Methods of Fundamental Solutions in Solid Mechanics presents the fundamentals of continuum mechanics, the foundational concepts of the MFS, and methodologies and applications to various engineering problems. Eight chapters give an overview of meshless methods, the mechanics of solids and structures, the basics of fundamental solutions and radical basis functions, meshless analysis for thin beam bending, thin plate bending, two-dimensional elastic, plane piezoelectric problems, and heat transfer in heterogeneous media. The book presents a working knowledge of the MFS that is aimed at solving real-world engineering problems through an understanding of the physical and mathematical characteristics of the MFS and its applications.

This detailed volume provides various cellular and experimental animal models and research methodologies to understand the complex interrelated pathophysiological mechanisms triggered by hyperglycemia that underlie the development of diabetic retinopathy. The book covers methods for understanding the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, detection and screening of biomarkers in diabetic retinopathy, as well as novel technologies for diabetic retinopathy management. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step and readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.  Authoritative and practical, Diabetic Retinopathy: Methods and Protocols serves as an invaluable resource for scientists and clinicians who are interested in the area of ophthalmology research.

One of the most successful methodology that arose from the worldwide diffusion of Fuzzy Logic is Fuzzy Control. After the first attempts dated in the seventies, this methodology has been widely exploited for controlling many industrial components and systems. At the same time, and very independently from Fuzzy Logic or Fuzzy Control, the birth of the Web has impacted upon almost all aspects of computing discipline. Evolution of Web, Web2.0 and Web 3.0 has been making scenarios of ubiquitous computing much more feasible; consequently information technology has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities.

What happens when Fuzzy Logic meets Web technology? Interesting results might come out, as you will discover in this book. Fuzzy Mark-up Language is a son of this synergistic view, where some technological issues of Web are re-interpreted taking into account the transparent notion of Fuzzy Control, as discussed here. The concept of a Fuzzy Control that is conceived and modeled in terms of a native web wisdom represents another step towards the last picture of Pervasive Web Intelligence.

Bonded composite repairs are efficient and cost effective means of repairing cracks and corrosion grind-out cavity in metallic structures, and composite structures sustained impact and ballistic damages, especially in aircraft structures. This book grew out of the recent research conducted at the Boeing Company and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO, Australia) over the past ten years. Consequently it is predominately a compilation of the work by the authors and their colleagues at these two organizations on the design and analysis of composite repairs. Composite Repair is entirely devoted to the design and analysis of bonded repairs, focusing on the mathematical techniques and analysis approaches that are critical to the successful implementation of bonded repairs. The topics addressed are presentated in a sufficiently self-explanatory manner, and serve as a state-of-the-art reference guide to engineers, scientists, researchers and practitioners interested in the underpinning design methodology and the modelling of composite repairs.
* The only book devoted entirely to the design and analysis of bonded repairs
* Focusing on mathematical techniques and analytical methodologies that are critical to the successful implementation of bonded repair
* A companion reference book to the United Stated Air Force (USAF) bonded repair guidelines (Guidelines for Composite Repair of Metallic Structures-CRMS, AFRL-WP-TR-1998-4113) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Design Standard DEF(AUST)995
* Covering a variety of topics and effects: repairs of fatigue and sonic fatigue cracks, and corrosion grind-out cavity, and effects of secondary bending, octagon-shaped patches, thermal residual stresses, patches in proximity, patch tapering edge, etc.

