolving role in the multicultural, diverse postmodern era. It facilitates new realism and understanding of the current situation from empirical and reflective accounts relating to a variety of countries and political contexts, as well as providing innovative methodological approaches to the study of education and religion.In different contexts around the world, at different levels of education, and from different theoretical lenses, religious education occupies a contested space. The ongoing, changing nature of the world due to increasing secularization, rapid technological change, mass immigration, globalization processes, conflict and challenging security issues, from inter to intra state levels, and with shifting geopolitical power balances, generates the need to reconceptualize where religious education is positioned. It claims that religious education on its own can be an agent of moral, social and spiritual transformation are disputed. There is significant controversy about whether special religious education, that is in-faith education, still has a role within the post-modern world.

This book provides a state-of-the-art guide to Machine Learning (ML)-based techniques that have been shown to be highly efficient for diagnosis of failures in electronic circuits and systems. The methods discussed can be used for volume diagnosis after manufacturing or for diagnosis of customer returns. Readers will be enabled to deal with huge amount of insightful test data that cannot be exploited otherwise in an efficient, timely manner. After some background on fault diagnosis and machine learning, the authors explain and apply optimized techniques from the ML domain to solve the fault diagnosis problem in the realm of electronic system design and manufacturing. These techniques can be used for failure isolation in logic or analog circuits, board-level fault diagnosis, or even wafer-level failure cluster identification. Evaluation metrics as well as industrial case studies are used to emphasize the usefulness and benefits of using ML-based diagnosis techniques.

This book develops the basic concepts in understanding Analog Communications. Beginning with coverage of amplitude modulation, including the time and frequency domain representations of double sideband, single sideband, and vestigial sideband modulation, and introduces the student to the fundamental ideas of quadrature amplitude modulation, frequency division multiplexing, and digital communications using on-off keying. The author continues with additional discussion and coverage of the time and frequency domain representations of frequency and phase modulation, including bandwidth calculations, and the use of frequency shift keying, phase shift keying, and differential phase shift keying for the transmission of digital information. Contents include applications and further analyses of the effects of channel noise on amplitude, phase, and frequency modulation performance based on input versus output signal to noise ratios and some systemcomparisons are discussed.

This book features research presented and discussed during the Research & Innovation Forum (Rii Forum) 2022. As such, this book offers a unique insight into emerging topics, issues and developments pertinent to the fields of technology, innovation and education and their social impact. Papers included in this book apply inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches to query such issues as technology-enhanced teaching and learning, smart cities, information systems, cognitive computing and social networking. What brings these threads of the discussion together is the question of how advances in computer science - which are otherwise largely incomprehensible to researchers from other fields - can be effectively translated and capitalized on so as to make them beneficial for society as a whole. In this context, Rii Forum and Rii Forum proceedings offer an essential venue where diverse stakeholders, including academics, the think tank sector and decision-makers, canengage in a meaningful dialogue with a view to improving the applicability of advances in computer science.

This new edition is designed for a one semester introductory course in thermodynamics, either in mechanical or aerospace engineering, or in an engineering science program. The book contains a section on the geometry of curves and surfaces, in order to review those parts of calculus that are needed in thermodynamics for discussing the thermodynamic equations of state of simple compressible substances, and their approximation by linear interpolation. It presents the First Law of Thermodynamics as an equation for the time rate of change of system energy, the same way that Newton's Law of Motion, an equation for the time rate of change of system momentum, is presented in Dynamics, and presents the Second Law mathematically as a lower bound for the time rate of change of system entropy. Moreover, this emphasis illustrates the importance of thermodynamics to the study of heat transfer and fluid mechanics. These laws and the associated new thermodynamic properties, energy and entropy, are introduced with extended motivating discussions rather than as abstract postulates, and connections are made with kinetic theory. Thermodynamic properties of the vaporizable liquids- condensible gases needed for the solution of practical thermodynamic problems (e.g. water and a typical refrigerant) are presented in a unique tabular format that is both simple to understand and easy to use. All theoretical discussions throughout the book are accompanied by worked examples illustrating their use in practical devices. These examples of the solution of various kinds of thermodynamic problems are all structured in exactly the same way in order to make, as a result of the repetition, the solution of new problems easier for students to follow, and ultimately, to produce themselves. Many additional problems are provided, half of them with answers, for students to do on their own.

This volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of geographic information systems and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies, as presented by leading researchers and engineers at the 2nd International Conference on Unmanned Aerial System in Geomatics (UASG), held in Roorkee, India on April 2-4, 2021. It covers highly diverse topics, including photogrammetry and remote sensing, surveying, UAV manufacturing, geospatial data sensing, UAV processing, visualization, and management, UAV applications and regulations, geo-informatics and geomatics. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.

This textbook aims to point out the most important principles of data analysis from the mathematical point of view. Specifically, it selected these questions for exploring: Which are the principles necessary to understand the implications of an application, and which are necessary to understand the conditions for the success of methods used? Theory is presented only to the degree necessary to apply it properly, striving for the balance between excessive complexity and oversimplification. Its primary focus is on principles crucial for application success. Topics and features: Focuses on approaches supported by mathematical arguments, rather than sole computing experiencesInvestigates conditions under which numerical algorithms used in data science operate, and what performance can be expected from themConsiders key data science problems: problem formulation including optimality measure; learning and generalization in relationships to training set size and number of free parameters; and convergence of numerical algorithmsExamines original mathematical disciplines (statistics, numerical mathematics, system theory) as they are specifically relevant to a given problemAddresses the trade-off between model size and volume of data available for its identification and its consequences for model parametrizationInvestigates the mathematical principles involves with natural language processing and computer visionKeeps subject coverage intentionally compact, focusing on key issues of each topic to encourage full comprehension of the entire bookAlthough this core textbook aims directly at students of computer science and/or data science, it will be of real appeal, too, to researchers in the field who want to gain a proper understanding of the mathematical foundations "beyond" the sole computing experience.

This monograph discusses the role of political parties in Paraguay's legislature. Using Paraguay as a case study, the author analyzes the phenomenon of legislative chaos. While chaos has been expected to exist in legislatures since at least 1785 (Arrow 1951; Condorcet 1785), this phenomenon has not been observable in real-world legislatures for much of history (Tullock 1967; Tullock and Brennan 1981). By showing that chaos exists in Paraguay, and by then proposing a way to incorporate chaos into existing legislative theories, this volume creates a model that is more generalizable to different legislative contexts than what currently exists. Providing a robust theoretical contribution to the study of both legislative politics and Paraguay's political system, this book will appeal to researchers and students studying legislative behavior and Latin American politics.

The Handbook of Mind/Body Integration in Child and Adolescent Development examines issues relating to the mind/body connection in the development of children and adolescents, addressing problems of adverse life experiences with clinical implications, including somatization, functional or unexplained medical disturbances in various organ systems, psychosomatic conditions, and the effects. It discusses the interactions of emotions, experiences, thoughts in the mind - and their manifestations in the body - of children and youth. The book describes the effects of bodily conditions on the emotional state and mental functioning of children, such as cerebral palsy, major medical conditions, and other chronic health problems. It also explores the effects of chronic stress as well as child neglect and abuse on bodily manifestations.Key areas of coverage include: Developmental issues in the embodiment of self and body image in children and adolescents.Trauma and mind/body consequences in children and adolescents.Munchausen syndrome by proxy.Unexplained medical conditions, somatoform disorders, and conversion disorders during childhood and adolescence, including unexplained conditions in different organ systems (e.g., gastrointestinal, dermatological, neurological).Body/mind conditions in youth with physical and intellectual disabilities and chronic or severe medical conditions, including palliative care.Complementary and alternative treatment approaches to mind/body issues in children and adolescents, supplementing the usual mental health interventions.The Handbook of Mind/Body Integration in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and related professionals in developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, family therapy, social work, pediatrics, and public health.

While most people assume that all bribery is unethical, the literature provides examples and philosophical arguments to support the proposition that some bribery may actually be ethical, based on utilitarian grounds. This book provides a theoretical and empirical examination of bribery from an ethical perspective. It examines empirical data from over 80 countries and reports on attitudes toward bribery examining demographic variables such as gender, age, ethnicity, education, income level, religion and social class. Multi-country comparisons are provided to determine whether views toward bribery differ by geographic location.

