Search

Two-Dimensional Materials for Nonlinear Optics Comprehensive resource covering concepts, perspectives, and skills required to understand the preparation, nonlinear optics, and applications of two-dimensional (2D) materials Bringing together many interdisciplinary experts in the field of 2D materials with their applications in nonlinear optics, Two-Dimensional Materials for Nonlinear Optics covers preparation methods for various novel 2D materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and single elemental 2D materials, excited-state dynamics of 2D materials behind their outstanding performance in photonic devices, instrumentation for exploring the photoinduced excited-state dynamics of the 2D materials spanning a wide time scale from ultrafast to slow, and future trends of 2D materials on a series of issues like fabrications, dynamic investigations, and photonic/optoelectronic applications. Powerful nonlinear optical characterization techniques, such as Z-scan measurement, femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, and microscopy, are also introduced. Edited by two highly qualified academics with extensive experience in the field, Two-Dimensional Materials for Nonlinear Optics covers sample topics such as: Foundational knowledge on nonlinear optical properties, and fundamentals and preparation methods of 2D materials with nonlinear optical properties Modulation and enhancement of optical nonlinearity in 2D materials, and nonlinear optical characterization techniques for 2D materials and their applications in a specific field Novel nonlinear optical imaging systems, ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy for investigating carrier dynamics in emerging 2D materials, and transient terahertz spectroscopy 2D materials for optical limiting, saturable absorber, second and third harmonic generation, nanolasers, and space use With collective insight from researchers in many different interdisciplinary fields, Two-Dimensional Materials for Nonlinear Optics is an essential resource for materials scientists, solid state chemists and physicists, photochemists, and professionals in the semiconductor industry who are interested in understanding the state of the art in the field.

Bacterial biofilm is a complex structure with diverse bacterial cells in a highly organized and ordered group within a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances they produce. Microbes attach to surfaces to develop biofilms, a sophisticated process regulated by factors such as nutritional status and biotic/abiotic surface features. An established biofilm structure mainly comprises bacterial cells, proteins, nucleic acid, and exo-polysaccharides that are extracellular macromolecules excreted as tightly bound layers in microbes, providing a perfect niche for bacteria to exchange genetic material between cells. In addition, bacterial cells in the matrix also communicate via quorum sensing, which greatly impacts biofilm processes. Under clinical circumstances, bacterial biofilm shows great resistance to antibiotics, disinfectants, and body defense systems, making it difficult for clinicians to eradicate and facilitate many infectious disease processes, leading to chronic infections of patients with long-term hospitalization and high mortality rates. Therefore, it is very important to understand the recent advances in forming, regulating, and eradicating biofilms in human infections to better prevent, control, and treat biofilm infections in humans. Written by an international team of basic and clinical researchers, the chapters of this book provide novel insights and advanced knowledge for life science researchers, clinical researchers, doctors, and other interested readers on some of the latest developments in biofilms.

This book provides quantitative indicators covering four main areas of business environment in China. The most distinguished feature of this book is that it evaluates Chinese business environment from the perspective of enterprises based on two years'nationwide survey, interviewing 15,000 enterprises in 300 One-Stop Shops across China from 2018 to 2019, which includes: (1) Progress of Chinese business environment in 2019; (2) overview of the facilities and services of China's One-stop Shops; (3) construction and popularity of Chinese digital government system; (4) the effect of Chinese business environment on improving economic performance in terms of entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth. The quantitative analysis of this book shows that in 2019, China made noteworthy improvements in the process of reducing permits, increasing the availability of digital government, and improving the government efficiency. Challenges such as uneven progress among sub-regions and difficulties for small enterprises to grow were still getting in the way. The goal of the book is to provide objective data and cases from enterprise survey for use by academics and governments. This book presents Chinese experiences of designing sound business regulatory policies.

This book is dedicated to lightning transients and protection for renewable energy systems, including both wind and solar energy. In addition to the formation mechanism of lightning transients, the practical engineering application has also been addressed. This book is comprehensive and covers the methodology of electromagnetic transient modelling, electromagnetic coupling for PV system, lightning protection design, testing and evaluation. This book is particularly suitable for readers interested in lightning phenomena and renewable energy systems. It would benefit researchers, engineers and graduate students in the fields of electrical engineering, renewable energy, computational electromagnetism, etc.

