This collection of articles begins with an overview of the Reviews from past decades, then goes on to describe the current practices, and foretells the possible future developments. This is followed by a discussion of the use of ICT and surveys on several professional aspects of teaching, including teachers’ training needs and perception of student difficulties, assessment literacy, familiari…
As power and gas markets are becoming more and more mature and globally competitive, the importance of reaching maximum potential economic efficiency is fundamental in all the sectors of the value chain, from investments selection to asset optimization, trading and sales. Optimization techniques can be used in many different fields of the energy industry, in order to reduce production and finan…
This book primarily addresses the optimality aspects of covariate designs. A covariate model is a combination of ANOVA and regression models. Optimal estimation of the parameters of the model using a suitable choice of designs is of great importance; as such choices allow experimenters to extract maximum information for the unknown model parameters. The main emphasis of this monograph is to sta…
One standard definition for economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. A second definition is the study of choice related to the allocation of scarce resources. The first definition indicates that economics includes any business, nonprofit organization, or administrative unit. The second definition establishes that economics is at the core of …
This volume presents new theoretical insights, practical strategies, and policy initiatives in the rapidly evolving field of global supply chain security. As businesses, governments, and society at large have become increasingly dependent on a global network to provide goods and services, protecting global supply chains has become an issue of vital importance for industries, nations, and region…
This volume presents empirical studies and theoretical reflections on Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT), its most important concepts and their interrelations. As a novel theory of governance, EGT understands governance as radically evolutionary, which implies that all elements of governance are subject to evolution, that these elements co-evolve and that many of them are the product of gover…
This book provides a detailed introduction to the theoretical and methodological foundations of production efficiency analysis using benchmarking. Two of the more popular methods of efficiency evaluation are Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), both of which are based on the concept of a production possibility set and its frontier. Depending on the assumed obj…
Limited potential of financial, organizational, human and technology resources doesn't provide SMEs sufficient opportunities to access information and knowledge necessary in competition. Observing the methods and tools used by large companies, this book studies the conditions under which it would be possible to provide support to SMEs at a lower cost and with greater methodological and organiz…
The psychological dimension of managing risk is of crucial importance, and its study has led to the identification of specific do's and don'ts. Those with an understanding of the psychology underlying risk and the skills to recognize its manifestation in practice, have the opportunity to develop frameworks that embody the do's and don'ts, thereby producing sound judgments and good decisions. Th…
Beginning SQL Server for Developers is the perfect book for developers new to SQL Server and planning to create and deploy applications against Microsoft’s market-leading database system for the Windows platform. Now in its fourth edition, the book is enhanced to cover the very latest developments in SQL Server, including the in-memory features that are introduced in SQL Server 2014. Withi…