ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: The 2008-10 financial crisis and the global recession it created is a complex phenomenon that warrants detailed examination. The various essays in this book utilise several alternative paradigms to provide a plausible explanation and a credible cure. Great detail is given to this important analysis from different theoretical perspectives, presenting a clearer understanding of what went wrong and expounding misinterpretations of current theories and practices. Fourteen insightful chapters by eminent scholars investigate the background of the crisis and draw lessons for economic theory and polic

Description / Table of Contents: For epidemiologists, evolutionary biologists, and health-care professionals, real-time and predictive modeling of infectious disease is of growing importance. This book provides a timely and comprehensive introduction to the modeling of infectious diseases in humans and animals, focusing on recent developments as well as more traditional approaches. Matt Keeling and Pejman Rohani move from modeling with simple differential equations to more recent, complex models, where spatial structure, seasonal ""forcing,"" or stochasticity influence the dynamics, and where computer simulation needs to

Description / Table of Contents: "The scale, effectiveness and legitimacy of global governance lag far behind the world's needs. This path-breaking book examines how far civil society involvement provides an answer to these problems. Does civil society make global governance more democratic? Have citizen action groups raised the accountability of global bodies that deal with challenges such as climate change, financial crises, conflict, disease and inequality? What circumstances have promoted (or blocked) civil society efforts to make global governance institutions more democratically accountable? What could improve these outcomes in the future? The authors base their argument on studies of thirteen global institutions, including the UN, G8, WTO, ICANN and IMF. Specialists from around the world critically assess what has and has not worked in efforts to make global bodies answer to publics as well as states. Combining intellectual depth and political relevance, Building Global Democracy? will appeal to students, researchers, activists and policymakers"--

Description / Table of Contents: ANT-XXVI/4: 7 April -17 May 2010 Punta Arenas -Mindelo - Las Palmas - Bremerhaven

Description / Table of Contents: Climate change is beginning to have effects on climate, weather and resource availability in ways that need to be anticipated when planning for the future. In particular, changes in rainfall patterns and temperature may impact the intensity or schedule of water availability. Also the retreat of tropical glaciers, the drying of unique Andean wetland ecosystems, as well as increased weather variability and weather extremes will affect water regulation. These changes have the potential to impact the energy and other sectors, such as agriculture, and could have broader economic effects. Anticipating the impacts of climate change is a new frontier. There are few examples of predictions of the impact of climate change on resource availability and even fewer examples of the applications of such predictions to planning for sustainable economic development. However, having access to an effective methodology would allow planners and policy makers to better plan for adaptation measures to address the consequences of climate change on the power and water sectors. This report presents a summary of the efforts to develop methodological tools for the assessment of climate impacts on surface hydrology in the Peruvian Andes. It is targeted to decision makers in Peru and in other countries to give them guidance on how to choose available and suitable tools and make an assessment of climate impacts on water regulation.

Description / Table of Contents: Slope tectonics: a short introduction / Michel Jaboyedoff, Giovanni B. Crosta and Doug Stead / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 1-10, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.1 --- Paraglacial gravitational deformations in the SW Alps: a review of field investigations, 10Be cosmogenic dating and physical modelling / S. El Bedoui, T. Bois, H. Jomard, G. Sanchez, T. Lebourg, E. Trics, Y. Guglielmi, S. Bouissou, A. Chemenda, Y. Rolland, M. Corsini and J. L. Pérez / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 11-25, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.2 --- Inheritance of ductile and brittle structures in the development of large rock slope instabilities: examples from western Norway / A. Saintot, I. H. C. Henderson and M.-H. Derron / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 27-78, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.3 --- Regional spatial variations in rockslide distribution from structural geology ranking: an example from Storfjorden, western Norway / Iain H. C. Henderson and Aline Saintot / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 79-95, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.4 --- Rock slope instabilities in Sogn and Fjordane County, Norway: a detailed structural and geomorphological analysis / Martina Böhme, Aline Saintot, Iain H. C. Henderson, Helge Henriksen and Reginald L. Hermanns / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 97-111, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.5 --- Controlling factors for deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD) in the Aosta Valley (NW Alps, Italy) / G. Martinotti, D. Giordan, M. Giardino and S. Ratto / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 113-131, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.6 --- Palaeostress analysis of a giant Holocene rockslide near Boaco and Santa Lucia (Nicaragua, Central America) / Ivo Baron̆, Markéta Kernstocková, Roman Novotný, David Buriánek, Petr Hradecký, Pavel Havlic̆ek and Rostislav Melichar / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 133-145, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.7 --- Complex landslide behaviour and structural control: a three-dimensional conceptual model of Åknes rockslide, Norway / Michel Jaboyedoff, Thierry Oppikofer, Marc-Henri Derron, Lars Harald Blikra, Martina Böhme and Aline Saintot / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 147-161, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.8 --- Structural analysis of Turtle Mountain: origin and influence of fractures in the development of rock slope failures / Andrea Pedrazzini, Michel Jaboyedoff, Corey R. Froese, C. Willem Langenberg and Francisco Moreno / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 163-183, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.9 --- A structural, geomorphological and InSAR study of an active rock slope failure development / I. H. C. Henderson, T. R. Lauknes, P. T. Osmundsen, J. Dehls, Y. Larsen and T. F. Redfield / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 185-199, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.10 --- Numerical modelling of Plio-Quaternary slope evolution based on geological constraints: a case study from the Caramanico Valley (Central Apennines, Italy) / G. Bianchi Fasani, E. Di Luzio, C. Esposito, S. Martino and G. Scarascia-Mugnozza / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 201-214, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.11 --- Valley shape influence on deformation mechanisms of rock slopes / Christian Ambrosi and Giovanni B. Crosta / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 215-233, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.12 --- The Celentino deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD): structural and geomechanical analyses (Peio Valley, NE Italy) / M. Ghirotti, S. Martin and R. Genevois / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 235-251, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.13 --- Megafans and outsize fans from catastrophic slope failures in Alpine glacial troughs: the Malser Haide and the Val Venosta cluster, Italy / David Jarman, Federico Agliardi and Giovanni B. Crosta / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 351, 253-277, 1 January 2011, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP351.14

Description / Table of Contents: This manual was initially written at the first edition of the GNU/Linux conference LibrePlanet which was hosted at the Harvard Science Center, Cambridge, MA, on March 21-22, 2009. LibrePlanet conferences are part of the LibrePlanet project, started in 2006, whose mission is to help further the ideals surrounding the free software via a social movement for user freedom organized as a global network of local teams and project-based ones. The LibrePlanet conference 2009 was sponsored by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and organized into three tracks, free software activism, freedom for network services, and high priority free software projects. The creation of this manual was part of the free software activism track, and a collaboration between FLOSS Manuals and the FSF.

Description / Table of Contents: The digital world is changing at a tremendous speed. New communication technologies open up new possibilities, but by using them you can also expose yourself, and others, to risks. Many people have trouble assessing these risks especially with regard to the subject of safe digital communication. This is particularly true for people working in regimes with high levels of censorship. However, also in countries considered to be relatively free and uncensored, your data can be used or misused by others - governments, companies, or other persons (sometimes even unintended). How to protect yourself, your sources or your friends? What are safe routes to take? How do you secure after your personal data? This manual aims to address these issues to help you choose your own 'level' of safety.

Description / Table of Contents: The latest Mars missions are returning data of unprecedented fidelity in their representation of the martian surface. New data include images with spatial resolution better than 30 cm per pixel, stereo imaging-derived terrain models with one meter postings, high-resolution imaging spectroscopy, and RADAR data that reveal subsurface structure. This book reveals how this information is being used to understand the evolution of martian landscapes, and includes topics such as fluvial flooding, permafrost and periglacial landforms, debris flows, deposition and erosion of sedimentary material, and the origin of lineaments on Phobos, the larger martian moon. Contemporary remote sensing data of Mars, on a par with those of Earth, reveal landscapes strikingly similar to regions of our own planet, so this book will be of interest to Earth scientists and planetary scientists alike. An overview chapter summarising Mars’ climate, geology and exploration is included for the benefit of those new to Mars.

Description / Table of Contents: This book presents some aspects of the cosmological scientific odyssey that started last century. The chapters vary with different particular works, giving a versatile picture. It is the result of the work of many scientists in the field of cosmology, in accordance with their expertise and particular interests. Is a collection of different research papers produced by important scientists in the field of cosmology. A sample of the great deal of efforts made by the scientific community, trying to understand our universe. And it has many challenging subjects, like the possible doomsday to be confirmed by the next decade of experimentation. May be we are now half way in the life of the universe. Many more challenging subjects are not present here: they will be the result of further future work. Among them, we have the possibility of cyclic universes, and the evidence for the existence of a previous universe.

