"As cities continue to play an increasingly significant role in driving economic growth in many countries, competition among cities have shifted from the national level to the global arena. In this context, international benchmarks for cities are vital for businesses and individuals to make informed decisions. In particular, cost of living, wages and purchasing power are of great interest to employees, employers, multinational corporations and policy-makers as basic indicators tracking urban living standards. This publication by the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) provides annual indices and rankings for cost of living for expatriates as well as indices and rankings for cost of living, wages and purchasing power for ordinary residents in 103 global cities since 2005. The ACI's study reflects salient differences in costs of living for expatriate and ordinary urban dwellers which arise from variations in their lifestyles and consumption preferences. This is of critical significance as cost of living for the former is usually conflated as that for the latter by the general public. In this book, we also delve into the analysis of the nexus between liveability, cost of living and purchasing power. We outline the trends and patterns of these benchmarks and explore if there are trade-offs between liveability and affordability. The ACI's study has received considerable interest from reputable media outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Edge Malaysia."-- Provided by publisher.

"An underpinning force in Singapore's remarkable 50-year transformation into a sophisticated world-class city, engineering has contributed significantly to the nation's economic, infrastructural and social developments. A joint publication by The Institution of Engineers, Singapore, and World Scientific Publishing, to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday, 50 Years of Engineering in Singapore brings to life the extraordinary engineering feats across multiple disciplines and tells the stories of these exceptional engineers who, with their determinations and courage, turned the little red dot into a jewel of a city. A vibrant record of engineering excellence, the publication traces the goliath challenges impeding the nation's growth over the past five decades, and the engineering innovations that brought about wealth creation, higher standards of living, and enhanced liveability. This compendium covers land transportation (ERP system, MRT and LRT, roads and buses system); water management and engineering; energy (supply and maintenance); manufacturing in the areas of electronics, precision engineering, chemical and pharmaceutical/bio-medical engineering; housing/cities/infrastructure and land use (reclamation and underground); air and sea hub; and telecommunications, ICT and software."-- Provided by publisher.

"The book presents a theory of abstract duality pairs which arises by replacing the scalar field by an Abelian topological group in the theory of dual pair of vector spaces. Examples of abstract duality pairs are vector valued series, spaces of vector valued measures, spaces of vector valued integrable functions, spaces of linear operators and vector valued sequence spaces. These examples give rise to numerous applications such as abstract versions of the Orlicz–Pettis Theorem on subseries convergent series, the Uniform Boundedness Principle, the Banach–Steinhaus Theorem, the Nikodym Convergence theorems and the Vitali–Hahn–Saks Theorem from measure theory and the Hahn–Schur Theorem from summability. There are no books on the current market which cover the material in this book. Readers will find interesting functional analysis and the many applications to various topics in real analysis."-- Provided by publisher.

"Green Chemistry has evolved in response to several environmental issues in the second half of the last century, mostly due to the almost freely expanding chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. During the past two decades Green Chemistry grew rapidly and we can now consider this area as a mature and powerful field. Tremendous development has taken place in many important areas including renewable energy and resources, reaction environments, catalysis, synthesis, chemical biology, green materials, in situ monitoring and facile recycling. The combination of Green Chemistry with engineering, biology, toxicology, and physics will lead to novel interdisciplinary systems, which can now lift Green Chemistry to the next, advanced level. The editors of this book have assembled as authors among the best specialists of this growing area of research. This collection of reviews and perspectives provides an exciting vision of the more recent developments in Green Chemistry. It illustrates the breath of the field and its role to address environmental issues. This volume will serve as a book of reference showing a panoramic view of the field and a preview of its future direction as well as a book of inspiration for those aiming to further advance its frontiers."-- Provided by publisher.

