Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig star in this comedy drama adapted from Philip Roth's novel 'The Humbling'. Ageing actor Simon Axler (Pacino) is suffering from mental health problems and, with his once-successful career in decline, he considers suicide. He finds a new lease of life when he encounters Pegeen (Gerwig), a much younger gay woman who is the daughter of his friends, and the two embark on an unlikely affair. As their relationship develops Axler is given the opportunity to return to the stage, but can he successfully revive his career?

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the kinetic theory for describing flow problems from molecular scale, hydrodynamic scale, to Darcy scale. The author presents various numerical algorithms to solve the same Boltzmann-like equation for different applications of different scales, in which the dominant transport mechanisms may differ. This book presents a concise introduction to the Boltzmann equation of the kinetic theory, based on which different simulation methods that were independently developed for solving problems of different fields can be naturally related to each other. Then, the advantages and disadvantages of different methods will be discussed with reference to each other. It mainly covers four advanced simulation methods based on the Boltzmann equation (i.e., direct simulation Monte Carlo method, direct simulation BGK method, discrete velocity method, and lattice Boltzmann method) and their applications with detailed results. In particular, many simulations are included to demonstrate the applications for both conventional and unconventional reservoirs. With the development of high-resolution CT and high-performance computing facilities, the study of digital rock physics is becoming increasingly important for understanding the mechanisms of enhanced oil and gas recovery. The advanced methods presented here have broad applications in petroleum engineering as well as mechanical engineering , making them of interest to researchers, professionals, and graduate students alike. At the same time, instructors can use the codes at the end of the book to help their students implement the advanced technology in solving real industrial problems.

This book examines the quality assessment movement in academic scholarship, as globalization prompts a search for global measures of university services and output. It gauges productivity in terms of universal publication metrics, and considers ranking and research productivity from a comparative perspective. The book considers the use of the "impact factor" as a gauge of publication value, noting that this less important in countries lacking central government appropriations to universities and to research. It argues that pressure to publish in certain journals, and to research topics of interest to English language readers, has been felt differentially in English-language systems, compared to others, but also that performance pressures fall more on younger, more juniour, contract staff, than on senior and tenured professors. It problematizes international comparisons of quality, and analyses the benefits of a zone of ideas and metrics in a common language - promoting international mobility, efficiency, collaboration - but also the costs which are rarely borne equally across countries, languages and cultures. The book provides a strong, evidence-based contribution to major debates in contemporary higher education reforms and the measurement of academic output.

This book provides a fresh interpretation of how Chinese civilization was created and transformed in the process of its early formation (1766-221 BC). It describes the principal features of that civilization which had a profound impact on the later development of Chinese history. In particular, it discusses in detail the main characteristics of the social and political organizations of that period, and argues that, contrary to the traditional interpretation, economic development in ancient China had its own dynamism.

Although sensor fusion is an essential prerequisite for autonomous driving, it entails a number of challenges and potential risks. For example, the commonly used deep fusion networks are lacking in interpretability and robustness. To address these fundamental issues, this book introduces the mechanism of deep fusion models from the perspective of uncertainty and models the initial risks in order to create a robust fusion architecture. This book reviews the multi-sensor data fusion methods applied in autonomous driving, and the main body is divided into three parts: Basic, Method, and Advance. Starting from the mechanism of data fusion, it comprehensively reviews the development of automatic perception technology and data fusion technology, and gives a comprehensive overview of various perception tasks based on multimodal data fusion. The book then proposes a series of innovative algorithms for various autonomous driving perception tasks, to effectively improve the accuracy and robustness of autonomous driving-related tasks, and provide ideas for solving the challenges in multi-sensor fusion methods. Furthermore, to transition from technical research to intelligent connected collaboration applications, it proposes a series of exploratory contents such as practical fusion datasets, vehicle-road collaboration, and fusion mechanisms. In contrast to the existing literature on data fusion and autonomous driving, this book focuses more on the deep fusion method for perception-related tasks, emphasizes the theoretical explanation of the fusion method, and fully considers the relevant scenarios in engineering practice. Helping readers acquire an in-depth understanding of fusion methods and theories in autonomous driving, it can be used as a textbook for graduate students and scholars in related fields or as a reference guide for engineers who wish to apply deep fusion methods.

