This thesis examines the feasibility of using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a viable disinfectant. It explores the opportunities and challenges of using AgNPs as an antimicrobial agent, and includes the latest research findings. It compares three kinds of AgNPs with regard to their antibacterial and antiviral effects; their sustainability in real water matrices; and their antiviral mechanisms. The outcome of this research equips the water industry with a better understanding of the capacity, extent and mechanisms of nanosilver disinfection. It is of interest to graduate students, academics and researchers in the area of nanotechnology and environmental engineering.
Access to Mobile Services focuses on methods for accessing broadcast based M-services from multiple wireless channels. This book presents a novel infrastructure that provides a multi-channel broadcast framework for mobile users to effectively discover and access composite M-services. Multi-channel algorithms are proposed for efficiently accessing composite services. Access to Mobile Services provides an in-depth survey of wireless data access and motivates the need to treat mobile services differently. A wireless adaptation of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is also covered. Designed for researchers and practitioners who work in the general area of mobile services, this book is also suitable for advanced-level students in computer science. Forewords by: Michael P. Papazoglou, Tilburg University, The Netherlands Fabio Casati, University of Trento, Italy
NOTE: If you're wondering about the pricing, well, it's so everyone gets $0.75 per copy. NOTE 2: We skipped the Bronze Sword because we could, so it was time for silver since I used all my iron on my hoe collection. Ryan was very mad. It's been almost a year, and the quest is still on. After upgrading the Copper Sword, Brian, Ryan, the other Ryan, and more are here to stop the IXA Corporation from achieving world domination. The Puppet Master? What Puppet Master? He's just a low-class minion, and it will take more than just a sword to stop the others. This is Questing In Quarantine. Seven endings. One choice. Choose wisely.
Errors of Creativity presents an in-depth analysis of both the sources and characteristics of lexical errors committed by Chinese college students who major in English language. Using theories of the semantic field and componential analysis as the theoretical basis, Errors of Creativity gives new insight into the specific area of error analysis, as well as to the theory and practice of L2 acquisition.
Power systems are evolving towards the Smart Grid paradigm, featured by large-scale integration of renewable energy resources, e.g. wind and solar power, deeper participation of demand side, and enhanced interaction with electric vehicles. While these emerging elements are inherently stochastic in nature, they are creating a challenge to the system’s stability and its control. In this context, conventional analysis tools are becoming less effective, and necessitate the use alternative tools that are able to deal with the high uncertainty and variability in the smart grid. Smart Grid initiatives have facilitated wide-spread deployment of advanced sensing and communication infrastructure, e.g. phasor measurement units at grid level and smart meters at household level, which collect tremendous amount of data in various time and space scales. How to fully utilize the data and extract useful knowledge from them, is of great importance and value to support the advanced stability assessment and control of the smart grid. The intelligent system strategy has been identified as an effective approach to meet the above needs. This book presents the cutting-edge intelligent system techniques and their applications for stability assessment and control of power systems. The major topics covered in this book are: Intelligent system design and algorithms for on-line stability assessment, which aims to use steady-state operating variables to achieve fast stability assessment for credible contingencies. Intelligent system design and algorithms for preventive stability control, which aims at transparent and interpretable decision-making on preventive control actions to manipulate system operating condition against possible contingencies. Intelligent system design and algorithms for real-time stability prediction, which aims to use synchronized measurements to foresee the stability status under an ongoing disturbance. Intelligent system design and algorithms for emergency stability control, which aims at fast decision-making on stability control actions at emergency stage where instability is propagating. Methodologies and algorithms for improving the robustness of intelligent systems against missing-data issues. This book is a reference and guide for researchers, students, and engineers who seek to study and design intelligent systems to resolve stability assessment and control problems in the smart grid age.
Topological Surface States (TSS) represent new types of two dimensional electron systems with novel and unprecedented properties distinct from any quantum Hall-like or spin-Hall effects. Their topological order can be realized at room temperatures without magnetic fields and they can be turned into magnets, exotic superconductors or Kondo insulators leading to worldwide interest and activity in the topic. We review the basic concepts defining such topological matter and the key experimental probe that revealed the topological order in the bulk of these spin-orbit interaction dominated insulators. This review focuses on the key results that demonstrated the fundamental topological properties such as spin-momentum locking, non-trivial Berrys phases, mirror Chern number, absence of backscattering, protection by time-reversal and other discrete (mirror) symmetries and their remarkable persistence up to the room temperature elaborating on results first discussed by M.Z. Hasan and C.L. Kane in the Rev. of Mod. Phys., 82, 3045 (2010). Additionally, key results on broken symmetry phases such as quantum magnetism and uperconductivity induced in topological materials are briefly discussed.
