springer nature singapore apr 2021 (656 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book introduces the magnesium resources in the world and the layout of this industry, the harmless handling/recycling of magnesium slag, and the process of magnesium silicothermic reduction (Pidgeon process) to produce the slag. Examples and experimental data in this book are from the author group¿s research programs, as well as the recent researches in China. The book could provide precious reference to scientists and engineers in the field of recycling and environment friendly use of the industrial solid wastes. It could also be used for researchers and students who are interested in relevant field.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 156 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book is a compilation of case studies that provide useful knowledge and lessons that derive from on-the-ground activities and contribute to policy recommendations, focusing on the relevance of social-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) to ¿transformative change.¿ The concept of ¿transformative change¿ has been gaining more attention to deal with today¿s environmental and development problems, whereas both policy and scientific communities have been increasingly calling for transformative change toward sustainable society. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has planned to start the so-called ¿assessment on transformative change¿ if approved by the IPBES plenary to be held in 2021. At present, the idea of transformative change, including its scope, methodologies, approaches and strategies, are yet to be clarified. By bringing together all of the different concerns and interests in the land/seascape, SEPLS approaches could provide practical and experience-based insights for understanding and gauging transformative change and identifying determinants of such change. This book explores how SEPLS management relates to the idea of transformative change to further the discussion of sustainable transitions in advancing sustainability science. The introductory chapter is followed by case study chapters offering real-world examples of transformative change as well as a synthesis chapter clarifying the relevance of the case study findings to policy and academic discussions. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers and professionals in the fields related to sustainable development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book discusses the energy management for the multi-energy maritime grid, which is the local energy network installed in harbors, ports, ships, ferries, or vessels. The grid consists of generation, storage, and critical loads. It operates either in grid-connected or in islanding modes, under the constraints of both power system and transportation system. With full electrification, the future maritime grids, such as all-electric ships and seaport microgrids, will become ¿maritime multi-energy system¿ with the involvement of multiple energy, i.e., electrical power, fossil fuel, and heating/cooling power. With various practical cases, this book provides a cross-disciplinary view of the green and sustainable shipping via the energy management of maritime grids. In this book, the concepts and definitions of the multi-energy maritime grids are given after a comprehensive literature survey, and then the global and regional energy efficiency policies for the maritime transportation are illustrated. After that, it presents energy management methods under different scenarios for all-electric ships and electrified ports. At last, the future research roadmap are overviewed. The book is intended for graduate students, researchers, and professionals who are interested in the energy management of maritime transportation.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This encyclopedia provides a comprehensive overview of the traditions, cultures, kinship norms, and other significant cultural aspects of the tribes, or otherwise named ethnic groups, of Indonesia, by an Indonesian anthropologist. The entries are supported by illustrations drawn by the late author himself, and are also accompanied by maps indicating the geographic locations and distributions of each tribe throughout the vast archipelago. Originally written and published in Bahasa Indonesian, the text has been translated into English and revised to feature up-to-date information. In showcasing the extent of diversity and the distinctiveness of the numerous tribal cultures in Indonesia, the volume presents itself as an important academic reference in Indonesian anthropology and ethnography studies, now finally available to global readership. Intended as a short work of reference, it will be indispensable to students and scholars researching Indonesia from anthropological, sociocultural, and ethnographic perspectives.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 408 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This study seeks to evaluate the impact of organizational ethical climate on the organizational commitment and job performance of Japanese-funded manufacturing enterprises (JFMEs) in China using empirical analysis and discussion, and includes a review of related research into economic ethics as well as a quantitative analysis of the various types of organizational ethical climates typically found in JFMEs operating in China. While prior studies have approached the topic from an ethical, psychological, philosophical and/or sociological perspective, none have specifically analyzed organizational ethical climate and its effect on organizational commitment and job performance under these conditions. Nor has an analysis of the relationship between organizational ethical climate, organizational commitment, and job performance ever been approached from the perspective of economic ethics. This study illustrates the feasibility of researching organizational ethics from an economic perspective,while laying out a theoretical basis for exploring the philosophy of economics from the perspective of economic ethics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 228 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 38th National Conference of Theoretical Computer Science, NCTCS 2020, held in Nanning, China, in November 2020.