This volume presents an overview of the evolution of the current Chinese Constitution (1982) and the characteristics of constitutional studies since 1978. Readers are introduced to the basic principles of constitutional system in China and gain insights into the real state of Chinese law, allowing them to form their own opinions. It will also aid commercial communications with Chinese legal professionals as well as enterprises. The book covers a number of topics, including the history of constitutional communication between Chinese constitutionalists and the International Association of Constitutional Law since 1981, the most important academic contributions to international conferences concerning constitutional law by Chinese constitutionalists, the main characteristics of the current Chinese Constitution in the field of constitutional studies in China, the key issues of constitutional practice and implementation in China, the challenges of running the fundamental political system of the People's Representative Congress and the characteristics of rule of law specific to China.

This book studies the practical experience and theoretical development of rule of law in China, and provides fundamental theory for the construction of rule of law in contemporary China. The author examines the rule of law by exploring the entire legal system, and highlighting various aspects including the legislation, law enforcement and supervision systems. Readers will also discover the author's strong opinions on scientific legislation, legal government, judicial reform, and the culture of rule of law. This highly readable book will appeal to both general readers and researchers interested in rule of law in China.

This book mainly focuses on the study of steering electromagnetic fields in near-field and far-field contexts involving plasmonic structures. It also offers a new approach to achieving full control of optical polarizations and potentially boosting the development in photonic information processing. A new in-plane phase modulation method is proposed and described, by means of which a series of optical beams were realized with nanostructures in metal surfaces, such as a plasmonic Airy beam, broad band focusing beam, and demultiplexing, collimated beam, as well as an optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) beam. Further, the book presents a plasmonic polarization generator, which can reconfigure an input polarization to all kinds of states simultaneously.

This book is the eighth volume of the proceedings of the 4th GeoShanghai International Conference that was held on May 27 - 30, 2018. This book, entitled Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics", presents the latest information on the new technologies and practical applications in various geotechnical engineering projects and advancements on ground improvement and geosynethetics. This volume presents detailed design procedures and examples to demonstrate the applications of the latest ground improvement technologies and innovative geosynethetics in geotechnical engineering. Topics include pile/column technology as foundations, retaining structures, or embankment supports, physical and chemical technologies for soil stabilization and ground improvement, geosynthetic reinforcement for roads, slopes, retaining walls, and foundations. Each of the papers included in this book received at least two positive peer reviews. The editors would like to express their sincerest appreciation to all of the anonymous reviewers all over the world, for their diligent work.

This book examines the techniques and applications involved in the Web Mining, Web Personalization and Recommendation and Web Community Analysis domains, including a detailed presentation of the principles, developed algorithms, and systems of the research in these areas. The applications of web mining, and the issue of how to incorporate web mining into web personalization and recommendation systems are also reviewed. Additionally, the volume explores web community mining and analysis to find the structural, organizational and temporal developments of web communities and reveal the societal sense of individuals or communities.

The volume will benefit both academic and industry communities interested in the techniques and applications of web search, web data management, web mining and web knowledge discovery, as well as web community and social network analysis.

This book investigates and evaluates the indexes of Government Transparency, Judicial Transparency, Procuratorial Transparency, and Legislation by Local People's Congresses in China. It explores a representative case study on the Rule of Law in Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, assesses the progress made and remaining problems in the implementation of these systems, and puts forward suggestions on how they could be improved in the future.

This book presents 58 refereed papers given at the 38th Matador Conference held at National Formosa University, Taiwan in March 2015. The MATADOR series of conferences covers the topics of manufacturing automation and systems technology, applications, design, organisation and management, and research. These proceedings include original papers contributed by researchers from around the globe, covering the principles, techniques and applications in the aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy, consumable goods and process industries. The topics include: * Additive Manufacturing * Design and System Engineering * Innovative Manufacturing and Design * Laser Processing * Machining * Metrology and Measurement * Micro/Nano Fabrication and Manipulation * Monitoring and Control of Machining Operations * Welding

The widespread use of web-based communities, social media, and social networking sites has brought a rapid change to the interaction between computers and users as well as the digital experience as a whole. Social Media Mining and Social Network Analysis: Emerging Research highlights the advancements made in social network analysis and social web mining and its influence in the fields of computer science, information systems, sociology, organisation science discipline and much more. This collection of perspectives on developmental practice is useful for industrial practitioners as well as researchers and scholars.

