Zhen Chen

This book explores the intersection of consumer contracts and private international law, with a specific focus on tourists in China. The primary aim is to analyze how private international law addresses consumer protection issues, particularly for tourists, and to come up with legislative proposals to improve consumer protection in China. By examining current legislative provisions, case studies, and judicial practices, the book provides a comprehensive understanding of consumer protection in Chinese private international law and potential legal reforms to enhance consumers’ access to justice in cross-border litigation. The increasing globalization and mobility of consumers, especially tourists, call for robust legal frameworks to protect their rights across borders. While China does endeavor to protect consumers, the current regulations in Chinese private international law remain insufficient. Consumers, including tourist consumers, still encounter major obstacles in international civil litigation. This book highlights the strengths and weaknesses of China’s legal system, offering insights for potential legal reforms to enhance consumer protection there. This book is intended for academics, legal practitioners, policymakers, and students with an interest in private international law, consumer protection, and comparative law. It also offers a valuable resource for international organizations involved in consumer rights and tourism. By providing a focused analysis of tourist-related consumer contracts in China, it fills a critical gap in the existing literature.

This book explores the intersection of consumer contracts and private international law, with a specific focus on tourists in China. The primary aim is to analyze how private international law addresses consumer protection issues, particularly for tourists, and to come up with legislative proposals to improve consumer protection in China. By examining current legislative provisions, case studies, and judicial practices, the book provides a comprehensive understanding of consumer protection in Chinese private international law and potential legal reforms to enhance consumers’ access to justice in cross-border litigation. The increasing globalization and mobility of consumers, especially tourists, call for robust legal frameworks to protect their rights across borders. While China does endeavor to protect consumers, the current regulations in Chinese private international law remain insufficient. Consumers, including tourist consumers, still encounter major obstacles in international civil litigation. This book highlights the strengths and weaknesses of China’s legal system, offering insights for potential legal reforms to enhance consumer protection there. This book is intended for academics, legal practitioners, policymakers, and students with an interest in private international law, consumer protection, and comparative law. It also offers a valuable resource for international organizations involved in consumer rights and tourism. By providing a focused analysis of tourist-related consumer contracts in China, it fills a critical gap in the existing literature.

As the importance of facilities management continues to grow worldwide, the challenge of defining it and advising on best practices becomes more pressing. This definitive guide to facilities management draws on the latest industry practices and academic research to provide a thorough introduction to this topical subject. Compliant with industry standards, and featuring self-test questions throughout, this book looks at the people, products, and processes involved in facilities management, and guides the reader to best practices.

This unique professional volume is about the recent advances in the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). It introduces a new methodology, namely the simplified and highly stable lattice Boltzmann method (SHSLBM), for constructing numerical schemes within the lattice Boltzmann framework. Through rigorous mathematical derivations and abundant numerical validations, the SHSLBM is found to outperform the conventional LBM in terms of memory cost, boundary treatment and numerical stability. This must-have title provides every necessary detail of the SHSLBM and sample codes for implementation. It is a useful handbook for scholars, researchers, professionals and students who are keen to learn, employ and further develop this novel numerical method.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been widely applied in a wide variety of industrial applications, including aeronautics, astronautics, energy, chemical, pharmaceuticals, power and petroleum. This unique compendium documents the recent developments in CFD based on kinetic theories, introducing flux reconstruction strategies of kinetic methods for the simulation of complex incompressible and compressible flows, namely the lattice Boltzmann and the gas kinetic flux solvers (LBFS or GKFS). LBFS and GKFS combine advantages of both Navier-Stokes (N-S) solvers and kinetic solvers. Detailed derivations, evaluations and applications of LBFS and GKFS, and their advantages over conventional flux reconstruction strategies are analyzed and discussed in the volume. The must-have reference text is useful for scholars, researchers, professionals and students who are keen in CFD methods and numerical simulations.