Description / Table of Contents: Der vorliegende Band enthält eine Sammlung von Arbeiten, die sich mit unterschiedlichen Aspekten der geologischen Entwicklung des Leinetalgrabens und seines strukturellen Rahmens befassen. Grundlage stellen neue und ältere, bislang nicht veröffentlichte Ergebnisse dar, die teilweise im Rahmen von geowissenschaftlichen Examensarbeiten erbracht wurden. Diese häufig in Archiven „versteckten“ Daten sollen hiermit interessierten Fachleuten aber auch geologisch interessierten Laien zugänglich gemacht werden. Herausgeber ist die GeothermieGruppeGöttingen (GGG), in der GeowissenschaftlerInnen aus verschiedenen Abteilungen des Geowissenschaftlichen Zentrums der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (GZG) tätig sind. Aktuelles Forschungsziel der GGG ist, ein dreidimensionales Strukturmodell für die Region Göttingen mit dem Leinetalgraben als zentrale Struktur zu erstellen, das als Grundlage für eine anwendungsbezogene Bewertung geothermischer Potentiale dienen soll.

Description / Table of Contents: The failure of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 to effectively reach a global agreement on emission reduction targets, led many within the developing world to view this as a reversal of the Kyoto Protocol and an attempt by the developed nations to shirk out of their responsibility for climate change. The issue of global warming has been at the top of the political agenda for a number of years and has become even more pressing with the rapid industrialization taking place in China and India. This book looks at the effects of climate change throughout different regions of the world and discusses to what extent cleantech and environmental initiatives such as the destruction of fluorinated greenhouse gases, biofuels, and the role of plant breeding and biotechnology. The book concludes with an insight into the socio-religious impact that global warming has, citing Christianity and Islam.

Description / Table of Contents: One of the aims of the Living Books About Life series is to provide a 'bridge' or point of connection, translation, even interrogation and contestation, between the humanities and the sciences. Accordingly, this introduction to Digitize Me, Visualize Me, Search Me takes as its starting point the so-called ‘computational turn’ to data-intensive scholarship in the humanities. The phrase ‘the computational turn’ has been adopted to refer to the process whereby techniques and methodologies drawn from (in this case) computer science and related fields – including science visualization, interactive information visualization, image processing, network analysis, statistical data analysis, and the management, manipulation and mining of data – are being used to produce new ways of approaching and understanding texts in the humanities; what is sometimes thought of as ‘the digital humanities’. The concern in the main has been with either digitizing ‘born analog’ humanities texts and artifacts (e.g. making annotated editions of the art and writing of William Blake available to scholars and researchers online), or gathering together ‘born digital’ humanities texts and artifacts (videos, websites, games, photography, sound recordings, 3D data), and then taking complex and often extremely large-scale data analysis techniques from computing science and related fields and applying them to these humanities texts and artifacts - to this ‘big data’, as it has been called. Witness Lev Manovich and the Software Studies Initiative’s use of ‘digital image analysis and new visualization techniques’ to study ‘20,000 pages of Science and Popular Science magazines… published between 1872-1922, 780 paintings by van Gogh, 4535 covers of Time magazine (1923-2009) and one million manga pages’ (Manovich, 2011), or Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs’s text mining of ‘the 1,681,161 books that were published in English in the UK in the long nineteenth century’ (Cohen, 2010). What Digitize Me, Visualize Me, Search Me endeavours to show is that such data-focused transformations in research can be seen as part of a major alteration in the status and nature of knowledge. It is an alteration that, according to the philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, has been taking place since at least the 1950s, and involves nothing less than a shift away from a concern with questions of what is right and just, and toward a concern with legitimating power by optimizing the social system’s performance in instrumental, functional terms. This shift has significant consequences for our idea of knowledge.

Description / Table of Contents: While I write this Introduction, the meltdown of the three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 is apparently still not under control and made new energy-saving technologies the centre of attention at CEATEC, Japan's largest information technology and electronics fair, in October of the same year. Hope rises among environmentally-conscious scientists like Sasaki et al. that better management of the island’s many forests and policy reinforcements will allow the sustainable use of woody biomass or any other natural resource freely available (as documented by the non-profit organization Japan for Sustainability or the German Energy Rich Japan Project) in order to generate the 858.5 billion kWh the Japanese population currently consumes per year. The techno-natural disaster has also recharged the empty batteries of anti-nuclear movements, not only in Japan, and fuelled pronunciamentos by political parties of almost all creeds for an ‚energy turn’ world-wide. In order to write the above paragraph, dozens of google clicks were needed, each spending an amount of energy equivalent to letting a light bulb of 60 watts burn for 18 seconds. And many dozens of clicks more to search for open-access articles and other information to compile this collection. Like all digital practices and social media, the Living Books about Life project depends upon energy-intensive infrastructures, partly coal-powered data centres (see dirty-data report by Greenpeace) and an equally energy-intensive cooling system for servers that never sleep. But this is not a book about renewable energies and how to turn the land of the rising sun into the Kingdom of Solar Energy or joining hands with Cheeky Cloud and making windmills turn round and round while unfriending Facebook’s Dirty Coal as promoted by the Greenpeace compaign and video. An energetic (r)evolution is depending on a climate change on all levels of society (including the microlevel of the individual and his or her life-style) and not just on a technological fix. This book is hence not exclusively about the E(nergy) of scientific equations such as Einstein's famous formula E = mc2. It is, rather, a book about energy as a nomadic concept and material-semiotic agent of transformation. Tapping into energy as both an idea and a substance, I hope to add another atom to Vicki Kirby's recent 'quantum-anthropological' proposition of a 'meta-physis of life at large' (2011). Or call it a modest proposal to embrace a 'cosmopolitics' (Stengers, 2010 and 2011) in order to sustain good vibrations.

Description / Table of Contents: When Foucault introduced the concept of biopolitics, he referred to a historically specific power agenda involving a particular approach to life. This approach was at the root of the modern sciences of biology and political economy, both of which set out to describe, explain and manage their objects of study as abstract processes of production and reproduction. Agricultural science must be situated in relation to the biopolitical agenda of 'applying' the modern scientific approach to the management of social life. The scientification of agriculture took place in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, through a process that entailed both a delegitimation of farmer-generated knowledges and the production of new, modern subjectivities. While farmers were being reconceptualized as entrepreneurs in need of scientific education and advice, newly trained agronomists devoted themselves to designing fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid seeds with the goal of maximizing yields. Public institutions were created which coordinated agricultural production with both science and trade policy. Agricultural science was thus inseparable from the process which transformed much of US agriculture into transnational agribusiness, and local farming networks all over the world into consumer endpoints of a globalized food industry.

Description / Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS LIFE? I’m not going to answer this question. In fact, I doubt if it will ever be possible to give a full answer. (Haldane, 1949: 58) What Is Life? J. B. S. Haldane (1949) and Erwin Schrödinger (1944), two of the twentieth century’s most influential scientists, posed the direct question, ‘what is life?’ and declared that it was a question unlikely to find an answer. Life, they suggested, might exceed the ability of science to represent it and even though the sciences of biology, physics and chemistry might usefully describe life’s structures, systems and processes, those sciences should not seek to reduce it to the sum of its parts. While Schrödinger drew attention to the physical structure of living matter, including especially the cell, Haldane asserted that ‘what is common to life is the chemical events’ (1949: 59) and so therefore life might be defined, though not reduced, to ‘a pattern of chemical processes’ (62) involving the use of oxygen, enzymes and so on. Following Schrödinger and Haldane, Chris McKay’s article, published in 2004 and included in this collection, asks again ‘What is Life – and How Do We Search For It in Other Worlds?’. For him, the still open and unresolved question of life is intrinsically linked to the problem of how to find it (here, or elsewhere) since, he queries, how can we search for something that we cannot adequately define? It should be noted that this dilemma did not deter the founders of Artificial Life, a project that succeeded Artificial Intelligence and that sought to both simulate ‘life-as-we-know-it’ and synthesise ‘life-as-it-could-be’ by reducing life to the informational and therefore computational criteria of self-organisation, self-replication, evolution, autonomy and emergence (Langton, 1996: 40; Kember, 2003). McKay concedes that certain characteristics of life, such as metabolism and motion, can occur without biology, but rather than pursuing contestable (re)definitions of life that could not, for him, constitute the basis for a search, he prefers to ask a more pragmatic question: ‘what does life need?’. The elements that support life – energy, carbon, liquid water, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus – are not contested and, barring only liquid water, they are abundant in the Solar System. It seems logical then, McKay argues, to search for life indirectly, by looking at where the water is. The case for liquid water on Mars has, as we will see, a long and argumentative history. In as far as the current case is, as McKay maintains, ‘tight’, then there is justification for his upbeat assessment that, with the correct instruments, it should be possible to find life-as-we-know-it – and even life-as-it-could-be. He writes: ‘while it could be similar at the top (ecological) and bottom (chemical) levels, life on Mars could be quite alien in the middle, in the realm of biochemistry’ (2004: 1261).