This book systemically presents the latest research on renal fibrosis, covering all the major topics in the field, including the possible mechanisms, biomarkers, and strategies for prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Due to its high prevalence, CKD represents a huge global economic and social burden. Irrespective of the initial causes, CKD progresses to end stage kidney disease (ESKD) due to renal fibrosis, which is characterized by glomerulosclerosis, tubule atrophy and atresia, and the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the kidney. Unfortunately, an estimated 1%-2% of the adult population living with CKD will need renal replacement therapy at some point as a result of ESKD. As such, strategies for preventing or slowing CKD progression to ESKD are of utmost importance, and studies aiming to understand the mechanisms of renal fibrosis have been the focus of intensive research. Recently, novel insights into the pathophysiological processes have furthered our understanding of the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis, and more importantly, promoted studies on the early diagnosis and treatment of CKD. This book draws lessons from the extensive, state-of-the-art research in this field, elaborating the new theories and new techniques to offer readers a detailed and comprehensive understanding of renal fibrosis and as well as inspiration for future research directions.

Earthen levees are extensively used to protect the population and infrastructure from periodic floods and high water due to storm surges. The causes of failure of levees include overtopping, surface erosion, internal erosion, and slope instability. Overtopping may occur during periods of flooding due to insufficient freeboard. The most problematic situation involves the levee being overtopped by both surge and waves when the surge level exceeds the levee crest elevation with accompanying wave overtopping. Overtopping of levees produces fast-flowing, turbulent water velocities on the landward-side slope that can potentially damage the protective grass covering and expose the underlying soil to erosion. If overtopping continues long enough, the erosion may eventually result in loss of levee crest elevation and possibly breaching of the protective structure. Hence, protecting levees from erosion by surge overflow and wave overtopping is necessary to assure a viable and safe levee system. This book presents a cutting-edge approach to understanding overtopping hydraulics under negative free board of earthen levees, and to the study of levee reinforcing methods. Combining soil erosion test, full-scale laboratory overtopping hydraulics test, and numerical modeling for the turbulent overtopping hydraulics. It provides an analysis that integrates the mechanical and hydraulic processes governing levee overtopping occurrences and engineering approaches to reinforce overtopped levees. Topics covered: surge overflow, wave overtopping and their combination, full-scale hydraulic tests, erosion tests, overtopping hydraulics, overtopping discharge, and turbulent analysis. This is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers working on levee design, water resource engineering, hydraulic engineering, and coastal engineering, and for professionals in the field of civil and environmental engineering, and natural hazard analysis.

This volume summarizes the achievements on rule of law in China for the ten years from 2002 to 2012, particularly focusing on areas such as judicial review, anti-monopoly, reform of government agencies, the circulation of rural Land contracted management rights, and the protection of children's rights. It also considers the prospects for rule of law in China in the future. With numerous tables and screenshots to illustrate the text and provide a comprehensive overview and insights into China's rule of law establishment, it appeals to readers interested in judicial reform, rural medical service, children's rights protection and anti-monopoly.

This book systematically and concisely expounds the construction process of China's legal system since China's reform and opening-up. Chapter 1 defines the legal system in China and describes the development of China's legal system from 1949 to 1978. Chapter 2 introduces China's legislative system, including its historical development, division of legislative functions and power, and legislative procedures. Chapter 3 compares the differences between the law systems of other countries and China's law system and how other law systems in the world influences the law system in China. Chapter 4 studies China's constitutional law system, including its historical development, forms of law and enforcement of the constitution. Chapter 5 introduces China's administrative legal system, including main principles, administrative legislation and administrative compensation. Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9 describe China's civil and commercial legal system, China's economic legal system, China's social legal system and China's criminal legal system respectively. Chapter 10 introduces China's legal system in litigation and non-litigation procedure in terms of criminal, civil, administrative and non-litigation procedures. Chapter 11 analyses the legal system of the special administrative regions in China and its relationship with China's legal system. The last chapter, Chapter 12 studies the relationship between the international law and China's domestic law system.

