Barbara Weber

Mirjam Staub-Bisang

Hans Wilhelm Alfen

"The book includes a step-by-step guide to individual infrastructure assets, focusing on their project financing structures, risk analysis, the various financial instruments used in the transactions, cash flow models and sensitivity analysis"--

Investment Strategy, Sustainability, Project Finance and PPP

Infrastructure as an Asset Class

The market for infrastructure is vast and, contrary to popular belief, the range of potential infrastructure investments is extremely broad. An investor who does not have a sufficient overview and insight into the infrastructure market or an awareness of the suitable investment opportunities and the risks they entail, will find it difficult to select the right investments. This book is a comprehensive guide to the subject, bringing together the topics of infrastructure investments, project finance and public private partnerships (PPPs), equipping investors with the necessary theoretical knowledge and background information as well as practical examples in order to further their understanding of the key aspects of infrastructure investments. It answers questions such as: How is infrastructure defined? Which sectors are classified as infrastructure, how are they categorised, and what are the differences between them? Is infrastructure an asset class in its own right? If so, what are its characteristics? What are the fundamental options for investing in infrastructure? What is a good starting point for institutional investors? How should infrastructure funds be evaluated? What risks do they entail and how can these risks be identified and assessed? How should they be structured in order to best allocate these risks? The book discusses the differing objectives and expectations of the parties involved and the conditions required by public principals and investors in order to enable these groups to overcome the ?language problems? they largely encounter. In addition to background knowledge and information on the latest developments in the individual subject areas, the book also explains the methodology of project finance in detail, both for traditional project finance and in the PPP context, establishing the key differences to other forms of financing, guiding readers through the various phases of project analysis on a step-by-step basis using practical examples. Well structured infrastructure investments can serve to improve the risk-return profile of an investor?s overall portfolio on account of their long term and their low level of correlation with traditional asset classes. This book will assist investors in their understanding of infrastructure investments, leading to a better informed portfolio. "A comprehensive and well-written overview of many relevant topics in the infrastructure sector; a useful guide for everyone involved or interested in the infrastructure area." Henk Huizing, Head of Infrastructure, PGGM "A comprehensive book that effectively marries the topics of infrastructure investing, project finance and PPPs as well as bridges the gap between the theoretical and the practical - the authors are to be commended on this work." Marc S. Lipschultz, Global Head of Energy and Infrastructure, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. "Quite a book and one that should definitely be part of the toolkit of those who are interested in the Infrastructure asset class. Had this comprehensive work been available ten years ago, no doubt, one or two of us certainly would have done things differently. So, let's keep it closely at hand as a guide for the future that helps us deliver even better outcomes for all stakeholders and enables us to further develop the asset class." Ron Boots, Senior Portfolio Manager - Co head Infrastructure Investments, APG All Pensions Group

Investment Strategies, Project Finance and PPP

Florian Daniel

Jianmin Wang

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2013, held in Beijing, China, in August 2013. The 17 regular papers and 8 short papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 118 submissions. The papers are organized in 7 topical sections named: process mining; conformance checking; process data; process model matching; process architectures and collaboration; as well as alternative perspectives, and industry paper.

11th International Conference, BPM 2013, Beijing, China, August 26-30, 2013, Proceedings

Business Process Management

Manfred Reichert

In today’s dynamic business world, the success of a company increasingly depends on its ability to react to changes in its environment in a quick and flexible way. Companies have therefore identified process agility as a competitive advantage to address business trends like increasing product and service variability or faster time to market, and to ensure business IT alignment. Along this trend, a new generation of information systems has emerged—so-called process-aware information systems (PAIS), like workflow management systems, case handling tools, and service orchestration engines. With this book, Reichert and Weber address these flexibility needs and provide an overview of PAIS with a strong focus on methods and technologies fostering flexibility for all phases of the process lifecycle (i.e., modeling, configuration, execution and evolution). Their presentation is divided into six parts. Part I starts with an introduction of fundamental PAIS concepts and establishes the context of process flexibility in the light of practical scenarios. Part II focuses on flexibility support for pre-specified processes, the currently predominant paradigm in the field of business process management (BPM). Part III details flexibility support for loosely specified processes, which only partially specify the process model at build-time, while decisions regarding the exact specification of certain model parts are deferred to the run-time. Part IV deals with user- and data-driven processes, which aim at a tight integration of processes and data, and hence enable an increased flexibility compared to traditional PAIS. Part V introduces existing technologies and systems for the realization of a flexible PAIS. Finally, Part VI summarizes the main ideas of this book and gives an outlook on advanced flexibility issues. The book’s target groups include researchers, PhD students and Master students in the field of information systems. After reading the book, they will better understand PAIS flexibility aspects. To support the easy use as a textbook, a series of exercises is provided at the end of each chapter and slides and further teaching material are available on the book’s web site www.flexible-processes.com. Professionals specializing in business process management (BPM) who want to obtain a good understanding of flexibility challenges in BPM and state-of-the-art solutions will also benefit from the presentations of open source as well as commercial process management systems and related practical scenarios.

