SpringerOpen, launched in June 2010, includes Springer’s portfolio of 200+ peer-reviewed fully open access journals across all areas of science.

In August 2012, due to the growing demand for open access and the success of our SpringerOpen journals, we expanded our offering to open access books. Published under the SpringerOpen brand they complement our established open access journal portfolio.

SpringerOpen journals and books are made freely and permanently available online immediately upon publication. They are subject to high-level peer review, author and production services ensuring quality and reliability of the work. Authors publishing with SpringerOpen retain the copyright to their work, licensing it under a Creative Commons license. To cover the cost of the publication process, all SpringerOpen journals and books charge an open access fee.

Publishing with SpringerOpen enables authors to widen their readership, comply with open access mandates, retain copyright, and benefit from Springer’s trusted brand!

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Semantic Systems, SEMANTiCS 2019, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, in September 2019.
The 20 full papers and 8 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 88 submissions. They cover topics such as: web semantics and linked (open) data; machine learning and deep learning techniques; semantic information management and knowledge integration; terminology, thesaurus and ontology management; data mining and knowledge discovery; semantics in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.

Semantic Systems. The Power of AI and Knowledge Graphs

SpringerOpen

Maribel Acosta(editor)

Philippe Cudré-Mauroux(editor)

Maria Maleshkova(editor)

Tassilo Pellegrini(editor)

Harald Sack(editor)

York Sure-Vetter(editor)

This open access book summarizes the findings of the VUELCO project, a multi-disciplinary and cross-boundary research funded by the European Commission's 7th framework program. It comprises four broad topics:

1.     The global significance of volcanic unrest

2.     Geophysical and geochemical fingerprints of unrest and precursory activity

3.     Magma dynamics leading to unrest phenomena

4.     Bridging the gap between science and decision-making

Volcanic unrest is a complex multi-hazard phenomenon. The fact that unrest may, or may not lead to an imminent eruption contributes significant uncertainty to short-term volcanic hazard and risk assessment.  Although it is reasonable to assume that all eruptions are associated with precursory activity of some sort, the understanding of the causative links between subsurface processes, resulting unrest signals and imminent eruption is incomplete. When a volcano evolves from dormancy into a phase of unrest, important scientific, political and social questions need to be addressed. This book is aimed at graduate students, researchers of volcanic phenomena, professionals in volcanic hazard and risk assessment, observatory personnel, as well as emergency managers who wish to learn about the complex nature of volcanic unrest and how to utilize new findings to deal with unrest phenomena at scientific and emergency managing levels.

This book is open access under a CC BY license.

Volcanic Unrest

Joachim Gottsmann (Editor)

Jürgen Neuberg (Editor)

Bettina Scheu (Editor)

In this open access edited volume, international researchers of the field describe and discuss the systematic review method in its application to research in education. Alongside fundamental methodical considerations, reflections and practice examples are included and provide an introduction and overview on systematic reviews in education research.

Systematic Reviews in Educational Research: Methodology, Perspectives and Application

Olaf Zawacki-Richter(editor)

Michael Kerres(editor)

Svenja Bedenlier(editor)

Melissa Bond(editor)

Katja Buntins(editor)

KNiTO

This Open Access book celebrates Professor Peter Marwedel's outstanding achievements in compilers, embedded systems, and cyber-physical systems. The contributions in the book summarize the content of invited lectures given at the workshop “Embedded Systems” held at the Technical University Dortmund in early July 2019 in honor of Professor Marwedel's seventieth birthday.

Provides a comprehensive view from leading researchers with respect to the past, present, and future of the design of embedded and cyber-physical systems;
Discusses challenges and (potential) solutions from theoreticians and practitioners on modeling, design, analysis, and optimization for embedded and cyber-physical systems;
Includes coverage of model verification, communication, software runtime systems, operating systems and real-time computing.

A Journey of Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems: Essays Dedicated to Peter Marwedel on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday

Jian-Jia Chen (Editor)

This open access book presents the outcomes of the symposium “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES,” held at Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy on May 26–28, 2020.

Addressing the challenge of Knowledge Dynamics and Innovation-driven Policies Towards Urban and Regional Transition, the book presents a multi-disciplinary debate on the new frontiers of strategic and spatial planning, economic programs and decision support tools in connection with urban–rural area networks and metropolitan centers. The respective papers focus on six major tracks: Innovation dynamics, smart cities and ICT; Urban regeneration, community-led practices and PPP; Local development, inland and urban areas in territorial cohesion strategies; Mobility, accessibility and infrastructures; Heritage, landscape and identity;and Risk management,environment and energy. The book also includes a Special Section on Rhegion United Nations 2020-2030. Given its scope, the book will benefit all researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in issues concerning metropolitan and marginal areas.

