Springer Verlag, Singapore – förlag

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, a year after the development of his new theory of gravitation known as the general theory of relativity. This theory established gravitation as the curvature of space-time produced by matter and energy. To be discernible even to the most sensitive instruments on Earth, the waves have to be produced by immensely massive objects like black holes and neutron stars which are rotating around each other, or in the extreme situations which prevail in the very early ages of the Universe.  This book presents the story of the prediction of gravitational waves by Albert Einstein, the early attempts to detect the waves, the development of the LIGO detector, the first detection in 2016, the subsequent detections and their implications. All concepts are described in some detail, without the use of any mathematics and advanced physics which are needed for a full understanding of the subject. The book alsocontains description of electromagnetism, Einstein’s special theory and general theory of relativity, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes and other concepts which are needed for understanding gravitational waves and their effects. Also described are the LIGO detectors and the cutting edge technology that goes into building them, and the extremely accurate measurements that are needed to detect gravitational waves. The book covers these ideas in a simple and lucid fashion which should be accessible to all interested readers. The first detection of gravitational waves was given a lot of space in the print and electronic media. So, the curiosity of the non-technical audience has been aroused about what gravitational waves really are and why they are so important. This book seeks to answer such questions.

This open access book offers a new management meta-theory to replace Taylorism. It presents a new paradigm in management thinking and a new, practical organizational model for implementing it in our personal and working lives, in our companies, in our communities and nations, and in a sustainable global order. It will offer an understanding of why and how “thinking-as-usual” is failing both business and political leaders in these new times, and it will advocate new thinking and new management practices that are so radically new that they turn everything we have taken for granted inside out and upside down. This new management model is called “Quantum Management Theory”, because it is rooted in the new paradigm bequeathed to us by quantum physics and its younger sibling, complexity science.

Deep Learning models are at the core of artificial intelligence research today. It is well known that deep learning techniques are disruptive for Euclidean data, such as images or sequence data, and not immediately applicable to graph-structured data such as text. This gap has driven a wave of research for deep learning on graphs, including graph representation learning, graph generation, and graph classification. The new neural network architectures on graph-structured data (graph neural networks, GNNs in short) have performed remarkably on these tasks, demonstrated by applications in social networks, bioinformatics, and medical informatics.  Despite these successes, GNNs still face many challenges ranging from the foundational methodologies to the theoretical understandings of the power of the graph representation learning.This book provides a comprehensive introduction of GNNs. It first discusses the goals of graph representation learning and then reviews the history,current developments, and future directions of GNNs. The second part presents and reviews fundamental methods and theories concerning GNNs while the third part describes various frontiers that are built on the GNNs. The book concludes with an overview of recent developments in a number of applications using GNNs. This book is suitable for a wide audience including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, professors and lecturers, as well as industrial and government practitioners who are new to this area or who already have some basic background but want to learn more about advanced and promising techniques and applications.

This book explores recent advances in blockchain technology and its impact on Industry 4.0 via advanced technologies. It provides an in-depth analysis of the step by step evolution of Industry 4.0 and blockchain technologies for creating the next-generation, secure, decentralized, distributed and trusted industry environment and enhancing the productivity of industries. The book describes how blockchain technology makes the industrial internet (Industry 4.0) a transparent, reliable and secure environment for people, processes, systems, and services, presenting a strong, technological and conceptual framework and roadmap for decision-makers involved in the transformation of any area of industry.

This volume offers a glimpse into the rich tradition of literary devices in Persian language and literature. It establishes an incontrovertible connection between literary devices - figurative language, rhetoric, and so on - and pedagogy and poetics in both written and oral expression. The essays offer a detailed and thorough overview of some of these literary devices and their dynamics, which have helped make the Persian literary tradition a force to reckon with. The essays also carve out a space dedicated to colloquialisms and idioms, as they are interwoven into the fabric of Persian culture— within the larger field of rhetoric. These devices are fostered and furthered in their potency, both culturally and linguistically, by the poets, writers, and rhetoricians who utilize them. The essays highlight a culture and history in texts and oral history that further speak to a culturally tailored complexity as per figurative language, idioms, colloquialisms, and therhetoric they help found and/or re-define.  These discussions and analyses further facilitate an understanding of the epistemological and cultural meaning of some of the constituents of what is otherwise a Persian identity. This work is a must-have for scholars and students of Persian, Arabic, Ottoman, and Urdu literature, not to mention Middle Eastern history and cultural poetics enthusiasts.

