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In the big data era, increasing information can be extracted from the same source object or scene. For instance, a person can be verified based on their fingerprint, palm print, or iris information, and a given image can be represented by various types of features, including its texture, color, shape, etc. These multiple types of data extracted from a single object are called multi-view, multi-modal or multi-feature data. Many works have demonstrated that the utilization of all available information at multiple abstraction levels (measurements, features, decisions) helps to obtain more complex, reliable and accurate information and to maximize performance in a range of applications. This book provides an overview of information fusion technologies, state-of-the-art techniques and their applications. It covers a variety of essential information fusion methods based on different techniques, including sparse/collaborative representation, kernel strategy, Bayesian models, metric learning, weight/classifier methods, and deep learning. The typical applications of these proposed fusion approaches are also presented, including image classification, domain adaptation, disease detection, image restoration, etc. This book will benefit all researchers, professionals and graduate students in the fields of computer vision, pattern recognition, biometrics applications, etc. Furthermore, it offers a valuable resource for interdisciplinary research.

Lab-on-a-chip technology permits us to make many important discoveries that can only be observed at the microscale or the nanoscale. Using this technology, biological and biochemical analyses translate into greater sensitivity, more accurate results, and more valuable findings. Authored by one of the field's pioneering researchers, Fundamentals of

Deep learning is widely applied to sparse 3D data to perform challenging tasks, e.g., 3D object detection and semantic segmentation. However, the high performance of deep learning comes with high costs, including computational costs and the effort to capture and label data. This work investigates and improves the efficiency of deep learning for sparse 3D data to overcome the obstacles to the further development of this technology.

This book explores the characteristics of China's outward foreign investment, its motivation, its sector distribution, and its geographical distribution in order to illustrate the current pattern of 'merchant-state dualism' in China's overseas foreign direct investment. Merchant-state dualism is a hybrid relationship between the state and society that maintains state control over merchants, while giving them some autonomy. By investigating the interactions between business and government elites to determine Chinese outward foreign investment, and by exploring the reasons for selecting certain foreign investments in light of internal political and economic concerns and the external effect of investing in politically sensitive countries, the book highlights the political underpinnings and calculations of China's foreign investment. It thus sheds light on current merchant-state dualism by concluding that merchant-state dualism is the most suitable model for explaining contemporary Chinese government-business relations.

This book analyzes data from eight waves (1998, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011-12, 2014 and 2018) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Surveys (CLHLS) to explore how health status of the Chinese oldest old has changed over time and across birth cohorts. It also intends to investigate how period and birth cohorts have played a role in the associations between Chinese oldest olds health and a variety of demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors. The book applies the age-period-cohort (APC) approach and constructs cross-classified random-effects models (CCREMs) to carry out the analyses. The oldest olds health is measured by self-rated health (SRH), chronic diseases, cognitive function and subjective wellbeing which is indicated by positive and negative feeling scores. The results show that Chinese oldest olds health status has changed over time and across birth cohorts. Significant period and cohort effects are shown when linking Chinese oldest olds health to various demographic, socioeconomic and health lifestyle covariates. In general, period effects surpass the cohort effects. Particularly, the oldest olds subjective wellbeing is more likely to be influenced by period than cohort effects. Period changes caused by social events, such as economic hardship and natural disasters, have left strong imprints on Chinese oldest olds mental than physical health status. Based on these findings, the book highlights some important policy implications and points out future research directions to improve the current study. It provides an interesting read for researchers in gerontology and public health studies. It is also of interest to general audience, including practitioners in health care and policy makers who are interested in old age care and healthy aging policies.

Nanostructured Materials: Physicochemical Chemistry Fundamentals for Energy and Environmental Applications summarizes research knowledge and helps advanced students, researchers and industrial technicians understand specific applications of nanomaterials in energy and the environment. Sections bring a strong foundational focus on the physicochemical basis of nanomaterials for these applications, the basic theory and physicochemical basis of nanomaterials, an energy and environment applications examination of typical cases, and progress. This book will appeal to researchers in the chemical sciences (inorganic and physical chemistry, coordination chemistry, molecular dynamics, electrochemistry, photocatalysis, thermocatalysis, thermodynamics, etc.), nanoscience (graphene, carbon nanotubes, nanocrystals, nano catalysis, energy, and environment-nano science), and more. Efficient use of energy, eco-friendly environmental systems, and technologies play an important role in global sustainable development. Multifunctional nanocomposites have excellent properties and can meet the practical needs of energy development and environmental treatment. They have been gradually applied in chemical materials, energy preparation, pollution control and other fields and have achieved impressive development. - Provides a unified overview of a large variety of different applications on the design and synthesis of nanomaterials with potential applications in various conventional and new energy and environmental technologies - Provides a strong foundational focus on the analysis of the structure of nanomaterials, the basic principles of design (nanomaterial structure-activity relationship), and the theoretical basis of physical chemistry (theoretical basis of nanomaterial design and applications) - Meets a need to summarize and examine ongoing research and advances in a rapidly developing field

This book discusses energy transfer, fluid flow and pollution in built environments. It provides a comprehensive overview of the highly detailed fundamental theories as well as the technologies used and the application of heat and mass transfer and fluid flow in built environments, with a focus on the mathematical models and computational and experimental methods. It is a valuable resource for researchers in the fields of buildings and environment, heat transfer and global warming.