This open access book focuses on the practical application of Adaptive Dynamic Programming (ADP) in chemotherapy drug delivery, taking into account clinical variables and real-time data. ADP's ability to adapt to changing conditions and make optimal decisions in complex and uncertain situations makes it a valuable tool in addressing pressing challenges in healthcare and other fields. As optimization technology evolves, we can expect to see even more sophisticated and powerful solutions emerge.
A thorough introduction to the development and applications of intelligent wearable interfaces As mobile computing, sensing technology, and artificial intelligence become more advanced and their applications more widespread, the area of intelligent wearable interfaces is growing in importance. This emerging form of human-machine interaction has infinite possibilities for enhancing humans' capabilities in communications, actions, monitoring, and control. Intelligent Wearable Interfaces is a collection of the efforts the authors have made in this area at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. They introduce methodologies to develop a variety of intelligent wearable interfaces and cover practical implementations of systems for real-life applications. A number of novel intelligent wearable interface systems are examined, including: Network architecture for wearable robots Wearable interface for automatic language translation Intelligent cap interface for wheelchair control Intelligent shoes for human-computer interface Fingertip human-computer interface Ubiquitous 3D digital writing instrument Intelligent mobile human airbag system This book is a valuable reference for researchers, designers, engineers, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of human-machine interactions,rehabilitation engineering, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
Data mining has witnessed substantial advances in recent decades. New research questions and practical challenges have arisen from emerging areas and applications within the various fields closely related to human daily life, e.g. social media and social networking. This book aims to bridge the gap between traditional data mining and the latest adv
Named after the two-faced roman god, Janus particles have gained much attention due to their potential in a variety of applications, including drug delivery. This is the first book devoted to Janus particles and covers their methods of synthesis, how these particles self-assemble, and their possible uses. By following the line of synthesis, self-assembly and applications, the book not only covers the fundamental and applied aspects, but it goes beyond a simple summary and offers a logistic way of selecting the proper synthetic route for Janus particles for certain applications. Written by pioneering experts in the field, the book introduces the Janus concept to those new to the topic and highlights the most recent research progress on the topic for those active in the field and catalyze new ideas.
This SpringerBrief explains how to leverage mobile users' social relationships to improve the interactions of mobile devices in mobile networks. It develops a social group utility maximization (SGUM) framework that captures diverse social ties of mobile users and diverse physical coupling of mobile devices. Key topics include random access control, power control, spectrum access, and location privacy. This brief also investigates SGUM-based power control game and random access control game, for which it establishes the socially-aware Nash equilibrium (SNE). It then examines the critical SGUM-based spectrum access game, and pseudonym change game for personalized location privacy. The authors propose future work on extending the SGUM framework to negative social ties, to demonstrate relevance to security applications and span the continuum between zero-sum game (ZSG) and non-cooperative game (NCG). Social Group Utility Maximization targets researchers and professionals working on mobile networks and social networks. Advanced-level students in electrical engineering and computer science will also find this material useful for their related courses.
During the early 1980s China embarked on what can be seen as one of the world’s largest social experiments ever. Decollectivization meant much more than the reorganization of agricultural production into family based farming. It signalled significant changes to rural social relations, when privatization, marketization and increased geographical mobility started tearing apart the economic and social institutions that had structured collective village life under Mao. The focus of this book is on how rural society has been reorganized in the 21st century. The first chapters outline the basic organizational structure of rural China and can be used as an introduction to the topic in a classroom setting. They show how the state and its social scientists draw up plans to overcome the perceived lack of rural social organization, and discuss the often problem-ridden implementation of their ideas. The second section presents case studies of institutions that organize key aspects of rural life: Boarding schools where rural children learn to accept organizational hierarchies; lineage organizations carving out new roles for themselves; “dragonhead enterprises” expected to organize agricultural production and support rural development, and several others. The book is of theoretical interest because of its focus on the re-embedding, or reintegration, of individuals into new types of collectivities, which are less predetermined by tradition and habit and more a matter of, at least perceived, individual choice. Most chapters are based on extensive fieldwork and contain vivid examples from daily life, which will make the book attractive to anyone who wants to understand how Chinese villagers experience the extraordinary social changes they are going through.