Description / Table of Contents: Soil erosion affects a large part of the Earth surface, and accelerated soil erosion is recognized as one of the main soil threats, compromising soil productive and protective functions. The land management in areas affected by soil erosion is a relevant issue for landscape and ecosystems preservation. In this book we collected a series of papers on erosion, not focusing on agronomic implications, but on a variety of other relevant aspects of the erosion phenomena. The book is divided into three sections: i) various implications of land management in arid and semiarid ecosystems, ii) erosion modeling and experimental studies; iii) other applications (e.g. geoscience, engineering). The book covers a wide range of erosion-related themes from a variety of points of view (assessment, modeling, mitigation, best practices etc.).

Description / Table of Contents: There is an estimated 1.4 billion km3 of water in the world but only approximately three percent (39 million km3) of it is available as fresh water. Moreover, most of this fresh water is found as ice in the arctic regions, deep groundwater or atmospheric water. Since water is the source of life and essential for all life on the planet, the use of this resource is a highly important issue. "Water management" is the general term used to describe all the activities that manage the optimum use of the world's water resources. However, only a few percent of the fresh water available can be subjected to water management. It is still an enormous amount, but what's unique about water is that unlike other resources, it is irreplaceable. This book provides a general overview of various topics within water management from all over the world. The topics range from politics, current models for water resource management of rivers and reservoirs to issues related to agriculture. Water quality problems, the development of water demand and water pricing are also addressed. The collection of contributions from outstanding scientists and experts provides detailed information about different topics and gives a general overview of the current issues in water management. The book covers a wide range of current issues, reflecting on current problems and demonstrating the complexity of water management.

Description / Table of Contents: The Edwards and Trinity Aquifers are critical water resources, supplying high-quality potable water to over two million people in the greater Austin-San Antonio region of central Texas, USA. These Cretaceous carbonate aquifers are hydrogeologically juxtaposed by extensive Miocene tectonic deformation associated with the Balcones Fault Zone, where the younger Edwards Group limestone has been downthrown relative to the older Trinity Group. The karstic aquifers are managed separately by regional water regulatory entities, and they have been historically treated as independent systems, both scientifically and from a water policy standpoint. Recent awareness of a significant interconnection between the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers has resulted in a number of hydrogeologic investigations documenting how they may actually operate as a single system. Studies related to upland recharge variability (spatial and temporal), stream loss, phreatic dye tracing, multi-port well monitoring, geochemistry, biologic habitat analysis, geophysics, and groundwater modeling indicate that the two are much less separated than previously observed. Summaries of these investigations conclude that changes in management strategies may be required to properly protect the quantity and quality of water in the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers. The proceedings volume contains nine contributions presented during the Karst Conservation Initiative Meeting held in February 17, 2011 at The University of Texas at Austin.

Description / Table of Contents: Reisen als kulturelle Praxis ist Spiegelbild gesellschaftlicher Verhältnisse. Wandelt sich eine Gesellschaft, so wandelt sich auch ihr Reiseverhalten. Vor diesem Hintergrund war das erste Jahrzehnt des 21. Jahrhunderts durch zahlreiche Entwicklungen gekennzeichnet, die Touristik und Tourismusforschung gleichermaßen vor große Herausforderungen stellen. Im vorliegenden Band werden ausgewählte touristische Trends und ihre räumlichen Implikationen nachgezeichnet, mit angebots- und nachfrageseitigen Analysen die Motive, Erfahrungen und Handlungsoptionen beleuchtet sowie künftige Perspektiven ausgelotet. Die Beiträge verdeutlichen, dass sich „etablierte“ Destinationen und Freizeitangebote aufgrund von Veränderungen in der touristischen Nachfrage einem enormen Innovationsdruck ausgesetzt sehen, für aufstrebende Zielgebiete bieten sie hingegen die Chance, sich am Markt zu positionieren.

Description / Table of Contents: Increase in electricity demand and environmental issues resulted in fast development of energy production from renewable resources. In the long term, application of RES can guarantee the ecologically sustainable energy supply. This book indicates recent trends and developments of renewable energy resources that organized in 11 chapters. It can be a source of information and basis for discussion for readers with different backgrounds.

Description / Table of Contents: This book shows some of the socio-economic impacts of climate change according to different estimates of the current or estimated global warming. A series of scientific and experimental research projects explore the impacts of climate change and browse the techniques to evaluate the related impacts. These 23 chapters provide a good overview of the different changes impacts that already have been detected in several regions of the world. They are part of an introduction to the researches being done around the globe in connection with this topic. However, climate change is not just an academic issue important only to scientists and environmentalists; it also has direct implications on various ecosystems and technologies.

Description / Table of Contents: Human beings need to breathe oxygen diluted in certain quantity of inert gas for living. In the atmosphere, there is a gas mixture of, mainly, oxygen and nitrogen, in appropriate proportions. However, the air also contains other gases, vapours and aerosols that humans incorporate when breathing and whose composition and concentration vary spatially. Some of these are physiologically inert. Air pollution has become a problem of major concern in the last few decades as it has caused negative effects on human health, nature and properties. This book presents the results of research studies carried out by international researchers in seventeen chapters which can be grouped into two main sections: a) air quality monitoring and b) air quality assessment and management, and serves as a source of material for all those involved in the field, whether as a student, scientific researcher, industrialist, consultant, or government agency with responsibility in this area.

Description / Table of Contents: Different species, interacting in a symbiotic fashion, living together over a prolonged period of time, eventually co-evolving into new species: this vision of the biological phenomenon of symbiosis has created a strong impression—both of symbiosis as a metaphor and a material reality—of species in an intimate relationship together, cooperating in spite of differences, of becoming something else and transgressing boundaries. This idea has turned the concept of symbiosis, in its many guises and definitions,[1] into a breading ground for a posthuman, biologically and ecologically informed critique. Less focused on the biological process of symbiosis as such, our focus in Symbiosis: Ecologies, Assemblages and Evolution is more on how symbiosis can be used as a means to argue for an alternative worldview and even a better world. Interestingly, Angela Elizabeth Douglas notices a similar effect in her book The Symbiotic Habit (2010), where she talks about the growing importance of ‘applied symbiosis research’. Douglas refers above all to how research into symbiotic processes has the potential to help solve some of the practical problems mankind is facing through anthropogenically induced effects, such as climate change and environmental disasters; and in this way influence and improve (our) ecosystem(s) and make the world in which we live much healthier (Douglas, 2010: viii). This living book consists of a number of examples of how symbiosis has been deployed. For instance, as a critique of the mainstream Darwinian idea of evolution as struggle; of the anthropocentric worldview that operates within the sciences and society at large; and of the idea of organisms or objects as static and isolated entities. Given the way in which symbiotic processes offer seeds for alternative worldviews, research on symbiosis has been taken-up as providing evidence for becoming as an infinite creative process, for the (animal, microbal, machinic, and/or virtual) other as an integral part of the multiple I, and for the integrated cooperation of living and non-living affects as one interconnected mesh.

Description / Table of Contents: A well-known statement says that the PID controller is the "bread and butter" of the control engineer. This is indeed true, from a scientific standpoint. However, nowadays, in the era of computer science, when the paper and pencil have been replaced by the keyboard and the display of computers, one may equally say that MATLAB is the "bread" in the above statement. MATLAB has became a de facto tool for the modern system engineer. This book is written for both engineering students, as well as for practicing engineers. The wide range of applications in which MATLAB is the working framework, shows that it is a powerful, comprehensive and easy-to-use environment for performing technical computations. The book includes various excellent applications in which MATLAB is employed: from pure algebraic computations to data acquisition in real-life experiments, from control strategies to image processing algorithms, from graphical user interface design for educational purposes to Simulink embedded systems.

