This book presents an empirical study that develops and validates a learning-oriented self-assessment instrument for assessing the strategic competence (SC) of young language learners in oral communication, specifically within the context of early English education in China.The instrument’s development followed a multi-phased research design, encompassing three interconnected stages: conceptualisation, operationalisation and validation. Each phase employed distinct methods, data co...

This book shares insights on post-processing techniques adopted to achieve precision-grade surfaces of additive manufactured metals including material characterization techniques and the identified material properties.Post-processes are discussed from support structure removal and heat treatment to the material removal processes including hybrid manufacturing. Also discussed are case studies on unique applications of additive manufactured metals as an exemplary of the consideration...

Apocalyptic predictions that AI will eliminate millions of jobs have caused widespread fear. When people hear that AI can write, code, and diagnose, they often jump to a scary conclusion: If machines can think, human work is doomed. Messy Jobs argues that this gloomy belief gets the economics of work wrong.Economists Luis Garicano, Jin Li, and Yanhui Wu offer a new framework for thinking about AI and work. They show why some roles will disappear, why others will be reshape...

Cooperative Control for Nonlinear Multiagent Systems: Passivity-Based and Non-Passivity-Based Approaches focuses on the cooperative control of nonlinear multiagent systems containing passivity-based or non-passivity-based consensus, lag consensus, and formation control of multiagent systems. The book provides professional and convenient guidance for those who want to know basic knowledge, advancements, and processes for designing and analyzing cooperative control for nonlinear multiagent s...

Highly comprehensive resource for studying neural networks, complex networks, synchronization, passivity, and associated applicationsDynamical Behaviors of Multiweighted Complex Network Systems discusses the dynamical behaviors of various multiweighted complex dynamical networks, with detailed insight on synchronization for directed and undirected complex networks (CNs) with multiple state or delayed state couplings subject to recoverable attacks, along wi...

Analyses of crime and justice in an unprecedented timeWhile COVID-19 lockdowns affected nearly everyone worldwide, feelings of anxiety and fear were exacerbated for those already entangled in the criminal justice system. Scholars recognized the unique opportunity to study crime and the justice system’s response during this period, though they soon realized that determining the pandemic’s effects would be a complicated, nuanced process.Crime, Corrections...

Buddhism and Postmodernity is a response to some of the questions that have emerged in the process of Buddhism's encounters with modernity and the West. Jin Y. Park broadly outlines these questions as follows: first, why are the interpretations and evaluations of Buddhism so different in Europe (in the nineteenth century), in the United States (in the twentieth century), and in traditional Asia; second, why does Zen Buddhism, which offers a radically egalitarian vision, maintain a...

Photonics, a volume in the Interface Transmission Tutorial Book series, describes the science of photonic transmission properties of the interfaces of composite materials systems and devices. The book's authors review the general analysis methods of interface transmission, give many examples, and apply these methods to photonic applications. Applications discussed include photonic crystals, materials, devices and circuits. - Offers a unique approach on photonics from the interfacial transm...

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 book focuses on cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X), currently the most promising wireless communication technology for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P), Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) and Vehicle-to-Cloud (V2C) communications. Because of its low latency and high reliability, C-V2X has become an essential enabling technology for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) and autonomous driving.This book begins by introducing re...

This book intends to introduce some recent results on passivity of complex dynamical networks with single weight and multiple weights. The book collects novel research ideas and some definitions in complex dynamical networks, such as passivity, output strict passivity, input strict passivity, finite-time passivity, and multiple weights. Furthermore, the research results previously published in many flagship journals are methodically edited and presented in a unified form. The book is likel...

This book presents the current research on space-based navigation models and the contents of spaces used for seamless indoor and outdoor navigation. It elaborates on 3D spaces reconstructed automatically and how indoor, semi-indoor, semi-outdoor, and outdoor spaces can mimic the indoor environments and originate a network based on the 3D connectivity of spaces. Case studies help readers understand theories, approaches, and models, including data preparation, space classification and recons...