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Summary: As Editor-in-Chief of the journal Diabetology, I am pleased to announce that the Special Issue "Diabetology: Feature Papers 2022" has now been published as a reprint. Diabetology (ISSN 2673-4540) is an international, peer-reviewed scientific open access journal that provides an advanced forum for studies related to the epidemiology, etiology, pathophysiology, pathogenesis, management, complications, and prevention of diabetes, including the molecular, biochemical, and physiological aspects of diabetes. In this Special Issue, "Feature Papers", we aimed to publish outstanding contributions in the main fields covered by the journal, which will make a great contribution to the community. This reprint covers the whole spectrum of diabetology from risk screening, risk markers, pathways of disease in type 1 diabetes and insulin treatment, and management of the disease and comorbidities.

Summary: The Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM) was inaugurated in 2008 and has successfully continued publishing, with Volume 13 in 2020. Since the journal was established, JRFM has published in excess of 580 topical and interesting theoretical and empirical papers in financial economics, financial econometrics, banking, finance, mathematical finance, statistical finance, accounting, decision sciences, information management, tourism economics and finance, international rankings of journals in financial economics, and bibliometric rankings of journals in cognate disciplines. Papers published in the journal range from novel technical and theoretical papers to innovative empirical contributions. The journal wishes to encourage critical review papers on topical subjects in any of the topics mentioned above in financial economics and in cognate disciplines.

Summary: Thank you for reaching for this book. It is a summary of the research presented at the 6th International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources (ICORES19), which took place in Krynica, Poland, in June 2019. This event is the most recognizable scientific meeting connected to RES in Poland. From the very beginning, this conference has been a unique occasion for gathering Polish and international researchers' perspectives on renewable energy sources and balancing them against governmental policy considerations. Accordingly, the conference has also offered panels to discuss best practices and solutions with local entrepreneurs and federal government bodies. The meeting attracts not only scientists but also industry representatives, as well as local and federal government personnel. We are open to new and fresh ideas concerning renewable energy, which is why so many scientists from Central and Eastern Europe visit Krynica to discuss the "Green Future" of this region. In 2019, the conference was organized by the University of Agriculture in Krakow, in cooperation with the AGH University of Science and Technology (Krakow), the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilya, the University of Žilina, the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) and the Polish Society of Agricultural Engineering. Honorary auspices were made by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, the rector of the University of Agriculture in Krakow, the rector of the AGH University of Science and Technology and the rector of the State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podilya.

The importance of organisational information and knowledge in developing advantage and sustaining business competitiveness is becoming more widely recognised. Various standards have recently been developed to assist businesses create, store, access and reuse their knowledge. These standards include ISO 5037 Knowledge Management, ISO 9001 Quality Management, ISO 4801 Health and Safety, ISO 14000 Environmental Management and ISO 15489 Records Management. The management of knowledge, and the requirements of the standards, has led to the development of new management systems specifically designed to assist maintain organisational knowledge assets. However, it is considered that unless these new systems are implemented effectively they will not succeed in assisting managers maintain information and knowledge assets. This paper discusses this modern issue of information and knowledge asset maintenance. It includes a case study and taxonomy of the issues that influence the implementation of new management systems. These will provide insights into practical implementation issues and how they can be overcome. Ultimately, it is through better implementation of information and knowledge management systems that managers can better maintain their knowledge assets. The objective of this paper is to refine models that assist managers maintain organisational knowledge assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this conceptual paper I address the question of how business should approach issues of sustainability. I present a theoretical perspective marrying three elements: First, the realization that economic metrics alone are an inadequate basis for environmental choices. Second, I contend that management should adopt stakeholder theory which views the corporation as a vehicle to improve the welfare of all those affected by its actions. Finally, I contend that leaders holding stakeholder views are best served by the Aristotelian notion of practical wisdom – phronêsis. Phronêsis is a quality of character that applies well in the case of managerial attitudes to environmental concerns, since incorporating sustainability imperatives into corporate decision-making requires practical discernment and leadership in addition to technical skill. I will