In 2014, the CSIS Europe and Southeast Asia Programs embarked on a two-year initiative to create a new and enduring EU-U.S. collaborative mechanism to enhance transatlantic Asia-Pacific policy coordination and understanding. This report is the culmination of this two-year study and presents the findings of the research while also offering actionable recommendations for U.S. and EU policymakers.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) hosted its fifth annual South China Sea conference in July 2015. This compilation features papers from some of the top experts in the United States and Asia, who presented during the day's panels. Bill Hayton, Bonnie Glaser, and Wu Shicun discuss recent developments in the South China Sea; Pham Lan Dung and Tran Huu Duy Minh explore legal issues surrounding the disputes; and Ian Storey, Patrick Cronin, Renato Cruz de Castro, and Peter Jennings examine various aspects of the military balance and regional order.

With elections in both the Philippines and the United States in 2016, the future of the alliance must be institutionalized to ensure that it is not diminished by a change of leadership in either country. A new Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and cooperation in the South China Sea are important components of the new era of relations, but they are not and should not be the only defining features of the alliance. Given the long history of U.S.-Philippine relations, the alliance must be based on more robust cooperation across the spectrum of political, security, economic, and sociocultural relations. Security concerns provide an acute impetus for leaders to put more energy into the relationship, but its sustainability will require a more comprehensive focus.

Building on a careful analysis of Southeast Asia's recent history, politics, economics, and place within the Asia Pacific, this report looks forward two decades to anticipate the development of trends in the region and how they will impact the U.S.-Japan alliance. How will Southeast Asian states come to grips with the political and economic rise of China? How will they modernize their military forces and security relationships, and what role can the United States and Japan play? How will they manage their disputes in the South China Sea, and how will they pursue greater regional integration? These questions will prove critical in understanding Southeast Asia's role in the Asia Pacific, and in the U.S.-Japan alliance, in the decades ahead.

The South China Sea is arguably one of the world's most dangerous regions, with conflicting diplomatic, legal, and security claims by major and mid-level powers. To assess these disputes, CSIS brought together an international group of experts-from Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. This volume gathers these experts' analyses to provide a diverse and wide-ranging set of perspectives on the region and to explore possibilities for future cooperation.

A New Era of U.S.-Vietnam Relations examines the history of the relationship and offers concrete recommendations for policymakers in both countries to deepen cooperation across each major area of the relationship: political and security ties, trade and economic linkages, and people-to-people connections.

Noble Metal-Metal Oxide Hybrid Nanoparticles: Fundamentals and Applications sets out concepts and emerging applications of hybrid nanoparticles in biomedicine, antibacterial, energy storage and electronics. The hybridization of noble metals (Gold, Silver, Palladium and Platinum) with metal-oxide nanoparticles exhibits superior features when compared to individual nanoparticles. In some cases, metal oxides act as semiconductors, such as nano zinc oxide or titanium oxide nanoparticles, where their hybridization with silver nanoparticles, enhanced significantly their photocatalytic efficiency. The book highlights how such nanomaterials are used for practical applications.

This book on teaching through story is the first to highlight the rich storytelling cultures of Australia and Asia. It presents insights from practicing storytelling educators from Black and White Australia, China, India, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, who share their art of storytelling as pedagogy. Designed for early childhood and primary teachers, teacher educators and student teachers across Australia and Asia, Storytelling Pedagogy in Australia & Asia provides inspiration to teach through storytelling to promote intercultural understanding, imagination, active citizenship and language and literacy learning. Each chapter includes told stories, and teaching and learning ideas to guide and encourage those who are new to the art of storytelling pedagogy and those wishing to expand their understanding of storytelling in Australia and Asia.

The gradual increase of population and the consequential rise in the energy demands in the recent years have led to the overwhelming use of fossil fuels. Hydrogen has recently gained substantial interest because of its outstanding features to be used as clean energy carrier and energy vector. Moreover, hydrogen appears to be an effective alternative to tackle the issues of energy security and greenhouse gas emissions given that it is widely recognized as a clean fuel with high energy capacity. Hydrogen can be produced by various techniques such as thermochemical, hydrothermal, electrochemical, electrolytic, biological and photocatalytic methods as well as hybrid systems. New Dimensions in Production and Utilization of Hydrogen emphasizes on the research, development and innovations in the production and utilization of hydrogen in the industrial biorefining, hydrotreating and hydrogenation technologies, fuel cells, aerospace sector, pharmaceuticals, metallurgy, as well as bio-oil upgrading. Moreover, the supply chain analysis, lifecycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, as well as strengths and threats of global hydrogen market are covered in the book. This book provides many significant insights and scientific findings of key technologies for hydrogen production, storage and emerging applications. The book serves as a reference material for chemical and biochemical engineers, mechanical engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists, biomedical scientists and scholars working in the field of sustainable energy and materials.