"This book provides a comprehensive introduction to Fock space theory and its applications to mathematical quantum field theory. The first half of the book, Part I, is devoted to detailed descriptions of analysis on abstract Fock spaces (full Fock space, boson Fock space, fermion Fock space and boson-fermion Fock space). It includes the mathematics of second quantization, representation theory of canonical commutation relations and canonical anti-commutation relations, Bogoliubov transformations, infinite-dimensional Dirac operators and supersymmetric quantum field in an abstract form. The second half of the book, Part II, covers applications of the mathematical theories in Part I to quantum field theory. Four kinds of free quantum fields are constructed and detailed analyses are made. A simple interacting quantum field model, called the van Hove model, is fully analyzed in an abstract form. Moreover, a list of interacting quantum field models is presented and a short description to each model is given. To graduate students in mathematics or physics who are interested in the mathematical aspects of quantum field theory, this book is a good introductory text. It is also well suited for self-study and will provide readers a firm foundation of knowledge and mathematical techniques for reading more advanced books and current research articles in the field of mathematical analysis on quantum fields. Also, numerous problems are added to aid readers to develop a deeper understanding of the field."-- Provided by publisher.

• Controlled drug release systems : mechanisms and kinetics / M Sanopoulou and K G Papadokostaki
• Membranes for artificial kidney / J Vienken
• Advanced blood purification therapies / O de Beek, I Geremia, D Pavlenko and D Stamatialis
• Membranes for artificial lung and gas exchange applications / F Wiese
• Membranes for bioartificial kidney / N V Chevtchik, P Caetano-Pinto, R Masereeuw and D Stamatialis
• Membrane-based bioartificial liver devices / S Khakpour, H M M Ahmed and L De Bartolo
• Are co-culture approaches able to improve biological functions of membrane-based bioartificial livers? / V Pandolfi, U Pereira, M Dufresne and C Legallais
• Membranes for bioartificial pancreas / K Skryzpek, A van Apelddorn and D Stamatialis
• Health economic evaluation during the translation of medical technologies : involving users in the design of bio-artificial pancreas transplantation scenarios for type i diabetes / M IJzerman, T Wissing and E de Koning
• Membranes for regenerative medicine in clinical applications / G Falvo, D Labate and G Catapano
• Membranes for organs on chips / M P Tibbe, L I Segerink, A D van der Meer, D Stamatialis and A van den Berg.

"This book focusses on the development of biomedical membranes and their applications for (bio)artificial organs. It covers the state of art and main challenges for applying synthetic membranes in these organs. It also highlights the importance of accomplishing an integration of engineering with biology and medicine to understand and manage the scientific, industrial, clinical and ethical aspects of these organs. The compendium consists of 11 chapters, written by world renowned experts in the fields of membrane technology, biomaterials science and technology, cell biology, medicine and engineering. Every chapter describes the clinical needs and the materials, membranes, and concepts required for the successful development of the (bio)artificial organs. This text is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students in biomedical engineering, materials science and membrane science and technology, as well as, for professionals and researchers working in these fields."-- Provided by publisher.

• Assessing Seasonal Climate Forecasts Over Africa to Support Decision-Making / Niko Wanders and Eric F Wood
• Variability and Predictability of Climate Linked to Extreme Events / Swadhin Behera
• Subseasonal Prediction of Extreme Weather Events / Bin Wang and Ja-Yeon Moon
• Climate Services: For Informing Decisions and Managing Risk / Neil Plummer, Agata Imielska, Karl Braganza, David Jones, Janita Pahalad, Scott Power, Martin Schweitzer, Andrew Watkins, David Walland and Perry Wiles
• Early Warning, Resilient Infrastructure and Risk Transfer / David P Rogers, Haleh Kootval and Vladimir V Tsirkunov
• Climate Services for Sustainable Development / Mannava V K Sivakumar and Filipe Lucio
• Future Changes of Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters due to Climate Change in Japan and Southeast Asia / Eiichi Nakakita, Yasuto Tachikawa, Tetsuya Takemi, Nobuhito Mori and Kenji Tanaka
• Climate Change and Stream Temperature in the Willamette River Basin: Implications for Fish Habitat / Heejun Chang, Eric Watson and Angela Strecker
• An Integrated Approach for Flood Inundation Modeling on Large Scales / Venkatesh Merwade, Mohammad Adnan Rajib and Zhu Liu
• Service and Research on Seasonal Streamflow Forecasting in Australia / P M Feikema, Q J Wang, S Zhou, D Shin, D E Robertson, A Schepen, J Lerat, J C Bennett, N K Tuteja and D Jayasuriya
• A Holistic Framework to Assess Drought Preparedness / Ximing Cai, Majid Shafiee-Jood, Yan Ge, Sylwia Kokoszka and Tushar Apurv
• Priorities of the WMO Commission for Hydrology in the Context of Water, Climate and Risk Management / Liu Zhiyu
• From Prediction to Scenario Analysis: A Brief Review and Commentary / Bryan C Bates.