This book presents a series of studies on the status quo, characteristics of and trends in China's eSports industry, while also analyzing key problems to help the industry avoid potential risks, seize opportunities for development, and promote industrial drivers. In addition, it puts forward feasible plans and strategic suggestions for high-quality innovation and development of the industry. Electronic sports or eSports refers to digital entertainment activities that combine technological, sports, cultural and social aspects, and which have a unique commercial and user value. With their rapid growth in this century, eSports are now an emerging sector with huge growth potential and room for innovation. In 2020, China's eSports industry led the globe in growth rates; contributing roughly RMB 75.198 billion, it brought considerable new momentum to the national economy. As a new cultural phenomenon, eSports are politically, economically, culturally, and socially suited to helping use information technologies to restructure human social activities. The emergence and spread of an eSports culture embody the richness of subcultural phenomena and the importance of multicultural spaces, while also having a positive effect on people's competitive spirit, intelligence, aesthetic tastes, etc. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, China's eSports industry has faced a host of problems, e.g. postponed competitions, management difficulties and brand devaluation, all of which have hampered its progress. Nevertheless, the number of Chinese eSports users is on the rise and the online market share is climbing steadily, establishing a user base for the industry. Moreover, new technological advances like 5G, VR and AR offer a wealth of new opportunities for innovation in China's eSports industry. The book encourages readers to approach the topic from various perspectives and think across disciplines. As a result, it is not only essential reading for students at colleges and universities, but also offers a valuable reference guide for eSports researchers and enthusiasts.

This book explores the actual process of mediation operation in the translation process and the interaction between mediation and social structure. It defines mediation in translation in a parameterized manner, characterizing the linguistic properties of mediation for ease of mediation identification. On this basis, it puts forward an integrated systematic approach to map out mediation operation at the text level and discuss the interactive relationship between mediation and social structure, with a view to unveiling how the source text is altered for the purpose of power balance in the translation process. It is a key read for those interested in better understanding of how translators mediate in the translation process so as to maneuver a text to achieve a certain purpose, thereby increasing mediation efficiency and avoiding potential pitfalls in mediation operation. It will be of interest to students and scholars in translation studies, professional translators, as well as those working in language and culture, intercultural communication, and cultural studies.

The measurement models employed to score tests have been evolving over the past century from those that focus on the entire test (true score theory) to models that focus on individual test items (item response theory) to models that use small groups of items (testlets) as the fungible unit from which tests are constructed and scored (testlet response theory, or TRT). In this book, the inventors of TRT trace the history of this evolution and explain the character of modern TRT. Written for researchers and professionals in statistics, psychometrics, and educational psychology, the first part offers an accessible introduction to TRT and its applications. The second part presents a comprehensive, self-contained discussion of the model couched within a fully Bayesian framework. Its parameters are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures, and the resulting posterior distributions of the parameter estimates yield insights into score stability that were previously unsuspected.

Bonded Joints and Repairs to Composite Airframe Structures is a single source reference on the state of the art in this rapidly growing area.

Covering analysis of both internal and external joints and repairs, as well as damage tolerance, non-destructive inspection and self-healing repairs, the book provides essential information not only on the joints and repairs themselves but, critically, on how they differ from bonds and repairs to metallic aircraft.

Authors Wang and Duong bring a valuable combination of academic research and industry expertise to the book, drawing on cutting edge composite technology experience including analytic and computational leadership of damage and repair planning for the Boeing 787.

Intended for graduate students, engineers and scientists working on the subject in aerospace industry, government agencies, research labs, and academia, Bonded Joints and Repairs to Composite Airframe Structures is an important addition to the limited literature in the area.

Offers rare coverage of composite joints and repairs to composite structures, focusing on the state of the art in analysis. Author team combines academic, government and industry expertise to provide research findings in the context of current and future application. Covers internal and external joints and repairs, as well as damage tolerance, non-destructive inspection and self-healing repairs."

Developed from the author's course on Monte Carlo simulation at Brown University, Monte Carlo Simulation with Applications to Finance provides a self-contained introduction to Monte Carlo methods in financial engineering. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking a one-semester course or for practitioners in the financial industry.

The author first presents the necessary mathematical tools for simulation, arbitrary free option pricing, and the basic implementation of Monte Carlo schemes. He then describes variance reduction techniques, including control variates, stratification, conditioning, importance sampling, and cross-entropy. The text concludes with stochastic calculus and the simulation of diffusion processes.

Only requiring some familiarity with probability and statistics, the book keeps much of the mathematics at an informal level and avoids technical measure-theoretic jargon to provide a practical understanding of the basics. It includes a large number of examples as well as MATLAB(r) coding exercises that are designed in a progressive manner so that no prior experience with MATLAB is needed.