Description / Table of Contents: The book consists of 24 chapters illustrating a wide range of areas where MATLAB tools are applied. These areas include mathematics, physics, chemistry and chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biological (molecular biology) and medical sciences, communication and control systems, digital signal, image and video processing, system modeling and simulation. Many interesting problems have been included throughout the book, and its contents will be beneficial for students and professionals in wide areas of interest.

Description / Table of Contents: Demography, climate, world alimentation. L’humanité trouvera-t-elle de quoi nourrir 9 milliards d’hommes en 2050, dans un contexte climatique probablement plus difficile ? L’inquiétude n’est pas nouvelle, mais la croissance démographique s’est emballée dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, et la crainte d’une crise alimentaire mondiale est réapparue. Certes, les progrès des technologies agricoles ont permis, au plan global, de maintenir le niveau nutritionnel moyen pendant les années de la "Révolution verte", mais la situation restait loin d’être satisfaisante, puisque environ 850 millions de personnes étaient sousalimentées au début du XXIe siècle. Or de nouvelles inquiétudes se font jour : les surfaces cultivables ne sont plus guère extensibles, la productivité des sols atteint des niveaux qui risquent de les endommager de façon irréversible, les prix de l’énergie et des intrants indispensables à l’agriculture moderne sont à la hausse... Et les perspectives de changements climatiques ne sont pas rassurantes. De nouveaux progrès technologiques permettront-ils de dépasser, une fois encore, les contraintes naturelles et démographiques ? Cet ouvrage rappelle d’abord ces contraintes démographiques, climatiques et environnementales qui pèseront sur la disponibilité de ressources à l’horizon 2050, et traite ensuite des facteurs d’évolution de la demande alimentaire, des moyens techniques et économiques d’y faire face, et enfin des conditions d’un équilibre possible. Une synthèse est proposée en début de volume. Des recommandations y sont faites, destinées aux pouvoirs publics français pour les éclairer sur leur politique nationale et internationale, mais aussi à la société civile, qui est concernée car les problèmes ne sont pas seulement scientifiques ou technologiques : ils mettent aussi en jeu les comportements individuels des producteurs et des consommateurs. Trois domaines où il faut agir sans tarder sont mis en valeur : la nutrition et les habitudes alimentaires, puis la démographie, et enfin l’économie mondiale et le commerce international. Les recommandations portent ensuite sur la production agricole et les questions d’environnement, puis sur la prévention, l’anticipation et la gestion des situations de crise, hélas quasi inévitables.

Description / Table of Contents: This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Description / Table of Contents: The noise factor is the ratio of signal to noise of an input signal to that of the output signal. Noise can block or interfere with the meaning of a message in both human and electronic communication. But in Information Theory, noise is still considered to be information. By refining the definition of noise as that which addresses us outside of our preferred comfort zone, Joseph Nechvatal's Immersion Into Noise investigates multiple aspects of cultural noise by applying the audio understanding of noise to the visual, architectural and cognitive domains. Nechvatal expands and extends our understanding of the function of cultural noise by taking the reader through the immersive and phenomenal aspects of noise into algorithmic and network contexts, beginning with his experience in the Abside of the Grotte de Lascaux. Immersion Into Noise is intended as a conceptual handbook useful for the development of a personal-political-visionary art of noise. On a planet that is increasingly technologically linked and globally mediated, how might noises break and re-connect in distinctive and productive ways within practices located in the world of art and thought? That is the question Joseph Nechvatal explores in Immersion Into Noise.

Description / Table of Contents: N. J. Price and K. R. McClay: Introduction / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:1-5, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.01 --- J. G. Dennis, R. A. Price, J. K. Sales, R. Hatcher, A. W. Bally, W. J. Perry, H. P. Laubscher, R. E. Williams, D. Elliott, D. K. Norris, D. W. Hutton, T. Emmett, and K. R. McClay: What is a Thrust? What is a Nappe? / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:7-9, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.02 --- I. Mechanics of Thrusts and Nappes --- A. W. Bally: Thoughts on the tectonics of folded belts / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:13-32, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.03 --- P. E. Gretener: Pore pressure, discontinuities, isostasy and overthrusts / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:33-39, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.04 --- G. Mandl and W. Crans: Gravitational gliding in deltas / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:41-54, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.05 --- D. V. Wiltschko: Thrust sheet deformation at a ramp: summary and extensions of an earlier model / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:55-63, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.06 --- D. A. Rodgers and W. D. Rizer: Deformation and secondary faulting near the leading edge of a thrust fault / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:65-77, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.07 --- G. Mandl and G. K. Shippam: Mechanical model of thrust sheet gliding and imbrication / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:79-98, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.08 --- S. A. F. Murrell: The rock mechanics of thrust and nappe formation / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:99-109, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.09 --- A. G. Smith: Subduction and coeval thrust belts, with particular reference to North America / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:111-124, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.10 --- H. Ramberg: The role of gravity in orogenic belts / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:125-140, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.11 --- II. Rock Products of Thrusting --- J. H. Spang and S. P. Brown: Dynamic analysis of a small imbricate thrust and related structures, Front Ranges, Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:143-149, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.12 --- S. M. Schmid, M. Casey, and J. Starkey: The microfabric of calcite tectonites from the Helvetic Nappes (Swiss Alps) / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:151-158, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.13 --- J. Aprahamian and J.-L. Pairis: Very low grade metamorphism with a reverse gradient induced by an overthrust in Haute-Savoie (France) / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:159-165, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.14 --- H. J. Behr, H. Ahrendt, A. Schmidt, and K. Weber: Saline horizons acting as thrust planes along the southern margin of the Damara Orogen (Namibia/SW-Africa) / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:167-172, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.15 --- C. J. Talbot: Sliding and other deformation mechanisms in a glacier of salt, S Iran / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:173-183, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.16 --- A.-M. Boullier and J.-M. Quenardel: The Caledonides of northern Norway: relation between preferred orientation of quartz lattice, strain and translation of the nappes / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:185-195, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.17 --- R. H. Sibson, S. H. White, and B. K. Atkinson: Structure and distribution of fault rocks in the Alpine Fault Zone, New Zealand / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:197-210, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.18 --- C. J. Adams: Uplift rates and thermal structure in the Alpine Fault Zone and Alpine Schists, Southern Alps, New Zealand / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:211-222, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.19 --- III. Thrust and Nappe Regimes. A. ‘The Old World’: Caledonides --- M. A. Cooper: The internal geometry of nappes: criteria for models of emplacement / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:225-234, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.20 --- N. J. Milton and G. D. Williams: The strain profile above a major thrust fault, Finnmark, N Norway / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:235-239, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.21 --- K. R. McClay and M. P. Coward: The Moine Thrust Zone: an overview / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:241-260, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.22 --- D. H. W. Hutton: Tectonic slides in the Caledonides / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:261-265, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.23 --- W. E. A. Phillips: Estimation of the rate and amount of absolute lateral shortening in an orogen using diachronism and strike slipped segments / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:267-274, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.24 --- M. P. Coward and J. H. Kim: Strain within thrust sheets / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:275-292, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.25 --- Alpine --- J. G. Ramsay: Tectonics of the Helvetic Nappes / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:293-309, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.26 --- H. P. Laubscher: The 3D propagation of décollement in the Jura / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:311-318, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.27 --- O. A. Pfiffner: Fold-and-thrust tectonics in the Helvetic Nappes (E Switzerland) / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:319-327, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.28 --- A. Beach: Some observations on the development of thrust faults in the Ultradauphinois Zone, French Alps / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:329-334, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.29 --- R. H. Graham: Gravity sliding in the Maritime Alps / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:335-352, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.30 --- Eurasia --- Ph. Matte and J. P. Burg: Sutures, thrusts and nappes in the Variscan Arc of western Europe: plate tectonic implications / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:353-358, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.31 --- N. H. Woodcock and A. H. F. Robertson: Wrench related thrusting along a Mesozoic-Cenozoic continental margin: Antalya Complex, SW Turkey / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:359-362, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.32 --- R. D. Lawrence, R. S. Yeats, S. H. Khan, A. Farah, and K. A. DeJong: Thrust and strike slip fault interaction along the Chaman transform zone, Pakistan / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:363-370, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.33 --- J. A. Jackson, T. J. Fitch, and D. P. McKenzie: Active thrusting and the evolution of the Zagros fold belt / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:371-379, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.34 --- V. C. Thakur: An overview of thrusts and nappes of western Himalaya / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:381-392, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.35 --- R. von Huene, M. Arthur, and B. Carson: Ambiguity in interpretation of seismic data from modern convergent margins: an example from the IPOD Japan Trench transect / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:393-406, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.36 --- M. G. Audley-Charles: Geometrical problems and implications of large scale over-thrusting in the Banda Arc -Australian margin collision zone / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:407-416, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.37 --- J. Milsom: Neogene thrust emplacement from a frontal arc in New Guinea / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:417-424, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.38 --- IV. Thrust and Nappe Regimes. B. ‘The New World’ --- The Americas --- R. A. Price: The Cordilleran foreland thrust and fold belt in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:427-448, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.39 --- R. I. Thompson: The nature and significance of large ‘blind’ thrusts within the northern Rocky Mountains of Canada / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:449-462, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.40 --- R. L. Brown: Metamorphic complex of SE Canadian Cordillera and relationship to foreland thrusting / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:463-473, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.41 --- H. A. K. Charlesworth and W. E. Kilby: Thrust nappes in the Rocky Mountain Foothills near Mountain Park, Alberta / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:475-482, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.42 --- D. S. Cowan and R. B. Miller: Deformational styles in two Mesozoic fault zones, western Washington, USA / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:483-490, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.43 --- R. D. Hatcher, Jr.: Thrusts and nappes in the North American Appalachian Orogen / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:491-499, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.44 --- J. A. Brewer, F. A. Cook, L. D. Brown, J. E. Oliver, S. Kaufman, and D. S. Albaugh: COCORP seismic reflection profiling across thrust faults / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:501-511, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.45 --- Margaret A. Winslow: Mechanisms for basement shortening in the Andean foreland fold belt of southern South America / Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 9:513-528, doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.1981.009.01.46