This book shares a number of novel perspectives on the intricate subject of pain in the clinical setting, offering a comprehensive examination of its multifaceted nature and the challenges it presents to both clinicians and patients. At the heart of this book is the matter of pain as an aporia—a mystery that defies simple categorisation and challenges our understanding. Through this book, readers will learn about the evolution of pain medicine from a traditional biomedical model to a more comprehensive sociopsychobiomedical framework, emphasising the importance of intersubjectivity and reframing in pain management.The chapters cover a wide range of topics, including the language of pain, the nuances of the clinical encounter, and the centrality of nociception. The authors, experienced practitioners in the field, provide an expert analysis of philosophical dilemmas and epistemological errors that often arise in pain medicine. Particular attention is given to the distinction between nociception, pain and suffering, the problems of considering chronic pain as a disease, and the challenges of language and logic in pain medicine. Readers are invited to think through difficult questions such as the role of uncertainty, empathy and trust in the clinical encounter and their implications for both patient and clinician dealing with a pain experience.A Philosophical Handbook for Pain Medicine Practice is an invaluable resource for practitioners, researchers, and scholars in the field of pain medicine, as well as for anyone interested in the philosophical and clinical challenges of understanding pain. It offers a unique blend of theoretical insights and practical guidance, making it a must-read for those seeking to deepen their understanding of this challenging subject. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the field, this book will provide you with tools and insights needed to navigate the complexities of pain medicine in theory and practice, and thus improve patient care.

This book provides the theoretical and analytical resources for an urgent rethinking of the social project of educating and educational leading. It examines what educational leadership is, namely the politics and power of leadership as a practice, and what it can and should be, offering a pedagogical and praxis-informed approach to educational practice. Drawing on research conducted at various Australian schools and education districts, it argues for a reframing of educational leadership as pedagogical practice/praxis to transform theorising and practice in the field. The book provides a rich account of educational leading through a practice lens, bringing into dialogue the theory of practice architectures with site ontologies, Bourdieu’s thinking tools and feminist critical scholarship.The book tracks the practices and praxis of educational leaders as they grapple with the changing landscape and forces of educational policies that have informed Australian education. It reimagines education leadership by integrating Continental and Northern European understandings of pedagogy and praxis as being morally and ethically informed, as opposed to the narrower Anglophone notions of pedagogy as teaching and learning. The book adds to the body of knowledge on the “actual work of leadership” as a “distinct set of practices” that is morally and ethically informed. Readers will find a more holistic understanding of educational leadership practice and praxis, based on the everyday accounts of educational leaders, teachers and students in schools and education districts.

In the second edition of this highly successful book, the authors once again aim to equip the reader with up-to-date information. This book, containing more than 200 cadaveric photos and 200 illustrations, aims to familiarize physicians practicing botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT-A) and filler injection with the anatomy of the facial mimetic muscles, vessels, and soft tissues in order to enable them to achieve optimum cosmetic results while avoiding possible adverse events. Anatomic considerations of importance when administering BoNT-A and fillers are identified and in addition invaluable clinical guidelines are provided, highlighting, for example, the preferred injection points for BoNT-A and the adequate depth of filler injection. Unique insights are also offered into the differences between Asians and Caucasians with regard to relevant anatomy. The contributing authors include an anatomist who offers distinctive anatomic perspectives on BoNT-A and filler treatments and three expert physicians from different specialties, namely a dermatologist, a plastic surgeon, and a cosmetic physician, who share insights gained during extensive clinical experience in the use of BoNT-A and fillers.