briefly illustrate my case by examining the values exhibited by Ray Anderson, CEO of the international carpet manufacturer, Interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC, there exists a committee, named IEC Technical Committee 56 ˵Dependability″, TC56 for short. Its history can be traced back to 1965, when the Reliability and Maintainability Committee was formed. In 1990, after contacts with ISO, it was decided that the IEC/TC56 should be responsible for standardization in the field of dependability, in any appropriate technological area, including those normally considered as outside the scope of IEC. The term ˵dependability″ is a collective term, used to describe availability performance and its constituent factors reliability performance, maintainability performance, and maintenance support performance. Within the IEC/TC56 a number of maintenance related standards and guidelines have been produced, covering e.g. maintainability of equipment, reliability-centred maintenance, integrated logistic support, and also an application guide entitled ˵Maintenance and maintenance support″. Also, Chapter 191 of the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary, freely available on the Internet, contains a wealth of maintenance-related terms. This paper is intended to give an overview of the standards available and some insight into the ongoing efforts within IEC/TC56 to produce new standards and to maintain existing ones. It should not be seen as an official promotion of the IEC Dependability Standards series. Instead, it presents some personal experiences and reflections on the use and usefulness of the standards series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster management depends on large volumes of accurate, relevant, on-time geo-information that various organizations systematically create and maintain. In The Netherlands municipalities are an important party in the safety management chain when accurate geo-information is concerned. As opposed to municipalities in many other countries Dutch municipalities not only carry out central government policies but also have several policy areas in which they operate autonomously. Hence Dutch municipalities have a wealth of geo-information. This is why in the safety management chain Dutch municipalities are often referred to as the fourth column besides the police, the fire department and medical care. However, due to the municipal autonomy the geo-information is structured and described in as many ways as there are municipalities. This results in a situation in which the semantics of geo-information is not even always clear to the producer and whereby formal semantics are almost never available. On the other hand following several large scale disasters such as the fire in a pub in Volendam and the exploded fireworks factory in Enschede Dutch government has decided to reorganise disaster management in The Netherlands in so called safety regions. These regions consist of several municipalities. Thus this development increases the demand for easily accessible and readily available relevant, standardized and accurate geo-information from municipalities on a regional level. Working from the same municipal autonomy that has created the described difficulties Dutch municipalities have organised themselves to found DataLand. DataLand is the non-profit on-stop-shop for municipal geo-information. The mission of this initiative is to make the municipal geo-information widely accessible. In fulfilling its mission DataLand together with its participating municipalities standardizes the registrations and formalizes the semantics so that third parties know what information they get. Also DataLand actively monitors the data quality. This paper will focus primarily on how DataLand as a one stop shop offers a solution to the problem of data management between the different columns involved in disaster management. The paper will demonstrate how challenges for data management, data collection, translation, integration, classification and attributes schemes, temporal aspects (up-to-dateness, history, predictions of the future) are tackled by using simple, low cost IT solutions. Also the paper will describe how open communication is of overriding importance in creating co-operation between different institutions involved with disaster management. Secondly how this solution works in practice will be demonstrated by discussing the results of a reallife, real-time test that DataLand recently conducted together with the Regional Rescue Service Rotterdam-Rijnmond (RHRR) over the course of a year. This experiment not only showed the improved response time of this rescue service body but also for the first time gave clear insight in the user needs of disaster management bodies with regard to municipal geoinformation. In closing the paper will reflect on the lessons learned in developing a one-stop-shop for municipal geo-information. This is important as the concept of a one-stop-shop to facilitate smooth data flows between different partners involved in disaster management is also feasible for other parties involved in disaster management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, 2D GISs are common and their related theories, concepts and models like for geometrical modeling and spatial relationships of objects are also well addressed and investigated. Most of the tasks related to 2D GIS applications are quite straightforward and relatively easy to handle. 