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This edited book brings together an international cast of contributors and chapters which recognise the complexity of teacher leadership and its situated and dynamic nature. Chapters in this book are research-driven, and each reports on findings from (teacher-led and otherwise) research, synthesising the current state-of-the-art in each area. Each chapter uses illustrations of relevant practices from which lessons can be drawn. The aim is to come to a broad understanding of what best practices have emerged over the years, and where gaps still remain. Each of the chapters contributes to our understanding of how the different elements that make up teacher leadership are interconnected, with the concluding chapter synthesising these into a framework of language teacher leadership. This book will be of interest to pre-service and in-service teachers in the context of a professional learning community, as well as students and scholars of Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching and Learning,and Teacher Education.

This book offers a comparative perspective on the new wave of revolutions in the MENA region. Recently, a new wave of revolutions has swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, comparable in some respects to the events of the Arab Spring. Revolutionary events have significantly changed the political regimes in Sudan, Algeria and Mali, while Lebanon and Iraq have also witnessed serious revolutionary episodes. Further, a new quality of protests has manifested in Iran, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan.   Presenting a variety of country studies, this book identifies similarities and differences between the events of the Arab Spring and the current upheavals in the MENA region and examines their causes and world-system context. It also analyzes the motivating forces, goals and organizational forms of the protesters and other actors involved, as well as the political and economic consequences of these revolutionary events. Moreover, it seeks to understand why some countries that were actively involved in the Arab Spring have remained largely unaffected by these developments. The book appeals to scholars of political science with a focus on comparative politics, Middle Eastern politics and political sociology.

This book explores the early work and activities of Joan Robinson that focused on economic development within underdeveloped countries, in particular India before independence. By analysing the style of Robinson's thinking and economic analysis, and based on the works of Indian contemporaries, parts of The British Crown and the Indian States previously unattributed to her are seen to exhibit her preoccupation with poverty, backwardness, unemployment, the population problem, international trade, and the role of the state. Through keeping in mind Robinson's later work, the development of her ideas can be reflected upon, alongside critical perspectives. It also reveals the beginnings of her role as a public intellectual.This book aims to shed new light on Joan Robinson's work on development and to provide insight to an overlooked part of her research. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in the history of economic thought, development economics and economic history.

This book on the politics of electoral reform in Central Europe since 1989 explains by whom, why, and how the electoral rules were changed in Central Europe in the post-Communist period. Examining the contextual factors affecting, underlying, and/or initiating these changes, the book identifies main actors, their motivations, and other circumstances surrounding the electoral reform processes. It further explores their political consequences, particularly on proportionality and personalization.Based on a detailed analysis of electoral reform processes in Czechoslovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia over the past thirty years, the book discusses how the politics of electoral reform in Central Europe is mostly driven, controlled, and decided by politicians, with other actors being either overlooked or ignored. Finally, it argues that most of the cases were imposed by an elite majority, with the sole exception of the Czech Republic, where the politics of electoral reform were influenced by the intervention of the constitutional court as an external actor.The book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of political science interested in a better understanding of electoral politics in general, as well as democratic transformation processes and electoral reform in Central Europe.

Agriculture is often considered as one of the main threats to ecosystems. Unsustainable farming practices often result in habitat loss, inefficient use of water, soil degradation, pollution, genetic erosion, among other negative impacts on human life, including hunger, low food quality, reduced access to food resources, as well as the abandonment of rural areas. Nevertheless, when agriculture is practiced in a sustainable way, it can contribute to the preservation of many habitats, to the protection of watersheds, to the preservation and improvement of soil health.The use of sustainable and ecological practices is the key feature distinguishing traditional agriculture from intensive one. It may not provide very high yields, but ensures sustainable harvests over time, thanks to time-tested technologies and traditional know-hows and also represent examples of adaptation to harsh environmental conditions. Based on this approach, in 2002, FAO launched the concept of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, to identify and safeguard agricultural systems that are ensuring food and livelihood security, while maintaining magnificent landscapes, agricultural biodiversity, traditional knowledge, cultural and social values.This book presents 18 examples of these traditional agriculture systems around the world, with a special focus on Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, as a result of the ¿GIAHS Building Capacity¿ project co-funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence (Italy).

This book presents the materials of the IV International Conference on Applications in Electronics and Computing Systems. Combining empirical and theoretical information, this book demonstrates advanced cross-cutting issues in various fields such as communication engineering, electronics and microelectronics, power systems, electric machines, unmanned systems and control systems. The results of the research constitute the research basis in applied science of transport infrastructure and electric power systems, including renewable and promising energy resources.

