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This book challenges the notion that technology promotes financial inclusion. Drawing insights from the retail banking industry in Hong Kong, it explores the potential drawbacks of technology adoption. The book combines existing articles, regulatory case studies, and interviews with customers and practitioners to propose four factors that measure digital financial inclusion, defined as the impact of technology on financial inclusion, from the customer's viewpoint. It offers practical guidance by identifying business incentives for banks and providing law and policy recommendations for regulators. This book serves as a valuable resource for scholars, regulators, and practitioners in law and social sciences, shedding light on the complex relationship between technology and financial inclusion while bridging the gap between supply-driven approaches and customer demands.

The book discusses the latest developments and outlines future trends in the fields of microelectronics, electromagnetics, and telecommunication. It contains original research works presented at the International Conference on Microelectronics, Electromagnetics and Telecommunication (ICMEET 2023), organized by Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology Mizoram, India, during 6¿7 October 2023. The book is divided into two volumes, and it covers papers written by scientists, research scholars, and practitioners from leading universities, engineering colleges, and R&D institutes from all over the world and shares the latest breakthroughs in and promising solutions to the most important issues facing today¿s society.

Content distribution, i.e., distributing digital content from one node to another node or multiple nodes, is the most fundamental function of the Internet. Since Amazon's launch of EC2 in 2006 and Apple's release of the iPhone in 2007, Internet content distribution has shown a strong trend toward polarization. On the one hand, considerable investments have been made in creating heavyweight, integrated data centers ("heavy-cloud") all over the world, in order to achieve economies of scale and high flexibility/efficiency of content distribution. On the other hand, end-user devices ("light-end") have become increasingly lightweight, mobile and heterogeneous, creating new demands concerning traffic usage, energy consumption, bandwidth, latency, reliability, and/or the security of content distribution. Based on comprehensive real-world measurements at scale, we observe that existing content distribution techniques often perform poorly under the abovementioned new circumstances.Motivated by the trend of "heavy-cloud vs. light-end," this book is dedicated to uncovering the root causes of today's mobile networking problems and designing innovative cloud-based solutions to practically address such problems. Our work has produced not only academic papers published in prestigious conference proceedings like SIGCOMM, NSDI, MobiCom and MobiSys, but also concrete effects on industrial systems such as Xiaomi Mobile, MIUI OS, Tencent App Store, Baidu PhoneGuard, and WiFi.com. A series of practical takeaways and easy-to-follow testimonials are provided to researchers and practitioners working in mobile networking and cloud computing. In addition, we have released as much code and data used in our research as possible to benefit the community.

Inspired by this symposium we would like to rethink and provide an insight about the use of new technologies in architecture and design. The consideration spans over (but not limited to) computational design, virtual experience, digital fabrication, artificial intelligence and sustainability/environment. Readers of the proceedings will benefit from discussions on how adoption of new technologies can benefit the Construction Industry rather than just for the sake of leveraging new technologies. The book targets scholars and high-education level students, as well as Ph.D.s which research falls into the broad realm of digital design.

This book contains best selected research papers presented at ICTCS 2023: Eighth International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Competitive Strategies. The conference will be held in Jaipur, India during 8 ¿ 9 December 2023. The book covers state-of-the-art as well as emerging topics pertaining to ICT and effective strategies for its implementation for engineering and managerial applications. This book contains papers mainly focused on ICT for computation, algorithms and data analytics and IT security. The work is presented in three volumes.

This book highlights the role of sustainable development in ancient practices to modern innovations in the textiles of Sri Lanka. It reveals the textile of Sri Lanka from the historical age to current tech-fabrics. Supporting the sustainable development goals, this book covers the most sought-after concepts and practices in textile industry of Sri Lanka such as of maximum utilization, zero waste, eco-friendly production process, reuse, upcycling, recycling, and longevity. Various topics covered in this book are indigenous cultural textiles, women empowerment, agro-waste utilization, secondhand-fashion consumption, and many more. The book is a valuable reference for beginners, university students, researchers, and professionals interested in sustainable development in textiles and allied fields.

Industrial crops offer farmers new market opportunities to increase their revenue by producing high-value products, focusing on fiber, forest, and energy crops, industrial oilseeds, rubber and resins, pharmaceuticals, and more. Technological innovations in agriculture have facilitated higher yields, but conserving crop genetic resources and diversity remains crucial for sustainable agricultural production. This poses a challenge that can be addressed through modern tools of biotechnology and genomics, utilizing the wealth of sequenced plant genomes. This book addresses the need for knowledge in managing the risks and conservation of genetic diversity associated with advanced technology. It provides comprehensive coverage of plant genomics and biotechnology, catering to post-graduate students, researchers, employees of seed and biotechnology companies, as well as instructors in plant genetics, breeding, and biotechnology fields.

