Books published by Springer

This book presents a brief history of papermaking followed by comments regarding wood as a source of fibers, including its chemical and anatomical characteristics and the influence of these aspects on the quality of the pulp produced. In addition, the author describes the effects of the pulping process, mainly a chemical process, on pulp quality and how these wood characteristics influence both the refining process as the quality of the final paper. The book further provides a broad discussion, based on experimental results, on the contribution of the main operating refining variables and the main strategies that can be used industrially to optimize the operating results. From this evaluation, the parameter that complements the specific edge load theory is identified. This parameter is related to the retention time of the fiber flocs inside the refiner.

The objective of this open access book is to present protocols, methodologies, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) used for the identification of sources, transport, and fate of agro-contaminants and illustrate them with several case studies of successful applications. The Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition (SWMCN) Subprogramme of the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, through a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) in partnership with national and international research institutes, developed and evaluated a set of analytical techniques (the toolbox). The toolbox integrates multiple isotope tracers that provide information on the origins and pathways of multiple pollutants through agro-ecosystems, thereby providing more accurate guidance on mitigations. However, land management strategies to address and control the transport of pollutants from soil to water bodies remain the shared responsibility of farm and aquaculture operators, agro-chemical manufacturers, and policymakers in food and agriculture as well as the mining sectors. This book is structured into eight chapters covering (i) an overview of the book's content, (ii) guidelines for designing water sampling programmes, (iii) the use of mixing models applicable to tracers for water pollution studies, (iv) compound-specific isotope analyses to investigate pesticide degradation in agricultural catchments, (v) the use of stable oxygen isotope composition of phosphate to investigate phosphorous in soil-plant continuum, (vi) the use of stable sulphur isotopes to disentangle agro-pollutants from other contaminants, (vii) nuclear tools used in sediment source apportionment, and (viii) the conclusions and perspectives forward. The book offers up-to-date information, and we hope it is a great source of information for students, researchers, and policymakers. The SWMCN subprogramme thanks all the contributors involved in the preparation of this publication.

This book reviews China's strategic pathway over the last 1000 years and considers its prospects for ascending to high-income status by the end of the 21st century. It analyzes why, although China's chances of joining the global core are sound, they are not outstanding; in addition, it faces mounting challenges, internal and external alike. The argument is presented in the framework of dynamic-strategy theory, which is expounded here in novel form. This exposition includes a wide ranging survey of global history, with a focus on the development of the industrialisation paths of the major economies of today, including a detailed study of Japan's long-run strategic pathway. The book's closing section presents a scenario-based discussion of China's potential place in the world in 2100. The analysis implies that China's zenith is likely to be reached slightly before mid-century, after which its relative economic scale will likely decline. Beyond that generalfinding, the scenarios investigate the wide range of plausible outcomes that China may experience: a range that the author contends is much wider for China than for nations under-pinned by less complex political-economies. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars of history, economics, geopolitics and sinology, and to anyone interested in learning about China's economic prospects at a time of increasingly heated ideological and empirical debates.

This two-volume set constitutes selected papers presented during the First International Conference on Advanced Computing, Machine Learning, Robotics and Internet Technologies, AMRIT 2023, held in Silchar, India, in March 2023.The 20 full papers and 27 short papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 110 submissions. They cover the following topics: artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, image processing, data science, soft computing techniques, computer networks and security, computer architecture and algorithms.

This two-volume set constitutes selected papers presented during the First International Conference on Advanced Computing, Machine Learning, Robotics and Internet Technologies, AMRIT 2023, held in Silchar, India, in March 2023.The 20 full papers and 27 short papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 110 submissions. They cover the following topics: artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, image processing, data science, soft computing techniques, computer networks and security, computer architecture and algorithms.