This book brings together policies, practices, and identities pertaining to doctoral publication through an in-depth longitudinal multiple-case study of doctoral students’ scholarly publishing endeavors. Informed by the theoretical frameworks of neoliberalism and activity theory, it examines doctoral students’ scholarly publishing activities within the context of their doctoral studies. It demonstrates how policies, practices, and identities intersect with each other and reveals how policies may shape doctoral students’ publishing practices and evolving identities. Postgraduates, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of applied linguistics and doctoral education will find it of particular interest. It is also a valuable guide for doctoral students seeking to have their work published and supervisors looking to support their doctoral students’ publishing efforts.

In 1775, Paul Revere, the folk hero of the American Revolution, galloped wildly on horseback through small towns to warn American colonists that the British were coming. In today's Internet age, how do we warn vast numbers of computers about impending cyber attacks?

Rapid and widespread dissemination of security updates throughout the Internet would be invaluable for many purposes, including sending early-warning signals, distributing new virus signatures, updating certificate revocation lists, dispatching event information for intrusion detection systems, etc. However, notifying a large number of machines securely, quickly, and with high assurance is very challenging. Such a system must compete with the propagation of threats, handle complexities in large-scale environments, address interruption attacks toward dissemination, and also secure itself.

Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale describes a new system, "Revere," that addresses these problems. "Revere" builds large-scale, self-organizing and resilient overlay networks on top of the Internet to push security updates from dissemination centers to individual nodes. "Revere" also sets up repository servers for individual nodes to pull missed security updates. This book further discusses how to protect this push-and-pull dissemination procedure and how to secure "Revere" overlay networks, considering possible attacks and countermeasures. Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale presents experimental measurements of a prototype implementation of "Revere" gathered using a large-scale oriented approach. These measurements suggest that "Revere" can deliver security updates at the required scale, speed and resiliency for a reasonable cost.

Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale is designed to meet the needs of researchers and practitioners in industry and graduate students in computer science. This book will also be helpful to those trying to design peer systems at large scale when security is a concern, since many of the issues faced by these designs are also faced by "Revere." The "Revere" solutions may not always be appropriate for other peer systems with very different goals, but the analysis of the problems and possible solutions discussed here will be helpful in designing a customized approach for such systems.

China has grown to become the world's second largest economy in merely three decades and entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver of China's fast growth. Since the mid-2000s, the country has transitioned from a predominance of necessity-based entrepreneurship to that of an opportunity-based entrepreneurship. The China Surveys of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in the last fifteen years consistently indicate the country's high rate of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, more Chinese entrepreneurs have started setting their sights on business internationalisation. Against this backdrop of a thriving entrepreneurial economy, institutions and business environment are, however, not often viewed as "friendly" to private entrepreneurs and businesses. The "re-emergence" of entrepreneurship suggests a history of struggle to overcome opposition and obstruction, to survive and grow, including "rule ambiguities", rent-seeking, subsidies, and institutional constraints, such as industrial barriers, difficulties in getting access to critical resources, and weak property rights. China has also been experiencing economic slowdown, increase in inequality and worsening environmental problems since the turn of the century, clearly indicating that the rapid development of entrepreneurship in China presents a lot of puzzling questions. Entrepreneurship in China attempts to deal with these unanswered queries as well as provide an insightful and updated understanding of entrepreneurship development in China. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.

