This book provides a rigorous and self-contained review of desingularization theory. Focusing on arbitrary dimensional schemes, it discusses the important concepts in full generality, complete with proofs, and includes an introduction to the basis of Hironaka's Theory. The core of the book is a complete proof of desingularization of surfaces; despite being well-known, this result was no more than folklore for many years, with no existing references. Throughout the book there are numerous computations on standard bases, blowing ups and characteristic polyhedra, which will be a source of inspiration for experts exploring bigger dimensions. Beginners will also benefit from a section which presents some easily overlooked pathologies.

This book addresses how best to meet everyday challenges. The author focuses on how to think and act differently about what we do as we face challenges, and how to assess each situation as one of challenge rather than threat or harm because we have the strategies to cope. Spanning eleven chapters, the book examines the best ways to provide the core skills for life, to children, adolescents and adults, and how that is best achieved through the contemporary theories of coping. Coping has traditionally been defined in terms of reaction; that is, how people respond after or during a stressful event. More recently, coping is being defined more broadly to include anticipatory, preventive and proactive coping. This book provides case studies of resilient adults in a range of settings, highlighting how coping resources have helped them to overcome adversity. Researchers, students of psychology and social work, practitioners and those interested in the self-help field will find this book invaluable.

These proceedings contain selected papers from the Special Symposium, organised by the Argentine Association of Geomorphology and Quaternary Studies in October 2017. This Symposium was held within the frame of the 20th Argentine Geological Congress in Tucuman, Argentina. The papers describe detailed research on quaternary stratigraphy and geochronology, paleontology (diatoms, mollusks, foraminifera, palynology, phytoliths, paleobotany, vertebrates), dendrochronology, climate change, paleoclimate, pampeano quaternary paleolimnology, paleomagnetism, environmental magnetism, hydrogeochemical processes, geoarchaeology, geomorphology, structural geology and neotectonics, paleosurfaces, volcanism, risks, assets, geomorphosites, and digital mapping. This book follows the precedent book "Advances in Geomorphology and Quaternary Studies in Argentina" on the 6th Argentine Geomorphology and Quaternary Studies Congress, which was edited by Jorge Rabassa and published by Springer in 2017. It precedes a similar volume on the 7th Congreso Argentino de Cuaternario y Geomorfologia, "Geocuar 2018", as organized by Argentine Association of Geomorphology and Quaternary Studies (AACG). This conference was held in Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina, from 18 to 21 September 2018.

This book explores the ways in which the broad range of technologies that make up the smart city infrastructure can be harnessed to incorporate more playfulness into the day-to-day activities that take place within smart cities, making them not only more efficient but also more enjoyable for the people who live and work within their confines. The book addresses various topics that will be of interest to playable cities stakeholders, including the human-computer interaction and game designer communities, computer scientists researching sensor and actuator technology in public spaces, urban designers, and (hopefully) urban policymakers. This is a follow-up to another book on Playable Cities edited by Anton Nijholt and published in 2017 in the same book series, Gaming Media and Social Effects.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering (ICETE), held at University College of Engineering and organised by the Alumni Association, University College of Engineering, Osmania University, in Hyderabad, India on 22-23 March 2019. The proceedings of the ICETE are published in three volumes, covering seven areas: Biomedical, Civil, Computer Science, Electrical & Electronics, Electronics & Communication, Mechanical, and Mining Engineering. The 215 peer-reviewed papers from around the globe present the latest state-of-the-art research, and are useful to postgraduate students, researchers, academics and industry engineers working in the respective fields. Volume 2 presents papers on the theme "Advances in Decision Sciences, Image Processing, Security and Computer Vision - International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering (ICETE)". It includes state-of-the-art technical contributions in the areas of electronics and communication engineering and electrical and electronics engineering, discussing the latest sustainable developments in fields such as signal processing and communications; GNSS and VLSI; microwaves and antennas; signal, speech and image processing; power systems; and power electronics.

This book presents the proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Soft Computing Applications, SOFA 2018, held on 13-15 September 2018 in Arad, Romania. The workshop was organized by Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, in conjunction with the Institute of Computer Science, Iasi Branch of the Romanian Academy, IEEE Romanian Section, Romanian Society of Control Engineering and Technical Informatics - Arad Section, General Association of Engineers in Romania - Arad Section and BTM Resources Arad. The papers included in these proceedings, published post-conference, cover the research including Knowledge-Based Technologies for Web Applications, Cloud Computing, Security Algorithms and Computer Networks, Business Process Management, Computational Intelligence in Education and Modelling and Applications in Textiles and many other areas related to the Soft Computing. The book is directed to professors, researchers, and graduate students in area of soft computing techniques and applications.