This book focuses on case studies of vocabulary strategy use and presents an in-depth account of the vocabulary learning experiences of Chinese students in the UK. It challenges the view that vocabulary strategies result only from learners' cognitive choices, and provides insightful analysis of the interplay between learner characteristics, agency and context in the process of strategic learning. The author makes a strong case for using qualitative methodologies to examine the dynamic, complex and contextually situated nature of strategic vocabulary learning. Drawing on multiple data sources, the book discusses issues that are central to the continuing development of vocabulary strategy research and offers theoretical, research-based and practical suggestions for future exploration. This book will appeal to students and scholars of second language acquisition, vocabulary and applied linguistics.

The Intelligent Systems Series comprises titles that present state-of-the-art knowledge and the latest advances in intelligent systems. Its scope includes theoretical studies, design methods, and real-world implementations and applications.

The most prevalent topics in Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) include data management, data and text mining for ISI applications, terrorism informatics, deception and intent detection, terrorist and criminal social network analysis, public health and bio-security, crime analysis, cyber-infrastructure protection, transportation infrastructure security, policy studies and evaluation, and information assurance, among others.This book covers the most active research work inrecent years.
Pulls together key information on ensuring national security around the worldThe latest research on this subject is concisely presented within the book, with several figures to support the text.Will be of interest to attendees of The Intelligence and Security Informatics conference series, which include IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (IEEE ISI)"

This book is devoted to the characterization of Maillard reaction products using mass spectrometry (MS)-based technologies. The Maillard reaction is a well-known non-enzymatic reaction between reducing sugars and proteins, and one of the most important reactions in food sciences. The authors explore different MS-based technologies to systematically investigate the Maillard reaction from amino acids, peptides and proteins. By using amino acid/peptide-sugar models, the authors also show how reactants, temperature and time affect the Maillard reaction. In this book, readers will learn more about glucosylation, and how it can improve functional properties of food proteins.

Developed from the author's course on Monte Carlo simulation at Brown University, Monte Carlo Simulation with Applications to Finance provides a self-contained introduction to Monte Carlo methods in financial engineering. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking a one-semester course or for practitioners in the financial industry. The author first presents the necessary mathematical tools for simulation, arbitrary free option pricing, and the basic implementation of Monte Carlo schemes. He then describes variance reduction techniques, including control variates, stratification, conditioning, importance sampling, and cross-entropy. The text concludes with stochastic calculus and the simulation of diffusion processes. Only requiring some familiarity with probability and statistics, the book keeps much of the mathematics at an informal level and avoids technical measure-theoretic jargon to provide a practical understanding of the basics. It includes a large number of examples as well as MATLAB (R) coding exercises that are designed in a progressive manner so that no prior experience with MATLAB is needed.

One of the most successful methodology that arose from the worldwide diffusion of Fuzzy Logic is Fuzzy Control. After the first attempts dated in the seventies, this methodology has been widely exploited for controlling many industrial components and systems. At the same time, and very independently from Fuzzy Logic or Fuzzy Control, the birth of the Web has impacted upon almost all aspects of computing discipline. Evolution of Web, Web2.0 and Web 3.0 has been making scenarios of ubiquitous computing much more feasible; consequently information technology has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. What happens when Fuzzy Logic meets Web technology? Interesting results might come out, as you will discover in this book. Fuzzy Mark-up Language is a son of this synergistic view, where some technological issues of Web are re-interpreted taking into account the transparent notion of Fuzzy Control, as discussed here. The concept of a Fuzzy Control that is conceived and modeled in terms of a native web wisdom represents another step towards the last picture of Pervasive Web Intelligence.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the International Conference on Cognitive Computing, ICCC 2022, held as part of SCF 2022 in December 2022. The conference was held in Honolulu, USA. The 6 full and 2 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 17 submissions. The papers cover all aspects of Sensing Intelligence (SIJ as a Service (SlaaS). Cognitive Computing is a sensing-driven computing (SDC) scheme that explores and integrates intelligence from all types of senses in various scenarios and solution contexts.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Intelligence Computation and Applications, ISICA 2019, held in Guangzhou, China, in November 2019. The 65 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from the total of 112 submissions. This volume features the most up-to-date research in evolutionary algorithms, parallel computing and quantum computing, evolutionary multi-objective and dynamic optimization, intelligent multimedia systems, virtualization and AI applications, smart scheduling, intelligent control, big data and cloud computing, deep learning, and hybrid machine learning systems.The papers are organized according to the following topical sections: new frontier in evolutionary algorithms; evolutionary multi-objective and dynamic optimization; intelligent multimedia systems; virtualization and AI applications; smart scheduling; intelligent control; big data and cloud computing; statistical learning.

