The paper embarks on an exploration of how technological advancements are poised to reshape the landscape of future consumption and marketing practices and extend our understanding of whether this trajectory is potentially leading toward a future digital utopia or a dystopia. Drawing upon the theoretical understanding from Marshall McLuhan, this research investigates the metaverse as a novel techn

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change in Asia and the Pacific. It brings the role of disaster risk reduction and management authorities, as well as legal and policy frameworks that regulate their conduct, more into focus than the role of o

Two MgRE (RE = Ce, Nd) alloys with ultrafine-grain (UFG) microstructures were prepared by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature. The in-depth distribution of defects was characterized by Doppler broadening –variable energy positron annihilation spectroscopy (DB-VEPAS). The characteristic S parameter increases in bulk after HPT processing relative to an as-received sample and shows a rela

Probabilistic methods can be used to account for uncertainties in hygrothermal analysis of building envelopes. This paper presents methods for robust mould reliability analysis and identification of critical parameters. Mould indices are calculated by probabilistic hygrothermal analysis, followed by the application of the "Finnish mould growth model." To increase the robustness of the mould growth

This book probes into the dynamics between Orthodox Christianity and the COVID-19 pandemic, unraveling a profound transformation at institutional and grassroots levels. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, and drawing upon varied data sources, including surveys, digital ethnography, and process tracing, it presents unprecedented insights into church-state relations, religious practices, and the

Shared electric scooters (e-scooters) have been rapidly growing in popularity across Europe over the past three years, which can bring various environmental and socioeconomic benefits. However, how to further improve the usage efficiency of shared e-scooters is still a major concern for micro-mobility operators and city planners. This paper proposes a machine learning based approach to predict the

Nowadays it is becoming more and more common for children, young and older, to have some type of mental health problems, but the question is how does this affect the person's life? The purpose of this paper is to get a more specific understanding of mental health problems regarding children. The paper aims to show how mental health affects children, after a diagnosis and/or a turning point in

The purpose of this booklet is to offer easy-to-use guidelines for businesses to design and implement circularity strategies into their business model. Specifically, the booklet will provide step-by-step guidance on how to ideate, design, test, and scale novel circular business models. For each stage of this circular business model innovation (CBMI) process a selection of tools and methods will be

The ongoing climate change can modulate the behavior of global vegetation and influence the terrestrial biosphere carbon sink. Past observation-based studies have mainly focused on the linear trend or interannual variability of the vegetation greenness, but could not explicitly deal with the effect of natural decadal variability due to the short length of observations. Here we put the variabilitie

Multiple episodes of Enterococcus faecalis bacteremia (EfsB) may indicate a relapse and be due to an undiagnosed infective endocarditis (IE). The aims were to study the clinical presentation of patients with EfsB with focus on the risk of recurrent infection and IE, identify potential improvements of the management, and to investigate whether E. faecalis isolates from different episodes in the sam

The structural reforms of the curriculum implemented by the Hong Kong administration in the field of education at the beginning of the 2000s had profound implications for the future perspectives and ambitions of students and graduates. This thesis tries to investigate the key constraints posed by the reforms and their direct influence on Hong Kong local student’s perception of their future careers

The behavioural variant of Alzheimer’s disease (bvAD) is characterized by early predominant behavioural changes, mimicking the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), which is characterized by social cognition deficits and altered biometric responses to socioemotional cues. These functions remain understudied in bvAD. We investigated multiple social cognition components (i.e. emoti

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of surgical specialization and surgeon resection volume on short-term outcome after emergent colon cancer resections. Methods: A retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent resections for colon cancer between 2011 and 2020 at Helsingborg Hospital, Sweden was performed. The senior surgeon participating in each procedure was class

In a series of articles Dörnyei and his colleagues (Dörnyei, Ibrahim, & Muir, 2015; Dörnyei, Muir, & Ibrahim, 2014; Muir & Dörnyei, 2013) describe the phenomenon of a period of intense and enduring motivation in pursuit of a highly desired personal goal or vision. These surges of motivational energy, which they call Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs), uniquely differ from other type