This edited book presents the scientific outcomes of the 4th IEEE/ACIS International Conference on Big Data, Cloud Computing, Data Science & Engineering (BCD 2019) which was held on May 29-31, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The aim of the conference was to bring together researchers and scientists, businessmen and entrepreneurs, teachers, engineers, computer users and students to discuss the numerous fields of computer science and to share their experiences and exchange new ideas and information in a meaningful way. Presenting 15 of the conference's most promising papers, the book discusses all aspects (theory, applications and tools) of computer and information science, the practical challenges encountered along the way, and the solutions adopted to solve them.

This book highlights recent research on intelligent systems and nature-inspired computing. It presents 62 selected papers from the 19th International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2019), which was held online. The ISDA is a premier conference in the field of computational intelligence, and the latest installment brought together researchers, engineers and practitioners whose work involves intelligent systems and their applications in industry. Including contributions by authors from 33 countries, the book offers a valuable reference guide for all researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of Computer Science and Engineering.

This book provides a review of thermal ice drilling technologies, including the design, parameters, and performance of various tools and drills for making holes in ice sheets, ice caps, mountain glaciers, ice shelves, and sea ice. In recent years, interest in thermal drilling technology has increased as a result of subglacial lake explorations and extraterrestrial investigations. The book focuses on the latest ice drilling technologies, but also discusses the historical development of ice drilling tools and devices over the last 100 years to offer valuable insights into what is possible and what not to do in the future. Featuring numerous figures and pictures, many of them published for the first time, it is intended for specialists working in ice-core sciences, polar oceanography, drilling engineers and glaciologists, and is also a useful reference for researchers and graduate students working in engineering and cold-regions technology.

This two-volume book presents an unusually diverse selection of research papers, covering all major topics in the fields of information and communication technologies and related sciences. It provides a wide-angle snapshot of current themes in information and power engineering, pursuing a cross-disciplinary approach to do so. The book gathers revised contributions that were presented at the 2018 International Conference: Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunication (SETIT'18), held on 20-22 December 2018 in Hammamet, Tunisia. This eighth installment of the event attracted a wealth of submissions, and the papers presented here were selected by a committee of experts and underwent additional, painstaking revision. Topics covered include: * Information Processing * Human-Machine Interaction * Computer Science * Telecommunications and Networks * Signal Processing * Electronics * Image and Video This broad-scoped approach is becoming increasingly popular in scientific publishing. Its aim is to encourage scholars and professionals to overcome disciplinary barriers, as demanded by current trends in the industry and in the consumer market, which are rapidly leading toward a convergence of data-driven applications, computation, telecommunication, and energy awareness. Given its coverage, the book will benefit graduate students, researchers and practitioners who need to keep up with the latest technological advances.

This book is committed to provide a holistic view of corruption in the public construction sector, a sector that has been perceived as the most corrupt in the world. Relying on the new findings achieved from a series of qualitative and quantitative studies, this book unveils the specific forms of corruption, the principal causes of corruption, and the prevailing anti-corruption strategies that are used by the current practice. Furthermore, this book provides two metrics that can assess the potential of corruption and the risk of collusion in given public construction projects, respectively. This book will enhance industry and research communities' understandings of corruption in the public construction sector. It is also informative to policy-makers and can help them come up with some more effective strategies to eliminate corruption in the public construction sector.

Cryptography and encryption aren't just for geeks and spies-they're also part of our daily lives. This book enlightens you with the basics of digital cryptography and covers the must-do practices organizations need to implement when it comes to fending off data theft and eavesdroppers. You will uncover the concepts of digital encryption and examine key digital encryption algorithms and their various applications. Gauging cryptography from an enterprise perspective, you will get an in-depth look at common attacks that can occur in your systems and lean how to counter them Moving on to quantum computing, you will discover how it differs from the current computing paradigm and understand its potential for the future. After clearing the basics, you will take a close look at how quantum computers work in practice. Shifting focus to quantum cryptography, you will learn more about quantum key distribution (QKD) and how it differs from present-day encryption methodologies. You will also consider the current implementations of QKD, including distribution systems by SwissQuantum and QKD-distribution networks provided by the DARPA Quantum Network. Ultimately, you will learn the means of defending against cryptographic attacks in the up-and-coming quantum age, such as utilizing zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) systems. Deepen your knowledge of cryptographic concepts and be introduced to the new paradigm of quantum cryptography with this book. What You Will Learn Appreciate how digital encryption algorithms work Secure your infrastructure from cryptographic attacks Understand the basics of quantum information science Discover how cryptography relates to quantum computing Implement Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at readers who have an interest in both well-established and up-and-coming types of cryptography, as well as members of organizations to whom privacy is a top priority.