This book provides a wealth of practical guidance on how to design parts to gain the maximum benefit from what additive manufacturing (AM) can offer. It begins by describing the main AM technologies and their respective advantages and disadvantages. It then examines strategic considerations in the context of designing for additive manufacturing (DfAM), such as designing to avoid anisotropy, designing to minimize print time, and post-processing, before discussing the economics of AM. The following chapters dive deeper into computational tools for design analysis and the optimization of AM parts, part consolidation, and tooling applications. They are followed by an in-depth chapter on designing for polymer AM and applicable design guidelines, and a chapter on designing for metal AM and its corresponding design guidelines. These chapters also address health and safety, certification and quality aspects. A dedicated chapter covers the multiple post-processing methods for AM, offering the reader practical guidance on how to get their parts from the AM machine into a shape that is ready to use. The book’s final chapter outlines future applications of AM. The main benefit of the book is its highly practical approach: it provides directly applicable, “hands-on” information and insights to help readers adopt AM in their industry

This book offers readers an essential introduction to the fundamentals of digital image processing. Pursuing a signal processing and algorithmic approach, it makes the fundamentals of digital image processing accessible and easy to learn. It is written in a clear and concise manner with a large number of 4 x 4 and 8 x 8 examples, figures and detailed explanations. Each concept is developed from the basic principles and described in detail with equal emphasis on theory and practice. The book is accompanied by a companion website that provides several MATLAB programs for the implementation of image processing algorithms. The book also offers comprehensive coverage of the following topics: Enhancement, Transform processing, Restoration, Registration, Reconstruction from projections, Morphological image processing, Edge detection, Object representation and classification, Compression, and Color processing.

This book addresses one of the most pressing geopolitical inquiries of our era: how will China's ambition manifest on the global stage? To address this question, the book considers China’s long tradition of statecraft. By doing this, it provides a unique and novel insight into the “why” behind China’s actions and sparks a crucial dialogue on “how” to best navigate China’s global rise.  Through a keen analytical lens, the book illuminates both the constraints and the flexibility inherent in Chinese policy-making. It underscores the geographic and historical factors that constrain China's actions, forcing its leaders into trade-offs. It also highlights the system's inherent flexibility, expanding the range of strategic options available when dealing with China. The most unique contribution consists in framing the pre-occupations of contemporary China in the context of both long-standing Chinese trends and unprecedented global changes.This book offers a nuanced and realistic guide for senior policy makers, business leaders, academic researchers, and global citizens who seek to decipher the enigma of China's ascent and channel its trajectory towards a more positive and responsible direction.

This book provides an extensive examination of the genetic and developmental factors that contribute to disabilities impacting the nervous system. This book explores the complex relationship among genetic factors, cerebral development, and neurological functionality, offering a comprehensive analysis of the way genetic mutations and developmental anomalies lead to a wide range of disabilities. The book is carefully structured through essential concepts, encompassing fundamental neurogenetics and chromosomal anomalies, as well as the clinical presentations related to the nervous system, motor functions, sensory organs, and multisystem engagement.This book addresses the biological and clinical dimensions of neurogenetic and neurodevelopmental disabilities, thereby rendering it pertinent to researchers, clinicians, geneticists, neurologists, students, scholars and allied health professionals. The chapters are systematically arranged, begins with an introduction to neurogenetics and neurodevelopment thereafter comprehensive sections addressing genetic syndromes, the involvement of the immune and endocrine systems, disorders of the nervous system, and the broad systemic implications of neurological dysfunction. The book further elaborates the significance of early diagnosis, intervention, and the implementation of treatments to enhance patient outcomes.The significance of this subject has increased markedly as a result of recent advancements in genetics, neurobiology, and diagnostic technologies, which are advancing the understanding and management of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Recent advancements in gene sequencing and molecular biology have discovered novel pathways and mechanisms underlying these conditions, thereby facilitating more precise diagnoses and personalized treatment strategies. This book offers complete explanation, rendering it essential for healthcare professionals, researchers, and students engaged in the domain of neurogenetic and neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The book provides the latest research results on measuring Credit Rating Migration by mathematical methods. It brings about most popular mathematical models, methods and applications on this area, especially presents the latest development on structure models. It is systematically collects the models, methods and results in this area.The book first introduced the financial background and preliminary mathematical theory. Then two mainstream mathematical models for measuring default risks, the reduced form model and structure model, are presented. The structure model for measuring credit rating migration risks is the main part of the book and authors prove the existence, uniqueness, regularities, asymptotic behavior, traveling wave and other properties of the solutions of the model. The structural credit rating migration model is also extended to more general case, such as stochastic interest rate, multiple ratings, region switch and so on. Some credit derivatives, and numerical analysis, parameter calibration and estimate of the migration boundary of the models are given in the last two chapters.The book focuses on theoretical financial investigators, especially financial mathematical researchers and students. The book is involved various mathematical models, such as PDE, numerical simulation etc., some of them are interesting mathematical problems, so that, and a good reference book to study mathematical modeling in credit rating migration. It might also be used as a textbook for students in financial credit risks.

