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Abstract: Behavior Trees (BTs) provide a way to structure the behavior of an artificial agent such as a robot or a non-player character in a computer game. Traditional design methods, such as finite state machines, are known to produce brittle behaviors when complexity increases, making it very hard to add features without breaking existing functionality.? BTs were created to address this very problem, and enables the creation of systems that are both modular and reactive. Behavior Trees in Robotics and AI: An Introduction provides a broad introduction as well as an in-depth exploration of the topic, and is the first comprehensive book on the use of BTs.This book introduces the subject of BTs from simple topics, such as semantics and design principles, to complex topics, such as learning and task planning. For each topic, the authors provide a set of examples, ranging from simple illustrations to realistic complex behaviors, to enable the reader to successfully combine theory with practice.Starting with an introduction to BTs, the book then describes how BTs relate to, and in many cases, generalize earlier switching structures, or control architectures. These ideas are then used as a foundation for a set of efficient and easy to use design principles. The book then presents a set of important extensions and provides a set of tools for formally analyzing these extensions using a state space formulation of BTs. With the new analysis tools, the book then formalizes the descriptions of how BTs generalize earlier approaches and shows how BTs can be automatically generated using planning and learning. The final part of the book provides an extended set of tools to capture the behavior of Stochastic BTs, where the outcomes of actions are described by probabilities. These tools enable the computation of both success probabilities and time to completion.This book targets a broad audience, including both students and professionals interested in modeling complex behaviors for robots, game characters, or other AI agents. Readers can choose at which depth and pace they want to learn the subject, depending on their needs and background.

While there is a lot of talk about how we now live in a knowledge society, the reality has been less impressive: We have yet to truly transition to a knowledge society - in part, this book argues, because discussion mostly focuses on a knowledge economy and information society rather than on ways to mobilise to create an actual knowledge society. That all may change, however, with the rise of open data and big data. This book considers the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation, showing that at the heart of any successful mobilisation will be an emerging open data ecosystem and new ways for societal actors to effectively produce and use data.

Summary: Networked thermostats, fitness monitors, and door locks show that the Internet of Things can (and will) enable new ways for people to interact with the world around them. But designing connected products for consumers brings new challenges beyond conventional software UI and interaction design. This book provides experienced UX designers and technologists with a clear and practical roadmap for approaching consumer product strategy and design in this novel market. By drawing on the best of current design practice and academic research, Designing Connected Products delivers sound advice for working with cross-device interactions and the complex ecosystems inherent in IoT technology.

Summary: "Documenting Gendered Violence explores the intersections of documentary and gendered violence. Several contributors investigate representations through grounded textual analyses of key films and videos, including Sex Crimes Unit (2011) and The Invisible War (2012),and other documentary texts including Youtube, photographs, and theater. Other chapters use analysis and interviews to explore how gender violence issues impact production and how these documentaries become part of collaborations and awareness movements"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This handbook is a comprehensive study of the archaeology, social history, and the cultural landscape of the Hindu temple. Perhaps the most recognizable of the material forms of Hinduism, temples are lived, dynamic spaces that are significant sites of the creation of cultural heritage, both in the past and the present. Drawing on historiographical surveys and in-depth case studies, the volume centres the material form of the Hindu temple as an entry point to study its many adaptations and transformations from the early centuries CE to the 20th century. It highlights the vibrancy and dynamism of the shrine in different locales and studies the active participation of the community for its establishment, maintenance, and survival. The illustrated handbook takes a unique approach by focusing on the social base of the temple rather than its aesthetics or chronological linear development. It fills a significant gap in the study of Hinduism and will be an indispensable resource for scholars of archaeology, Hinduism, Indian history, religious studies, museum studies, South Asian history, and Southeast Asian history"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book offers high-quality original research contributions on the specialized theme of cybersecurity challenges in diverse business areas, disseminating theoretical foundations and empirical studies by researchers and practitioners to realize dependable technological systems"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: A guide to blockchain technologies explains blockchain basics, smart contracts, and cryptocurrencies, with real-world examples showing how blockchains function and where they add value.