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems, ACIIDS 2021, held in Phuket, Thailand, in April 2021.The total of 35 full papers accepted for publication in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 291 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: ¿¿data mining and machine learning methods; advanced data mining techniques and applications; intelligent and contextual systems; natural language processing; network systems and applications; computational imaging and vision; decision support and control systems; data modelling and processing for Industry 4.0.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 472 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the proceedings of the 8th CCF Conference on Big Data, BigData 2020, held in Chongqing, China, in October 2020.The 16 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They present recent research on theoretical and technical aspects on big data, as well as on digital economy demands in big data applications.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book discusses the energy management for the multi-energy maritime grid, which is the local energy network installed in harbors, ports, ships, ferries, or vessels. The grid consists of generation, storage, and critical loads. It operates either in grid-connected or in islanding modes, under the constraints of both power system and transportation system. With full electrification, the future maritime grids, such as all-electric ships and seaport microgrids, will become ¿maritime multi-energy system¿ with the involvement of multiple energy, i.e., electrical power, fossil fuel, and heating/cooling power. With various practical cases, this book provides a cross-disciplinary view of the green and sustainable shipping via the energy management of maritime grids. In this book, the concepts and definitions of the multi-energy maritime grids are given after a comprehensive literature survey, and then the global and regional energy efficiency policies for the maritime transportation are illustrated. After that, it presents energy management methods under different scenarios for all-electric ships and electrified ports. At last, the future research roadmap are overviewed. The book is intended for graduate students, researchers, and professionals who are interested in the energy management of maritime transportation.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 220 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently ¿ to become ¿smart¿ and ¿sustainable¿. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ¿big¿ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 960 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In a significant departure from other works on Ritwik Ghatak, this book establishes him as an auteur and a maestro on par with some of the great film directors, like Sergei Eisenstein, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Kenji Mizoguchi and Luis Bunuel. Based on in-depth research that follows Ghatak¿s journey within the context of the Indian People¿s Theatre Association, it fills an important gap in the scholarship around Ghatak by offering crucial insights into Ghatak¿s unique vision of cinema embedded as it is in the cultural psychic configurations of the people. It analyses Ghatak¿s practice by minutely tracing formal similarities across the language of his cinematic oeuvre in the domain of cinematography, lighting, music, and sound. The book develops the way in which cinematic technique enters the domain of conceptual constructs and abstractions. It moves on to chronicle Ghatak¿s political odyssey as reflected in his cinema. Moreover, it charts the manner in whichGhatak, through his cinematic idiom, offers a polemic of cinema that further adds to his notion of praxis ¿ a thoughtful Marxist paradigm organically associated with the culture and context of India. By locating Ghatak within the discourse of nationalism, the book brings to the surface Ghatak¿s critical insights related to the independence of the nation and the trauma of the partition of Bengal. Ghatak¿s cinema served the crucial function of chronicling the mass tragedy of partition and its impact on the human psyche.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book summarizes the author¿s extensive research on Confucian morality issues and focuses on elaborating the extremely important and unique role of moral thought in Confucian ideology. The book shares the author¿s own standpoints on a range of issues ¿ including where moral thoughts originated, what the major principles are, and what methods were adopted in Confucianism ¿ to form a comprehensive and in-depth interpretation, and help readers achieve a better understanding.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book presents a rough sketch of Dr. Yat-sen Sun¿s (1866-1925) requirements for modernizing China and elaborates on Sun¿s desire for the then China to implement a sweeping wave of economic reconstruction and development reforms concerning its railroads and highways, river conservancy and irrigation, new ports and modern cities, by absorbing international capital coming to China. In the preface to this book, first published in 1922, Yat-sen Sun posits, ¿Unless the Chinese question can be settled peacefully, another world war greater and more terrible than the one just past will be inevitable.¿ In order to solve the ¿Chinese question,¿ he suggested that the country¿s vast resources be developed internationally under a socialistic scheme, both for the good of the world in general and the Chinese people in particular. It was his hope that such a scheme would abolish the prevalent spheres of influence of the time, and that the class struggle between capital and labor could be avoided. In this book, Yat-sen Sun presents his solutions for three great questions of global importance: International War, Commercial War and Class War.