This book focuses on key simulation and evaluation technologies for 5G systems. Based on the most recent research results from academia and industry, it describes the evaluation methodologies in depth for network and physical layer technologies. The evaluation methods are discussed in depth. It also covers the analysis of the 5G candidate technologies and the testing challenges, the evolution of the testing technologies, fading channel measurement and modeling, software simulations, software hardware cosimulation, field testing and other novel evaluation methods. The fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications system targets highly improved network performances in terms of the network capacity and the number of connections. Testing and evaluation technologies is widely recognized and plays important roles in the wireless technology developments, along with the research on basic theory and key technologies. The investigation and developments on the multi-level and comprehensive evaluations for 5G new technologies, provides important performance references for the 5G technology filtering and future standardizations. Students focused on telecommunications, electronic engineering, computer science or other related disciplines will find this book useful as a secondary text. Researchers and professionals working within these related fields will also find this book useful as a reference.
Behaviour of Building Structures Subjected to Progressive Collapse gives in-depth and up-to-date quantitative and numerical analysis of building structures against progressive collapse. It does so at various levels, including bare steel joints, composite joints and sub-assemblages and frames under quasi-static loading conditions. The book provides analysis of the force transfer mechanisms of composite structures and reinforced concrete structures, along with detailed numerical models that shed light on the effects of critical parameters on progressive collapse resistances. It includes direct design methods that take into account various collapse-resisting mechanisms. The collapse of the World Trade Center in New York has spurred extensive experimental study and numerical analysis of the structural behavior of buildings under progressive collapse scenarios. Although design guidelines have been published by governments, most are missing up-to-date numerical and experimental results, quantitative accounts of force transfer mechanisms, and numerical guidelines. Offers in-depth analysis and numerical modeling for building structures against progressive collapse Provides analysis of the force-transfer mechanisms of composite and reinforced concrete structures Gives detailed numerical models that shed light on the effects of critical parameters on progressive resistances Includes direct design methods that take into account various collapse resisting mechanisms Offers a comprehensive reference for progressive collapse analysis and the design of building structures
Provides timely coverage of an important research area that is highly relevant to advanced detection and control technology Projecting device performance beyond the scaling limits of Moore’s law requires technologies based on novel materials and device architecture. Due to its excellent electronic, thermal, and optical properties, graphene has emerged as a scalable, low-cost material with enormous integration possibilities for numerous optoelectronic applications. Graphene for Post-Moore Silicon Optoelectronics presents an up-to-date overview of the fundamentals, applications, challenges, and opportunities of integrating graphene and other 2D materials with silicon (Si) technologies. With an emphasis on graphene-silicon (Gr/Si) integrated devices in optoelectronics, this valuable resource also addresses emerging applications such as optoelectronic synaptic devices, optical modulators, and infrared image sensors. The book opens with an introduction to graphene for silicon optoelectronics, followed by chapters describing the growth, transfer, and physics of graphene/silicon junctions. Subsequent chapters each focus on a particular Gr/Si application, including high-performance photodetectors, solar energy harvesting devices, and hybrid waveguide devices. The book concludes by offering perspectives on the future challenges and prospects of Gr/Si optoelectronics, including the emergence of wafer-scale systems and neuromorphic optoelectronics. Illustrates the benefits of graphene-based electronics and hybrid device architectures that incorporate existing Si technology Covers all essential aspects of Gr/Si devices, including material synthesis, device fabrication, system integration, and related physics Summarizes current progress and future challenges of wafer-scale 2D-Si integrated optoelectronic devices Explores a wide range of Gr/Si devices, such as synaptic phototransistors, hybrid waveguide modulators, and graphene thermopile image sensors Graphene for Post-Moore Silicon Optoelectronics is essential reading for materials scientists, electronics engineers, and chemists in both academia and industry working with the next generation of Gr/Si devices.
The book is the first to define the meaning and components of the grid and apply it in Chinese planning history. It provides a fresh methodology, pushing the boundary of planning by this new practical tool for planners and governors and new perspective for the architecture and city planning faculties. From graphs to rules, from facts to in-depth analysis, this book focuses on the tool of urban planning, the grid, with thoughtful organization of knowledge from Chinese history, architecture and city planning discipline, providing knowledge along with politics, military, customs, mysterious Fengshui theories and astrology beliefs. Moreover, the book proved the link between grids and social aims, discussing each kind of aim by thoughtful organization of data collected from 301 prefecture cities, unfolding the powers propelling the city formation and shedding light on what shaped our cities today.
