Bøker utgitt av Springer Verlag, Singapore

This book compiles and presents a synopsis on current global research efforts to push forward the state of the art in dialogue technologies, including advances to language and context understanding, and dialogue management, as well as human¿robot interaction, conversational agents, question answering and lifelong learning for dialogue systems.

This book comprises selected papers from the 14th International Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering (MUE 2020) and the 14th International Conference on Future Information Technology (Future Tech 2020). And this book presents the latest developments in the field of ubiquitous computing technologies.It also discusses the state of the art in the development of computational methods, involving theory, algorithms, numerical simulation, error and uncertainty analysis, and novel applications of new processing techniques in engineering, science, and other disciplines related to ubiquitous computing.This book is a great resource for students, researchers, and professors working in the field of ubiquitous computing.

The primary aim of this reference volume is to provide an accessible and comprehensive review of current methods used to address resource evaluation and environmental as well as climate issues, and in a manner easily understood by decision-makers and the non-economists interested in environmental policy matters. Theoretical insight and empirical observations from various countries will be presented and recommendations on sustainable environmental decision-making will be given. Natural resource managers, environmental and climate decision-makers, government policy makers, and economics scholars will all find this volume to be an essential reference.

Plants create a dynamic micro-biosphere in the soil, around the roots, called as ¿rhizosphere¿, which harbors diverse number of microorganisms for sustaining their growth and development. A soil with diverse and multi-traits microbial communities is considered healthy to enhance crop productivity. In the last decades, rhizosphere biology has gained attention due to unraveling of new mechanisms, processes and molecules in the rhizosphere that contributes towards the promotion of plant productivity. The rhizospheric microbes and associated processes are being utilized for harnessing potential of soils in effective and sustainable functioning in the agro-ecosystems. Broadly, the book discusses rhizospheric microbes and their role in modulating functions of soil and crop plant. Specifically, it highlights conventional and modern aspects of rhizosphere microbes such as ¿ microbiome in the rhizosphere, microbes as an indicator and promoter of soil health, rhizosphere microbes as biofertilizer, biostimulator and biofortifyer, microbial signaling in the rhizosphere, recent tools in deciphering rhizobiome, and regulatory mechanisms for commercialization of biofertilizer, biopesticide and biostimulator. The book is useful for agriculture scientist, biotechnologist, plant pathologist, mycologist, and microbiologist, farming community, scientist of R&D organization, as well as teaching community, researcher and student and policy maker.

This book comprises select proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Electrical and Computer Technologies 2020 (ICAECT 2020). The papers presented in this book are peer-reviewed and cover latest research in electrical, electronics, communication and computer engineering. Topics covered include smart grids, soft computing techniques in power systems, smart energy management systems, power electronics, feedback control systems, biomedical engineering, geo informative systems, grid computing, data mining, image and signal processing, video processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, cloud computing, pervasive computing, intelligent systems, artificial intelligence, neural network and fuzzy logic, broad band communication, mobile and optical communication, network security, VLSI, embedded systems, optical networks and wireless communication. The volume can be useful for students and researchers working in the different overlapping areas of electrical, electronics andcommunication engineering.

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently ¿ to become ¿smart¿ and ¿sustainable¿. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ¿big¿ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity.

This book discusses one of the biggest challenges of the food industry, which is waste management. Food industries generate high amounts of waste, both solid and liquid, resulting from the production, processing and consumption of food. Stringent environmental legislators have made the task of waste management more challenging. Through the three sections of this book, the readers are introduced to the different types of wastes generated, utilization of waste through food processing industry and sustainable waste management technologies. The different chapters describe how the biomass and the valuable nutrients from food industry wastes could be used to develop value-added products. The book reiterates that food wastes and their by-products are an excellent source of sugars, minerals, dietary fiber, organic acids, bio active compounds such as polyphenols, carotenoids and phytochemicals etc.This book is an excellent resource for industry experts, researchers and students in the field of food science, food processing and food waste management.

This book contains recent research on phenolic resin and its composite materials. The book covers all types of wood composites, natural fibres and synthetic fibres reinforced composites. It discusses various properties of phenolic composites and presents comparative study with other polymer composites for prospective applications. The chapters in the book present an up-to-date information on the subject area of polymer and composite-based information by prominent researchers in academia and industry as well as government/private research laboratories across the world. The book serves as a holistic reference source for university and college faculties, professionals, postdoctoral research fellows, undergraduate/graduate students, and research and science officers working in the area of polymer science, non-forest products utilization, natural fibres and biomass materials.

Globally stone fruits are emerging in the market due to the increased consumer¿s desire for health-promoting foods. Stone fruits attract research attention, mainly due to the cultural and commercial aspects of the array of varieties that are grown. Being grown in wide range of environments, it is very important to understand what factors influence the production and quality attributes of stone fruits. There is a lack of systematic scientific information on strategic approach for production technologies of such fruits. This book will be first of its kind focusing on technological aspects of stone fruits especially on latest developments in present day horticulture. It will be an essential reference for professionals including academicians, scholars, researchers and industries working in the said area. We hope that readers will find this book a useful resource for their research or studies, and it will be helpful in the development of high quality stone fruits in future which will improve the economic and social life of people. Besides, this book fulfills the needs of a number of horticultural courses of Universities and will serving as a pomological manual for all occasions.

