ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: This document presents the Policy-makers Summary of the 2015 AMAP Assessments of Pollution Issues (POPs Trends; Radioactivity in the Arctic; Human Health in the Arctic).

Description / Table of Contents: This document presents the Policy-maker’s Summary of the 2015 AMAP Assessments of Short-lived Climate Pollutants (Methane, Black carbon and Ozone).

Description / Table of Contents: As we move from the era of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it is important to consider how development agendas are set, the progress that has been made over the past 15 years, and how current debates are shaping global development efforts for the next 15. This book was, produced as part of a University College London-London International Development Centre research collaboration entitled, "Thinking Beyond Sectors for Sustainable Development". The aim of the book is to provide a concise introduction to the debates in a number of vital development sectors, review progress made in each sector, and to consider how looking beyond sectors might open new opportunities for inclusive, sustainable development. Each chapter in this book was produced collaboratively by academics from a wide number of disciplines. As such, it represents a truly interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral effort, of the kind that will be necessary for successful development and implementation of future international development goals.

Description / Table of Contents: This book is a collection of chapters, concerning the developments within the Agroecology field of study. The book includes scholarly contributions by various authors pertinent to Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Each contribution comes as a separate chapter complete in itself but directly related to the book's topics and objectives. The target audience comprises scholars and specialists in the field.

Description / Table of Contents: The propulsion system behaviour is a key aspect for the overall dynamics of a ship. However, despite its great importance, numerical methodologies for detailed investigations on marine propulsion dynamics are not yet widely covered in scientific literature. This book presents the main steps for the development of a multi-physic simulation platform, able to represent the motions of a twin screw ship in six degrees of freedom, taking into account the whole propulsion system and automation effects. A number of mathematical sub-models had been developed and calibrated by a set of experimental tests, in model and full scale. Finally, the sea trials campaign of a ship is used to validate and tune the developed simulator. The proposed simulation methodology can be used in the ship preliminary design phase, in order to plan and test the propulsion system and automation. Further applications can include the design optimization and crew training.

Description / Table of Contents: The textbook begins with exercises related to radioactive sources and decay schemes. The problems covered include series decay and how to determine the frequency and energy of emitted particles in disintegrations. The next chapter deals with the interaction of ionizing radiation, including the treatment of photons and charged particles. The main focus is on applications based on the knowledge of interaction, to be used in subsequent work and courses. The textbook then examines detectors and measurements, including both counting statistics and properties of pulse detectors. The chapter that follows is dedicated to dosimetry, which is a major subject in medical radiation physics. It covers theoretical applications, such as different equilibrium situations and cavity theories, as well as experimental dosimetry, including ionization chambers and solid state and liquid dosimeters. A shorter chapter deals with radiobiology, where different cell survival models are considered. The last chapter concerns radiation protection and health physics. Both radioecology and radiation shielding calculations are covered. The textbook includes tables to simplify the solutions of the exercises, but the reader is mainly referred to important websites for importing necessary data.

Description / Table of Contents: The book focuses on the educational perspective of Riemann-Roch spaces and the computation of algebraic structures connected to the Riemann-Roch theorem, which is a useful tool in fields of complex analysis and algebraic geometry. On one hand, the theorem connects the Riemann surface with its topological genus, and on the other it allows us to compute the algebraic function field spaces. In the first part of this book, algebraic structures and some of their properties are presented. The second part shows efficient algorithms and examples connected to Riemann-Roch spaces. What is important, a variety of examples with codes of algorithms are given in the book, covering the majority of the cases.

Description / Table of Contents: In the wake of energy crisis due to rapid growth of industries, the efficient heat transfer could play a vital role in energy saving. Industries, household equipment, transportation, offices, etc., all are dependent on heat exchanging equipment. Considering this, the book has incorporated different chapters on heat transfer phenomena, analytical and experimental heat transfer investigations, heat transfer enhancement and applications.

Description / Table of Contents: This edited book, Emerging Pollutants in the Environment Current and Further Implications, includes overviews by significant researchers on the topic of emerging pollutants toxicology, which covers the hazardous effects of common emerging xenobiotics employed in our every day anthropogenic activities. We hope that this book will meet the expectations and needs of all those who are interested in the negative implications of several emerging pollutants on living species.

Description / Table of Contents: Continuation along current development pathways is not sustainable. Available technology and production practices and the consumption patterns of modern societies are leading to global warming and ecological destruction. Business as usual is not an option. There is an urgent need to find a new development paradigm that ensures environmental sustainability while managing to provide, now and in the future, a decent livelihood for all of humankind. In Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development, experts in the area provide a variety of insights about the technical transformation needed for sustainable development. It spells out the behavioural and policy changes that would need to accompany the next technological transformation, taking into account the complexity of inducing technological change in the energy and agricultural sectors. The assessment suggests that this will require major, but doable improvements in national innovation systems and major, but affordable shifts in investment patterns and related macroeconomic adjustments.

Description / Table of Contents: Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water for the purposes intended for. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance can be assessed. The most common standards used to assess water quality relate to health of ecosystems, safety of human contact and potable drinking water. A range of diverse topics in the field of water quality modelling, statistical evaluation and guidelines pertaining to the best management practices in different locations around the world is given herein. Modelling of water quality in rivers and lakes, statistical methods and membrane filter performance are subject matters of interest considering in-situ water, potable water, water re-use, etc.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Problem of Residue Management due to Rice Wheat Crop Rotation in Punjab --- Chapter 2: The Extent and Management of Crop Stubble --- Chapter 3: Valuation of the Health Impact --- Chapter 4: Alternative Uses of Crop Stubble --- Chapter 5: Environment Legislation in India as a Whole and in the State of Punjab --- Chapter 6: Policies for Restricting the Agriculture Residue Burning in Punjab --- Chapter 7: Concluding Remarks and Policy Implications --- References --- Annexure

Description / Table of Contents: Microbial carbonates (microbialites) are remarkable sedimentary deposits. They have the longest geological range of any type of biogenic limestones, form in the greatest range of different sedimentary environments, oxygenated the Earth's atmosphere and produce and, furthermore, store large volumes of hydrocarbons. This Special Publication provides significant contributions at a pivotal time in our understanding of microbial carbonates when their economic importance has become established and the results of many research programmes are coming to fruition. It is the first book to focus on the economic aspects of microbialites and in particular the giant pre-salt discoveries offshore Brazil. The volume contains papers on the processes involved in the formation of both ancient and modern microbialites and the diversity of style in microbial carbonate build-ups. Structures and fabrics from both marine and non-marine settings are discussed from throughout the geological record.