"Since 1980, the number of climate-related disasters has been greatly increased globally. Scientific consensus based on the IPCC fifth report suggested that global warming would bring more intense and frequent extreme climate events. These climate-related disasters hinder the achievement of sustainable economic growth and prosperity by disrupting supply chains, impeding production, destroying infrastructure, and necessitating high-cost rebuilding and recovery. To mitigate the climate extreme risks and possible losses, it is essential to maximize the utilization of scientific outputs and to share best practices in disaster risk management. Aligned with such purposes, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Climate Center (APCC) hosts the APEC Climate Symposium (APCS) every year. APCS focused on drought prediction and management in 2013, climate extremes and hydrological disaster in 2014, and efficient use of climate information for disaster risk management in 2015. This book aims to compile some of the important results from the latest research in climate extreme prediction and services and its application studies with a focus on climate extremes such as typhoons, droughts, and floods based on the APCS presentations during 2013–2015."-- Provided by publisher.

• Introducing bacteria
• Friend or foe?
• A silent battle in the body
• A history of the hard and difficult war against bacteria
• A protracted tug of war
• Who will be the winner? The war continues.

"This book explains how pathogenic bacteria cause diseases, how the human immune system launches timely and effective defense mechanisms against bacterial infection, why the discovery and application of penicillin and streptomycin are so important, how scientists have created medicines to defeat bacteria, and why these bacteria might outsmart modern medicine. On the other hand, bacteria can be beneficial to humans: some bacteria live in harmony with the human body, and they are indispensable to our health. They also help in refining biological energy in the post-fossil fuel era, and in producing fermented food. With accessible language, illustrations and comics, this book tells the story of our tumultuous relationship with bacteria and how it has shaped history."-- Provided by publisher.

• Six Common Mistakes in Selling a Business to an Unrelated Third Party
• Six More Common Mistakes in Selling a Business
• Marketing the Business
• Letters of Intent and Due Diligence
• Negotiating Key Sale Terms
• Negotiating Employment and Consulting Agreements
• Avoiding Traps in the Agreement of Sale
• Creating a Professional Advisory Team
• Leveraged Recapitalization
• Selling to Other Family Members and/or Key Employees
• The ESOP Alternative
• Going Public in a Traditional IPO
• The Regulation A Alternative
• Appendix I: IRS Form 8594.

"This book analyzes various business exit strategies for both family-owned businesses as well as other businesses, both in the United States and throughout the world. Approximately 80% to 90% of all businesses in the world are family-owned. The book discusses, among other things, 12 common mistakes in attempting to sell a business to third parties, methods of marketing the business, negotiation of key sale terms, negotiating employment and consulting agreements, avoiding traps in sale agreements, creating a professional advisory team, and alternatives to a sale to an unrelated third party, such as ESOPs, leverage recapitalizations, selling to other family members or key employees, and going public transactions."-- Provided by publisher.

• Optically modulated theranostic nanoparticles
• Gene therapy treatments for cancer
• Nanocarrier based pulmonarygene delivery for lung cancer: therapeutic and imaging approaches
• Quantitative contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging in cancer therapy
• Multifunctional dendritic nanoparticles as a nanomedicine platform
• Oral drug delivery systems for gastrointestinal cancer therapy
• Cancer therapeutics with light : role of nanoscale and tissue engineering in photodynamic therapy
• Targeted contrast agents for 1h MRI of tumor microenvironment
• Solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers as anti-cancer delivery systems for therapy and diagnostics.