Description / Table of Contents: The global energy system faces urgent challenges. Concerns about energy security are growing, as highlighted by the recent political turmoil in Northern Africa and the nuclear incident in Fukushima. At the same time, the need to respond to climate change is more critical than ever. Against this background, many governments have increased efforts to promote deployment of renewable energy – low-carbon sources that can strengthen energy security. This has stimulated unprecedented rise in deployment, and renewables are now the fastest growing sector of the energy mix. This “coming of age” of renewable energy also brings challenges. Growth is focused on a few of the available technologies, and rapid deployment is confined to a relatively small number of countries. In more advanced markets, managing support costs and system integration of large shares of renewable energy in a time of economic weakness and budget austerity has sparked vigorous political debate. The IEA’s new report, Deploying Renewables 2011: Best and Future Policy Practice: - Provides a comprehensive review and analysis of renewable energy policy and market trends; - Analyses in detail the dynamics of deployment and provides best-practice policy principles for different stages of market maturity; - Assesses the impact and cost-effectiveness of support policies using new methodological tools and indicators; - Investigates the strategic reasons underpinning the pursuit of RE deployment by different countries and the prospects for globalisation of RE. This new book builds on and extends a 2008 IEA publication, drawing on recent policy and deployment experience world-wide. It provides guidance for policy makers and other stakeholders to avoid past mistakes, overcome new challenges and reap the benefits of deploying renewables – today and tomorrow.

Description / Table of Contents: Power systems must be actively managed to maintain a steady balance between supply and demand. This is already a complex task as demand varies continually. But what happens when supply becomes more variable and less certain, as with some renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar PV that fluctuate with the weather? To what extent can the resources that help power systems cope with the challenge of variability in demand also be applied to variability of supply? How large are these resources? And what share of electricity supply from variable renewables can they make possible? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The ways electricity is produced, transported and consumed around the world exhibit great diversity. Grids can cross borders, requiring co-ordinated international policy, or can be distinct within a single country or region. And whether found in dispatchable power plants, storage facilities, interconnections for trade or on the demand side, the flexible resource that ensures the provision of reliable power in the face of uncertainty likewise differs enormously. Written for decision makers, Harnessing Variable Renewables: a Guide to the Balancing Challenge sheds light on managing power systems with large shares of variable renewables. It presents a new, step-by-step approach developed by the IEA to assess the flexibility of power systems, which identifies the already present resources that could help meet the twin challenges of variability and uncertainty.

Description / Table of Contents: Smart grids can play an important role in addressing increasingly untenable economic, environmental, and social trends in the supply and use of energy. By enabling increased awareness of system operation and better informed participation by electricity users, smart grids will increase electricity end-use efficiency while optimising network asset utilisation and increasing grid resiliency. They will also enable efficient integration of variable renewables and electric vehicles, as well as new products and services. This roadmap provides a consensus view from more than 200 government, industry, academia and consumer representatives on the current status of smart grid technologies, and charts a course for expanding their use from today to 2050. Smart grids co-ordinate the needs and capabilities of all generators, grid operators, end-users and electricity market stakeholders. This allows the grid system to operate as efficiently as possible, minimising costs and environmental impacts while maximising system reliability, resilience and stability. Smart grids accomplish this optimisation by using digital and other advanced technologies to monitor and manage the transport of electricity from all generation sources to meet the varying electricity demands of end users. These technologies are essential if the global community is to achieve shared goals for energy security, economic development and climate change mitigation. Unfortunately, existing misunderstandings of both what smart grids are and the physical and institutional complexity of electricity systems make it difficult to implement smart grids on the scale that is needed. This roadmap sets out specific steps and describes the milestones that will allow smart grids to help deliver a clean energy future over the coming years.

Description / Table of Contents: As demonstrated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami-triggered blackouts in Japan, electricity shortfalls can happen anytime and anywhere. Countries can minimise the negative economic, social and environmental impacts of such electricity shortfalls by developing emergency energy-saving strategies before a crisis occurs. This new IEA report Saving Electricity in a Hurry: Update 2011 highlights preliminary findings and conclusions from electricity shortfalls in Japan, the United States, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile. It draws on recent analysis to: - reinforce well-established guidelines on diagnosing electricity shortfalls, identifying energy-saving opportunities and selecting a package of energy-saving measures; and - highlight proven practice for implementing emergency energy-saving programmes. This paper will be valuable to government, academic, private-sector and civil-society stakeholders who inform, develop and implement electricity policy in general, and emergency energy-saving programmes in particular.

Description / Table of Contents: Increased focus has been placed on the issues of energy access and energy poverty over the last number of years, most notably indicated by the United Nations (UN) declaring 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”. Although attention in these topics has increased, incorrect assumptions and misunderstandings still arise in both the literature and dialogues. Access to energy does not only include electricity, does not only include cook stoves, but must include access to all types of energy that form the overall energy system. This paper chooses to examine this energy system using a typology that breaks it into 3 primary energy subsystems: heat energy, electricity and transportation. Describing the global energy system using these three subsystems provides a way to articulate the differences and similarities for each system’s required investments needs by the private and public sectors.

Description / Table of Contents: What impact will the return of high energy prices have on the fragile economic recovery? Will geopolitical unrest, price volatility and policy inaction defer investment in the oil sector and amplify risks to our energy security? What will renewed uncertainty surrounding the role of nuclear power mean for future energy and environmental trends? Is the gap between our climate actions and our climate goals becoming insurmountable? World Energy Outlook 2011 tackles these and other pressing questions. The latest data, policy developments, and the experience of another turbulent year are brought together to provide robust analysis and insight into global energy markets. WEO-2011 once again gives detailed energy demand and supply projections out to 2035, broken down by region, fuel, sector and scenario.

Description / Table of Contents: The International Energy Agency’s Energy Efficiency Unit (EEU) has begun a new programme of work on innovative energy-efficiency policies for mitigating fuel poverty. The IEAs current research focuses on the potential for low-income weatherisation programmes to address poor housing quality – the main driver of fuel poverty - as well as innovative methods for financing and evaluating such programmes. A common problem is that the energy-saving benefits accruing to fuel-poor households barely offset the investment required, suggesting a weak return on government spending. However, these investments have additional co-benefits for participants as well as for energy providers, property owners, local communities and society as a whole. This first IEA workshop focused on methods for incorporating the range of co-benefits into evaluation of low-income weatherisation programmes. The presentations given by top experts in the fuel poverty field are summarised in this report, along with conclusions and proposals for further research.

Description / Table of Contents: The production of transport fuels from biomass, in either liquid or gaseous form, holds the promise of a low net fossil-energy requirement and low life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there are many hurdles to the expansion of biofuels production, including competition for agricultural commodities and land, and impacts on water resources and biodiversity. The successful development of advanced biofuels technologies, using non-food biomass feedstocks, could help overcome most barriers and achieve sustainable, very low CO2, cost-effective biofuels. The IEA “Biofuels for Transport” roadmap describes the steps necessary to achieve the ambitious biofuel projections presented in the Energy Technology Perspectives 2010 Blue Map scenario. Under this scenario, biofuel demand increases rapidly, reaching approximately 760 Mtoe (32 EJ) in 2050, a share of 27% of total transport fuel. This roadmap identifies major barriers, opportunities, and policy measures for policy makers, industry and financial partners to accelerate RDD&D efforts for sustainable biofuel technologies and ensure sustainable feedstock provision on both a national and international scale.