This book addresses the various factors affecting fluvial systems, the processes governing them, system responses arising from human-nature interventions, and geospatial and geo-ecological modeling to understand system behaviour better and restore degraded ecosystems around the globe. Thanks to their hydrological and agro-ecological advantages, humans have settled along riverbanks since the dawn of civilization. Thus, the ancient "e;ecumene"e; (settlements) were located near major rivers worldwide. This legacy of river-based civilizations continues to this day in many forms. However, in the course of the 'Anthropocene' era, countless fluvial systems have been altered by human interventions in the form of large-scale dams and barrages, changes in land use and land cover, road-stream crossings, mining of sand and gravel, mushrooming of brickfield, expansion of modern agriculture, industrial growth, and urbanization. Thus, the present-day development pattern threatens fluvial systems, especially riverine morphology and ecosystems. In brief, human-induced morphological changes, water pollution, eutrophication, and related damages to aquatic organisms are the major threats to fluvial systems. Thus, maintaining the 'environmental flow' of the world's major rivers to preserve the proper functioning of riverine ecosystems and promote sustainable development is a global challenge.

This book discusses the diverse array of particles that are found in coatings from both a physical and a performance standpoint.  It also describes the fundamentals of particle behavior and shows how these affect the performance and properties of their end-use applications. It consists of nineteen chapters, demonstrating the wide range of types of particles found in coatings as well as the diversity of the important attributes they hold. The authors also present a forward looking view of current issues and trends in the coatings industry.  In addition, a chapter on the use of particles in paper laminate, a closely aligned field, is included.  This book is of interest to formulators of any type of coatings as well as researchers in aligned fields that use high volumes of small particles, such as the plastics and paper industries.

This book presents an exploration of linkages among soil-water, agriculture, and climate change with a special focus on thematic areas for assessment, mitigation, and management of natural resources under climate change conditions. This book covers advances in modelling approaches, including machine learning (ML)/ artificial intelligence (AI) applications; GIS and remote sensing; sensors; impacts of climate change on agriculture; subsurface water; contaminants; and socio-economic impacts, which are lacking in a more comprehensive manner in the previous titles. This book encompasses updated information as well as future directions for researchers working in the field of management of natural resources. The goal of this book is to provide scientific evidence to researchers and policymakers and end-to-end value chain practitioners which may help in reducing the overall adverse impacts of climate change on water resources and the related mitigation strategies. This book focuses on the knowledge, modern tools, and techniques, i.e., machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. for soil-water, agriculture, and climate change. Further, nature-based solutions for management of natural resources with special targets on contaminants, extreme events, disturbances, etc. will be targeted. The book provides readers with the enhanced knowledge for application of engineering principles and economic and regulatory constraints to determine a soil-water, agriculture production action strategy, and select appropriate technologies to implement the strategy for a given data set at a site. It would also cover the application of laboratory, modeling, numerical methods for determination and forecasting of climate change impacts, agriculture production, pollution, soil health, etc. Overall, it provides hydrologists, environmental engineers, administrators, policy makers, consultants, and industrial experts with essential support in effective management of soils health, agricultural productions, and mitigation of extreme climatic events.

This book, grounded in a human rights framework, takes a close look at social work approaches and practices in Southeast Europe. Human rights are central in today's understanding of social work as an academic discipline and as a professional practice. Looking at social work through a human rights lens unmasks inequality and discrimination, promotes ethical engagements, and contributes to the social, political, and economic betterment of society. Moreover, human rights and social work are interdependent and have far-reaching implications at macro, mezzo, and micro levels both in the realm of social policy and in professional practice.This collection of eight chapters provides an overview of human rights practices in social work in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Romania, and Slovenia. It presents state-of-the-art research on human rights and social work through individual country-focused chapters. In addition, it includes an integrative introductory chapter that identifies and discusses the commonalities and differences across the region as well as future directions.The book takes an integrated approach with conversations among the contributors on three main questions:What is the state of human rights in social work?How are human rights practiced in social work? What are the prospects for an integrated approach to human rights in social work in contemporary Southeast Europe?Human Rights in this Age of Uncertainty is essential reading for social work academics and practitioners in Southeast Europe due to its geographic focus and standpoints from the specific countries of the region. The book also should appeal to a wider European audience (especially as the book features chapters from both inside and outside of the European Union), as well as to an international audience of social work scholars. In addition, policy-makers may find the book a useful resource because human rights discourse features prominently in the international approaches to welfare systems across Southeast Europe as part of the Europeanisation processes currently at play. 