Summary: Create cryptocurrency and blockchain applications by examining the key algorithms and concepts pertaining to blockchains, transaction processing, mining, distributed consensus, and anonymous currencies. In this book, youll develop a fully functional cryptocurrency from scratch in the Python language. Practical Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies is a reference for development of blockchain applications and provides you with rigorous information on cryptography and the theory underlying blockchains.

Summary: "YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, etc. have their own logics, dynamics and different audiences. This book analyses how the users of these social networks, especially those of YouTube and Instagram, become content prescribers, opinion leaders and, by extension, people of influence. What influence capacity do they have? Why are intimate or personal aspects shared with unknown people? Who are the big beneficiaries? How much is vanity and how much altruism? What business is behind these social networks? What dangers do they contain? What volume of business can we estimate they generate? How are they transforming cultural industries? What legislation is applied? How does the legislation affect these communications when they are sponsored? Is the privacy of users violated with the data obtained? Who is the owner of the content? Are they to blame for "fake news"? In this changing, challenging and intriguing environment, The Dynamics of Influencer Marketing discusses all of these questions and more. Considering this complexity from different perspectives: technological, economic, sociological, psychological and legal, the book combines the visions of several experts from the academic world and provides a structured framework with a wide approach to understand the new era of influencing, including the dark sides of it. It will be of direct interest to marketing scholars and researchers while also relevant to many other areas affected by the phenomenon of social media influence"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Organizations provide mind-boggling compensations to their leaders as compared to an average employee. Is it because they work more? Just like the saying 'we are the decisions we make', the very existence of an organization depends on the decisions its leaders make! Decision-making is an interplay of competitive strategies, processes, design, values and culture. Narrating the experiences of industry decision-makers, the book demonstrates that organizational decision-making is akin to navigating through a minefield of biases and execution issues. From analysing key decisions of the past to shaping new ones, this book will empower readers with effective strategies that will allow them to become an integral part of their organization's decision-making environment. Businesses are always on the lookout for effective decision-makers. Whether you are looking to move up the career ladder or do well in your personal life, with How Leaders Decide you will be well on your way! 'Harjeet Khanduja is a quintessential storyteller with a difference. Highly recommended.' S. V. Nathan, Partner and Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte India 'My compliments to Harjeet Khanduja for writing a lucid and easily accessible primer on decision-making that should be of great help to MBA students and practising managers.' Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director and Professor of Strategy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Harjeet Khanduja, known as R. K. Laxman of Business, is an author, TEDx speaker, inventor, influencer and Senior Vice President HR at Reliance Jio"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Health Economics and Financing is a primer for the economic analysis of medical markets. Its intended audiences are students of medicine, public health, policy, and administration who wish to engage the central economic issues of their field without prolonged preparatory work; beginning students in economics who wish to study an applied area in detail without recourse to extensive mathematical manipulation; and more advanced students in economics who may be familiar with analytical techniques but lack knowledge of the many institutional features that make the study of health and health care so unique and rewarding. This book draws upon the work of many scholars, but in keeping with its design as a primer for introducing students to the principles and concepts of health economics rather than its literature and research methods, the use of attribution, footnotes, and references is purposely limited. Suggestions for additional reading and more advanced source materials and databases are listed at the end of each chapter and are available on the instructor's website at www.wiley.com/go/getzen/healtheconomics6e. The first eleven chapters use a flow-of-funds approach to investigate the sources and uses of financing and to explore the incentives and organizational structure of the health care system. Transactions between patients and physicians (and others) are examined to see how profits are made, costs covered, contracts written (or implied), and regulations formed. The long-term consequences of exchanging services for money in a particular way are revealed by exploring the historical development of those distinctive features that characterize the industrial organization of health care: licensure, third-party insurance, nonprofit hospitals, and government regulation. The last five chapters take a wider macroeconomic perspective in order to explore the dynamics of change within the health care system and to explicitly consider determinants of national health spending and the role of governments in public and private health"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "International Sport Business: Current Issues, Future Directions offers a contemporary and forward-looking survey of the global sport industry, introducing the key themes, trends and critical issues that will impact decision-making and strategy in sport business in the coming decade and beyond. Against a background of globalisation, disruption and social change, the book explores key influences on the development and commercialisation of the sport industry. It examines themes such as governance, the social role of sport, value chains and innovation, the increasing importance of data, digital technology, and leadership. Every chapter includes cutting-edge case studies, commentaries, examples of best practice, and interviews with leading sport business professionals, encouraging the reader to reflect on the factors that determine success in international sport business. The book also looks ahead, imagining potential scenarios for the future of sport. Thought-provoking, underpinned by research evidence, and intended to generate debate and discussion, this is the perfect foundation text for any international sport business course, and an essential guide to the future for sport business practitioners and policy-makers. An accompanying eResource provides reflective questions for each chapter"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "The Future and FinTech examines the fundamental financial technologies and its growing impact on the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sectors. With global investment amounting to more than 100 billion in 2020, the proliferation of fintech has underpinned the direction payments, loans, wealth management, insurance, and cryptocurrencies are heading. This book presents FinTech from an industrial perspective in the context of architecture and its basic building blocks, e.g., Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and its connections to real-life applications at work. It provides a detailed guidance on how FinTech digitalizes business operations, improves productivity and efficiency, and optimizes resource management with the help of some new concepts, such as AIOps, MLOps and DevSecOps. Readers will also discover how FinTech Innovations connect BFSI to the rest of the world with the growing interests in Open Banking, Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and FinTech-as-a-Service (FaaS). To help readers understand how FinTech has unlocked numerous opportunities for tapping into the massive substantial group of customers, this book illustrates the massive changes already underway and provides insights into changes yet to come through practical examples and applications with illustrative figures and summary tables, making this book a handy quick reference for all things of FinTech"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "The fifth edition of Strategic Sport Marketing integrates sport marketing frameworks, theory, and practical cases to show students and practitioners how to develop and execute successful sport marketing strategies. The book explains contemporary sports markets, consumer behavior, marketing strategies, and best practices in sports marketing in a clear, comprehensive, and engaging way. Built on a foundation of strategic decision-making, it offers a truly diverse set of case studies, 'sport views' and examples from national and international sports and events, including Australian Rules (AFL) football, European soccer, Russian hockey, Grand Slam tennis and the National Basketball Association (NBA). This new edition is revised to align with contemporary sport marketing applications, conceptualizing sport as part of the experience economy and integrating technology and digitalization themes into the book reflecting the increasing focus on data and digital communications and media delivery of sport. It encourages critical and practical thinking and problem-solving on the part of the reader, to help them improve their real-world professional practice. This book is an essential course text for students of sports marketing and management, as well as a useful resource for all practitioners engaged in the marketing, promotions, or communications of sports organizations or brands. Additional teaching and learning materials are available to accompany this book, including slides, class outlines, and reflective questions and answers for each chapter"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "The work seeks to provide a management perspective about museums, theatres and related organisations (like auction houses) from the angles of the philosophy, policy, organizational design, economics and technology. The work seeks to examine the unprecedented crisis engendered by the COVID 19 pandemic on arts organizations across the world and the management strategies adopted by to handle the pandemic. The work delves on the immense significance of digital technologies such as streaming technologies, algorithm driven sales and information storing digital ledgers like blockchains in guiding the fortunes of the arts organization both during and beyond the phase of pandemics. The key message of the book is that art organizations will not be the same even after the COVID 19 pandemic. Arts organizations that have for long relied on the real world of exhibitions and performances will be tempted to straddle in both the real and virtual models. Their revenue earnings models will also be more diversified than at present so would their reach to their customers. Further the advent of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) based on blockchain platform Ethereum, it is argued, will turn democratise the world of creation, collection and consumption thus nudging extant institutions to change their prevalent methods of doing business in arts works"-- Provided by publisher.