This two-volume textbook teaches about the uniqueness and the difficulty of the European unification project. It describes, as clearly as possible, what Robert Schuman declared in 1950, that "... Europe will not be made all at once...". Navigating the nexus of four academic fields - political science, institutional analysis, economics, and history - the book serves as a reference work for accurate, exhaustive, and well-researched information on the creation and functioning of the European Union. Volume 2 provides a comprehensive overview of the European Union's institutions and policies, such as agricultural and fisheries policies, economic and monetary policy, environmental policy, foreign affairs and defence policy, social policy, competition policy, regional policy, as well as immigration and asylum policy. Supported by numerous photographs, diagrams, maps, and sources, the book will serve as an essential textbook for undergraduate and graduate students studying the subject of European integration, as well as a useful resource for a broader audience interested in the European integration process.

This book offers various techniques for measurement of thermodynamic quantities of materials such as enthalpy, free energy, and entropy. Techniques described herein include calorimetry, chemical equilibria, vapour pressure, and electrochemical analysis. The book covers general and solution thermodynamics in Chapters 1 and 2, respectively, and highlights the significance of various thermodynamic quantities required for materials characterization and development in Chapter 3. The author goes on to discuss different thermodynamic measurement techniques in detail (Chapters 4-8) together with a set of more than fifty worked-out problems related to classical as well as solution thermodynamics and measurement techniques. (Chapter 9).Topics include but are not limited to the following:The significance of various thermodynamic data required for selection and characterization of materials.The physicochemical principles involved in various thermodynamic measurement and on the evaluation of thermodynamic data by phase diagram analyses. The unique combination of calorimetry and chemical equilibrium for simultaneous determination of partial molar enthalpy and partial molar free energy of hydrogen in metals and alloys.The special technique based on the combination of vapor pressure and electrical conductivity to study the effect of tellurium vapor pressure on the mode of conduction in polycrystalline cadmium telluride.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of skeletal muscle structure, function, and regulation at the cellular and molecular levels. In addition, the book covers various topics, such as muscle contraction, energy metabolism, fatigue, adaptation, and plasticity. This book discusses skeletal muscle anatomy and histology and then covers muscle contraction's molecular and cellular mechanisms. Also, it includes an in-depth discussion of the sarcomere, the basic unit of muscle contraction, and the role of calcium in the process of muscle contraction.This book also explores the energy metabolism of skeletal muscle, including the role of ATP, glycogen, and fatty acids in providing energy for muscle contraction. Additionally, the book covers the mechanisms of fatigue, including peripheral and central factors contributing to muscle fatigue.Other topics covered include muscle adaptation to exercise, the molecular and cellular mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and atrophy, and the influence of age, sex, and disease on skeletal muscle function.Overall, Skeletal Muscle Physiology: An Update to Anatomy and Function thoroughly explores the structure and function of skeletal muscle, making it an essential resource for students and professionals in exercise science, sports medicine, and physiology.The auto-summaries have been generated by a recursive clustering algorithm via the Dimensions Auto-summarizer by Digital Science handled by Subject Matter Experts and the external editor. The editor of this book selected which SN content should be auto-summarized and decided its order of appearance. Please be aware that the auto-summaries consist of original sentences, but are not representative of its original paper, since we do not show the full length of the publication. Please note that only published SN content is represented here, and that machine-generated books are still at an experimental stage.

This anthology is a manifold combining semiotics and psychology. Chapters in the book are authored by young scholars making sense of semiosis in irreversible time from a multitude of perspectives. The central focus on the dynamics of meaning-making comes together in a variety of topics that align in the core idea of dynamic nature of human making and use of signs. First, this book gives a comprehensive overview of relational dynamics of the sign. The overview is followed by a collection of chapters focusing on various topics relevant for humanities and social sciences, such as experience of time, (cultural) memory, musical signification, human-computer interactions, death and eternity, freedom and responsibility, authenticity, methods for practice and research in psychology, etc. This anthology contributes to the integration of the fields of semiotics and psychology, building on the classic traditions of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics (established by Juri Lotman) and contemporary cultural psychology that has unified social sciences in the recent three decades. Examples of how new semiotic models are applied to various domains of human lives will be given, anticipating the future and addressing its past. As such, this book is a relevant read for everyone interested in the complex nature of meaning-making, and inclusion of dynamics in all expressions of life, including academic research.

