Books published by Springer Verlag, Singapore

This open access book presents multidisciplinary research on the cultural history, ethnic connectivity, and oceanic transportation of the ancient Indigenous Bai Yue ( ) in the prehistoric maritime region of southeast China and southeast Asia.

Today, the development of robots is making steady advances. In particular, the Robot Operating System (ROS) offers a unified platform that greatly facilitates the development of robots and has become a new hotspot for learning and application in the field of robotics research.This book introduces readers to the key technologies and development methods for ROS-based intelligent robots. Covering both the development history of robots and various aspects of programming robots, it offers effective support for beginners.The book is divided into three parts, the first of which introduces the basics of robots, including their definition, development, composition, and key technologies. In turn, the second part covers the hardware and software components and the implementation of functions such as vision, speech, grasping, and autonomous navigation. These functions need to work together to provide user-friendlier and more intelligent service. The third part shows how to develop robots with different functions in different application scenarios.Combining theoretical and practical aspects, with a strong focus on application, this work can be used as a reference book for robotics-related courses. Moreover, it will benefit all readers who are interested in intelligent robot development, sharing essential insights into developing service robots based on ROS.

This is a popular science book surrounding astronauts¿ life on the space station. The book not only highlights the weightlessness experience of astronauts and the extraordinary phenomena they witness, but also illustrates the physics behind these events, which opens a new window for readers to explore the outer space. This book is especially fun for those who are curious about the life details of astronauts on the space station. The book is based on real events, and features images and cartoons that vividly depict unusual scenes between the outer space and the earth. Physical principles become easier to understand with these visual aids. During the reading, readers can immerse themselves in the enjoyable adventure of space travel and the strange feeling of weightlessness while having their doubts of every oddity solved. The book elaborates on the interesting contrast between the space and the earth, and provides readers with a stunning new perspective with easily comprehensible language and examples.

This textbook offers advanced content on computer vision (basic content can be found in its prerequisite textbook, ¿2D Computer Vision: Principles, Algorithms and Applications¿), including the basic principles, typical methods and practical techniques. It is intended for graduate courses on related topics, e.g. Computer Vision, 3-D Computer Vision, Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, etc. The book is mainly based on my lecture notes for several undergraduate and graduate classes I have offered over the past several years, while a number of topics stem from my research publications co-authored with my students. This book takes into account the needs of learners with various professional backgrounds, as well as those of self-learners. Furthermore, it can be used as a reference guide for practitioners and professionals in related fields. To aid in comprehension, the book includes a wealth of self-test questions (with hints and answers). On the one hand, these questions help teachers to carry out online teaching and interact with students during lectures; on the other, self-learners can use them to assess whether they have grasped the key content.

This book provides insights into deep learning techniques that impact the implementation strategies toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid down by the United Nations for its 2030 agenda, elaborating on the promises, limits, and the new challenges. It also covers the challenges, hurdles, and opportunities in various applications of deep learning for the SDGs. A comprehensive survey on the major applications and research, based on deep learning techniques focused on SDGs through speech and image processing, IoT, security, AR-VR, formal methods, and blockchain, is a feature of this book. In particular, there is a need to extend research into deep learning and its broader application to many sectors and to assess its impact on achieving the SDGs. The chapters in this book help in finding the use of deep learning across all sections of SDGs. The rapid development of deep learning needs to be supported by the organizational insight and oversight necessary for AI-based technologies in general; hence, this book presents and discusses the implications of how deep learning enables the delivery agenda for sustainable development.

In 2021, the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, the funding body for higher education in Hong Kong, initiated a scheme and associated grant fund with the aim of enhancing the use of technology for teaching in higher education institutions in Hong Kong. In the Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, the funding was used to support colleagues in various disciplines to develop teaching and learning projects that capitalized on technology to improve the educational experiences of students. In this book, seven project teams from five disciplines, Education, Geography, History, Social Work, and Sociology, share their technological innovations. Each chapter presents the design, implementation, challenges, benefits, and impact on student learning and experiences of each innovative project. Lecturers, professors and curriculum designers engaged in teaching and learning will find this book an invaluable resource as it provides ways to integrate technology into their teaching practices. Scholars of teaching and learning (SoTL) will also find the book a useful reference for up-to-date technological and pedagogical practices in the social science disciplines.

This book provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the principal machine learning methods, covering both supervised and unsupervised learning methods. It discusses essential methods of classification and regression in supervised learning, such as decision trees, perceptrons, support vector machines, maximum entropy models, logistic regression models and multiclass classification, as well as methods applied in supervised learning, like the hidden Markov model and conditional random fields. In the context of unsupervised learning, it examines clustering and other problems as well as methods such as singular value decomposition, principal component analysis and latent semantic analysis. As a fundamental book on machine learning, it addresses the needs of researchers and students who apply machine learning as an important tool in their research, especially those in fields such as information retrieval, natural language processing and text data mining. In order to understand the concepts and methods discussed, readers are expected to have an elementary knowledge of advanced mathematics, linear algebra and probability statistics. The detailed explanations of basic principles, underlying concepts and algorithms enable readers to grasp basic techniques, while the rigorous mathematical derivations and specific examples included offer valuable insights into machine learning.

