The surge in technological transformation affects all business model phases over many industries. Emerging technologies provide new avenues for industries to increase their competitive advantage and enhance economic progression. Blockchain technology’s ability to build an open and trustworthy network model seems to promote shared IT-based networks in banking, insurance, and other similar industries. The adoption of blockchain in the banking and insurance industry is developing rapidly. Applications, Challenges, and Opportunities of Blockchain Technology in Banking and Insurance explores how blockchain technologies optimize and integrate the transactions and operations in association with access to information and reduction in communication costs and negligible data transfer errors. It includes studies on various banking and insurance industries intending to use blockchain technology to make transactions convenient, simple, and safe. Covering topics such as cryptocurrency, digital transformation, and small and medium-sized enterprises, this premier reference source is an essential resource for policymakers, government officials, students and educators of higher education, libraries, banking managers, insurance professionals, researchers, and academicians.

Global population by 2050 is predicted to be over 9 billion and accordingly, the production systems will demolish about 140 billion tons per year of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass, i.e., thrice of the current need, and the food production itself has to be doubled. Optimized resource usage, lifecycle management, and reduced carbon emission have become a priority for agri-food businesses today, and circular economy (CE) helps for a sustainable and flexible way to grow without exhausting primary materials, and it thinks beyond recycling and resource usage. The word CE best relates to the resource and efficiency management, 6Rs, closed-loop production systems, zero waste and lifecycle engineering, reduced overconsumption of resources and waste generation, enriched system redesign and business model innovation, thereby leading to sustainable development goals. In this light, the book calls for theoretical and empirically sound contributions that are focused on the different aspects of the circular economy, 6R’s, sustainable production and consumption, closed-loop systems, etc. in the agri-food sector.

This book examines the EC's movement towards a stable, unified European economy in 1992. Contents: Introduction; Section I: The European Community: Looking Towards 1992; Section II: The Impact of the 1992 Movement On Europe; The Economic and Political Meaning of Europe 1992; The Integration of Systems and Non-Systems: E.C. '92 and the German Transportation Carriers; The Emerging Social Dimensions of Europe 1992; Section III: The Technological Challenge; Forging the European Technology Community; Technology, Competitiveness and Cooperation in Europe; Defence Technology and European Security in the 1990s; Section IV: The Tripartite Relationship; European Management of Trilateral Interdependencies; The U.S. View of EC 1992; The Impact on Global Corporate Competition and Multinational Corporate Strategy; Signposts on the Road to Trade Policy Reform in Agriculture; Will Japan Seek Regionalism?; Section V: The E.C. and the Third World; 1992 and ACP Trade Prospects; Development Assistance Under Lome IV: Politics or Economics'.

Gender studies in the professional realm has long been a heavily researched field, with many feminist texts studying topics including the wage gap and family life. However, female administration in higher education remains largely understudied, particularly on the influence of personal, professional, and societal factors on women. There is a need for studies that seek to understand how gender intersects with the multiple dimensions of women leaders’ personhoods, such as family status, marital status, age, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, to inform women’s career path experiences and leadership aspirations. Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Higher Education Leadership is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the specific challenges, issues, strategies, and solutions that are associated with diverse leadership in higher education. While highlighting topics such as educational administration, leader mentorship, and professional promotion, this publication explores evidence-based professional practice for women in higher education who are currently in or are seeking positions of leadership, as well as the methods of nurturing women in administrative positions. This book is ideally designed for educators, researchers, academicians, scholars, policymakers, educational administrators, graduate-level students, and pre-service teachers seeking current research on the state of educational leadership in regard to gender.

Electronic business plays a central role in the economy, facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services, and payments. It propels productivity and competitiveness and is accessible to all enterprises, and as such, represents an opportunity also for SME competitiveness. E-Business Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for SMEs: Driving Competitiveness discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and solutions related to electronic business adoption, with a special focus on SMEs. Addressing technological, organizational, and legal perspectives in a very comprehensive way, this text aims to disseminate current developments, case studies, new integrated approaches, and practical solutions and applications for SMEs.

President Obama has outlined a comprehensive strategy for the war in Afghanistan which is now the central front of our campaign against Islamic terrorism. The strategy strongly connects our prosecution of that war to our policy in Pakistan and internal developments there as a necessary condition of victory. But the strategy has also provided for a new logistics road through Central Asia. The author argues that a winning strategy in Afghanistan depends as well upon the systematic leveraging of the opportunity provided by that road and a new coordinated nonmilitary approach to Central Asia. That approach would rely heavily on improved coordination at home and the more effective leveraging of our superior economic power in Central Asia to help stabilize the region so that it provides a secure rear to Afghanistan. In this fashion we would help Central Asia meet the challenges of extremism, of economic decline due to the global economic crisis, and thus help provide political stability in states that are likely to be challenged by the confluence of those trends.

This book summarizes the various areas of research in metagenomics and their potential applications in medicine, the environment and biotechnology. The book presents the recent advances in theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of metagenomics and highlights their applications in the fields of environmental microbial forensics, bioremediation, drug-discovery and agriculture. In addition, the book discusses various metagenomics approaches used for understanding the microbial physiology and biochemistry. Lastly the book describes a range of bioinformatics tools and computational methods for metagenomics analysis as well as the functional diversity and dynamics of microbial communities colonizing the human skin.