To ultimately address this serious issue, this book begins with the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of marine plankton, focusing on the dynamic behavior of both two-dimensional and spatiotemporal patterns. As a critical foundation of marine ecosystems, the frequent outbreaks of marine phytoplankton and the toxicity of planktonic animals pose significant threats to marine ecological security and human health. One of the primary reasons we currently struggle to effectively manage the safety issues surrounding marine plankton is the extremely complex nature of their growth environment, which exhibits intricate dynamic and nonlinear characteristics. By constructing reaction-diffusion models and fractional diffusion systems of the planktonic ecosystem, the book characterizes the various factors in different environments and studies the nonlinear behavior of marine organisms. Employing linear stability theory, multi-scale analysis, comparison principle, analytical techniques, and the construction of Lyapunov functions, the book delves into the following topic: the stability of the plankton ecosystem, Hopf bifurcation, Turing bifurcation and other local bifurcations, spatial self-organization behavior of marine plankton, the formation of spatiotemporal patterns, and the persistence and extinction properties and characteristics. Marine ecology and the marine environment are currently hot research topics internationally, with the behavior of marine organisms being a core area of this research. The goal of exploring these issues is to scientifically understand the features of marine organisms, control their behavior, manage ocean pollution effectively, contribute to human development, and support social advancement. Additionally, the authors aime to make academic contributions and provide guidance to graduate students and researchers dedicated to this field.

This book analyzes data from eight waves (1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011-12, 2014 and 2018) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Surveys (CLHLS) to explore how health status of the Chinese oldest old has changed over time and across birth cohorts. It also intends to investigate how period and birth cohorts have played a role in the associations between Chinese oldest old's health and a variety of demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors. The book applies the age-period-cohort (APC) approach and constructs cross-classified random-effects models (CCREMs) to carry out the analyses. The oldest old's health is measured by self-rated health (SRH), chronic diseases, cognitive function and subjective wellbeing which is indicated by positive and negative feeling scores. The results show that Chinese oldest old's health status has changed over time and across birth cohorts. Significant period and cohort effects are shown when linking Chinese oldest old's health to various demographic, socioeconomic and health lifestyle covariates. In general, period effects surpass the cohort effects. Particularly, the oldest old's subjective wellbeing is more likely to be influenced by period than cohort effects. Period changes caused by social events, such as economic hardship and natural disasters, have left strong imprints on Chinese oldest old's mental than physical health status. Based on these findings, the book highlights some important policy implications and points out future research directions to improve the current study. It provides an interesting read for researchers in gerontology and public health studies. It is also of interest to general audience, including practitioners in health care and policy makers who are interested in old age care and healthy aging policies.

This book explores how China, and especially China's Belt and Road Initiative, is viewed in European media and by European think tanks, thereby uncovering European elites'views of China. Looking across Europe—the European Union, Western Europe (including the United Kingdom), Central Europe, and Eastern Europe—the book reveals a complex picture, with different views in different places, and with different aspects of China disproportionately emphasized in some places. As China's importance in the world continues to grow, it is crucial to understand how distorted views of China are shaping international relations.

This book is focused on the attractive emerging field of micro-/nanorobot swarms (microswarms). It introduces fundamental understandings of various microswarms, including pattern generation, transformation, locomotion, and imaging. This book also demonstrates applications of micro-/nanorobot swarms in different fields, such as biomedical, environmental, and electrical applications. The detailed theoretical analysis and experimental demonstrations in this book provide readers ranging from students to researchers with a realistic picture of progress achieved in the field of micro-/nanorobot swarms. ​

Developments in deep learning in the past decade have led to phenomenal growth in AI-based automated medical diagnosis, opening a door to a new era of both medical research and medical industry. It is a golden age for researchers involved in the development and application of advanced machine learning techniques for medical and clinical problems. This book captures the most recent important advances in this cross-disciplinary topic and brings the latest advances to a wide audience including experts, researchers, students, industry developers and medical services.

