Fast-paced Hong Kong action adventure. Set in a land ruled by a vengeful queen (Ying Qu), who insists that all men will be slaves to women, the film follows the journey of two young brothers, Charcoal Head (Jaycee Chan) and Blockhead (Bo-Lin Chen), who come into the possession of a mysterious map. Presuming that the map will lead them to treasure, the boys set out on an adventure in the hope of finding wealth and happiness. They are pursued by Spring (Charlene Choi) and Blue Bird (Gillian Chung), two beautiful female warriors with secret intentions, and quickly discover that the map has led them into danger. Will the boys be able to fight their way to the bottom of the riddle - and past rivals as formidable as the Lord of Armour (Jackie Chan) - to fulfil their destiny?

Focusing on social work and social service delivery, this book examines the social policies and programmes designed to address different societal issues and concerns across India and China. It focuses on gaining understanding of design and delivery of social welfare policies related to special interest groups, highlighting important contemporary challenges such as child labour, child abuse, exploitation of women, problems related to disabled people, mental health issue, illiteracy and unemployment. Offering a comparative perspective, the book considers the impact of political administration in both countries to critically assess key issues related to social welfare in two different political, economic, social, and cultural contexts.

Focusing on social work and social service delivery, this book examines the social policies and programmes designed to address different societal issues and concerns across India and China. It focuses on gaining understanding of design and delivery of social welfare policies related to special interest groups, highlighting important contemporary challenges such as child labour, child abuse, exploitation of women, problems related to disabled people, mental health issue, illiteracy and unemployment. Offering a comparative perspective, the book considers the impact of political administration in both countries to critically assess key issues related to social welfare in two different political, economic, social, and cultural contexts.

The blasted expanse of the Shadow Barrens has menaced the Kingdom of the Blue Rose for generations. Legends of its sinister residents and the fallen glories of long-lost Mount Oritaun have provoked both fear and wistful hope. Now, an envoy from that lost kingdom has made contact, and a history long forgotten by all but a few scholars has been brought to light. But the armies of Shadow loom over Mount Oritaun, and its lunar light may soon be extinguished forever. Tales from the Mount features nine short stories which visit the deadly Shadow Barrens, wicked fallen Austium, and the lunar glories of Mount Oritaun. These are the tales of a people lost, the shattered pieces of an ancient and proud civilization, and the sinister stain that has crept over those legacies in the generations since the Doom of Faenaria. Come explore some of the most tragic parts of the Blue Rose setting with us. Authors for this anthology include Natania Barron, Nerine Dorman, Georgina Kamsika, Rhiannon Louve, Michael Matheson, Tiffany Trent, Caias Ward, and Suzanne Willis. This anthology is tied to the Envoys to the Mount campaign book for Blue Rose: The Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy from Green Ronin Publishing.

Beside technological issues, this book discusses the administrative and industrial aspects of third generation mobile communications. The authors emphasize existing problems and propose solutions. They provide the most comprehensive and topical information on 3G mobile communications currently available. As the first wave of third-generation communication devices arrives, technological and societal effects will be widespread. The ability to communicate via hand-held devices voice, data, and video raises many challenges and questions. Beside detailed looks at technological issues, from the system protocol to implementation technologies, this book discusses the administrative and industrial aspects of third-generation mobile communications. The authors emphasize existing problems and propose solutions. They seek to provide the most comprehensive and topical information on 3G mobile communications currently available. Chapters offer an overview of wireless technology and terminology, protocols for mobility management, the safety of radio-frequency energy, WLAN (wireless local area networks), multiple access schemes, and microwave photonics. It is intended as an introduction and reference for engineers entering the field of wireless communications.

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is a modern numerical technique, very efficient, flexible to simulate different flows within complex/varying geome tries. It is evolved from the lattice gas automata (LGA) in order to overcome the difficulties with the LGA. The core equation in the LBM turns out to be a special discrete form of the continuum Boltzmann equation, leading it to be self-explanatory in statistical physics. The method describes the micro scopic picture of particles movement in an extremely simplified way, and on the macroscopic level it gives a correct average description of a fluid. The av eraged particle velocities behave in time and space just as the flow velocities in a physical fluid, showing a direct link between discrete microscopic and continuum macroscopic phenomena. In contrast to the traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on a direct solution of flow equations, the lattice Boltzmann method provides an indirect way for solution of the flow equations. The method is characterized by simple calculation, parallel process and easy implementation of boundary conditions. It is these features that make the lattice Boltzmann method a very promising computational method in different areas. In recent years, it receives extensive attentions and becomes a very potential research area in computational fluid dynamics. However, most published books are limited to the lattice Boltzmann methods for the Navier-Stokes equations. On the other hand, shallow water flows exist in many practical situations such as tidal flows, waves, open channel flows and dam-break flows."

