Peter Chan directs this Hong Kong martial arts drama that sees an incredibly scrupulous detective on the trail of a former criminal who has attempted to start a new life. Set in 1917, the film finds Liu Jinxi (Donnie Yen) and his wife Ayu (Wei Tang) living quietly in a small village. Their sense of tranquillity is disrupted when a pair of robbers descend on the local store and Liu's intervention results in their death. Detective Xu Baijiu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a man so faithfully attached to the law he values it above human life, arrives in the village to investigate and is immediately suspicious of Liu. How could an ordinary villager possess the skills to overcome two hardened criminals? The assiduous detective begins an investigation into Liu's past, threatening to uncover his identity as a retired martial arts expert and lead his many enemies to his door...

Extremal Optimization: Fundamentals, Algorithms, and Applications introduces state-of-the-art extremal optimization (EO) and modified EO (MEO) solutions from fundamentals, methodologies, and algorithms to applications based on numerous classic publications and the authors' recent original research results. It promotes the movement of EO from academic study to practical applications. The book covers four aspects, beginning with a general review of real-world optimization problems and popular solutions with a focus on computational complexity, such as "NP-hard" and the "phase transitions" occurring on the search landscape. Next, it introduces computational extremal dynamics and its applications in EO from principles, mechanisms, and algorithms to the experiments on some benchmark problems such as TSP, spin glass, Max-SAT (maximum satisfiability), and graph partition. It then presents studies on the fundamental features of search dynamics and mechanisms in EO with a focus on self-organized optimization, evolutionary probability distribution, and structure features (e.g., backbones), which are based on the authors' recent research results. Finally, it discusses applications of EO and MEO in multiobjective optimization, systems modeling, intelligent control, and production scheduling. The authors present the advanced features of EO in solving NP-hard problems through problem formulation, algorithms, and simulation studies on popular benchmarks and industrial applications. They also focus on the development of MEO and its applications. This book can be used as a reference for graduate students, research developers, and practical engineers who work on developing optimization solutions for those complex systems with hardness that cannot be solved with mathematical optimization or other computational intelligence, such as evolutionary computations.

With HIV becoming the leading cause of infectious-disease mortality in Mainland China, this book focuses on tackling HIV/AIDS in the face of rapid political and economic change in China. Featuring contributions by over a dozen leading figures in the field, this book is the go-to text for any student or reader interested in how national and international organizations' are attempting to control this epidemic. The book includes chapters on the epidemiology, treatment, and prevention of HIV, as well as several chapters that discuss in detail specific provincial- and national-level programs to control and treat HIV. It chronicles the Chinese government's amazing about-face, as it replaced underfunded, non-evidence based policy decisions with successful, science-based approaches to disease control and prevention, including the adoption of once controversial needle-exchange programs and the establishment of a national HIV/AIDS data registry. It measures the success of national policy decisions, the implementation of treatment policies, and discusses the difficulty of accessing high-risk communities, including people who inject drugs, sex workers, and men who have sex with men - groups not easy to reach, study, engage in prevention programs, or treatment, for fear of stigmatization and loss of social status. Further, it documents the spread of HIV to other provinces, and the tragedy that befell repeat plasma donors in Henan and other poor provinces, where reused or improperly sterilized lab equipment caused some villages to have epidemic-level incidence rates. This book represents a positive contribution to the field of AIDS research, making vital, new information available to an interested readership.

Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV contains the contributions presented at the 4th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (4th ISGSR, Hong Kong, 4-6 December 2013), which was organised under the auspices of the Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet), TC304 on Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management and TC205 on Safety and Serviceability in Geotechnical Design of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV covers six themes: (1) Geotechnical uncertainty and variability (2) Geohazards such as landslides, earthquakes and climate changes (3) Reliability and risk analysis (4) Reliability-based design and limit-state design in geotechnical engineering (5) Risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering and infrastructural projects, and (6) Practical applications. Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV is an excellent source of reference on the latest developments and practices of geotechnical risk and safety, and will proof to be invaluable for civil engineers (particularly geotechnical engineers), geologists, and natural hazards reduction agencies. ISGSR IV is a continuation of a series of symposiums and workshops on geotechnical risk and reliability, starting with LSD2000 (Melbourne, Australia), IWS2002 (Tokyo and Kamakura, Japan), LSD2003 (Cambridge, USA), Georisk2004 (Bangalore, India), Taipei2006 (Taipei, Taiwan), 1st ISGSR (Shanghai, China, 2007), 2nd ISGSR (Gifu, Japan, 2009) and 3rd ISGSR (Munich, Germany, 2011).