This book presents a comparative perspective of current metaheuristic developments, which have proved to be effective in their application to several complex problems. The study of biological and social entities such as animals, humans, or insects that manifest a cooperative behavior has produced several computational models in metaheuristic methods. Although these schemes emulate very different processes or systems, the rules used to model individual behavior are very similar. Under such conditions, it is not clear to identify which are the advantages or disadvantages of each metaheuristic technique. The book is compiled from a teaching perspective. For this reason, the book is primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Science, Electrical Engineering, or Computational Mathematics. It is appropriate for courses such as Artificial Intelligence, Electrical Engineering, Evolutionary Computation. The book is also useful for researchers from the evolutionary and engineering communities. Likewise, engineer practitioners, who are not familiar with metaheuristic computation concepts, will appreciate that the techniques discussed are beyond simple theoretical tools since they have been adapted to solve significant problems that commonly arise in engineering areas.

This book provides a collection of insightful conceptual and empirical works that situate transport and mobility challenges in the unique context of individual countries and cities while highlighting commonalities across the African continent. Written from an interdisciplinary perspective, the book covers important themes in transport and mobility including the links between urbanization, urban structure, and accessibility; transport equity and poverty, non-motorized transport, public transport, and the challenges and opportunities of new and emerging transport technologies, and ICT-mediated mobility solutions. Each chapter engages with the normative imperatives that are critical to improving the transport and mobility situations of African urban areas now and in the future.

This book will collate, review and synthesize information on how Organic Agriculture (OA) practices affect and are affected by climate change, in comparison to the more widely used conventional agricultural practices. Pros and cons of OA practices will be discussed separately for croplands, pasture lands, mixed livestock cropping systems, vegetable fields, fruit and tree orchards, and vineyards. The book concludes with an overview on how conventional and OA practices can be prudently and discriminately combined to identify and adopt climate-resilient agro-ecosystems under site-specific conditions.

The series Topics in Current Chemistry Collections presents critical reviews from the journal Topics in Current Chemistry organized in topical volumes. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience.Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.Chapters "e;Metal Peptide Conjugates in Cell and Tissue Imaging and Biosensing"e;, "e;Luminescent Metal Complexes as Emerging Tools for Lipid Imaging"e; and "e;Determination and Imaging of Small Biomolecules and Ions Using Ruthenium(II) Complex Based Chemosensors"e; are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 License via link.springer.com.

This unique volume gives insight into the science of slaughter with in-depth discussion of neural communication and the welfare aspects of pre-slaughter handling and slaughter of livestock. The concepts of conscious perception, unconsciousness, stunning, slaughter and death are discussed to provide readers with an understanding of the different events that lead to the conversion of animals into carcasses and subsequently into meat. This accessible work is an excellent resource for learning about welfare issues of different techniques, as it includes historical aspects of religious and conventional slaughter with a focus on the developments around technologies. It comprises the advent of mechanical slaughter in the form of poleaxes to present day use of sophisticated stunning equipment.Moreover, the author covers key aspects of halal meat production and discusses the politics of religious slaughter with an emphasis on the increasing number of anti-halal movements across Europe, America and others. The slaughter of animals for consumption by people of faith is economically significant and has led to a race for market share by multinational retail enterprises. However, there are also ethical and political aspects of religious slaughter which have always divided opinion.The topic of this book provides an important link to the disciplines of animal welfare research, the meat industry and the food business. Scientists, students, as well as government agencies, veterinarians and professionals in food processing and slaughter technology manufacturing will find this an important account. Simplified summaries and practical notes make this reference highly readable.

This book describes a new, extremely low frequency (ELF)/ very low frequency (VLF) miniaturized transmitter concept, based on the mechanical motion of permanent magnets or electrets. The authors explain how utilizing the very high energy density of modern ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, such "e;electromechanical transmitters'' can provide much higher field generation efficiency than conventional antennas, thus enabling practical ELF/VLF wireless communications links. The text begins with the fundamental challenges of such links and provides an historical overview of the attempts that have been made to address these challenges. It then focuses on the design and implementation of practical electromechanical ELF/VLF transmitters, which is an interdisciplinary subject that spans multiple research areas including electromagnetics, power electronics, control systems, and mechanical design. The authors also describe how such transmitters can be combined with receivers and signal processing algorithms to realize complete ELF/VLF links in challenging environments.

