Conducting polymers were discovered in 1970s in Japan. Since this discovery, there has been a steady flow of new ideas, new understanding, new conducing polymer (organics) structures and devices with enhanced performance. Several breakthroughs have been made in the design and fabrication technology of the organic devices. Almost all properties, mechanical, electrical, and optical, are important in organics. This book describes the recent advances in these organic materials and devices.

This book provides a synthesis of research perspectives on customer engagement through a collection of chapters from thought leaders. It identifies cutting-edge metrics for capturing and measuring customer engagement and highlights best practices in implementing customer engagement marketing strategies. Responding to the rapidly changing business landscape where consumers are more connected, accessible, and informed than ever before, many firms are investing in customer engagement marketing. The book will appeal to academics, practitioners, consultants, and managers looking to improve customer engagement.

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician brilliant beyond comparison who inspired many great mathematicians. There is extensive literature available on the work of Ramanujan. But what is missing in the literature is an analysis that would place his mathematics in context and interpret it in terms of modern developments. The 12 lectures by Hardy, delivered in 1936, served this purpose at the time they were given. This book presents Ramanujan's essential mathematical contributions and gives an informal account of some of the major developments that emanated from his work in the 20th and 21st centuries. It contends that his work still has an impact on many different fields of mathematical research. This book examines some of these themes in the landscape of 21st-century mathematics. These essays, based on the lectures given by the authors focus on a subset of Ramanujan's significant papers and show how these papers shaped the course of modern mathematics.

In spite of the availability of modern broad-spectrum anthelmintic drugs, the prevention and control of helminth zoonoses remain a challenge to human and veterinary parasitologists and to physicians and veterina- rians working on the field. Although the life cycles of most helminths of zoonotic importance are well known, there are still major gaps in our knowledge especially in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis and treat- ment The International Colloquium on Helminth Zoonoses held at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, 11-12 December 1986, laid emphasis on more recent advances made in the control and epidemiology of these zoonotic diseases. The disease complexes echinococcosis/hydatidosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis and the larva migrans-syndrome were dealth with in considerable detail. In the first chapter the phenomenon of strain variation in Echinococcus spp. is examined in the light of newer findings. The progress made in recent years towards a more specific diagnosis and drug targeting in hydatidosis is reported. In the second chapter recent advances in immunisation and treatment of cysticercosis are dealt with. The possibili- ty of the existence of strain differences in Taenia saginata is also dis- cussed. The third chapter is devoted to trematode zoonoses with particular reference to the situation in South-east Asia, Senegal (schistosomiasis) and Liberia (paragonimiasis). In the last chapter the larva migrans- syndrome is treated in detail with special attention to its etiology and and diagnosis. Reports on lesser known nematode zoonoses like mammomono- gamosis and oesophagostomiasis are included.

Statistical Methods in Customer Relationship Management focuses on the quantitative and modeling aspects of customer management strategies that lead to future firm profitability, with emphasis on developing an understanding of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) models as the guiding concept for profitable customer management. To understand and explore the functioning of CRM models, this book traces the management strategies throughout a customer s tenure with a firm. Furthermore, the book explores in detail CRM models for customer acquisition, customer retention, customer acquisition and retention, customer churn, and customer win back. Statistical Methods in Customer Relationship Management: * Provides an overview of a CRM system, introducing key concepts and metrics needed to understand and implement these models. * Focuses on five CRM models: customer acquisition, customer retention, customer churn, and customer win back with supporting case studies. * Explores each model in detail, from investigating the need for CRM models to looking at the future of the models. * Presents models and concepts that span across the introductory, advanced, and specialist levels. Academics and practitioners involved in the area of CRM as well as instructors of applied statistics and quantitative marketing courses will benefit from this book.

Advances in technology are making massive data sets common in many scientific disciplines, such as astronomy, medical imaging, bio-informatics, combinatorial chemistry, remote sensing, and physics. To find useful information in these data sets, scientists and engineers are turning to data mining techniques. This book is a collection of papers based on the first two in a series of workshops on mining scientific datasets. It illustrates the diversity of problems and application areas that can benefit from data mining, as well as the issues and challenges that differentiate scientific data mining from its commercial counterpart. While the focus of the book is on mining scientific data, the work is of broader interest as many of the techniques can be applied equally well to data arising in business and web applications. Audience: This work would be an excellent text for students and researchers who are familiar with the basic principles of data mining and want to learn more about the application of data mining to their problem in science or engineering.

