As the global population continues to increase, it has become necessary to find ways to handle this increase through various policy tools that address population growth and urbanization problems. The urbanization process has both potential issues and opportunities that need to be exploited to move societies forward. Megacities and Rapid Urbanization: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice examines trends, challenges, issues, and strategies related to population growth and rapid urbanization and its impact on urban environments. The book also explores the use of different governance approaches in addressing challenges and different tools and systems of appropriate allocation to address issues. This publication is an ideal reference source for academicians, students, practitioners, professionals, managers, urban planners, and government officials.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are some of the most discussed materials of the last decade. Their extraordinary porosity and functionality from metals and organic linkers make them one of the most promising materials for a vast array of applications. The easy tunability of their pore size and shape from the micro- to meso-scale by changing the connectivity of the inorganic moiety and the nature of the organic linkers makes these materials special. Moreover, by combining with other suitable materials, the properties of MOFs can be improved further for enhanced functionality/stability, ease of preparation, and selectivity of operation. Emerging Applications and Implementations of Metal-Organic Frameworks combines the latest empirical research findings with relevant theoretical frameworks in this area in order to improve the reader's understanding of MOFs and their different applications in areas that include drug delivery, heavy metal removal from water, and gas storage. The design and synthesis of MOFs are also investigated along with the preparation of composites of MOFs. While covering applications that include water defluoridation, rechargeable batteries, and pharmaceutically adapted drug delivery systems, the book's target audience is comprised of professionals, researchers, academicians, and students working in the field of physical and polymer chemistry, physics, engineering science, and environmental science.

Granular Materials at Meso-scale: Towards a Change of Scale Approach proposes a new way for developing an efficient change of scale-considering a meso-scale defined at the level of local arrays of particles. The change of scale is known to be a very interesting way to improve the modelling of mechanical behavior granular materials. In the past, studies have been proposed using a micro-scale at the grain level to perform change of scale, but limitations have been proven for these approaches. Definition and analysis of the phases are detailed, constituted by sets of meso-domains sharing the same texture characteristics. The authors propose a local constitutive model for the phases, allowing the constitutive model of the representative elementary volume to be definied from a change-of-scale approach and, finally, presenting the validation of obtained modeling on cyclic loadings.

The second of two volumes concentrating on the dynamics of slender bodies within or containing axial flow, Volume 2 covers fluid-structure interactions relating to shells, cylinders and plates containing or immersed in axial flow, as well as slender structures subjected to annular and leakage flows. This volume has been thoroughly updated to reference the latest developments in the field, with a continued emphasis on the understanding of dynamical behaviour and analytical methods needed to provide long-term solutions and validate the latest computational methods and codes, with increased coverage of computational techniques and numerical methods, particularly for the solution of non-linear three-dimensional problems.

The Silk Road of the 21st Century, announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, will certainly change the world. It will definitely stimulate economic growth and prosperity in China, the rest of Asia and elsewhere. But how can we prevent the environmental damage and the increasing inequality on a planetary scale brought about by the construction of this "road" - or in reality: a network of highways, railways, sea routes and other connections? This book deals with the question for the Maritime branch of the new Silk Road and discusses relevant strategies and technologies for sustainable and responsible port innovation and development. The backbone of the study is formed by a number of case studies of port projects in and outside of China. Some chapters focus on best practices, while others discuss new academic viewpoints, but in all cases, suggestions for improvement are given. Based on the idea that a large investment agenda also creates moral responsibility, the Chinese cases also serve to ascertain whether and to what extent they can serve as an example for projects elsewhere. A few introductory and thematic chapters and the conclusion give steering and sense to the rest of the book. Ultimately, this title gives a first and coherent analysis and assessment of a project that is unparalleled in the world and that constitutes an important determining factor for our future.

Structural health monitoring is an exciting new field on the frontier of applied engineering. With the purpose of examining the health of standing buildings, aircrafts, and other complex structures using pre-installed sensors that provide stress and pressure data in real-time, this field allows structural-health experts to act as engineering "doctors." These specialists diagnose potential problems in advance using complex algorithms and statistical modeling so that steps may be taken to prevent structural damage-or worse, loss of life. Emerging Design Solutions in Structural Health Monitoring Systems seeks to advance cutting-edge research in the field, with a special focus on cross-disciplinary work involving recent advances in IT. This research has enabled structural-health experts to wield groundbreaking new models of artificial intelligence as a diagnostic tool capable of identifying future problems before they even appear. This publication serves as a broad overview of structural management science, as well as an on-ramp for a general engineering audience, including students, educators, and researchers.