This book is distinctive among current studies on this topic. The Chinese economy has entered a period of transformation, which has brought changes to the finance market and consumer habits. For a long time, topics such as monetary policy, reform, financial risks and so forth have been the focus. But there have been few studies of those aspects of the consumer finance market that are directly related to private consumption. Studies on this topic, to which this book contributes, are necessary for understanding the current economic situation in China. This is a full-scale comparative study of consumer finance in China, Japan and South Korea, and will draw lessons for China in this area from the experience of the other two countries.

Machine learning methods have lowered the cost of exploring new structures of unknown compounds, and can be used to predict reasonable expectations and subsequently validated by experimental results. As new insights and several elaborative tools have been developed for materials science and engineering in recent years, it is an appropriate time to present a book covering recent progress in this field. Searchable and interactive databases can promote research on emerging materials. Recently, databases containing a large number of high-quality materials properties for new advanced materials discovery have been developed. These approaches are set to make a significant impact on human life and, with numerous commercial developments emerging, will become a major academic topic in the coming years. This authoritative and comprehensive book will be of interest to both existing researchers in this field as well as others in the materials science community who wish to take advantage of these powerful techniques. The book offers a global spread of authors, from USA, Canada, UK, Japan, France, Russia, China and Singapore, who are all world recognized experts in their separate areas. With content relevant to both academic and commercial points of view, and offering an accessible overview of recent progress and potential future directions, the book will interest graduate students, postgraduate researchers, and consultants and industrial engineers.

Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV contains the contributions presented at the 4th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (4th ISGSR, Hong Kong, 4-6 December 2013), which was organised under the auspices of the Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet), TC304 on Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management and TC205 on Safety and Serviceability in Geotechnical Design of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV covers six themes: (1) Geotechnical uncertainty and variability (2) Geohazards such as landslides, earthquakes and climate changes (3) Reliability and risk analysis (4) Reliability-based design and limit-state design in geotechnical engineering (5) Risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering and infrastructural projects, and (6) Practical applications. Geotechnical Safety and Risk IV is an excellent source of reference on the latest developments and practices of geotechnical risk and safety, and will proof to be invaluable for civil engineers (particularly geotechnical engineers), geologists, and natural hazards reduction agencies. ISGSR IV is a continuation of a series of symposiums and workshops on geotechnical risk and reliability, starting with LSD2000 (Melbourne, Australia), IWS2002 (Tokyo and Kamakura, Japan), LSD2003 (Cambridge, USA), Georisk2004 (Bangalore, India), Taipei2006 (Taipei, Taiwan), 1st ISGSR (Shanghai, China, 2007), 2nd ISGSR (Gifu, Japan, 2009) and 3rd ISGSR (Munich, Germany, 2011).

Machine learning methods have lowered the cost of exploring new structures of unknown compounds, and can be used to predict reasonable expectations and subsequently validated by experimental results. As new insights and several elaborative tools have been developed for materials science and engineering in recent years, it is an appropriate time to present a book covering recent progress in this field. Searchable and interactive databases can promote research on emerging materials. Recently, databases containing a large number of high-quality materials properties for new advanced materials discovery have been developed. These approaches are set to make a significant impact on human life and, with numerous commercial developments emerging, will become a major academic topic in the coming years. This authoritative and comprehensive book will be of interest to both existing researchers in this field as well as others in the materials science community who wish to take advantage of these powerful techniques. The book offers a global spread of authors, from USA, Canada, UK, Japan, France, Russia, China and Singapore, who are all world recognized experts in their separate areas. With content relevant to both academic and commercial points of view, and offering an accessible overview of recent progress and potential future directions, the book will interest graduate students, postgraduate researchers, and consultants and industrial engineers.

"I loved this book and can't stop talking about it. . . . Transcendent." -Carolyn See, The Washington Post In the tradition of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Wang Gang's English is a captivating coming-of-age novel about the power of language to launch a journey of self-discovery. When a new teacher-a tall, elegantly dressed man from Shanghai carrying an English dictionary under his arm-comes to Urumqi, the capital of China's far west region of Xinjiang, twelve-year-old Love Liu turns away from Chairman Mao's little red book and toward the teacher's big blue book for answers to his most pressing questions about love and life. But as a whole new world begins to open up for him, Love Liu must face a test more challenging than any he'll take in the classroom.