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 164 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book analyses the state of development of Muslims at the regional level. It explains the linkages between the findings of global, national, and state-level studies with regard to the current status of Muslims and broadens understanding of Muslims and their participation in virtually all major sectors, including the economy, housing, demography, health, migration, state policy, and affirmative action. The book presents the challenges faced by the community and reflects upon the socio-economic and educational conditions of Muslims in Telangana State. It presents a comparative analysis of mortality data, maternal health, delivery care, and child immunization, as well as reproductive health aspects and children¿s nutritional status. It shares valuable insights into the impacts of emigration and internal migration on health among local Muslims and presents a detailed analysis of data from the Census of India, NSSO, and Commission of Inquiry on Socio-Economic and Educational Status of Muslims regarding the social, economic, and demographic situation of Muslims in Telangana, as well as their opportunities for development under the newly formed state government. The book would be of great interest to scholars and researchers in development economics, sociology, politics, history, cultural studies, minority studies, Islamic studies, and policy studies, as well as policymakers, civil society activists, and those working in media and journalism.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 424 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book extends a previously published model of social evolution by using macroeconomic measures to indicate both the current state of the society, and its evolutionary trajectory. This model considers society as a system of interacting elements evolving through stages of increasing strength of interaction and complexity of structure. It measures society in constituting the world collectively, with nation-states as the elements, here described through macroeconomic measures such as GDP, government expenditure, and inequality. The economic data presented indicates that this stage is approaching the next evolutionary step, which is either the formation of a world society of nations, with an associated overarching common infrastructure absorbing some of the sovereign functions of nation-states as they exist today, or as a society of competing groups of nations, each bound by alliances and bilateral agreements. The book explores how the former faces great obstacles in the form of nationalism and a misunderstood concept of sovereignty, and poses that it is in an embryonic stage. The author poses that it is this structure that would be best equipped to handle common challenges, such as the environment and global warming, and topically, pandemics. A novel interdisciplinary text in social complexity, this book is of interest to researchers in socio-economic fields.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 96 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book focuses on the transition of hundreds of rural households in ten villages in Zhejiang from 1986 to 2002, based on the theme of rural household sustainable development. Drawing on a large amount of first-hand data collected from fixed observation sites for 17 consecutive years, this book has depicted the changes in household behaviour in rural Zhejiang, and analysed the origins of such changes. The contents of the book contain examinations at household and village level. Chapters One to Seven describe the changes in rural behaviour at the household level from different aspects, such as land transfer, saving and borrowing, and rural tax burden. Chapters Eight to Ten analyse the transition concerning household behaviour based on the village level data. This book will help readers with a better understanding of rural China from the micro perspective of household behaviour.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 416 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes selected and revised papers of the 5th International Conference on Space Information Networks, SINC 2020, held in Shenzhen, China, in December 2020.The 11 full and 2 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 104 submissions. The papers present the latest research in the fields of space information networks.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book provides an essential overview of the basic principles of imaging modalities, accompanied by examples of their applications in modern clinical and associated pre-clinical studies. The monograph is based on the original results of investigation of the efficiency use of laser light and Mueller-matrix polarimetry approach for assessment of myocardial tissues towards confirmation the cause of death. A morphological analysis of necrotic changes in the myocardial tissue of patients that died due to heart attack, coronary heart disease and acute coronary insufficiency was carried out and the data and histological sections of the myocardium inspected utilizing Mueller-matrix mapping of tissue samples with polarized light. A unified optical model of polycrystalline structure of the myocardium is proposed, and the principles and regulations of Mueller-matrix description of its polarization manifestations are explored and developed. The book also provides a statistical and scale-selective wavelet analysis of polarization and Mueller-matrix maps. Finally, the key forensic medical criteria for the differential diagnosis of the cause of death due to necrotic and pathological changes in the morphological structure of the myocardium have been establishedSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 100 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Human Brain and Artificial Intelligence, HBAI 2020, held in conjunction with IJCAI-PRICAI 2020, Kyoto, Japan, in January 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic HBAI 2020 was held in the year 2021 and transferred into virtual format.