This brief explains the principles and fundamentals of carbon dioxide utilization and highlights the transformation to fuels and value-added chemicals such as formic acid and methanol. It is divided into six chapters, including an introduction to the basics of CO2 utilization and transformation of CO2 to formic acid and methanol with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, respectively. The brief will appeal to a wide readership of academic and industrial researchers focusing on homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, organometallic chemistry, green chemistry, energy conversion and storage.

In this bold, provocative collection, Wang Hui confronts some of the major issues concerning modern China and the status quo of contemporary Chinese thought.

The book s overarching theme is the possibility of an alternative modernity that does not rely on imported conceptions of Chinese history and its legacy. Wang Hui argues that current models, based largely on Western notions of empire and the nation-state, fail to account for the richness and diversity of pre-modern Chinese historical practice. At the same time, he refrains from offering an exclusively Chinese perspective and placing China in an intellectual ghetto. Navigating terrain on regional language and politics, he draws on China s unique past to expose the inadequacies of European-born standards for assessing modern China s evolution. He takes issue particularly with the way in which nation-state logic has dominated politically charged concerns like Chinese language standardization and The Tibetan Question. His stance is critical and often controversial but he locates hope in the kinds of complex, multifaceted arrangements that defined China and much of Asia for centuries.

"The Politics of Imagining Asia" challenges us not only to re-examine our theories of Asia but to reconsider what Europe means as well. As Theodore Huters writes in his introduction, Wang Hui s concerns extend beyond China and Asia to an ambition to rethink world history as a whole.

Das Problem der Subjektivitat und Objektivitat ist eine der zentralen Fragen der Rechtstheorie und Rechtsphilosophie. Diese Arbeit hat zum Ziel, die der Rechtsanwendung inharente Subjektivitat aufzuzeigen, und die Transformation von der Subjektivitat zur Objektivitat auf ein diskurstheoretisches Fundament zu analysieren. In traditionellen positivistischen sowie nichtpositivistischen Untersuchungen werden die subjektiven Elemente des Rechts vernachlassigt. Eine reine Objektivitat ist unerreichbar und die Subjektivitat ist unvermeidbar. Durch die Entwicklung eines komplexen Modells der Rechtsanwendung und die Begrundung der Notwendigkeit des Richtigkeitsanspruchs wird ein UEbergang von der subjektiven zur objektiven Rechtsanwendung geschaffen.

The definitive history of China’s philosophical confrontation with modernity, available for the first time in English. What does it mean for China to be modern, or for modernity to be Chinese? How is the notion of historical rupture—a fundamental distinction between tradition and modernity—compatible or not with the history of Chinese thought? These questions animate The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought, a sprawling intellectual history considered one of the most significant achievements of modern Chinese scholarship, available here in English for the first time. Wang Hui traces the seventh-century origins of three key ideas—“principle� (li), “things� (wu), and “propensity� (shi)—and analyzes their continual evolution up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Confucian scholars grappled with the problem of linking transcendental law to the material world, thought to action—a goal that Wang argues became outdated as China’s socioeconomic conditions were radically transformed during the Song Dynasty. Wang shows how the epistemic shifts of that time period produced a new intellectual framework that has proven both durable and malleable, influencing generations of philosophers and even China’s transformation from empire to nation-state in the early twentieth century. In a new preface, Wang also reflects on responses to his book since its original publication in Chinese. With theoretical rigor and uncommon insight into the roots of contemporary political commitments, Wang delivers a masterpiece of scholarship that is overdue in translation. Through deep readings of key figures and classical texts, The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought provides an account of Chinese philosophy and history that will transform our understanding of the modern not only in China but around the world.