Corporate finance decisions showcase the responses of corporations to address challenges on both the demand and supply sides and the firm value chain. Corporate performance, strategies, and priorities have changed significantly since the pandemic. Understanding these changes and developing and implementing policy responses are crucial to success. Future Outlooks on Corporate Finance and Opportunities for Robust Economic Planning disseminates knowledge regarding corporate response during crises that contribute to a robust economic planning process. It examines the adjustments and strategic interventions that helped corporations mitigate challenges successfully. Covering topics such as corporate governance practices, global systemic risk interdependencies, and investment decisions, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for finance professionals, business executives and managers, financial officers, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This book contributes to the multidisciplinary debate about social-ecological systems (SES) within the perspective of rethinking the nature of interaction between these systems, especially in the Anthropocene Era. Most chapters either deliberate on risk dynamics threatening current SES or stimulate thought processes to manage such risks and related negative implications. After analyzing the main drivers of SES vulnerability, the book highlights the shifts to be made to enhance the sustainability and resilience of these systems, mainly the integration and restructuring of governance frameworks, the reorganization of production and consumption systems far from conventional models based on consumerism, the elaboration of mitigation, adaptation, and SDGs implementation measures from a co-benefit perspective, and the consideration of appropriate approaches and paradigms while elaborating and implementing response mechanisms. This volume is relevant to researchers/experts, students, practitioners, and decision-makers from different scales and spheres.

This book demonstrates the use of a wide range of strategic engineering concepts, theories and applied case studies to improve the safety, security and sustainability of complex and large-scale engineering and computer systems. It first details the concepts of system design, life cycle, impact assessment and security to show how these ideas can be brought to bear on the modeling, analysis and design of information systems with a focused view on cloud-computing systems and big data analytics. This informative book is a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and industry-based practitioners working in engineering, information and business systems as well as strategy.

This book is a collection of selected papers presented at the First International Conference on Industrial IoT, Big Data and Supply Chain (IIoTBDSC), held as an online conference due to COVID-19 (initially to be held in Macao, Special Administration Region (SAR) of China), during September 15-17, 2020. It includes novel and innovative work from experts, practitioners, scientists and decision-makers from academia and industry. It brings multi-disciplines together on IIoT, data science, cloud computing, software engineering approaches to design, development, testing and quality of products and services.

This important new book, the first of its kind in the fire safety field, discusses the economic problems faced by decision-makers in the areas of fire safety and fire precautions. The author considers the theoretical aspects of cost-benefit analysis and other relevant economic problems with practical applications to fire protection systems. Clear examples are included to illustrate these techniques in action. The work covers: * the performance and effectiveness of passive fire protection measures such as structural fire resistance and means of escape facilities, and active systems such as sprinklers and detectors * the importance of educating for better understanding and implementation of fire prevention through publicity campaigns and fire brigade operations * cost-benefit analysis of fire protection measures and their combinations, taking into account trade-offs between these measures. The book is essential reading for consultants and academics in construction management, economics and fire safety, as well as for insurance and risk management professionals.

The widespread availability of technologies has increased exponentially in recent years. This ubiquity has created more connectivity and seamless integration among technology devices. Emerging Trends and Applications of the Internet of Things is an essential reference publication featuring the latest scholarly research on the surge of connectivity between computing devices in modern society, as well as the benefits and challenges of this. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as cloud computing, spatial cognition, and ultrasonic sensing, this book is ideally designed for researchers, professionals, and academicians seeking current research on upcoming advances in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Chronic venous disorders are a major health problem due to their wide prevalence and socio-economic considerations. This book is a comprehensive manual providing state- of- the- art information on the diagnosis and management of these common problems. Till recently venous disorders have been getting secondary attention as compared to their arterial counterpart. However, the last two decades witnessed major technological advancements and therapeutic strategies for these problems. Written with a surgical perspective, this monograph covers the latest developments and recommended procedures in an easy-to-read format guiding the surgeon to prepare a rational treatment plan. Supplemented with numerous figures and illustrations, the chapters update the readers with how to evaluate such patients in their practices, selection criteria for appropriate procedures and how to manage the complications. The book includes basics of venous disorders, primary varicose veins and recurrence after surgery, chronic venous insufficiency, venous ulcers and congenital venous malformations. Detailed coverage of endo-venous procedures such as radio-frequency ablation, laser ablation and foam sclerotherapy are additional essential features of this book. Primarily intended for the practicing general surgeon, this volume is also relevant for residents in general surgery and vascular surgery.

