The first woman ever admitted to a prestigious order of mages unravels a secret conspiracy that could change the practice of magic forever in this standalone dark fantasy from the author of The Sword of Kaigen.

For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fuelled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry.

When Sciona finally achieves her ambition and becomes a Highmage, she finds her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome – and instead of a qualified lab assistant they give her a janitor.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland – and keep the privileged in power.

At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together, they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever – if it doesn’t get them killed first.

A celebratory, inclusive and educational exploration of Lunar New Year for both children that celebrate and children who want to understand and appreciate their peers who do. Lunar New Year captures the magic of the celebration by exploring how Ling and her family enjoy the biggest Chinese festival of the year. The new year festival lasts for 15 days full of preparation, celebration and symbolism. Join Ling, her sister Mei and granny Po Po as they clean the house from top to bottom, pick fresh flowers from the garden, visit friends and family, and carry red lanterns through their neighbourhood. Ling invites the reader into her home and family, allowing the reader to experience this special celebration first-hand through an authentic narrative non-fiction story. A fun 16-page 'factivity' section follows the story and delves into more detail about how the festival is celebrated in China and beyond. Enriching activities are also included, such as guess the riddle, make your own red envelope and a recipe to make delicious Lunar New Year 'pot sticker' dumplings.  Learn all about the magic of Lunar New Year, by exploring: The preparations in the lead-up to the festival The Reunion dinner on New Year's Eve New Year's day fireworks Dragon dancing and the New Year Monster The lantern festival ... and more!  ​ In the Celebrations & Festivals series, you are invited into a family's celebrations as you explore the magic and excitement of religious and cultural festivals around the world. The heart-warming story is followed by a fun 'factivity' section packed with information on the festival in more detail along with activities, recipes and craft projects to enjoy. 

The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics offers a broad and comprehensive coverage of the entire field from a multi-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are contributed by leading scholars in their respective areas. This Handbook contains eight sections: history, languages and dialects, language contact, morphology, syntax, phonetics and phonology, socio-cultural aspects and neuro-psychological aspects. It provides not only a diachronic view of how languages evolve, but also a synchronic view of how languages in contact enrich each other by borrowing new words, calquing loan translation and even developing new syntactic structures. It also accompanies traditional linguistic studies of grammar and phonology with empirical evidence from psychology and neurocognitive sciences. In addition to research on the Chinese language and its major dialect groups, this handbook covers studies on sign languages and non-Chinese languages, such as the Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan.

A compendium of poetry prompts from Joseph Coelho (Children's Laureate 2022-2024). Each fun and engaging prompt for writing a poem helps children discover how to write poems and then read them out loud. This is a book to build confidence and literacy skills through channeling children's imaginations.  This is a book for the whole family to enjoy, bright, cheerful but cool illustrations will appeal to children of all primary ages.

Introduces basic principles and mechanisms, covers new developments, and provides a different view of the main facets of bioelectrosynthesis Bioelectrosynthesis represents a promising approach for storing renewable energy or producing target chemicals in an energy-sustainable and low-cost way. This timely and important book systemically introduces the hot issues surrounding bioelectrosynthesis, including potential value-added products via bioelectrochemical system, reactor development of bioelectrosynthesis, and microbial biology on biofilm communities and metabolism pathways. It presents readers with unique viewpoints on basic principles and mechanisms along with new developments on reactor and microbial ecology. Beginning with a principle and products overview of bioelectrosynthesis, Bioelectrosynthesis: Principles and Technologies for Value-Added Products goes on to offer in-depth sections on: biogas production and upgrading technology via bioelectrolysis; organic synthesis on cathodes; chemical products and nitrogen recovery; external electron transfer and electrode material promotion; and the microbiology of bioelectrosynthesis. Topics covered include: hydrogen production from waste stream with microbial electrolysis cell; microbial electrolysis cell; inorganic compound synthesis in bioelectrochemical system; microbial growth, ecological, and metabolic characteristics in bioelectrosynthesis systems; microbial metabolism kinetics and interactions in bioelectrosynthesis system; and more. * Comprehensively covers all of the key issues of biolelectrosynthesis * Features contributions from top experts in the field * Examines the conversion of organic wastes to methane via electromethanogenesis; methane production at biocathodes; extracellular electron transport of electroactive biofilm; and more Bioelectrosynthesis: Principles and Technologies for Value-Added Products will appeal to chemists, electrochemists, environmental chemists, water chemists, microbiologists, biochemists, and graduate students involved in the field.

