Big Data and Smart Service Systems presents the theories and applications regarding Big Data and smart service systems, data acquisition, smart cities, business decision-making support, and smart service design. The rapid development of computer and Internet technologies has led the world to the era of Big Data. Big Data technologies are widely used, which has brought unprecedented impacts on traditional industries and lifestyle. More and more governments, business sectors, and institutions begin to realize data is becoming the most valuable asset and its analysis is becoming the core competitiveness.

Circularity of Plastics: Sustainability, Emerging Materials, and Valorization of Waste Plastic takes an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to circularity and sustainability in plastics, with an emphasis on plastic waste and end-of-life treatment and options for recycling, re-use, valorization and development of biomass-based polymers. The book introduces key concepts of sustainable materials, the circular economy, and lifecycle assessment, and discusses challenges in the valorization of waste. Other sections cover the upcycling of waste plastic into new materials and fuels, with dedicated chapters exploring state-of-the-art techniques for conversion to new sustainable polymers, fuel, fine chemicals and carbon nanomaterials. Emerging technologies used to produce functional polymers from renewable feedstocks, including CO2, biomass, natural polymers, polylactic acid (PLA), and polyhydroxyalkanoate-based materials (PHAs) are then explored, with a final chapter focusing on applications of sustainable materials, challenges, and future perspectives. This is a valuable resource for researchers, scientists, engineers, R&D professionals, and advanced students from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, with an interest in sustainable materials, circularity in plastics, and polymer waste and valorization.

In this book, Chen Gang examines the real-world effectiveness of China's approach to the promotion of green technologies and practices, and discusses the political landscape in which it is situated. Politics of Renewable Energy in China questions the wisdom of hailing China as a model for authoritarian environmental governance with an up-to-date examination of the subject. It provides readers with a thorough and timely account of recent developments in China's low-carbon energy industries. Disclosing how energy interest groups are lobbying members of central government, and shedding light on disputes between pro-development and pro-environmental groups, this book explores the ideological and bureaucratic inconsistency and confusion which surrounds China's environmental policies. Emphasizing China's renewable energy policies, related enforcement issues and local political concerns over wind and solar generation, this book examines the extent to which China's centralised, top down approach has been effective in ensuring local actors reach policy targets. This up-to-date account of recent developments in Chinese low-carbon industries will be useful for readers with an interest in China's model of renewable energy industries, in particular students of Chinese and international politics. It will also be a valuable tool for researchers and professors of public and environmental policy, Chinese and climate studies.

Test Techniques for Flight Control Systems of Large Transport Aircraft offers theory and practice of flight control system tests. It is a systematic and practical guide, providing insights to engineers in flight control, particularly those working on system integration and test validation. Ten chapters cover an introduction to flight control system tests, equipment tests and validation, software tests and validation, flight control law and flying qualities evaluation, tests of flight control subsystems, integration and validation based on the iron bird, ground-based test, flight-tests, airworthiness tests and validation, and finally, the current status and prospects for flight control tests and evaluation.

Nanoparticles in Analytical and Medical Devices presents the latest information on the use of nanoparticles for a diverse range of analytical and medical applications. Covers basic principles, proper use of nanoparticles in analytical and medical applications, and recent progress in the field. This comprehensive reference helps readers grasp the full potential of nanoparticles in their analytical research or medical practice. Chapters on cutting-edge topics bring readers up to date on the latest research and usage of nanoparticles, and a chapter on commercially available devices that utilize nanoparticles guides readers in overcoming issues with marketing biodevices.

This book introduces advanced sparsity-driven models and methods and their applications in radar tasks such as detection, imaging and classification. Compressed sensing (CS) is one of the most active topics in the signal processing area. By exploiting and promoting the sparsity of the signals of interest, CS offers a new framework for reducing data without compromising the performance of signal recovery, or for enhancing resolution without increasing measurements. An introductory chapter outlines the fundamentals of sparse signal recovery. The following topics are then systematically and comprehensively addressed: hybrid greedy pursuit algorithms for enhancing radar imaging quality; two-level block sparsity model for multi-channel radar signals; parametric sparse representation for radar imaging with model uncertainty; Poisson-disk sampling for high-resolution and wide-swath SAR imaging; when advanced sparse models meet coarsely quantized radar data; sparsity-aware micro-Doppler analysis for radar target classification; and distributed detection of sparse signals in radar networks via locally most powerful test. Finally, a concluding chapter summarises key points from the preceding chapters and offers concise perspectives. The book focuses on how to apply the CS-based models and algorithms to solve practical problems in radar, for the radar and signal processing research communities.

The noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH), also known as noise and vibration (N&V), is a critical feature for customers to assess the performance and quality of vehicles. NVH characteristics are higher among factors that customers use to judge the vehicle's quality.This book sets out to introduce the basic concepts, principles, and applications of the NVH development and refi nement of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles. Each type comes with its own set of challenges.

Friction Dynamics: Principles and Applications introduces readers to the basic principles of friction dynamics, which are presented in a unified theoretical framework focusing on some of the most important engineering applications. The book's chapters introduce basic concepts and analytical methods of friction dynamics, followed by sections that explore the fundamental principles of frictions. Concluding chapters focus on engineering applications in brake dynamics, the friction dynamics of rods used in oil suck pump systems, and the friction impact dynamics of rotors. This book provides comprehensive topics and up-to-date results, also presenting a thorough account of important advancements in friction dynamics which offer insights into varied dynamic phenomena, helping readers effectively design and fabricate stable and durable friction systems and components for various engineering and scientific friction dynamical systems.