This book is the second part of Applications and Trends in Fintech, which serves as a comprehensive guide to the advanced topics in fintech, including the deep learning and natural language processing algorithms, blockchain design thinking, token economics, cybersecurity, cloud computing and quantum computing, compliance and risk management, and global fintech trends. Readers will gain knowledge about the applications of fintech in finance and its latest developments as well as trends.This fifth volume covers global fintech trends and emerging technologies such as cloud computing and quantum computing, as well as the compliance and risk management frameworks for fintech companies. Together with the first part in applications and trends (fourth volume), these two books will deepen readers' understanding of the fintech fundamentals covered in previous volumes through various applications and analysis of impacts and trends.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

This book is the first part of Applications and Trends in Fintech, which serves as a comprehensive guide to the advanced topics in fintech, including the deep learning and natural language processing algorithms, blockchain design thinking, token economics, cybersecurity, cloud computing and quantum computing, compliance and risk management, and global fintech trends. Readers will gain knowledge about the applications of fintech in finance and its latest developments as well as trends.This fourth volume covers the foundation of fintech, which is ethics and governance, and advanced topics in two of the most important technologies, artificial intelligence and blockchain. Together with the second part in applications and trends (fifth volume), these two books will deepen readers' understanding of the fintech fundamentals covered in previous volumes through various applications and analysis of impacts and trends.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

Learn how to analyse and manage evolutionary and sequential user behaviours in modern networks, and how to optimize network performance by using indirect reciprocity, evolutionary games, and sequential decision making. Understand the latest theory without the need to go through the details of traditional game theory. With practical management tools to regulate user behaviour, and simulations and experiments with real data sets, this is an ideal tool for graduate students and researchers working in networking, communications, and signal processing.

Development and Application of Classical Capillary Curve Theory shows readers how to improve chemical flooding recovery procedures in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using sophisticated numerical modeling techniques for oil displacement that build on, and enhance, the accepted capillary curve in a novel way. The title presents research and technical data that amends the classical capillary curve, giving new impetus to chemical flooding research. By analyzing the capillary number experiment QL, the book models oil and water distribution in the micro-space of the reservoir core. Finally, the book discusses chemical flooding software, reservoir geological modeling, field tests, and a new technique of digital oil displacement testing being developed.

National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, China: 70 Years and Beyond, Volume 110 covers the major achievements gained in the research and control of parasitic diseases in China, e.g. schistosomiasis, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, echinococcosis, visceral leishmaniasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, foodborne clonorchiasis, angiostrongyliasis, taeniasis and cysticercosis, etc. The book introduces approaches that can be developed with big data analytic tools, how to use surveillance-response systems at national and regional levels, and tactics to promote the national parasitic resources center to support various research and control activities. Finally, a chapter on the roadmap for parasitic diseases control in China from 2020 to 2030 is presented.

This book is about the design and control of biomimetic underwater robots. It explains the six aspects of the underwater biomimetic vehicle- manipulator system in detail and provides practical examples. This book is the authors’ long-term exploration of the theoretical and technical issues in the development of the underwater biomimetic vehicle-manipulator system and is written based on more than 15 years of scientific research and practical experience. This book is a helpful reference for the researchers, engineers, master and Ph.D. students in the field of biomimetic underwater robots.