Description / Table of Contents: The practical application of structural geology in industry is varied and diverse; it is relevant at all scales, from plate-wide screening of new exploration areas down to fluid-flow behaviour along individual fractures. From an industry perspective, good structural practice is essential since it feeds into the quantification and recovery of reserves and ultimately underpins commercial investment choices. Many of the fundamental structural principles and techniques used by industry can be traced back to the academic community, and this volume aims to provide insights into how structural theory translates into industry practice. Papers in this publication describe case studies and workflows that demonstrate applied structural geology, covering a spread of topics including trap definition, fault seal, fold-and-thrust belts, fractured reservoirs, fluid flow and geomechanics. Against a background of evolving ideas, new data types and advancing computational tools, the volume highlights the need for structural geologists to constantly re-evaluate the role they play in solving industrial challenges.

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- Preface --- Part 1 A brief history of marine litter research --- Part 2 Abiotic aspects of marine litter pollution --- Global distribution, composition and abundance of marine litter --- Persistence of plastic litter in the oceans --- Part 3 Biological implications of marine litter --- Deleterious effects of litter on marine life --- The complex mixture, fate and toxicity of chemicals associated with plastic debris in the marine environment --- Marine litter as habitat and dispersal vector --- Part 4 Micro plastics --- Micro plastics in the marine environment: sources, consequences and solutions --- Methodology used for the detection and identification of micro plastics – a critical appraisal --- Sources and pathways of micro plastics to habitats --- Micro plastics in the marine environment: distribution, interactions and effects --- Modeling the role of micro plastics in bioaccumulation of organic chemicals to marine aquatic organisms. A critical review --- Nano plastics in the aquatic environment. Critical review --- Part 5 Socio-economic implications of marine anthropogenic litter --- Micro and nano-plastics and human health --- The economics of marine litter --- Regulation and management of marine litter --- Marine litter and the contribution of citizen science

Description / Table of Contents: In the last several years, much has been written about growing economic challenges, increasing income inequality, and political polarization in the United States. Addressing these new realities in America’s metropolitan regions, this book argues that a few lessons are emerging: first, inequity is bad for economic growth; second, bringing together the concerns of equity and growth requires concerted local action; and third, the fundamental building block for doing this is the creation of diverse and dynamic epistemic (or knowledge) communities, which help to overcome political polarization and to address the challenges of economic restructuring and social divides.

Description / Table of Contents: This book covers a wide variety of topics related to advancements in different stages of mass transfer modelling processes. Its purpose is to create a platform for the exchange of recent observations, experiences, and achievements. It is recommended for those in the chemical, biotechnological, pharmaceutical, and nanotechnology industries as well as for students of natural sciences, technical, environmental and employees in companies which manufacture machines for the above-mentioned industries. This work can also be a useful source for researchers and engineers dealing with mass transfer and related issues.

Description / Table of Contents: The petrochemical industry is an important area in our pursuits for economic growth, employment generation, and basic needs. It is a huge field that encompasses many commercial petrochemical and polymer-enabled products. The book is designed to help the reader, particularly students and researchers of petroleum science and engineering, to understand synthesis, processing, mechanics, and simulation of the petroleum processes. The selection of topics addressed and the examples, tables, and graphs used to illustrate them are governed, to a large extent, by the fact that this book is aimed primarily at petroleum science and engineering technologists. Undoubtedly, this book contains must read materials for students, engineers, and researchers working in the area of petrochemicals and petroleum and provides valuable insights into the related synthesis, processing, mechanisms, and simulation. This book is concise, self-explanatory, informative, and cost-effective.

Description / Table of Contents: Air pollution is thus far one of the key environmental issues in urban areas. Comprehensive air quality plans are required to manage air pollution for a particular area. Consequently, air should be continuously sampled, monitored, and modeled to examine different action plans. Reviews and research papers describe air pollution in five main contexts: Monitoring, Modeling, Risk Assessment, Health, and Indoor Air Pollution. The book is recommended to experts interested in health and air pollution issues.

Description / Table of Contents: This book contains a collection of research works focused on the biodegradation of different types of pollutants, both in water and solids. The book is divided in three major sections: A) Biodegradation of organic pollutants in solids and wastewater, B) Biodegradation of complex pollutants, and C) Novel technologies in biodegradation and bioremediation.

Description / Table of Contents: Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth. They are distributed across the globe. Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earth's biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earth's plant biomass. Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways. Forests provide ecosystem services to humans. Forests can also impose costs, affect people's health, and interfere with tourist enjoyment. This publication presents reviews and research results on negative and positive human interference on forests, as well as ecology, management, governance, policy and economic issues. The book consists of four sections with 12 chapters derived from around the world.

Description / Table of Contents: China’s road to sustainability has attracted global attention. Since the “Reform & Opening Up” policy, China’s rapid pace of both urbanization and industrialization has made its being the second largesteconomy but meantime a heavy environmental price has been paid over the past few decades for addressing the economic developmental target. Today, as the biggest developing country, China needs to take more responsibilities for constructing its local ecological-civilization society as well as for addressingthe global challenges such as climate change, resources scary and human beings well-fare; therefore, weneed to have deeper understandings into China’s way to sustainability at very different levels, bothspatially and structurally, concerns ranging from generating sustainable household livelihoods to globalclimate change, from developing technological applications to generate institutional changes. In thisspirit, this publication, “Sustainability in China: Bridging Global Knowledge with Local Action” aims to investigate the intended and spontaneous issues concerning China’s road to sustainability in a combined top-down and bottom-up manner, linking international knowledge to local-based studies.

