Witnessing the rise of nationalism, nativism, and xenophobia in many countries, theories of transculturalism arose, in part, out of the concern that multi- and intercultural identity models have not set themselves sufficiently apart from their own culturalist baggage, thus leaving their doors open to strong nationalistic and ethnocentric orientations. But how can we—how can literature—imagi…
Micro-extraction techniques in sample preparation are gaining interest among analytical chemists as they comply with green analytical chemistry demands and ensure environmental protection and public safety. Savings in cost and time are considered as valuable benefits by using novel micro-extraction approaches in sample handling. Selectivity, sensitivity and lower detection limits are also inclu…
Articles in this book examine various materials and how to determine directly the limit state of a structure, in the sense of limit analysis and shakedown analysis. Apart from classical applications in mechanical and civil engineering contexts, the book reports on the emerging field of material design beyond the elastic limit, which has further industrial design and technological applications. …
This book presents a number of aspects to be considered in the development of disassembly automation, including the mechanical system, vision system and intelligent planner. The implementation of cognitive robotics increases the flexibility and degree of autonomy of the disassembly system. Disassembly, as a step in the treatment of end-of-life products, can allow the recovery of embodied value …
Development of strategies to assist the movement of poorly permeable molecules across biological barriers has long been the goal of drug delivery science. In the last three decades, there has been an exponential increase in advanced drug delivery systems that aim to address this issue. However, most proprietary delivery technologies that have progressed to clinical development are based on perm…
The development of kernel methods and hybrid evolutionary algorithms (HEAs) to support experts in energy forecasting is of great importance to improving the accuracy of the actions derived from an energy decision maker, and it is crucial that they are theoretically sound. In addition, more accurate or more precise energy demand forecasts are required when decisions are made in a competitive env…
This edited volume presents the research results of the Collaborative Research Center 1026 “Sustainable manufacturing - shaping global value creation”. The book aims at providing a reference guide of sustainable manufacturing for researchers, describing methodologies for development of sustainable manufacturing solutions. The volume is structured in four chapters covering the following topi…
The discovery of monolayer graphene led to a Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded in 2010. This has stimulated further research on a wide variety of two-dimensional (2D) layered materials. The coupling of metallic graphene, semiconducting 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) and black phosphorus have attracted a tremendous amount of interest in new electronic and optoelectronic applicati…
Deficiencies in these areas may be remediated by advancements in structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies that provide sensing systems to automatically and economically diagnose structural integrity. In a sense, SHM technologies will help pave the way to intelligent structures that are able to detect damage by themselves and even warn occupants of any danger due to impending structural f…
This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of turbulent open channel flow, sediment erosion and sediment transport. The thesis provides an analysis of high-fidelity data from direct numerical simulation of (i) open channel flow over an array of fixed spheres, (ii) open channel flow with mobile eroding spheres, (iii) open channel flow with sediment transport of many mobile spheres.…