"This book describes the latest advancements in molecular and cellular engineering approaches in addition to nanotechnology for cancer therapeutics and imaging. It also provides an excellent background and state-of-the-art developments in the fields of drug and gene delivery, engineering nanoparticles for therapy and diagnostics, and cancer imaging techniques. The contents of this book include chapters on cutting-edge science in molecular and cellular engineering and nanotechnology as applied to therapeutics and imaging in cancer diseases. The chapters also provide a comprehensive overview on gene therapy and delivery methods for cancer treatment, oral drug delivery and barriers, cancer imaging for diagnostics and therapy, and the latest developments in these fields."-- Provided by publisher.

"This book represents the results of 45 years of research on a wide range of topics, including atomic physics, single-molecule enzymology, whole-cell metabolism, physiology, pharmacology, linguistics, semiotics, and cosmology. It describes the first comprehensive molecular theory of the genotype-phenotype coupling based on two key theoretical concepts: (i) the conformon, the conformational wave packet in biopolymers carrying both the free energy and genetic information; and (ii) the intracellular dissipative structures, the chemical concentration waves inside the cell that serve as the immediate drivers of all cell functions. Conformons provide the driving forces for all molecular machines in the cell, and intracellular dissipative structures coordinate intra- and intercellular processes such as gene expression and cell-cell communications. One of the predictions made by the cell language theory (CLT) is that there are two forms of genetic information — the Watson–Crick genes transmitting information in time (identified with DNA), and the Prigoginian genes transmitting information in space (identified with RNA expression profiles). The former is analogous to sheet music or written language and the latter is akin to audio music or spoken language, both being coupled by conformons acting as the analog of the pianist. The new theory of DNA structure and function constructed on the basis of CLT can rationally account for most of the puzzling findings recently unearthed by the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) project. The Cell Language Theory has important applications in biomedical sciences including drug discovery research and personalized medicine on the one hand and in the mind-body research and consciousness studies on the other."-- Provided by publisher.

"This book contains the most interesting problems from the first 24 years of the "Mathematical Duel", an annual international mathematics competition between the students of four schools: the Gymnázium Mikuláše Koperníka in Bílovec, Czech Republic, the Akademicki Zespół Szkół Ogólnokształcących in Chorzów, Poland, the Bundesrealgymnasium Kepler in Graz, Austria and the Gymnázium Jakuba Škody in Přerov, Czech Republic. The problems are presented by topic, grouped under the headings Geometry, Combinatorics, Number Theory and Algebra, which is typical for olympiad-style competitions. Above all, it is of interest to students preparing for mathematics competitions as well as teachers looking for material to prepare their students, as well as mathematically interested enthusiasts from all walks of life looking for an intellectual challenge."-- Provided by publisher.

• Physiology of blood flow and metabolism
• Models of blood flow and metabolism
• Global control of blood flow
• Local control of perfusion
• Externally-based measurements
• Internally-based measurements
• Global changes in cerebral blood flow and metabolism
• Local changes in cerebral blood flow and metabolism
• Conclusions.

"This book describes the way in which the human brain is supplied with blood and how the brain uses this to provide nutrients, primarily oxygen and glucose, to brain cells in order to maintain healthy brain function. In particular, it focuses on the quantitative nature of blood flow and metabolism. The book covers models of blood flow and metabolism and how these can be measured using a variety of imaging and non-imaging techniques. It also examines how cerebral blood flow is controlled in response to a wide variety of challenges and how it changes with normal physiological variation and in response to a large number of pathological conditions, including stroke and dementia. As the first substantial book for over ten years in a fast-changing field, it highlights how the subject has progressed in the last couple of decades. It tackles the subject in a quantitative way, underlining its importance in both technical and clinical fields. Audiences with a technical or clinical background, especially researchers and postgraduate students in biomedical engineering or medicine, will find this a valuable read."--Publisher's website.

