This open access book describes methods of mortality forecasting and discusses possible improvements. It contains a selection of previously unpublished and published papers, which together provide a state-of-the-art overview of statistical approaches as well as behavioural and biological perspectives. The different parts of the book provide discussions of current practice, probabilistic forec…
This book explores the life and work of Mary Elizabeth Barber, a British-born settler scientist who lived in the Cape during the nineteenth century. It provides a lens into a range of subjects within the history of knowledge and science, gender and social history, postcolonial, critical heritage and archival studies. The book examines the international importance of a marginalized scientist, th…
This open access book discusses the eroding economics of nuclear power for electricity generation as well as technical, legal, and political acceptance issues. The use of nuclear power for electricity generation is still a heavily disputed issue. Aside from technical risks, safety issues, and the unsolved problem of nuclear waste disposal, the economic performance is currently a major barrier. …
This book presents the concept of value as the central component to success and longevity of the global ICT industry player, Huawei. It provides examples of how Huawei focuses on customers to pursue sustainable and profitable growth rather than focusing on capital market valuation, which is a familiar scenario among Western companies. It is the business departments that are the creators of valu…
David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity rationalised capitalism's transformation during an extraordinary year: 1989. It gave theoretical expression to a material and cultural reality that was just then getting properly started - globalisation and postmodernity - whilst highlighting the geo-spatial limits to accumulation imposed by our planet. However this landmark publication, author R…
This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Annual Conference on Cyber Security, CNCERT 2018, held in Beijing, China, in August 2018. The 14 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 53 submissions. The papers cover the following topics: emergency response, mobile internet security, IoT security, cloud security, threat intelligence …
This article puts on the agenda one of the fundamental theoretical questions within the emerging field of website history: how can the object of historical study — the website — be delimited? Its focus is on the 'website' artefact as a medium and a text. After elaborating a definition of the website, as well as discussing how the website is distinct from other possible analytical web object…
There is wide agreement on the need to change the prevalent agricultural models, given their negative impacts and their incompatibility with current societal issues. Agroecological transition has been promoted as a potential solution to the ecological, social and economic problems generated by these models. It however involves a systemic, multi-scale and transdisciplinary process. Due to thi…
Exposure to multiple languages is a very common phenomenon even during early childhood. Although learning just one language is a major accomplishment in itself, the challenge for infants born in multilingual environments must be still greater. In contemporary societies many children grow up in bilingual families and have to learn to cope with different languages. However, a single language mili…
This open access book provides an extensive treatment of Hardy inequalities and closely related topics from the point of view of Folland and Stein's homogeneous (Lie) groups. The place where Hardy inequalities and homogeneous groups meet is a beautiful area of mathematics with links to many other subjects. While describing the general theory of Hardy, Rellich, Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg, Sobolev…
Visual representations (photographs, diagrams, etc.) play crucial roles in scientific processes. They help, for example, to communicate research results and hypotheses to scientific peers as well as to the lay audience. In genuine research activities they are used as evidence or as surrogates for research objects which are otherwise cognitively inaccessible. Despite their important functional r…
A smart city is a modern technology-driven urban area which uses sensing devices, information, and communication technology connected to the internet of things (IoTs) for the optimum and efficient utilization of infrastructures and services with the goal of improving the living conditions of citizens. Increasing populations, lower budgets, limited resources, and compatibility of the upgraded te…
In contrast with media constructed as vast, ontologically homogeneous, non-localized systems, formats show material networks of interoperability and exclusions, inscribed in local specificities, and involving precise conditions for the circulation of images and sounds. Formats, institutionalized as standards, frame the “technical networks” defined by Gilbert Simondon, that unfold technical …
This book presents a Facebook study on members of the Cusp Generation, or those born before the “great digital divide” of 1995. This delineation allows for a discussion on the possible socio-cultural implications of Facebook use for people of all ages. Members of the Cusp Generation are in a unique position as “part digital natives” to easily acquire and use new media technologies, whil…
"The poem Kalevipoeg, over 19,000 lines in length, was composed by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882) on the basis on folklore material. It was published in an Estonian-German bilingual edition in six instalments between 1857 and 1861; it went on to become the Estonian national epic. This first English-language monograph on the Kalevipoeg sheds light on various aspects of the emergence…
There is currently much discourse about generations in the public sphere. A sequence of letters conflates generations and age cohorts born in the last few decades (generation “X”, “Y” or “Z”) as well as multiple categories are used to describe today’s young people as a generation that is distinct from its predecessors. Despite the popularity of generational labels in media, politi…
The idea of a culture war, or wars, has existed in America since the 1960s---an underlying ideological schism in our country that is responsible for the polarizing debates on everything from the separation of church and state, to abortion, to gay marriage, to affirmative action. Irene Taviss Thomson explores this notion by analyzing hundreds of articles addressing hot-button issues over two dec…
This open access book analyses intellectual property and innovation governance in the development of six key industries in India and China. These industries are reflective of the innovation and economic development of the two economies, or of vital importance to them: the IT Industry, the film industry, the pharmaceutical industry, plant varieties and food security, the automobile industry, and…
Described by the sixteenth-century English poet George Turbervile as "a people passing rude, to vices vile inclin’d", the Russians waited some three centuries before their subsequent cultural achievements—in music, art and particularly literature—achieved widespread recognition in Britain. The essays in this stimulating collection attest to the scope and variety of Russia’s influence on…
This spirited exploration of the interfaces between art and theory in the 21st century brings together a multidisciplinary range of viewpoints on their future. The authors examine contemporary visual culture based on speculative predictions and creative scientific arguments. Focusing on seven themes - Future Tech, Future Image, Future Museum, Future City, Future Freedom, Future History, and Fut…