Coordination of Distributed Energy Resources in Microgrids: Optimisation, control, and hardware-in-the-loop validation provides a structured overview of research into techniques for managing microgrids with distributed energy resources (DERs). The DERs including distributed generators, energy storage systems, and flexible loads are posing both challenges and opportunities to microgrids' security, planning, operation, and control. Advanced operation and control techniques are needed to coordinate these components in the microgrids and maintain power quality, as well as keeping the system economically feasible. This book is for researchers and students in the area of smart grids, power engineering, and control engineering, as well as for advanced students, transmission network and grid operators. It focuses on cutting-edge techniques for secure, economic, and robust operation and control of microgrids. Effective coordination of DERs on both temporal and spatial scales are introduced in detail. Topics covered include comprehensive mathematical models of DERs and microgrids, sizing and siting of DERs under uncertainties, stochastic and robust optimisation for active and reactive power dispatch of DERs in microgrids, distributed coordinated control, and hardware-in-the-loop tests for validation of control algorithms.

The Finance module provides a significant underpinning to the Chartered Fintech Professional (CFtP) qualification. While the topics are familiar to professionals who are traditionally trained in Finance, these topics are required to appreciate the financial problems that technology can help solve. Without a clear appreciation of finance concepts and practice, any professional will have difficulties solving such problems the traditional way, let alone incorporating recent technological breakthroughs. In this module, we provide the basic concepts and knowledge that a fintech professional needs.This book covers the main concepts and theories in finance which include economics, financial statement analysis, financial management, and investment management. Finance for Fintech Professionals is a companion volume to the book on technology that covers fundamental concepts on data, artificial intelligence, and network. Together, these two books form the foundation for a good understanding of finance and fintech applications which will be covered in subsequent volumes.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

As technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain have been applied to various areas in finance, there is an increasing demand for finance professionals with the skills and knowledge related to fintech. Knowledge of the technologies involved and finance concepts is crucial for the finance professional to understand the architecture of technologies as well as how they can be applied to solve various aspects of finance.This book covers the main concepts and theories of the technologies in fintech which consist of big data, data science, artificial intelligence, data structure and algorithm, computer network, network security, and Python programming. Fintech for Finance Professionals is a companion volume to the book on finance that covers the fundamental concepts in the field. Together, these two books form the foundation for a good understanding of finance and fintech applications which will be covered in subsequent volumes.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

In the digital era, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain have revolutionized various ways of people's daily lives and brought many opportunities and challenges to the industries. With the increasing demand for talents in the fintech realm, this book serves as a good guide for practitioners who are seeking to understand the basics of fintech and applications of different technologies. This book covers important knowledge in statistics, quantitative methods, and financial innovation to lay the foundation for fintech. It is especially useful for people who are relatively new to this area and would like to become professionals in fintech.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

The Finance module provides a significant underpinning to the Chartered Fintech Professional (CFtP) qualification. While the topics are familiar to professionals who are traditionally trained in Finance, these topics are required to appreciate the financial problems that technology can help solve. Without a clear appreciation of finance concepts and practice, any professional will have difficulties solving such problems the traditional way, let alone incorporating recent technological breakthroughs. In this module, we provide the basic concepts and knowledge that a fintech professional needs.This book covers the main concepts and theories in finance which include economics, financial statement analysis, financial management, and investment management. Finance for Fintech Professionals is a companion volume to the book on technology that covers fundamental concepts on data, artificial intelligence, and network. Together, these two books form the foundation for a good understanding of finance and fintech applications which will be covered in subsequent volumes.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

As technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and blockchain have been applied to various areas in finance, there is an increasing demand for finance professionals with the skills and knowledge related to fintech. Knowledge of the technologies involved and finance concepts is crucial for the finance professional to understand the architecture of technologies as well as how they can be applied to solve various aspects of finance.This book covers the main concepts and theories of the technologies in fintech which consist of big data, data science, artificial intelligence, data structure and algorithm, computer network, network security, and Python programming. Fintech for Finance Professionals is a companion volume to the book on finance that covers the fundamental concepts in the field. Together, these two books form the foundation for a good understanding of finance and fintech applications which will be covered in subsequent volumes.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

In the digital era, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain have revolutionized various ways of people's daily lives and brought many opportunities and challenges to the industries. With the increasing demand for talents in the fintech realm, this book serves as a good guide for practitioners who are seeking to understand the basics of fintech and applications of different technologies. This book covers important knowledge in statistics, quantitative methods, and financial innovation to lay the foundation for fintech. It is especially useful for people who are relatively new to this area and would like to become professionals in fintech.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