Two-stage single-phase converters, including two-stage single-phase dc-ac inverters and two-stage single-phase PFC converters, are interfacing power converters between dc and ac voltage/current sources, which have been widely applied for dc-ac and ac-dc power conversion. For the two-stage single-phase converter, the ac-side power pulsates at twice the ac voltage frequency, resulting in second harmonic current (SHC) which might flow into the dc-dc converter, the dc voltage source, and dc load. This book clarifies the generation, propagation, and side-effects of this SHC and proposes the SHC reduction control schemes for the dc-dc converter, with different topologies and/or different operating modes, in the single-phase converter. On this basis, the second harmonic current compensator (SHCC) is proposed to compensate the SHC, significantly reducing the dc bus capacitance. In doing so, the electrolytic capacitors, with short lifetimes, are removed from the two-stage single-phase converter, leading to extended system lifetime and enhanced system stability. For having flawless SHC compensation performance, the port-current control schemes are proposed for the SHCC. Additionally, the stability analysis is carried out for the two-stage single-phase converter with the addition of SHCC. This book is a monograph combining theoretical analysis and engineering design, which could not only be a reference book for master students, Ph.D. students, and teachers majoring in power electronics but also be a handbook for the electrical engineers working on the research and development of LED drivers, EV on-board chargers, railway auxiliary power supplies, aviation power supplies, renewable energy generation systems, etc.

This book addresses a special topic in the field of nonlinear dynamical systems, develops a new research direction of surface chaos and surface bifurcation. It provides a clear watershed for original nonlinear chaos and bifurcation research. The novel content of this book makes nonlinear system research more systematical and personalized.This book introduces the chaos and bifurcation behavior of surface dynamics in the sense of Li Yorke, the basic properties, Lyapunov exponent and Feigenbaum constant of nonlinear behavior of surface, and obtained the wave behavior of chaotic process in surface motion, the control of surface chaos and bifurcation, and the wide application of surface chaos in engineering technology.Through this book, readers can obtain more abundant and novel contents about surface chaos and surface bifurcation than the existing mixed fitting bifurcation of plane curve and space curve, which can also expand the realm andvision of research.

This book introduces China's current publishing industry in the new era, especially when facing the big challenge from social media and technology transformation. Based on the calculation for the first time, the book and overall size of the content data of publications in China, the book presents 15 cases of Chinese publishers looking for opportunities to develop business, using the technology of big data and Internet. For global readers, it may help to build an overview on China's publishing industry and business innovation cases of media companies.

Collaborated by Chinese and American scholars, Understanding China's Urbanization opens up a new channel to disseminate Chinese studies to the world. Highly readable, the book provides fine-grained materials and detailed information on Chinese urbanization. Li Zhang, Richard LeGates and Min Zhao effectively convey an indigenous perspective on Chinese urban futures and present a picture with sufficient complexity and wide coverage.'- Fulong Wu, University College London, UK'A most comprehensive book about urbanization in China, with in-depth insights from a talented scholarly team. This book is far more than a snapshot of the Chinese story, it reveals the important developments that have occured as China has transitioned into a dynamic urban country.'- Shi Nan, Secretary General, Urban Planning Society of China'Zhang, LeGates, and Zhao's book builds on the voluminous literature on China's urbanization by adding new data, findings, insights, perspectives, and recommendations. Both academically sophisticated and reader-friendly, the book surveys and critiques research in and outside China and highlights new phenomena in urbanization, governance, migration, foreign direct investment, and city clusters. Richly decorated with illustrations as well as the authors'original statistical and field analyses, the book is a much welcome multidisciplinary contribution to understanding a burning question in China.'- C. Cindy Fan, University of California, Los AngelesChina's urbanization is one of the great earth-changing phenomena of recent times. The way in which China continues to urbanize will have a critical impact on the world economy, global climate change, international relations and a host of other critical issues. Understanding and responding to China's urbanization is of paramount importance to everyone. This book represents a unique exploration of the demographic, spatial, economic and social aspects of China's urban transformation.Based on years of fieldwork and data analysis from different types of cities and towns in every region of China, the authors present a detailed description of how China has urbanized since 1978 and an original theory about the way in which top-down and bottom-up policies have impacted urbanization. They describe China's on-going urbanization process as a'double-dual'transformation from a planned economy to a more market-oriented one and from a concern with the quantity to the quality of urbanization. In doing so, the authors provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on Chinese urbanization to date.This scholarly study will appeal to academics and practitioners, including professors and postgraduate students of urban studies, planning, geography, Asian studies, and other social science disciplines and professional fields concerned with cities and urban development. Professionals involved in international development, particularly in China and elsewhere in Asia, will be particularly interested in the book.

