Although lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the dominant technology used in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and stationary power stations, there is concern about the long-term availability and sustainability of lithium to meet demand. Sodium batteries (SBs) are seen a viable alternative, as sodium is abundant, and because the battery components and electrical chemistry of SBs and LIBs are similar, SBs are poised to take advantage of the existing infrastructure and mature manufacturi...

The original version of this book is a bilingual book for international students and overseas readers, which is included in the “Introduction to China’s S&T Innovation”, a project funded by the Hubei Provincial Public Welfare Academic Publication Special Funds in 2024.The book consists of 14 chapters. Based on the introduction of the historical foundation and natural conditions of China's economic development, it introduces the history of China's economic development in stages such...

This book views the Dutch sinologist, Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mysteries as a hybrid East–West form of detective fiction and uses the concept of transculturation to discuss their hybrid nature with respect to their sources, production, and influence.The Judge Dee mysteries authored by Robert van Gulik (1910–1967) were the first detective stories to be set in ancient China. These hybrid narratives combine Chinese historical figures, traditional Chinese crime literature, and Chin...

Atomically dispersed metallic materials (ADMMs) are the most advanced materials used in energy conversion and storage devices to improve their performance for portable electronics, electric vehicles, and stationary power stations. Atomically Dispersed Metallic Materials for Electrochemical Energy Technologies aims to facilitate research and development of ADMMs for applications in electrochemical energy devices. It provides a comprehensive description of the science and technology...

This book highlights principles and applications of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). After introducing the basic concepts, research progress, standardizations and limitations of EMC, the book puts emphasis on presenting the generation mechanisms and suppression principles of conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise, radiated EMI noise, and electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS) problems such as electrostatic discharge (ESD), electric fast transient (EFT) and surge. By showing E...

This book discusses the recently introduced concession policy, which is also known as PPP worldwide, on municipal utilities policy in China. In this context, critics have claimed that there is a gap in accountability with regard to concessions. The author utilizes interdisciplinary methods and comparative studies, taking into account the situation in the EU and US to analyze the accountability gap some feel will be created when the policy is implemented. Taking water sector concessions as ...

With China becoming a major force in steel research and development, this book highlights the work of a group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by the first four authors. This group has the ideal knowledge base for writing this updated book on heat-resistant steels. The fifth author, Sha, based in the UK, has been collaborating with the Chinese group since 2009 and is the lead or sole author of four research books, all published in English. The last book, “Steels: from materials sc...

China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic growth story of the last three decades. In the 1980s China was an impoverished backwater, struggling to escape the political turmoil and economic mismanagement of the Mao era. Today it is the world's second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world's steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the ...

China Versus the West is an innovative book.The author, a leading specialist on the international and Asian economy and business, presents the most comprehensive picture of the changing power balance between the emerging superpower China and the "old" developed economies of the West: mainly the US, Europe and Japan. The reader can clearly see in what areas and to what extent China has become the world leader, in what areas it is catching up and in what are...

International institutions, from the International Monetary Fund to the International Olympic Committee, are perceived as bastions of sclerotic mediocrity at best and outright corruption at worst, and this perception is generally not far off the mark. In the wake of the 2008 financial crash, Daniel W. Drezner, like so many others, looked at the smoking ruins of the global economy and wondered why global economic governance structure had failed so spectacularly, and what could be done to re...

The Caspian Basin region has boomed since the late 1990s due to new oil discoveries, new pipelines that have diversified countries' transport options and world oil prices that have risen from below $10 in 1998 to $70 in 2006.This book analyzes the experience of the Caspian countries during the oil boom. It is founded on empirical studies, using either macroeconomic tools or an analysis of public budgets, or microeconometric analysis of household survey data or fieldwork in oil-prod...

This book provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) organisation and examines the challenges APEC now faces in the new century. Subjects covered include: * the history of APEC * APEC and the latest WTO round * case-studies of countries in the region including China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea and Taiwan * APECs approach to competition and deregulation policy * assessment of APECs standing as an international institution Featuring con...