This book focuses on the work of Dutch educational philosopher Gert Biesta. It offers a comprehensive exploration of his revolutionary ideas, guiding readers through his critique of contemporary educational thought and his alternative vision for education. By engaging with Biesta's work, we are invited to grapple with fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of education in the twenty-first century. What does it mean to be educated? What is the role of the teacher? How can education contribute to a more democratic society?The book illuminates a different approach to the key question underpinning all of Biesta’s work: what is the purpose of education? It pays particular attention to unpicking the more abstruse areas of his work, in order to make it more accessible to practitioners who are attracted to the general tenor of Biesta’s work but find some of the philosophical discussions hard to digest.This book will be beneficial to researchers, educators, policymakers, or readers interested in the future of education. At the end of it, readers will have been introduced to the key ideas of one of the most original and challenging voices in contemporary educational philosophy, as well as being able to identify exactly what it is that bothers them about modern schools and universities, and how those issues might be addressed.

This open access book marks the first historical overview of the autism rights branch of the neurodiversity movement, describing the activities and rationales of key leaders in their own words since it organized into a unique community in 1992. Sandwiched by editorial chapters that include critical analysis, the book contains 19 chapters by 21 authors about the forming of the autistic community and neurodiversity movement, progress in their influence on the broader autism community and field, and their possible threshold of the advocacy establishment. The actions covered are legendary in the autistic community, including manifestos such as “Don’t Mourn for Us”, mailing lists, websites or webpages, conferences, issue campaigns, academic project and journal, a book, and advisory roles. These actions have shifted the landscape toward viewing autism in social terms of human rights and identity to accept, rather than as a medical collection of deficits and symptoms to cure.

Targeted at undergraduate mathematics students, this book aims to cover courses in group theory. Based on lectures in group theory, it includes many illustrations and examples, numerous solved exercises and detailed proofs of theorems. The book acts as a guide to teachers and is also useful to graduate students. The book discusses major topics in group theory such as groups and subgroups, binary operations, fundamental algebraic structure of groups, symmetric groups, cyclic groups, normal subgroups, quotient groups, homomorphisms, isomorphisms, direct product of groups, simple groups, set on a group, Sylow's theorem, finite group, Abelian groups and non-isomorphic Abelian groups.

This book provides a foundation for arithmetic topology, a new branch of mathematics that investigates the analogies between the topology of knots, 3-manifolds, and the arithmetic of number fields. Arithmetic topology is now becoming a powerful guiding principle and driving force to obtain parallel results and new insights between 3-dimensional geometry and number theory.After an informative introduction to Gauss' work, in which arithmetic topology originated, the text reviews a background from both topology and number theory. The analogy between knots in 3-manifolds and primes in number rings, the founding principle of the subject, is based on the étale topological interpretation of primes and number rings. On the basis of this principle, the text explores systematically intimate analogies and parallel results of various concepts and theories between 3-dimensional topology and number theory. The presentation of these analogies begins at an elementary level, gradually building to advanced theories in later chapters. Many results presented here are new and original.References are clearly provided if necessary, and many examples and illustrations are included. Some useful problems are also given for future research. All these components make the book useful for graduate students and researchers in number theory, low dimensional topology, and geometry.This second edition is a corrected and enlarged version of the original one. Misprints and mistakes in the first edition are corrected, references are updated, and some expositions are improved. Because of the remarkable developments in arithmetic topology after the publication of the first edition, the present edition includes two new chapters. One is concerned with idelic class field theory for 3-manifolds and number fields. The other deals with topological and arithmetic Dijkgraaf–Witten theory, which supports a new bridge between arithmetic topology and mathematical physics.