This invaluable book provides the first description of the diverse and fascinating functions of heme in life processes for a broad audience. It begins with an introduction of the intricate chemical properties of heme and the history of early observations of human diseases associated with heme. It then proceeds to describe the versatile roles of heme in controlling diverse molecular and cellular processes germane to human life and disease processes. In the second edition, a new chapter is devoted to describe findings about heme uptake, transport, and trafficking of heme synthesis intermediates in mammals. Additionally, a chapter about the newly discovered roles of elevated heme biosynthesis and uptake in lung tumorigenesis is included.Heme Biology is unified and logical in presentation. It is well suited for students and professionals in life sciences who wish to know about the fascinating biology of heme and its usefulness in health and diseases. It may also be used as a reference book for advanced readers and researchers who are interested in heme biology. The explanations in the book are detailed enough to capture the interest of the curious reader, and complete enough to provide the necessary information for researchers to have an in-depth molecular understanding of heme biology and further their studies in this fascinating realm.

The book explores the influence of western architecture in China Influence from the mid-nineteenth century up to the present day, and reflects on the relationship between tradition and innovation in the country. The analyses and studies conducted with the precious contribution of scholars of Chinese culture give rise to a series of observations on the complex process of modernization that has brought China and the West closer. This phenomenon, alongside others, has been a propitious feature of the transformation of contemporary Chinese cities. Finally, the text addresses the issue of urban historical heritage as an essential value of China's ancient culture. Il libro esplora l'influenza dell'architettura occidentale in Cina dalla metà del XIX secolo fino ai giorni nostri e riflette sul rapporto tra tradizione e innovazione nel paese. Dalle analisi e studi condotti con il prezioso contributo di esperti della cultura cinese emergono una serie di osservazioni sul complesso processo di modernizzazione che ha portato la Cina e l'Occidente più vicini. Questo fenomeno, insieme ad altri, è stato un elemento propulsore della trasformazione delle città cinesi contemporanee. Il testo, infine, affronta la questione del patrimonio storico urbano come valore imprescindibile della cultura millenaria cinese.

Machine learning is widely used for data analysis. Dynamic fuzzy data are one of the most difficult types of data to analyse in the field of big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and quantum information. At present, the processing of this kind of data is not very mature. The authors carried out more than 20 years of research, and show in this book their most important results. The seven chapters of the book are devoted to key topics such as dynamic fuzzy machine learning models, dynamic fuzzy self-learning subspace algorithms, fuzzy decision tree learning, dynamic concepts based on dynamic fuzzy sets, semi-supervised multi-task learning based on dynamic fuzzy data, dynamic fuzzy hierarchy learning, examination of multi-agent learning model based on dynamic fuzzy logic. This book can be used as a reference book for senior college students and graduate students as well as college teachers and scientific and technical personnel involved in computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, data analysis, mathematics, management, cognitive science, and finance. It can be also used as the basis for teaching the principles of dynamic fuzzy learning.

A new revolution in homeownership and living has been sweeping the booming cities of China. This time the main actors on the social stage are not peasants, migrants, or working-class proletariats but middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs in search of a private paradise in a society now dominated by consumerism. No longer seeking happiness and fulfillment through collective sacrifice and socialist ideals, they hope to find material comfort and social distinction in newly constructed gated communities. This quest for the good life is profoundly transforming the physical and social landscapes of urban China. Li Zhang, who is from Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, turns a keen ethnographic eye on her hometown. She combines her analysis of larger political and social issues with fine-grained details about the profound spatial, cultural, and political effects of the shift in the way Chinese urban residents live their lives and think about themselves. In Search of Paradise is a deeply informed account of how the rise of private homeownership is reconfiguring urban space, class subjects, gender selfhood, and ways of life in the reform era. New, seemingly individualistic lifestyles mark a dramatic move away from yearning for a social utopia under Maoist socialism. Yet the privatization of property and urban living have engendered a simultaneous movement of public engagement among homeowners as they confront the encroaching power of the developers. This double movement of privatized living and public sphere activism, Zhang finds, is a distinctive feature of the cultural politics of the middle classes in contemporary China. Theoretically sophisticated and highly accessible, Zhang's account will appeal not only to those interested in China but also to anyone interested in spatial politics, middle-class culture, and postsocialist governing in a globalizing world.

Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2014 International Conference on Advanced Nano-Technology and Biomedical Material (ANTBM 2014), June 29-30, 2014, Guangzhou, China

Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2014 International Conference on Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Automation (AMMA 2014), May 20-21, 2014, Macao, China

The exponential growth of Internet brings to focus the need to control such large scale networks so that they appear as coherent, almost intelligent, organ­ isms. It is a challenge to regulate such a complex network of heterogeneous elements with dynamically changing traffic conditions. To make such a sys­ tem reliable and manageable, the decision making should be decentralized. It is desirable to find simple local rules and strategies that can produce coherent and purposeful global behavior. Furthermore, these control mechanisms must be adaptive to effectively respond to continually varying network conditions. Such adaptive, distributed, localized mechanisms would provide a scalable so­ lution for controlling large networks. The need for such schemes arises in a variety of settings. In this monograph, we focus on localized approach to quality of service routing. Routing in the current Internet focuses primarily on connectivity and typi­ cally supports only the'best-effort'datagram service. The routing protocols deployed such as OSPF use the shortest path only routing paradigm, where routing is optimized for a single metric such as hop count or administrative weight. While these protocols are well suited for traditional data applications such as ftp and telnet, they are not adequate for many emerging applications such as IP telephony, video on demand and teleconferencing, which require stringent delay and bandwidth guarantees. The'shortest paths'chosen for the'best effort'service may not have sufficient resources to provide the requisite service for these applications.

This invaluable book provides the first description of the diverse and fascinating functions of heme in life processes for a broad audience. It begins with an introduction to the intricate chemical properties of heme and the history of early observations of human diseases associated with heme. It then proceeds to describe the versatile roles of heme in controlling diverse molecular and cellular processes germane to human life and disease processes. Finally, an up-to-date review of human diseases associated with heme synthesis and application of heme synthesis in photodynamic therapy in cancer treatment is presented.Heme biology is unified and logical in presentation. It is well suited for students and professionals in life sciences who wish to comprehend the fascinating biology of heme and its usefulness in health and diseases. It may also be used as a reference book for advanced readers and researchers who are interested in heme biology. The explanations in the book are detailed enough to capture the interest of the curious reader, and complete enough to provide the necessary information for researchers to have an in-depth molecular understanding of heme biology and further their studies in this fascinating realm.

Network monitoring serves as the basis for a wide scope of network, engineering and management operations. Precise network monitoring involves inspecting every packet traversing in a network. However, this is not feasible with future high-speed networks, due to significant overheads of processing, storing, and transferring measured data. Network Monitoring in High Speed Networks presents accurate measurement schemes from both traffic and performance perspectives, and introduces adaptive sampling techniques for various granularities of traffic measurement. The techniques allow monitoring systems to control the accuracy of estimations, and adapt sampling probability dynamically according to traffic conditions. The issues surrounding network delays for practical performance monitoring are discussed in the second part of this book. Case studies based on real operational network traces are provided throughout this book. Network Monitoring in High Speed Networks is designed as a secondary text or reference book for advanced-level students and researchers concentrating on computer science and electrical engineering. Professionals working within the networking industry will also find this book useful.

This book discusses the biological, methodological and sociological issues that have caused men to be overlooked in demographic and sociological literature of fertility. It explores the patterns and determinants of male fertility and studies male fertility rates as compared to those of females in 43 countries and places, over time. Data used in the aggregate level analysis come from multiple sources, including the 2001 United Nations Demographic Yearbook, the 1964 to 2004 Taiwan-Fukien Demographic Yearbooks, and National Statistics Reports by the Statistics Bureau of Republic of China. To explore male fertility determinants, the book analyzes individual data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) in the United States. The findings presented here demonstrate that male fertility differs from female fertility in both rates and determinants, which suggests that female fertility cannot fully represent human fertility.