2D GIS spatial analysis such as proximity analysis or proximity computation, network analysis, overlay function, neighborhood function, metric measurement and other analytical operations are also well understood and well researched by the GIS community. However, problem started to surface once we move towards 3D domain, i.e. to add an additional dimension to the current 2D GIS situations such as in spatial data modeling, analysis and application. Manipulating and handling spatial objects become more complicated as we move toward 3D. This paper attempts to address one of the problems in 3D analytical operation, i.e. 3D proximity analysis. As we know that vertical component of spatial data directly interacts with the X and Y from the planimetric plane and makes the description of an object even harder to define. Data structure that supports object generation, preserves and maintains relationship with the neighboring objects is important in the 3D geometrical modeling. Several researchers in this problem domain have stated that 3D conceptual model, topological relationships, data collection, and spatial analysis might comprise a wide spectrum of questions and needs a lot of efforts to realize the solution. Although advancement in computer graphics have benefited to community in terms of 3D visualization and display but some other critical aspects like 3D spatial modeling together with the semantics information and spatial operators are hardly addressed, defined, and implemented commercially. The commercial GIS packages that able to handle 3D datasets are rather limited to surface analysis and visualizing them in 3D. GIS accepts the fact that 2.5D GIS involves a single height attached to the planimetric positions (X, Y) whereas real or “true” 3D GIS should able to handle data like planimetric data with multiple heights, e.g. solid objects. Some advanced 3D tasks such as 3D overlay functions, and network functions are not available in some commercial GIS software, for examples, ERDAS’s Imagine VirtualGIS, Intergraph Inc’s GeoMedia, PCIGeomatics’s Geomatica where they provide excellent tools for 3D visualization and 3D texture models. The systems also provide some operations like surface generation, volume computation, image draping, and terrain inter-visibility can be carried. However, “true” 3D operations are hardly available. Inevitably, many issues need to be investigated. To move on to the 3D GIS, the third dimension must not be constrained by the single XY plane only. Considering the 3D analysis is the core component of the 3D GIS, therefore, an investigation that involves data input and 3D analytical operation will be addressed in this paper. Other aspect such as databasing is out of the scope. The developed analytical operations have been tested using real datasets that cover Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) main campus. In general, managing disaster scene is quite demanding and needs rapid spatial information on the spot where some of the required information is in the form of 3D display of a spatial query and analysis. This paper discusses the development of proximity analysis that is the 3D buffering. The corresponding algorithms that work for most of the spatial primitives, i.e. point, line, and polygon in 3D will be discussed. We tested our buffering approach by using photogrammetrically captured datasets. Finally, the paper provides outlook to the proposed work towards the development of advanced 3D analytical solutions in 3D GIS domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic chaining of geographic information services (geo-services) is emerging as a viable framework for evolving flexible geo-information systems, integrating heterogeneous geographically dispersed geoinformation systems, and for providing on-demand access to geographic information in many application domains and location-based services. Alongside functionality, quality of service (QoS) is basic to successful chaining of dispaprate geo-services. This paper explores QoS provisioning in the context of geo-service chaining for disaster management. The paper presents a QoS model for disaster management and illustrates how userlevel QoS requirements can be supported in a QoS-aware geo-service architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster management takes current information technology to its limits due to the very large amount of relevant data and tight response times. This is in particular true for satellite data which needs to be retrieved from different archives, processed an interpreted. Typical issues are efficiency of database access, integration of multiple heterogeneous sites and quality of image interpretation. Unfortunately experiences from many different projects and systems have shown that these issues cannot be considered independently from each other. Therefore this paper proposes a concept addressing the mentioned issues by providing an integrated solution. For this purpose the paper focuses on content based searches for satellite images in a distributed environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to a successful disaster management the analysis of the disaster is needed. For this purpose the documentation of the disaster is necessary. Up to now many studies deal with different aspects of mobile systems for the disaster management. They are developed for disaster management activities of public safety units, but there are no applications for the documentation process during and after a disaster. In this paper we describe an approach for a mobile disaster documentation system. The main focus lies on the user requirements of the different user groups. The disaster documentation focuses mostly on information about a disaster and possible activities undertaken by disaster and public safety experts. The documentation structure should use a common language based on a standard terminology. A standardized documentation structure would help to harmonize the information