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Serpins constitute a superfamily of proteins that possess a unique tertiary structure and mechanism of proteinase inhibition. In humans, serpins constitute 10% of the plasma proteins and are best known as critical regulators of both the thrombotic and fibrinolytic systems. Serpins also participate in the regulation of the complement cascade, angiogenesis, tumor metastasis, apoptosis and innate immunity. Considering the importance of these molecules in regulating proteolytic cascades, it is not surprising to find that loss- and gain-of-function mutations result in significant human diseases. Massive thrombosis or bleeding, hereditary angioedema, Alzheimer''s disease, diabetic angiopathy and tumor invasion are some of the human diseases associated with serpins. In addition, mutations that alter serpin conformations (the serpinopathies) lead to lung disease, cirrhosis and a form of familial dementia. The goal of this text is to present the current knowledge on the molecular and cellular basis of serpins and their diseases.

From Bing Crosby's early days in college minstrel shows and vaudeville, to his first hit recordings, from his 11 year triumph as star of America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood, Gary Giddins provides a detailed study of the rise of this American star.

Up to 70% and even more of corporate Analytics Efforts fail!!! Even after these corporations have made very large investments, in time, talent, and money, in developing what they thought were good data and analytics programs. Why? Because the executives and decision makers and the entire analytics team have not considered the most important aspect of making these analytics efforts successful. In this Book II of "It’s All Analytics!" series, we describe two primary things: 1) What this "most important aspect" consists of, and 2) How to get this "most important aspect" at the center of the analytics effort and thus make your analytics program successful. This Book II in the series is divided into three main parts: Part I, Organizational Design for Success, discusses ....... The need for a complete company / organizational Alignment of the entire company and its analytics team for making its analytics successful. This means attention to the culture – the company culture culture!!! To be successful, the CEO’s and Decision Makers of a company / organization must be fully cognizant of the cultural focus on ‘establishing a center of excellence in analytics’. Simply, "culture – company culture" is the most important aspect of a successful analytics program. The focus must be on innovation, as this is needed by the analytics team to develop successful algorithms that will lead to greater company efficiency and increased profits. Part II, Data Design for Success, discusses ..... Data is the cornerstone of success with analytics. You can have the best analytics algorithms and models available, but if you do not have good data, efforts will at best be mediocre if not a complete failure. This Part II also goes further into data with descriptions of things like Volatile Data Memory Storage and Non-Volatile Data Memory Storage, in addition to things like data structures and data formats, plus considering things like Cluster Computing, Data Swamps, Muddy Data, Data Marts, Enterprise Data Warehouse, Data Reservoirs, and Analytic Sandboxes, and additionally Data Virtualization, Curated Data, Purchased Data, Nascent & Future Data, Supplemental Data, Meaningful Data, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) & Geo Analytics Data, Graph Databases, and Time Series Databases. Part II also considers Data Governance including Data Integrity, Data Security, Data Consistency, Data Confidence, Data Leakage, Data Distribution, and Data Literacy. Part III, Analytics Technology Design for Success, discusses .... Analytics Maturity and aspects of this maturity, like Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Preparation, Feature Engineering, Building Models, Model Evaluation, Model Selection, and Model Deployment. Part III also goes into the nuts and bolts of modern predictive analytics, discussing such terms as AI = Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and the more traditional aspects of analytics that feed into modern analytics like Statistics, Forecasting, Optimization, and Simulation. Part III also goes into how to Communicate and Act upon Analytics, which includes building a successful Analytics Culture within your company / organization. All-in-all, if your company or organization needs to be successful using analytics, this book will give you the basics of what you need to know to make it happen.

This book examines and analyses the connections between gastronomy, tourism and the media. It argues that in the modern world, gastronomy is increasingly a major component and driver of tourism and that destinations are using their cuisines and food cultures in marketing to increase their competitive advantage. It proposes that these processes are interconnected with film, television, print and social media. The book emphasises the notion of gastronomy as a dynamic concept, in particular how it has recently become more widely used and understood throughout the world. The volume introduces core concepts and delves more deeply into current trends in gastronomy, the forces which shape them and their implications for tourism. The book is multidisciplinary and will appeal to researchers in the fields of gastronomy, hospitality, tourism and media studies.