Description / Table of Contents: The pore scale is readily recognizable to geochemists, and yet in the past it has not received a great deal of attention as a distinct scale or environment that is associated with its own set of questions and challenges. Is the pore scale merely an environment in which smaller scale (molecular) processes aggregate, or are there emergent phenomena unique to this scale? Is it simply a finer-grained version of the “continuum” scale that is addressed in larger-scale models and interpretations? We would argue that the scale is important because it accounts for the pore architecture within which such diverse processes as multi-mineral reaction networks, microbial community interaction, and transport play out, giving rise to new geochemical behavior that might not be understood or predicted by considering smaller or larger scales alone. Fortunately, the last few years have seen a marked increase in the interest in pore-scale geochemical and mineralogical topics, making a Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry volume on the subject timely. The volume had its origins in a special theme session at the 2015 Goldschmidt Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, August 16-21, 2015, where at least some of the contributors to this volume gave presentations. From the diversity of pore-scale topics in the session that spanned the range from multi-scale characterization to modeling, it became clear that the time was right for a volume that would summarize the state of the science. Based in part on the evidence in the chapters included here, we would argue that the convergence of state of the art microscopic characterization and high performance pore scale reactive transport modeling has made it possible to address a number of long-standing questions and enigmas in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. Among these is the so-called “laboratory-field discrepancy” in geochemical reaction rates, which may be traceable in part to the failure to consider porescale geochemical issues that include chemical and physical heterogeneity, suppression of precipitation in nanopores, and transport limitations to and from reactive mineral surfaces. This RiMG volume includes contributions that review experimental, characterization, and modeling advances in our understanding of pore-scale geochemical processes. The volume begins with chapters authored or co-authored by two of the éminences grises in the field of pore-scale geochemistry and mineralogy, two who have made what is perhaps the strongest case that the pore-scale is distinct and requires special consideration in geochemistry. The chapter by Andrew Putnis gives a high level overview of how the pore-scale architecture of natural porous media impacts geochemical processes, and how porosity evolves as a result of these. The chapter makes the first mention of what is an important theme in this volume, namely the modification of thermodynamics and kinetics in small pores. In a chapter authored by Røyne and Jamtveit, the authors investigate the effects of mineral precipitation on porosity and permeability modification of rock. Their principal focus is on the case where porosity reduction results in fracturing of the rock, in the absence of which the reactions will be suppressed due to the lack of pore space. The next chapter by Emmanuel, Anovitz, and Day-Stirrat addresses chemo-mechanical processes and how they affect porosity evolution in geological media. The next chapter by Anovitz and Cole provides a comprehensive review of the approaches for characterizing and analyzing porosity in porous media. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) plays prominently as a technique in this chapter. Stack presents a review of what is known about mineral precipitation in pores and how this may differ from precipitation in bulk solution. Liu, Liu, Kerisit, and Zachara focus on porescale process coupling and the determination of effective (or upscaled) surface reaction rates in heterogeneous subsurface materials. Micro-continuum modeling approaches are investigated by Steefel, Beckingham, and Landrot, where the case is made that these may provide a useful tool where the computationally more expensive pore and pore network models are not feasible. The next chapter by Noiriel pursues the focus on characterization techniques with a review of X-ray microtomography (especially synchrotron-based) and how it can be used to investigate dynamic geochemical and physical processes in porous media. Tournassat and Steefel focus on a special class of micro-continuum models that include an explicit treatment of electrostatic effects, which are particularly important in the case of clays or clay-rich rock. Navarre-Sitchler, Brantley, and Rother present an overview of our current understanding of how porosity increases as a result of chemical weathering in silicate rocks, bringing to bear a range of characterization and modeling approaches that build toward a more quantitative description of the process. In the next chapter, Druhan, Brown, and Huber demonstrate how isotopic gradients across fluid–mineral boundaries can develop and how they provide insight into pore-scale processes. Yoon, Kang, and Valocchi provide a comprehensive review of lattice Boltzmann modeling techniques for pore-scale processes. Mehmani and Balhoff summarize mesoscale and hybrid models for flow and transport at the pore scale, including a discussion of the important class of models referred to as “pore network” that typically can operate at a larger scale than is possible with the true pore-scale models. Molins addresses the problem of how to represent interfaces (solid–fluid) at the pore scale using direct numerical simulation.

Description / Table of Contents: The CleanEra project was initiated with the goal of developing revolutionary ideas for civil aviation. These ideas were to offer solutions which would limit and reduce some of the negative aspects of aviation, namely: emissions and the use of resources. This book presents you with the highlights of this journey in search of new technologies for a revolutionary aircraft; an aircraft that not only offers a future of comfortable air travel for the passenger, but a future of sustainable aviation for the planet as well.

Description / Table of Contents: Depuis le début des années 2000, l’insuffisance des efforts politiques pour réduire drastiquement les émissions globales de gaz à effet de serre a conduit au renforcement d’un discours sur la nécessité de s’adapter au changement climatique. Particulièrement dans les régions vulnérables aux effets du changement climatique, une transformation des politiques de gestion de l’environnement apparaît comme nécessaire afin de réduire les risques et d’exploiter les nouvelles opportunités découlant du changement climatique et de ses im-pacts. Or, si les analystes constatent un développement des activités d’adaptation au changement climatique, peu de travaux interrogent l’efficacité réelle des mesures actuelles et leurs éventuelles limites. Cet ouvrage tente de combler cette lacune en déconstruisant la notion d’adaptation au changement climatique et en interrogeant sa signification réelle pour la conduite des politiques à incidence environnementale. Il exa-mine de manière théorique en quoi l’adaptation au changement climatique nécessiterait des réformes de l’action publique. Puis, il examine l’état des pratiques actuelles au travers d’études de cas dans le secteur agricole en Inde (Rajasthan et Maharashtra) et dans le secteur du tourisme hivernal en Suisse (Alpes vaudoises et vallée de Joux). Sur la base de cette incursion théorique et empirique dans l’univers de ces nouvelles politiques de gestion de l’environnement, l’auteur discute des limitations observées et suggère des voies d’amélioration pour le futur.

Description / Table of Contents: Humanity’s ability to produce enough food is mostly due to adoption of new methods and technologies by the agricultural industries as they became available. New information, communication and high speed processing and precision agriculture technologies have the potential to transform the agricultural industry. These technologies incorporate radio-frequency and microwave radiation into their systems. This book presents an overview of how these technologies are being used in agricultural systems. The main purpose of the book is to provide a glimpse of what is possible and encourage practitioners in the engineering and agricultural industries to explore how radio-frequency and microwave systems might further enhance the agricultural industry. The authors have extensive experience in agricultural and microwave engineering, instrumentation and communication systems.

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- Preface --- Part 1 A brief history of marine litter research --- Part 2 Abiotic aspects of marine litter pollution --- Global distribution, composition and abundance of marine litter --- Persistence of plastic litter in the oceans --- Part 3 Biological implications of marine litter --- Deleterious effects of litter on marine life --- The complex mixture, fate and toxicity of chemicals associated with plastic debris in the marine environment --- Marine litter as habitat and dispersal vector --- Part 4 Micro plastics --- Micro plastics in the marine environment: sources, consequences and solutions --- Methodology used for the detection and identification of micro plastics – a critical appraisal --- Sources and pathways of micro plastics to habitats --- Micro plastics in the marine environment: distribution, interactions and effects --- Modeling the role of micro plastics in bioaccumulation of organic chemicals to marine aquatic organisms. A critical review --- Nano plastics in the aquatic environment. Critical review --- Part 5 Socio-economic implications of marine anthropogenic litter --- Micro and nano-plastics and human health --- The economics of marine litter --- Regulation and management of marine litter --- Marine litter and the contribution of citizen science