Description / Table of Contents: Dimanche 26 décembre 2004. La terre tremble au large des côtes de Sumatra. C’est l’un des plus puissants séismes jamais enregistrés (magnitude 9.3). S’en suit un tsunami cataclysmique, le plus meurtrier de l’histoire avec près de 230 000 victimes. Les vagues ont ravagé les côtes indonésiennes proches, avant de se propager vers la Thaïlande, le Sri Lanka, l’Inde puis les côtes africaines. La province d’Aceh, au nord-ouest de Sumatra, est de loin la plus touchée. La moitié de la ville de Banda Aceh est rasée par des vagues de plus de 15 m de haut, l’eau ayant même atteint une hauteur de 50 m sur les falaises de la côte ouest de Lhok Nga. De nombreux villages sont rayés de la carte. Durant près de deux ans (2005-2006), les scientifiques du programme de recherche « Tsunarisque » se sont relayés sur le terrain pour essayer de décrypter, reconstituer le tsunami dans ses moindres détails, afin de tirer les enseignements d’une catastrophe hors norme et de proposer des stratégies de prévention plus efficaces. Cet ouvrage retrace tout ce travail en trois volets : tout d’abord la reconstitution et la modélisation du tsunami, de l’extension des vagues à la cartographie des dégâts infligés au bâti, ensuite l’impact du tsunami sur l’environnement, et notamment les formes d’érosion et de dépôts, et enfin les aspects socioculturels, des facteurs ethniques aux enjeux de la reconstruction et de la prévention.

Description / Table of Contents: Irrespective of whether we use economic or societal metrics, the Internet is one of the most important technical infrastructures in existence today. It will be a catalyst for much of our innovation and prosperity in the future. A competitive Europe will require Internet connectivity and services beyond the capabilities offered by current technologies. Future Internet research is therefore a must.  This book is published in full compliance with the Open Access publishing initiative; it is based on the research carried out within the Future Internet Assembly (FIA). It contains a sample of representative results from the recent FIA meetings spanning a broad range of topics, all being of crucial importance for the future Internet.  The book includes 32 contributions and has been structured into the following sections, each of which is preceded by a short introduction: Foundations: architectural issues; socio-economic issues; security and trust; and experiments and experimental design. Future Internet Areas: networks, services, and content; and applications

Description / Table of Contents: A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. This book examines the emergence of both financial markets and carbon markets, and provides an in-depth investigation on the fundamental determinants of financial development

Description / Table of Contents: This volume brings together a collection of papers that summarize current ideas and recent progress in the study of granite-related mineralization systems. They provide a combination of field, experimental and theoretical studies. Papers are grouped according to the main granite-related ore systems: granite-pegmatite, skarn and greisen-veins, porphyry, orogenic gold, intrusion-related, epithermal and porphyry-related gold and base metal, iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG), and special case studies. The studies provide a broad spread in terms of both space and time, highlighting granite-related ore deposits from Europe (Russia, Sweden, Croatia and Turkey), the Middle East (Iran), Asia (Japan and China) and South America (Brazil and Argentina) and spanning rocks from Palaeoproterozoic to Miocene in age.

Description / Table of Contents: Fold-and-thrust belts occur worldwide, have formed in all eras of geological time, and are widely recognized as the most common mode in which the crust accommodates shortening. Much current research on the structure of fold-and-thrust belts is focused on structural studies of regions or individual structures and on the geometry and evolution of these regions employing kinematic, mechanical and experimental modelling. In keeping with the main trends of current research, this title is devoted to the kinematic evolution and structural styles of a number of fold-and-thrust belts formed from Palaeozoic to Recent times. The papers included in this book cover a broad range of different topics, from modelling approaches to predict internal deformation of single structures, 3D reconstructions to decipher the structural evolution of groups of structures, palaeomagnetic studies of portions of fold-and-thrust belts, geometrical and kinematical aspects of Coulomb thrust wedges and structural analyses of fold-and-thrust belts to unravel their sequence of deformations.

Description / Table of Contents: Despite agreement on first-order features and mechanisms, critical aspects of the origin and evolution of the Tibetan Plateau, such as the exact timing and nature of collision, the initiation of plateau uplift, and the evolution of its height and width, are disputed, untested or unknown. This book gathers papers dealing with the growth and collapse of the Tibetan Plateau. The timing, the underlying mechanisms, their interactions and the induced surface shaping, contributing to the Tibetan Plateau evolution are tightly linked via coupled and feedback processes. We present interdisciplinary contributions allowing insight into the complex interactions between lithospheric dynamics, topography building, erosion, hydrological processes and atmospheric coupling. The book is structured in four parts: early processes in the plateau formation; recent growth of the Tibetan Plateau; mechanisms of plateau growth; and plateau uplift, surface processes and the monsoon.

Description / Table of Contents: This study on Poland is part of the World Bank's series of low-carbon growth studies. It poses the question of how Poland, an EU member state, an industrialized 'Annex I' country for the purposes of international climate discussions,1 and an OECD member, can transition to a low emissions economy as successfully as it underwent transition to a market economy in the early 1990s. With a broad consensus that global coordinated action is needed to prevent dangerous climate change estimated to cost about 1 percent of global GDP) and with EU policies on climate change already in place, Poland faces immediate policy challenges. Could the country commit to more ambitious overall greenhouse gas mitigation targets for the longer term - to 2030 and beyond? What technological options are available, and how expensive are they compared with existing technologies? Would there be high costs in lost growth and employment? Over a shorter horizon, to 2020, what are the implications for Poland of implementing EU policies on climate change? The report addresses these questions while advancing the approach of the Bank's low carbon studies by integrating 'bottom-up' engineering analysis with 'top-down' economy-wide modeling.

Description / Table of Contents: International Conference on Spectral Theory of Diffenential Operators

Description / Table of Contents: This book provides an interdisciplinary view of how to prepare the ecological and socio-economic systems to the reality of climate change. Scientifically sound tools are needed to predict its effects on regional, rather than global, scales, as it is the level at which socio-economic plans are designed and natural ecosystem reacts. The first section of this book describes a series of methods and models to downscale the global predictions of climate change, estimate its effects on biophysical systems and monitor the changes as they occur. To reduce the magnitude of these changes, new ways of economic activity must be implemented. The second section of this book explores different options to reduce greenhouse emissions from activities such as forestry, industry and urban development. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that climate change can be minimized, but not avoided, and therefore the socio-economic systems around the world will have to adapt to the new conditions to reduce the adverse impacts to the minimum. The last section of this book explores some options for adaptation.

Description / Table of Contents: The book deals with several aspects of soil erosion, focusing on its connection with the agricultural world. Chapters’ topics are various, ranging from irrigation practices to soil nutrient, land use changes or tillage methodologies. The book is subdivided into fourteen chapters, sorted in four sections, grouping different facets of the topic: introductive case studies, erosion management in vineyards, soil erosion issue in dry environments, and erosion control practices. Certainly, due to the extent of the subject, the book is not a comprehensive collection of soil erosion studies, but it aims to supply a sound set of scientific works, concerning the topic. It analyzes different facets of the issue, with various methodologies, and offers a wide series of case studies, solutions, practices, or suggestions to properly face soil erosion and, moreover, may provide new ideas and starting points for future researches.

Description / Table of Contents: Understanding the sediments deposited by glaciers or other cold-climate processes assumes enhanced significance in the context of current global warming and the predicted melt and retreat of glaciers and ice sheets. This volume analyses glacial, proglacial and periglacial settings focusing, among others, on sedimentation at termini of tidewater glaciers, on hitherto not-well-understood high-mountain features, and on sediments such as slope and aeolian deposits whose clasts were sourced in glacial and periglacial regions, but have been transported and deposited by azonal processes. Difficulties are thus often encountered in inferring Pleistocene and pre-Pleistocene cold-climate conditions when the sedimentary record lacks many of the specific diagnostic indicators. The main objective of this volume is to establish the validity and limitations of the evidence that can be obtained from widely distributed clastic deposits, in order to achieve reliable palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic reconstructions. At a more general level and on the much longer geological timescale, an understanding of ice-marginal and periglacial environments may better prepare us for the unavoidable reversal towards cooler and perhaps even glacial times in the future.

