Shan Gao

Since the notorious terrorist attack of the World Trade Center in 2001, researchers and engineers have been forced to review the existing research works and standards in resisting the progressive collapse of structures. From then on, the design of structure against progressive collapse has tended toward quantitative design, rather than qualitative design. The collapse of the COVID-19 epidemic isolation hotel in Quanzhou, China, in 2020 and the vertical collapse of a 12-story apartment in Florida, United States, in 2021 have aroused an upsurge of the research on progressive collapse. More experimental and theoretical works have been focused on this area. This book addresses this issue and provides a valuable reference for the progressive collapse analysis and design of building structures.

Recent advancements in engineering and materials science have led to a worldwide resurgence in the use of engineered-wood products, particularly glued laminated timber (glulam). Glulam Materials and Structures: Durability and Sustainability in Construction offers a specialized exploration of the latest innovations relating to this environmentally friendly technology, emphasizing its durability, performance, and expanding use in construction. The book analyzes the materials' response to extreme environments, focusing on critical factors like high-temperature exposure, freeze-thaw cycles, and corrosive atmospheres, providing new perspectives into how glulam performs under these challenging conditions. It also covers cutting-edge advances in glulam beam designs, prestressed joints, and glulam—steel composite members, diving into their mechanical properties and environmental impact. The integration of sophisticated testing methods and equipment, simulation techniques, and performance prediction theories adds significant value to the discussions, making this volume an indispensable resource for readers looking to optimize engineered wood products’ potential in both new and existing structures. Drawing from the authors’ extensive research, this work also delivers detailed case studies that demonstrate how glulam has been applied in real-world projects. The practical insights in its versatility and effectiveness across various contexts enhance the contents’ overall relevance for audiences in both academia and industry.

This book explores how Emerson's and Zhuang Zi’s exploration of spirituality in nature shapes different senses of place. It delves into spirituality as a pursuit of life's meaning and self-transcendence, particularly relevant amidst rapid urbanization, which separates more people from their land and relocates them into cities.

At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the wave function, a powerful but mysterious mathematical object which has been a hot topic of debate from its earliest stages. Covering much of the recent debate and providing a comprehensive and critical review of competing approaches, this ambitious text provides new, decisive proof of the reality of the wave function. Aiming to make sense of the wave function in quantum mechanics and to find the ontological content of the theory, this book explores new ontological interpretations of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. Finally, the book investigates whether the suggested quantum ontology is complete in solving the measurement problem and if it should be revised in the relativistic domain. A timely addition to the literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics, this book is of value to students and researchers with an interest in the philosophy of physics.

At the heart of quantum mechanics lies the wave function, a powerful but mysterious mathematical object which has been a hot topic of debate from its earliest stages. Covering much of the recent debate and providing a comprehensive and critical review of competing approaches, this ambitious text provides new, decisive proof of the reality of the wave function. Aiming to make sense of the wave function in quantum mechanics and to find the ontological content of the theory, this book explores new ontological interpretations of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. Finally, the book investigates whether the suggested quantum ontology is complete in solving the measurement problem and if it should be revised in the relativistic domain. A timely addition to the literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics, this book is of value to students and researchers with an interest in the philosophy of physics.

Science has made a mighty advance since it originated in ancient Greece more than 2500 years ago. Yet we still live in Plato's cave today; we think everything around us moves continuously, but continuous motion is merely a shadow of real motion. This book will lead you to walk out the cave along a logical and comprehensible road. After passing Zeno's arrow, Newton's inertia, Einstein's light, and Schrodinger's cat, you will reach the real world, where every thing in the universe, whether it is an atom or a ball or even a star, ceaselessly jumps in a random and discontinuous way. In a famous metaphor, God does play dice with the universe. The new discovery may finally solve Zeno's paradoxes and the quantum puzzle, and it will deeply change our view of the world. Its very existence is at any rate, an excellent illustration of the extent to which physical data force us to depart from commonsense ideas when we try to depict reality "as it really is". ---- Bernard d'Espagnat, University of Paris, Orsay The idea of using discontinuous motion as a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics is original.---- Reviewer of Foundations of Physics I fully agree with your idea of discontinuous movement. ---- Antoine Suarez, Center for Quantum Philosophy, Zurich If it goes through, this would be an original and significant contribution to the debate over the nature of motion. ---- Reviewer of American Philosophical Quarterly A sense of relief at last! Gao has done it, with no metaphysics and magic. He seems to have no life-style to justify and no axe to grind against any belief system. Then pure physics and objectivity prevails. ---- Ph. D. Philip P. Benjamin

When you insert a straight stick in water, you will surprisedly find that the stick appears bent. Yet, this is in fact an optical illusion resulting from the refraction of light. Nature always hides her secret with attractive veiling. This may also be true for the motion of objects. Although everything around us appears to move in a continuous and lawful way, it is in all probability that their motion is discontinuous and random in reality as the microscopic phenomena reveal. This book presents a clear exposition of the intriguing idea of random discontinuous motion and its implications for quantum theory and relativity. Once you realize that motion is actually discontinuous and random, you may finally understand the mysterious quantum world, where an electron can pass through two slits at the same time. I fully agree with your idea of discontinuous movement. ---- Antoine Suarez, Center for Quantum Philosophy, Zurich The idea of using discontinuous motion as a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics is original. If it can be made to work, it would add an interesting new ontology to our stock of quantum mechanical interpretations.---- Reviewer of Foundations of Physics Its very existence is at any rate, an excellent illustration of the extent to which physical data force us to depart from commonsense ideas when we try to depict reality "as it really is". ---- Bernard d'Espagnat, University of Paris-Orsay