"This volume consists of introductory lectures on the topics in the new and rapidly developing area of toric homotopy theory, and its applications to the current research in configuration spaces and braids, as well as to more applicable mathematics such as fr-codes and robot motion planning. The book starts intertwining homotopy theoretical and combinatorial ideas within the remits of toric topology and illustrates an attempt to classify in a combinatorial way polytopes known as fullerenes, which are important objects in quantum physics, quantum chemistry and nanotechnology. Toric homotopy theory is then introduced as a further development of toric topology, which describes properties of Davis–Januszkiewicz spaces, moment-angle complexes and their generalizations to polyhedral products. The book also displays the current research on configuration spaces, braids, the theory of limits over the category of presentations and the theory of fr-codes. As an application to robotics, the book surveys topological problems relevant to the motion planning problem of robotics and includes new results and constructions, which enrich the emerging area of topological robotics. The book is at research entry level addressing the core components in homotopy theory and their important applications in the sciences and thus suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students."--Publisher's website.

• Chain persistency in macromolecular and supramolecular systems / Katrin Wunderlich, Klaus Müllen and George Fytas
• Structure in thin films of p-conjugated semi-conductors from the perspective of transmission electron microscopy / Martin Brinkmann
• Structuring conjugated polymer and polyelectrolytes through self-assembly / Hugh D. Burrows, Beverly Stewart, Luisa Ramos and Licinia L.G. Justino
• Specific interactions between electroactive conducting polymers and DNA bases / Carlos Alemán and David Zanuy
• Supramolecular assemblies of DNA/conjugated polymers / Jérémie Knoops, Jenifer Rubio-Magnieto, Sébastien Richeter, Sébastien Clément and Mathieu Surin
• High throughput in situ scattering of roll-to-roll coated functional polymer films / Jens Wenzel Andreasen
• High pressure structural studies of conjugated polymers / Matti Knaapila, Mika Torkkeli, Ullrich Scherf and Suchismita Guha.

"This book identifies modern topics and current trends of structural and soft matter aspects of conjugated polymers and oligomers. Each chapter recognizes an active research line where structural perspective dominates research and therefore the book covers fundamental aspects of persistent conjugated polymer backbone, water soluble conjugated polyelectrolytes and surfactants, conjugated molecules and biomolecules and DNA and the advanced use of synchrotron radiation and electron microscopy to find out structural details in conjugated molecule films and devices as well as under ambient and extreme conditions."-- Provided by publisher.

"The contents of this book continues the theme as in the previous volume on cultural patterns and cognitive patterns in the East and West, with special regard to those patterns which are determined by our natural-genetic endownments in contrast to those patterns which are influenced by our cultural ("East-West") influences, and within this context a unique flavour is given to the "good life" aspects of adapting to this global community. The chapters written by leading neuroscientists, give an overarching picture from the elementary organisational principles of the human brain through the basic perceptual and motor functions of the brain to the highest levels of cognition, including aesthetical or moral judgments, with an eye on what can be called "good life" in both Eastern and Western cultures. A unique compilation of state-of-the-art overviews of how the human brain is organised and functions in order to achieve high level of social, moral or aesthetic thoughts across cultures."-- Provided by publisher.

• Vital statistics
• Anatomy of the Sun
• Blemishes on the Sun
• The sphere of influence
• Tools of the trade.

"This book is an attempt to demystify the activities of a celestial object such as the Sun appealing to basic physics already available to high school students. Building on simple logic, the contents begin with measurements of the gross properties of the Sun like size (volume) and mass from which the average density of solar material is shown to be almost equal to water's density. Then the temperature is obtained using the colour of sunlight, and the gravitational force is discussed to indicate how the solar material is compressed at the centre of the Sun leading to heating which further causes nuclear reactions. The roles of all the forces of nature, viz. strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitation are shown in the construction of the Sun. The generation of magnetic fields by solar rotation and the eruptions of solar atmospheric material are also included. To further demystify the methods of obtaining all such facts about the Sun, a chapter is solely devoted to the different kinds of solar telescopes operating at different wavelengths and also at different locations ranging from outer space to deep underground, where solar neutrino flux is measured. The entire discussion is interspersed with historical encounters between giants of science to show the human face of scientific research."--Publisher's website.