Description / Table of Contents: Preface --- Part 1. Physiology of HDL --- Part 2. Pathology of HDL --- Part 3. Possible Indications and Target Mechanisms of HDL Therapy --- Part 4. Treatments for Dyslipidemias and Dysfunction of HDL

Description / Table of Contents: 1 Introduction: Overview of Our Research on Impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident on Fish and Fishing Grounds --- Part I Seawater and Plankton --- 2 134Cs and 137Cs in the Seawater Around Japan and in the North Pacific --- 3 Temporal Changes in 137Cs Concentration in Zooplankton and Seawater off the Joban–Sanriku Coast, and in Sendai Bay, After the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Accident --- Part II Sediments and Benthos --- 4 Three-Dimensional Distribution of Radiocesium in Sea Sediment Derived from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant --- 5 Radiocesium Concentrations in the Organic Fraction of Sea Sediments --- 6 Bottom Turbidity, Boundary Layer Dynamics, and Associated Transport of Suspended Particulate Materials off the Fukushima Coast --- 7 Investigation of Radiocesium Translation from Contaminated Sediment to Benthic Organisms --- Part III Marine Fish --- 8 Detection of 131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs Released into the Atmosphere from FNPP in Small Epipelagic Fishes, Japanese Sardine and Japanese Anchovy, off the Kanto Area, Japan --- 9 Radiocesium Concentration of Small Epipelagic Fishes (Sardine and Japanese Anchovy) off the Kashima-Boso Area --- 10 Why Do the Radionuclide Concentrations of Pacific Cod Depend on the Body Size? --- 11 Radiocesium Contamination Histories of Japanese Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) After the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident --- Part IV Mechanisms of Severe Contamination in Fish --- 12 Evaluating the Probability of Catching Fat Greenlings (Hexagrammos otakii) Highly Contaminated with Radiocesium off the Coast of Fukushima --- 13 Analysis of the Contamination Process of the Extremely Contaminated Fat Greenling by Fukushima-Derived Radioactive Material --- 14 Contamination Levels of Radioactive Cesium in Fat Greenling Caught at the Main Port of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant --- Part V Freshwater Systems --- 15 Comparison of Radioactive Cesium Contamination of Lake Water, Bottom Sediment, Plankton, and Freshwater Fish Among Lakes of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, After the Fukushima Fallout --- 16 Radiocesium Concentrations and Body Size of Freshwater Fish in Lake Hayama 1 Year After the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident --- 17 Spatiotemporal Monitoring of 134Cs and 137Cs in Ayu, Plecoglossus altivelis, a Microalgae-Grazing Fish, and in Their Freshwater Habitats in Fukushima --- 18 Radiocesium Concentrations in the Muscle and Eggs of Salmonids from Lake Chuzenji, Japan, After the Fukushima Fallout --- 19 Assessment of Radiocesium Accumulation by Hatchery-Reared Salmonids After the Fukushima Nuclear Accident

Description / Table of Contents: Part I Basic Research for Innovative Medicine --- 1. Diverting Glycolysis to Combat Oxidative Stress --- 2. Metabolic Regulation by Nuclear Receptors --- 3. Fighting Fire with Fire in Cancer --- 4. Linear Polyubiquitination: a Crucial Regulator of NF-kB Activation --- 5. VCP, a major ATPase in the cells, as a novel drug target for currently incurable disorders --- 6. Roles of E-cadherin in hepatocarcinogenesis --- 7. The Hippo Signaling Pathway: A Candidate New Drug Target for Malignant Tumors --- 8. Inhibitory immunoreceptors on mast cells in allergy and inflammation --- 9. Doxycycline-inducible Autoimmune Blistering Skin Disease Model --- 10. T-cell Senescence and Autoimmunity --- Part II Translational Research for Innovative Medicine --- 11. IL-6: A new era for the treatment of autoimmune inflammatory diseases --- 12. Pathogenesis of Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Its Potential Therapeutic Strategies --- 13. Multifaceted translational approach of major mental illness --- 14. Translational research of leptin in lipodystrophy and its related diseases --- 15. Translational research of the activation of the C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP)-guanylyl cyclase-B pathway for skeletal dysplasia --- 16. Clarity and Challenges in Tissue Fibrosis --- 17. TRP Channels: Their Function and Potentiality as Drug Targets --- 18. Autophagic Cell Death and Cancer Chemotherapeutics --- 19. Adrenomedullin as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for Refractory Ulcerative Colitis --- 20. RNA activation --- Part III New Technology for Innovative Medicine --- 21. Cardiac Reprogramming for Heart Repair --- 22. Development of a new in vivo optical probe for biological diagnosis and therapy --- 23. Introduction of mesenchymal stem cells for liver surgery (hepatectomy and transplantation) --- 24. Synaptic and axonal plasticity induction in the human cerebral cortex --- 25. TIM-3 is a novel therapeutic target for eradicating acute myelogenous leukemia stem cells --- 26. TGF-beta LAP degradation products, a novel biomarker and promising therapeutic target for liver fibrogenesis --- 27. Cell-based regenerative therapy for liver disease

Description / Table of Contents: This book discusses the common principles of morality and ethics derived from divinely endowed intuitive reason through the creation of al-fitr' a (nature) and human intellect (al-‘aql). Biomedical topics are presented and ethical issues related to topics such as genetic testing, assisted reproduction and organ transplantation are discussed. Whereas these natural sources are God’s special gifts to human beings, God’s revelation as given to the prophets is the supernatural source of divine guidance through which human communities have been guided at all times through history. The second part of the book concentrates on the objectives of Islamic religious practice – the maqa' sid – which include: Preservation of Faith, Preservation of Life, Preservation of Mind (intellect and reason), Preservation of Progeny (al-nasl) and Preservation of Property. Lastly, the third part of the book discusses selected topical issues, including abortion, assisted reproduction devices, genetics, organ transplantation, brain death and end-of-life aspects. For each topic, the current medical evidence is followed by a detailed discussion of the ethical issues involved

Description / Table of Contents: This Handbook gives a comprehensive, international and cutting-edge overview of Sustainable Development. It integrates the key imperatives of sustainable development, namely institutional, environmental, social and economic, and calls for greater participation, social cohesion, justice and democracy as well as limited throughput. The nature of sustainable development and the book's theorization of the concept underline the need for interdisciplinarity in the discourse as exemplified in each chapter of this volume.Starting with a critical framework that problematises the concept of sustainable development and the ideological process that has led to the struggle between discursivity and control, the Handbook provides an introduction for each section written by the editors to guide the author through the key concerns covered in each section. It brings together new contributions from international experts coming from a variety of disciplines and regions including the Global South. This handbook offers researchers and students in the field of sustainable development invaluable insights into indigenous perspectives and alternative worldviews. The topics covered range from sustainable business, sustainable consumption, leadership, and de-growth to climate change, eco-system services, the built environment, environmental justice, conservation, health, sustainable tourism, resource management, religion and gender, and sustainability science.