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 172 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book constitutes revised selected papers from the workshops of the 4th Asia-Pacific Web and Web-Age Information Management International Joint Conference on Web and Big Data, APWeb-WAIM 2020: The Third International Workshop on Knowledge Graph Management and Applications, KGMA 2020; The Second International Workshop on Semi-structured Big Data Management and Applications, SemiBDMA 2020, and The First International Workshop on Deep Learning in Large-scale Unstructured Data Analytics, DeepLUDA 2020, held in Tianjin, China, in September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held online.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 180 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This open access book is a compilation of case studies that provide useful knowledge and lessons that derive from on-the-ground activities and contribute to policy recommendations, focusing on the relevance of social-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) to ¿transformative change.¿ The concept of ¿transformative change¿ has been gaining more attention to deal with today¿s environmental and development problems, whereas both policy and scientific communities have been increasingly calling for transformative change toward sustainable society. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has planned to start the so-called ¿assessment on transformative change¿ if approved by the IPBES plenary to be held in 2021. At present, the idea of transformative change, including its scope, methodologies, approaches and strategies, are yet to be clarified. By bringing together all of the different concerns and interests in the land/seascape, SEPLS approaches could provide practical and experience-based insights for understanding and gauging transformative change and identifying determinants of such change. This book explores how SEPLS management relates to the idea of transformative change to further the discussion of sustainable transitions in advancing sustainability science. The introductory chapter is followed by case study chapters offering real-world examples of transformative change as well as a synthesis chapter clarifying the relevance of the case study findings to policy and academic discussions. It will be of interest to scholars, policymakers and professionals in the fields related to sustainable development.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 264 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book examines the experiences and good practices of ACLEDA Bank, Cambodia. Applicable to banks and microfinance institutions around the globe, it includes materials for classroom instruction on organizational development, financial sector development, the role of government and investors in supporting the financial market, and the benefits to customers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 340 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Feng Shui and the City analyses the past and contemporary influences of traditional geomancy on Chinese built environments across three domains: domestic spaces, spaces of commercial development and the public realm. Using Lefebvre¿s notion of absolute and abstract space¿spaces of ¿symbolic existence¿ and ¿everyday life¿ versus spaces of domination and control, it tracks evolving attachment to, and use of, Feng Shui in Guangdong and Hong Kong. The book seeks to understand the changing role of Feng Shui in modern urban development and its regulation, and to question what constitutes authentic Feng Shui today.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 176 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book discusses the journey of Dr. K Kasturirangan, who shares his experience during his long tenure at ISRO including the Chairmanship of ISRO, subsequently membership of the Rajya Sabha, the Planning Commission and many other responsibilities. Over the past five decades of public and professional service to the nation, Dr. Kasturirangan has graduated from a young researcher in astrophysics working under Vikram Sarabhai to leading Indiäs space program (ISRO), being entrusted by five successive Prime Ministers, besides dealing with several other domains of responsibilities beyond space, all of which have significantly impacted Indiäs development.This book centers around select 12 public invited lectures, Dr. Kasturirangan delivered ranging from developing hi-tech space systems, to managing an organization as intricate as ISRO which was guided by the wisdom of mentors, including Vikram Sarabhai, M G K Menon, Satish Dhawan and U. R. Rao, to tackling multi-faceted socio-economic issues, including Indiäs nuclear deal, report headed by him on the Western Ghats ecosystem, and the new National Education Policy 2020.Scientists, historians, policy makers, management strategists, journalists, or anyone with a keen interest in understanding the processes behind such large-scale science, technology and socio-economic endeavors ¿ right from planning, creating appropriate institutional mechanisms, working with multiple stakeholders to ensure that these programs deliver tangible benefits to society, articulating these benefits with clarity to political leaders to assure public support ¿ will find this book deeply instructive and illuminating. It will be of interest to the scientific, education and management community as well as to policy makers and researchers affiliated with multifaceted developmental issues.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 516 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book provides a general introduction to fluid mechanics in the form of biographies and popular science. Based on the author¿s extensive teaching experience, it combines natural science and human history, knowledge inheritance and cognition law to replace abstract concepts of fluid mechanics with intuitive and understandable physical concepts. In seven chapters, it describes the development of fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, experimental fluid dynamics, wind tunnel and water tunnel equipment, the mystery of flight and aerodynamic principles, and leading figures in fluid mechanics in order to spark beginners¿ interest and allow them to gain a comprehensive understanding of the field¿s development. It also provides a list of references for further study.