This book describes the significance of metrology for inclusive growth in India and explains its application in the areas of physical-mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics, Indian standard time measurements, electromagnetic radiation, environment, biomedical, materials and Bhartiya Nirdeshak Dravyas (BND®). Using the framework of "Aswal Model", it connects the metrology, in association with accreditation and standards, to the areas of science and technology, government and regulatory agencies, civil society and media, and various other industries. It presents critical analyses of the contributions made by CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), India, through its world-class science and apex measurement facilities of international equivalence in the areas of industrial growth, strategic sector growth, environmental protection, cybersecurity, sustainable energy, affordable health, international trade, policy-making, etc. The book will be useful for science and engineering students, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

This book describes the significance of metrology for inclusive growth in India and explains its application in the areas of physical¿mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics, Indian standard time measurements, electromagnetic radiation, environment, biomedical, materials and Bhartiya Nirdeshak Dravyas (BND®). Using the framework of ¿Aswal Model¿, it connects the metrology, in association with accreditation and standards, to the areas of science and technology, government and regulatory agencies, civil society and media, and various other industries. It presents critical analyses of the contributions made by CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), India, through its world-class science and apex measurement facilities of international equivalence in the areas of industrial growth, strategic sector growth, environmental protection, cybersecurity, sustainable energy, affordable health, international trade, policy-making, etc. The book will be useful for science and engineering students, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurs.

Tea is an important non-alcoholic beverage plant of the world. Cultivation of tea is also commercially very important as it earns huge revenue for the tea growing nations especially the developing countries such as India. Although conventional breeding is well-established and contributes significantly for varietal improvement of this plant and other Camellia species with ornamental value, yet, applications of biotechnology vis a vis genomics are essential to improve the productivity and quality of the tea. This book brings out various aspects of breeding, biotechnology and genomics of tea plants. It covers i) Origin and descriptions of health benefits as well as morphological classification as first chapter, ii) Breeding and cytogenetics that comprise with various conventional approaches of varietal improvement of tea along with their genetic resources, iii) Micro-propagation which deals with in-depth study of clonal propagation, iv) Somatic embryogenesis along with alternative techniques such as suspension culture, cry-preservation etc, v) Molecular breeding that deals with application of various DNA based markers such as discovery of QTL, linkage map etc, vi) Genetic transformation and associated factors, vii) Stress physiology complied various works done in tea along with its wild relatives on abiotic as well as biotic stress and viii) Functional genomics that describes the various works of molecular cloning and characterizations, differential gene expression, high-throughput sequencing, bioinformatics transcriptomics study that described the application of next generation sequencing to discover various genes that are related to various trait of tea, Non-coding RNA which describes the discovery of various non-coding RNA in tea and related genera. The book also discusses recent developments in biotechnology such as metabolomics, proteomics, genome sequence and popular clone varieties of tea crops that are developed across the world.In conclusion, the book collates the work on tea plantations so far, identified the problems, analyzes the gaps on breeding and biotechnological works of tea as well as its wild species and discusses the future scopes as conclusion. The book aims to cover all latest information till june, 2020 . It will be useful resource for post-graduate, doctoral as well post-doctoral students working on tea as well as other woody plants. This will also be useful for the scientists working in the areas of life sciences, genomics, biotechnology and molecular biology.

This textbook applies basic concepts of ecology to address critical issues regarding food and agricultural systems. The intended audience is first year undergraduate students; it may also benefit higher-level undergraduates with an interest in agriculture and ecology. The level of science and general knowledge reflects this target group. The text is divided into five sections with 22 chapters in all. Each chapter has its own student learning objectives. The first two sections, ¿Context of Agroecology¿ and ¿Basics of Agroecosystems,¿ provide a sound basis for the further study of agriculture from an ecological standpoint. Section 3, ¿Digging Deeper into Agroecosystems,¿ explores the related issues of hunger, wastes, climate change, and biodiversity. It is suggested that students study these three sections before proceeding to section 4 or 5. Section 4, ¿Application of Agroecosystem Concepts,¿ introduces students to agricultural production and challenges them to use the concepts and ideas from the first three sections to critically evaluate such production systems. Section 5, ¿Agroecosystem Management,¿ brings the coverage full circle by examining global solutions and opportunities from both a scientific and social economic standpoint. Particularly these last four chapters offer both food for thought and inspiration for further work. The book¿s goal is not to provide a comprehensive literature review; rather, it offers extensive data on and a stimulating analysis of the topic.

This open access book provides a theoretical framework and case studies on decision science for regional sustainability by integrating the natural and social sciences. The cases discussed include solution-oriented transdisciplinary studies on the environment, disasters, health, governance and human cooperation. Based on these case studies and comprehensive reviews of relevant works, including lessons learned from past failures for predictable surprises and successes in adaptive co-management, the book provides the reader with new perspectives on how we can co-design collaborative projects with various conflicts of interest and how we can transform our society for a sustainable future. The book makes a valuable contribution to the global research initiative Future Earth, promoting transdisciplinary studies to bridge the gap between science and society in knowledge generation processes and supporting efforts to achieve the UN¿s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Compared to other publications on transdisciplinary studies, this book is unique in that evolutionary biology is used as an integrator for various areas related to human decision-making, and approaches social changes as processes of adaptive learning and evolution. Given its scope, the book is highly recommended to all readers seeking an integrated overview of human decision-making in the context of social transformation.

The book serves as an amalgamation of knowledge and principles used in the area of systems and synthetic biology, and targets inter-disciplinary research groups. The readers from diversified areas would be benefited by the valuable resources and information available in one book. Microbiome projects with efficient data handling can fuel progress in the area of microbial synthetic biology by providing a ready to use plug and play chassis. Advances in gene editing technology such as the use of tailor made synthetic transcription factors will further enhance the availability of synthetic devices to be applied in the fields of environment, agriculture and health. The different chapters of the book reviews a broad range of topics, including food microbiome in ecology, use of microbiome in personalized medicine, machine learning in biomedicine. The book also describes ways to harness and exploit the incredible amounts of genomic data. The book is not only limited to medicine but also caters to the needs of environmentalists, biochemical engineers etc. It will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in life sciences, computational biology, microbiology and other inter-disciplinary areas.