This book is an outcome of the 37th International Conference EnviroInfo 2023, held at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (Munich, Germany), organized by the technical committee for Environmental Informatics of the German Informatics Society. It explores the fusion of information and communication technologies with environmental sustainability. As a flagship edition of the EnviroInfo conference series, it showcases the latest advancements in applied informatics and environmental informatics.With a focus on "Towards a Sustainable Digital Society," the conference presents innovative research on topics such as green computing, sustainable software engineering, and digital transformation. The proceedings cover essential subjects for shaping a greener future, including energy-efficient workloads, environmental management systems, legal frameworks, Earth observation, and geographical information systems. It also examines emerging technologies like robotics, AI, and reinforcement learning, highlighting their applications in environmental informatics.From citizen science to disaster risk modeling and sustainable resource management, the book explores the interdisciplinary nature of environmental informatics. It also addresses societal aspects, including its role in developing countries. This resource is essential for researchers, professionals, and policymakers seeking to leverage ICT for addressing environmental challenges and building a sustainable digital society.

This book contains the proceedings of the 19th Cologne-Twente Workshop on Graphs and Combinatorial Optimization, held during June 20-22, 2023, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. This successful series of international workshops is known to attract high-quality research on the theory and application of discrete algorithms, graphs, and combinatorial optimization in a wide sense. The papers collected in this book represent cutting-edge research by leading researchers and attract a broad readership in academia worldwide. The book is addressed to researchers and advanced students, but also to professionals in industry concerned with algorithm design and optimization problems in different areas of application.

This second volume of highly topical two-volume set "The Investment Weapon" continues to present pioneering research for the purpose of developing a common analytical foundation and framework for the emerging interdisciplinary research field of investment control. This second volumes shifts the focus from the policy context to the legal and regulatory aspects of investment controls, specifically from an international, transnational, and comparative law perspective. The topics range from control of subsidized investments to non-national security related investment controls and alternatives to investment screening.

The book's primary objective is to introduce the pathology and physiology atherosclerosis in brief, and its diagnosis and treatment. Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the arterial wall. An advanced understanding of atherosclerosis shows that it leads to myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases, taking 17 million people every year worldwide. The literature suggests that atherosclerosis is an ancient disease and is still a long-standing health problem globally. Hence early diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis are crucial to solving long-standing health issues.This book provides a systemic summary of recent literature focusing on disease pathology, advancement in diagnosis and therapies. Recently, nanoparticles performing dual roles as diagnostic and therapeutic agents have been keenly interested. However, the nanoparticle has yet to reach the clinic. Understanding the role of biomaterials in formulations and existing strategies is critical whendeveloping novel formulations and working on translation to clinical settings. The book provides a systematic biomaterial-based summary of the literature, methods used to formulate nanoparticles, and their scale-up potential. Another key objective of the book is to motivate the reader to conduct research on theranostic nanoparticles to treat atherosclerosis and put us one step closer to solving a long-standing health problem--atherosclerosis.The auto-summaries have been generated by a recursive clustering algorithm via the Dimensions Auto-summarizer by Digital Science handled by Subject Matter Experts and the external editor. The editor of this book selected which SN content should be auto-summarized and decided its order of appearance. Please be aware that the auto-summaries consist of original sentences, but are not representative of its original paper, since we do not show the full length of the publication. Please note that only published SN content is represented here, and that machine-generated books are still at an experimental stage.

This book approaches the field of contrastive linguistics from a comparative and robust perspective that combines the tenets of construction grammar and cognitive linguistics. In doing so, it shows how their integration can help to successfully enhance research on contrastivity, by means of updated theoretical frameworks and applied methodologies that combine language and thought. It compares ten different languages and offers analyses of constructions at all levels of the linguistic organization, identifying the cognitive motivations that instantiate the linguistic data retrieved from corpora. Relevant to both cognitive and non-cognitive linguists interested in variation and contrastive approaches, as well as graduate students in these areas, this book makes a significant contribution to existing work on the various types of constructional and discourse-based phenomena in modern languages.