The complexity of Information Technology (IT) systems has been steadily incre- ing in the past decades. In October 2001, IBM released the “Autonomic Computing Manifesto” observing that current applications have reached the size of millions of lines of code, while physical infrastructures include thousands of heterogeneous servers requiring skilled IT professionals to install, con?gure, tune, and maintain. System complexity has been recognized as the main obstacle to the further advan- ment of IT technology. The basic idea of Autonomic Computing is to develop IT systems that are able to manage themselves, as the human autonomic nervous system governs basic body functions such as heart rate or body temperature, thus freeing the conscious brain— IT administrators—from the burden of dealing with low-level vital functions. Autonomic Computing systems can be implemented by introducing autonomic controllers which continuously monitor, analyze, plan, and execute (the famous MAPE cycle) recon?guration actions on the system components. Monitoring acti- ties are deployed to measure the workload and performance metrics of each running component so as to identify system faults. The goal of the analysis activities is to determine the status of components from the monitoring data, and to forecast - ture conditions based on historical observations. Finally, plan and execute activities aim at deciding and actuating the next system con?guration, for example, deciding whether to accept or reject new requests, determining the best application to servers assignment, in order to the achieve the self-optimization goals.

The use of the wind as an energy source is increasing and growing worldwide. Wind energy is an important non-fossil option to supplement fossil (coal, natural gas and oil) and nuclear fuels for the generation of electricity.Many parts of the world, particularly the coastlines of Western Europe, North Africa, North and South America, India, Eastern Russia, China, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, experience a high annual incidence of wind energy. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, together with the Republic of Ireland form a particularly windy location, being favoured with strong westerly winds. The technology of the design and installation of wind turbines and wind farms are, in fact, well established. Operational practice, though, is still being developed as engineers learn by experience.This book is written for electrical engineers concerned with the use of wind power for generating electricity. It incorporates some meteorological features of international wind supply plus a survey of the past and present wind turbines with technical assessment of the choice of turbine sites. Detailed coverage is given to the different types of electrical generator machines used and the electronic control devices employed in modern turbine systems.Importantly, this book devotes full chapters to the integration of wind farms into established electrical grid supply systems, and the environmental and economic aspects of wind generation. Engineers will be drawn to the practical approach in this book, featuring worked numerical examples — complete with answers — at the end of some chapters.

This text reveals all key components of rectification, inversion, cycloconversion, and conversion circuits. It authoritatively describes switching, voltage and current relationships, and converter properties, operation, control, and performance as utilized in most practical applications. Authored jointly by a veteran scholar and an accomplished res

With rapid commercialization, a booming urban economy, and the relaxation of state migration policies, over 100 million peasants, known as China's “floating population,” have streamed into large cities seeking employment and a better life. This massive flow of rural migrants directly challenges Chinese socialist modes of state control. This book traces the profound transformations of space, power relations, and social networks within a mobile population that has broken through the constraints of the government's household registration system. The author explores this important social change through a detailed ethnographic account of the construction, destruction, and eventual reconstruction of the largest migrant community in Beijing. She focuses on the informal privatization of space and power in this community through analyzing the ways migrant leaders build their power base by controlling housing and market spaces and mobilizing social networks. The author argues that to gain a deeper understanding of recent Chinese social and political transformations, one must examine not only to what extent state power still dominates everyday social life, but also how the aims and methods of late socialist governance change under new social and economic conditions. In revealing the complexities and uncertainties of the shifting power and social relations in post-Mao China, this book challenges the common notion that sees recent changes as an inevitable move toward liberal capitalism and democracy.

At the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020, when the coronavirus first emerged, Wuhan in China became the first city in the world affected by this deadly disease. It then rapidly spread to the entire country, and further on to Europe, America and the rest of the world. During these strange times, we witness the emptiness of streets, squares and cities everywhere; we are estranged from and yet ‘connected'to each other. As a response to the pandemic, Jiang Jiehong convened in-conversation talks with figures from different disciplines in the Chinese-speaking world, including anthropology, architecture, art, curating, fashion film, literature, media, museum, music and photography. The twelve high-profile participants in these conversations are Xiang Biao, Zhang Peili, Pi Li, Zhang Zikang, Gu Zheng, Li Lin, Zhang Zhen, Shu Kewen, Jiang Jun, Wang Shouzhi, Chen Danqing and Zhu Zheqin. These conversations foster new understandings of this present-day crisis; the threat of the invisible, notions of distance and spatialization, separation and isolation, communication and mobility, discipline and surveillance, and community and collectiveness, as well as the increase in conflicts and divisive voices between China and the world. At the same time, these reflections give us the opportunity to re-examine our past ‘normality', and to project our future visions of a post-COVID world. Readership will include those working and studying in the humanities and specifically in the disciplines of the interviewees, and those who have particular interests in contemporary China. The Otherness of the Everyday is also of interest to a more general audience who has experienced the pandemic and is seeking innovative understandings of this global crisis in human history.