Since the publication of the first edition 10 years ago, significant developments have occurred in the use of admixtures in concrete. Eight new chapters and a full update of the preceding 10 chapters bring this book up to date; reflecting the relative advances made in the science and technology of different groups of admixtures. The increased role and development of admixtures in concrete technology is evidenced by a number of conferences, publications, and novel admixtures available in the market place. These developments in the field caused the modification of many chapters in the First Edition in order to reflect the advances. Although individual chapters refer to standards and specifications of admixtures, those only interested in the standards or techniques used in investigating admixtures will find the second chapter (Research Technologies, Standards, and Specifications) useful. Admixtures are not as inert as may be presumed. They may chemically interact with the constituents of concrete and affect the properties of the fresh and hardened concrete and its durability. The third chapter deals with these aspects. It was important to devote a chapter to recent attempts in developing new admixtures.

This publication will be useful to many readers including: technologists, practitioners, engineers, architects, concrete manufacturers, material scientists, cement scientists, and students.

This textbook presents a unified approach to compact and noncompact Riemann surfaces from the point of view of the so-called L2 $\bar{\delta}$-method. This method is a powerful technique from the theory of several complex variables, and provides for a unique approach to the fundamentally different characteristics of compact and noncompact Riemann surfaces. The inclusion of continuing exercises running throughout the book, which lead to generalizations of the main theorems, as well as the exercises included in each chapter make this text ideal for a one- or two-semester graduate course.

This volume contains a solid body of the current state of knowledge on the various themes and activities in agroforestry worldwide. It is organized into three sections: the Introduction section consists of the summaries of six keynote speeches at the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009; that is followed by two sections of peer-reviewed thematic chapters grouped as "Global Perspectives" (seven chapters) and "Regional Perspectives" (eleven chapters), authored by professional leaders in their respective agroforestry-related fields worldwide. A total of 130 professionals from institutions in 33 countries in both developing and the industrialized temperate regions of the world contributed to the book as chapter authors and/or reviewers. Thus, the book presents a comprehensive and authoritative account of the global picture of agroforestry today.

This book focuses on the development and implementation of cloud-based, complex software that allows parallelism, fast processing, and real-time connectivity. Software engineering (SE) is the design, development, testing, and implementation of software applications, and this discipline is as well developed as the practice is well established whereas the Cloud Software Engineering (CSE) is the design, development, testing, and continuous delivery of service-oriented software systems and applications (Software as a Service Paradigm). However, with the emergence of the highly attractive cloud computing (CC) paradigm, the tools and techniques for SE are changing. CC provides the latest software development environments and the necessary platforms relatively easily and inexpensively. It also allows the provision of software applications equally easily and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Business requirements for the use of software are also changing and there is a need for applications in big data analytics, parallel computing, AI, natural language processing, and biometrics, etc. These require huge amounts of computing power and sophisticated data management mechanisms, as well as device connectivity for Internet of Things (IoT) environments. In terms of hardware, software, communication, and storage, CC is highly attractive for developing complex software that is rapidly becoming essential for all sectors of life, including commerce, health, education, and transportation. The book fills a gap in the SE literature by providing scientific contributions from researchers and practitioners, focusing on frameworks, methodologies, applications, benefits and inherent challenges/barriers to engineering software using the CC paradigm.

Global software development and productivity related technologies are the key to today's globalization with new technologies and concepts being developed continually. In such an ever-evolving environment, teachers, researchers, and professionals in the discipline need access to the most current information about the concepts, issues, trends, and technologies in this emerging field. ""The Handbook of Research on Software Engineering and Productivity Technologies: Implications of Globalization"" provides an authoritative collection of international research on software engineering and enterprise systems. Presenting unique coverage of topics such as agile software engineering, requirements traceability, and distributed software development, this Handbook of Research offers an innovative repository of knowledge useful to academicians, practitioners, and researchers in various related fields.

The subject theory is important in finance, economics, investment strategies, health sciences, environment, industrial engineering, etc.

Measuring the long-term durability of new types of concrete and concrete technologies is crucial to their acceptance in the marketplace. This long-needed handbook of analytical techniques provides a complete reference to the cutting-edge procedures used to test today's innovative materials.
Ranging from chemical and thermal analysis, to IR and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy, to Scanning Electron Microscopy, x-ray diffraction, computer modeling and more, the book provides first-hand explanations of modern methodsucontributed by 24 leading scientists, many of whom actually developed or refined the techniques. The book includes many analytic techniques, applied to a wide range of organic, inorganic and composite materials and additives.
Perfect for practitioners, students, and professional standards writers, the handbook is highly useful for scrutinizing materials in a variety of environments. It takes into account the many factors that affect the qualities of concreteutemperature, pore and pore-size distribution, surface area, and exposureugathering diverse evaluation methods into one convenient resource."

Organization, Performance and Equity: Perspectives on the Japanese Economy provides an analysis of key components of the Japanese economy and business structures, edited by two leading American-based Japan scholars. The contributions to this book are grouped into four major categories: organizations; income distributions; technological progress; and macro performance. The first section examines the retail sector, the role of information in evaluating distribution systems, and ownership structures and their effect on welfare, all in the context of the Japanese economy. The second section concerns issues of Japanese tax structures, growth, and income transfers, while the third section focuses on technology and productivity. The concluding section addresses major macro issues like trade and the value of the yen.