This book provides a coherent and complete overview of various Question Answering (QA) systems. It covers three main categories based on the source of the data that can be unstructured text (TextQA), structured knowledge graphs (KBQA), and the combination of both. Developing a QA system usually requires using a combination of various important techniques, including natural language processing, information retrieval and extraction, knowledge graph processing, and machine learning.After a general introduction and an overview of the book in Chapter 1, the history of QA systems and the architecture of different QA approaches are explained in Chapter 2. It starts with early close domain QA systems and reviews different generations of QA up to state-of-the-art hybrid models. Next, Chapter 3 is devoted to explaining the datasets and the metrics used for evaluating TextQA and KBQA. Chapter 4 introduces the neural and deep learning models used in QA systems. This chapter includes the required knowledge of deep learning and neural text representation models for comprehending the QA models over text and QA models over knowledge base explained in Chapters 5 and 6, respectively. In some of the KBQA models the textual data is also used as another source besides the knowledge base; these hybrid models are studied in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, a detailed explanation of some well-known real applications of the QA systems is provided. Eventually, open issues and future work on QA are discussed in Chapter 9.This book delivers a comprehensive overview on QA over text, QA over knowledge base, and hybrid QA systems which can be used by researchers starting in this field. It will help its readers to follow the state-of-the-art research in the area by providing essential and basic knowledge.

This book explores the interconnection of care, gender and migration regimes and their impact on 'migrant domestic work' in Europe, in a comparative perspective. The research presented in this book aims to understand the reasons not only of the increased concentration of migrants in the domestic and care sector, but also of the significant differences between European countries. Care, gender and migration regimes are first operationalised in the form of three typologies. Then, the three typologies are used to investigate the ethnicisation of the domestic sector (the proportion of migrants in the domestic sector, compared to natives) and the domesticisation of migrants (the proportion of migrants in the domestic sector, compared to other sectors). The findings suggest that the three regimes have an effect and that this effect is greater when they are taken into account simultaneously. 

This volume presents the proceedings of the 4th International Scientific and Practical Conference on Digital Economy and Finances (DEFIN22) at the Saint-Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics (UMTE), which took place in March 2022. It includes the newest research on the impact of new digital technologies on the growth and capitalization of companies and the labor market. The volume discusses the problems of situational modeling of economic processes and the creation of "e;digital twins"e; of enterprises. The contributions analyse how big data and artificial intelligence technologies are shaping the financial markets.

This book introduces a maintenance model that will assist decision-makers in their choice of building maintenance policies. The model is stochastic and condition-based that analyses the impact of different maintenance strategies on the durability and performance of different buildings envelope elements (facades, windows, and roofs).  As non-structural elements, the maintenance of buildings envelope can be disregarded stakeholders. However, as first barrier to the external environment, these elements are critical to buildings' overall performance and are expected to meet aesthetic, comfort, safety, and durability requirements. The methodology presented is innovative. The maintenance model is based on a Petri net formalism and includes degradation, inspection, maintenance, and renewal processes. The model provides key information, such as: i) the impact of different maintenance strategies on the service life and durability of the building components; ii) the impact of maintenance on their performance over time; iii) the life cycle costs; and iv) the impact of maintenance on the buildings' use.  The book will be of use to a variety of professionals in the construction sector.

This work focuses on the potential impact of climate change on soil erosion in a monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region. Water-induced soil erosion due to extreme rainfall during the monsoon period is a major problem worldwide, from different environmental and socio-economic perspectives. This study region covered (South Bengal) is one of the fertile agricultural belts that produces a good amount of produce and contributes to the country's GDP. However, the rate of agricultural output has decreased rapidly in recent times due to a decline in soil fertility.The monsoon-dominated sub-tropical region has unique characteristics in terms of seasonal temperature fluctuations and the availability of rainfall events. The sub-tropical region is densely populated, with the majority of the population relying on rain-fed agricultural production systems. The declining rate of agricultural production has also established that soil fertility is declining and soil erosion is increasing. Numerous studies show that soil erosion is the major cause of the region's rapidly increasing trend of land degradation. A homeostatic mechanism cannot replace soil erosion, and a gap arises between soil erosion and regolith formation. Extreme changes in land use and land cover, population growth and the lacking support for traditional agricultural practices and management practices can accelerate the rate of soil erosion and its associated reservoir sedimentation in most countries of the tropical and sub-tropical environment. Quantitative information with maximum possible accuracy through validation regarding soil loss can be an essential part of the appropriate and sustainable soil and water conservation planning. The precise aspects of modern day management strategies are soil erosion susceptibility mapping using empirical and semi-empirical models in a GIS platform or the use of probability statistics.The main objective of this work is to propose the most suitable development strategies considering the amount of soil erosion for the present and future periods. Extensive field research has been done to identify the support practice factor that the local stakeholders adopt in this region. 

