Following rapid economic growth in recent decades, Asia and the Pacific experienced an impressive reduction in extreme poverty, but this drop was not uniform and achievements are still incomplete. Vulnerability to natural disasters, the increasing impact of climate change and economic crises should all be taken into account. There is also a need to consider the multidimensional nature of poverty and the non-uniformity of the decrease across different ethnic groups. This book explores the Asian 'poverty miracle' and argues for the development and use of an Asia-specific poverty line. This is a timely and multidimensional assessment of the much neglected issues of, and links between, poverty, vulnerability and ethnicity in Asia. It will be of great interest to lecturers and researchers of Asian development and economics, along with policymakers, public and private institutions, NGOs and international aid agencies. Contributors include: V. Berenger, S.R. Chakravarty, N. Chattopadhyay, T. Fujii, C. Gradin, L. Hohfeld, S. Klasen, J. Silber, H. Waibel, G. Wan

This book comprehensively covers the important efforts in improving the quality of images in visual cryptography (VC), with a focus on cases with gray scale images. It not only covers schemes in traditional VC and extended VC for binary secret images, but also the latest development in the analysis-by-synthesis approach. This book distinguishes itself from the existing literature in three ways. First, it not only reviews traditional VC for binary secret images, but also covers recent efforts in improving visual quality for gray scale secret images. Second, not only traditional quality measures are reviewed, but also measures that were not used for measuring perceptual quality of decrypted secret images, such as Radially Averaged Power Spectrum Density (RAPSD) and residual variance, are employed for evaluating and guiding the design of VC algorithms. Third, unlike most VC books following a mathematical formal style, this book tries to make a balance between engineering intuition and mathematical reasoning. All the targeted problems and corresponding solutions are fully motivated by practical applications and evaluated by experimental tests, while important security issues are presented as mathematical proof. Furthermore, important algorithms are summarized as pseudocodes, thus enabling the readers to reproduce the results in the book. Therefore, this book serves as a tutorial for readers with an engineering background as well as for experts in related areas to understand the basics and research frontiers in visual cryptography.

Starting with an introduction to fractional derivatives and numerical approximations, this book presents finite difference methods for fractional differential equations, including time-fractional sub-diffusion equations, time-fractional wave equations, and space-fractional differential equations, among others. Approximation methods for fractional derivatives are developed and approximate accuracies are analyzed in detail.

This work focuses on urban governance in the developing world, its aim being to bring a holistic perspective to the debate on urban governance in Asia and around the globe. It has been divided into three sections: The first section is on rural interventions as they influence urbanization and its problems/solutions. The second focuses on urban governance, infrastructure programs, service delivery reforms and their evaluation. The third and final section focuses on urbanization and the environment.

In the first section, we present evaluations of India s rural programs including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and of India s Total Sanitation Campaign. This section covers the transition from rural to urban areas, and highlights coping mechanisms in urban areas and policy implications for urban governance, from the viewpoint of rural migrants.

The section on urban governance, infrastructure and service delivery is the most in-depth and consists of papers that present state-of-the-art research on many aspects of infrastructure such as cost and time overruns, risks and their mitigation, assessments of the metro rail, and services such as solid waste management.

The focus of the final section is on urbanization and the environment. Here we examine land use change in India, the relationship between urban form and residential energy use in Bandung, Indonesia, and end by depicting a cautiously optimistic view of Asia s urbanization-environment nexus."

This volume provides comprehensive updated coverage of inequality and poverty issues in China. Some of the methodologies developed herein are published for the first time and may be used in other contexts and for other countries. The use of different data sources and state-of-art research techniques ensures that the findings and conclusions can be substantiated and that the policy recommendations are reliable and robust. Contributors to this volume are renowned experts in their respective areas, including, notably, Justin Lin, Xing Meng, Kai-yuen Tsui, and Guanghua Wan. For these reasons, those with an interest in income distribution in general and China's development in particular, will find this volume essential reading.
Rapidly rising inequality in China has contributed to the sluggishness of domestic demand and emerging poverty. It has thus exerted considerable pressure for commodity exports and represents a root cause of increased trade disputes. These have profound ramifications for the US, EU, and other economies, and the international business community. Consequently, economists and sociologists, among others, are increasingly focused upon inequality and poverty issues in China and relevant policy implications.
This volume, arising from a two-year UNU-WIDER project, addresses issues that include the inequality-growth relationship, regional/personal variation in incomes and human well-being such as education, the determinants of inequality and poverty or their changes, gaps in innovation capability, and the role played by China's development strategies in affecting inequality.

This book comprehensively covers the important efforts in improving the quality of images in visual cryptography (VC), with a focus on cases with gray scale images. It not only covers schemes in traditional VC and extended VC for binary secret images, but also the latest development in the analysis-by-synthesis approach. This book distinguishes itself from the existing literature in three ways. First, it not only reviews traditional VC for binary secret images, but also covers recent efforts in improving visual quality for gray scale secret images. Second, not only traditional quality measures are reviewed, but also measures that were not used for measuring perceptual quality of decrypted secret images, such as Radially Averaged Power Spectrum Density (RAPSD) and residual variance, are employed for evaluating and guiding the design of VC algorithms. Third, unlike most VC books following a mathematical formal style, this book tries to make a balance between engineering intuition and mathematical reasoning. All the targeted problems and corresponding solutions are fully motivated by practical applications and evaluated by experimental tests, while important security issues are presented as mathematical proof. Furthermore, important algorithms are summarized as pseudocodes, thus enabling the readers to reproduce the results in the book. Therefore, this book serves as a tutorial for readers with an engineering background as well as for experts in related areas to understand the basics and research frontiers in visual cryptography.