This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students and other researchers who possess an introductory background in materials physics and/or chemistry, and an interest in the physical and chemical properties of novel materials, especially transition metal oxides. New materials often exhibit novel phenomena of great fundamental and technological importance. Contributing authors review the structural, physical and chemical properties of notable 4d- and 5d-transition metal oxides discovered over the last 10 years. These materials exhibit extraordinary physical properties that differ significantly from those of the heavily studied 3d-transition metal oxides, mainly due to the relatively strong influence of the spin- orbit interaction and orbital order in 4d- and 5d materials. The immense growth in publications addressing the physical properties of these novel materials underlines the need to document recent advances and the current state of this field. This book includes overviews of the current experimental situation concerning these materials.

I am a nature lover that is working on healing from the effects of child sexual abuse. I thought up most of the poems while walking in the woods. Nature is the place that I feel the safest now and as a child. I still connect outside better than I do inside.
I kept the abuse a secret for 30 yrs. Once my mind started to free the memories, I was flood with them. I would have Flashbacks that word put me back to that age feeling as I did then. There were body memories that made my body feel the way it did when the abuse happen. Some times it would take me days to get over these. They would hit any time and any place. I had help from my doctors, my therapist, medications and even hospital stays. I was diagnosed with PTSD, DID major depression and anxiety disorder. It is full of ups and downs. This as been a rough journey, but one well worth it.
This is my journey thru poems and journaling. A journey that is still going. I hope this book helps you on your own journey.

This book explores and analyzes influential predictors and the underlying mechanisms of individual content sharing/retweeting behavior on social networking sites (SNS) from an empirical perspective. Since Individual content sharing/ retweeting behavior expedites information dissemination, it is a critical mechanism of information diffusion on Twitter. Individual sharing/retweeting behavior does not appear to happen randomly. So, what factors lead to individual information dissemination behavior? What are the dominating predictors? How does the recipient make retweeting decisions? How do these influential predictors combine and by what mechanism do they influence an individual's retweeting decisions? Furthermore, are there any differences in the process of individual retweeting decisions? If so, what causes such differences? In order to answer these previously unexplored questions and gain a holistic view of individual retweeting behavior, the authors examined people's retweeting history on Twitter and obtained a real dataset containing more than 60 million Twitter posts. They then employed text mining and natural language processing techniques to extract useful information from social media content, and used various feature selection methods to identify a subset of salient features that have substantial effects on individual retweeting behavior. Lastly, they applied the Elaboration Likelihood Model to build an overarching theoretical framework to reveal the underlying mechanisms of individual retweeting behavior. Given its scope, this book will appeal to researchers interested in investigating information dissemination on social media, as well as to marketers and administrators who plan to use social networking sites as an important avenue for information dissemination.

This book summarizes years of research in the field of fuzzy relational programming, with a special emphasis on geometric models. It discusses the state-of-the-art in fuzzy relational geometric problems, together with key open issues that must be resolved to achieve a more efficient application of this method. Though chiefly based on research conducted by the authors, who were the first to introduce fuzzy geometric problems, it also covers important findings obtained in the field of linear and non-linear programming. Thanks to its balance of basic and advanced concepts, and its wealth of practical examples, the book offers a valuable guide for both newcomers and experienced researcher in the fields of soft computing and mathematical optimization.

Performance and Improvement of Green Construction Projects: Management Strategies and Innovations expertly explains the specific characteristics and management approaches of green construction projects using in-depth examples that compare presented tactics to conventional construction projects. The book provides a holistic view on management strategies and innovations, focusing on the assessment and improvement of green construction projects and how to manage performance with respect to cost, scheduling, quality, safety, risk, productivity and leadership development.

This issue of PET Clinics focuses on Lung Cancer, and is edited by Drs. Gang Cheng and Timothy Akhurst. Articles will include: FDG PET/CT for lung cancer staging; Lung neoplasms with low FDG avidity; FDG PET/CT evaluation of lung cancer in populations with high prevalence of granulomatous disease; Prognostic value of FDG PET/CT; Genomic characterization of lung cancer and its impact on the use and timing of PET in therapeutic response assessment; Treatment planning for radiation therapy; Future directions of PET imaging for lung cancer; PET for RT-planning in lung cancer; Genomic characterization of lung cancer and its impact on the use and timing of PET in therapeutic response assessment; and more!

This book presents a major research program on epigenetic mechanisms of cell programming and reprogramming. The program was launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, which was started in October 2008 and concluded at the end of 2016. It first summarizes the epigenetic research plans and the current situation of epigenetic research in China and the international frontier. With the application of interdisciplinary research methods, the book discusses the development trends of epigenetic research, such as mechanisms of establishment and maintenance of epigenetic information and epigenetic regulation on reproduction and development. It also presents a variety of research achievements. For example, the discovery of new epigenetic regulators and chromatin remodulaters and their biological functions and mechanisms are highlighted. Several regulation mechanisms of cell differentiation and trans-differentiation are discussed, especially the discovery of the key factors to promote the trans-differentiation of somatic cells to hepatocytes. In addition, this book puts forward some key academic fields with increasing importance, such as biochemistry, cell biology, and clinical medicine. Given its scope, the book is of interest to researchers who work in cell biology, biochemistry, structural biology, bioinformatics, clinical medicine, and other related fields.  

This book presents a differential geometric method for designing nonlinear observers for multiple types of nonlinear systems, including single and multiple outputs, fully and partially observable systems, and regular and singular dynamical systems. It is an exposition of achievements in nonlinear observer normal forms. The book begins by discussing linear systems, introducing the concept of observability and observer design, and then explains the difficulty of those problems for nonlinear systems. After providing foundational information on the differential geometric method, the text shows how to use the method to address observer design problems. It presents methods for a variety of systems. The authors employ worked examples to illustrate the ideas presented. Observer Design for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems will be of interest to researchers, graduate students, and industrial professionals working with control of mechanical and dynamical systems.