This open access book presents a rich set of innovative solutions for artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing. The various chapters of the book provide a broad coverage of AI systems for state of the art flexible production lines including both cyber-physical production systems (Industry 4.0) and emerging trustworthy and human-centered manufacturing systems (Industry 5.0). From a technology perspective, the book addresses a wide range of AI paradigms such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, active learning, agent-based systems, explainable AI, industrial robots, and AI-based digital twins. Emphasis is put on system architectures and technologies that foster human-AI collaboration based on trusted interactions between workers and AI systems. From a manufacturing applications perspective, the book illustrates the deployment of these AI paradigms in a variety of use cases spanning production planning, quality control, anomaly detection, metrology, workers' training, supply chain management, as well as various production optimization scenarios. This is an open access book.

This book embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and elucidates the three foundational aspects of its jurisdiction as laid out in the Rome Statute: the preconditions for exercising jurisdiction (Article 12 ICCRSt), its substantive competence regarding core crimes (Articles 5-8bis ICCRSt), and the principle of complementarity (Article 17§1(a) ICCRSt).This principle, crucial to understanding the ICC's 'ultimate jurisdiction', is invoked only when a State Party demonstrates an inability or unwillingness to genuinely undertake investigation or prosecution. The book further probes the 'negative preconditions' of the Court's jurisdiction, in particular, immunities (Article 27 ICCRSt) and exceptions through Security Council referrals (Articles 13(b) and 15 ICCRSt).Intended for students, scholars, and practitioners alike, this second edition offers invaluable insights into the ICC's jurisdiction, making a notable contribution to the existing literature. Importantly, it also navigates emerging fields of international criminal law, addressing topical and thought-provoking subjects such as ecocide, cyber warfare, automated lethal weapons, artificial intelligence, and the legal complexities arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This book informs social work students about the context and potential for burnout in their field experience, their first work with clients, and equips them to recognize, prevent, and address it. With its emphasis on role ambiguity and self-care based on current research, the volume uniquely fills the gap in available texts and prepares them for successful professional practice with personal mental health. Job burnout and self-care have received attention in research and education in social work and other caring professions, but social work students must successfully complete managed learning assignments in the field before they can become social workers, and those experiences can put the student at risk for burnout. Until very recently, however, student burnout has been a 'silent' issue in the profession and the literature. With this compact book, readers learn the risks of burnout in field assignments for students and new professionals, the organizational andpersonal factors that contribute to it, appropriate self-care strategies to reduce its incidence, and effective coping strategies to limit its effect. Stakeholders gain understanding about burnout incidence, prevention, and self-care that prepares them to take appropriate preventive and prescriptive action. Burnout in Social Work Field Education: Mitigating the Risk is a timely and essential resource for social work instructors, students, field interns, instructors, and supervisors. It can serve as a supplementary text to aid students in understanding what factors will increase their risk of burnout and help them identify which coping strategies are most likely to be effective, based on research. It is a highly desirable complementary text for adoption in social work courses and in-service education in early social work practice. The book also should interest administrators in social service agencies and presenters of in-service education opportunities for social workers and social work educators.

This book provides practice questions in a case-based format to prepare for the National Board of Echocardiography¿s examination to assess ¿Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography¿.Focused on the exam's core topics, this textbook caters to physicians who are preparing for the Critical Care Echocardiography board examination. Defining features of each chapter include case based scenarios with videos and supporting images, meaningful and relevant multiple-choice questions, key take-aways and a summary. This book is the product of a multidisciplinary collaboration between ICU physicians (Pulmonary, Internal Medicine and Anesthesiology), Cardiologists, and Anesthesiologists.This book meets the needs of physicians from various disciplines preparing for the critical care echocardiography board examination.