Motility is an inherent property of living organisms, both unicellular and multicellular. One of the principal mechanisms of cell motility is the use of peculiar biological engines – flagella and cilia. These types of movers already appear in prokaryotic cells. However, despite the similar function, bacteria flagellum and eukaryote flagella have fundamentally different structures. Chapter One of this book by Drs. Meijiao Wang, Li Zhang and Hanna Li is devoted to a comparative analysis of the flagella of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It's believed that flagellum in eukaryotic cells appeared for the first time in ancient flagellates. In Chapter Two, Drs. P. Huitorel, M. Cachon and J. Cosson summarize the results of their long-term studies of flagellum dinoflagellates. The'evolutionary invention'of the ancient flagellates proved to be so successful that the axonemal structure in flagellum has not changed for hundreds of millions of years. In the third chapter, Drs. V. Bondarenko, G. Prokopchuk and J. Cosson reported the analyses of kinetic characteristics of flagella motions in fish using the most modern methodologies. In Chapter Four, Drs. R. Uzbekov, A. Garanina, J. Burlaud-Gaillard and C. Bressac described spermiogenesis of the parasitic wasps Cotesia congregata. Their data showed that significant shortening of the flagella occurs during the formation of the mature spermatozoon and this flagella has been the shortest spermatozoon flagella described in the animal kingdom until now. Centriole in this spermatozoon is transformed into a special structure known as the'cogwheel structure'that does not contain microtubules. In the process of multicellular organism evolution, flagella, which ensure the mobility of individual cells, gave origin to two types of cilia. Motile cilia in the tissues like cerebral ventricles, respiratory epithelium and oviducts moved liquid flows relatively to immobile cell layers. The second type of cilia (primary cilia) lost motility function and acquired cellular sensitivity function. Moving and sensitive cilia grow from basal bodies, which originate from centrioles. Chapter Five by Drs. I. Alieva, C. Staub, S. Uzbekova and R. Uzbekov discusses which of the centrioles – mother or daughter – creates the moving cilium and sensitive cilium. In Chapter Six, Drs. D. Conkar and E. Nur Firat-Karalar describe in detail the biochemical aspects of primary cilium assembly pathways, intraflagellar transport and ectosome release. This chapter provides an overview of the trafficking pathways involved in ciliary compartmentalization and describes the primary ciliary as a sensitive'cell's antenna', participating in many regulatory processes in the cell. Defects in flagella and cilia cause many hereditary diseases. Different examples of ciliopathy are described in Chapter Seven by Drs. E. Bragina, E. Blanchard and R. Uzbekov. A wide review of experimental models, organisms and analytical methods to study flagella and cilia are presented to readers who want to learn about their main research directives.

Today, architecture in China is at a watershed. Over the last decade, rapid urbanisation and the burgeoning economy turned the country into a playground for the world's signature architects, making it possible to realise extravagant forms and structures at a vast scale. The Chinese government has now drawn a line under this phenomenon by issuing a directive calling an end to the ‘oversized, xenocentric, weird'buildings devoid of character or cultural heritage that have sprung up across the country, requiring that urban architecture be'suitable, economic, green and pleasing to the eye'. This government directive comes at a time when homegrown architecture has become increasingly self-assured and reflective in its approach. A new generation of architects in China in their 30s and 40s are emerging, and in a wholly contemporary way they are exploring local responses to often bewildering urban and rural conditions and serious social and environmental challenges. This is often expressed through a revival of interest in traditional street patterns, courtyards and gardens. At the same time, architects are also recognising the opportunities to harness the potential of China's established manufacturing base to develop prefabricated building systems. Innovative practices are employing new modes of working, such as research-based studio teaching and exhibitions, field workshops, cross-disciplinary collaboration, laboratory-based practice, design think-tanks and collective projects, generating a vibrant culture of design research. Contributors: Lu Feng, Murray Fraser, Xiao Fu and Wei You, Xiahong Hua and Shen Zhuang, Xinggang Li, Yichun Liu, James Shen, Yehao Song, Hui Wang, Shuo Wang, Xin Wang and Qiuye Jin, Philip F Yuan and Xiang Wang, Li Zhang, Xin Zhang and Jingxiang Zhu. Featured architects: Archi-Union Architects, Atelier Archmixing, Atelier Deshaus, Atelier Li Xinggang, Integrated Architecture Studio, LanD Studio, META-Project, People's Architecture Office, SUP Atelier, URBANUS and Zaoyuan Gardening Studio