China has grown to become the world’s second largest economy in merely three decades and entrepreneurship has been identified as a key driver of China’s fast growth. Since the mid-2000s, the country has transitioned from a predominance of necessity-based entrepreneurship to that of an opportunity-based entrepreneurship. The China Surveys of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in the last fifteen years consistently indicate the country’s high rate of entrepreneurship. Furthermore, more Chinese entrepreneurs have started setting their sights on business internationalisation. Against this backdrop of a thriving entrepreneurial economy, institutions and business environment are, however, not often viewed as "friendly" to private entrepreneurs and businesses. The "re-emergence" of entrepreneurship suggests a history of struggle to overcome opposition and obstruction, to survive and grow, including "rule ambiguities", rent-seeking, subsidies, and institutional constraints, such as industrial barriers, difficulties in getting access to critical resources, and weak property rights. China has also been experiencing economic slowdown, increase in inequality and worsening environmental problems since the turn of the century, clearly indicating that the rapid development of entrepreneurship in China presents a lot of puzzling questions. Entrepreneurship in China attempts to deal with these unanswered queries as well as provide an insightful and updated understanding of entrepreneurship development in China. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.

In the past three decades, China has successfully transformed itself from an extremely poor economy to the world's second largest economy. The country's phenomenal economic growth has been sustained primarily by its rapid and continuous industrialization. Currently industry accounts for nearly two-fifths of China's gross domestic product, and since 2009 China has been the world's largest exporter of manufactured products. This book explores the question of how far this industrial growth has been the product of government policies. It discusses how government policies and their priorities have developed and evolved, examines how industrial policies are linked to policies in other areas, such as trade, technology and regional development, and assesses how new policy initiatives are encouraging China's increasing success in new technology-intensive industries. It also demonstrates how China's industrial policies are linked to development of industrial clusters and regions.

Although Chinese economic growth continues strong, and although China coped very well with the recent global crisis, the Chinese economy faces many challenges, including how to sustain growth, how to rebalance the economy towards more domestic consumption, how to accommodate rising wages, growing social and regional inequality, and how to reform financial and monetary policies. This book examines the key challenges currently facing the Chinese economy. It considers Chinas' increasing global impact, discusses the institutional drivers of China's economic growth, assesses critically China's need for structural reform, and explores issues related to sustainability and human rights.

Describes the passive intermodulation mechanism, analysis and evaluation methods, location detection and suppression technology of microwave components passive intermodulation from a theoretical and engineering perspective Gives practical suppression technology in the book, which provides reference for the engineers Introduces the latest achievements of microwave components passive intermodulation in a certain technical depth, guidance and inspiration

Although Chinese economic growth continues strong, and although China coped very well with the recent global crisis, the Chinese economy faces many challenges, including how to sustain growth, how to rebalance the economy towards more domestic consumption, how to accommodate rising wages, growing social and regional inequality, and how to reform financial and monetary policies. This book examines the key challenges currently facing the Chinese economy. It considers Chinas' increasing global impact, discusses the institutional drivers of China's economic growth, assesses critically China's need for structural reform, and explores issues related to sustainability and human rights.

Biosensors Based on Nanomaterials and Nanodevices links interdisciplinary research from leading experts to provide graduate students, academics, researchers, and industry professionals alike with a comprehensive source for key advancements and future trends in nanostructured biosensor development. It describes the concepts, principles, materials, device fabrications, functions, system integrations, and applications of various types of biosensors based on signal transduction mechanisms, including fluorescence, photonic crystal, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, electrochemistry, electro-luminescence, field-effect transistor, and magnetic effect. The book: Explains how to utilize the unique properties of nanomaterials to construct nanostructured biosensors to achieve enhanced performance Features examples of biosensors based on both typical and emerging nanomaterials, such as gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, graphene, graphene oxides, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, inorganic nanowires/nanorods, plasmonic nanostructures, and photonic crystals Demonstrates the broad applications of nanostructured biosensors in environmental monitoring, food safety, industrial quality assurance, and in vitro and in vivo health diagnosis Inspires new ideas for tackling multiscale and multidisciplinary issues in developing high-performance biosensors for complex practical biomedical problems Focusing on the connection between nanomaterials research and biosensor development, Biosensors Based on Nanomaterials and Nanodevices illustrates the exciting possibilities and critical challenges of biosensors based on nanomaterials and nanodevices for future health monitoring, disease diagnosis, therapeutic treatments, and beyond.