The vibrant red sandstone temples of India's Deccan Plateau, such as the Pattadakal temple cluster, have attracted visitors since the eighth century or earlier. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and the coronation place of the Chalukya dynasty, Pattadakal and its neighboring sites are of major historical importance. In Shiva's Waterfront Temples, Subhashini Kaligotla situates these buildings in the cosmopolitan milieu of Deccan India and considers how their makers and awestruck visitors would have seen them in their day. Kaligotla reconstructs how architects and builders approached the sites, including their use of ornamentation, responsiveness to courtly values such as pleasure and play, and ingenious juxtaposition of the first millennium's Nagara and Dravida aesthetics, a blend largely unique to Deccan plateau architecture. With over 130 color illustrations, this original book elucidates the Deccan's special place in the lexicon of medieval South Asian architecture.

Summary: What happens when a researcher and a practitioner spend hours crammed in a Fiat discussing data visualization? Beyond creating beautiful charts, they found greater richness in the craft as an integrated whole. Drawing from their unconventional backgrounds, these two women take readers through a journey around perception, semantics, and intent as the triad that influences visualization. This visually engaging book blends ideas from theory, academia, and practice to craft beautiful, yet meaningful visualizations and dashboards. How do you take your visualization skills to the next level? The book is perfect for analysts, research and data scientists, journalists, and business professionals. Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization is also an indispensable resource for just about anyone curious about seeing and understanding data. Think of it as a coffee book for the data geek in you. https://www.functionalaestheticsbook.com