This book provides comprehensive description of polymeric membranes in water treatment and remediation. It describes both the sustainability challenges and new opportunities to use membranes for water decontamination. It also discusses the environmental-related issues, challenges and advantages of using membrane-based systems and provides comprehensive description of various polymeric membranes, nanomaterials, biomolecules and their integrated systems for wastewater treatment. Various topics covered in this book are direct pressure-driven and osmotic-driven membrane processes, hybrid membrane processes (such as membrane bioreactors and integrating membrane separation with other processes), and resource recovery-oriented membrane-based processes. The book will be useful for students, researchers and professionals working in the area of materials science and environmental chemistry.

This book on teaching through story is the first to highlight the rich storytelling cultures of Australia and Asia. It presents insights from practicing storytelling educators from Black and White Australia, China, India, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam, who share their art of storytelling as pedagogy. Designed for early childhood and primary teachers, teacher educators and student teachers across Australia and Asia, Storytelling Pedagogy in Australia & Asia provides inspiration to teach through storytelling to promote intercultural understanding, imagination, active citizenship and language and literacy learning. Each chapter includes told stories, and teaching and learning ideas to guide and encourage those who are new to the art of storytelling pedagogy and those wishing to expand their understanding of storytelling in Australia and Asia.

Magnetic Nanoparticle-Based Hybrid Materials: Fundamentals and Applications introduces the principles, properties, and emerging applications of this important materials system. The hybridization of magnetic nanoparticles with metals, metal oxides and semiconducting nanoparticles may result in superior properties. The book reviews the most relevant hybrid materials, their mechanisms and properties. Then, the book focuses on the rational design, controlled synthesis, advanced characterizations and in-depth understanding of structure-property relationships. The last part addresses the promising applications of hybrid nanomaterials in the real world such as in the environment, energy, medicine fields. Magnetic Nanoparticle-Based Hybrid Materials: Fundamentals and Applications comprehensively reviews both the theoretical and experimental approaches used to rapidly advance nanomaterials that could result in new technologies that impact day-to-day life and society in key areas such as health and the environment. It is suitable for researchers and practitioners who are materials scientists and engineers, chemists or physicists in academia and R&D.

The term 'nanobattery' can refer not only to the nanosized battery, but also to the uses of nanotechnology in a macro-sized battery for enhancing its performance and lifetime. Nanobatteries can offer many advantages over the traditional battery, including higher power density, shorter charging time, and longer shelf life. Nano-generators refer to the uses of nanosized devices and materials to convert mechanical, thermal and light-based energies into electricity. Similar to with traditional battery, in nanobatteries, the chemical energy is converted into electricity. This book addresses the fundamental design concepts and promising applications of nanobatteries and nanogenerators. Particular application areas include healthcare, biomedical, smart nanodevices and nanosensors, which may require new electric power sources, including self-powered ability and nanostructured electric power sources. In this regard, nanobatteries and nanogenerators represent the next generation of electric power. This is an important reference source for materials scientists, engineers and energy scientists, who are looking to increase their understanding of how nanotechnology is being used to create new energy storage and generation solutions.

Nanotechnology has been incorporated into a wide range of garments to improve the durability of clothing / apparel and create new properties for a special end-used application. It also incorporates wearable electronics into clothing to make it smarter. Smart nano-textiles refers to the uses and integration of smart nanocoatings, nanosensors and nanodevices in multifunctional textiles, since they are both low cost and have low power consumption. Various organic and inorganic nanomaterials can be used in garments to improve their properties and create new properties such as anti-bacterial, superhydrophobic, auto-cleaning, self-cleaning, stain repellent, wrinkle-free, static eliminating, fire resistant and electrically conductive properties. This book focuses on the fundamental concepts and approaches for the preparation of smart nanotextiles, their properties, and their applications in multifarious industries, including smart garments, biomedicine, construction/building materials, energy conversion/storage, automotive/aerospace industries and agriculture.

Nanomaterials-Based Coatings: Fundamentals and Applications presents the fundamental concepts and applications of nanomaterial-based coatings in anticorrosion, antiwear, antibacterial, antifungal, self-cleaning, superhydrophobic, super hard, super heat resistance, solar reflective, photocatalytic and radar absorbing coatings. It is an important resource for those seeking to understand the underlying phenomenal and fundamental mechanisms through which nanoparticles interact with polymeric and metallic matrices to create stronger coatings. As nanomaterials-enforced coatings are smarter, stronger and more durable, the information listed in this book will helps readers understand their usage and further applications.

Computational Systems Biology: Inference and Modelling provides an introduction to, and overview of, network analysis inference approaches which form the backbone of the model of the complex behavior of biological systems. This book addresses the challenge to integrate highly diverse quantitative approaches into a unified framework by highlighting the relationships existing among network analysis, inference, and modeling. The chapters are light in jargon and technical detail so as to make them accessible to the non-specialist reader. The book is addressed at the heterogeneous public of modelers, biologists, and computer scientists.