This book aims to serve as a practical guide for novices to design and conduct measurements of thermal properties at the nanoscale using electrothermal techniques. An outgrowth of the authors’ tutorials for new graduate students in their own labs, it includes practical details on measurement design and selection, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and pitfalls and verifications. The information is particularly helpful for someone setting up their own experiment for the first time. The book emphasizes the integration of thermal analysis with practical experimental considerations, in order to design an experiment for best sensitivity and to configure the laboratory instruments accordingly. The focus is on the measurements of thermal conductivity, though thermal diffusivity and thermal boundary resistance (thermal contact resistance) are also briefly covered, and many of the principles can be generalized to other challenging thermal measurements. The reader is only expected to have the basic familiarity with electrical instruments typical of a university graduate in science or engineering, and an acquaintance with the elementary laws of heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation.

This book aims to serve as a practical guide for novices to design and conduct measurements of thermal properties at the nanoscale using electrothermal techniques. An outgrowth of the authors’ tutorials for new graduate students in their own labs, it includes practical details on measurement design and selection, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, and pitfalls and verifications. The information is particularly helpful for someone setting up their own experiment for the first time. The book emphasizes the integration of thermal analysis with practical experimental considerations, in order to design an experiment for best sensitivity and to configure the laboratory instruments accordingly. The focus is on the measurements of thermal conductivity, though thermal diffusivity and thermal boundary resistance (thermal contact resistance) are also briefly covered, and many of the principles can be generalized to other challenging thermal measurements. The reader is only expected to have the basic familiarity with electrical instruments typical of a university graduate in science or engineering, and an acquaintance with the elementary laws of heat transfer by conduction, convection, and radiation.

Providing new knowledge on risk analysis and simulation for megaprojects, this book is essential reading for both academics and practitioners. Its focus is on technical descriptions of a newly developed dynamic systems approach to megaproject risk analysis and simulation. This is backed up by a discussion of the methodology as applied in a comprehensive case study on the Edinburgh Tram Network (ETN) project. The book informs both academic researchers and megaproject stakeholders with the latest information on risk as applied to megaprojects. As well as the complete case study, the book includes a general risk analysis framework for megaprojects, an analytic network process (ANP) method for risk quantification, a system dynamics (SD) method for risk simulation, and practical guides for the application of the dynamic systems approach in megaproject research and practice.

The Material Point Method: A Continuum-Based Particle Method for Extreme Loading Cases systematically introduces the theory, code design, and application of the material point method, covering subjects such as the spatial and temporal discretization of MPM, frequently-used strength models and equations of state of materials, contact algorithms in MPM, adaptive MPM, the hybrid/coupled material point finite element method, object-oriented programming of MPM, and the application of MPM in impact, explosion, and metal forming. Recent progresses are also stated in this monograph, including improvement of efficiency, memory storage, coupling/combination with the finite element method, the contact algorithm, and their application to problems.

Demands on the construction industry are changing, and it is now virtually essential for environmental management to be considered at all stages of a project. Many construction managers are finding a quantitative approach useful, and this book outlines four quantitative methods which can be applied at different construction stages, and which fit within a comprehensive framework of dynamic Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). These include:a method to quantitatively evaluate and reduce pollution and hazards levelsa method to evaluate the environmental-consciousness of proposed construction plans a method to reduce on-site construction wastes through an incentive reward programmea method to promote C and D waste exchange in the local construction industry. With an experimental case study of the application of these methods, this book delivers a comprehensive review of environmental management issues in construction. With regulatory requirements potentially favouring the quantitative approach, this timely guide ensures that contractors will be able to keep pace with environmental management standards.

Demands on the construction industry are changing, and it is now virtually essential for environmental management to be considered at all stages of a project. Many construction managers are finding a quantitative approach useful, and this book outlines four quantitative methods which can be applied at different construction stages, and which fit within a comprehensive framework of dynamic Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). These include:a method to quantitatively evaluate and reduce pollution and hazards levelsa method to evaluate the environmental-consciousness of proposed construction plans a method to reduce on-site construction wastes through an incentive reward programmea method to promote C and D waste exchange in the local construction industry. With an experimental case study of the application of these methods, this book delivers a comprehensive review of environmental management issues in construction. With regulatory requirements potentially favouring the quantitative approach, this timely guide ensures that contractors will be able to keep pace with environmental management standards.