Curated by the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences from their COVID-19 Math Modelling Seminars, this first in a series of volumes on the mathematics of public health allows readers to access the dominant ideas and techniques being used in this area, while indicating problems for further research. This work brings together experts in mathematical modelling from across Canada and the world, presenting the latest modelling methods as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. A primary aim of this book is to make the content accessible so that researchers share the core methods that may be applied elsewhere. The mathematical theories and technologies in this book can be used to support decision makers on critical issues such as projecting outbreak trajectories, evaluating public health interventions for infection prevention and control, developing optimal strategies to return to a new normal, and designing vaccine candidates and informing mass immunization program. Topical coverage includes: basic susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) modelling framework modified and applied to COVID-19 disease transmission dynamics; nearcasting and forecasting for needs of critical medical resources including personal protective equipment (PPE); predicting COVID-19 mortality; evaluating effectiveness of convalescent plasma treatment and the logistic implementation challenges; estimating impact of delays in contact tracing; quantifying heterogeneity in contact mixing and its evaluation with social distancing; modelling point of care diagnostics of COVID-19; and understanding non-reporting and underestimation. Further, readers will have the opportunity to learn about current modelling methodologies and technologies for emerging infectious disease outbreaks, pandemic mitigation rapid response, and the mathematics behind them. The volume will help the general audience and experts to better understand the important role that mathematics has been playing during this on-going crisis in supporting critical decision-making by governments and public health agencies.

This comprehensive Handbook makes the persuasive case that maximizing customer equity is a strategic imperative. This beautifully curated assembly of the best thinkers on this topic will give the reader a deeper understanding of the key elements of customer equity and valuable guidance on how to overcome the implementation challenges. Everything you need to know about customer equity is right here in one place.' - George Day, University of Pennsylvania, US'An exceptionally comprehensive and superbly scholarly volume on the emerging research on customer equity. It is a rare collection of world class scholars who have contributed to this' Handbook.' - Jagdish N. Sheth, Emory University, US Customer equity has emerged as the most important metric to manage firm performance and value. The Handbook of Research on Customer Equity in Marketing explores the tactical and strategic issues related to understanding, measuring, managing and implementing this tool. Customer equity is the total combined customer lifetime values of all of a company's customers and includes Value Equity, Brand Equity and Relationship Equity. It determines the true value of a company in that it considers the future revenue of the customer base relative to other companies. Through a combination of perspectives, this Handbook analyzes the topic and considers risk alongside strategy and offers state-of-the-art research on the field. Covering all bases, it begins with exploring the evolution of customer equity and concludes with implications of customer equity implication for the future. Drawing upon the wisdom of a global pool of leading scholars, this Handbook serves as a comprehensive and authoritative guide on customer equity for marketing scholars, practitioners, and students. Contributors: L. Aksoy, E.T.Anderson, R.N. Bolton, A. Christodoulopoulou, Y. Dong, M. Eisenbeiss, P.S. Fader, M. Haenlein, D.M. Hanssens, B.G.S. Hardie, T.L. Keiningham, J. Kim, T.J. Kim, G. Knox, Y.A.Komarova, M. Krafft, N. Krishnamoorthy, V. Kumar, S. Lee, D.R. Lehmann, R.P. Leone, M. Lewis, A. Luo, M. Nejad, S.A. Neslin, A. Pansari, K. Peters, J.A. Petersen, G. Ramani, W. Reinartz, R.T. Rust, D.E. Sexton, D.E. Shah, G. Shukla, B. Skiera, R. Srinivasan, S. Srinivasan, C.O. Tarasi, R. Venkatesan, P.C. Verhoef , J. Villanueva, T. Wiesel, S. Yoo