New Metropolitan Perspectives: Knowledge Dynamics, Innovation-driven Policies Towards the Territories’ Attractiveness Volume 1

Carmelina Bevilacqua (Editor)

Francesco Calabrò (Editor)

Lucia Della Spina (Editor)

This open access book focuses on robot introspection, which has a direct impact on physical human–robot interaction and long-term autonomy, and which can benefit from autonomous anomaly monitoring and diagnosis, as well as anomaly recovery strategies. In robotics, the ability to reason, solve their own anomalies and proactively enrich owned knowledge is a direct way to improve autonomous behaviors. To this end, the authors start by considering the underlying pattern of multimodal observation during robot manipulation, which can effectively be modeled as a parametric hidden Markov model (HMM). They then adopt a nonparametric Bayesian approach in defining a prior using the hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP) on the standard HMM parameters, known as the Hierarchical Dirichlet Process Hidden Markov Model (HDP-HMM). The HDP-HMM can examine an HMM with an unbounded number of possible states and allows flexibility in the complexity of the learned model and the development of reliable and scalable variational inference methods.

This book is a valuable reference resource for researchers and designers in the field of robot learning and multimodal perception, as well as for senior undergraduate and graduate university students.

Nonparametric Bayesian Learning for Collaborative Robot Multimodal Introspection

Xuefeng Zhou

Hongmin Wu

Juan Rojas

Zhihao Xu

Shuai Li

This open access book presents the proceedings of the 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering held at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, on September 16–17, 2019. Intended to foster the synergies between research and education, the conference is one of the joint activities of the BITS Pilani and TU Braunschweig conducted under the auspices of Indo-German Center for Sustainable Manufacturing, established in 2009. The book is divided into three sections: engineering, education and entrepreneurship, covering a range of topics, such as renewable energy forecasting, design & simulation, Industry 4.0, and soft & intelligent sensors for energy efficiency. It also includes case studies on lean and green manufacturing, and life cycle analysis of ceramic products, as well as papers on teaching/learning methods based on the use of learning factories to improve students’problem-solving and personal skills. Moreover, the book discusses high-tech ideas to help the large number of unemployed engineering graduates looking for jobs become tech entrepreneurs. Given its broad scope, it will appeal to academics and industry professionals alike.

Enhancing Future Skills and Entrepreneurship: 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering

Kuldip Singh Sangwan (Editor)

Christoph Herrmann (Editor)

The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries.

This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.

The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition

Manfred Hafner

Simone Tagliapietra

This open access book aims to show which factors have been decisive in the rise of successful countries. Never before have so many people been so well off. However, prosperity is not a law of nature; it has to be worked for. A liberal economy stands at the forefront of this success – not as a political system, but as a set of economic rules promoting competition, which in turn leads to innovation, research and enormous productivity. 

Sustainable prosperity is built on a foundation of freedom, equal opportunity and a functioning government. This requires a stable democracy that cannot be defeated by an autocrat. 
Autocrats claim that “illiberalism” is more efficient, an assertion that justifies their own power. Although autocrats can efficiently guide the first steps out of poverty, once a certain level of prosperity has been achieved, people begin to demand a sense of well-being – freedom and codetermination. Only when this is possible will they feel comfortable, and progress will continue. Respect for human rights is crucial.

The rules of the free market do not lean to either the right or left politically. Liberalism and the welfare state are not mutually exclusive. The “conflict” concerns the amount of government intervention. Should there be more or less?

As a lawyer, entrepreneur, and board member with over 40 years of experience in this field of conflict, the author clearly describes the conditions necessary for a country to maintain its position at the top.

Liberal Democracy: Prosperity through Freedom

Max Meyer

This open access book focuses on the issue of sustainability standards from the perspective of both global governance frameworks and emerging economies. It stems from the recognition that the accelerated pace of economic globalization has generated production and consumption patterns that are generating sustainability concerns. Sustainability standards (and regulations) are increasingly being used in a bid to make global consumption and production more sustainable. Given the dense inter-connectedness of economic affairs globally, the use of sustainability standards has become a concern of global governance, who face the challenge of achieving a balance between the use of standards for genuine sustainability objectives, and not allowing them to turn into instruments of protectionism or coercion.
The emerging economies, given their increasing engagement with the global economy, are most impacted by the use of sustainability standards. The emphasis of ‘emerging economies’ in this book is retained both by using case studies from these economies and by collating perceptions and assessments of those located in these economies. The case studies included span sectors such as palm oil, forestry, food quality, vehicular emissions and water standards, and address the problems unique to the emerging economies, including capacity building for compliance with standards, adapting international standards in domestic contexts and addressing the exclusion of small and medium enterprises etc.
Complex interfaces and dynamics of a global nature are not limited to the thematic of this book but also extend to the process through which it was written. This book brings together insights from developed as well as emerging economies (Germany, India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico and China). It also brings together scholars and practitioners to jointly ponder upon the conceptual aspects of the global frameworks for sustainability standards. This book is a very useful resource for researchers and practitioners alike, and provides valuable insights for policy makers as well.