"First Step" is an elementary Chinese textbook for students with no previous background in the language. Focusing on the basics of modern Chinese phonetics and grammatical structure, the book uses everyday topics to help students establish a solid foundation in the Chinese language.

The textbook, which includes color illustrations, contains thirty lessons, each of which can be covered in a week's worth of classes. Each lesson features a lively dialogue or a short essay, representing a real-life situation, which is then followed by vocabulary lists and grammar notes. Explanatory notes on Chinese culture and customs are also provided. The companion workbook for "First Step" is sold separately and includes comprehensive exercises and character writing sheets with information on the stroke orders of newly introduced characters. Free online audio files, accessible on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, allow students to listen to "First Step" dialogues and practice their pronunciation at their leisure. This vital audio supplement gives students the chance to learn Chinese intonation with greater accuracy.

"First Step" provides students with the necessary tools to begin practical daily communication in Chinese.Emphasis is on basic grammar structure and principlesTextbook features both traditional and simplified characters, pinyin, and English translationPerforated workbook (which is sold separately) facilitates easy handling of homeworkFree audio recordings of dialogues and other content available onlineAppropriate for college and high school students

This book examines the quality assessment movement in academic scholarship, as globalization prompts a search for global measures of university services and output. It gauges productivity in terms of universal publication metrics, and considers ranking and research productivity from a comparative perspective. The book considers the use of the "impact factor" as a gauge of publication value, noting that this less important in countries lacking central government appropriations to universities and to research. It argues that pressure to publish in certain journals, and to research topics of interest to English language readers, has been felt differentially in English-language systems, compared to others, but also that performance pressures fall more on younger, more juniour, contract staff, than on senior and tenured professors. It problematizes international comparisons of quality, and analyses the benefits of a zone of ideas and metrics in a common language - promoting international mobility, efficiency, collaboration - but also the costs which are rarely borne equally across countries, languages and cultures. The book provides a strong, evidence-based contribution to major debates in contemporary higher education reforms and the measurement of academic output.

Series Information:
Chinese Worlds

An original comprehensive guide on computational nanomechanics discussing basic concepts and implications in areas such as computational physics, materials, mechanics and engineering as well as several other interdisciplinary avenues. This book makes the underlying theory accessible to readers without specialised training or extensive background in quantum physics, statistical mechanics, or theoretical chemistry. It combines a careful treatment of theoretical concepts with a detailed tutorial on computer software and computing implementation, including multiscale simulation and computational statistical theory. Multidisciplinary perspectives are provided, yielding a true insight on the applications of computational nanomechanics across diverse engineering fields. The book can serve as a practical guide with step-by-step discussion of coding, example problems and case studies. This book will be essential reading for students new to the subject, as well as an excellent reference for graduates and researchers.

Development of Ultra-High Performance Concrete against Blasts: From Materials to Structures presents a detailed overview of UHPC development and its related applications in an era of rising terrorism around the world. Chapters present case studies on the novel development of the new generation of UHPC with nano additives. Field blast test results on reinforced concrete columns made with UHPC and UHPC filled double-skin tubes columns are also presented and compiled, as is the residual load-carrying capacities of blast-damaged structural members and the exceptional performance of novel UHPC materials that illustrate its potential in protective structural design. As a notable representative, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has now been widely investigated by government agencies and universities. UHPC inherits many positive aspects of ultra-high strength concrete (UHSC) and is equipped with improved ductility as a result of fiber addition. These features make it an ideal construction material for bridge decks, storage halls, thin-wall shell structures, and other infrastructure because of its protective properties against seismic, impact and blast loads.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Ad Hoc Networks, ADHOCNETS 2013, held in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2013. The 14 revised full papers presented were carefully selected and reviewed from numerous submissions and cover a wide range of applications, commercial and military such as mobile ad hoc networks, sensor networks, vehicular networks, underwater networks, underground networks, personal area networks, home networks and large-scale metropolitan networks for smart cities. They are organized in topical sections on wireless sensor networks, routing, applications and security.