In this exciting new book the authors explore the factors of relationship marketing in its contemporary context, with the consumer in mind. From the experience of a football club supporter to experiences of gap year travel, to text messaging behavior, and to using the library, the focus of this text is on the consumer perspective. From this angle, issues of relationship marketing, and its management, take on a new and exciting bearing. Topics examined include: frameworks for analyzing the consumer experience; consumer communities; issues of customer loyalty; the impact of ICT on relationship marketing; and the creative consumer.

TCP/IP Illustrated, an ongoing series covering the many facets of TCP/IP, brings a highly-effective visual approach to learning about this networking protocol suite. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2 contains a thorough explanation of how TCP/IP protocols are implemented. There isn't a more practical or up-to-date bookothis volume is the only one to cover the de facto standard implementation from the 4.4BSD-Lite release, the foundation for TCP/IP implementations run daily on hundreds of thousands of systems worldwide. Combining 500 illustrations with 15,000 lines of real, working code, TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2 uses a teach-by-example approach to help you master TCP/IP implementation. You will learn about such topics as the relationship between the sockets API and the protocol suite, and the differences between a host implementation and a router. In addition, the book covers the newest features of the 4.4BSD-Lite release, including multicasting, long fat pipe support, window scale, timestamp options, and protection against wrapped sequence numbers, and many other topics. Comprehensive in scope, based on a working standard, and thoroughly illustrated, this book is an indispensable resource for anyone working with TCP/IP.

This SpringerBrief offers an academic perspective on the trend of ‘pop-up’ retailing. It analyzes this temporary retail-oriented setting designed to foster a direct customer-brand interaction for a limited period, often with an explicitly promotional or communicative purpose. Adopting a managerial approach, it explores the use of pop-up retailing as a means of facilitating strategic growth by retail brands. In addition, it draws on theory from retail store environments and atmospherics, customer experience management and event management to provide an in-depth academic analysis of the planning and implementation issues arising from the inherent ephemerality of pop-up activities to achieve the strategic objectives of retail brands. The authors provide an overview of the entire pop-up lifecycle using an organizational schema that is split into four sequential stages: strategic objectives, pre-pop-up, actual pop-up experience, and the post pop-up stage. The key decision areas and activities incorporated in each of these stages are also outlined.

A Secret Service agent confronts Russian spycraft, murder in the White House, and a dangerous talk-radio host in a “completely mesmerizing” thriller (Dale Brown, New York Times-bestselling author of Eagle Station). The terrorists who came within a heartbeat of undermining the presidency of the United States in Executive Actions are back in Executive Treason with a new—and deadlier—plot to destabilize the U.S. government. It begins with the mugging and murder of a female White House staffer. Secret Service Agent Scott Roarke discovers the larger truth: the murder was committed by his secret nemesis, the mysterious assassin who had stayed one step ahead of him during the presidential campaign. This time, Roarke has found clues about the assassin’s past that give him the tools he needs to hunt the hunter—and also silence a popular hate talk radio host dividing the country. But the clues can only go so far. Roarke needs all his skills—and a lot of luck—if he’s going to catch his quarry… “Fast-paced, with vivid characters and a plot right off the front pages. Surprises you on every page. A winner.”—Larry Bond, New York Times-bestselling author of Arctic Gambit

The New York Times–bestselling author’s pioneering true crime classic: It’s “Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood turned inside out” (Newsweek). During an armed robbery in 1974, five hostages were held in the basement of a small home-audio store in Ogden, Utah, by a group of enlisted US Air Force airmen stationed at a nearby base. The victims—including wife and mother Carol Naisbitt—were brutally tortured, shot in the head, and left for dead. Yet somehow, Carol’s sixteen-year-old son made it out alive—and “the emotional strain his family underwent during his year-long hospitalization, is the heart of Kinder’s story” (Kirkus Reviews). In Victim, the first true crime book to go beyond the headlines and tell story of love, loss, courage, and survival, “the crime in question becomes not merely something that happened to somebody else somewhere else, but rather an event that touches us all firsthand and very deeply.” A compelling and tragic look at how lives can be changed forever by a random act of violence, it remains one of the most influential books in the victims’ rights movement and has become required reading for trainees at the FBI Academy at Quantico (Boston Herald).