All coastal areas are facing a growing range of stresses and shocks, the scale of which now poses threats to the resilience of both human and environmental coastal systems. Responsible agencies are seeking better ways of managing the causes and consequences of the environmental change process in coastal zones. This volume discusses the basic principles underpinning a more integrated approach to coastal management and highlights the obstacles that may be met in practice in both developed and developing countries. Successful strategies will have to encompass all the elements of management, from planning and design through financing and implementation, as highlighted in this book.

This book surveys recent developments in numerical techniques for global atmospheric models. It is based upon a collection of lectures prepared by leading experts in the field. The chapters reveal the multitude of steps that determine the global atmospheric model design. They encompass the choice of the equation set, computational grids on the sphere, horizontal and vertical discretizations, time integration methods, filtering and diffusion mechanisms, conservation properties, tracer transport, and considerations for designing models for massively parallel computers. A reader interested in applied numerical methods but also the many facets of atmospheric modeling should find this book of particular relevance.

In three well-organized sections, this book offers the first detailed survey of dispersion compensating fibers. The sections outline Conventional Dispersion Compensating Fiber, including a chapter on modeling dispersion in optical fibers; Alternative and Emerging Technologies, including control of dispersion in photonic crystal fibers; and Systems experiments and Impacts, featuring a survey of systems experiments demonstrating Dispersion Compensation Technologies.

Modem geometric methods combine the intuitiveness of spatial visualization with the rigor of analytical derivation. Classical analysis is shown to provide a foundation for the study of geometry while geometrical ideas lead to analytical concepts of intrinsic beauty. Arching over many subdisciplines of mathematics and branching out in applications to every quantitative science, these methods are, notes the Russian mathematician A.T. Fomenko, in tune with the Renais sance traditions. Economists and finance theorists are already familiar with some aspects of this synthetic tradition. Bifurcation and catastrophe theo ries have been used to analyze the instability of economic models. Differential topology provided useful techniques for deriving results in general equilibrium analysis. But they are less aware of the central role that Felix Klein and Sophus Lie gave to group theory in the study of geometrical systems. Lie went on to show that the special methods used in solving differential equations can be classified through the study of the invariance of these equations under a continuous group of transformations. Mathematicians and physicists later recognized the relation between Lie's work on differential equations and symme try and, combining the visions of Hamilton, Lie, Klein and Noether, embarked on a research program whose vitality is attested by the innumerable books and articles written by them as well as by biolo gists, chemists and philosophers."

Symmetry and Economic Invariance (second enhanced edition) explores how the symmetry and invariance of economic models can provide insights into their properties. Although the professional economist of today is adept at many of the mathematical techniques used in static and dynamic optimization models, group theory is still not among his or her repertoire of tools. The authors aim to show that group theoretic methods form a natural extension of the techniques commonly used in economics and that they can be easily mastered. Part I provides an introduction that minimizes prerequisites including prior knowledge of group theory. Part II discusses recent developments in the field.

Interest and initiatives in agroforestry education and training, as in other aspects of agroforestry development, have increased tremendously during the past decade. Coordination of such educational activities was initiated by the first international workshop on education in agroforestry organized by the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Decem ber 1982, at Nairobi, Kenya. Since then, agroforestry has been incorporated into the curricula of many educational and training institutions around the world. Moreover, several institutions have developed entire academic programs specifically in agroforestry. However, most of these activities are still isolated initiatives, without common strategies or philosophies. This second international agroforestry workshop was therefore planned to pro vide a forum for reviewing progress, sharing programs and experiences, and planning and coordinating future directions in agroforestry education and training. The main objectives were to review the on-going programs, to assess the scope of professional education and training in relation to the perceived needs of trained personnel, to recommend guidelines for further program development, and to establish networking among institutions and agencies involved in agroforestry education and training. These proceedings contain the keynote papers, regional/country presenta tions and conclusions and recommendations of the International Workshop on Education and Training in Agroforestry held at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA in December, 1988. The strategy of the workshop was to facilitate focused discussion on identified issues by an invited group of world leaders in agroforestry education and training."

Tree based production systems abound especially in the tropics. Despite the pervasiveness of such multipurpose trees-outside-forest resources, they have not attracted adequate attention in the development paradigms of many nation states. These multispecies production systems impact the ecosystem processes favourably. Yet, our understanding of the diversity attributes and carbon dynamics under agroforestry is not adequate. This book focuses on the role of multispecies production systems involving tree and crop species as a means for carbon sequestration and thereby reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Sixteen chapters organized into three broad sections titled: Measurement and Estimation, Agrobiodiversity and Tree Management, and Policy and Socioeconomic Aspects represent a cross section of the opportunities and challenges in current research and emerging issues in harnessing carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry systems. "