Lanthanides: Fundamentals and Applications provides the fundamentals, new research, promising applications and future outlooks of lanthanide compounds and lanthanide-based materials. The book begins with an introduction, including key concepts, oxidation states and sources, extraction and separation of the lanthanides, followed by spectroscopic and magnetic properties, and metals, crystals and compounds. Organometallic compounds, coordination compounds, molecular magnetic materials and luminescent materials are covered before a discussion of specific lanthanide applications. Spintronics, bioimaging, photoelectric materials, catalysis and nuclear applications are discussed. This comprehensive resource is ideal for researchers and students studying inorganic and materials chemistry, in both academia and industry.

This book is edited based on a series of lectures on Chinese cultural history delivered at the Peking University in 2004. It stands out with its distinctive methodology and unique stand, and is popular with readers, with 17 reprints for the Chinese edition since 2006.Before the 1980s, traditional culture was often the target of criticisms and put in a negative light in China. After the 1980s, due to the belief that traditional culture can contribute to modernization, people decided to 'take its essence and discard its dregs'. As of today, most books on this theme have been written in accordance with this principle.However, in this book, the author argues that many problems have emerged from the modernization of the Western society, and thus the need for reflection and re-examining. Traditional Chinese culture is a source for comparison and reflection. As such, when we discuss traditional culture nowadays, not only should we excavate its long-hidden meanings, but we should also develop contrastive resources to facilitate our collaborative development in future.The discussions in this book adopt a vertical structure that begins with how Chinese define a human, followed by topics on the human body, Qi, food, male and female, home and state, the relationship between heaven and human beings, ritual systems, historical consciousness, thinking patterns, the art of expressing sentiments, commitments to the politics of virtues and achievements, and cultural practices. In every chapter, there is also a horizontal method of comparison on Chinese, Western and Indian cultures, to foreground the particularities and advantages of the Chinese culture.Apart from elaborating on the major characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, there is also a discussion on how the modern disdain for and misunderstandings of the traditional culture originated from the West. The author also elaborates on Montesquieu's views of China and the various misconceptions and misunderstandings of the traditional Chinese legal systems. Finally, it ends with the author's thoughts on the revitalization of the Chinese civilization.

The series Structure and Bonding publishes critical reviews on topics of research concerned with chemical structure and bonding. The scope of the series spans the entire Periodic Table and addresses structure and bonding issues associated with all of the elements. It also focuses attention on new and developing areas of modern structural and theoretical chemistry such as nanostructures, molecular electronics, designed molecular solids, surfaces, metal clusters and supramolecular structures. Physical and spectroscopic techniques used to determine, examine and model structures fall within the purview of Structure and Bonding to the extent that the focus is on the scientific results obtained and not on specialist information concerning the techniques themselves. Issues associated with the development of bonding models and generalizations that illuminate the reactivity pathways and rates of chemical processes are also relevant. The individual volumes in the series are thematic. The goal of each volume is to give the reader, whether at a university or in industry, a comprehensive overview of an area where new insights are emerging that are of interest to a larger scientific audience. Thus each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years should be presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. A description of the physical basis of the experimental techniques that have been used to provide the primary data may also be appropriate, if it has not been covered in detail elsewhere. The coverage need not be exhaustive in data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the new principles being developed that will allow the reader, who is not a specialist in the area covered, to understand the data presented. Discussion of possible future research directions in the area is welcomed. Review articles for the individual volumes are invited by the volume editors. Readership: research scientists at universities or in industry, graduate students.

Chinese enterprises have relied on importing technology and imitation as their main technology strategies in the past. Based on analysis of cross-countries' case studies and the history of industrial innovation, the authors proposed the concept of industry-driven basic research and expounds the important role of scientific discovery in industrial technological innovation. They are convinced that both the government and enterprises should focus on industry-driven basic research in order to bridge the gap between the government's target and what enterprises actually do in China. The challenge remains to be seen if China can transform Science and technology investment into real industrial innovation capability.

Discovered in the twentieth century, carbon nanotubes (CNT) were an integral part of science and industry by the beginning of the twenty first century, revolutionizing chemistry, physics, and materials science. More recent advances in carbon nanotube production methods have resulted in a tremendous push to incorporate CNTs into polymer matrices. Although many advances have been made, two major obstacles continue unresolved: the enhancement of interfacial adhesion between CNTs and polymer matrix, and the improvement of dispersion of CNTs in polymers. Both substantial original contributors to the field, the authors present Carbon Nanotubes for Polymer Reinforcement, the first monograph on various conventional and innovative techniques to disperse and functionalize carbon nanotubes for polymer reinforcement, elegantly explaining the basic sciences and technologies involved in those processes. Topics covered include: Use of CNTs in fabricating novel polymer composites Principles and mechanisms behind CNT dispersion and functionalization Methods for the functionalization and dispersion of CNTs in polymer matrices Effects of CNTs on functional and mechanical properties of polymer composites Optimization of CNT/polymer nanocomposite fabrication Carbon Nanotubes for Polymer Reinforcement is a comprehensive treatment and critical review of the new class of polymer nanocomposites, and points to areas of future developments. Composites engineers, scientists, researchers, and students will find the basic knowledge and technical results contained herein informative and useful references for their work, whether for advanced research or for design and manufacture of such composites.