Description / Table of Contents: This book on multiscale seismic tomography, written by one of the leaders in the field, is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and professionals in Earth and planetary sciences who need to broaden their horizons about seismotectonics, volcanism, and interior structure and dynamics of the Earth and Moon. It describes the state-of-the-art in seismic tomography, with emphasis on the new findings obtained by applying tomographic methods in local, regional, and global scales for understanding the generating mechanism of large and great earthquakes such as the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake (Mw 9.0), crustal and upper mantle structure, origin of active arc volcanoes and intraplate volcanoes including hotspots, heterogeneous structure of subduction zones, fate of subducting slabs, origin of mantle plumes, mantle convection, and deep Earth dynamics. The first lunar tomography and its implications for the mechanism of deep moonquakes and lunar evolution are also introduced

Description / Table of Contents: This report provides a new detailed quantitative assessment of the consequences of climate change on economic growth through to 2060 and beyond. It focuses on how climate change affects different drivers of growth, including labour productivity and capital supply, in different sectors across the world. The sectoral and regional analysis shows that while the impacts of climate change spread across all sectors and all regions, the largest negative consequences are projected to be found in the health and agricultural sectors, with damages especially strong in Africa and Asia.

Description / Table of Contents: Provides a definitive overview of the global drivers of high-mountain cryosphere change and their implications for people across high-mountain regions

Description / Table of Contents: "Climate Terror investigates the highly differentiated geographical politics of global warming. It explores how fear-inducing climate change discourses could result in new forms of dependencies, domination and militarised 'climate security'. In this revealing study from Doyle and Chaturvedi, the concept of environmental security is brought to life through cases of the most pressing environmental issues confronting the Global South, which are creating desperate realities for billions of people. The book proposes the following key questions, crucial to our understanding of this issue: Can the climate discourse be re-configured to provide a place where issues of environmental justice and sovereignty are paramount, rather than neo-liberal responses to climate? Can climate change give a voice to the global periphery, and can it be used as a vehicle for emancipation? Doyle and Chaturvedi's study concludes by taking note of the more optimistic response of 'emancipatory' groups and networks to concepts such as climate justice and climate debt, and the ways in which these groups have attempted to use this global climate moment for more democratic purposes. Is the climate story, regardless of its diverse intentions, a discourse now captured by the affluent North to control the development of the Global South? Has the emancipatory moment now passed or is there still hope for the re-emergence of subaltern perspectives on climate futures? The authors further discuss the deployment of terror vocabulary to address climate change, which is a part of refurbished designs and technologies of control, regulation and domination in a neo-liberal, post-political globalised world marked by profound asymmetries in terms of economic growth and human development. They argue for an increased understanding of the environment, not as an external enemy force, but as a diverse nature that is inclusive of people, a nature that has the potential to provide secure access to citizens of all countries to basic nutrition, adequate access to health, appropriate shelter, and a security to practice a diverse range of livelihoods. "--

Description / Table of Contents: Prologue: autumn aroma -- What's left? -- Arts of noticing -- Contamination as collaboration -- Some problems with scale -- Interlude: smelling -- After progress : salvage accumulation -- Working the edge "freedom" -- Open ticket, Oregon -- War stories -- What happened to the state? : two kinds of Asian Americans in translation -- Between the dollar and the yen -- From gifts to commodities and back -- Salvage rhythms : business in disturbance -- Interlude: tracking -- Disturbed beginnings : unintentional design -- The life of the forest : coming up among pines -- History -- Resurgence -- Serendipity -- Ruin in gaps and patches -- In science as translation -- Flying spores -- Interlude: dancing -- In the middle of things -- Matsutake crusaders -- Ordinary assets -- Anti-ending : some people I met along the way -- Spore trail: the further adventures of a mushroom -- Notes -- Index

Description / Table of Contents: An introduction to the framework used by central banks for policy analysis.

Description / Table of Contents: This revised second edition of Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle provides a rigorous graduate-level introduction to the New Keynesian framework and its applications to monetary policy. The New Keynesian framework is the workhorse for the analysis of monetary policy and its implications for inflation, economic fluctuations, and welfare. A backbone of the new generation of medium-scale models under development at major central banks and international policy institutions, the framework provides the theoretical underpinnings for the price stability-oriented strategies adopted by most central banks in the industrialized world. Using a canonical version of the New Keynesian model as a reference, Jordi Galí explores various issues pertaining to monetary policy's design, including optimal monetary policy and the desirability of simple policy rules. He analyzes several extensions of the baseline model, allowing for cost-push shocks, nominal wage rigidities, and open economy factors. In each case, the effects for monetary policy are addressed, with emphasis on the desirability of inflation-targeting policies. New material includes labor and financial market frictions, the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates, and an analysis of unemployment's significance for monetary policy. The most up-to-date introduction to the New Keynesian framework available A single benchmark model used throughout New materials and exercises included An ideal resource for graduate students, researchers, and market analysts.

Description / Table of Contents: A review on past experimental and theoretical work indicates a need for additional experimentation to characterize the response of snow to inelastic pressure waves. Pressure data from previously conducted explosion tests are analyzed to estimate the elastic limit of snow of 400 -kg/cu m density to be about 36 kPa. This pressure corresponds to a scaled distance of 1.6 m/cu.rt.kg for charges fired beneath the surface of the snow, and to a scaled distance of 1.2 m/cu.rt.kg for charges fired in the air. The effects of a snow cover on the method of clearing a minefield by using an explosive charge fired in the air above the snow surface are also discussed and recommendations are given for further work in this area. Explosive pressure data are used to estimate the maximum effective scaled radius for detonating buried mines at shallow depth to be 0.8 m/cu.rt.kg. Fuel-air explosive will increase this effective radius significantly because of the increase in the size of the source region.

Description / Table of Contents: An analysis of ice fracture that incorporates dislocation mechanics and linear elastic fracture mechanics is discussed. The derived relationships predict a brittle to ductile transition in polycrystalline ice under tension with a Hall-Petch type dependence of brittle fracture strength on grain size. A uniaxial tensile testing technique, including specimen preparation and loading system design was developed and employed to verify the model. The tensile strength of ice in purely brittle fracture was found to vary with the square root of the reciprocal of grain size, supporting the relationship that the theory suggests. The inherent strength of the ice lattice and the Hall-Petch slope are evaluated and findings discussed in relation to previous results. Monitoring of acoustic emissions was incorporated in the tests, providing insights into the process of microfracture during ice deformation.