This book is a practical and concise guide to major asset classes, investment strategies, and foreign markets. For investors familiar with one “box” of investments, this book serves as a non-technical introduction to other “boxes” worth diversifying into, such as bonds, real estate, private equity, cryptocurrencies, and Chinese A-shares. Readers with no prior finance background will find this book an accessible entry point to investing.  Written by a practitioner, this volume can serve as course material for introductory investing classes or as an on-the-job guidebook for professionals and practicing investors.

The book covers all aspects of endoscopic biopsies of the stomach inclusive of gastritis and gastropathies. It highlights the best way of handling of endoscopic biopsies in the endoscopic room by the gastroenterologist. It elucidates various steps involved in processing of the biopsy, tissue embedding and paraffin sectioning, approach to interpretation, various precautions that require to be taken while interpreting the biopsies, and the essential background knowledge of the interpreter. The book highlights the importance of the little things for a proper reading like matching of the tissue fragments received and the number of tissue present on a slide after the paraffin section.Chapters cover various forms of gastritis, and the easiest approach for daily routine by avoiding the cumbersome classifications and staging formulated for gastritis. It also discusses the utilization of the right nomenclature for acute and chronic gastritis and various other subtypes of gastritis. Chapters include various rarer and infrequently come across conditions of both acute and chronic gastritis, special form of gastritis and infective conditions. It also includes unusual forms of non-neoplastic gastric pathologies such as, a condition, where the gastric mucosa is affected not only by direct exposure to various irritants but may also be affected by many systemic diseases. It also highlights the frequently observed changes in chronic renal and liver failures.  The book is targeted to all the practicing pathologists as well as graduate and post graduate students who are keen to learn about non-neoplastic gastric pathology at various levels.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Graphs, IJCKG 2025, held in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, during October 15–17, 2025.The 28 full papers and 11 short papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 74 submissions. The papers focus on innovative research results and novel applications of Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Web, Linked Data, and AI. They are organized in the following sections: Main track, Education track, In-use track, Posters and demos, Workshop papers, and Evaluation challenge.

This textbook focuses on concrete-filled steel tubular structures formed by placing concrete inside the steel tube. It deals with the mechanical essence of concrete-filled steel tubular members in compression/tension, bending, torsion, shear and the combined effects, the working mechanism of concrete-filled steel tubular members under long-term load, cyclic load, fire exposure and post-fire exposure, and proposes practical design methods based on experimental and theoretical studies and parametric analysis. The content addresses some key technical issues of concrete-filled steel tubular members, such as the mechanical properties of steel and core concrete, the shrinkage and creep of core concrete, the bonding behavior between steel tube and core concrete, the limiting values for the initial stress of steel tube caused by construction load and the void of core concrete, the protective design of concrete-filled steel tubular members under chloride corrosive environment and impactloading, etc. This textbook also discusses the technology and design principles of concrete-filled steel tubular hybrid structures.

The book is designed to serve as a textbook for courses offered to graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in electronics and electrical engineering and computer science. This book attempts to bridge the gap between electronics and computer science students, providing complementary knowledge that is essential for designing an embedded system. The book covers key concepts tailored for embedded system design in one place. The topics covered in this book are models and architectures,  Executable Specific Languages – SystemC, Unified Modeling Language, real-time systems, real-time operating systems, networked embedded systems, Embedded Processor architectures, and platforms that are secured and energy-efficient.  A major segment of embedded systems needs hard real-time requirements. This textbook includes real-time concepts including algorithms and real-time operating system standards like POSIX threads. Embedded systems are mostly distributed and networked for deterministic responses. The book covers how to design networked embedded systems with appropriate protocols for real-time requirements. Each chapter contains 2-3 solved case studies and 10 real-world problems as exercises to provide detailed coverage and essential pedagogical tools that make this an ideal textbook for students enrolled in electrical and electronics engineering and computer science programs.