This book provides cutting-edge research results and application experiencesfrom researchers and practitioners in multiple criteria decision making areas. It consists of three parts: MCDM Foundation and Theory, MCDM Methodology, and MCDM Applications. In Part I, it covers the historical MCDM development, the influence of MCDM on technology, society and policy, Pareto optimization, and analytical hierarchy process. In Part II, the book presents different MCDM algorithms based on techniques of robust estimating, evolutionary multiobjective optimization, Choquet integrals, and genetic search. In Part III, this book demonstrates a variety of MCDM applications, including project management, financial investment, credit risk analysis, railway transportation, online advertising, transport infrastructure, environmental pollution, chemical industry, and regional economy. The 17 papers of the book have been selected out of the 121 accepted papers at the 20th International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making "New State of MCDM in 21st Century," held at Chengdu, China, in 2009. The 35 contributors of these papers stem from 10 countries."

This book constitutes revised selected papers from two VLDB workshops: The International Workshop on Polystore Systems for Heterogeneous Data in Multiple Databases with Privacy and Security Assurances, Poly 2021, and the 7th International Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare, DMAH 2021, which were held virtually on August 2021. For Poly 2021, 7 full and 2 short papers were accepted from 10 submissions; and for DMAH 2021, 4 full papers together with 2 invited papers were accepted from a total of 7 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections as follows: distributed information systems in enterprises, enterprise access to data constructed from a variety of programming models, data management, data integration, data curation, privacy, and security innovative data management and analytics technologies highlighting end-to-end applications, systems, and methods to address problems in healthcare.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from two VLDB workshops: The International Workshop on Polystore Systems for Heterogeneous Data in Multiple Databases with Privacy and Security Assurances, Poly 2020, and the 6th International Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare, DMAH 2020, which were held virtually on August 31 and September 4, 2020.For Poly 2020, 4 full and 3 short papers were accepted from 10 submissions; and for DMAH 2020, 7 full and 2 short papers were accepted from a total of 15 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections as follows: Privacy, Security and/or Policy Issues for Heterogenous Data; COVID-19 Data Analytics and Visualization; Deep Learning based Biomedical Data Analytics; NLP based Learning from Unstructured Data; Biomedical Data Modelling and Prediction.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings for the VLBD conference workshops entitled: Towards Polystores That Manage Multiple Databases, Privacy, Security and/or Policy Issues for Heterogenous Data (Poly 2019) and the Fifth International Workshop on Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare (DMAH 2019), held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in August 2019, in conjunction with the 45th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, VLDB 2019. The 20 regular papers presented together with 2 keynote papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 31 initial submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: Poly 2019: Privacy, Security and/or Policy Issues for Heterogenous Data; Building Polystore Systems. DMAH 2019: Database Enabled Biomedical Research; AI for Healthcare; Knowledge Discovery from Unstructured Biomedical Data; Blockchain and Privacy Preserving Data Management.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of International Workshops: Polystores and other Systems for Heterogeneous Data, Poly 2018, and Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare, DMAH 2018, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 2018, held in conjunction with the 44th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, VLDB 2018. The 11 regular papers presented together with 2 invited papers and 1 abstract of a keynote talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 16 initial submissions. The Poly 2018 Workshop focus on growing a larger and more diverse research agenda around data system solutions for heterogeneous data. The DMAH 2018 Workshop aims to foster exchange of information and discussions on innovative data management and analytics technologies.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the two International Workshops on Big-Graphs Online Querying, Big-O(Q) 2015, and Data Management and Analytics for Medicine and Healthcare, DMAH 2015, held at Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA on August 31 and September 4, 2015, in conjunction with the 41st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, VLDB 2015. The 9 revised full papers presented together with 5 invited papers and 1 extended abstract were carefully reviewed and selected from 22 initial submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on information retrieval and data analytics for electronic medical records; data management and visualization of medical data; biomedical data sharing and integration; medical imaging analytics; and big-graphs online querying.