This book attempts to solve the question whether semiotics is a methodology as is generally held and if the studies of meaning and the mind can shed light on a series of metaphysical issues, so that the edifice of semiotics could be erected on a philosophical ground. It proposes that a philosophical semiotics is, by necessity, a semiotic phenomenology about the construction of the "world of meaning" by signs, and any discussion about semiotics has to proceed around two core issues: meaning and the mind. This book particularly exemplifies the semiotic connections in various schools of traditional Chinese philosophies. In the "Pre-Imperial Age" (before BC 300), there emerged an abundance of semiotic thinking in China, from Yijing the first sign system that aims to explain everything in the world, to the Namists's subtle argument about the form of meaning, from the Yin-Yang/five elements of the Han, to the "Things are non-existent while mind is non-non-existent" principle of the Vijnaptimatratasiddhi School of Buddhism in the Tang, and from the Sudden Revelation of Chan Buddhism to the "Nothing outside the mind" endorsed by the Mindist Confucianism in the Ming. The mighty trend of philosophical heritage provides rich food to our understanding of the form of meaning.

This is the first book to systematically present control theory for stochastic distributed parameter systems, a comparatively new branch of mathematical control theory. The new phenomena and difficulties arising in the study of controllability and optimal control problems for this type of system are explained in detail. Interestingly enough, one has to develop new mathematical tools to solve some problems in this field, such as the global Carleman estimate for stochastic partial differential equations and the stochastic transposition method for backward stochastic evolution equations. In a certain sense, the stochastic distributed parameter control system is the most general control system in the context of classical physics. Accordingly, studying this field may also yield valuable insights into quantum control systems. A basic grasp of functional analysis, partial differential equations, and control theory for deterministic systems is the only prerequisite for reading this book.

This book is an interdisciplinary study of English binominal quantitative constructions based on English-Chinese comparison. Taking three perspectives, i.e. a functional-typological perspective, a cognitive approach, and a corpus-based method, it aims to unveil the hidden categorisation process behind the usage of English binominal quantitative constructions and to reveal the language universal in cognising the concepts of 'Quantity' and 'Quality'. It argues against treating Chinese and English as members of two opposing typological camps concerning quantification modes ('classifier languages' versus 'non-classifier languages') and advocates to view the two languages as lying within a more extended and inclusive system, viz. a system of quantification and categorisation modes, or a Quantity-Quality continuum.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the HPLC technology and fingerprints of commonly-used Chinese herbs. It contains HPLC fingerprints of over 40 traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and details of their sources, production and quality control. The book provides a practical review of the techniques, relevant materials, and the particular demands for using HPLC in traditional Chinese medicinal herb applications. It also covers HPLC methods used to analyze the herbs.High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is increasingly used in the field of traditional Chinese medicine for obtaining fingerprints of Chinese medicinal herbs. Advantages such as high speed, high resolution, high sensitivity, stability, accuracy, and automation make it one of the leading techniques used for quality control, standardization of planting, and new drug development in traditional Chinese medicine.To date, no other books on HPLC fingerprints of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs have been published in English. This is the first book in English devoted to providing readers with state-of-the-art information on HPLC applied in the analysis of traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

Cities for Driverless Vehicles examines the relationship between autonomous vehicles, transport infrastructure requirements and urban forms, as well as explores ways to adopt autonomous vehicles into future cities. With insights drawn from urban planners and professionals across the world, the book informs the reader how our future cities will look, what legal requirements will need to be met, how pedestrians will interact with driverless vehicles, the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept and how planners can prepare for the new technological age. Informed research and expert transport modelling is underpinned by international case studies along with the action plans required to make the transition a smooth, orderly and safe one for future generations. With technology changing the face of future travel faster than ever before, the need to be ahead of the curve has never been greater. This forward-thinking book is, therefore, an ideal and necessary purchase for urban and transport planners, infrastructure engineers, vehicle manufacturers, and policy and decision makers tasked with future-proofing urban areas.

The classical Pontryagin maximum principle (addressed to deterministic finite dimensional control systems) is one of the three milestones in modern control theory. The corresponding theory is by now well-developed in the deterministic infinite dimensional setting and for the stochastic differential equations. However, very little is known about the same problem but for controlled stochastic (infinite dimensional) evolution equations when the diffusion term contains the control variables and the control domains are allowed to be non-convex. Indeed, it is one of the longstanding unsolved problems in stochastic control theory to establish the Pontryagin type maximum principle for this kind of general control systems: this book aims to give a solution to this problem. This book will be useful for both beginners and experts who are interested in optimal control theory for stochastic evolution equations.

This is the first book to systematically present control theory for stochastic distributed parameter systems, a comparatively new branch of mathematical control theory. The new phenomena and difficulties arising in the study of controllability and optimal control problems for this type of system are explained in detail. Interestingly enough, one has to develop new mathematical tools to solve some problems in this field, such as the global Carleman estimate for stochastic partial differential equations and the stochastic transposition method for backward stochastic evolution equations. In a certain sense, the stochastic distributed parameter control system is the most general control system in the context of classical physics. Accordingly, studying this field may also yield valuable insights into quantum control systems. A basic grasp of functional analysis, partial differential equations, and control theory for deterministic systems is the only prerequisite for reading this book.

This book provides a brief, self-contained introduction to Carleman estimates for three typical second order partial differential equations, namely elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic equations, and their typical applications in control, unique continuation, and inverse problems. There are three particularly important and novel features of the book. First, only some basic calculus is needed in order to obtain the main results presented, though some elementary knowledge of functional analysis and partial differential equations will be helpful in understanding them. Second, all Carleman estimates in the book are derived from a fundamental identity for a second order partial differential operator; the only difference is the choice of weight functions. Third, only rather weak smoothness and/or integrability conditions are needed for the coefficients appearing in the equations. Carleman Estimates for Second Order Partial Differential Operators and Applications will be of interest to all researchers in the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Standard Conference on Trustworthy Computing and Services, ISCTCS 2014, held in Beijing, China, in November 2014. The 51 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 279 submissions. The topics covered are architecture for trusted computing systems; trusted computing platform; trusted system building; network and protocol security; mobile network security; network survivability, other critical theories and standard systems; credible assessment; credible measurement and metrics; trusted systems; trusted networks; trusted mobile networks; trusted routing; trusted software; trusted operating systems; trusted storage; fault-tolerant computing and other key technologies; trusted e-commerce and e-government; trusted logistics; trusted internet of things; trusted cloud and other trusted services and applications.