This textbook is a unique and ambitious primer of nuclear physics, which introduces recent theoretical and experimental progresses starting from basics in fundamental quantum mechanics. The highlight is to offer an overview of nuclear structure phenomena relevant to recent key findings such as unstable halo nuclei, superheavy elements, neutron stars, nucleosynthesis, the standard model, lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD), and chiral effective theory. An additional attraction is that general properties of nuclei are comprehensively explained from both the theoretical and experimental viewpoints. The book begins with the conceptual and mathematical basics of quantum mechanics, and goes into the main point of nuclear physics – nuclear structure, radioactive ion beam physics, and nuclear reactions. The last chapters devote interdisciplinary topics in association with astrophysics and particle physics. A number of illustrations and exercises with complete solutions are given. Each chapter is comprehensively written starting from fundamentals to gradually reach modern aspects of nuclear physics with the objective to provide an effective description of the cutting edge in the field.

This book offers a rigorous and comprehensive study of nonlinear electromagnetic wave propagation in the cylindrical Goubau line with inhomogeneous and Kerr-type nonlinear media. It systematically develops mathematical models that describe the propagation of transverse electric (TE), transverse magnetic (TM), and coupled TE–TM waves in the Goubau line configuration, where the dielectric permittivity depends on both the field intensity and the radial coordinate. Key concepts explored here include nonlinear eigenvalue boundary-value problems, integral equations, and fixed-point techniques. The chapters cover topics such as nonlinear TE and TM modes, coupled TE–TM wave behaviors, and Goubau line configurations (including multilayer dielectric coatings). The author presents an expert analysis of these complex phenomena through a blend of analytical methods and numerical techniques, ensuring both mathematical rigor and physical insight. Theoretical results are supported by existence and uniqueness theorems, spectral analysis, and asymptotic estimates, while numerical approaches validate the analytical framework. This monograph is intended for applied mathematicians, physicists, and engineers working in nonlinear electrodynamics, waveguide theory, and numerical modeling. It serves as both a research monograph and a reference text, with each chapter designed to be largely self-contained for flexible use by the reader. Researchers and students will find this book an invaluable resource for extending their analytical and computational tools in nonlinear wave propagation.

This book defines Russophobia as the irrational fear of Russia, a key theme in the study of propaganda in the West as Russia has throughout history been assigned a diametrically opposite identity as the “Other.” Propaganda is the science of convincing an audience without appealing to reason. The West and Russia have been juxtaposed as Western versus Eastern, European versus Asiatic, civilized versus barbaric, modern versus backward, liberal versus autocratic, and even good versus evil. During the Cold War, ideological dividing lines fell naturally by casting the debate as capitalism versus communism, democracy versus totalitarianism, and Christianity versus atheism. After the Cold War, anti-Russian propaganda aims to filter all political questions through the simplistic binary stereotype of democracy versus authoritarianism, which provides little if any heuristic value to understand the complexities of relations. A key feature of propaganda against the inferior “Other” is both contemptuous derision and panic-stricken fear of the threat to civilization. Russia has therefore throughout history been allowed to play one of two roles—either an apprentice of Western civilization by accepting the subordinate role as the student and political object, or a threat that must be contained or defeated. While propaganda has the positive effect of promoting unity and mobilizing resources toward rational and strategic objectives, it can also have the negative effect of creating irrational decision-making and obstructing a workable peace.

This book explores the environmental and ecological wisdom inherent in some of the indigenous traditions of traditional communities from developing societies like, Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. It throws light on how these discrete and unrecognized traditions have enabled communities to live in harmony with nature for ages. Despite the best efforts of the modern states through policy-making, intensive R&D for eco-friendly technologies and products, social and environmental impact assessment studies (SEIAS), and cost benefit analysis (CBA) of projects, environmental and ecological degradation continues, mostly in developing societies, which house large number of traditional communities. This book explores their traditions consisting of world views or cosmologies, eco-savvy-customs, indigenous knowledge systems involving community-based occupations and practices, skills and crafts, and so on. This book shows that when interpreted in consonance with scientific environmentalism, these traditions reveal their inbuilt environmental wisdom, mirroring sacredness of nature that have instilled built-in conservation practices, are key to sustainability.The conception of indigenous traditions that subsume environmental and ecological sustainability as well as cultural identity is studied in the book, from the vantage of multi-disciplinary perspectives. This book reflects two streams of thought : (i) stream of social anthropology, arguing for the inbuilt strength of indigenous traditions, that necessitate empathetic understanding with their own rights for recognition and survival, and (ii) stream of indigenous knowledge systems being technically effective only necessitate  validation and certification by modern scientific knowledge system for wider use. The book is of great use to policy-makers and non-government players, in addition to researchers and academicians working in the area of sustainable development and indigenous / traditional communities.