This book explores a diverse spectrum of waste materials, encompassing industrial hazardous and non-hazardous waste, agricultural waste, biomass waste, radioactive waste, municipal solid and liquid waste, as well as e-waste, and investigates their adverse impacts on the environment. It is an exciting exploration of various approaches to waste management, highlighting the importance of adopting sustainable practices such as the 7Rs principle, utilization of nanomaterials and photocatalysis, zero waste management techniques, recycling and upcycling techniques, and IoT-enabled strategies. It provides a critical assessment of the challenges and opportunities in transforming waste into value-added products for the industry. This book is designed to provide constructive insights for researchers, environmentalists, policy makers and professionals engaged in enhancing waste management, fuelling the circular economy, and paving the way for a sustainable future.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of combustion models used in different types of spark ignition engines. In the first generation of spark ignition (SI) engines, the turbulence is created by the shear flow passing through the intake valves, and significantly decays during the intake and compression strokes. The residual turbulence enhances the laminar flame velocity, which is characteristic of the fuel and increases the relative effectiveness of the engine. In this simple two-zone model, the turbulence is estimated empirically; the spherical flame propagation model considers ignition delay, thermodynamics, heat transfer and chemical equilibrium, to obtain the performance and emissions of an SI engine. The model is used extensively by designers and research engineers to handle the fuel-air mixture prepared in the inlet and different geometries of open combustion chambers. The empiricism of the combustion model was progressively dismantled over the years. New 3D models for ignition considering the flow near a spark plug and flame propagation in the bulk gases were developed by incorporating solutions to Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for the turbulent flow with chemical reactions in the intense computational fluid dynamics. The models became far less empirical and enabled treating new generation direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) gasoline and gas engines. The more complex layout of DISI engines with passive or active prechamber is successfully handled by them. This book presents details of models of SI engine combustion progressively increasing in complexity, making them accessible to designers, researchers, and even mechanical engineers who are curious to explore the field. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in spark ignition combustion.

This book explains the advancements of plant biotechnology and advanced molecular biology and explores the details of influential tools that complement conventional breeding and accelerate the development of plants resilient to adverse agroclimatic conditions and biofortified plants. Plant biotechnology from the basic sciences to current applications, such as pathway engineering, precursor feeding, transformation, elicitation with biotic and abiotic elicitors, and scaling up in bioreactors, have been included in these chapters to improve the production of secondary metabolites from different medicinal plants. It also highlights important factors often overlooked by methodologies used to develop plants' tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses and in developing special foods, bio-chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. This book is valuable for researchers or students working on biosciences. It is also an updated and advanced reference material for the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries.

This book highlights the basic theories and technical principles of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), aiming to bridge theories and applications for readers. Supported by the practical experience of the author's dedicated research, this book also constructs the SAR theoretical system from multiple perspectives.The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a weather-independent microwave remote sensing device that involves a number of multidisciplinary fields such as signal processing and image information processing. Written by experts in remote sensing and signal processing, the book explains the signal echo modeling, imaging principles and algorithms, image quality control methods, and image applications. Readers are provided with concise descriptions of commonly used imaging algorithms for SAR in multiple regimes, modes, and applications, including the Range Doppler Algorithm (RDA) and the Frequency Scaling Algorithm (FSA). Continuous wave/pulse regime SAR technology, inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) technology, digital beam forming (DBF), interferometry, and moving target detection methods are discussed in detail.The book is a must-read and comprehensive reference for researchers and engineers engaged in the R&D of the SAR and for graduate students interested in the field.

This book has been groundbreaking for scholars of the Cultural Revolution, but hitherto was only available in Japanese and Chinese. This edition allows English-language readers to access the work for the first time. The author explains how political struggles within the state, competing sectarian interests, and other complex factors intertwined to produce various forms of collective violence that had a major impact on the political, economic, and social order of the time.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th China Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks, CWSN 2023, which took place in Dalian, China, in October 2023. The 22 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 105 submissions, including 38 English papers and 67 Chinese papers. The conference provided an academic exchange of research and a development forum for IoT researchers, developers, enterprises, and users. Exchanging results and experience of research and applications in IoT, and discussing the key challenges and research hotspots, is the main goal of the forum. As a high-level forum for the design, implementation, and application of IoT, the conference promoted the exchange and application of the theories and technologies of IoT-related topics.

