Significantly revised and updated, the second edition of Smart Talent Management presents a fresh perspective on two important areas of emphasis for current research and practice: talent management (TM) and knowledge management (KM). It identifies, defines, and explores the implementation of talent management strategies aimed at facilitating effective knowledge management in an organization. A valuable hybrid, this book integrates the field of knowledge management with talent management areas of specialization focusing in particular on staffing, training, professional development, and organizational learning and change. This book identifies obstacles to talent management’s success, providing new perspectives associated with the ongoing debate on ‘inclusive’ versus ‘exclusive’ models of talent management. Taking a fresh new look at an organization’s human talent as a repository of knowledge – both tacit and explicit – the second edition of Smart Talent Management will appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, practicing managers and consultants in the field of human resources.

The Boolean functions may be iterated either asynchronously, when their coordinates are computed independently of each other, or synchronously, when their coordinates are computed at the same time. In Boolean Systems: Topics in Asynchronicity, a book addressed to mathematicians and computer scientists interested in Boolean systems and their use in modelling, author Serban E. Vlad presents a consistent and original mathematical theory of the discrete-time Boolean asynchronous systems. The purpose of the book is to set forth the concepts of such a theory, resulting from the synchronous Boolean system theory and mostly from the synchronous real system theory, by analogy, and to indicate the way in which known synchronous deterministic concepts generate new asynchronous nondeterministic concepts. The reader will be introduced to the dependence on the initial conditions, periodicity, path-connectedness, topological transitivity, and chaos. A property of major importance is invariance, which is present in five versions. In relation to it, the reader will study the maximal invariant subsets, the minimal invariant supersets, the minimal invariant subsets, connectedness, separation, the basins of attraction, and attractors. The stability of the systems and their time-reversal symmetry end the topics that refer to the systems without input. The rest of the book is concerned with input systems. The most consistent chapters of this part of the book refer to the fundamental operating mode and to the combinational systems (systems without feedback). The chapter Wires, Gates, and Flip-Flops presents a variety of applications. The first appendix addresses the issue of continuous time, and the second one sketches the important theory of Daizhan Cheng, which is put in relation to asynchronicity. The third appendix is a bridge between asynchronicity and the symbolic dynamics of Douglas Lind and Brian Marcus.

Microservices become immensely popular because it promised to help organizations build loosely-coupled systems that allow for fast, easy change. But microservices systems haven’t always kept that promise. This book identifies the deeper problem -- how software architects and designers approach coupling – and introduces an important new approach for creating more successful designs whether you use microservices or not. Instead of blindly avoiding coupling, leading software architecture expert Vladik (Vlad) Khononov proposes a novel method that transforms it into a powerful design tool: “balanced multi-dimensional coupling.� Khononov begins by surveying existing methods of evaluating coupling, and illuminating their strengths and limitations in the context of modern distributed systems. Next, he introduces a new multi-dimensional coupling model, and demonstrates how to harness it to build modular software. Instead of focusing solely on a single approach, Balancing Coupling in Software Design illuminates underlying design principles that are ubiquitous in SOA, microservices, DDD, design patterns, and other paradigms, revealing how each of them can fail if thoughtful design principles for coupling are neglected -- and how balanced coupling can make all of them work more effectively.

This book explores an eminently human phenomenon: our capacity to engage with the possible, to go beyond what is present, visible, or given in our existence. Possibility studies is an emerging field of research including topics as diverse as creativity, imagination, innovation, anticipation, counterfactual thinking, wondering, the future, social change, hope, agency, and utopia. The Possible: A Sociocultural Theory contributes to this wide field by developing a sociocultural account of the possible grounded in the notions of difference, position, perspective, dialogue, action, and culture. This theory aims to offer conceptual, methodological, and practical tools for all those interested in studying human possibility and cultivating it in education, at the workplace, in everyday life, and in society.

The aim of the book is to present the state of the art of the theory of symmetric (Hermitian) matrix Riccati equations and to contribute to the development of the theory of non-symmetric Riccati equations as well as to certain classes of coupled and generalized Riccati equations occurring in differential games and stochastic control. The volume offers a complete treatment of generalized and coupled Riccati equations. It deals with differential, discrete-time, algebraic or periodic symmetric and non-symmetric equations, with special emphasis on those equations appearing in control and systems theory. Extensions to Riccati theory allow to tackle robust control problems in a unified approach.

