Translated to English, this collection of contemporary Chinese poetry examines humanity's relationship with nature and the ecological crisis.Influenced by both the "gray, sinister sea" near the village where Yi Lu grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and the beauty of the sea in the books she read as a child, Sea Summit is a collection of paradox and questioning. The sea is an impossible force to the poet: it is both a majestic presence that predates man...

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the latest advancements in sustainable and resilient supply chain management. The chapters in this volume present a diverse range of topics, including innovative strategies for optimizing sustainable food supply chains through data envelopment analysis, dynamic multi-modal perspectives on global supply chain network configuration, and robust data-driven optimization techniques for designing sustainable cold supply chains for livestock and per...

This book reports on cutting-edge research and advances in the field of intelligent vehicle systems. It presents a broad range of AI-enabled technologies, with a focus on automated, autonomous and connected vehicle systems. It covers advanced machine learning technologies, including deep and reinforcement learning algorithms, transfer learning and learning from big data, as well as control theory applied to mobility and vehicle systems. Furthermore, it reports on cutting-edge technologies ...

This book explores practices and approaches on pre-disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction for vulnerable countries and areas enhancing earthquake disaster resilience.Destructive earthquakes have frequently occurred in urban or rural areas around the world, causing severe damage on human societies. Pre-earthquake prevention and post-earthquake reconstruction effect the disaster resilience building and long-term development of the affected communities and areas. In rece...

Pharmaceutical Perspectives of Cancer Therapeutics covers a wide variety of therapeutic approaches including gene therapy, immunological therapy; cancer vaccines; strategy for solid tumors as well as for hematological cancers; methods to suppress tumor angiogenesis and metastasis; development and utilization of relevant animal models; introduction of new concepts such as cancer stem cells and new technologies, such as DNA and tissue microarrays; and RNA interference. In addition, ...

Nature has long used nucleic acid aptamers and enzymes for regulatory activities, such as the recently discovered “riboswitches” involved in gene expression. The existence of a large array of natural and artificial functional nucleic acids has generated tremendous enthusiasm and new opportunities for molecular scientists from diverse disciplines to devise new concepts and real applications that take advantage of those nucleic acids for sensing and other analytical applications. This book p...

Is democracy, in its neoliberalized form, responsible in part for bringing us to the brink of self-destruction and the policy inertia that is doing away with our chances of survival? Surviving Democracy probes the way democracy became neoliberalized and the role neoliberalized democracy plays in our dealings with—causing, understanding, denying, and mitigating—climate change.Defining neoliberalism as the art of exclusion through inclusion, Chien-Yi Lu treats climate change...

Maintaining English as the sole language of knowledge production and dissemination in universities that enrol students who speak multiple languages, and those students learning other languages, is questionable. This groundbreaking work calls into question the exclusive use of academic English in internationalising higher education teaching and research. By interrogating the dominant assumptions informing the monolingual mindset, Postmonolingual Critical Thinking indicates that aca...

Climate change is an inevitable and urgent global challenge with long-term implications for the sustainable development of all countries. To overcome this human crisis, the scientific consensus is driving global action towards low carbon economics. Though this action has to involve all sectors (industries, governments, and citizens) and at all levels (global, national and regional levels), the implementation of climate strategies will predominantly be at the regional level. By establishing...

Winner of the the inaugural 'Best Book Award' from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management!Performance budgeting involves costs, from the drafting and passage of legal foundations, and the political capital and will to implement it, to training personnel to create a performance-oriented culture, and information technology requirements to track performance. Through comprehensive examination of performance budgeting laws, in-depth int...

Contemporary spinal surgeons, whether orthopedic or neurosurgeons, are increasingly recognizing minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) as a desirable option to manage advanced degenerative diseases. MISS techniques minimize blood loss, surgical site pain, and speed recovery. Thus, the marriage of MISS with adult spinal deformity was a natural one. Currently, the techniques, technologies, and education of surgeons have finally reached a point where MISS deformity surgeries are becoming com...

During the mid-1990s, Taiwan witnessed a remarkable proliferation of historical writings and cultural movements pertaining to 'the local'. 'Place (difang)' and 'community (shequ)' became two ubiquitous terms in the lexicon of being Taiwanese. This book is a critical examination of the socio-historical condition in which the discourse of local diversity emerged and gradually permeated Taiwan's public culture. Interweaving ethnographic sensibility and theoretical insights across disciplines,...