This work focuses on urban governance in the developing world, its aim being to bring a holistic perspective to the debate on urban governance in Asia and around the globe. It has been divided into three sections: The first section is on rural interventions as they influence urbanization and its problems/solutions. The second focuses on urban governance, infrastructure programs, service delivery reforms and their evaluation. The third and final section focuses on urbanization and the environment. In the first section, we present evaluations of India’s rural programs including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and of India’s Total Sanitation Campaign. This section covers the transition from rural to urban areas, and highlights coping mechanisms in urban areas and policy implications for urban governance, from the viewpoint of rural migrants. The section on urban governance, infrastructure and service delivery is the most in-depth and consists of papers that present state-of-the-art research on many aspects of infrastructure such as cost and time overruns, risks and their mitigation, assessments of the metro rail, and services such as solid waste management. The focus of the final section is on urbanization and the environment. Here we examine land use change in India, the relationship between urban form and residential energy use in Bandung, Indonesia, and end by depicting a cautiously optimistic view of Asia’s urbanization-environment nexus.

This book offers comprehensive coverage on the most important aspects of audio watermarking, from classic techniques to the latest advances, from commonly investigated topics to emerging research subdomains, and from the research and development achievements to date, to current limitations, challenges, and future directions. It also addresses key topics such as reversible audio watermarking, audio watermarking with encryption, and imperceptibility control methods. The book sets itself apart from the existing literature in three main ways. Firstly, it not only reviews classical categories of audio watermarking techniques, but also provides detailed descriptions, analysis and experimental results of the latest work in each category. Secondly, it highlights the emerging research topic of reversible audio watermarking, including recent research trends, unique features, and the potentials of this subdomain. Lastly, the joint consideration of audio watermarking and encryption is also reviewed. With the help of this concept, more secure audio watermarking systems can be developed, which meet the requirements for security and privacy in cloud-based networks and systems. Accordingly, the book serves as a tutorial suitable for readers with a general knowledge of audio signal processing as well as experts in related areas, helping these readers understand the basic principles and the latest advances, concepts and applications of audio watermarking.

Urbanization is one of the most important phenomena in economic development. In the past three decades, Asian urban populations expanded by almost one billion, a figure expected to double in the next three decades. Clearly, both the scale and pace of urbanization in Asia is unprecedented in human history and will dominate the global urbanization landscape. Asia's urbanization, in turn, is dominated by what is happening in China and India, the two most populous, fastest growing economies in the world. Cities of Dragons and Elephants: Urbanization and Urban Development in China and India aims at addressing the two most fundamental issues of urbanization: why and where to urbanize. Contributed by a team of top experts from both countries, it uses original research to explore both the speed and scale of urbanization and urban systems or spatial distribution of urbanities in different-sized citites. It examines various drivers of urbanization alongside the benefits and costs and the role of markets, governments, and NGOs. Cities of Dragons and Elephants presents evidence-based policy suggestions regarding the labor market, the land and housing market, FDI and the capital market, education, environment, poverty, and inequality. It uses the similarities betwen India and China to draw conclusions and implications of enormous relevance to many governments and institutions in Asia and beyond.

China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are reshaping the world economy. These Southern Engines countries have experienced a dramatic transformation in their productive and trade capabilities, consequently turning into global super powers. The current age of globalization, in which the Southern Engines have a primary role, faces a mixed set of interconnections wherein countries and economic agents are linked closely together by trade in goods and services, flows of capital, and movements of talent and skills. Much has been written about the spectacular performance of the Asian Giants, China and India. Arising from a UNU-WIDER research project, this collection goes further by studying the substantial contribution of other large emerging countries such as Brazil and South Africa. Using a wealth of data, as well as case studies, the book provides a detailed history review of industrialisation and economic development.
The volume explores the foundations of the Southern Engines development experiences, and how these could provide resourceful lessons to the developing world. Additionally, the foremost patterns of international politics and governance are dealt with by leading scholars, who critically assess how the Southern Engines have contributed to rebalance geopolitics. This volume is a stand alone reference for researchers and policy makers concerned with international development and global governance. The studies jointly provide valuable insights for other developing countries in the pursuit of sustainable growth and forward looking development strategies.

Since many policymakers aspire to pull their countries out of the middle-income trap and into the ranks of high-income countries, they must understand the factors that hinder or support the transition. This book defines the middle-income trap and examines the roles of manufacturing, finance, and trade openness in achieving sustainable development. The book also explores the role of government policy in fostering growth in the People's Republic of China. A common theme is that such policies may have unforeseen side effects that undermine their effectiveness, including how the hukou registration system and land-use policy control the pace of urbanization.