The book is intended to make available classical and recent results to engineers and mathematicians alike. It is accessible to graduate students in mathematics, applied mathematics, control engineering, physics or economics. Researchers working in any of the fields where Riccati equations are used can find the main results with the proper mathematical background.

A timely and authoritative treatise on the chemistry and diverse applications of chalcogenadiazoles - the five-membered rings containing two carbons, two nitrogens, and one chalcogen (an member of group 16, the oxygen family). The number of different chalcogenadiazoles and their structural diversity make it difficult to gain a clear understanding of the subject by studying an individual system in isolation. Chalcogenadiazoles: Chemistry and Applications emphasizes general features of this class of heterocyclic compounds. It concentrates on properties of each class of chalcogenadiazoles and their cycle-fused derivatives, considering chemical reactions of functional groups only in cases when these reactions permit to characterize the heterocycles as substituents or in respect of its aromaticity.Covering an important and rapidly developing branch of heterocyclic chemistry, this book is an essential resource for students, young professionals and experienced specialists in adjacent fields who are interested in: Trends in the search for compounds with established bioactivity or use in medicine, as agrochemicals, or as reagents for environmental and biochemical analysis Differences in classes of chalcogenadiazoles with respect to their degree of aromaticity and similar general concepts helpful to the nonspecialist The effects of the chalcogen nature and the alternation manner of all atomic constituents on properties of these heterocyclic compounds Combining data from organic, biological, medicinal, materials science, and supramolecular chemistry, Chalcogenadiazoles: Chemistry and Applications is an important source of information not only for chemists in the fields of organic, inorganic, and organometallic chemistry, but also for anyone interested in the research and development of chalcogenadiazoles and related species.

This is the first book to explore the phenomenon of glamour and celebrity in contemporary Russian culture, ranging across media forms, disciplinary boundaries and modes of inquiry, with particular emphasis on the media personality. The book demonstrates how the process of 'celebrification' in Russia coincides with the dizzying pace of social change and economic transformation, the latter enabling an unprecedented fascination with glamour and its requisite extravagance; how in the 1990s and 2000s, celebrities - such as film or television stars - moved away from their home medium to become celebrities straddling various media; and how celebrity is a symbol manipulated by the dominant culture and embraced by the masses. It examines the primacy of the visual in celebrity construction and its dominance over the verbal, alongside the interdisciplinary, cross-media, post-Soviet landscape of today's fame culture. Taking into account both general tendencies and individual celebrities, including pop-diva Alla Pugacheva and ex-President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the book analyses the internal dynamics of the institutions involved in the production, marketing, and maintenance of celebrities, as well as the larger cultural context and the imperatives that drive Russian society's romance with glamour and celebrity.

This book identifies the essential features of the Soviet bloc's economic nexus: the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), and GorbacheV's reforms. It describes the impact of reforms on the CMEA and speculates on this organization's future. The author links the recent developments within the CMEA with the wide ranging, fundamental changes in the politics and economics of the Soviet bloc. It also examines the connection between the recent upheaval of the Eastern Alliance to the general flux on the entire European continent in anticipation of the post-1992 abolition of internal trade barriers in the European Community.

Sobell argues that the predictions of the CMEA's disintegration must be seen in the context of the planned acceleration of West European unification in the 1990s. The EC is poised to become the core of the post Cold-War Europe and will act as a magnet on other European countries, including CMEA members. The CMEA in the age of perestroika, Sobell contends, will continue to maintain its communist facade, but will be a profoundly different organization with increasingly dynamic links with Western Europe.

The present monograph defines, interprets and uses the matrix of partial derivatives of the state vector with applications for the study of some common categories of engineering. The book covers broad categories of processes that are formed by systems of partial derivative equations (PDEs), including systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The work includes numerous applications specific to Systems Theory based on Mpdx, such as parallel, serial as well as feed-back connections for the processes defined by PDEs. For similar, more complex processes based on Mpdx with PDEs and ODEs as components, we have developed control schemes with PID effects for the propagation phenomena, in continuous media (spaces) or discontinuous ones (chemistry, power system, thermo-energetic) or in electro-mechanics (railway - traction) and so on. The monograph has a purely engineering focus and is intended for a target audience working in extremely diverse fields of application (propagation phenomena, diffusion, hydrodynamics, electromechanics) in which the use of PDEs and ODEs is justified.