This book presents an analytical framework for calculating the fracture toughness of generally layered beam structures with an elastically coupled response and hygrothermal stresses. The beam under study features several peculiarities: it consists of multiple layers of dissimilar materials, features bending-extension coupling, and contains residual hygrothermal stresses. Here, a generic analytical model is proposed to compute the energy release rate and the mode mixity. Mechanics of composite materials, crack closure integral, and energetic methods are among the theoretical tools employed for developing the model.A wealth of new closed-form expressions is presented, together with their validation through finite element analyses, which enables investigating various material systems and testing configurations. Experimentalists will find directions for the design and interpretation of delamination tests on laminated composites with uncommon stacking sequences. At the same time, theoreticians can exploit the analytical solution as a benchmark test for more refined analytical and numerical models. Furthermore, the book gives novel insights into the fracture behavior of a titanium-to-CFRP adhesive joint, which is intended for application in the hybrid laminar flow control of a future aircraft. It reports on experiments and theoretical analyses that help understand the behavior of this novel joint. All in all, this book offers extensive updates on methods for fracture analysis of materials with an elastically coupled behavior and residual stresses. It addresses students, researchers, and engineers alike.

This edited volume, with contributions from the Computer Aided Engineering for Batteries (CAEBAT) program, provides firsthand insights into nuances of implementing battery models in actual geometries. It discusses practical examples and gaps in our understanding, while reviewing in depth the theoretical background and algorithms. Over the last ten years, several world-class academics, automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), battery cell manufacturers and software developers worked together under an effort initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop mature, validated modeling tools to simulate design, performance, safety and life of automotive batteries. Until recently, battery modeling was a niche focus area with a relatively small number of experts. This book opens up the research topic for a broader audience from industry and academia alike. It is a valuable resource for anyone who works on battery engineering but has limited hands-on experience with coding.

This book, part of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) textbook series, deals with dysregulated host response a relatively new term introduced by the Sepsis-3 definitions in 2016. In contrast to systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) that has been used for nearly 30 years, this is a fundamentally new concept, which requires some sort of a paradigm shift in the way of thinking of critical care physicians. This change obviously requires time and after 5 years, time is ripe to summarize the knowledge in the form of a comprehensive book. The book is split in 4 sections. In the first one, the host immune response is explained in 11 chapters, followed by the next part, summarizing the possible tools for assessment at the bedside. The third and the fourth parts focus on the effects of dysregulated immune response on vital organ function and on the possible ways of immunomodulation. Written by internationally acclaimed experts of the field, the bookis of value for all those intensivists and allied professionals working in ICUs.

This book describes an original approach to solving tasks of individual and collective choice: classification, ranking, and selection of multi-attribute objects. Object representation with multisets allows considering simultaneously numerical and symbolic variables. In group verbal decision analysis, judgments of all participants are taken into account without a compromise between contradictory. Natural language is used to describe problems and objects, formalize knowledge of experts and preferences of decision makers, and explain results. Verbal methods and technologies are more transparent, less laborious for a person, and weakly sensitive to measurement errors. The book also includes examples of applying new tools in real ill-structured high-dimensional choice tasks. It is intended for researchers, managers, consultants, analysts, and developers as well as for teachers and students of applied mathematics, computer science, information processing, engineering, economics, and management.

In the field of waste disposal, recovery, and recycling, industrial residues from ceramic and mining activities are just an assemblage of minerals. So is municipal waste, after removing the organic part in incinerators or after long-time disposal. In almost every case, a natural counterpart is present. Applying what is known from natural systems on waste assemblages is the key to predicting their fate, at a short and long time, and suggesting the best for high-temperature recycling. This book aims to bring the Earth Science community to the edge of waste management, offering background information, the basics of high and low-temperature geochemistry involved, and an overview of waste investigation connected to minerals. This book also addresses mineral tailings, incinerator bottom, fly ashes, metal slags, ceramic industry residue, and eventually sanitary issues. The primary readership will be graduate students and professionals in geological and environmental fields.

This book introduces the advances in synchromodal logistics and provides a framework to classify various optimisation problems in this field. It explores the application of this framework to solve a broad range of problems, such as problems with and without a central decision-maker, problems with and without full information, deterministic problems, problems coping with uncertainty, optimisation of a full network design problem. It covers theoretical constructs, such as discrete optimisation, robust optimisation, optimisation under uncertainty, multi-objective optimisation and agent based equilibrium models. Moreover, practical elaborated use cases are presented to deepen understanding. The book gives both researchers and practitioners a good overview of the field of synchromodal optimisation problems and offers the reader practical methods for modelling and problem-solving.