Beside technological issues, this book discusses the administrative and industrial aspects of third generation mobile communications. The authors emphasize existing problems and propose solutions. They provide the most comprehensive and topical information on 3G mobile communications currently available.

As the first wave of third-generation communication devices arrives, technological and societal effects will be widespread. The ability to communicate via hand-held devices voice, data, and video raises many challenges and questions. Beside detailed looks at technological issues, from the system protocol to implementation technologies, this book discusses the administrative and industrial aspects of third-generation mobile communications. The authors emphasize existing problems and propose solutions. They seek to provide the most comprehensive and topical information on 3G mobile communications currently available. Chapters offer an overview of wireless technology and terminology, protocols for mobility management, the safety of radio-frequency energy, WLAN (wireless local area networks), multiple access schemes, and microwave photonics. It is intended as an introduction and reference for engineers entering the field of wireless communications.

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is a modern numerical technique, very efficient, flexible to simulate different flows within complex/varying geome tries. It is evolved from the lattice gas automata (LGA) in order to overcome the difficulties with the LGA. The core equation in the LBM turns out to be a special discrete form of the continuum Boltzmann equation, leading it to be self-explanatory in statistical physics. The method describes the micro scopic picture of particles movement in an extremely simplified way, and on the macroscopic level it gives a correct average description of a fluid. The av eraged particle velocities behave in time and space just as the flow velocities in a physical fluid, showing a direct link between discrete microscopic and continuum macroscopic phenomena. In contrast to the traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based on a direct solution of flow equations, the lattice Boltzmann method provides an indirect way for solution of the flow equations. The method is characterized by simple calculation, parallel process and easy implementation of boundary conditions. It is these features that make the lattice Boltzmann method a very promising computational method in different areas. In recent years, it receives extensive attentions and becomes a very potential research area in computational fluid dynamics. However, most published books are limited to the lattice Boltzmann methods for the Navier-Stokes equations. On the other hand, shallow water flows exist in many practical situations such as tidal flows, waves, open channel flows and dam-break flows."

This book analyzes the positive changes, challenges, and corresponding solutions regarding charitable donation in China. It discusses a number of issues, including donors and their modes of donation, donation intermediaries and their behavioral characteristics, cultural and social factors influencing charitable donation, methods of raising charitable funds, ways of providing charitable assistance and innovation, and trends in the development of charitable donation mechanisms in China. Confirming previous findings and integrating theoretical and applied studies, the book draws new conclusions and offers fresh insights into the research questions. It also includes a multi-dimensional analysis of the behavioral patterns of the donors and the charitable donation mechanisms in contemporary China from integrated perspectives, with a systematic generalization of their key features and trends. Further topics explored include the community-based charity promotion mechanism and the trends in the mechanism development in China, which have seldom been touched on by other scholars in the field.

In this monograph, the authors reports the current advancement in high frequency piezoelectric crystal micromachined ultrasound transducers and arrays and their biomedical applications. Piezoelectric ultrasound transducers operating at high frequencies (> 20 MHz) are of increasing demand in recent years for medical imaging and biological particle manipulation involved therapy. The performances of transducers greatly rely on the properties of the piezoelectric materials and transduction structures, including piezoelectric coefficient (d), electromechanical coupling coefficient (k), dielectric permittivity (e) and acoustic impedance (Z). Piezo-composite structures are preferred because of their relatively high electromechanical coupling coefficient and low acoustic impedance. A number of piezo-composite techniques have been developed, namely "dice and fill," "tape-casting," "stack and bond," "interdigital phase bonding," "laser micromachining" and "micro-molding". However, these techniques are either difficult to achieve fine features or not suitable for manufacturing of high frequency ultrasound transducers (> 20 MHz). The piezo-composite micromachined ultrasound transducers (PC-MUT) technique discovered over the last 10 years or so has demonstrated high performance high frequency piezo-composite ultrasound transducers. In this monograph, piezoelectric materials used for high frequency transducers is introduced first. Next, the benefits and theory of piezo composites is presented, followed by the design criteria and fabrication methods. Biomedical applications using piezo composites micromachined ultrasound transducers (PC-MUT) and arrays will also be reported, in comparison with other ultrasound transducer techniques. The final part of this monograph describes challenges and future perspectives of this technique for biomedical applications.