This book mainly focuses on environmental and resource law under Chinese law, involving secondary disciplines such as international law, civil law, administrative law and criminal law, as well as issues related to other first-class disciplines such as environmental science and ecology. The contents include general theory of environmental law (basic theory), prevention and control of environmental pollution, natural resources protection law and international environmental law. It basically covers all fields of China's environmental law and is a handy reference for those seeking to understand it.

This textbook is for those who want to learn linear algebra from the basics. After a brief mathematical introduction, it provides the standard curriculum of linear algebra based on an abstract linear space. It covers, among other aspects: linear mappings and their matrix representations, basis, and dimension; matrix invariants, inner products, and norms; eigenvalues and eigenvectors; and Jordan normal forms. Detailed and self-contained proofs as well as descriptions are given for all theorems, formulas, and algorithms.A unified overview of linear structures is presented by developing linear algebra from the perspective of functional analysis. Advanced topics such as function space are taken up, along with Fourier analysis, the Perron-Frobenius theorem, linear differential equations, the state transition matrix and the generalized inverse matrix, singular value decomposition, tensor products, and linear regression models. These all provide a bridge to more specialized theories based on linear algebra in mathematics, physics, engineering, economics, and social sciences.Python is used throughout the book to explain linear algebra. Learning with Python interactively, readers will naturally become accustomed to Python coding. By using Python's libraries NumPy, Matplotlib, VPython, and SymPy, readers can easily perform large-scale matrix calculations, visualization of calculation results, and symbolic computations. All the codes in this book can be executed on both Windows and macOS and also on Raspberry Pi.

This textbook provides essential and fundamental information to modern forensics investigations. It discusses criminalistics and crime scene aspects, including investigation, management, collecting and packaging various types of physical evidence, forwarding, and chain of custody. It presents fundamental principles, ethics, challenges and criticism of forensic sciences and reviews the crime typologies, the correlates of crime, criminology, penology, and victimology. It provides a viewpoint on legal aspects, including types of evidence, the procedure in the court and scrutiny of the evidence and experts. The book summarizes forensic serological evidences such as blood, semen, saliva, milk-tears, sweat, vaginal fluids, urine, and sweat. It also provides an overview of forensic examination of different types of evidence and also includes comprehensive detailing of forensic ballistics including firearm classification, bullet comparison and matching. Further, it explores the examinations of drugs, chemicals, explosives, and petroleum products. It focuses on the various aspects of forensic toxicology, including the study of various poisons/toxins, associated signs and symptoms, a fatal dose /fatal period of poisons. The book also emphasizes digital and cyber forensics, including classification, data recovery tools, encryption and decryption methods, image, and video forensics.It is a useful resource for graduate and post-graduate students in the field of Forensic Science.

The Artefacts of Digital Mental Health focuses on smartphone apps, wearables devices, and ingestible sensors, which are at the centre of research, development, and investment in mental health and digitalisation. The book aims to examine digital mental health through three artefacts that are defined by their ubiquity, everydayness, popularity, innovation and hype, and emergent qualities. It engages with theoretical approaches to technology, mental health, and wellbeing informed by Science and Technology Studies, sociological studies of health and mental health, and sociomaterialism. The book brings together different theories of mental health, subjectivity, the body, care, and digitalisation alongside biodigital artefacts as exemplars of transformations in digital mental health.

This book presents the achievements made in solar energy and prospects in achieving solar potential in India. It covers the historical perspectives, innovations and myriad applications of solar energy in its different forms. The book discusses solar devices and covers both solar photovoltaics and solar thermal energy and includes both heat and electricity applications. Solar policies in India, solar research, technologies, large scale adoption as well as future trends are also discussed. This book will be useful for researchers and professionals with interests in technological, economical and policy developments in solar energy driven power industry.

Textile industry wastewater contains toxic dyes as well as heavy metals and many other persistent organic compounds which are difficult to biodegrade using conventional biological methods. Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) are one of the best alternatives for the effective degradation of such compounds. This Volume 2 starts with homogeneous and heterogeneous Fenton processes and reviews the application and variables that affect the process. It then discusses plasma technology- an emerging method in terms of its chemistry, treatment set-up, limitations, etc. The positive performance of carbon tetrachloride in process intensification of dye degradation is presented. The other chapters include topics such as sonoenzymatic treatment processes, electroflocculation versus textile wastewater, combination of photocatalysis and membrane Separation, and enhancement of anaerobic digestion and photodegradation through adsorption.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the application of recently introduced and emerging technologies in minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). These technologies, including 2D and 3D navigation, endoscopy, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, and 3D printing, are helping to overcome previous limitations of MISS, such as the steep learning curve and the need for a great deal of experience in order to achieve optimal outcomes. Compared with traditional techniques, their use is designed to reduce local operative tissue damage, alleviate systemic surgical stress, and enable earlier return to function. The book provides detailed and extensively illustrated accounts of the role of the new technologies and techniques in a wide range of indications. In essence, all spine conditions, whether degenerative, traumatic, or oncologic, will in the near future be amenable to MISS using these approaches. The book will be a source of insight and practical assistance for all surgeons who perform MISS, regardless of their level of experience.