Mount, our favorite mountain man, is back for a third installment of action and adventure!It's 1844, and Mount has returned to his secluded cabin nestled in the Rocky Mountains, bringing with him his new bride, Sandra, and stepson, Andy. The new family is happy beyond words, and just starting to build a wonderful future. Suddenly, their lives are shattered, and that happy future in jeopardy, when Sandra is kidnapped by a ruthless band of outlaws led by the notorious assassin, Li Zhang. The resulting adventure is packed full of excitement, danger, and surprises, and, of course, plenty of Mount's special brand of humor.Author Arlen Blumhagen is once again at the top of his game, and book three of the Mount trilogy, Mount: The Adventures Continue, is definitely a must-listen.

Renal dysfunction is an extensively recognized threat for mortality in patients with acute heart disorders. Chapter one, written by Aida Hamziæ-Mehmedbašiæ, Damir Rebiæ, and Neira Bašiæ-Hamziæ, discusses how earlier detection of CRS type 1 by renal and cardiac biomarkers theoretically leads to improved outcomes in patients with acute heart disorders. In chapter two, Andreas Eisenreich, Ulrike Leppert, Torsten Thiel and Nicole Ebner analyze the most recent discoveries concerning the role of metformin in cardiovascular/renal pathologies while simultaneously discussing the therapeutic potential of metformin in the treatment of patients with diabetes-associated cardiovascular/renal diseases. Helen Senderovich, Justin Chow and Shaira Wignarajah present a case study regarding end-of-life care in advanced congestive heart failure, discussing symptom management and patients'feelings in chapter three. In chapter four, Qin Qin, Jianqing Li, Li Zhang, and Chengyu Liu discuss methodology for abnormal heartbeat recognition and classification. Next, Zhipeng Cai, Jianqing Li, Kan Luo, Bo Duan, Yuting Xie and Chengyu Liu present a study in chapter five wherein the effects of electrode material and size on the skin-electrode impedance were investigated, in addition to the influence of thickness of the filled sponge and environmental factors. Chapter six, by Kohichiro Iwasaki, presents another study wherein 300 patients without known coronary artery disease underwent coronary computed tomographic angiography, studying calcium scores of and the relationship amongst them. Following this, chapter seven provides a review of etiopathogenetic mechanisms of cochlear endothelial dysfunction and cochlear microvascular disease by V. Corazzi, A.Ciorba C. Bianchini, and C. Aimoni, ENT & Audiology Department, University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy. Continuing, chapter eight presents an investigation done by Kristina Zubow, Anatolij Zubow, and Viktor Anatolievich Zubow on mechanism of the sugar influence in gelatin. They continue in chapter nine with an analyzation of the neutrino halo from a working human heart.

In less than half a century, people in Vietnam have gone from fearing war and famine to fretting over the best cell phone plan. This shift in the landscape of people’s anxieties is the result of policies that made Vietnam the second-fastest-growing economy in the world and a triumph of late capitalist development. Yet as much as people marvel at the speed of progress, all this change— even for the better—can be difficult to handle. A Life of Worry unpacks an ethnographic puzzle. What accounts for the simultaneous increase in anxiety and economic prosperity among Ho Chi Minh City’s middle class? At a time when people around the world are turning to the pharmaceutical and wellness industries to soothe their troubled minds, it is worth asking whether these industries might be part of the problem. “A fascinating study of an important global phenomenon.” — LI ZHANG, author of Anxious China: Inner Revolution and Politics of Psychotherapy “A Life of Worry takes us from Ho Chi Minh City’s lively cafes to its burgeoning psychotherapy centers to offer an original phenomenological approach to anxiety as it is felt and enacted, often as a form of care for others, in Vietnam today.” — JOCELYN LIM CHUA, author of In Pursuit of the Good Life: Aspiration and Suicide in Globalizing South India