Over the last few decades new data on the distribution, pathogenicity, diagnosis, treatment and control of trematode infections and diseases in man and animals, including zoonotic trematodiasis, have emerged from various geographical regions. These new data are compiled in this book together with existing information to fulfil the present need. Seven major trematode-induced disease groups, namely, schistosomiasis, paragonimiasis, fascioliasis and fasciolopsiasis, dicrocoeliasis and eurytremiasis, clonorchiasis and opisthorchiasis, paramphistomiasis, and diseases due to intestinal trematode infections are dealt with in this book. These diseases still rank as a major cause of morbidity and mortality - both in man and in livestock - mainly in the tropics, and contribute to the socio-economic problems. Many of these diseases are also zoonoses, some major and others potential. The intended readership of this treatise include postgraduate students of medical and veterinary parasitology, research workers as well as medical practitioners, veterinarians, tropical diseases specialists, veterinary public health specialists and teachers concerned with trematode infections and trematodiasis of man and animals.

Award-winning monograph of the Ferran Sunyer i Balagure Prize 1996.

This book systematically develops some methods for proving the non-vanishing of certain L-functions at points in the critical strip. Researchers in number theory, graduate students who wish to enter into the area and non-specialists who wish to acquire an introduction to the subject will benefit by a study of this book. One of the most attractive features of the monograph is that it begins at a very basic level and quickly develops enough aspects of the theory to bring the reader to a point the latest discoveries as are presented in the final chapters can be fully appreciated.

This latest volume of Review of Marketing Research, Marketing Accountability for Marketing and Non-Marketing Outcomes is divided in three parts: (1) measures of firm performance, (2) measures of social interaction, and (3) measures related to broader societal outcomes such as sustainability and quality of life. Measures of firm performance covered include the marketing implications of financial accounting, customer feedback metrics, drivers of brand equity, brand failure, market orientation capabilities, and multichannel attributions. Measures of social interaction encompass environmental and social performance, social networks, and attitudinal word-of-mouth drivers. The final chapter is devoted to measures related to societal outcomes and focuses on attractiveness of inner city for society. Each chapter presents thought-provoking discussions and new insights which will be relevant to researchers, professionals and students of marketing, branding and consumer behaviour

Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematician brilliant beyond comparison who inspired many great mathematicians. There is extensive literature available on the work of Ramanujan. But what is missing in the literature is an analysis that would place his mathematics in context and interpret it in terms of modern developments. The 12 lectures by Hardy, delivered in 1936, served this purpose at the time they were given. This book presents Ramanujan's essential mathematical contributions and gives an informal account of some of the major developments that emanated from his work in the 20th and 21st centuries. It contends that his work still has an impact on many different fields of mathematical research. This book examines some of these themes in the landscape of 21st-century mathematics. These essays, based on the lectures given by the authors focus on a subset of Ramanujan's significant papers and show how these papers shaped the course of modern mathematics.

This monograph deals with some of the latest results in nonlinear mechanics, obtained recently by the use of a modernized version of Bogoljubov's method of successive changes of variables which ensures rapid convergence. This method visualised as early as 1934 by Krylov and Bogoljubov provides an effective tool for solving many interesting problems of nonlinear mechanics. It led, in particular, to the solution of the problem of the existence of a quasi periodic regime, with the restriction that approximate solutions obtained in the general case involved divergent series. Recently, making use of the research of Kolmogorov and Arno'ld, Bogoljubov has modernised the method of successive substitutions in such a way that the convergence of the corresponding expansions is ensured. This book consists of a short Introduction and seven chapters. The first chapter presents the results obtained by BogoIjubov in 1963 on the extension of the method of successive substitutions and the study of quasi periodic solutions applied to non-conservative systems (inter alia making explicit the dependence of these solutions on the parameter, indicating methods of obtaining asymptotic and convergent series for them, etc.)."