Description / Table of Contents: The presence of snow on the ground can impose limitations on the mobility of wheeled and tracked vehicles. Snow depth and density are the two most easily measured snow properties that can be related to mobility over snow. Existing models of snowpack accumulation and ablation processes and models of internal snowpack structure were examined to determine if a model of the snowpack can be developed for use in predicting the snow parameters that affect mobility. Simple models, such as temperature index models, do not provide sufficient snowpack details, and the more detailed models require too many measured inputs. Components of the various models were selected from a basis of a snowpack model for predicting snow properties related to mobility over snow. Methods of obtaining the input data from some components are suggested, and areas where more development is needed are described.

Description / Table of Contents: Measurements and analysis of seasonal ice growth and decay on Post Pond, New Hampshire, for the period 1973-1982 are presented. Observations included ice thickness measurements, examination of the various ice types contributing to the ice cover, and measurements of meteorological parameters for correlation with and modeling of the ice growth process. The overall nature of ice growth and decay (ice loss) on the Post Pond has been ascertained, the seasonal variability in the timing of freeze-up and ice-out and the duration of the ice cover have been determined, and the relationship of ice growth to freezing-degree-day (deg C) records evaluated on the basis of a Stefan conduction equation modified to deal with ice sheets covered with or free of snow. Ice growth occurs predominantly by the direct freezing of lake water, but snow ice may compose as much as 50% of the ice cover in winters with higher than average snowfall. Freeze-up leading to the establishment of a stable ice cover occurs during the 4-week period from the end of November to the end of December. Maximum seasonal ice thicknesses were from 45 to 67 cm and are generally attained during the first two weeks of March; ice-out, marking the final disappearance of ice from Post Pond, usually occurs by the third week of April. The overall rate of the ice loss is three to four times that of ice growth, and is dominated initially by melting from the top. As much as 50% of the ice may be lost in this way before the onset of any bottom melting. Final dissipation of the ice cover is usually expedited by candling resulting from preferential melting and disintegration of the ice at crystal boundaries.

Description / Table of Contents: Roof snow load case studies gathered throughout the United States over a three-year period are analyzed. The objective of the analysis is to determine a relationship between the snow load on the ground and the corresponding uniform snow load on flat and sloped roofs. The main parameters considered are the thermal characteristics of the roof, the roof slope and the exposure of the structure. Exposure has the strongest effect on the ratio of ground to roof snow loads. Comparisons are made with existing and proposed building codes and standards.

Description / Table of Contents: Peak power generation with hydropower creates tailwater flow conditions characterized by high and low flows with abrupt transitions between these states. Flows occurring in tailwaters typically form sharp-fronted, large-amplitude waves of relatively short period. An understanding of the mechanics of downstream propagation of these waves is important both for direct application in studies of the tailwater and because of the similarity of these waves to those following a dam break. An analysis of the dynamic equations of open channel flow is used to quantify the relative importance of flow wave convection, diffusion and dispersion in rivers. The relative importance of each process is re­lated to the relative magnitude of terms in the dynamic equations, providing a physical basis for model formulation. A one-dimensional diffusion wave flow routing model, modified for tailwaters, simulates the important physical pro­cesses affecting the flow and is straightforward to apply. The model is based upon a numerical solution of the kine­matic wave equation. The “modified equation,” Hirt, and von Neumann analyses are used to gain insight into the stability and dissipative and dispersive behavior of the numerical solution, and results of these analyses are compared. A set of linear routings is used to demonstrate the dissipative and dispersive behavior predicted by the analyses and to verify the accuracy of an expression that quantifies the numerical diffusion of the model. The analyses provide a basis for selection of numerical parameters for model applications. The capability and accuracy of the model are enhanced when physical wave diffusion is balanced by numerical diffusion in the model. Maintaining the diffusion balance re­quires that the time derivative weighting parameter 0 be variable and in some instances negative. Though some amount of phase error is introduced, negative 0 values have no adverse effect upon model stability. Field studies were con­ducted to demonstrate the benefits of careful model development and analysis, and to verify the diffusion wave model for rapidly varying tailwater flow. The bed slope and roughness characteristics of the field study reaches (below Apalachia and Norris Dams) differ greatly, spanning those of a large number of rivers of practical interest. The accurate simulation of flow in both of these tailwaters attests to the soundness of both the physical basis of the model and the numerical solution technique. The field studies confirm, for the extreme case of rapidly varying flow in a mildly sloped river, that inertia has a negligible effect upon unsteady flow waves at low Froude numbers. Additionally, these studies verify that diffusion of short-period waves in rivers is generally significant.

Description / Table of Contents: "In 2004, Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. Together with his team, he invented electronic devices for under-resourced urban schools and developed digital platforms for remote agrarian communities. But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own. Technologists and policy-makers love to boast about modern innovation, and in their excitement, they exuberantly tout technology's boon to society. But what have our gadgets actually accomplished? Over the last four decades, America saw an explosion of new technologies - from the Internet to the iPhone, from Google to Facebook - but in that same period, the rate of poverty stagnated at a stubborn 13%, only to rise in the recent recession. So, a golden age of innovation in the world's most advanced country did nothing for our most prominent social ill. Toyama's warning resounds: Don't believe the hype! Technology is never the main driver of social progress. Geek Heresy inoculates us against the glib rhetoric of tech utopians by revealing that technology is only an amplifier of human conditions. By telling the moving stories of extraordinary people like Patrick Awuah, a Microsoft millionaire who left his lucrative engineering job to open Ghana's first liberal arts university, and Tara Sreenivasa, a graduate of a remarkable South Indian school that takes children from dollar-a-day families into the high-tech offices of Goldman Sachs and Mercedes-Benz, Toyama shows that even in a world steeped in technology, social challenges are best met with deeply social solutions. "--

Description / Table of Contents: This Special Publication is dedicated to heritage stone: those natural stones that have special significance in human culture. Some stones that have had important uses in the past are now neglected because theyare no longer extracted. Others are still commercially important, but their heritage uses have not beenwell documented in widely available sources. The Heritage Stone Task Group of the International Unionof Geological Sciences is working to establish a new formal designation of 'Global Heritage StoneResource' to recognize those stones that have had internationally significant architectural and ornamentaluses. The aim is to spread awareness of the cultural heritage aspects of these stones, to help to encouragecontinued supply for maintenance and repair of important monuments and to preserve historically importantquarries. The aim is neither to promote nor to limit these stones for new construction: in some cases continuingcommercial use might help to ensure future supplies for building conservation purposes.