This is the first book to revisit geotechnical site characterization from a probabilistic point of view and provide rational tools to probabilistically characterize geotechnical properties and underground stratigraphy using limited information obtained from a specific site. This book not only provides new probabilistic approaches for geotechnical site characterization and slope stability analysis, but also tackles the difficulties in practical implementation of these approaches. In addition, this book also develops efficient Monte Carlo simulation approaches for slope stability analysis and implements these approaches in a commonly available spreadsheet environment. These approaches and the software package are readily available to geotechnical practitioners and alleviate them from reliability computational algorithms. The readers will find useful information for a non-specialist to determine project-specific statistics of geotechnical properties and to perform probabilistic analysis of slope stability.

This book describes algorithmic methods and parallelization techniques to design a parallel sparse direct solver which is specifically targeted at integrated circuit simulation problems. The authors describe a complete flow and detailed parallel algorithms of the sparse direct solver. They also show how to improve the performance by simple but effective numerical techniques. The sparse direct solver techniques described can be applied to any SPICE-like integrated circuit simulator and have been proven to be high-performance in actual circuit simulation. Readers will benefit from the state-of-the-art parallel integrated circuit simulation techniques described in this book, especially the latest parallel sparse matrix solution techniques.

This book examines paintings using a computational and quantitative approach. Specifically, it compares paintings to photographs, addressing the strengths and limitations of both. Particular aesthetic practices are examined such as the vista, foreground to background organisation and the depth planes. These are analysed using a range of computational approaches and clear observations are made. New generations of image-capture devices such as Google goggles and the light field camera, promise a future in which the formal attributes of a photograph are made available for editing to a degree that has hitherto been the exclusive territory of painting. In this sense paintings and photographs are converging, and it therefore seems an opportune time to study the comparisons between them. In this context, the book includes cutting-edge work examining how some of the aesthetic attributes of a painting can be transferred to a photograph using the latest computational approaches.

This book examines paintings using a computational and quantitative approach. Specifically, it compares paintings to photographs, addressing the strengths and limitations of both. Particular aesthetic practices are examined such as the vista, foreground to background organisation and the depth planes. These are analysed using a range of computational approaches and clear observations are made. New generations of image-capture devices such as Google goggles and the light field camera, promise a future in which the formal attributes of a photograph are made available for editing to a degree that has hitherto been the exclusive territory of painting. In this sense paintings and photographs are converging, and it therefore seems an opportune time to study the comparisons between them. In this context, the book includes cutting-edge work examining how some of the aesthetic attributes of a painting can be transferred to a photograph using the latest computational approaches.

This book describes algorithmic methods and parallelization techniques to design a parallel sparse direct solver which is specifically targeted at integrated circuit simulation problems. The authors describe a complete flow and detailed parallel algorithms of the sparse direct solver. They also show how to improve the performance by simple but effective numerical techniques. The sparse direct solver techniques described can be applied to any SPICE-like integrated circuit simulator and have been proven to be high-performance in actual circuit simulation. Readers will benefit from the state-of-the-art parallel integrated circuit simulation techniques described in this book, especially the latest parallel sparse matrix solution techniques.

Presenting an optimal energy distribution strategy for microgrids in a smart grid environment, and featuring a detailed analysis of the mathematical techniques of convex optimization and online algorithms, this book provides readers with essential content on how to achieve multi-objective optimization that takes into consideration power subscribers, energy providers and grid smoothing in microgrids. Featuring detailed theoretical proofs and simulation results that demonstrate and evaluate the correctness and effectiveness of the algorithm, this text explains step-by-step how the problem can be reformulated and solved, and how to achieve the distributed online algorithm on the basis of a centralized offline algorithm. Special attention is paid to how to apply this algorithm in practical cases and the possible future trends of the microgrid and smart grid research and applications. Offering a valuable guide to help researchers and students better understand the new smart grid, this book will also familiarize readers with the concept of the microgrid and its relationship with renewable energy.