Description / Table of Contents: Sediment Transport in Aquatic Environments is a book which covers a wide range of topics. The effective management of many aquatic environments, requires a detailed understanding of sediment dynamics. This has both environmental and economic implications, especially where there is any anthropogenic involvement. Numerical models are often the tool used for predicting the transport and fate of sediment movement in these situations, as they can estimate the various spatial and temporal fluxes. However, the physical sedimentary processes can vary quite considerably depending upon whether the local sediments are fully cohesive, non-cohesive, or a mixture of both types. For this reason for more than half a century, scientists, engineers, hydrologists and mathematicians have all been continuing to conduct research into the many aspects which influence sediment transport. These issues range from processes such as erosion and deposition to how sediment process observations can be applied in sediment transport modeling frameworks. This book reports the findings from recent research in applied sediment transport which has been conducted in a wide range of aquatic environments. The research was carried out by researchers who specialize in the transport of sediments and related issues. I highly recommend this textbook to both scientists and engineers who deal with sediment transport issues.

Description / Table of Contents: Biomass has been an intimate companion of humans from the dawn of civilization to the present. Its use as food, energy source, body cover and as construction material established the key areas of biomass usage that extend to this day. Given the complexities of biomass as a source of multiple end products, this volume sheds new light to the whole spectrum of biomass related topics by highlighting the new and reviewing the existing methods of its detection, production and usage. We hope that the readers will find valuable information and exciting new material in its chapters.

Description / Table of Contents: The African continent preserves a long geological record that covers almost 75% of Earth's history. The Pan-Africanorogeny (c.600–500 Ma) brought together old continental kernels (West Africa, Congo, Kalahari and Tanzania) to form Gondwana and subsequently the supercontinent Pangaea by the late Palaeozoic. The break-up of Pangaea since the Jurassic and Cretaceous, primarily through opening of the Central Atlantic, Indian, and South Atlantic oceans, in combination with the complicated subduction history to the north, gradually shaped the African continent. This volume contains 18 contributions that discuss the geology of Africa from the Archaean to the present day. It celebrates African geology in two ways: first, it highlights multidisciplinary Earth science research by viewing the formation and evolution of Africa from 18 different angles; second, it celebrates the work of Kevin Burke and Lewis Ashwal and portrays the wide range of interests and research angles that have characterized these two scientists throughout their careers, working in Africa, and studying African geology.

Description / Table of Contents: Over the years, environmental change has sharpened significant dynamic evolution and knowledge in organizational structures of organisms, from cellular/molecular to macro-organism level including our society. Changes in social and ecological systems due to environmental change will hopefully result in a shift towards sustainability, with legislative and government entities responding to diverse policy and management issues concerning the building, management and restoration of social-ecological systems on a regional and global scale. Solutions are particularly needed at the regional level, where physical features of the landscape, biological systems and human institutions interact. The purpose of this book is to disseminate both theoretical and applied studies on interactions between human and natural systems from multidisciplinary research perspectives on global environmental change. It combines interdisciplinary approaches, long-term research and a practical solution to the increasing intensity of problems related to environmental change, and is intended for a broad target audience ranging from students to specialists.

Description / Table of Contents: Ecosystems can be considered as dynamic and interactive clusters made up of plants, animals and micro-organism communities. Inevitably, mankind is an integral part of each ecosystem and as such enjoys all its provided benefits. Driven by the increasing necessity to preserve the ecosystem productivity, several ecological studies have been conducted in the last few years, highlighting the current state in which our planet is, and focusing on future perspectives. This book contains comprehensive overviews and original studies focused on hazard analysis and evaluation of ecological variables affecting species diversity, richness and distribution, in order to identify the best management strategies to face and solve the conservation problems.

Description / Table of Contents: Aquaculture is the art, science and business of cultivating aquatic animals and plants in fresh or marine waters. It is the extension of fishing, resulted from the fact that harvests of wild sources of fish and other aquatic species cannot keep up with the increased demand of a growing human population. Expansion of aquaculture can result with less care for the environment. The first pre-requisite to sustainable aquaculture is clean wate, but bad management of aquatic species production can alter or even destroy existing wild habitat, increase local pollution levels or negatively impact local species. Aquatic managers are aware of this and together with scientists are looking for modern and more effective solutions to many issues regarding fish farming. This book presents recent research results on the interaction between aquaculture and environment, and includes several case studies all over the world with the aim of improving and performing sustainable aquaculture.

Description / Table of Contents: The objective of this multi-disciplinary book is to provide a collection of expert writing on different aspects of pre- and post- tsunami developments and management techniques. It is intended to be distributed within the scientific community and among the decision makers for tsunami risk reduction. The presented chapters have been thoroughly reviewed and accepted for publication. It presents advanced methods for tsunami measurement using Ocean-bottom pressure sensor, kinematic GPS buoy, satellite altimetry, Paleotsunami, Ionospheric sounding, early warning system, and scenario based numerical modeling. It continues to present case studies from the Northern Caribbean, Makran region and Tamil Nadu coast in India. Furthermore, classifying tsunamis into local, regional and global, their possible impact on the region and its immediate vicinity is highlighted. It also includes the effects of tsunami hazard on the coastal environment and infrastructure (structures, lifelines, water resources, bridges, dykes, etc.); and finally the need for emergency medical response preparedness and the prevention of psychological consequences of the affected survivors has been discussed.

Description / Table of Contents: We are increasingly faced with environmental problems and required to make important decisions. In many cases an understanding of one or more geologic processes is essential to finding the appropriate solution. Earth and Environmental Sciences are by their very nature a dynamic field in which new issues continue to arise and old ones often evolve. The principal aim of this book is to present the reader with a broad overview of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Hopefully, this recent research will provide the reader with a useful foundation for discussing and evaluating specific environmental issues, as well as for developing ideas for problem solving. The book has been divided into nine sections; Geology, Geochemistry, Seismology, Hydrology, Hydrogeology, Mineralogy, Soil, Remote Sensing and Environmental Sciences.

Description / Table of Contents: Every ecosystem is a complex organization of carefully mixed life forms; a dynamic and particularly sensible system. Consequently, their progressive decline may accelerate climate change and vice versa, influencing flora and fauna composition and distribution, resulting in the loss of biodiversity. Climate changes effects are the principal topics of this volume. Written by internationally renowned contributors, Biodiversity loss in a changing planet offers attractive study cases focused on biodiversity evaluations and provisions in several different ecosystems, analysing the current life condition of many life forms, and covering very different biogeographic zones of the planet.

Description / Table of Contents: Driven by the increasing necessity to define the biological diversity frame of widespread, endemic and threatened species, as well as by the stimulating chance to describe new species, the study of the evolutive and spatial dynamics is in constant execution. Systematic overviews, biogeographic and phylogenic backgrounds, species composition and distribution in restricted areas are focal topics of the 15 interesting independent chapters collected in this book, chosen to offer to the reader an overall view of the present condition in which our planet is.

Description / Table of Contents: Biological Diversity and Sustainable Resources Use is a very interesting volume, including attractive overviews and original case studies mainly focused on socio-economical effects of the right management of the ecosystems biodiversity, as well as on the useful integration between human activities and environmental responses. Ecological, medical and historical aspects of the sustainable development are also discussed in this book which consists of articles written by international experts, offering the reader a clear and extensive view of the present condition in which our planet is.

Description / Table of Contents: As everybody knows, the dynamic interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, as well as the anthropic ones, considerably affect global climate changes and consequently biology, ecology and distribution of life forms of our planet. These important natural events affect all ecosystems, causing important changes on biodiversity. Systematic and phylogenetic studies, biogeographic distribution analysis and evaluations of diversity richness are focal topics of this book written by international experts, some even considering economical effects and future perspectives on the managing and conservation plans.

Description / Table of Contents: Submarine earthquakes, submarine slides and impacts may set large water volumes in motion characterized by very long wavelengths and a very high speed of lateral displacement, when reaching shallower water the wave breaks in over land – often with disastrous effects. This natural phenomenon is known as a tsunami event. By December 26, 2004, an event in the Indian Ocean, this word suddenly became known to the public. The effects were indeed disastrous and 227,898 people were killed. Tsunami events are a natural part of the Earth’s geophysical system. There have been numerous events in the past and they will continue to be a threat to humanity; even more so today, when the coastal zone is occupied by so much more human activity and many more people. Therefore, tsunamis pose a very serious threat to humanity. The only way for us to face this threat is by increased knowledge so that we can meet future events by efficient warning systems and aid organizations. This book offers extensive and new information on tsunamis; their origin, history, effects, monitoring, hazards assessment and proposed handling with respect to precaution. Only through knowledge do we know how to behave in a wise manner. This book should be a well of tsunami knowledge for a long time, we hope.