This book is composed of a selection of articles from the 11st World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, held between 4 and 5 of April 2023, at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, in Pisa, Italy. WorldCIST is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent results and innovations, current trends, professional experiences, and challenges of modern Information Systems and Technologies research, together with their technological development and applications. The main and distinctive topics covered are: A) Information and Knowledge Management; B) Organizational Models and Information Systems; C) Software and Systems Modeling; D) Software Systems, Architectures, Applications, and Tools; E) Multimedia Systems and Applications; F) Computer Networks, Mobility, and Pervasive Systems; G) Intelligent and Decision Support Systems; H) Big Data Analytics and Applications; I) Human¿Computer Interaction; J) Ethics, Computers, and Security; K) Health Informatics; L) Information Technologies in Education; M) Information Technologies in Radiocommunications; and N) Technologies for Biomedical Applications.

This book is composed of a selection of articles from the 11st World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, held between 4 and 5 of April 2023, at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, in Pisa, Italy. WorldCIST is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent results and innovations, current trends, professional experiences, and challenges of modern Information Systems and Technologies research, together with their technological development and applications. The main and distinctive topics covered are: A) Information and Knowledge Management; B) Organizational Models and Information Systems; C) Software and Systems Modeling; D) Software Systems, Architectures, Applications, and Tools; E) Multimedia Systems and Applications; F) Computer Networks, Mobility, and Pervasive Systems; G) Intelligent and Decision Support Systems; H) Big Data Analytics and Applications; I) Human¿Computer Interaction; J) Ethics, Computers, and Security; K) Health Informatics; L) Information Technologies in Education; M) Information Technologies in Radiocommunications; and N) Technologies for Biomedical Applications.

This book is composed of a selection of articles from the 11st World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, held between 4 and 5 of April 2023, at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, in Pisa, Italy. WorldCIST is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss recent results and innovations, current trends, professional experiences, and challenges of modern Information Systems and Technologies research, together with their technological development and applications. The main and distinctive topics covered are: A) Information and Knowledge Management; B) Organizational Models and Information Systems; C) Software and Systems Modeling; D) Software Systems, Architectures, Applications, and Tools; E) Multimedia Systems and Applications; F) Computer Networks, Mobility, and Pervasive Systems; G) Intelligent and Decision Support Systems; H) Big Data Analytics and Applications; I) Human-Computer Interaction; J) Ethics, Computers, and Security; K) Health Informatics; L) Information Technologies in Education; M) Information Technologies in Radiocommunications; and N) Technologies for Biomedical Applications.

This book focuses on devising a comprehensive protective mechanism for the right to privacy in Pakistan. It argues that the existing legal regime lacks an effective remedy for victims of privacy violations and emphasizes the need for comprehensive legislation to safeguard this crucial right. Pursuing a multidisciplinary approach, the book thoroughly explores the issue of media intrusions into people¿s privacy through thematic media content analysis and highlights the significant impacts of these intrusions on victims¿ lives.In the process, the book addresses various conceptual aspects, their relevance, and their implications for privacy-related disputes during adjudication. Recognizing that theoretical underpinnings alone may not be sufficient to create a legal regime ¿from scratch,¿ it explores the enforcement of the right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as interpreted and enforced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).The book subsequently goes beyond exploring international law by analyzing the impact of media-and-privacy cases on privacy protection in two major member states: Germany (a civil law jurisdiction) and the United Kingdom (a common law jurisdiction). Drawing upon these conceptual and comparative legal deliberations and findings, the book provides concrete guidelines for a new privacy law in Pakistan.

This new volume provides a scientifically based exploration of the multifaceted world of endogenous opioids, including endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins, endomorphins, and orphanin FQ/nociceptin, featuring a strong translational focus. Topics covered range from basic scientific investigations, to clinical applications, to investigations in areas such as oncology, childbirth, and disordered eating, to psychosocial contexts such as volunteering and positive emotions. One of the main goals of Endogenous Opioids is to provide recommendations for new directions in medical research and health policy that are rooted in sound scientific research.