How can we select the best performing data-driven model? How can we rigorously estimate its generalization error? Statistical learning theory answers these questions by deriving non-asymptotic bounds on the generalization error of a model or, in other words, by upper bounding the true error of the learned model based just on quantities computed on the available data. However, for a long time, Statistical learning theory has been considered only an abstract theoretical framework, useful for inspiring new learning approaches, but with limited applicability to practical problems. The purpose of this book is to give an intelligible overview of the problems of model selection and error estimation, by focusing on the ideas behind the different statistical learning theory approaches and simplifying most of the technical aspects with the purpose of making them more accessible and usable in practice. The book starts by presenting the seminal works of the 80's and includes the most recent results. It discusses open problems and outlines future directions for research.

The Challenge of Sustainability: Corporate Governance in a Complicated World reviews the evolution of five types of corporate governance and their different sustainability objectives. It discusses the challenges for boards in achieving sustainability from an environmental, economic, employment, and social perspective and introduces the concept of a political tragedy of the commons if boards do what is in the best interests of their profitability only, without considering their responsibilities and unintended consequences for their stakeholders. It explains how volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity complicate making sustainable decisions. This book explores ways of helping prevent such negative outcomes. John Zinkin asserts the director's need to reconcile volatility with vision, uncertainty with understanding, complexity with courage and commitment, and ambiguity with adaptability. To prevent a potential political tragedy of the commons, the book suggests new decision-making processes; treating employees differently; and makes the case for reforming capitalism. It is aimed at managers, board members and all those who influence them, including shareholder activists, corporate legal personnel, politicians, activists and general readers interested in applying some of these suggestions in their roles as stakeholders, managers and directors.

This book gathers the refereed proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and Bioinspired Computational Methods Section of the 9th Computer Science On-line Conference 2020 (CSOC 2020), held on-line in April 2020. Artificial intelligence and bioinspired computational methods now represent crucial areas of computer science research. The topics presented here reflect the current discussion on cutting-edge hybrid and bioinspired algorithms and their applications.

This book constitutes refereed proceeding of the Second International Cognitive Cities Conference, IC3 2019, held in Kyoto, Japan, in September 2019. The 37 full papers and 46 short papers were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 206 submissions. The papers are organized according to the topical sections on cognitive city for special needs; cognitive city theory, modeling and simulation; XR and educational innovations for cognitive city; educational technology and strategy in cognitive city; safety, security and privacy in cognitive city; artificial intelligence theory and technology related to cognitive city; Internet of Things for cognitive city; business application and management for cognitive city; big data for cognitive city; engineering technology and applied science for cognitive city; maker, CT and STEAM education for cognitive city.

This book gathers high-quality research papers presented at the International Conference on Computing in Engineering and Technology (ICCET 2020) [formerly ICCASP], a flagship event in the area of engineering and emerging next-generation technologies jointly organized by the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University and MGM's College of Engineering in Nanded, India, on 9-11 January 2020. Focusing on next-generation information processing systems, this second volume of the proceedings includes papers on cloud computing and information systems, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, hardware design and communication, and front-end design.

Finally, a place to keep all your dressmaking notes! Whether it's noting pattern adjustments, sketching new design ideas or simply writing down which dressmaking books you want to buy next, this lovely ruled notebook is the perfect solution. Featuring a lovely soft-touch cover and 100 lined pages, this sweet notebook is the perfect size to keep in your project bag and always be by your side.

This open access short reader looks into the dynamics which have reshaped rural development and human landscapes in European agriculture and the role of immigrant people. Within this framework it analyses contemporary rural migrations and the emergence of immigrants in relation to the incorporation of agrarian systems into global markets, the European agricultural governance (CAP), and the struggle of local territories as differentiated practices in constant stress between innovation and resilience. It specifically explores the case of immigrant shepherds to describe the reconfiguration of agriculture systems and rural landscapes in Europe following intense immigration and the related provision of skilled labour at a relatively low cost. Being written in a very accessible way, this reader is an interesting read to students, researchers, academics, policy makers, and practitioners.

This book gathers original findings, both theoretical and experimental, related to various cutting-edge topics in the design and modeling of mechatronic systems, including multiphysics problems. It presents peer-reviewed papers from the first installment of the Mechatronics 4.0 workshop, which was jointly organized by the Laboratory of Mechanics, Modeling and Manufacturing (LA2MP), National School of Engineers of Sfax, Tunisia, and the QUARTZ Laboratory, Higher Institute of Mechanics of Paris, SUPMECA, France. The event follows in the tradition of the Workshop on Mechatronic Systems (JSM2014), organized by the same universities, while shifting the focus to the concept of Industry 4.0. As this new type of industry is emerging as the convergence of the virtual world, digital design, and management with real-world products and objects, the chapters gathered here highlight recent work on mechatronics systems that are expected to help shape the industry of tomorrow. Thanks to a healthy balance of theory and practical findings, the book offers a timely snapshot for the research and industrial communities alike, as well as a bridge to facilitate communication and collaboration between the two groups.