This book aims to reveal the dynamic mechanism of China's economic system innovation. It measures the efficiency of Chinäs economic growth under the New Normal with the tools of DEA, SFA, and PCA. The book analyzes the contribution of capital, labor, and productivity to China's economic growth by Solow residual value method and the power source of China's economic development under the New Normal. In this book, it adopts the vertical integration of logical thinking, combined with the horizontal diversification of topics, to show a brand-new research method.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th International Conference and Workshops on Algorithms and Computation, WALCOM 2024, held in Kanazawa, Japan, during March 18¿20, 2024. The 28 full papers presented in this book, together with two extended abstracts of invited talks, were carefully reviewed and selected from 80 submissions. They cover diverse areas of algorithms and computation, that is, approximation algorithms, algorithmic graph theory and combinatorics, combinatorial algorithms, combinatorial optimization, computational biology, combinatorial reconfiguration, computational complexity, computational geometry, discrete geometry, data structures, experimental algorithm methodologies, graph algorithms, graph drawing, parallel and distributed algorithms, parameterized algorithms, parameterized complexity, network optimization, online algorithms, randomized algorithms, and string algorithms.

This book presents various design theories and methodologies for silicon-based high-sensitivity broadband receivers, including millimeter-wave radiometer chips and photoelectric receivers, which are core elements in imaging systems, data centers, and telecommunication infrastructures. As a key module in application systems, the high-sensitivity broadband receiver, not only attracts the attention of engineers and researchers in the radio-frequency and optoelectronic fields, but also garners significant interest from other disciplines, including optics, communications, and security. The book introduces various silicon-based critical design technologies aim to overcome the limitations inherent in silicon devices, distinctly enhancing sensitivity with a broad bandwidth. These innovative design methodologies, initially proposed and subsequently validated through meticulous measurements, represent a pioneering contribution. The book provides readers with detailed insights into design intricacies and considerations. Its audience includes undergraduate and graduate students with a specific interest in RF/optoelectronic receiver technology, along with researchers and engineers engaged in the study of imaging systems, data centers, or other communication applications.

This book provides an advanced introduction to extended theories of quantum field theory and algebraic topology, including Hamiltonian quantization associated with some geometrical constraints, symplectic embedding and Hamilton-Jacobi quantization and Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) symmetry, as well as de Rham cohomology. This extended new edition offers a multifaced insight into phenomenology of particles such as baryons and photons, in terms of extended objects. In particular, in the second edition, the baryons are described in hypersphere soliton model, and the photon properties are additionally included in stringy photon model and in Dirac type relativistic quantum mechanics for a photon.It offers a critical overview of the research in this area and unifies the existing literatures, employing a consistent notation. Although the results presented apply in principle to all alternative quantization schemes, special emphasis is placed on the BRST quantization and its de Rham cohomology group which contribute to a deep understanding of constrained physical theories. The book describes how solitons and other models subject to constraints include rigorous treatments of the geometrical constraints which affect the predictions themselves. The book is intended for use by any graduate-level student with quantum field and relativity theories, and it also serves as a useful reference for those working in the field. An extensive bibliography guides the reader toward the source literature on particular topics.

The book explores the pivotal role of science and technology in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) outlined in the agenda 2030 for sustainable development. It emphasizes the importance of integrating science and technology into developing strategies to promote a sustainable and prosperous global future. The book highlights the universal acceptance of the SDGs by United Nations member states, subnational governing bodies, and international organizations. It emphasizes that all stakeholders, including governmental bodies, private enterprises, and civil society, have a responsibility to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Science, technology, and innovation are identified as the three pillars essential for achieving the SDGs.The book emphasizes the critical role of science and technology in addressing complex issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, poverty reduction, health, education, gender equality, clean energy, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, and climate action. It helps to develop innovative solutions to promote economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. And provide the necessary knowledge and tools to develop effective policies and strategies in these areas.Furthermore, the book highlights the potential of science and technology in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, leading to the creation of new businesses and industries that align with sustainable development principles. This fosters economic growth, job creation, and environmental sustainability. It advocates for continued investment in science and technology and their integration into development strategies. The book aims to provide insights into the role of traditional and emerging areas of science and technology in meeting the goals outlined in the SDG document, with a specific focus on India.The book serves as a great source of information for researchers, teachers in basic and applied sciences /social sciences research and policymakers.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the design, mechanisms, and performance of metakaolin-based geopolymers (MKG), with a focus on uncovering the underlying mechanisms that differentiate MKG from ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Covering a wide range of topics surrounding MKG, from the early stages of geopolymerization to the final mechanical performance of MKG concrete, this book provides fundamental insights into the performance of MKG-based materials and their relationship with the composition and microstructure of MKG. The findings presented in this book may serve as a guide for the design and application of MKG in civil engineering constructions. Targeted at scientists and engineers in materials science and civil engineering, this book is intended for those interested in adopting MKG as a sustainable technology for a greener future.