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 664 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This textbook equips students interested in becoming researchers with the essential nontechnical skills. After an introduction to graduate schools, it discusses preparing for research, reading and organizing literature, writing research articles and other documents, publishing papers, presenting research findings at conferences, collaboration with advisors and other researchers, patent applications, research ethics, and how to improve research by learning about the history of science. These nontechnical skills are just as important as technical ones in terms of becoming a successful graduate student, yet they have seldom been taught systematically in courses. Further, they can bridge the gap from the classroom to the lab, making one of the most critical transition periods¿from student to researcher¿smoother and more enjoyable. The book features a wealth of real-life examples and exercises, which readers can easily apply in their own research. Intended mainly for graduate andupper-undergraduate students just embarking on lab research, it can also be used as a textbook or reference guide for courses on research methodology and related topics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 152 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book interprets the close intimacy between poetry and painting from the perspective of intersemiotic translation, by providing a systematic examination of the bilingual and visual representation of landscape in the poetry of Wang Wei, a high Tang poet who won worldwide reputation. The author¿s subtle analysis ranges from epistemological issues of language philosophy and poetry translation to the very depths where the later Heidegger and Tao-oriented Chinese wisdom can co-work to reveal their ontological inter-rootedness through a two-level cognitive-stylisitc research methodology.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book analyses and critically evaluates the development of two key components of Chinäs economy: the network of productive enterprises, and the national innovation system, from the inception of market-oriented reforms to the present day. The approach is a partly novel one, albeit inspired to classical political economy, rooted in the structure and evolution of social relations of production and exchange and of the institutional setting in these two crucial domains. The main findings are twofold: First, the role of planning and public ownership, far from withering, has being upheld and qualitatively enhanced, especially throughout the most recent stages of industrial reforms. Second, enterprises are increasingly participating - along with universities and research centers - in a concerted and historically unparalleled effort to dramatically upgrade Chinäs capacity to engage in indigenous innovation. As a result, Chinäs National Innovation System has been growing and strengthening at a pace much faster than that of the national economy as a whole. The book also presents a speculative and provisional perspective on the validity, and meaning, of the claim that the country¿s socioeconomic system is indeed a form of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will be on interest to students and scholars researching China, politics, and development economics.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The falling cat is an interesting theme to pursue, in which geometry, mechanics, and control are in action together. As is well known, cats can almost always land on their feet when tossed into the air in an upside-down attitude. If cats are not given a non-vanishing angular momentum at an initial instant, they cannot rotate during their motion, and the motion they can make in the air is vibration only. However, cats accomplish a half turn without rotation when landing on their feet. In order to solve this apparent mystery, one needs to thoroughly understand rotations and vibrations. The connection theory in differential geometry can provide rigorous definitions of rotation and vibration for many-body systems. Deformable bodies of cats are not easy to treat mechanically. A feasible way to approach the question of the falling cat is to start with many-body systems and then proceed to rigid bodies and, further, to jointed rigid bodies, which can approximate the body of a cat.In this book, the connection theory is applied first to a many-body system to show that vibrational motions of the many-body system can result in rotations without performing rotational motions and then to the cat model consisting of jointed rigid bodies. On the basis of this geometric setting, mechanics of many-body systems and of jointed rigid bodies must be set up. In order to take into account the fact that cats can deform their bodies, three torque inputs which may give a twist to the cat model are applied as control inputs under the condition of the vanishing angular momentum. Then, a control is designed according to the port-controlled Hamiltonian method for the model cat to perform a half turn and to halt the motion upon landing. The book also gives a brief review of control systems through simple examples to explain the role of control inputs.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 196 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book examines the success story of Seng Heng Bank (SHB), the successful acquisition of SHB by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and the continuing sound management and performance of ICBC (Macau). It shows how a loss-making small bank grew into one of the best banks in Macao and highlights the achievement, awards, and recognition of SHB. The authors detail the SHB acquisition process by ICBC, the biggest bank in the world in terms of total assets. They identify the main contributing factors for the success of SHB and draw conclusions and implications for bank managers in the region and beyond. This book will be of interest to finance professionals and business scholars.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 124 pp. Englisch.