Challenges, Methods, Technologies

Enabling Flexibility in Process-Aware Information Systems

Walter Omar Kohan

Thinking, Childhood, and Time: Contemporary Perspectives on the Politics of Education is an interdisciplinary exploration of the notion of childhood and its place in a philosophical education. Contributors consider children’s experiences of time, space, embodiment, and thinking. By acknowledging Hannah Arendt’s notion that every child brings a new beginning into the world, they address the question of how educators can be more responsive to the Otherness that childhood offers, while assuming that most educational models follow either a chronological model of child development or view children as human beings that are lacking. The contributors explore childhood as a philosophical concept in children, adults, and even beyond human beings—Childhood as a (forgotten) dimension of the world. Contributors also argue that a pedagogy that does not aim for an “exodus of childhood,” but rather responds to the arrival of a new human being responsibly (dialogically), fosters a deeper appreciation of the newness that children bring in order to sensitize us for our own Childhood as adults as well and allow us to welcome other forms of childhood in the world. As a whole, this book argues that the experience of natality, such as the beginning of life, is not chronologically determined, but rather can occur more than once in a human life and beyond. Scholars of philosophy, education, psychology, and childhood studies will find this book particularly useful.

Contemporary Perspectives on the Politics of Education

Thinking, Childhood, and Time

This anthology explores the significance and role of empathy in the public sphere. It examines the use of empathy to establish transcultural solidarity as well as to motivate people for political action in our ever increasingly multicultural environment. On a more practical level, it investigates if empathy can be taught or cultivated and, if so, are literature or other forms of cultural representations the most adequate and promising methods. The contributions will analyze these and other implications, potentials and weaknesses of empathy on an interdisciplinary and intercultural level.

New Interdisciplinary Perspectives on an Ancient Phenomenon

The Politics of Empathy

Karlfriedrich Herb

Eva Marsal

Takara Dobashi

Petra Schweitzer

Recognizing and respecting cultural and ethnic differences, while, at the same time, guaranteeing the equality of treatment, seems like a paradox. However, it is among the crucial challenges that plural democracies are faced with today. The challenges include multiple problems, such as the struggle for recognition of cultural minorities or the actualization of universal human rights. The contributions to this anthology discuss these issues, with the goal of combining knowledge and opinions from various disciplines and multiple cultures in order to unfold the complexity and variety of questions that have to be solved, so that public spaces can be seen as environments of intercultural recognition. (Series: Political Philosophy and Anthropological Studies. Politische Philosophie und Anthropologische Studien - Vol. 2)

The Public Space of Recognition

Cultural Politics and Identity

Philosophizing for, with, and by children in a community of inquiry has proven to be an internationally successful learning strategy that enhances both the cognitive and emotional growth of children. Pioneering democratic programs for philosophizing with children now exist throughout the world. The work described in this book represents the latest research on theoretical concepts and applied projects within this field and brings together contributions from twenty-nine countries, representing all continents. The authors address questions on the theoretical foundation of Philosophy for Children, the application of philosophical methods, the community of inquiry, international and national didactical concepts as well as the evaluation of those concepts. A primary goal of this book is to enhance intercultural academic exchange and to encourage further research and practical work in this field.

Theoretical and Practical Concepts

Children Philosophize Worldwide

Merle J. Crawford

"Equips early intervention providers with strategies for supporting families to facilitate critical skills for young children with autism or with characteristics of autism during typical everyday routines and activities. Focuses on those skills particularly challenging for this population, e.g., regulation, flexibility, social communication"--

Embedding Activities in Daily Routines for Young Children and Their Families

Autism Intervention Every Day!

Every interventionist needs this practical sourcebook, packed with research-based strategies for helping parents and caregivers take a consistent, active role in supporting young children?s development.

Barbara Weber

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