This book introduces readers to the fundamentals of and recent advances in federated learning, focusing on reducing communication costs, improving computational efficiency, and enhancing the security level. Federated learning is a distributed machine learning paradigm which enables model training on a large body of decentralized data. Its goal is to make full use of data across organizations or devices while meeting regulatory, privacy, and security requirements. The book starts with a self-contained introduction to artificial neural networks, deep learning models, supervised learning algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, and evolutionary learning. Concise information is then presented on multi-party secure computation, differential privacy, and homomorphic encryption, followed by a detailed description of federated learning. In turn, the book addresses the latest advances in federate learning research, especially from the perspectives of communication efficiency, evolutionary learning, and privacy preservation. The book is particularly well suited for graduate students, academic researchers, and industrial practitioners in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. It can also be used as a self-learning resource for readers with a science or engineering background, or as a reference text for graduate courses.
A User's Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine. CAN'T SLEEP. No energy. Libido has plummeted. Your mood and weight are on a roller coaster ride. Today, many medical problems are as frustrating as they are pervasive. Western medicine - with its incredible advances and therapies - doesn't have all the answers for conditions that are slowing us down, making us sick, and causing our bodies to feel like they've been run through a paper shredder. Perhaps solutions you've tried haven't really worked. Or maybe you're just not progressing the way you hoped. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) brings options to complete your current health and wellness approach. Using age-old techniques, TCM practitioners treat the body holistically - interconnections and relationships between body parts matter. It's Yin and Yang for you - a balance between complementary pieces in your body working together to optimize your health, your energy, and your life."--Back cover.
Cognition, information processing activities for individuals to understand the objective world, reflects the real world in the human brain. Cognitive impairment refers to a decline in cognitive functioning of varying degrees, from subjective cognitive impairment to severe dementia. With the accelerated global population aging, the number of people with cognitive impairment is increasing rapidly. Dementia has become a major contributor to the global burden of disease and loss of disability-adjusted life years. Cognitive impairment is a heterogeneous syndrome, the cause of which is still myriad. Although significant advancement in the understanding of the pathology of cognitive impairment has been made in recent decades, the tools and strategies at our disposal to deal with cognitive impairment are still very limited. Currently, no disease-modified treatment has been identified. Interdisciplinary research refers to the methodology of comprehensive understanding or problem-solving through the intersection between natural science and social science and other disciplines, or the internal intersection between many disciplines within a certain category of science. It is conducive to the overall understanding of problems and identifying effective solutions to complex problems faced by human society. In recent years, studies in many fields other than neurology have inspired our understanding of cognitive impairment, putting forward new insights into its phenomenology, and providing many effective prevention or alleviation strategies to delay cognitive decline or manage the symptoms. It is very likely that interdisciplinary research would shed a light on our efforts to cope with the challenges brought by the growing epidemic of cognitive impairment.
A timely guide using iterative learning control (ILC) as a solution for multi-agent systems (MAS) challenges, showcasing recent advances and industrially relevant applications Explores the synergy between the important topics of iterative learning control (ILC) and multi-agent systems (MAS) Concisely summarizes recent advances and significant applications in ILC methods for power grids, sensor networks and control processes Covers basic theory, rigorous mathematics as well as engineering practice
This book provides a comprehensive look at one-dimensional (1D) mesoporous inorganic nanomaterials. Beginning with a systematic presentation of their characterization using advanced electron microscopy techniques, the book discusses how to design the growth of 1D nanomaterials in order to achieve different, application-targeted morphologies such as nanowires, nanorods, nanofibers, nanotubes, and nanobelts. Subsequently, the book systematically summarizes current state-of-the-art research activities, encompassing energy conversion and storage, catalysis, sensing, and adsorption. The book concludes with a forward-looking summary of the different prospects of these materials for novel energy applications, as well as the challenges faced regarding their mass production, cost-effective synthesis strategies, and a deep understanding of the physics involved in the microstructure-dependent performance. Featuring broad and up-to-date coverage of this rapidly growing field, this book is useful for researchers working at the intersections of materials science, chemistry, and advanced energy devices.