basis, accessibility, and better integration in spatial decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape ecology is a multidisciplinary field that combines the spatial approach of geography with functional ecology. Concerning marine environment, a submerged landscape, called seascape, is defined as a spatially heterogeneous area of coastal environment (i.e. intertidal, brackish). Measurement of spatial patterns plays a central role in monitoring environmental change and for studying the multi-scale processes that drive organism distributions and biodiversity. The aim of this paper is to propose a relevant seascape index focusing on Mediterranean littoral areas, moreover rocky habitat that constitutes one of the most important and characteristic habitats of the north-western Mediterranean coastal areas. The methodology proposed to score marine sites addresses three factors: biological, geomorphologic (i.e. 3D complexity) and anthropogenic. The goal was to build a functional and relevant tool that could eventually be used for a large scale geographical analysis of submarine landscapes along the north-western Mediterranean coast. The proposed index can qualitatively assess the value of the seascape within a site. Statistical tests showed that the proposed index is an accurate and relevant proxy of the seascape complexity value. The seascape integrity index we developed can then be a new tool that could complement other existing biological indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In the current competitive scenario, the banking industry must contend with multiple challenges tied to regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models/technologies, new competitors, and a restive customer base, while simultaneously pursuing new strategies for sustainable growth. Banking institutions that can address these emerging challenges and opportunities to effectively balance long-term goals with short-term performance pressures could be aptly rewarded. This book comprises a selection of papers addressing some of these relevant issues concerning the current challenges and opportunities for international banking institutions. Papers in this collection focus on the digital transformation of the banking industry and its effect on sustainability, the emergence of new competitors such as FinTech companies, the role of mobile banking in the industry, the connections between sustainability and financial performance, and other general sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) topics related to the banking industry. The book is a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Sustainability, which has been sponsored by the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), a Spanish research and training institution created as a collaboration between Santander Bank and the University of Cantabria. SANFI works to identify, develop, support, and promote knowledge, study, talent, and innovation in the financial sector.

Summary: Biocultural restoration is a process by which the various connections between humanity and nature, as well as between People and Place are revived to restore the health and function of social-ecological systems. This collection explores the subject of biocultural restoration and does so within the context of Hawaiʻi, the most remote archipelago on the planet. The Hawaiian Renaissance, which started in the 1970s, has led to a revival of Hawaiian language, practices, philosophy, spirituality, knowledge systems, and systems of resource management. Many of the leading Indigenous and local scholars of Hawaiʻi who were born into the time of the Hawaiian Renaissance contributed to this collection. More than a third of the authors are of Indigenous Hawaiian ancestry; each paper had at least one Indigenous Hawaiian author, and several papers had a Hawaiian lead author, making this the largest collection to date of scientific publications authored by Indigenous Hawaiians (Kānaka ʻŌiwi). In addition, the majority of authors are women, and two of the papers had 100 percent authorship by women. This collection represents a new emphasis in applied participatory research that involves academics, government agencies, communities and both private and non-profit sectors.

Summary: In the current competitive scenario, the banking industry must contend with multiple challenges tied to regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models/technologies, new competitors, and a restive customer base, while simultaneously pursuing new strategies for sustainable growth. Banking institutions that can address these emerging challenges and opportunities to effectively balance long-term goals with short-term performance pressures could be aptly rewarded. This book comprises a selection of papers addressing some of these relevant issues concerning the current challenges and opportunities for international banking institutions. Papers in this collection focus on the digital transformation of the banking industry and its effect on sustainability, the emergence of new competitors such as FinTech companies, the role of mobile banking in the industry, the connections between sustainability and financial performance, and other general sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) topics related to the banking industry. The book is a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Sustainability, which has been sponsored by the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), a Spanish research and training institution created as a collaboration between Santander Bank and the University of Cantabria. SANFI works to identify, develop, support, and promote knowledge, study, talent, and innovation in the financial sector.