This monograph brings together a collection of results on the non-vanishing of- functions.Thepresentation, thoughbasedlargelyontheoriginalpapers, issuitable forindependentstudy.Anumberofexerciseshavealsobeenprovidedtoaidinthis endeavour. The exercises are of varying di?culty and those which require more e?ort have been marked with an asterisk. The authors would like to thank the Institut d'Estudis Catalans for their encouragementof thiswork throughtheFerranSunyeriBalaguerPrize.Wewould also like to thank the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton for the excellent conditions which made this work possible, as well as NSERC, NSF and FCAR for funding. Princeton M. Ram Murty August, 1996 V. Kumar Murty xi Introduction Since the time of Dirichlet and Riemann, the analytic properties of L-functions have been used to establish theorems of a purely arithmetic nature. The dist- bution of prime numbers in arithmetic progressions is intimately connected with non-vanishing properties of various L-functions. With the subsequent advent of the Tauberian theory as developed by Wiener and Ikehara, these arithmetical t- orems have been shown to be equivalent to the non-vanishing of these L-functions on the line Re(s)=1. In the 1950's, a new theme was introduced by Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer. Given an elliptic curve E over a number ?eld K of ?nite degree over Q, they associated an L-function to E and conjectured that this L-function extends to an entire function and has a zero at s = 1 of order equal to the Z-rank of the group of K-rational points of E. In particular, the L-function vanishes at s=1ifand only if E has in?nitely many K-rational points.

Over the last few decades new data on the distribution, pathogenicity, diagnosis, treatment and control of trematode infections and diseases in man and animals, including zoonotic trematodiasis, have emerged from various geographical regions. These new data are compiled in this book together with existing information to fulfil the present need. Seven major trematode-induced disease groups, namely, schistosomiasis, paragonimiasis, fascioliasis and fasciolopsiasis, dicrocoeliasis and eurytremiasis, clonorchiasis and opisthorchiasis, paramphistomiasis, and diseases due to intestinal trematode infections are dealt with in this book. These diseases still rank as a major cause of morbidity and mortality - both in man and in livestock - mainly in the tropics, and contribute to the socio-economic problems. Many of these diseases are also zoonoses, some major and others potential. The intended readership of this treatise include postgraduate students of medical and veterinary parasitology, research workers as well as medical practitioners, veterinarians, tropical diseases specialists, veterinary public health specialists and teachers concerned with trematode infections and trematodiasis of man and animals.

Advances in technology are making massive data sets common in many scientific disciplines, such as astronomy, medical imaging, bio-informatics, combinatorial chemistry, remote sensing, and physics. To find useful information in these data sets, scientists and engineers are turning to data mining techniques. This book is a collection of papers based on the first two in a series of workshops on mining scientific datasets. It illustrates the diversity of problems and application areas that can benefit from data mining, as well as the issues and challenges that differentiate scientific data mining from its commercial counterpart. While the focus of the book is on mining scientific data, the work is of broader interest as many of the techniques can be applied equally well to data arising in business and web applications. Audience: This work would be an excellent text for students and researchers who are familiar with the basic principles of data mining and want to learn more about the application of data mining to their problem in science or engineering.

Covering both mobile data and sensor data, this comprehensive text offers updated research on sensor technology, stream data processing, mobile database security, and contextual processing. Packed with exercises and examples, the book covers essential aspects of wireless communication and provides a thorough discussion about managing information on mobile database systems. In addition, the author addresses the integration of web and workflow with mobile computing and looks at the current state of research.

