Despite great advances in diagnosis and treatment that we witnessed in the last decades, over a billion people suffer from both respiratory and neurological diseases each year, which poses great threats to the public health and economic burden worldwide. In many instances, the underlying pathogenic mechanisms are still poorly understood, which significantly limits the efficacy of therapeutic methods. In this regard, lines of evidence pinpoint the important role of immunity and inflammation in both respiratory disorders (e.g., pulmonary hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, etc.) and neurological ones (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, depression, etc.). The accumulation of inflammatory cells and an excess of cytokines and chemokines at the inflammatory site would result from the disturbance of the body's delicate balance between immunity and tolerance. Therefore, it gives rise to chronic inflammation and autoimmunity underlying the development of both lung and neurological diseases. Furthermore, the inflammation interaction between lung and brain has been identified, suggesting the existence and importance of the lung-brain axis in the regulation of immune responses in the lung and brain that contribute to the onset and progression of both respiratory and neurological diseases. Nevertheless, inflammatory or immunity related risk factors as well novel targets and therapies against inflammation or immunity help early diagnosis and treatment of respiratory and neurological diseases. At present, the full picture of the molecular mechanisms of how immuno-inflammatory activation and the immune cells orchestrate the tissue remodeling leading to respiratory and neurological diseases remains unclear. The identification of inflammatory molecules as therapeutic targets or biomarkers are worth further scrutiny to halt the disease progression and monitor the therapeutic interventions.
This book addresses the thorny issue regarding the authenticity of the Yulanpen Sūtra, the scriptural source for the Yulanpen Festival or Hungry Ghost Festival in East Asia. The sūtra, which features Mulian (Skr. Maudgalyāyana) adventuring into the Preta realm to rescue his mother, is catalogued in the Chinese Buddhist bibliography with the Indo-Scythian Dharmarakṣa (Ch. Zhu Fahu, ca. 266–308) given as the translator. However, in modern Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholarship, the sūtra is more often than not regarded as a Chinese Buddhist apocryphal scripture and the Mulian myth as an apocryphal story created by Chinese Buddhists to foster the sinicisation and transformation of Indian Buddhism mainly on the grounds that there is no extant Yulanpen Sūtra in Indic sources and that the sūtra stresses Confucian filial piety and ancestor worship. This book challenges these widely held beliefs by demonstrating that filial piety and ancestor worship are not peculiar to Confucian China but also inherent in Indic traditions and that the sūtra is a Chinese creative translation rather than an indigenous Chinese composition.
The chapters in this book consider the past and present of education in China, elementary education, vocational education, higher education, adult education, education for ethnic minorities, modern distance education, teacher education and teachers, international exchanges and cooperation, the education funding system, and the study of education as a science.
This book presents properties, examples, rigidity theorems and classification results of such Finsler metrics. In particular, this book introduces how to investigate spherically symmetric Finsler geometry using ODE or PDE methods. Spherically symmetric Finsler geometry is a subject that concerns domains in R^n with spherically symmetric metrics. Recently, a significant progress has been made in studying Riemannian-Finsler geometry. However, constructing nice examples of Finsler metrics turn out to be very difficult. In spherically symmetric Finsler geometry, we find many nice examples with special curvature properties using PDE technique. The studying of spherically symmetric geometry shows closed relation among geometry, group and equation.
The thesis aims to examine and explore NPD activities within China and establish whether a Western interpretation of NPD is appropriate to indigenous Chinese companies, engaged in an economy which is entering an era of globalisation. The research is based on ten case studies undertaken within five industrial sectors: lighting (light fabrication), watches (personal consumer products), white goods, automotive and telecommunications. Cases are representative of the differing types of Chinese organisations, and include examples of privately, collectively and state owned enterprises (POEs, COEs and SOEs), together with international joint ventures (IJVs). Conceptual approaches are developed to examine organisational background, NPD culture, technology transfer, NPD coordination, entrepreneurial behaviour, network development and market dynamics within each case study. The units of analysis in the framework reflect three main themes of intra, extra-organisational and strategic issues which are revisited throughout the thesis. The case studies are analysed using a mapping process in which each of the cases is described in terms of its engagement with NPD roles and performance and their correlation with economic development, compared with Western practice. Contingent on this, the thesis identifies a series of assumptions within Western literature, which are evaluated by assessing the case study findings, to establish the transferability of NPD conceptions. In addition, correlations between differing NPD related issues are identified using repertory grid theory detailed in a separate appendix and complementary to the case study analysis. The thesis concludes by proposing models of strategic NPD specific to Chinese organisations, at both intra-organisational, and micro and macro-economic levels; these provide an overview of distinctive NPD performance in indigenous companies, contextualised within the Chinese economy. The implication is that the future development of the Chinese economy will necessitate greater engagement with NPD, albeit in a differing form.
Chinese Theatre: An Illustrated History Through Nuoxi and Mulianxi is the first book in any language entirely devoted to a historical inquiry into Chinese theatre through Nuoxi and Mulianxi, the two most representative and predominant forms of Chinese temple theatre. Volume Two is a continuation of the historical inquiry into Chinese theatre with focus shifted from Mulian storytelling to Mulian story-acting. Thus, this volume traces the historical trajectory of xiqu from Northern dramas to Southern dramas and from elite court theatre to mass regional theatre with pivotal forms and functions of Mulianxi examined, explicated and illustrated in association with the development of corresponding genres of xiqu. In so doing, every aspect of Mulianxi is considered not in the margins of xiqu but in and of itself. While this volume is primarily concerned with Mulianxi, references are also made to other forms of Chinese performing arts and temple theatre, Nuoxi in particular, as Mulianxi has been performed since the twelfth century as, or in company with, Nuoxi, to cleanse the community of evil spirits and epidemic diseases. This is an interdisciplinary book project that is aimed to help researchers and students of theatre history understand the ritual origins of Chinese theatre and the dynamic relationships among myth, ritual, religion and theatre.
Light detection and ranging, or LiDAR, is an advanced active remote sensing technology developed in the last 30 years to measure variable distances to the Earth. This book explains the fundamental concepts of LiDAR technology and its extended spaceborne, airborne, terrestrial, mobile, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. It addresses the challenges of massive LiDAR data intelligent processing, LiDAR software engineering, and in-depth applications. The theory and algorithms are integrated with multiple applications in a systematic way and with step-by-step instructions. Written for undergraduate and graduate students and practitioners in the field of LiDAR remote sensing, this book is a much-needed comprehensive resource. FEATURES Explains the fundamentals of LiDAR remote sensing, including theory, techniques, methods, and applications Highlights the dissemination and popularization of LiDAR remote sensing technology in the last decade Includes new advances in LiDAR data processing and applications Introduces new technologies such as spaceborne LiDAR and photon-counting LiDAR Provides multiple LiDAR application cases regarding topography mapping, forest investigation, power line inspection, building modeling, automatic driving, crop monitoring, indoor navigation, cultural heritage conservation, and underwater mapping This book is written for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students taking courses in remote sensing, geography, photogrammetric engineering, laser techniques, surveying and mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), forestry, and resources and environmental protection. It is also a comprehensive resource for researchers and scientists interested in learning techniques for collecting LiDAR remote sensing data and processing, analyzing, and managing LiDAR data for applications in forestry, surveying and mapping, cultural relic protection, and digital products. Chapters 1 and 2 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
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