This book systematically presents the technical aspects of supercritical water oxidation and supercritical water gasification for energy and environmental applications, which include reactor design, construction materials, corrosion, salt precipitation, etc. The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the properties of supercritical water, and the industrial applications, reaction mechanisms and reaction kinetics of supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) and supercritical water gasification (SCWG). The reactions occurring in supercritical water are complex, and studying their reaction mechanisms is of great importance for the development of supercritical water processing technologies. Accordingly, the book explains the oxidative mechanisms and kinetics of organic matter in supercritical water in detail. However, the harsh reaction conditions in supercritical water can easily create severe reactor corrosion and salt deposition problems. Therefore, the book also comprehensively reports on the mechanism analysis, state of research, and development trends regarding these two problems. Lastly, the book summarizes the development of supercritical water processing technologies, including studies on SCWO and SCWG, as well as near-zero-emission systems of pollutants based on SCWO technology. In short, the book provides a wealth of valuable information for all readers who are interested in using SCWO for organic waste treatment, and in using SCWG for hydrogen production with wet biomass.
The boys love (BL) genre was created for girls and women by young female manga (comic) artists in early 1970s Japan to challenge oppressive gender and sexual norms. Over the years, BL has seen almost irrepressible growth in popularity and since the 2000s has become a global media phenomenon, weaving its way into anime, prose fiction, live-action dramas, video games, audio dramas, and fan works. BL’s male–male romantic and sexual relationships have found a particularly receptive home in other parts of Asia, where strong local fan communities and locally produced BL works have garnered a following throughout the region, taking on new meanings and engendering widespread cultural effects. Queer Transfigurations is the first detailed examination of the BL media explosion across Asia. The book brings together twenty-one scholars exploring BL media, its fans, and its sociocultural impacts in a dozen countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia—and beyond. Contributors draw on their expertise in an array of disciplines and fields, including anthropology, fan studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, political science, and sociology to shed light on BL media and its fandoms. Queer Transfigurations reveals the far-reaching influences of the BL genre, demonstrating that it is truly transnational and transcultural in diverse cultural contexts. It has also helped bring about positive changes in the status of LGBT(Q) people and communities as well as enlighten local understandings of gender and sexuality throughout Asia. In short, Queer Transfigurations shows that, some fifty years after the first BL manga appeared in print, the genre is continuing to reverberate and transform lives.
INTELLIGENT IOT FOR THE DIGITAL WORLD DISCOVER HOW THE INTELLIGENT INTERNET OF THINGS WILL CHANGE THE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN THE NEXT DECADE In the digital world, most data and Internet of Things (IoT) services need to be efficiently processed and executed by intelligent algorithms using local or regional computing resources, thus greatly saving and reducing communication bandwidth, end-to-end service delay, long-distance data transmissions, and potential privacy breaches. This book proposes a pyramid model, where data, computing and algorithm jointly constitute the triangular base to support a variety of user-centric intelligent IoT services at the spire by using different kinds of smart terminals or devices. This book provides a state-of-the-art review of intelligent IoT technologies and applications, discusses the key challenges and opportunities facing the digital world, and answers the following five critical questions: What is the most feasible network architecture to effectively provide sufficient resources anywhere anytime for intelligent IoT application scenarios? How do we efficiently discover, allocate and manage computing, communication and caching resources in heterogeneous networks across multiple domains and operators? How do we agilely achieve adaptive service orchestration and reliable service provisioning to meet dynamic user requirements in real time? How do we effectively protect data privacy in IoT applications, where IoT devices and edge/fog computing nodes only have limited resources and capabilities? How do we continuously guarantee and maintain the synchronization and reliability of wide-area IoT systems and applications? Written for professionals working in 5G/IoT technology development, service management and big data analytics, this book offers an overview of intelligent IoT service architecture, key technologies, important applications and future technological trends.
This book introduces the concept of reciprocal educational learning among cultures with very different historical and philosophical origins. The concept of reciprocal learning grows out of a four year study of immigrant Chinese family narrative experiences in a Western context. This book captures the lived moments of such transitional lives both in and out of school settings to demonstrate why a child would appear and disappear from different caregivers’ purview. Through the narrative lens of student and family life, the study illustrates the intersection of Confucian and Western philosophies of education and how their interaction creates complications as well as benefits for both traditions, hence, the idea of reciprocal learning.
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