It is by now a well-known paradigm that public-key cryptosystems can be built using finite Abelian groups and that algebraic geometry provides a supply of such groups through Abelian varieties over finite fields. Of special interest are the Abelian varieties that are Jacobians of algebraic curves. All of the articles in this volume are centered on the theme of point counting and explicit arithmetic on the Jacobians of curves over finite fields. The topics covered include Schoof's $\ell$-adic point counting algorithm, the $p$-adic algorithms of Kedlaya and Denef-Vercauteren, explicit arithmetic on the Jacobians of $C_{ab}$ curves and zeta functions. This volume is based on seminars on algebraic curves and cryptography held at the GANITA Lab of the University of Toronto during 2001-2008. The articles are mostly suitable for independent study by graduate students who wish to enter the field, both in terms of introducing basic material as well as guiding them in the literature. The literature in cryptography seems to be growing at an exponential rate. For a new entrant into the subject, navigating through this ocean can seem quite daunting. In this volume, the reader is steered toward a discussion of a few key ideas of the subject, together with some brief guidance for further reading. It is hoped that this approach may render the subject more approachable. Titles in this series are co-published with the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).|It is by now a well-known paradigm that public-key cryptosystems can be built using finite Abelian groups and that algebraic geometry provides a supply of such groups through Abelian varieties over finite fields. Of special interest are the Abelian varieties that are Jacobians of algebraic curves. All of the articles in this volume are centered on the theme of point counting and explicit arithmetic on the Jacobians of curves over finite fields. The topics covered include Schoof's $\ell$-adic point counting algorithm, the $p$-adic algorithms of Kedlaya and Denef-Vercauteren, explicit arithmetic on the Jacobians of $C_{ab}$ curves and zeta functions. This volume is based on seminars on algebraic curves and cryptography held at the GANITA Lab of the University of Toronto during 2001-2008. The articles are mostly suitable for independent study by graduate students who wish to enter the field, both in terms of introducing basic material as well as guiding them in the literature. The literature in cryptography seems to be growing at an exponential rate. For a new entrant into the subject, navigating through this ocean can seem quite daunting. In this volume, the reader is steered toward a discussion of a few key ideas of the subject, together with some brief guidance for further reading. It is hoped that this approach may render the subject more approachable. Titles in this series are co-published with the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

This book brings together technical expertise, best practices, case studies and ground-level application of the ideas for empowering the rural population of the world to live economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable, and socially progressive lives, on par or comparable with the quality of life enjoyed by the global urban population. The idea of Smart Villages takes on greater urgency in light of the investments made in this millennium on "Smart Cities", taking advantage of the technological advances, particularly in digital connectivity. These investments have and will continue to expand the urban-rural divide, unless similar investments are made in the villages as well. The book provides a much-needed guide for a holistic development of a Smart Village, by defining the need, developing the framework, and describing the delivery, complete with successful case studies. Contributors to the book, from Canada, USA, Africa and India bring years of academic, industry and governmental experience, including organization of several Smart Village conferences. The knowledge base in the book will be of great value to anyone interested in or active in rural planning, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, industrial solution providers, public healthcare professionals, public policy professionals and students, as well as rural communities around the world. Consolidates all the aspects of creating/developing a Smart Village; Delivers an effective tool-kit for practitioners in the area of Smart Villages; Provides a policy-based framework for the development of an ideal Smart Village; Illustrates, through case studies, the fulfillment of key requirements of a Smart Village; Brings together experts from around the world to share their vision of a Smart Village; Highlights the importance of balancing development with social/gender equity and cultural traditions.

In spite of the availability of modern broad-spectrum anthelmintic drugs, the prevention and control of helminth zoonoses remain a challenge to human and veterinary parasitologists and to physicians and veterina- rians working on the field. Although the life cycles of most helminths of zoonotic importance are well known, there are still major gaps in our knowledge especially in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis and treat- ment The International Colloquium on Helminth Zoonoses held at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, 11-12 December 1986, laid emphasis on more recent advances made in the control and epidemiology of these zoonotic diseases. The disease complexes echinococcosis/hydatidosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis and the larva migrans-syndrome were dealth with in considerable detail. In the first chapter the phenomenon of strain variation in Echinococcus spp. is examined in the light of newer findings. The progress made in recent years towards a more specific diagnosis and drug targeting in hydatidosis is reported. In the second chapter recent advances in immunisation and treatment of cysticercosis are dealt with. The possibili- ty of the existence of strain differences in Taenia saginata is also dis- cussed. The third chapter is devoted to trematode zoonoses with particular reference to the situation in South-east Asia, Senegal (schistosomiasis) and Liberia (paragonimiasis). In the last chapter the larva migrans- syndrome is treated in detail with special attention to its etiology and and diagnosis. Reports on lesser known nematode zoonoses like mammomono- gamosis and oesophagostomiasis are included.