This book describes a detailed multi-scale approach integrating nano- (active site), meso- (porous catalyst architecture) and macroscale (reactor) efforts, to address the challenges of producing a better epoxidation catalyst. It contains an in-depth study of the design and synthesis of gold nanoparticles and their application as a catalyst for direct gas phase propylene epoxidation. "e;Direct"e; means using only hydrogen and oxygen in one step, which is key for sustainable manufacturing, as opposed to commercialised, more complex production routes requiring multiple steps, or integration with another chemical plant. The insights gained can be used for rational design for stable and selective catalysts for other reactions. It also details the step-by-step process to build an epoxidation reactor system with a focus on safety aspects, which can be used as a guidebook for undergraduate and graduate students in chemical engineering. Beyond heterogeneous catalysis, the new, easily accomplished methodology for synthesising atomically precise nanoparticles is shown to be relevant to electrocatalysis and to healthcare applications, such as anti-microbial surfaces.This book will be of interest to researchers, engineers and experts in the related areas of chemical engineering, chemistry, material science and electrochemistry.

This book focuses on how the abject spectacle of the 'monstrous feminine' has been reimagined by recent and contemporary screen horrors focused on the desires and subjectivities of female monsters who, as anti-heroic protagonists of revisionist and reflexive texts, exemplify gendered possibility in altered cultures of 21st century screen production and reception. As Barbara Creed notes in a recent interview, the patriarchal stereotype of horror that she named 'the monstrous-feminine' has, decades later, 'embarked on a life of her own'. Focused on this altered and renewed form of female monstrosity, this study engages with an international array of recent and contemporary screen entertainments, from arthouse and indie horror films by emergent female auteurs, to the franchised products of multimedia conglomerates, to 'quality' television horror, to the social media-based creations of horror fans working as 'pro-sumers'. In this way, the monograph in its organisation and scope maps the converged and rapidly changing environment of 21st century screen cultures in order to situate the monstrous female anti-hero as one of its distinctive products.

This book presents a holistic perspective and analysis of democratic practice, processes, and governance in South Africa. It examines the development in the South African governing system and its response to the challenges of the crisis of governance under the influence of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). While doing so, the book's central objective is to examine the progress of the South African government in strengthening democracy and political governance. Each of the contributions follows a similar structure and addresses the following thematic issues: (1) Assessment of the implementation of the core APRM-related programs; (2) Identification of areas of excellence and prognosis for further improvement; (3) Identification of the weak areas of each and how to make the future implementation better, (4) Identification areas to improve democracy and political governance.  A self-assessment strategy initiated by the African Union (AU) in 2002 and adopted in 2003, the APRM is a voluntary mechanism adopted by countries in the African continent to improve governance in general. As a specialized AU agency, APRM monitors the peer review activities of each African country. It serves as a tool for sharing experiences, reinforcing best practices, identifying deficiencies, and assessing capacity-building needs to foster policies, standards, and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development, and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration.  This book will be useful for and appeal to scholars and researchers in political science, public administration, and the social sciences in general, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of democratic practice and processes, governance, public policy, and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

This edited book presents scientific results of the 1st ACIS International Symposium on Emotional Artificial Intelligence & Metaverse (EAIM) which was held on August 4-6, 2022, in Danang, Vietnam. The aim of this symposium was to bring together researchers and scientists, businessmen and entrepreneurs, teachers, engineers, computer users, and students to discuss the numerous fields of computer science and to share their experiences and exchange new ideas and information in a meaningful way.  All aspects (theory, applications, and tools) of emotional artificial intelligence and metaverse, the practical challenges encountered along the way, and the solutions adopted to solve them are all explored here in the results of the articles featured in this book.The symposium organizers selected the best papers from those papers accepted for presentation at the symposium. The papers were chosen based on review scores submitted by members of the program committee and underwent further rigorous rounds of review. From this second round of review, 15 of the symposium's most promising papers are then published in this Springer (SCI) book and not the symposium proceedings. We impatiently await the important contributions that we know these authors will bring to the field of emotional artificial intelligence and metaverse.

This textbook offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the latest analytical methods, tools and techniques used in the marine environment, bringing together the two fields of chemical oceanography and analytical chemistry. Divided into 11 chapters, the book starts with an overview of the main parameters of the marine carbon system, and it covers different sampling strategies used by the marine scientific community, and the different chemical analyses to measure trace metals, radionuclides and organic matter in the marine environment. Particular attention is given to the identification and quantification of marine persistent organic pollutants, emerging organic contaminants and microplastics. Readers will also find accessible explanations and real life examples of the application of remote sensing and in-situ sensing technologies to monitor the marine environment. The textbook finishes with a chapter on data treatment that outlines the relevant statistical approaches, uncertainty estimation and quality assurance of marine chemical measurements. This textbook provides both students and professionals alike with a transdisciplinary and comprehensive foundation for the chemical analysis of our oceans and seas.