The Elgar Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Governance is the ultimate reference guide for those interested in the rapidly growing nonprofit sector. Each insightful entry includes a definition of the concept, practical applications in nonprofit organizations, and discussion of current issues and future directions. With contributions from over 200 renowned experts in the field, this Encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of the essential topics related to nonprofit management, leadership and governance. Entries explore a diverse range of issues and actors within the nonprofit sector, including business planning, crowdfunding and fundraising, governing boards, mergers and acquisitions, risk management, stakeholder management and wealth inequality. They cover the foundations of the sector alongside more current and topical issues including celebrity, diaspora, LGBTQ+ and e-philanthropy; authoritarian regimes; the digital divide; and the Millennial generation’s civic engagement. This Encyclopedia is a vital resource for students and scholars of organization studies, business and management, corporate governance, and public administration. Its practical applications will prove beneficial to a diverse range of stakeholders across the nonprofit sector, including professional managers, board members, donors, government officials, and media professionals. Fully cross referenced and accessible in style Authoritative summaries of nearly 200 essential topics Written by leading scholars and practitioners across the field Provides definitions, applications, and discussions of current issues and future directions

This original book is a unique and original in-depth study on how, in the past decade, Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have achieved technological innovation in the large infrastructure sectors. It reveals a "new world" of Chinese innovation, showing that SOEs are willing to innovate and are also more than capable of doing so. Based on findings from first-hand data and years of observations, this book shows how the innovation ecosystem perspective incentivises and facilitates Chinese SOEs' innovation and highlights the entrepreneurial role of the government. Using the examples of UHV Power Transmission, mobile telecommunication standards, high-speed trains, and nuclear electric power, the book exhibits the complex determinants of SOEs' success in radical technological innovations within the large infrastructure sector. Chapters also demonstrate the innovation process of SOEs, the unique innovation model of China, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. Catch-Up and Radical Innovation in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises will be a useful resource for academics in research disciplines such as development studies, innovation and entrepreneurship, and Chinese studies. It will also aid entrepreneurs, businesses and managers who intend to collaborate with Chinese SOEs, to better understand the trends of SOEs' engagement in radical innovation and the potential opportunities for broadening their international collaborations.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Many applications, including computer vision, computer arithmetic, deep learning, entanglement in quantum information, graph theory and energy networks, can be successfully tackled within the framework of polynomial optimization, an emerging field with growing research efforts in the last two decades. One key advantage of these techniques is their ability to model a wide range of problems using optimization formulations. Polynomial optimization heavily relies on the moment-sums of squares (moment-SOS) approach proposed by Lasserre, which provides certificates for positive polynomials. On the practical side, however, there is 'no free lunch' and such optimization methods usually encompass severe scalability issues. Fortunately, for many applications, including the ones formerly mentioned, we can look at the problem in the eyes and exploit the inherent data structure arising from the cost and constraints describing the problem.This book presents several research efforts to resolve this scientific challenge with important computational implications. It provides the development of alternative optimization schemes that scale well in terms of computational complexity, at least in some identified class of problems. It also features a unified modeling framework to handle a wide range of applications involving both commutative and noncommutative variables, and to solve concretely large-scale instances. Readers will find a practical section dedicated to the use of available open-source software libraries.This interdisciplinary monograph is essential reading for students, researchers and professionals interested in solving optimization problems with polynomial input data.

An excellent guide for understanding the trends, challenges and opportunities facing China through globalization, this Handbook answers the pertinent questions regarding the globalization process and China's influence on the world. With contributions from leading experts and international researchers, each chapter covers key topics regarding China's participation in globalization, including: China's new role in global economic governance; outward direct investment; China's soft power and the implications for foreign relations; global migration, diaspora and talent. An enriching range of case studies and extensive empirical research are used to explore the successes and failures of globalization in China, and to discuss the dilemmas facing decision makers in today's globalized world. A major contribution to the field, this Handbook offers valuable insights to China's often misunderstood globalization process. An essential reference for academics and researchers looking for a go-to empirical resource, this Handbook provides scholars of economics, politics and East Asian studies with an exemplary selection of contemporary research on China and globalization. Contributors: G. Arboit, L. Baker, J. Chaisse, G. Chance, Y. Chu, T.W. Cline, E. de Diego, T. Fang, Y. Feng, B. Gao, Z. Gao, Y. He, M.-h. Huang, W. Jiang, H. Karoui, D.L.-H. Ke, W. Li, B. Liang, G.Y. Liang, L. Lo, J. Lu, L. Miao, J.O. Moeller, M. Pinho, F. Qin, G. Quinlivan, S. Shih, R. Singh, Y. Tan, F. Wang, H. Wang, L. Yan, H. Zhao, W. Zhao, Z. Zhu, D. Zweig