Global Marketing Research is a comprehensive text that tracks the dynamic world of global marketing and undertakes a systematic approach in discussing the steps involved in the process of conducting marketing research. This text has been developed by the author from over two decades of experience in conducting marketing research and observing the behavior of customers in more than 30 countries. It discusses recent developments in the scope and extent of the subject and examines advances in quantitative and qualitative research techniques from a global perspective. Key Features * Overview of marketing research processes including introduction of key concepts, exploring relevant issues, and highlighting major challenges to understand and coordinate the entire process * Focus on the important phases of marketing research such as understanding its nature and scope, data collection, questionnaire designing, sampling, and analysis and presentation of results * Numerous country-specific examples and cases from the global perspective giving detailed insight into the developments around the world * Dedicated and up-to-date inclusion of a section on the aspects of marketing research in major geographical areas * Chapter-end review exercises and case-based questions for critical and in-depth understanding

Customer Lifetime Value - The Path to Profitability reviews the CLV metric in particular. Approaches to computing CLV and the concept of customer equity are discussed in detail. Specifically, this monograph provides the methods of measuring CLV, the strategies for developing customer-centric strategies, the implementation of CLV strategies in a B2B and B2C setting, and the challenges faced by an organization in implementing a CLV-based framework. The author details the importance of CLV as a metric in a marketer's toolkit and how it is relevant to managing customers. Customer Lifetime Value - The Path to Profitability answers the following questions: .What is the value of a customer? .Can customers be evaluated based only on their past contribution to the firm? .Which metric is better in identifying the future worth of the customer? These are the questions a firm has to deal with before assessing the value of its customers. The author shows that the value of a customer is the value the customer brings to the firm over their lifetime. Therefore, we need a metric that can objectively measure future profitability of the customer to the firm. Customer lifetime value (CLV) helps managers make informed business decisions.

This book brings together technical expertise, best practices, case studies and ground-level application of the ideas for empowering the rural population of the world to live economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable, and socially progressive lives, on par or comparable with the quality of life enjoyed by the global urban population. The idea of Smart Villages takes on greater urgency in light of the investments made in this millennium on "Smart Cities", taking advantage of the technological advances, particularly in digital connectivity. These investments have and will continue to expand the urban-rural divide, unless similar investments are made in the villages as well. The book provides a much-needed guide for a holistic development of a Smart Village, by defining the need, developing the framework, and describing the delivery, complete with successful case studies. Contributors to the book, from Canada, USA, Africa and India bring years of academic, industry and governmental experience, including organization of several Smart Village conferences. The knowledge base in the book will be of great value to anyone interested in or active in rural planning, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, industrial solution providers, public healthcare professionals, public policy professionals and students, as well as rural communities around the world. Consolidates all the aspects of creating/developing a Smart Village; Delivers an effective tool-kit for practitioners in the area of Smart Villages; Provides a policy-based framework for the development of an ideal Smart Village; Illustrates, through case studies, the fulfillment of key requirements of a Smart Village; Brings together experts from around the world to share their vision of a Smart Village; Highlights the importance of balancing development with social/gender equity and cultural traditions.

In diesem Buch wird ein breites Spektrum an Themen behandelt, das den Leserinnen und Lesern ein besseres Verstandnis davon vermitteln soll, wie Smart Cities mit Integration von KI und Blockchain funktionieren und welche Probleme hinsichtlich der Sicherheit bestehen. Es werden detaillierte, tiefgehende Informationen uber die hochmoderne Architektur und Infrastruktur von Smart Cities prasentiert sowie uber die Umsetzung mithilfe des Internets der Dinge (IoT), kunstlicher Intelligenz (KI) und Blockchain-Sicherheit ? den Schlusseltechnologien der vierten industriellen Revolution. Theoretische Konzepte werden ebenso erlautert wie experimentelle Studien und verschiedene Smart-City-Anwendungen, die einen Mehrwert fur die Bewohner von stadtischen Gebieten schaffen. Es werden verschiedene Probleme dargestellt, die mit der Entwicklung von Smart Cities aufgekommen sind, und neuartige Loesungen zur Behebung dieser Probleme geschildert. Das IoT bietet zusammen mit der Integration von Blockchain und KI effiziente, sichere und transparente Moeglichkeiten zur Loesung verschiedener gesellschaftlicher, staatlicher und demografischer Probleme in einem dynamischen stadtischen Umfeld. Die Prasentation der Architektur, Infrastruktur, Funktionen und Sicherheit erfolgt nach dem Top-down-Prinzip.