This book gives an account of the origins of theoretical mechanics in antiquity, its limited reception in the Arabic and Latin Middle Ages, and its recovery and subsequent development in Italy to the time of Galileo. From late antiquity to the fifteenth century, the ancient science of mechanics--the theory of machines--was almost completely unknown in the Latin west. Then, from the mid-fifteenth century on, Italian humanists began to recover the ancient texts, and from them through the sixteenth century Italian mathematicians restored the ancient science of mechanics. The Renaissance of Mechanics first examines the principal ancient works on mechanics--the Aristotelian Mechanical Problems, the mechanical geometry of Archimedes, and Hero's Mechanics--and then describes their limited reception in the Arabic world and their even more limited transmission to the medieval Latin west. It then traces their recovery in the fifthteenth century and their assimilation inthe sixteenth by Niccolò Tartaglia, Francesco Maurolico, and Guidobaldo dal Monte, culminating in Galileo's rediscovery of Hero's lost mechanical principles. The book ends with an examination of Galileo's mechanics and its relation to his new science of motion, and suggests how modern mechanics would emerge from these ancient roots. Detailed analyses of these works offer new insights and interpretations while remaining accessible to general historians. The Renaissance of Mechanics will be of especial interest to those working in the fields of renaissance humanism and the history of ancient, medieval, and renaissance science and mathematics.

Integral and Inverse Reinforcement Learning for Optimal Control Systems and Games develops its specific learning techniques, motivated by application to autonomous driving and microgrid systems, with breadth and depth: integral reinforcement learning (RL) achieves model-free control without system estimation compared with system identification methods and their inevitable estimation errors; novel inverse RL methods fill a gap that will help them to attract readers interested in finding data-driven model-free solutions for inverse optimization and optimal control, imitation learning and autonomous driving among other areas. Graduate students will find that this book offers a thorough introduction to integral and inverse RL for feedback control related to optimal regulation and tracking, disturbance rejection, and multiplayer and multiagent systems. For researchers, it provides a combination of theoretical analysis, rigorous algorithms, and a wide-ranging selection of examples. The book equips practitioners working in various domains - aircraft, robotics, power systems, and communication networks among them - with theoretical insights valuable in tackling the real-world challenges they face.

This book gives evidence-based background information and advice to athletes and coaches on if and how data from wearable technologies can be applied for preparing individual training procedures to achieve improvement on aspects of performance and health.Sports practitioners frequently make decisions on long-term training planning and daily choices on different aspects of training, recovery and therapeutic procedures. Such decisions are essential to gain optimal performance enhancement, reduce likelihood of injuries and to reach peak performance. These decisions are complexed by the fact that there is no "blue-print" training procedure applicable to all athletes, and individual characteristics need to be considered to improve training procedures. With rapid technological advancements, data from Wearable Technologies is becoming increasingly available and potentially can aid athletes and coaches to individualize and optimize training procedures. Finally, the book explores if and how data can deliver actionable insights to inform long-term and day-to-day decision making to individualize training procedure.

This open access book addresses the idea that there are two ways to go about achieving a safe working environment. The text challenges the prevailing notion that compliance with a rule system, imposed from the top of an organization and designed to anticipate possible hazards in system operation, is really incompatible with the idea that the professional expertise of front-line workers is what promotes safe outcomes despite inevitable unanticipated perturbations. The contributors, drawn from academic and industrial backgrounds, demonstrate that rather than being at odds with each other, rules-compliance and proactivity are in fact complementary resources the coexistence of which increases safety. Furthermore, the implications of this approach extend beyond safety, being relevant to business performance, strategies for innovation and system resilience as well.The book steps back from an exclusive focus on front-line work to explore the way in which compliance and initiative are articulated at different levels within the hierarchy of a firm, right up to that of top management. Further, the contributors analyze the way in which safety authorities, the justice system, and the general public perceive and interpret such strategies, in particular in the aftermath of major events.This book deals with issues of interest to researchers and graduate students in safety science and organization studies and to members of expert bodies and experts in industry and consultancy concerned with similar subjects.