The series Structure and Bonding publishes critical reviews on topics of research concerned with chemical structure and bonding. The scope of the series spans the entire Periodic Table and addresses structure and bonding issues associated with all of the elements. It also focuses attention on new and developing areas of modern structural and theoretical chemistry such as nanostructures, molecular electronics, designed molecular solids, surfaces, metal clusters and supramolecular structures. Physical and spectroscopic techniques used to determine, examine and model structures fall within the purview of Structure and Bonding to the extent that the focus is on the scientific results obtained and not on specialist information concerning the techniques themselves. Issues associated with the development of bonding models and generalizations that illuminate the reactivity pathways and rates of chemical processes are also relevant. The individual volumes in the series are thematic. The goal of each volume is to give the reader, whether at a university or in industry, a comprehensive overview of an area where new insights are emerging that are of interest to a larger scientific audience. Thus each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years should be presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. A description of the physical basis of the experimental techniques that have been used to provide the primary data may also be appropriate, if it has not been covered in detail elsewhere. The coverage need not be exhaustive in data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the new principles being developed that will allow the reader, who is not a specialist in the area covered, to understand the data presented. Discussion of possible future research directions in the area is welcomed. Review articles for the individual volumes are invited by the volume editors. Readership: research scientists at universities or in industry, graduate students.

The conference proceeding of ICMMCS 2021 presents most recent scientific and technological advances in the fields of engineering mathematics and computational science to strengthen the links in the scientific community. It is a collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed research papers presented at the Second International Conference on Mathematical Modeling and Computational Science (ICMMCS 2021), held online during October 29-30, 2021. The topics covered in the book are mathematical logic and foundations, numerical analysis, neural networks, fuzzy set theory, coding theory, higher algebra, number theory, graph theory and combinatory, computation in complex networks, calculus, differential educations and integration, application of soft computing, knowledge engineering, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data and data analytics, high-performance computing, network and device security, Internet of Things (IoT).

The book examines the formation and transformation of the Chinese exportled footwear industry from a political-economic perspective. In particular, it explains why Taiwanese businessmen succeeded in developing the industry while Nike, the largest shoe producer in the word, failed. Several theories are explored, rooted in neoclassical economic, new institutional economics, new institutional sociology, and new economic sociology, to explain why the Taiwanese but not Nike succeeded in China. But these explanatory models are all found wanting. Instead, the thesis demonstrates that a model of markets as politics and fields, one that emphasizes the role of power, best accounts for the origin, evolution, and transformation of the Chinese exportled footwear industry. A stable status hierarchy, comprised of Taiwanese footwear producers, local officials, and migrant laborers, created a business environment that solved uncertainties embedded in the Chinese economic transition. The Taiwanese producers and local officials were less powerful than large firms and the state, despite being deeply involved in the Chinese economic "miracle," but by developing alliances with local political officials, Taiwanese business, with local political support, transformed China into the leading footwear producer in the world. However, tensions rooted in the Chinese economy, polity, and society are shown to make the future of the country's domination of global production uncertain. The book is addressed to scholars and students in Sociology, Politics, and Economics. It is also directed towards managers who are interested in investing in China. Susan Eckstein (Boston University) said: "There is no business like shoebusiness, and Chih-Peng Cheng most informatively explains why. He fascinatingly details how the shoe industry goes global and how and why the Taiwanese dominate it, first in their own country but more recently in China. Nike had much to learn from them."

Cyber Security for Industrial Control Systems: From the Viewpoint of Close-Loop provides a comprehensive technical guide on up-to-date new secure defending theories and technologies, novel design, and systematic understanding of secure architecture with practical applications. The book consists of 10 chapters, which are divided into three parts. The first three chapters extensively introduce secure state estimation technologies, providing a systematic presentation on the latest progress in security issues regarding state estimation. The next five chapters focus on the design of secure feedback control technologies in industrial control systems, displaying an extraordinary difference from that of traditional secure defending approaches from the viewpoint of network and communication. The last two chapters elaborate on the systematic secure control architecture and algorithms for various concrete application scenarios. The authors provide detailed descriptions on attack model and strategy analysis, intrusion detection, secure state estimation and control, game theory in closed-loop systems, and various cyber security applications. The book is useful to anyone interested in secure theories and technologies for industrial control systems.