This proceedings volume combines chapters derived from papers presented at the 4th and 5th Annual Conferences on the Future of the Commercial Contract in Scholarship and Law Reform. This ongoing research project brings together scholars from all over the world at an annual international conference in London. The book focusses on technology in commercial contract law as well as on sustainability in commercial contracts. The latter theme was inspired by the United Nations' climate conference that was to take place in Glasgow in the United Kingdom that same year. The book combines topical current issues in commercial contract law and practice organized in three parts. The first part contains contributions to the area of law and technology. The second part of the book expands on aspects of sustainability understood as environmental reasonableness in the context of commercial contracts. The third part includes several chapters on the topics of supervening events and contractual ethics. Thisbook is therefore part of a coherent line of contributions to the furthering of modern contract theory. The choice of topics is closely following current issues of legal policy and contract practice.

The book targets new advances in areas of treatment and drug delivery sciences for tuberculosis. It covers advances in drug therapy and drug targeting that focus on innovative trend defining technologies and drug delivery platforms in the understanding of host-pathogens relationship for providing better therapy. A wide variety of novel and nano-formulations using promising technologies are being explored to deliver the drug via different administration routes. This book It addresses the gap between new approaches and old treatment modalities and how they are superior in pharmacological performance when tested in in-vitro and in-vivo. Audience from wide range group like from researchers to regulatory bodies can benefit from the compiled information to find out patient needs and current research advances in the field of tuberculosis research..

The book shares the results of project research granted by the Castilla-La Mancha government, which has been composed by philosophers of law and criminal law researchers, whose main conclusions are represented by the manifestations and trends of the current crisis of the constitutional State. The works identify these trends and manifestations in order to develop alternatives and remedies to solve the current negation process that classical liberties are involved, from the point of view of philosophy, policy, and dogmatic.

This text offers a holistic approach to the two topics of the highest interest in the current and future food industry: sustainability and nutrition. The current knowledge is narrow and specific to individual topics focusing on either one nutrient or one discipline. Food is part of a wide circle of disciplines: nutrition, technology, sensory, environmental aspects, psychology, economy, culture and society. In the recent years, the sales of innovative foods such as meatless burgers, allergen-free products and personalized nutrition have skyrocketed. Sustainable Food Innovation presents the big picture on each nutrient: industrial and natural sources (ingredients, food products), consumer acceptability (price, sensory quality) and nutritional properties (quantity and quality) with each chapter focusing on a specific essential nutrient. Further chapters illustrate the role of other elements of interest such as bioactive. In addition, experimental datais added to enrich the book. Online discussions on current food trends are analyzed and presented to the reader in the effort to understand consumers' psychology. This will be the first publication to combine literature review and research data and the first to offer a comprehensive discussion on sustainable food innovation. The ultimate goal is to educate consumers and experts, providing technical and socioeconomic knowledge in a multidisciplinary context. Ultimately, informed technologists will develop healthier, sustainable food products and informed consumers will make informed decisions on nutrition and food choices.

This book includes original essays by prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of postal and delivery economics, originally presented at the 29th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held online, September 1-3, 2021. The central focus of the book is the short and long-term impact of covid-19 pandemic on the sectors, both from the economic and regulatory perspectives. Other important topics include the unstoppable growth of e-commerce and the implications for delivery market; solutions for the "last mile", and the associated challenges in terms of sustainability. Chapters also discuss traditional topics for postal and delivery sectors, such as the competitive dynamics in the sector, the business strategies of postal operators, as well as the definition and funding of the Universal Service Obligation. This book will be a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors interested in postal and regulatory economics, but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

The second edition of this critical text features heavily revised chapters detailing how to approach the anesthetic and perioperative management of adult and pediatric patients with congenital heart disease. Initially, a broad overview of relevant concepts in pediatric cardiovascular embryology, physiology, and pharmacology is provided. Subsequently, relevant diagnostic approaches including the use of three-dimensional modeling in surgical planning and preoperative considerations are described. The intraoperative management of a wide range of specific lesions is discussed, with full descriptions of anesthesia plans and the appropriate diagnostic methods and surgical interventions. New topics detailed include the use of hybrid techniques and applications of electrophysiology in patients with congenital heart disease. Postoperative care and potential future approaches are also addressed.Congenital Heart Disease in Pediatric and Adult Patients: Anesthetic and Perioperative Management provide a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the care of the pediatric patient undergoing cardiac surgery and anesthesia. It is therefore of interest to all practicing and trainee medical professionals who encounter these patients in their day-to-day practice.