Ming Zhang - Böcker

The book contributes to answering the questions raised by mayors, governors, and federal government officials in Brazil: What can cities do to improve economic performance and create jobs? The question is approached through a review of theories and policy options for city competitiveness, preliminary benchmarking of Brazilian cities, and case studies of two urban areas in Northeast Brazil the Cariri region, CearAi?? and SAGBPo LuA--s, MaranhAGBPo. The book concludes that to become and stay competitive, cities need to strive to reduce the cost of doing business by improving services, infrastructure, and reducing bureaucracies. But for a middle-income country like Brazil, which needs to be economically competitive in a globalized environment, this is not sufficient. Cities also need to strive to add value to local businesses.A crucial part of the strategy should be to create and sustain an environment that stimulates local firms to innovate and learn from each other, to nurture and facilitate the creation of synergies generated by the presence of interconnected economic clusters in the city, and to provide incentives for all local players to continuously upgrade the level of competitiveness to become better and the best. With regard to local policy actions, this book highlights the cluster approach to competitiveness, with its focus on facilitating private sector collaborations for collective efficiency organizing and facilitating private and public institutions to arrive at a common cluster vision; identifying opportunities for growth and collaboration; promoting joint actions such as co-information, co-learning, co-marketing, and co-purchasing; and jointly building economic foundations such as R&D capacities, infrastructure, skills upgrading, and public private sector support institutions.This book has provided many examples of actions that may be undertaken at the local level, but it also emphasizes the critical importance for cities to pursue a unique strategy based on their comparative and competitive advantages.

Kang, Zhang, and Tanaka’s comprehensive reference work take an interdisciplinary approach to explain the principles of remote sensing, data characteristics and parameters, and data processing tools; describe the many applications of remote sensing; and explore future trends related to this process.Through this book, readers will gain an understanding of the principles and technologies behind remote sensing. They will be able to determine the most appropriate datasets for their field and analyze the data appropriately. Readers who specialize in remote sensing will gain a deeper understanding of the advances in remote sensing technology and differing approaches and applications taken across multiple disciplines. The book presents chapters on the applications of remote sensing in different contexts and supporting authors who are experts in their respective fields offer insights and case studies to illustrate these applications. Kang’s interdisciplinary approach encourages readers to think critically about several key questions, including: (1) What can I learn from other areas or disciplines to enhance my current research and has remote sensing been applied to my research field before, and in what ways; (2) What kind of remotely sensed data do I need, where can I get the data, and what are their strengths and limitations; and (3) What are the appropriate processing or analytical methods and how should my chosen data be prepared before further analysis? By asking these questions, readers will be able to quickly and easily assess and apply remote sensing data without needing prior experience.This book is an invaluable resource for graduate students in several disciplines including urban planning, agriculture, oceanography, and more; for researchers and scientists in multiple disciplines; and for commercial and governmental practitioners working in multiple fields.

Emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) are either newly identified or newly detected contaminants that are toxic or potentially hazardous to the ecosystem. The EOCs include, but are not limited to, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), antibiotics, perfluoroalkyl sulfonate (PFAS), flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, etc., presenting new challenges for scientists, policymakers, and the public. Soil is one of the most important sinks of EOCs arising from industrial emissions, incidental discharge, wastewater irrigation, or atmospheric deposition. The presence of EOCs in soil may threaten the soil ecosystem’s health and subsequently transfer to humans via food and water consumption. This book provides comprehensive knowledge on the behavior and translocation of EOCs in soil and the related environmental medium and introduces remediation methods and technologies. From fundamentals to future risks, it explains the importance of understanding EOCs.Features:Provides a comprehensive overview of EOCs in environmental systems.Covers comprehensively the physical, chemical, and biological processes of EOCs in soil.Addresses innovative remediation and management approaches of EOC-contaminated sites.Is the first well-organized book on EOC written by international experts with long engagement in EOC studies.This book is an excellent foundational text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in soil science, environmental science, environmental chemistry, social ecology, and waste management. It is also essential for those who work with environmental hazards such as environmental engineers, ecologists, environmental professionals, and managers.

Computational biomechanics is an emerging research field that seeks to understand the complex biomechanical behaviors of normal and pathological human joints to come up with new methods of orthopedic treatment and rehabilitation.Computational Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System collects the latest research and cutting-edge techniques used in computational biomechanics, focusing on orthopedic and rehabilitation engineering applications. The book covers state-of-the-art techniques and the latest research related to computational biomechanics, in particular finite element analysis and its potential applications in orthopedics and rehabilitation engineering. It offers a glimpse into the exciting potentials for computational modeling in medical research and biomechanical simulation. The book is organized according to anatomical location—foot and ankle, knee, hip, spine, and head and teeth. Each chapter details the scientific questions/medical problems addressed by modeling, basic anatomy of the body part, computational model development and techniques used, related experimental studies for model setup and validation, and clinical applications. Plenty of useful biomechanical information is provided for a variety of applications, especially for the optimal design of body support devices and prosthetic implants.This book is an excellent resource for engineering students and young researchers in bioengineering. Clinicians involved in orthopedics and rehabilitation engineering may find this work to be both informative and highly relevant to their clinical practice.

Computational biomechanics is an emerging research field that seeks to understand the complex biomechanical behaviors of normal and pathological human joints to come up with new methods of orthopedic treatment and rehabilitation.Computational Biomechanics of the Musculoskeletal System collects the latest research and cutting-edge techniques used in computational biomechanics, focusing on orthopedic and rehabilitation engineering applications. The book covers state-of-the-art techniques and the latest research related to computational biomechanics, in particular finite element analysis and its potential applications in orthopedics and rehabilitation engineering. It offers a glimpse into the exciting potentials for computational modeling in medical research and biomechanical simulation. The book is organized according to anatomical location—foot and ankle, knee, hip, spine, and head and teeth. Each chapter details the scientific questions/medical problems addressed by modeling, basic anatomy of the body part, computational model development and techniques used, related experimental studies for model setup and validation, and clinical applications. Plenty of useful biomechanical information is provided for a variety of applications, especially for the optimal design of body support devices and prosthetic implants.This book is an excellent resource for engineering students and young researchers in bioengineering. Clinicians involved in orthopedics and rehabilitation engineering may find this work to be both informative and highly relevant to their clinical practice.

This book attempts to provide insights into the achievement of a sustainable urban form, through spatial planning and implementation; here, we focus on planning experiences at the levels of local cities and some metropolitan areas in Asian countries. This book investigates the impact of planning policy on spatial planning implementation, from multidisciplinary viewpoints encompassing land-use patterns, housing development, transportation, green design, and agricultural and ecological systems in the urbanization process. We seek to learn from researchers in an integrated multidisciplinary platform that reflects a variety of perspectives, such as economic development, social equality, and ecological protection, with a view to achieving a sustainable urban form.​