The positive reciprocal pairwise comparison matrix (PCM) is one of the key components which is used to quantify the qualitative and/or intangible attributes into measurable quantities. This book examines six understudied issues of PCM, i.e. consistency test, inconsistent data identification and adjustment, data collection, missing or uncertain data estimation, and sensitivity analysis of rank reversal. The maximum eigenvalue threshold method is proposed as the new consistency index for the AHP/ANP. An induced bias matrix model (IBMM) is proposed to identify and adjust the inconsistent data, and estimate the missing or uncertain data. Two applications of IBMM including risk assessment and decision analysis, task scheduling and resource allocation in cloud computing environment, are introduced to illustrate the proposed IBMM.

Optimization techniques have been widely adopted to implement various data mining algorithms. In addition to well-known Support Vector Machines (SVMs) (which are based on quadratic programming), different versions of Multiple Criteria Programming (MCP) have been extensively used in data separations. Since optimization based data mining methods differ from statistics, decision tree induction, and neural networks, their theoretical inspiration has attracted many researchers who are interested in algorithm development of data mining.

"Optimization based Data Mining: Theory and Applications," mainly focuses on MCP and SVM especially their recent theoretical progress and real-life applications in various fields. These include finance, web services, bio-informatics and petroleum engineering, which has triggered the interest of practitioners who look for new methods to improve the results of data mining for knowledge discovery.

Most of the material in this book is directly from the research and application activities that the authors' research group has conducted over the last ten years. Aimed at practitioners and graduates who have a fundamental knowledge in data mining, it demonstrates the basic concepts and foundations on how to use optimization techniques to deal with data mining problems.

This book explores how language ideologies have emerged for gangtaiqiang through a combination of indexical and ideological processes in televised media. Gangtaiqiang (Hong Kong-Taiwan accent), a socially recognizable form of mediatized Taiwanese Mandarin, has become a stereotype for many Chinese mainlanders who have little real-life interaction with Taiwanese people. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the author examines how Chinese millennials perceive gangtaiqiang by focusing on the following questions: 1) the role of televised media in the formation of language attitudes, and 2) how shifting gender ideologies are performed and embodied such attitudes. This book presents empirical evidence to argue that gangtaiqiang should, in fact, be conceptualized as a mediatized variety of Mandarin, rather than the actual speech of people in Hong Kong or Taiwan. The analyses in this book point to an emerging realignment among the Chinese towards gangtaiqiang, a variety traditionally associated with chic, urban television celebrities and young cosmopolitan types. In contrast to Beijing Mandarin, Taiwanese Mandarin is now perceived to be pretentious, babyish, and emasculated, mirroring the power dynamics between Taiwan and China.

This book aims to establish a wind energy evaluation system, to provide scientific reference for site selection, daily operation and long-term planning of wind power generation, thus to make contribution to breaking the shackles of power shortage. Firstly, it presents the advantages and disadvantages of offshore wind power, then further discusses about the status quo and challenges for wind power programs along the Maritime Silk Road and offer suggestions. A wind energy evaluation system was proposed with the Maritime Silk Road as a case study, including climatic features of wind power (temporal-spatial distribution), long-term climatic trend and mechanism, short-term forecast of wind energy, mid- and long-term projection of wind energy, technology of wind energy evaluation on key point or vital region and offshore wind energy dataset construction, to provide systematic and scientific reference for wind power evaluation and utilization. This book is one of the series of publications on 21st century Maritime Silk Road (shortened as "Maritime Silk Road"). It covers the characteristics of the marine environment and marine renewable energy, remote islands and reefs construction, climate change, early warning of wave disasters, legal escort, marine environment and energy big data construction, etc., contributing to the safe and efficient construction of the Maritime Silk Road. It aims to improve our knowledge of the ocean, thus, to improve the capacity for marine construction, enhance the viability of remote islands and reefs, ease the energy crisis and protect the ecological environment, improve the quality of life of residents along the Maritime Silk Road, and protect the rights, interests of the countries and regions participating in the construction of the Maritime Silk Road. It is a valuable reference for decision-makers, researchers, and marine engineers working in the related fields.

The positive reciprocal pairwise comparison matrix (PCM) is one of the key components which is used to quantify the qualitative and/or intangible attributes into measurable quantities. This book examines six understudied issues of PCM, i.e. consistency test, inconsistent data identification and adjustment, data collection, missing or uncertain data estimation, and sensitivity analysis of rank reversal. The maximum eigenvalue threshold method is proposed as the new consistency index for the AHP/ANP. An induced bias matrix model (IBMM) is proposed to identify and adjust the inconsistent data, and estimate the missing or uncertain data. Two applications of IBMM including risk assessment and decision analysis, task scheduling and resource allocation in cloud computing environment, are introduced to illustrate the proposed IBMM.

Optimization techniques have been widely adopted to implement various data mining algorithms. In addition to well-known Support Vector Machines (SVMs) (which are based on quadratic programming), different versions of Multiple Criteria Programming (MCP) have been extensively used in data separations. Since optimization based data mining methods differ from statistics, decision tree induction, and neural networks, their theoretical inspiration has attracted many researchers who are interested in algorithm development of data mining. Optimization based Data Mining: Theory and Applications, mainly focuses on MCP and SVM especially their recent theoretical progress and real-life applications in various fields. These include finance, web services, bio-informatics and petroleum engineering, which has triggered the interest of practitioners who look for new methods to improve the results of data mining for knowledge discovery. Most of the material in this book is directly from the research and application activities that the authors' research group has conducted over the last ten years. Aimed at practitioners and graduates who have a fundamental knowledge in data mining, it demonstrates the basic concepts and foundations on how to use optimization techniques to deal with data mining problems.