The book is the first attempt to investigate how and to what extent authoritarian (personalistic) regimes fail to provide fundamental goods and services. For two decades, Russian authorities spent much effort and money to improve health administration, but most success stories are borderline fake. The failure is by design; because personalistic regimes rely on personalized exchanges and bargains instead of impersonal rules and permanent organizations, all actors put self-interest ahead of patients' needs. It is a severe problem because authoritarian principals proclaim social betterment as their central goal -- and many Russians take such claims at face value -- but incentivize their agents to imitate progress and tolerate slipshod performance. The benefits of this investigation are three-fold. First, the book provides an analytical framework of bad governance rooted in the rational institutionalist tradition and connected to competence-control theory. Second, it gives a general readership interested in how Russia works a sense of the key political players' mindset and the regime-induced constraints under which elites operate. Third, although the book investigates health governance exclusively, its analytical framework is portable to other issue areas and could be applied to explain how and why Russia evolved into an ineffective, coercive, and predatory state under Putin's leadership.

This book brings together mobilities and possibility studies by arguing that the possible emerges in our experience in and through acts of movement : physical, social and symbolic. The basic premise that mobility begets possibility is supported with evidence covering a wide range of geographic and temporal scales. First, in relation to the evolution of our species and the considerable impact of mobility on the emergence and spread of prehistoric innovations; second, considering the circulation of people, things and creative ideas throughout history; third, in view of migrations that define an individual life course and its numerous (im)possibilities; and fourth, in the 'inner', psychological movements specific for our wandering - and wondering - minds.This is not, however, a romantic account of how more mobility is always better or leads to increased creativity and innovation. After all, movement can fail in opening up new possibilities, and innovations can cause harm or reduce our agency. And yet, at an ontological level, the fact remains that it is only by moving from one position to another that we develop novel perspectives on the world and find alternative ways of acting and being. At this foundational level, mobilities engender possibilities and the latter, in turn, fuel new mobilities. This interplay, examined throughout the book, should be of interest for researchers and practitioners working on mobility, migration, creativity, innovation, cultural diffusion, life course approaches and, more generally, on the possibilities embedded in mobile lives.

Chapters 1 and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This Handbook brings together an international cast of experts to explore the social nature and context of creativity studies, focusing on methodology as a key component in advancing the social study of creativity. Two decades on from the pioneering work of Alfonso Montuori and Ronald E. Purser, the authors present a timely appraisal of past and present work in social creativity studies, and look ahead to future developments within this field. The authors collectively offer a rigorous examination of the methodological and empirical issues and techniques involved in studying social creativity. They examine the phenomenon as a form of communication and interaction within collaborative relationships; contending that creativity happens not within a vacuum but instead from a nexus of personal, social and contextual influences. This comprehensive work is organized in three parts, focusing first on the various methodological approaches applicable to the social in creativity studies. It secondly turns to empirical findings and approaches relating to the social nature of creativity. In the book's final part, the authors offer reflections on the state of social research into creativity, pinpointing areas requiring further methodological scrutiny and empirical verification, and areas that may inspire further theoretical or applied work. Combining classic ideas with cutting-edge, emerging methods, this work provides a vital methodological 'toolbox' for investigators within social creativity.

This book investigates the role of free will and responsibility in mental well-being, psychotherapy, and personality theory. Mounting evidence suggests that a belief in free will is associated with positive outcomes for human mental health and behaviours, yet little is known about why the theme of freedom has such a significant impact. This book explores why and how different freedom-related concepts affect well-being and psychotherapy, such as autonomy, free will, negative freedom, the experience of freedom, blame, and responsibility. Through the lens of the works of Freud and Rogers, the book tackles both theoretical and practical questions: How can different senses of responsibility affect mental health? What are the implications of a lack of free will for therapy? If we have no free will, can therapists continue to encourage their clients to take responsibility for their actions? Is it possible to reconcile different counselling schools concerning free will? With an illuminating dive into both philosophy and psychotherapy, Beliavsky carefully analyses the implications of the philosophical free will debate on therapy and shows that some senses of freedom and responsibility are crucial to psychotherapy and mental health.