Sustainability Standards and Global Governance: Experiences of Emerging Economies

Archna Negi (Editor)

Jorge Antonio Pérez-Pineda (Editor)

Johannes Blankenbach (Editor)

This open access book carefully explores the relationship between social democracy and its working-class electorate in Western Europe. Relying on different indicators, it demonstrates an important transformation in the class basis of social democracy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the working-class vote is strongly fragmented and social democratic parties face competition on multiple fronts for their core electorate – and not only from radical right parties. Starting from a reflection on ‘working-class parties’ and using a sophisticated class schema, the book paints a nuanced and diversified picture of the trajectory of social democracy that goes beyond a simple shift from working-class to middle-class parties. Following a detailed description, the book reviews possible explanations of workers' new voting patterns and emphasizes the crucial changes in parties' ideologies. It closes with a discussion on the role of the working class in social democracy's future electoral strategies.

Social Democratic Parties and the Working Class: New Voting Patterns

Line Rennwald

This open access book on the history of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory covers the scientific discoveries and technical innovations of late 20th century radio astronomy with particular attention to the people and institutions involved. The authors have made extensive use of the NRAO Archives, which contain an unparalleled collection of documents pertaining to the history of radio astronomy, including the institutional records of NRAO as well as the personal papers of many of the pioneers of U.S. radio astronomy. Technical details and extensive citations to original sources are given in notes for the more technical readers, but are not required for an understanding of the body of the book.

This book is intended for an audience ranging from interested lay readers to professional researchers studying the scientific, technical, political, and cultural development of a new science, and how it changed the course of 20th century astronomy.

Open Skies: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Its Impact on US Radio Astronomy

Kenneth I. Kellermann

Ellen N. Bouton

Sierra S. Brandt

This open access book, edited and authored by a team of world-leading researchers, provides a broad overview of advanced photonic methods for nanoscale visualization, as well as describing a range of fascinating in-depth studies. Introductory chapters cover the most relevant physics and basic methods that young researchers need to master in order to work effectively in the field of nanoscale photonic imaging, from physical first principles, to instrumentation, to mathematical foundations of imaging and data analysis.  Subsequent chapters demonstrate how these cutting edge methods are applied to a variety of systems, including complex fluids and biomolecular systems, for visualizing their structure and dynamics, in space and on timescales extending over many orders of magnitude down to the femtosecond range. 

Progress in nanoscale photonic imaging in Göttingen has been the sum total of more than a decade of work by a wide range of scientists and mathematicians across disciplines, working together in a vibrant collaboration of a kind rarely matched. This volume presents the highlights of their research achievements and serves as a record of the unique and remarkable constellation of contributors, as well as looking ahead at the future prospects in this field. It will serve not only as a useful reference for experienced researchers but also as a valuable point of entry for newcomers.

Nanoscale Photonic Imaging

Tim Salditt (Editor)

Alexander Egner (Editor)

D. Russell Luke (Editor)

This open access book provides a detailed exploration of the British media coverage of the press reform debate that arose from the News of the World phone hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry. Gathering data from a content analysis of 870 news articles, Ogbebor shows how journalists cover debates on media policy and illustrates the impact of their coverage on democracy. Through this analysis, the book contributes to knowledge of paradigm repair strategies; public sphere; gatekeeping theory; the concept of journalism as an interpretive community; political economy of the press; as well as the neoliberal and social democratic interpretations of press freedom. Providing insight into factors inhibiting and aiding the role of the news media as a democratic public sphere, it will be a valuable resource for the press, media reform activists, members of the public, and academics in the fields of journalism, politics and law.

British Media Coverage of the Press Reform Debate: Journalists Reporting Journalism

Binakuromo Ogbebor

This open access book discusses the impact of human-induced global climate change on the Indian subcontinent and regional monsoon, the adjoining Indian Ocean and the Himalayas. It also examines the regional climate change projections based on the climate models used by the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and national climate change modeling studies using the IITM Earth System Model (ESM) and CORDEX South Asia datasets. The IPCC assessment reports, published every 6–7 years, provide important reference material for major policy decisions on climate change, adaptation, and mitigation. While the IPCC assessment reports largely provide a global perspective on climate change, they offer limited information on the regional aspects of climate change. Regional climate change effects over the Indian subcontinent, especially relating to the Indian monsoon, are unique to the region, and in particular, the climate in this region is shaped by the Himalayas, Western Ghats, the Tibetan Plateau, the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. Climatic variations in this region are influenced by (a) regional-scale interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, land surface, cryosphere and biosphere on different time scales, (b) remote effects from natural phenomena such as the El Nino / Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole, and Madden Julian Oscillation, and (c) human-induced climate change. This book presents policy-relevant information based on robust scientific analysis and assessments of the observed and projected future climate change over the Indian region.

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