Variational methods are very powerful techniques in nonlinear analysis and are extensively used in many disciplines of pure and applied mathematics (including ordinary and partial differential equations, mathematical physics, gauge theory, and geometrical analysis).In our first chapter, we gather the basic notions and fundamental theorems that will be applied throughout the chapters. While many of these items are easily available in the literature, we gather them here both for the convenience of the reader and for the purpose of making this volume somewhat self-contained. Subsequent chapters deal with how variational methods can be used in fourth-order problems, Kirchhoff problems, nonlinear field problems, gradient systems, and variable exponent problems. A very extensive bibliography is also included.

Earthen levees are extensively used to protect the population and infrastructure from periodic floods and high water due to storm surges. The causes of failure of levees include overtopping, surface erosion, internal erosion, and slope instability. Overtopping may occur during periods of flooding due to insufficient freeboard. The most problematic situation involves the levee being overtopped by both surge and waves when the surge level exceeds the levee crest elevation with accompanying wave overtopping. Overtopping of levees produces fast-flowing, turbulent water velocities on the landward-side slope that can potentially damage the protective grass covering and expose the underlying soil to erosion. If overtopping continues long enough, the erosion may eventually result in loss of levee crest elevation and possibly breaching of the protective structure. Hence, protecting levees from erosion by surge overflow and wave overtopping is necessary to assure a viable and safe levee system. This book presents a cutting-edge approach to understanding overtopping hydraulics under negative free board of earthen levees, and to the study of levee reinforcing methods. Combining soil erosion test, full-scale laboratory overtopping hydraulics test, and numerical modeling for the turbulent overtopping hydraulics. It provides an analysis that integrates the mechanical and hydraulic processes governing levee overtopping occurrences and engineering approaches to reinforce overtopped levees. Topics covered: surge overflow, wave overtopping and their combination, full-scale hydraulic tests, erosion tests, overtopping hydraulics, overtopping discharge, and turbulent analysis. This is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers working on levee design, water resource engineering, hydraulic engineering, and coastal engineering, and for professionals in the field of civil and environmental engineering, and natural hazard analysis.

Reviewing an extensive array of procedures in hot and cold forming, casting, heat treatment, machining, and surface engineering of steel and aluminum, this comprehensive reference explores a vast range of processes relating to metallurgical component design-enhancing the production and the properties of engineered components while reducing manufacturing costs. It surveys the role of computer simulation in alloy design and its impact on material structure and mechanical properties such as fatigue and wear. It also discusses alloy design for various materials, including steel, iron, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, super alloy compositions and copper.

This volume presents an overview of the evolution of the current Chinese Constitution (1982) and the characteristics of constitutional studies since 1978. Readers are introduced to the basic principles of constitutional system in China and gain insights into the real state of Chinese law, allowing them to form their own opinions. It will also aid commercial communications with Chinese legal professionals as well as enterprises. The book covers a number of topics, including the history of constitutional communication between Chinese constitutionalists and the International Association of Constitutional Law since 1981, the most important academic contributions to international conferences concerning constitutional law by Chinese constitutionalists, the main characteristics of the current Chinese Constitution in the field of constitutional studies in China, the key issues of constitutional practice and implementation in China, the challenges of running the fundamental political system of the People's Representative Congress and the characteristics of rule of law specific to China.

This book comprehensively introduces the development of rule of law and law-based governance in China. Through theoretical interpretation, background analysis and empirical analysis of several key issues, this book answers why and how China promotes its rule of law and how the country identifies major challenges of promoting rule of law. It also looks at how China solves its problems in the process of practicing socialist rule of law.

