Awarded the Literature Prize of the VCIThis comprehensive textbook describes the synthesis, characterization and technical and engineering applications of polymers. Polymers are unique molecules and have properties different from any other class of materials. We encounter them in everyday life, not only in the form of the well-known, large-volume plastics such as PE or PP or the many other special polymers, some of which are very specifically modified but also in nature as polymeric biomolecu...

This handbook discusses different countries' bureaucratic, institutional, constitutional, reforms and governance system. It analyses the legislative and policy making processes and applications, local structures and functions of public administration in a given country. It presents the comparative aspects of public administration across the globe with recent developments in the field.

This upper-level open access textbook uses an interdisciplinary perspective to discuss the 'what and why' of public procurement, providing insight into the 'how' of contemporary procurement in the public sector. The authors use theories and exemplary practices to show the next generation of public procurement professionals how public value can be created via the acquisition of works, supplies, or services by organizations operating in the public domain. Perfectly tailored to university studen...

Practical Pharmaceutics contains essential knowledge on the preparation, quality control, logistics, dispensing and use of medicines. It features chapters written by experienced pharmacists and scientists working in hospitals, academia and industry throughout Europe, including practical examples as well as information on current GMP and GMP-based guidelines and EU-legislation. In this second edition all chapters have been updated with numerous new as well as didactically revised illustrations...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can benefit our society and economy, but also brings with it new challenges and raises legal and ethical questions. According to the author of this comprehensive analysis, it is imperative to ensure that AI is developed and applied in an appropriate legal and regulatory framework that promotes innovation and investment and, at the same time, addresses the risks associated with certain uses of AI-related technologies.

Essential to understanding the relationship bet...

This textbook is aimed at readers who have little or no knowledge of computer programming but want to learn to program in Python. It starts from the very basics including how to install your Python environment, how to write a very simple program and run it, what a variable is, what an if statement is, how iteration works using for and while loops as well as important key concepts such as functions, classes and modules. Each subject area is prefaced with an introductory chapter, before continu...

This book offers a practical guide for policy advisors and their managers, grounded in the author’s extensive experience as a senior policy practitioner in New Zealand’s Westminster-style system of government.

A key message is that effective policy advising is less about cycles, stages and steps, and more about relationships, integrity and communication. Policy making is incremental social problem solving. Policy advising is mostly learned on the job, like an apprenticeship. It starts wit...