Description / Table of Contents: The phenomena related to the flow of fluids are generally complex, and difficult to quantify. New approaches - considering points of view still not explored - may introduce useful tools in the study of Hydrodynamics and the related transport phenomena. The details of the flows and the properties of the fluids must be considered on a very small scale perspective. Consequently, new concepts and tools are generated to better describe the fluids and their properties. This volume presents conclusions about advanced topics of calculated and observed flows. It contains eighteen chapters, organized in five sections: 1) Mathematical Models in Fluid Mechanics, 2) Biological Applications and Biohydrodynamics, 3) Detailed Experimental Analyses of Fluids and Flows, 4) Radiation-, Electro-, Magnetohydrodynamics, and Magnetorheology, 5) Special Topics on Simulations and Experimental Data. These chapters present new points of view about methods and tools used in Hydrodynamics.

Description / Table of Contents: Medianatures picks up from Donna Haraway’s idea of naturecultures – the topological continuum between nature and culture, the material entwining and enfolding of various agencies, meanings and interactions. Medianatures gives the concept of naturecultures a specific emphasis, and that emphasis is at the core of this living book. It is a useful concept and framework for investigating some of the ways in which our electronic and high-tech media culture is entwined with a variety of material agencies. The notion of ‘materiality’ is taken here in a literal sense to refer, for instance, to ‘plasma reactions and ion implantation’ (Yoshida, 1994: 105) – as in processes of semiconductor fabrication, or to an alternative list of media studies objects and components which are studied from an e-waste management perspective: ‘metal, motor/compressor, cooling, plastic, insulation, glass, LCD, rubber, wiring/electrical, concrete, transformer, magnetron, textile, circuit board, fluorescent lamp, incandescent lamp, heating element, thermostat, brominated flamed retardant (BFR)-containing plastic, batteries, CFC/HCFC/HFC/HC, external electric cables, refractory ceramic fibers, radioactive substances and electrolyte capacitors (over L/D 25 mm)’, and which themselves are constituted from a range of materials – plastics, wood, plywood, copper, aluminum, silver, gold, palladium, lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants (Pinto, 2008). In short, media are of nature, and return to nature – where the production process for our media devices, from screens to circuits, networks to interfaces, involves the standardization and mass-mobilization of minerals and other materialities. Discarded media technologies are themselves part of such a regime of natural ‘things’ – whether picked apart in an Asian recycling village, or then left to decay in urban or rural places. The natural affords our cultural agencies and assemblages – including media practices and concrete devices – and all of that comes back to nature. The articles selected express this materiality at the core of media technological culture, and the various ecological ties these themes share with the current political economy. They range from perspectives in environmental sciences concerning e-waste and the management of electronic media remains to computer science and ideas in green computing – as well as showcasing articles and reports about the production and dismantling of things such as Cathode Ray Tubes and LCD-displays. Hence, this living book is not only about life, but also about death and dead media – but dead media in a very concrete sense of media as the death of nature, biological processes and organisms (including humans).

Description / Table of Contents: Nowadays, the increasing use of power electronics equipment origins important distortions. The perfect AC power systems are a pure sinusoidal wave, both voltage and current, but the ever-increasing existence of non-linear loads modify the characteristics of voltage and current from the ideal sinusoidal wave. This deviation from the ideal wave is reflected by the harmonics and, although its effects vary depending on the type of load, it affects the efficiency of an electrical system and can cause considerable damage to the systems and infrastructures. Ensuring optimal power quality after a good design and devices means productivity, efficiency, competitiveness and profitability. Nevertheless, nobody can assure the optimal power quality when there is a good design if the correct testing and working process from the obtained data is not properly assured at every instant; this entails processing the real data correctly. In this book the reader will be introduced to the harmonics analysis from the real measurement data and to the study of different industrial environments and electronic devices.

Description / Table of Contents: To better understand the contemporary world, the world of innovation and technology, science should try to synthesize and assimilate social science in the development of our civilization. Does the new era require new knowledge? Does the age of globalization demand new education, new human attitudes? This books tries to clarify these questions. The book New Knowledge in a New Era of Globalization consists of 16 chapters divided into three sections: Globalization and Education; Globalization and Human Being; Globalization and Space. The Authors of respective chapters represent a great diversity of disciplines and methodological approaches as well as a variety of academic culture. This book is a valuable contribution and it will certainly be appreciated by a global community of scholars.

Description / Table of Contents: With growing attention on global environmental and climate change, geoscience has experienced rapid change and development in the last three decades. Many new data, methods and modeling techniques have been developed and applied in various aspects of geoscience. The chapters collected in this book present an excellent profile of the current state of various data, analysis methods and modeling techniques, and demonstrate their applications from hydrology, geology and paleogeomorphology, to geophysics, environmental and climate change. The wide range methods and techniques covered in the book include information systems and technology, global position system (GPS), digital sediment core image analysis, fuzzy set theory for hydrology, spatial interpolation, spectral analysis of geophysical data, GIS-based hydrological models, high resolution geological models, 3D sedimentology, change detection from remote sensing, etc. Besides two comprehensive review articles, most chapters focus on in-depth studies of a particular method or technique.

Description / Table of Contents: In the early 21st century, research and development of sustainable energy harvesting (EH) technologies have started. Since then, many EH technologies have evolved, advanced and even been successfully developed into hardware prototypes for sustaining the operational lifetime of low?power electronic devices like mobile gadgets, smart wireless sensor networks, etc. Energy harvesting is a technology that harvests freely available renewable energy from the ambient environment to recharge or put used energy back into the energy storage devices without the hassle of disrupting or even discontinuing the normal operation of the specific application. With the prior knowledge and experience developed over a decade ago, progress of sustainable EH technologies research is still intact and ongoing. EH technologies are starting to mature and strong synergies are formulating with dedicate application areas. To move forward, now would be a good time to setup a review and brainstorm session to evaluate the past, investigate and think through the present and understand and plan for the future sustainable energy harvesting technologies.

Description / Table of Contents: This book on X-ray Crystallography is a compilation of current trends in the use of X-ray crystallography and related structural determination methods in various fields. The methods covered here include single crystal small-molecule X-ray crystallography, macromolecular (protein) single crystal X-ray crystallography, and scattering and spectroscopic complimentary methods. The fields range from simple organic compounds, metal complexes to proteins, and also cover the meta-analyses of the database for weak interactions.

Description / Table of Contents: The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify cause-and-effect chains and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiological information can be extracted not only from visible remains of organisms, but also from organic molecules, rock fabrics, minerals, isotopes and other tracers. Exploring these processes and their signatures also creates enormous applied potentials with respect to issues of environment protection, public health, energy and resource management. The Encyclopedia of Geobiology is designed as a key reference for students, researchers, teachers, and the informed public to provide basic, but comprehensible knowledge on this rapidly expanding discipline at the interface between modern geo- and biosciences.

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Die Energiewende 2011 in Deutschland: Ein Vademecum für die Diskussion? / Robert Schlögl --- 2. Smarte Ideen für zukünftige Stromnetze / Christian Rehtanz --- 3. Energie aus der Tiefe: Geothermie / Rüdiger Schulz --- 4. Forschung zur sicheren Endlagerung radioaktiver Abfälle / Tilmann Rothfuchs, Thomas Brasser, Horst-Jürgen Herbert, Jörg Mönig, Ingo Müller-Lyda --- 5. Chancen und Risiken der CO2-Speicherung / Michael Kühn --- 6. Perspektiven für eine effiziente und nachhaltige Mobilität / Rolf Scharwächter --- 7. Strom aus der Wüste: Grundlagen des DESERTEC Konzepts / Franz Trieb, Hans Müller-Steinhagen --- 8. Energie ist Chemie – Katalyse als Schlüsseltechnik. Energie von Morgen: Eine Momentaufnahme / Malte Behrens, Robert Schlögl --- 9. Einleitung / Mittagssymposium: Dolmetscher der Kulturen Energie zwischen Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften Ein Streitgespräch / Gerhard Schaefer --- 10. Verschiedene Sprachkulturen rund um Energie / Gerhard Schaefer --- 11. Zitate zur Anregung der Diskussion / Gerhard Schaefer --- 12. Reaktionen der zwei Kontrahenten im Streitgespräch / Dietrich v. Engelhardt, Gunnar Berg --- 13. Fazit / Gerhard Schaefer