This book studies the practical experience and theoretical development of rule of law in China, and provides fundamental theory for the construction of rule of law in contemporary China. The author examines the rule of law by exploring the entire legal system, and highlighting various aspects including the legislation, law enforcement and supervision systems. Readers will also discover the author's strong opinions on scientific legislation, legal government, judicial reform, and the culture of rule of law. This highly readable book will appeal to both general readers and researchers interested in rule of law in China.

This book is the eighth volume of the proceedings of the 4th GeoShanghai International Conference that was held on May 27 - 30, 2018. This book, entitled Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics", presents the latest information on the new technologies and practical applications in various geotechnical engineering projects and advancements on ground improvement and geosynethetics. This volume presents detailed design procedures and examples to demonstrate the applications of the latest ground improvement technologies and innovative geosynethetics in geotechnical engineering. Topics include pile/column technology as foundations, retaining structures, or embankment supports, physical and chemical technologies for soil stabilization and ground improvement, geosynthetic reinforcement for roads, slopes, retaining walls, and foundations. Each of the papers included in this book received at least two positive peer reviews. The editors would like to express their sincerest appreciation to all of the anonymous reviewers all over the world, for their diligent work.

This book mainly focuses on the study of steering electromagnetic fields in near-field and far-field contexts involving plasmonic structures. It also offers a new approach to achieving full control of optical polarizations and potentially boosting the development in photonic information processing. A new in-plane phase modulation method is proposed and described, by means of which a series of optical beams were realized with nanostructures in metal surfaces, such as a plasmonic Airy beam, broad band focusing beam, and demultiplexing, collimated beam, as well as an optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) beam. Further, the book presents a plasmonic polarization generator, which can reconfigure an input polarization to all kinds of states simultaneously.

Where to Place the Grace Note? offers a glimpse into the world of classical piano music through a series of conversations between Lin Li, an amateur pianist and English Literature scholar, and her piano teacher Yu Chun Yee, who was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music for thirty years. Starting from the seemingly straightforward question in the book's title, their conversations meander through a series of general issues pertaining to phrasing, musical interpretation, teaching, technique, injury and performance anxiety. Supplemented with numerous musical examples, snippets from historical sources, and anecdotes that span Yu's teaching and performing career from the 1950s to the present, this book will delight both general music lovers and music professionals.

Presented here are 130 refereed papers given at the 36th MATADOR Conference held at The University of Manchester in July 2010. The MATADOR series of conferences covers the topics of Manufacturing Automation and Systems Technology, Applications, Design, Organisation and Management, and Research. The proceedings of this Conference contain original papers contributed by researchers from many countries on different continents. The papers cover the principles, techniques and applications in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy, consumable goods and process industries. The papers in this volume reflect: • the importance of manufacturing to international wealth creation; • the emerging fields of micro- and nano-manufacture; • the increasing trend towards the fabrication of parts using lasers; • the growing demand for precision engineering and part inspection techniques; and • the changing trends in manufacturing within a global environment.

Presented here are 97 refereed papers given at the 37th MATADOR Conference held at The University of Manchester in July 2012. The MATADOR series of conferences covers the topics of Manufacturing Automation and Systems Technology, Applications, Design, Organisation and Management, and Research. The Proceedings of this Conference contain original papers contributed by researchers from many countries on different continents. The papers cover the principles, techniques and applications in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy, consumable goods and process industries. The papers in this volume reflect: the importance of manufacturing to international wealth creation; the emerging fields of micro- and nano-manufacture; the increasing trend towards the fabrication of parts using lasers; the growing demand for precision engineering and part inspection techniques, and the changing trends in manufacturing within a global environment.

This book examines the techniques and applications involved in the Web Mining, Web Personalization and Recommendation and Web Community Analysis domains, including a detailed presentation of the principles, developed algorithms, and systems of the research in these areas. The applications of web mining, and the issue of how to incorporate web mining into web personalization and recommendation systems are also reviewed. Additionally, the volume explores web community mining and analysis to find the structural, organizational and temporal developments of web communities and reveal the societal sense of individuals or communities.

The volume will benefit both academic and industry communities interested in the techniques and applications of web search, web data management, web mining and web knowledge discovery, as well as web community and social network analysis.