MCDM 2009, the 20th International Conference on Multiple-Criteria Decision M- ing, emerged as a global forum dedicated to the sharing of original research results and practical development experiences among researchers and application developers from different multiple-criteria decision making-related areas such as multiple-criteria decision aiding, multiple criteria classification, ranking, and sorting, multiple obj- tive continuous and combinatorial optimization, multiple objective metaheuristics, multiple-criteria decision making and preference modeling, and fuzzy multiple-criteria decision making. The theme for MCDM 2009 was "New State of MCDM in the 21st Century." The conference seeks solutions to challenging problems facing the development of multiple-criteria decision making, and shapes future directions of research by prom- ing high-quality, novel and daring research findings. With the MCDM conference, these new challenges and tools can easily be shared with the multiple-criteria decision making community. The workshop program included nine workshops which focused on different topics in new research challenges and initiatives of MCDM. We received more than 350 submissions for all the workshops, out of which 121 were accepted. This includes 72 regular papers and 49 short papers. We would like to thank all workshop organizers and the Program Committee for the excellent work in maintaining the conference's standing for high-quality papers.

This volume presents the proceedings of the 7th Asian-Pacific Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering (APCMBE 2008). Themed "Biomedical Engineering - Promoting Sustainable Development of Modern Medicine" the proceedings address a broad spectrum of topics from Bioengineering and Biomedicine, like Biomaterials, Artificial Organs, Tissue Engineering, Nanobiotechnology and Nanomedicine, Biomedical Imaging, Bio MEMS, Biosignal Processing, Digital Medicine, BME Education. It helps medical and biological engineering professionals to interact and exchange their ideas and experiences.

This study focuses on the relationship between environment, history, politics, and rhetorical discourses in James Joyce's Ulysses. Delving into different aspects of Joyce's use of nature and linguistic discourses in orchestrating a specific dynamic of eco-politics, it adopts an interdisciplinary approach that includes cultural politics, historiographical poetics, and genetic criticism with close reading of the text. The first of the two sessions of the book addresses the environmental questions of land and consumption through discussions on co-operative politics, garden city movement, and the eco-politics of waste. The second section moves to examine the diverse ways in which nature and nation are (re)imagined exemplarily in Joyce's composition of the forest and the marketplace. By examining several thematic environmental issues addressed in Ulysses with the evidence of historical and archival resources, this study has demonstrated that Joyce is after all a writer with the environment in mind, and that the imagination of nature in Ulysses is inseparable from that of the emergent nation of fin-de-siecle Ireland.

This book aims to establish a wind energy evaluation system, to provide scientific reference for site selection, daily operation and long-term planning of wind power generation, thus to make contribution to breaking the shackles of power shortage. Firstly, it presents the advantages and disadvantages of offshore wind power, then further discusses about the status quo and challenges for wind power programs along the Maritime Silk Road and offer suggestions. A wind energy evaluation system was proposed with the Maritime Silk Road as a case study, including climatic features of wind power (temporal-spatial distribution), long-term climatic trend and mechanism, short-term forecast of wind energy, mid- and long-term projection of wind energy, technology of wind energy evaluation on key point or vital region and offshore wind energy dataset construction, to provide systematic and scientific reference for wind power evaluation and utilization. This book is one of the series of publications on 21st century Maritime Silk Road (shortened as "Maritime Silk Road"). It covers the characteristics of the marine environment and marine renewable energy, remote islands and reefs construction, climate change, early warning of wave disasters, legal escort, marine environment and energy big data construction, etc., contributing to the safe and efficient construction of the Maritime Silk Road. It aims to improve our knowledge of the ocean, thus, to improve the capacity for marine construction, enhance the viability of remote islands and reefs, ease the energy crisis and protect the ecological environment, improve the quality of life of residents along the Maritime Silk Road, and protect the rights, interests of the countries and regions participating in the construction of the Maritime Silk Road. It is a valuable reference for decision-makers, researchers, and marine engineers working in the related fields.

This book explores how language ideologies have emerged for gangtaiqiang through a combination of indexical and ideological processes in televised media. Gangtaiqiang (Hong Kong-Taiwan accent), a socially recognizable form of mediatized Taiwanese Mandarin, has become a stereotype for many Chinese mainlanders who have little real-life interaction with Taiwanese people. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, the author examines how Chinese millennials perceive gangtaiqiang by focusing on the following questions: 1) the role of televised media in the formation of language attitudes, and 2) how shifting gender ideologies are performed and embodied such attitudes. This book presents empirical evidence to argue that gangtaiqiang should, in fact, be conceptualized as a mediatized variety of Mandarin, rather than the actual speech of people in Hong Kong or Taiwan. The analyses in this book point to an emerging realignment among the Chinese towards gangtaiqiang, a variety traditionally associated with chic, urban television celebrities and young cosmopolitan types. In contrast to Beijing Mandarin, Taiwanese Mandarin is now perceived to be pretentious, babyish, and emasculated, mirroring the power dynamics between Taiwan and China.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are transforming economies, societies, and geopolitics. Enabled by the exponential increase of data that is collected, transmitted, and processed transnationally, these changes have important implications for international economic law (IEL). This volume examines the dynamic interplay between AI and IEL by addressing an array of critical new questions, including: How to conceptualize, categorize, and analyze AI for purposes of IEL? How is AI affecting established concepts and rubrics of IEL? Is there a need to reconfigure IEL, and if so, how? Contributors also respond to other cross-cutting issues, including digital inequality, data protection, algorithms and ethics, the regulation of AI-use cases (autonomous vehicles), and systemic shifts in e-commerce (digital trade) and industrial production (fourth industrial revolution). This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.