Biosensors Based on Nanomaterials and Nanodevices links interdisciplinary research from leading experts to provide graduate students, academics, researchers, and industry professionals alike with a comprehensive source for key advancements and future trends in nanostructured biosensor development. It describes the concepts, principles, materials, device fabrications, functions, system integrations, and applications of various types of biosensors based on signal transduction mechanisms, including fluorescence, photonic crystal, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, electrochemistry, electro-luminescence, field-effect transistor, and magnetic effect. The book: Explains how to utilize the unique properties of nanomaterials to construct nanostructured biosensors to achieve enhanced performance Features examples of biosensors based on both typical and emerging nanomaterials, such as gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, graphene, graphene oxides, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, inorganic nanowires/nanorods, plasmonic nanostructures, and photonic crystals Demonstrates the broad applications of nanostructured biosensors in environmental monitoring, food safety, industrial quality assurance, and in vitro and in vivo health diagnosis Inspires new ideas for tackling multiscale and multidisciplinary issues in developing high-performance biosensors for complex practical biomedical problems Focusing on the connection between nanomaterials research and biosensor development, Biosensors Based on Nanomaterials and Nanodevices illustrates the exciting possibilities and critical challenges of biosensors based on nanomaterials and nanodevices for future health monitoring, disease diagnosis, therapeutic treatments, and beyond.

The school-to-work transition has been an important topic in the fields of education and sociology research in the past few years. Pre-vocational education, which takes place during lower-secondary school and aims to facilitate the school-to-work transition, is of critical significance in introducing the participants to the world of work and/or in preparing them for entry into further vocational education programs.

With a strong comparative nature, Jun Li presents this systematic investigation of the pre-vocational education in Germany and China and analyzes their curricula of pre-vocational education. By combining the methods of content analysis and teacher interview, the author offers an in-depth perspective into the realms of pre-vocational education and reveals the divergences between the prescribed curriculum and the enacted curriculum. The findings also relate closely to an intensively discussed issue in the sociology of education in the past few years, namely the issue of knowledge and its status, function and forms in the school education today.

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Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale describes a new system, "Revere", that addresses these problems. "Revere" builds large-scale, self-organizing and resilient overlay networks on top of the Internet to push security updates from dissemination centers to individual nodes. "Revere" also sets up repository servers for individual nodes to pull missed security updates. This book further discusses how to protect this push-and-pull dissemination procedure and how to secure "Revere" overlay networks, considering possible attacks and countermeasures. Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale presents experimental measurements of a prototype implementation of "Revere" gathered using a large-scale oriented approach. These measurements suggest that "Revere" can deliver security updates at the required scale, speed and resiliency for a reasonable cost. Disseminating Security Updates at Internet Scale will be helpful to those trying to design peer systems at large scale when security is a concern, since many of the issues faced by these designs are also faced by "Revere". The "Revere" solutions may not always be appropriate for other peer systems with very different goals, but the analysis of the problems and possible solutions discussed here will be helpful in designing a customized approach for such systems.

This book provides a fresh interpretation of how Chinese civilization was created and transformed in the process of its early formation (1766-221 BC). It describes the principal features of that civilization which had a profound impact on the later development of Chinese history. In particular, it discusses in detail the main characteristics of the social and political organizations of that period, and argues that, contrary to the traditional interpretation, economic development in ancient China had its own dynamism.

This workbook is a companion volume to "First Step," the elementary Chinese textbook. Featuring both traditional and simplified characters along with pinyin and English translation, the workbook includes comprehensive exercises and character writing sheets with information on the stroke orders of newly introduced characters. Perforated pages facilitate student use and easy handling of homework, and the workbook also includes more than 120 color illustrations. Listening exercises that help students learn to identify and pronounce the tones used in contemporary spoken Chinese are paired with free online audio files, accessible on smartphones, tablets and laptops.