Summary: "The rise of data-driven technologies such as machine learning has had wide ranging impacts, not least in the realm of physical sciences, where it is transforming the traditional mind-set about how research can, and should, be performed. Deep learning is an exciting new development in the area of machine learning, containing many powerful techniques which can benefit researchers in the physical sciences"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Fintech, the integration of technology into the delivery of financial services has revolutionised the world of Finance. This book introduces a new framework to study the concepts that underly Fintech while examining the driving forces and underlying logic behind Fintech-based innovation and predicting the future development of Fintech. The first three parts of the book cover the development and basics of Fintech and its relationship with inclusive finance, while later sections constitute a deep dive into several core issues surrounding Fintech. First, the volume introduces an economic explanation of blockchain and its application in various scenarios based on the token paradigm. Second, it studies digital currency and discusses its impacts on payment systems, financial inclusion, monetary policy, and financial stability. Third, the authors explore how to build a compliant and effective market for data while protecting data privacy, impinging on the future development of AI application, the digital economy and Fintech. Fourth, the book examines public policies related to Fintech, including regulatory technology, the regulation of financial activities of Big Tech companies, and how to promote financial inclusion. The title will appeal to scholars, students, and financial practitioners and regulators in a broad range of areas including economics, finance, technology, and public policy, especially Fintech, blockchain, and digital currency"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book guides monetary authority on CBDC policy choices, improve upon CBDC interoperability and minimize implementation challenges overrun. Covering topics such as the digital euro, ethical implications, and sustainable development goals, this book is an essential resource for banks, high frequency traders, insurance companies, and finance professionals as they position themselves to leverage on CBDC and Fintech applications"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book presents the advances in AI-assisted agile IoT for fintech, helping readers to reveal new applications, current issues, challenges and future directions in the field of AI-assisted agile IoT for fintech applications and ecosystems"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Technology-driven innovation in financial services has been attracting global attention and interest. FinTech innovation is presenting a paradigm shift in financial services affecting a wide range of products, processes and services but also sparking a broader evolutionary transformation, growth opportunities and foundational systemic and structural changes in light of technological interdependencies among market players, infrastructures and ecosystem stakeholders. Transformation Dynamics in FinTech contributes to the intellectual curiosity around the symbiotic relationship of finance and technology by focusing on the multidimensional and multidisciplinary role of open innovation within FinTech innovation, observing and communicating the latest technological, managerial, governance, policy and regulatory perspectives, trends and developments. This book is an essential reading for anyone interested in the growing and evolving development of FinTech ecosystems based on new capabilities and structures that create new dominant architectural designs, which determine competitive dynamics, products, services, processes, business models, markets, value chains, within an open and transformed financial services industry landscape"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "The Finance module provides a significant underpinning to the Chartered Fintech Professional (CFtP) qualification. While the topics are familiar to professionals who are traditionally trained in Finance, these topics are required to appreciate the financial problems that technology can help solve. Without a clear appreciation of finance concepts and practice, any professional will have difficulties solving such problems the traditional way, let alone incorporating recent technological breakthroughs. In this module, we provide the basic concepts and knowledge that a fintech professional needs. This book covers the main concepts and theories in finance which include economics, financial statement analysis, financial management, and investment management. Finance for Fintech Professionals is a companion volume to the book on technology that covers fundamental concepts on data, artificial intelligence, and network. Together, these two books form the foundation for a good understanding of finance and fintech applications which will be covered in subsequent volumes"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Academic, industry, and government experts provide a global survey of the financial services sector's transformation by AI, data science, and blockchain"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book provides a detailed and up-to-date coverage of machine learning. It is unique in that it unifies approaches based on deep learning with approaches based on probabilistic modeling and inference. It provides mathematical background (e.g. linear algebra, optimization), basic topics (e.g., linear and logistic regression, deep neural networks), as well as more advanced topics (e.g., Gaussian processes). It provides a perfect introduction for people who want to understand cutting edge work in top machine learning conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML and ICLR"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book highlights how FinTech supports the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services for individuals and businesses to take advantage of affordable, and timely financial products and services by featuring conceptual, case studies, recent development, best practices, comparative assessment, business processes, as well as strategies and outputs in studies of FinTech from multiple domains of knowledge"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "Today, chief risk officers are finding themselves facing the daunting task of providing assurances to senior management and to board members that operational risks are being effectively managed and mitigated. Traditional market and credit risk approaches offer only partial effectiveness in the operational risk field, and this book explores the unique qualitative aspects of operational risk manage-ment. This book also provides insight into some of the (often noto-rious) operational risk events that have occurred in the past 10 years, with analysis of the JPMorgan Whale event, the Archegos Credit Suisse event, the UBS and Société Générale unauthorized trading scandals, the reputational risk events related to LIBOR and the recent Australian Banking scandals, the Knight Capital technology misstep and the management of operational risk at the Olympics. The Covid-19 Pandemic's impact on operational risk losses is also explored, along with the effectiveness of preparations for that event."-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "The world most successful companies (Apple, Amazon, Alibaba) are data-driven platforms. They innovated their business models leveraging digital technology to start a journey from output to outcome economies: businesses don't necessarily trade in the products that deliver certain results (e.g. "selling 100,000 cars in 2022", in which the focus is about discrete sales figures or quantities), but in the results themselves which take the form of user experiences (e.g., "allowing 500,000 people to commute by car", in which the focus is on perceived benefits). Clearly, not all industrial products and services can be easily reinvented inside outcome economies, no matter how powerful they can be. This is particularly true for financial services given the more abstract and regulated nature of their products, as well the psychological characteristics of consumers when accessing them. The Platformisation of Financial Services corresponds to a shift in mindset intended to help banks strengthen and extend the reach of their Open Banking operations. Platform theory, born outside of financial services, will be transposed inside banking and insurance to make digital banking more effective. In this way, the financial services industry will master the necessary shift of focus from output (distribution channels of products) to outcomes (enabling clients to enjoy transparent and value-adding experiences, achieve their goals or fulfil their needs, directly or inside non-banking relationships). This book will guide the financial services industry globally towards new forms of digital transformation that benefit shareholders and stakeholders alike, allowing greater flexibility and convenience at lower digital prices"-- Provided by publisher.

Summary: "This book aims to provide insights on the latest developments in the area of FinTech. It is a collection of scientific articles covering primary areas of finance. The following key themes are covered in the book: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, FinTech Regulation and Smart Contracts, Cryptocurrencies, and FinTech in Financial Services. FinTech is a rapidly developing industry that uses technological innovations to improve financial activities and make financial services more accessible and affordable to businesses and individuals. This book contributes to the body of knowledge in FinTech offering potential readers a chance to review and rethink the topics in question"-- Provided by publisher.