This book explores recent developments in theoretical research and mathematical modelling of real-world complex systems, organized in four parts.  The first part of the book is devoted to the mathematical tools for the design and analysis in engineering and social science study cases. We discuss the periodic evolutions in nonlinear chemical processes, vibro-compact systems and their behaviour, different types of metal-semiconductor self-assembled samples, made of silver nanowires and zinc oxide nanorods.The second part of the book is devoted to mathematical description and modelling of the critical events, climate change and robust emergency scales. In three chapters, we consider a climate-economy model with endogenous carbon intensity and the behaviour of Tehran Stock Exchange market under international sanctions.The third part of the book is devoted to fractional dynamic and fractional control problems. We discuss the novel operational matrix technique for variable-order fractional optimal control problems, the nonlinear variable-order time fractional convection-diffusion equation with generalized polynomialsThe fourth part of the book concerns solvability and inverse problems in differential and integro-differential equations.The book facilitates a better understanding of the mechanisms and phenomena in nonlinear dynamics and develops the corresponding mathematical theory to apply nonlinear design to practical engineering. It can be read by mathematicians, physicists, complex systems scientists, IT specialists, civil engineers, data scientists and urban planners.

This book presents thirteen chapters which probe the "tales less told" and "pathways less traveled" in refugee camp living. Rohingya camps in Bangladesh since August 2017 supply these "tales" and "pathways". They dwell upon/reflect camp violence, sexual/gender discrimination, intersectionality, justice, the sudden COVID camp entry, human security, children education, innovation, and relocation plans. Built largely upon field trips, these narratives interestingly interweave with both theoretical threads (hypotheses) and tapestries (net-effects), feeding into the security-driven pulls of political realism, or disseminating from humanitarian-driven socioeconomic pushes, but mostly combining them. Post-ethnic cleansing and post-exodus windows open up a murky future for Rohingya and global refugees. We learn of positive offshoots (of camp innovations exposing civil society relevance) and negative (like human and sex trafficking beyond Bangladeshi and Myanmar borders), as of navigating (a) local-global linkages of every dynamic and (b) fast-moving current circumstances against stoic historical leftovers.

This book highlights the environmental footprints and best practices in sustainable agriculture. This second volume includes fifteen interesting chapters that present agriculture in the light of forest conservation, circular economy, climate change, sustainability, food security during pandemics and soil conservation, written by leading experts in the field. It provides and interesting read for researchers, policy makers and professionals in the area of agriculture and economy.

This book addresses a void in the synthetic archaeological knowledge of the North Pacific by enabling a more informed evaluation of North Pacific Rim seafaring hypotheses. It answers questions about intra- and inter-regional relationships in the evolution of maritime adaptations throughout the region. The authors collectively address evidence of aquatic activities during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene in the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk and adjacent coastal areas of Korea, Japan, Sakhalin Island, the Kurile Islands and the Russian Far East with syntheses placing the region into a larger North Pacific context. This examination provides essential data on human modes of terrestrial adaptation and the transition to maritime lifeways over the last 40,000 years. It also provides a much-needed foundation to better understand the peopling of the New World 17,000 years ago, either by a pedestrian transit or through the use of watercraft, or more likely a combination of the two. As one of the first publications on the prehistory of the maritime region of Northeast Asia provided in English, with contributions by leading Korean, Japanese, Russian, Canadian, European and US-based researchers of the region, this volume presents a means for archaeologists to assess proposed hypotheses pertaining to late Pleistocene and Holocene seafaring around the North Pacific Rim. With a Foreword by Dr William W. Fitzhugh, this book is an essential read for specialists in history, archaeology, behavioural ecology and maritime evolution.

This book covers the entire spectrum of green diesel and their applications in existing CI engines. This book discusses how a green diesel is a better fuel than biodiesel and petrodiesel and more suitable fuels for sustainable future development. The book begins with a concise overview of the fundamentals of the green diesel properties, preparation, and characterization of green diesel using hydroprocessing technology. The book covers recent developments in the domain of green diesel derived particularly from the second-/third-generation feedstocks. Various topics covered in this book include the catalysts involved in the processing of green diesel, characterization of the products as per ASTM/EN protocols. In addition, the book also illustrates characteristic features of green diesel and how it is different from biodiesel and petrodiesel. Other chapters cover performance and emission characteristics of green diesel in CI engines and techno-economic analysis. Moreover, the current status of green diesel industries is also incorporated. This book is of particular interest to graduate students and academic or industrial researchers/professionals working in the area of green diesel/green energy, bioenergy and mechanical, automobile, and chemical engineering. This book makes a forceful foundation for the establishment of green diesel refineries/biorefineries for a sustainable, cleaner, and greener future.