This book examines the Sulige Gas Field—China’s largest natural gas field—as a case study. Drawing on field hydraulic fracturing data and laboratory water–rock interaction experiments, it systematically investigates the geochemical processes occurring during hydraulic fracturing. These processes are analyzed using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), geochemical modeling, end-member mixing analysis, and isotopic tracing.

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the water resources status in the northern areas of the Qinling Mountains, China, which are considered strategically important as the central water tower of China. The book presents the findings of a thorough water resources research conducted in the northern Qinling Mountainous areas from 2019 to 2022. The research included field investigations of the main rivers and groundwater in the region, estimation of base flow for the main rivers,...

Visual Question Answering (VQA) usually combines visual inputs like image and video with a natural language question concerning the input and generates a natural language answer as the output. This is by nature a multi-disciplinary research problem, involving computer vision (CV), natural language processing (NLP), knowledge representation and reasoning (KR), etc.Further, VQA is an ambitious undertaking, as it must overcome the challenges of general image understanding and the ques...

This book addresses the sustainability of happiness and well-being in Chinese societies. It starts by introducing the various conceptions of well-being, particularly in the Chinese sociocultural context.The book then proceeds with the examination of the sustainability of well-being by scrutinizing the effects of sociocultural, contextual, and personal factors on well-being. The contextual factors are the aggregates or averages of personal factors at the contextual levels of the reg...

This book addresses the fundamentals and practical implementations of antennas for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)In this book, the authors discuss the various aspects of GNSS antennas, including fundamentals of GNSS, design approaches for the GNSS terminal and satellite antennas, performance enhancement techniques and effects of user’s presence and surrounding environment on these antennas. In addition, the book will provide the reader with an insight i...

The science of nanotechnology, the manipulation, design and engineering of devices at the atomic and molecular scale, is starting to be applied to many disciplines including aspects of agriculture and crop science. This book opens with a brief history of nanotechnology in agriculture. Applications are then examined in detail, including nanopesticides, nanosensors, nanofertilizers, and nanoherbicides. Topics covered include; the biosynthesis of nanoparticles (through microbes, plants and ot...

Using the well-honed tools of nanotechnology, this book presents breakthrough results in soft matter research, benefitting from the synergies between the chemistry, physics, biology, materials science, and engineering communities.The team of international authors delves beyond mere structure-making and places the emphasis firmly on imparting functionality to soft nanomaterials with a focus on devices and applications. Alongside reviewing the current level of knowledge, they also put...

East Asia has experienced the fastest economic growth in the world over the last three decades, accompanied by a 10-fold gross domestic product increase and rapid urbanization. Energy consumption has more than tripled during this period and is expected to double over the next 20 years. This remarkable trend has led to twin energy challenges in the region—environmental sustainability and energy security. Written for an audience of energy policy makers and practitioners, Winds of Change expl...

This book introduces psychosocial studies of idol worship in Chinese societies. It reviews how idol worship is perceived in Chinese culture, history, and philosophy as well as how it differs from the concept of celebrity worship that is more dominant in Western literature. Using a pioneering hexagonal model of idol worship, this book explains how idol worship is affected by various demographic and dispositional variables as well as the cognitive and social functions of idols and idol worsh...

This book is the first authoritative text on the role that physicists play in solving the inherently multidisciplinary science and technology challenges in food manufacturing. Topics range from designing safe, nutritious and great-tasting foods to the process technology and manufacturing know-how needed to deliver compelling product innovation. The book provides a foundational resource for the transformation of engineering and materials characterisation in the food and pharmaceuticals indu...

Examining creativity in Chinese societies from both a personal and contextual standpoint, this ground-breaking book offers readers a unique insight into the Chinese mind. It provides a review of the nature, origins, and consequences of creativity, deriving from empirical evidence in the Chinese context. Specifically, the book unravels the conceptualization of creativity and its relationships with various demographic and dispositional factors in Chinese societies. The book proceeds to give ...

Introductory courses in combinatorial optimization are popular at the upper undergraduate/graduate levels in computer science, industrial engineering, and business management/OR, owed to its wide applications in these fields. There are several published textbooks that treat this course and the authors have used many of them in their own teaching experiences. This present text fills a gap and is organized with a stress on methodology and relevant content, providing a step-by-step approach f...