Summary: In the current competitive scenario, the banking industry must contend with multiple challenges tied to regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models/technologies, new competitors, and a restive customer base, while simultaneously pursuing new strategies for sustainable growth. Banking institutions that can address these emerging challenges and opportunities to effectively balance long-term goals with short-term performance pressures could be aptly rewarded. This book comprises a selection of papers addressing some of these relevant issues concerning the current challenges and opportunities for international banking institutions. Papers in this collection focus on the digital transformation of the banking industry and its effect on sustainability, the emergence of new competitors such as FinTech companies, the role of mobile banking in the industry, the connections between sustainability and financial performance, and other general sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) topics related to the banking industry. The book is a Special Issue of the MDPI journal Sustainability, which has been sponsored by the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), a Spanish research and training institution created as a collaboration between Santander Bank and the University of Cantabria. SANFI works to identify, develop, support, and promote knowledge, study, talent, and innovation in the financial sector.

The following paper assesses a large scale, three-year workforce transformation at Hewlett-Packard (HP). The prime focus will be on the preparation phase of this re-organization. In the following, we pay less attention to the ˵hard″ factors; instead we zoom in on the ˵soft″ factors, the so-called intangibles. We have chosen the format of a dialog between science and practice to examine the approach and methodologies of this change program. Based on the gained insights and discoveries, the paper concludes with joint recommendations. We would like to especially thank Janina Teepe, HP Human Resources, for her input and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developers worldwide wish to understand what major companies are doing in user-experience development (UXD). UXD comprises activities in user-centered design of user experience, specifically user-interface development (metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance) that is useful for planning, research, analysis, design, implementation, evaluation, and documentation of products/services across a wide number of platforms. This paper reports the results of a survey conducted with six enterprise software companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the term affective is defined as ˵being capable to evoke affects in people΄s mind″ or ˵being capable to deliberate affects to be evoked in people΄s mind″. This paper discusses potential impact of concept of affectiveness on development of technological products and services, management, and value systems of societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future Internet services will have vastly different requirements than the current Internet. Manageability, which has been largely ignored, will have the dual role of controlling capital and operational expenditures as well as enabling agile reorganization and reconfiguration of network services and resources according to changing business needs, user demands, and environmental conditions. Autonomic systems have the potential to meet these needs, but important architectural extensions are required. This paper examines the core building blocks of an autonomic system, and compares our approach to existing approaches with respect to Future Internet networks and networked applications. A special emphasis is placed on business driven services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About fifty years ago a superintendent of apprentices taught his very junior people that management involves the use of four resources: men, machines, materials and methods [1]. (More recently this author added ˵money″ to those four, but that is another story.) All four are assets and require maintenance, one way or another, and while much has been written about maintaining machines, and, indeed, methods, there seems to be little about maintaining people. The paper following from this abstract shows why ˵peoplemaintenance″ is needed, examines some of the difficulties (such as the wide range of levels in an engineering organisation), shows the risks in doing, or not doing, this form of asset management, suggests how the asset may be condition-monitored and what standards may be used, and points out the cost of good people-maintenance (and the cost of not maintaining the people asset). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual 3D city models provide important information for different aspects of disaster management. In this context, up-to-dateness of and flexible access to 3D city models are of utmost importance. Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) provide the appropriate framework to cover both aspects, integrating distributed data sources on demand. In this paper we present CityGML, a multi-purpose and multi-scale representation for the storage of and interoperable access to 3D city models in SDIs. CityGML is based on the standard GML3 of the Open Geospatial Consortium and covers the geometrical, topological, and semantic aspects of 3D city models. The class taxonomy distinguishes between buildings and other man-made artifacts, vegetation objects, waterbodies, and transportation facilities like streets and railways. Spatial as well as semantic properties are structured in five consecutive levels of detail. Throughout the paper, special focus is on the utilization of model concepts with respect to different tasks in disaster management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]