Description / Table of Contents: Although the search for oil and gas in Europe, particularly in the North Sea, has been very successful, it has become progressively more difficult and costly in recent years. The need for continuing exploration success in finding accumulations of hydrocarbons has created a climate which favours the use of modern scientific and technological methods and techniques. Amongst these is petroleum geochemistry. Applications of petroleum geochemistry (integrated with petroleum geology) in petroleum exploration has drastically changed in recent years from a post-mortem science to a widely accepted exploration predictive tool.

Description / Table of Contents: In one lifetime, GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, has ballooned from a narrow economic tool into a global article of faith. It is our universal yardstick of progress. As The Little Big Number demonstrates, this spells trouble. While economies and cultures measure their performance by it, GDP ignores central facts such as quality, costs, or purpose. It only measures output: more cars, more accidents; more lawyers, more trials; more extraction, more pollution-all count as success. Sustainability and quality of life are overlooked. Losses don't count. GDP promotes a form of stupid growth and igno

Description / Table of Contents: Georg Forster (1754-1794) war eine der faszinierendsten Gestalten seiner Zeit: glänzender Schriftsteller, Naturforscher, Entdecker, Zeichner, Übersetzer und entschiedener Revolutionär. Auf seiner Weltumsegelung mit James Cook berührte er Eisberge mit den eigenen Händen, lief den Strand von Tahiti entlang, besuchte fremde Völker, lebte unter »Menschenfressern« und überquerte Ozeane und den Äquator. Und er stand im Zentrum des politischen Geschehens, als er - inspiriert von der Französischen Revolution - 1793 die »Mainzer Republik« ausrief, die erste Republik auf deutschem Boden. Anschaulich und fesselnd portraitiert Jürgen Goldstein dieses Ausnahmeleben, in dem sich »Freiheit« und »Naturgewalt« berührten. Niemand ist auf vergleichbare Weise das erfahrungsgetriebene Experiment eingegangen, die Natur mit dem Politischen kurzzuschließen. Die Funken, die Forster aus seinen Leitvorstellungen schlug, erhellten für einen Weltaugenblick die Aussicht, es könne so etwas wie natürliche Revolutionen geben. Jürgen Goldstein, geboren 1962, lehrt als Professor für Philosophie an der Universität Koblenz-Landau. Maßgeblich von Hans Blumenberg inspiriert, widmen sich seine Studien der Genese und dem Profil der Moderne. Seine Bücher befassen sich mit der Herausbildung der neuzeitlichen Subjektivität und Rationalität, der politischen Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts und der Geschichte der Naturwahrnehmung.

Description / Table of Contents: Wagemutiger Entdeckungsreisender, empfindsamer Naturbetrachter, glühender Revolutionär: Georg Forster befuhr mit James Cook die Weltmeere, verfasste glänzende Reiseerzählungen und stürzte sich mit provokanten Ansichten in die politischen Debatten seiner Zeit. Er war in Mainz Mitbegründer der ersten Republik auf deutschem Boden und starb - gescheitert und vereinsamt - im Pariser Exil. In seiner ebenso fesselnden wie kenntnisreichen Biographie entwirft Jürgen Goldstein mit Eleganz und Tiefenschärfe ein anschauliches Panorama von Forsters rastlosem Leben zwischen Euphorie und Elend - das Leben eines Weltbürgers, der davon überzeugt war, dass sich die Freiheit eines Tages mit Naturgewalt ihren Wag bahnen müsse.

Description / Table of Contents: This book offers new perspectives of transdisciplinary research, in methodological as well as theoretical respects. It provides insights in the two-fold bio-physical and the socio-cultural global embeddedness of local living conditions on the basis of selected empirical studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe. The theoretical foundations of ecological research and sustainability policies were developed at the end of the nineteenth century. They are largely based on investigations of living spaces, and the evolution and differentiation of varied life forms. This perspective is embedded in the practical and theoretical European problem situations of the past and lacks social and cultural differentiation. The transformation of spatial and natural relations as a result of the globalization process is so radical that new theories are needed to solve 21st century ecological problems. Moreover, in view of the lack of an ontologically sound and promising strategy for transdisciplinary problem solving, as well as an acceptable consideration of the power of cultural schemas relating to natural living’s interpretations, there is a strong need to focus on sustainable social practices, habits, and routines, rather than on predominantly living spaces or eco-topes. This book elaborates on the transdisciplinary approach by reflecting on the theoretical heritage and a global perspective of sustainability, by focusing on the primary role of a social approach in sustainability research, and by putting emphasis on cultural dimension of sustainability. It postulates that global sustainability is grounded in a global understanding of our everyday activities

Description / Table of Contents: An account of the results of the 2 March 1987 earthquake in the eastern Bay of Plenty and the aftermath's effects on the people and places on the Rangitaiki Plains

Description / Table of Contents: The book outlines principal milestones in the evolution of the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere during the last 4 million years in relation with the evolution from primates to the genus Homo - which uniquely mastered the ignition and transfer of fire. The advent of land plants since about 420 million years ago ensued in flammable carbon-rich biosphere interfaced with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Born on a flammable Earth surface, under increasingly unstable climates descending from the warmer Pliocene into the deepest ice ages of the Pleistocene, human survival depended on both-biological adaptations and cultural evolution, mastering fire as a necessity. This allowed the genus to increase entropy in nature by orders of magnitude. Gathered around camp fires during long nights for hundreds of thousandth of years, captivated by the flickering life-like dance of the flames, humans developed imagination, insights, cravings, fears, premonitions of death and thereby aspiration for immortality, omniscience, omnipotence and the concept of god. Inherent in pantheism was the reverence of the Earth, its rocks and its living creatures, contrasted by the subsequent rise of monotheistic sky-god creeds which regard Earth as but a corridor to heaven. Once the climate stabilized in the early Holocene, since about -7000 years-ago production of excess food by Neolithic civilization along the Great River Valleys has allowed human imagination and dreams to express themselves through the construction of monuments to immortality. Further to burning large part of the forests, the discovery of combustion and exhumation of carbon from the Earth's hundreds of millions of years-old fossil biospheres set the stage for an anthropogenic oxidation event, affecting an abrupt shift in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system. The consequent ongoing extinction equals the past five great mass extinctions of species-constituting a geological event horizon in the history of planet Earth. Dr Andrew Glikson is an Earth and Paleo-climate Scientist, Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Research School of Earth Science, the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Planetary Science Institute, and a member of the ANU Climate Change Institute.