Nanomaterials for Air Remediation provides a comprehensive description of basic knowledge and current research progress in the field of air treatment using nanomaterials. The book explores how nanomaterials are used in various air remediation techniques, including advanced oxidation processes, biological processes, and filtration. It also covers their combined use as nanocatalysts, nanoantibiotics, nanoadsorbents, nanocontainers, nanofiltrations and nanosensors. Major challenges to using nanomaterials for improving air quality on a mass scale, both practical and regulatory, are also presented. This is an important resource for materials scientists and environmental engineers who are looking to understand how nanotechnology is used to enhance air quality.

This book develops an understanding of workplace justice and labour rights in Vietnam from factory workers' voices and their resistance against abuse and exploitation. Through interviews with workers and a close analysis of their letters and petitions to the unions and state authorities, Nguyen illuminates how workers' resistance is enabled and stifled by the legal and political systems that are supposed to protect their rights and benefits. Their calls for justice reflect socialist ideology and widely held norms within society, as well as ideals and values embedded in labour law. The book demonstrates how state law brings about social change through shaping workers' expectations and increasing consciousness of rights and justice. This book will be of interest to scholars of law, politics and society, and scholars, students and practitioners interested in labour rights in developing countries.

Extreme Violence: Understanding and Protecting People from Active Assailants, Hate Crimes, and Terrorist Attacks provides readers with a comprehensive treatment of critical knowledge needed to understand, prevent, prepare for, and respond to catastrophic acts of violence. In Part One of the book, readers learn about various types of extreme violence, terrorist organizations, attack methodologies, weapon types, mass transit targeting, and vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures. Part Two focuses on prevention strategies, including hazard and vulnerability assessments, evaluating anonymous threats, target-hardening, crime prevention through environmental design, security technology, and behavioral approaches. It also discusses how attackers can leverage an organization's own security technologies to carry out more effective attacks. Part Three explores preparedness and emergency responses, emergency communication systems, and the National Incident Management System. Part Four speaks to the aftermath of extreme violence by addressing public communications, mental health recovery measures, litigation and reputation damage protection, business resilience, and conducting post-incident reviews. Written by internationally experienced security experts who have helped prevent, respond to, and provide post-incident assistance for more than 32 planned attacks globally, Extreme Violence is an ideal resource for courses in security management, homeland security, terrorism, public administration, and law enforcement. This timely text is invaluable for practitioners working in homeland security, emergency management, policing, security, criminal justice, public administration, and terrorism.

Smart Nanocontainers explores the fundamental concepts and emerging applications of nanocontainers in biomedicine, pharmaceuticals and smart materials. In pharmaceuticals, nanocontainers have advantages over their micro-counterparts, including more efficient drug detoxification, higher intracellular uptake, better stability, less side effects and higher biocompatibility with tissue and cells. In materials science, such as coating technology, they help by making coatings smarter, stronger and more durable. This important reference will help anyone who wants to learn more on how nanocontainers are used to provide the controlled release of active agents, including their applications in smart coatings, corrosion, drug delivery, diagnosis, agri-food and gas storage.

Smart Nanoconcretes and Cement-Based Materials: Properties, Modelling and Applications explores the fundamental concepts and applications of smart nanoconcretes with self-healing, self-cleaning, photocatalytic, antibacterial, piezoelectrical, heating and conducting properties and how they are used in modern high-rise buildings, hydraulic engineering, highways, tunnels and bridges. This book is an important reference source for materials scientists and civil engineers who are looking to enhance the properties of smart nanomaterials to create stronger, more durable concrete.

This book accompanied the readers along the journey of a young girl named Evelyn. Evelyn spent her twenty years confined in a basement isolated from the world. Her crimes she did not know, nor did she knew of her family. Her journey began when she found the portal to a different dimension, a dimension that trained half her soul to fight a force she never knew. This force, known as the Cavaliers, consists of dead souls who wanders the earth due to certain attachment whether it is money, power, addiction, or love. The only way these souls can be release is to collect living souls to complete their cycle. However, under the ruling of King Charis' lineage, the Gods forbade these Cavaliers from hunting within the protection of King Charis' supremacy. The only way to rid of a Cavalier is through qi (chi), a natural force that flows through the universe in which can be wielded into a weapon. Evelyn's journey to find the truth about herself was accompanied by Flynn, her partner in crime. Their journey develops a passion between the two, a secretive passion that neither one dares to admit. Conflict arouse when a Cavalier stumbled upon her path and confessed his attachment to her, the only reason why he could not receive his judgment day. Evelyn was left to debate upon her feelings for Flynn and this Cavalier, who had loved her unconditionally even through a millenia. She also found her reason for existence in which she now must decide whether to save her own world or the world of the basement in which lays half her soul - a world she never truly knew.