This book addresses the most advanced to-date mathematical approach and numerical methods in electromagnetic field theory and wave propagation. It presents the application of developed methods and techniques to the analysis of waves in various guiding structures —shielded and open metal-dielectric waveguides of arbitrary cross-section, planar and circular waveguides filled with inhomogeneous dielectrics, metamaterials, chiral media, anisotropic media and layered media with absorption. It also looks into spectral properties of wave propagation for the waveguide families being considered, and the relevant mathematical techniques such as spectral theory of non-self-adjoint operator-valued functions are described, including rigorous proofs of the existence of various types of waves. Further, numerical methods constructed on the basis of the presented mathematical approach and the results of numerical modeling for various structures are also described in depth.The book is beneficial to a broad spectrum of readers ranging from pure and applied mathematicians in electromagnetic field theory to researchers and engineers who are familiar with mathematics. Further, it is also useful as a supplementary text for upper-level undergraduate students interested in learning more advanced topics of mathematical methods in electromagnetics.

Risk Management in Outer Space Activities assesses selected risks associated with space activities, from an Australian and New Zealand perspective. The book explores the rise of commercial space activities and considers the development of Australia and New Zealand’s regulatory frameworks, and how they are equipped to address new and emerging risks in the space sector.The book examines the juxtaposition of international space law against the domestic legal regimes of Australia and New Zealand, and how these regulatory frameworks are designed to create governance mechanisms to control space risk. Both national jurisdictions approach space risk from the perspective of liability and international legal obligations, but as a result of their different historical space trajectories, their risk approaches differ. This is illustrated by research that suggests that from an Australian point of view, much of its space industry development has been influenced by Cold War era military and national security concerns. On the other hand, the New Zealand perspective is grounded on the rapid market-led commercial development that is currently underway in the country.The book examines a variety of risks that can and do emerge in the course of undertaking space activities. It does this by presenting a series of space risk case studies. There are chapters devoted to examining commercial space risks, space insurance, the risks posed by space debris, cybersecurity and space assets, light pollution as a risk for astronomy and the risks inherent in landing objects on the Moon. The work contained in this book is intended to provide a clear, practical and informed approach to understanding risk management in outer space activities. It will appeal to policy makers, risk professionals, space lawyers, national space agencies as well as academics, researchers and students

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of socio-natural disaster recovery projects, using the Bam and Wenchuan earthquakes as case studies to evaluate their success and failure. With escalating losses from socio-natural disasters and a high failure rate among recovery projects, it addresses the urgent need for effective management guidelines by leveraging past experiences. Tackling the discrepancy between reported project success and public perception, the book emphasizes the importance of stakeholder perspectives and assessment timing. It sets out to solve the problem of ineffective disaster recovery management by proposing a robust framework and practical guidelines for successful recovery projects, aiming to prioritize project goals and refine evaluation criteria, leading to more desirable outcomes and enhanced community resilience. The main topics covered include:1. Critical Overview and Conceptual Framework: The book begins with a thorough overview of socio-natural disaster recovery projects, leading to the development of a conceptual management framework. This framework outlines essential steps based on a continuous life cycle to streamline recovery efforts.2. Success Factors and Dimensions: It identifies key success factors and dimensions to comprehensively measure project outcomes. These findings are structured through rigorous triangulation of primary and secondary data.3. Comparative Policy Analysis: A micro-comparison of recovery policies in Iran and China, two of the most vulnerable countries, provides practical suggestions using success factors, influential pathways, and SWOT analysis.4. Community Recovery Dynamics: The book explores why communities recover differently, applying qualitative comparative analysis to neighborhoods in Bam and towns affected by the Wenchuan earthquake.The target audience includes policymakers, project managers, researchers, and practitioners in disaster management, urban planning, and civil engineering. Academics and government officials responsible for managing socio-natural disaster recovery projects will find this book invaluable for improving project success and community resilience.