This book constitutes refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Smart Technologies, Systems and Applications, held in Quito, Ecuador, in December 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held in a hybrid format. The 29 full papers along with 1 short paper presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 104 submissions. The papers of this volume are organized in topical sections on smart technologies; smart systems; smart trends and applications.

Death Row Restaurant is a debut satire novel about a disenchanted flight attendant searching for "authentic experiences" who instead finds an unexpected opportunity running a restaurant staffed by serial killers.Flight attendant, Dave Aslin, circles the globe in search of true experiences that he's never quite found. When Dave meets a canceled child actor from the 1980's sitcom 'Diff'rent Strokes' who is planning a radically new restaurant concept, his life's itinerary is forever altered. The proposal is a restaurant housed inside the gas chamber at San Quentin prison and staffed entirely by serial killers. Combining the craze for authentic restaurants and pop culture's love of serial killers, this debut novel balances satire with dark psychological horror to deliver poignant commentary on society's relationship to work. Death Row Restaurant gazes into the intersection between the serial killers we despise and the inevitable distortions of capitalism that shape our lives.

Ticks of the Southern Cone of America: Diagnosis, Distribution and Hosts with Taxonomy, Ecology and Sanitary Importance focuses on the tick species prevalent in The Southern Cone of America, including their distribution, biology, associated pathogens, their effects on the host, and control methods. Based on review of the literature from more than five decades, 62 species of both hard and soft tick have been discovered on the Southern Cone of America. Tick genera observed and recorded include Amblyomma, Dermacentor, Haemaphysalis, Ixodes, and Rhipicephalus.

This book focuses on the study of several properties of Banach spaces applied to diverse problems in functional and numerical analysis. Many problems in science, engineering and other disciplines can be expressed in the form of equations, inequalities or systems of equations using mathematical modelling. In particular, a large number of these problems can be solved using these spaces. A great multitude of examples showing the theoretical application developed appears throughout the work. Researchers and practitioners will find this book very useful as a source book, utilize its methods and also use it as a classroom text for a senior undergraduate or graduate course. It is certainly an excellent must read book.

Insects display a staggering diversity of behaviors. Studying these systems provides insights into a wide range of ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral questions including the genetics of behavior, phenotypic plasticity, chemical communication, and the evolution of life-history traits. This accessible text offers a new approach that provides the reader with the necessary theoretical and conceptual foundations, at different hierarchical levels, to understand insect behavior. The book is divided into three main sections: mechanisms, ecological and evolutionary consequences, and applied issues. The final section places the preceding chapters within a framework of current threats to human survival - climate change, disease, and food security - before providing suggestions and insights as to how we can utilize an understanding of insect behavior to control and/or ameliorate them. Each chapter provides a concise, authoritative review of the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundations of each topic.