Taiwan has become a new flashpoint in Sino-U.S. relations in recent years. The nation just concluded its presidential and legislative elections in January 2024. The incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a pyrrhic victory—with DPP keeping the presidential seat but losing the majority in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan (Congress). The political status of Taiwan is one of the few, if not the only, issues that have won bipartisan support. New Developments in the Trilateral Relationshi...

This book focuses on distributed event-triggered control of multi-agent systems, in which the event-triggering mechanism is utilized to reduce the communication frequencies in order to compensate for constrained network bandwidths, an aspect that poses significant challenges for distributed control design. The book summarizes the authors’ original, systematic contributions on scalability and robustness, two core issues in distributed event-triggered control. Specifically, the book presents...

Internet Infrastructure: Networking, Web Services, and Cloud Computing provides a comprehensive introduction to networks and the Internet from several perspectives:the underlying media, the protocols, the hardware, the servers, and their uses. The material in the text is divided into concept chapters that are followed up with case study chapters that examine how to install, configure, and secure a server that offers the given service discussed.The book covers in detail the...

This book is a monograph on aerodynamics of aero-engine gas turbines focusing on the new progresses on flow mechanism and design methods in the recent 20 years. Starting with basic principles in aerodynamics and thermodynamics, this book systematically expounds the recent research on mechanisms of flows in axial gas turbines, including high pressure and low pressure turbines, inter-turbine ducts and turbine rear frame ducts, and introduces the classical and innovative numerical evaluation ...

Yin Biyue feels scammed. After dying as a two-bit villain in a multitude of worlds, he dreamed of becoming the Final Boss in the next world he's reborn into. Unfortunately, the malevolent Fiend Halo he purchased from the Rebirth Company seems to be malfunctioning. Instead of inspiring fear in those who inhabit his new reality, his fellow cultivators see him as...a do-gooder. And this includes the bleeding-heart protagonist, Luo Mingchuan--the very man who Yin Biyue just tried to murder!Bef...

Yin Biyue has sworn off villainy to live a quiet life alongside his fellow disciple, Luo Mingchuan. But as the tournament draws to its end, their hard-won peace is shattered when a demonic cultivator crashes the party.At the same time, Duan Chongxuan is summoned home under dire circumstances, and Luo Mingchuan becomes the target of those who believe he's the reincarnation of the demon lord who once destroyed the world. But that can't be right--if anyone's the Final Boss, shouldn't it be Yi...

Former villain Yin Biyue just wants to live in peace in his new world, but all he finds is turmoil. His teacher is off on a suicide mission, Luo Mingchuan is in danger of succumbing to the spirit of the Demon Lord, and the infamous demonic cultivator Rong Zhuo has risen with a massive army to launch attacks across the realm. No one--not Cangya, not the Northern Emperor, nor Yin Biyue's allies from other sects--is safe with battles looming on every front. How can he and Luo Mingchuan become...

An introduction to how life has colonized and shaped the Earth, turning it into the habitable planet of todayExploring the geological basis for life on Earth, Introduction to Geobiology systematically examines the interaction between the geosphere and the biosphere, including its evolutionary history.In this didactically written text, readers will learn about the various modes of interaction between living and inorganic environments, emphasizing th...

Seismic Risk Analysis of Nuclear Power Plants addresses the needs of graduate students in engineering, practicing engineers in industry, and regulators in government agencies, presenting the entire process of seismic risk analysis in a clear, logical, and concise manner. It offers a systematic and comprehensive introduction to seismic risk analysis of critical engineering structures focusing on nuclear power plants, with a balance between theory and applications, and includes the latest ad...

Algae are sunlight-driven cell factories, and can efficiently absorb CO2 and convert light energy to chemical energy such as lipid, starch and other carbohydrates and release O2. Algal feedstock is a promising resource for bioproduct production, given its high photosynthetic efficiency for producing biomass compared to conventional crops. Microalgae can be used for flue-gas and wastewater bioremediation. This book highlights recent breakthroughs in the multidisciplinary areas of algal biot...

This is an ideal book for graduate students and researchers interested in the aerodynamics, structural dynamics and flight dynamics of small birds, bats and insects, as well as of micro air vehicles (MAVs), which present some of the richest problems intersecting science and engineering. The agility and spectacular flight performance of natural flyers, thanks to their flexible, deformable wing structures, as well as to outstanding wing, tail and body coordination, is particularly significan...

This book provides a detailed study of urban agricultural development. It establishes a comprehensive evaluation system for urban agriculture and accurately grasps the development level and status of urban agriculture, to provide action guidelines for decision-making bodies in urban agriculture. This book is intended for graduate students who are interested in the development of urban agriculture and researchers studying the field of urban agriculture.