This book contains a collection of chapters about the Jewish family across different parts of the world, with contributions representing Africa (Ivory Coast and Ethiopia), Latin America, Australia, Europe (Germany), Russia, Israel, Canada, Indian families in Canada, and a comparative chapter of Bäa lot Teshuva in the US and Argentina. Where much existing research and literature on the dynamic process of intermarriage and (Jewish) family life has taken primarily a historical approach, here the authors together present a broad, global, comparative approach.The book uses an open systems model to organize comparisons between Jewish families the world over. Each case study focuses on Jewish family life in a particular country or region of the world and, taken together, cover an extensive range of topics ¿ including but not limited to: demographic and socio-economic description of the Jewish families; immigration patterns; family roles; family engagement in Jewish life; marriage formation; interfaith families; same-sex couples/parenting ¿ surveying the extant research and/or reporting on new research about contemporary families, within the historical context. The book therefore presents a novel framework for understanding the variations in Jewish families to highlight what Jewish families the world over have in common (whether within the microsystem of the family or in the family¿s relationships with the environment), as well as using the open systems model to explain main types of difference between the various regions.

This textbook serves as a comprehensive introduction to muon spin spectroscopy (µSR), offering a detailed exploration of how polarized positive muons can be employed as local probes to investigate material properties at the microscopic level. It provides a self-contained tutorial that begins by explaining the extraction of physical information from a µSR experiment and then proceeds to present illustrative examples in the fields of condensed matter physics, materials science, and nanoscience.The book focuses on major applications of µSR, including the study of magnetism, superconductivity, and semiconducting materials in both bulk and thin film samples. In addition, two chapters delve into the applications of negative muons, emphasizing their role in elemental materials analysis and introducing fundamental particle physics aspects of muon science. Supplementary material, conveniently summarized in several appendices, covers essential basic concepts.For further exploration, an extensive list of references is provided, enabling readers to deepen their knowledge in specific areas.To facilitate understanding and mastery of the subject, the textbook offers exercises and solutions. It caters to advanced undergraduate, graduate and PhD level students, researchers who intend to utilize the µSR technique or seek a comprehensive understanding of µSR results for their research, as well as to established practitioners.

This book offers a thought-provoking exploration of dynamic geometry and its connections to self-reference and theoretical biology. The authors explore how a self-referential boundary can be translated into remarkable relations between expanding geometrical forms, with a particular focus on triangles and circles.The essence of this work lies in revealing not only how these forms expand and interact with others but also how their interactions lead to closed loops of definitions between processes, where triangles and circles reciprocally define one another. These unique geometrical relations offer fresh perspectives on the interaction and emergence of forms. Through the introduction of time and a fixed velocity of expansions, a rich tapestry of encounters and coalescences unfolds, pushing beyond the boundaries of traditional insights on context dependence and state transitions of systems.These captivating movements elude prediction other than by numerical approximation within unpredictable durations. Unlike cellular automata, they defy stepwise progression on a predefined grid, presenting themselves as unprogrammable construction processes that leave readers in awe of their unexpected elegance.This book is essential reading for researchers and students in theoretical biology seeking to deepen their understanding of the intersections of geometry and systems theory and seeking to gain new insights into the processes that underlie the origination of complexity."What is unique to the authors' attempt is to shed a new light on extending the notion of cohesive interaction so as to make it applicable even to biology at large without offending the established physics so far. To the best of my knowledge, their work has been the first attempt of this kind in explicating the intricate relationship between geometric topology of the network and the realizable temporal cohesion to be observed widely in biology." (Professor Koichiro Matsuno, 1st foreword to this book) "I am delighted that the authors use Robert Rosen's (M, R)-systems -- impredicative networks that are inherently geometrical -- to illustrate (see Chapter 4 of this book) their self-referential systems of geometrical expansions." (dr. Aloisius Louie, 2nd foreword to this book)