Wenbing Zhao - Böcker

Zhao Wenbing provides an accessible, illustrated introduction to the sculptural art of China, including the magnificent Terracotta Army, Buddhist sculpture, tomb carvings, architectural sculpture, exchange with foreign cultures and Chinese sculpture today. Chinese Sculpture takes the reader through the unique aesthetic features of sculpture in China, arguing that the evolution of this sculpture parallels the development of Chinese culture through history.

A one-volume guide to the most essential techniques for designing and building dependable distributed systemsInstead of covering a broad range of research works for each dependability strategy, this useful reference focuses on only a selected few (usually the most seminal works, the most practical approaches, or the first publication of each approach), explaining each in depth, usually with a comprehensive set of examples. Each technique is dissected thoroughly enough so that readers who are not familiar with dependable distributed computing can actually grasp the technique after studying the book.Building Dependable Distributed Systems consists of eight chapters. The first introduces the basic concepts and terminology of dependable distributed computing, and also provides an overview of the primary means of achieving dependability. Checkpointing and logging mechanisms, which are the most commonly used means of achieving limited degree of fault tolerance, are described in the second chapter. Works on recovery-oriented computing, focusing on the practical techniques that reduce the fault detection and recovery times for Internet-based applications, are covered in chapter three. Chapter four outlines the replication techniques for data and service fault tolerance. This chapter also pays particular attention to optimistic replication and the CAP theorem. Chapter five explains a few seminal works on group communication systems. Chapter six introduces the distributed consensus problem and covers a number of Paxos family algorithms in depth. The Byzantine generals problem and its latest solutions, including the seminal Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) algorithm and a number of its derivatives, are introduced in chapter seven. The final chapter details the latest research results surrounding application-aware Byzantine fault tolerance, which represents an important step forward in the practical use of Byzantine fault tolerance techniques.

This book covers the most essential techniques for designing and building dependable distributed systems, from traditional fault tolerance to the blockchain technology. Topics include checkpointing and logging, recovery-orientated computing, replication, distributed consensus, Byzantine fault tolerance, as well as blockchain.This book intentionally includes traditional fault tolerance techniques so that readers can appreciate better the huge benefits brought by the blockchain technology and why it has been touted as a disruptive technology, some even regard it at the same level of the Internet. This book also expresses a grave concern on using traditional consensus algorithms in blockchain because with the limited scalability of such algorithms, the primary benefits of using blockchain in the first place, such as decentralization and immutability, could be easily lost under cyberattacks.

Documenting how technology has been increasingly facilitating rehabilitation both for physical and mental health, this book focuses on sensing and measurement technologies for rehabilitation applications.The author introduces various motion sensing technologies, such as inertial measurement units, pressure sensing, e-Textile, and vision-based motion sensing and discusses the applications in at-home rehabilitation scenarios. Common human motion recognition algorithms, ranging from simple single-parameter determination, such as the determination of range of motion in terms of angles, to sophisticated rule-based and machine-learning based activity recognition algorithms are explored, laying the foundation for adopting and understanding these technologies in rehabilitation.Interactive games illustrate how technology can help rehabilitation beyond assessment, invigorating the rehabilitation programs, and engaging patients in their own recovery journey via computer screens or virtual reality interfaces to provide real-time feedback on the quality and quantity of the physical activity performed. This serious game technology enables more accurate and consistent assessment of the quality of rehabilitation exercises done by the patients. The author looks at many patient populations (such as recovery from stroke, COPD, MS, or surgery) and many rehabilitation scenarios (such as upper extremity, lower extremity, posture, hand, gait and activities of daily living).Professionals and researchers in the field of rehabilitation technology engineering and related areas will find this book a valuable tool in navigating multidisciplinary work on healthcare technology and health science.