Discrete-time systems arise as a matter of course in modelling biological or economic processes. For systems and control theory they are of major importance, particularly in connection with digital control applications. If sampling is performed in order to control periodic processes, almost periodic systems are obtained. This is a strong motivation to investigate the discrete-time systems with time-varying coefficients. This research monograph contains a study of discrete-time nodes, the discrete counterpart of the theory elaborated by Bart, Gohberg and Kaashoek for the continuous case, discrete-time Lyapunov and Riccati equations, discrete-time Hamiltonian systems in connection with input-output operators and associated Hankel and Toeplitz operators. All these tools aim to solve the problems of stabilization and attenuation of disturbances in the framework of H2- and H-control theory. The book is the first of its kind to be devoted to these topics and consists mainly of original, recently obtained results.

Double bill of animated features based on the children's story by Hans Christian Anderson. 'The Snow Queen' (2012), follows Gerda (voice of Jessica Straus), a little orphan girl, who must travel through an icy land and retrieve her brother Kai (Marianne Miller) from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen (Cindy Robinson). On her journey she comes across pirates, trolls and other fantastic creatures who all help Gerda achieve her goal.

In the sequel 'The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror' (2014), loveable troll Orm (Sharlto Copley) recounts his exaggerated version of events from the first film in which he single-handedly defeated the Snow Queen and is now supposedly destined to marry a princess and inherit great riches.

Privileging the visual as the main method of communication and meaning-making, this book responds critically to the worldwide discussion about the Arctic and the North, addressing the interrelated issues of climate change, ethics and geopolitics. A multi-disciplinary, multi-modal exploration of the Arctic, it supplies an original conceptualization of the Arctic as a visual world encompassing an array of representations, imaginings, and constructions. By examining a broad range of visual forms, media and forms such as art, film, graphic novels, maps, media, and photography, the book advances current debates about visual culture. The book enriches contemporary theories of the visual taking the Arctic as a spatial entity and also as a mode of exploring contemporary and historical visual practices, including imaginary constructions of the North. Original contributions include case studies from all the countries along the Arctic shore, with Russian material occupying a large section due to the country’s impact on the region

The volume is the first study to explore the intersection of memory and securitisation in the European context. By analysing a variety of practices ranging from film to art and new media, the book expands the existing theoretical framework of securitisation. The authors consider memory as a precondition for contemporary integration projects such as the European Union, and also showcase how memory is used to stage international conflicts. Following this memory-securitisation nexus, the European Union, and Europe more generally, emerges as an on-going cultural, political and social project. The book also examines developments outside the EU such as the conflict in Ukraine and the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, which, the authors argues, have a profound impact on Europe. From a consideration of historical contexts such as national referenda the discussion proceeds to media and film analysis, artistic practice and more transient phenomena such as climate change.

Originally published as a special issue of the Creativity Research Journal, this volume gives a balanced and reflective account of the challenges and opportunities of technology-enabled creative learning in contemporary societies. Providing a current and updated account of the challenges posed by the Coronavirus to online education, chapters more broadly offer conceptual reflections and empirically informed insights into the impact of technology on individual and collective creativity and learning. These thoughts are explored in relation to school achievement, the development of digital educational resources, online collaboration, and virtual working. Further, the book also considers how the creative use of technology poses risks to learning through the accidental or deliberate dissemination of misinformation, and online manipulation of common societal values in the era of COVID-19. Creative Learning in Digital and Virtual Environments looks at the connection between creativity, learning, and school achievement, and analyses the impact of virtual environments on creative expression. It will appeal to postgraduate students in the fields of creativity and learning, as well as to students and academics involved with broader research in areas such as the role of technology in education, e-Learning and distance education. Vlad P. Glaveanu is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology and Counselling at Webster University Geneva, Switzerland, as well as Associate Professor II at the University of Bergen, Norway. Ingunn Johanne Ness is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology, University of Bergen, Norway. Constance de Saint Laurent is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bologna, Italy.