Description / Table of Contents: This book offers a broad perspective on important topics in earthquake geotechnical engineering and gives specialists and those that are involved with research and application a more comprehensive understanding about the various topics. Consisting of eighteen chapters written by authors from the most seismic active regions of the world, such as USA, Japan, Canada, Chile, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Taiwan, and Turkey, the book reflects different views concerning how to assess and minimize earthquake damage. The authors, a prominent group of specialists in the field of earthquake geotechnical engineering, are the invited lecturers of the International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering from Case History to Practice in the honour of Professor Kenji Ishihara held in Istanbul, Turkey during 17-19 June 2013

Description / Table of Contents: This volume of Reviews in Mineralogy attempts to synthesize our present understanding of certain aspects of the mineralogy and chemistry of the rock-forming carbonates. Hopefully, it reflects the presently more active areas of research. This review follows, by ten years, a major assessment of (sedimentary) carbonate minerals by Lippmann (1973). There is only minor overlap of subject material, and I hope that this difference reflects fairly how this field has developed. In some respects carbonates are unique, for they are one of the few mineral groups providing an abundant record of biological, physical, and chemical processes throughout much of geologic time. Because of their relative importance in sedimentary rocks, lowtemperature examples are given more emphasis here. Moreover, the obvious correlation with energy resources has been a significant factor contributing to the current resurgence of interest in this area. However, the broader interest in carbonates is also a reflection of their widespread occurrence in vastly different geologic environments, including metamorphic and igneous settings, as well as an appreciation of their role in both atmospheric and oceanic chemistry, both past and present. In this volume, some of the papers are general (i.e., those addressing crystal chemistry and phase relations), and they provide overviews of a fundamental nature and are of interest to many. Others are more specialized in coverage and generally reflect the different approaches used in carbonate geochemistry. The final chapter introduces transmission electron microscopy, a relatively new and powerful technique for mineralogical research that has great potential in carbonate research. Owing to the short time interval between the completion of manuscripts and publication, much of the newer material in this volume is still "fresh." The various reviewers, all gratefully acknowledged, were expeditious in their efforts. A hurried schedule, however, allows for unnoticed errors to persist; these should be brought to my attention.

Description / Table of Contents: Geochemistry is a science that is based on an understanding of chemical processes in the earth. One of the principal tools available to the chemist for understanding systems at equilibrium is thermodynamics. The awareness and application of thermodynamic techniques has increased at a very fast pace in geosciences; in fact, one may be so bold as to say that thermodynamics in geology has reached the "mature" stage, although much future thermodynamic research is certainly needed. However, the natural processes in the earth are often sluggish enough that a particular system may not reach equilibrium. This observation is being supported constantly by new experimental and field data available to the geochemist e.g. the non-applicability of the phase rule in some assemblages, the compositional inhomogeneities of mineral grains, the partial reaction rims surrounding original minerals, the lack of isotopic equilibration or the absence of minerals (e.g. dolomite), which should be present according to thermodynamics. The need to apply kinetics has produced a large number of papers dealing with kinetics in geochemistry. As an initial response to this growing field, a conference on geochemical transport and kinetics was conducted at Airlie House, VA, in 1973, sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The papers there dealt with several kinetic topics including diffusion, exsolution, metasomatism and metamorphic layering. Since 1973 the number of kinetic papers has continued to increase greatly. Therefore, the time is ripe for a Short Course in Kinetics, which brings together the fundamentals needed to explain field observations using kinetic data. It is hoped that this book may serve, not only as a reference for researchers dealing with the rates of geochemical processes, but also as a text in courses on geochemical kinetics. One of us has found this need of a text in teaching a graduate course on geochemical kinetics at Harvard and at Penn State during the past several years. Finally, it is our hope that the book may itself further even more research into the rates of geochemical processes and into the quantification of geochemical observations. The book is organized with a rough temperature gradient in mind, i.e. low temperature kinetics at the beginning and igneous kinetics at the end (no prejudices are intended with this scheme!). However, the topics in each chapter are general enough that they can be applied often to any geochemical domain: sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous. The theory of kinetics operates at two complementary levels: the phenomenological and the atomistic. The former relies on macroscopic variables (e.g. temperature or concentrations) to describe the rates of reactions or the rates of transport; the latter relates the rates to the basic forces operating between the particular atomic or molecular species of any system. This book deals with both descriptions of the kinetics of geochemical processes. Chapter one sets the framework for the phenomenological theory of reaction rates. If any geochemical reaction is to be described quantitatively, the rate law must be experimentally obtained in a kinetically sound manner and the reaction mechanism must be understood. This applies to heterogeneous fluid-rock reactions such as those occurring during metamorphism, hydrothermal alteration or weathering as well as to homogeneous reactions. Chapter 2 extends the theory to the global kinetics of geochemical cycles. This enables the kinetic concepts of stability and feedback to be applied to the cycling of elements in the many reservoirs of the earth. Chapter 3 applies the phenomenological treatment of chapter 1 to diagenesis and weathering. The rate of dissolution of minerals as well as the chemical evolution of pore waters are discussed. The atomistic basis of rates of reaction, transition state theory, is introduced in Chapter 4. Transition state theory can be applied to relate the rate constants of geochemical reactions to the atomic processes taking place. This includes not only homogeneous reactions but also reactions that occur at the surface of minerals. Chapter 5 discusses the theory of irreversible thermodynamics and its application to petrology. The use of the second law of thermodynamics along with the expressions for the rate of entropy production in a system have been used successfully since 1935 to describe kinetic phenomena. The chapter applies the concepts to the growth of minerals during metamorphism as well as to the formation of differentiated layers (banding) in petrology. Chapter 6 describes the phenomenological theory of diffusion both in aqueous solutions and in minerals. In particular, the multicomponent nature of diffusion and its consequence in natural systems is elaborated. Chapter 7 provides the atomistic basis for the rates of reactions in minerals. Understanding of the rates of diffusion, conduction, order-disorder reactions or exsolution in minerals depends on proper description of the defects in the various mineral structures. Chapter 8 provides the kinetic theory of crystal nucleation and growth. While many of the concepts in the chapter can be applied to aqueous systems, the emphasis is on igneous processes occurring during crystallization of a melt. To fully understand both the mineral composition as well as the texture of igneous rocks, the processes whereby new crystals form and grow must be quantified by using kinetic theory. Due to space and time limitations (kinetics!) some topics have not been covered in detail. In particular, the mathematical solution of diffusion or conduction equations is discussed very well by Crank in his book, Mathematics of Diffusion, and so is not covered to a great extent here. The treatment of fluid flow (e.g. convection) is also not covered in the text.