ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Anode Materials, SEI, Carbon, Graphite, Conductivity, Graphene, Reversible, Formation / Pages 1-71 --- Cathode Materials, Samples, Pristine, Layered, Doping, Discharge Capacity / Pages 73-161 --- Ionic Conductivity, Polymer Electrolyte, Membranes, Electrochemical Stability, Separators / Pages 163-193 --- Models, SOC, Maximum, Time, Cell, Data, Parameters / Pages 195-247

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Waveform Design and Related Processing for Multiple Target Detection and Resolution / By Gaspare Galati and Gabriele Pavan --- 2. Space-Time Transmit-Receive Design for Colocated MIMO Radar / By Guolong Cui, Xianxiang Yu and Lingjiang Kong --- 3. Waveform Design for MIMO Radar and SAR Application / By Stéphane Méric and Jean-Yves Baudais --- 4. A 94-GHz Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave Radar Imaging and Motion Compensation / By Jiwoong Yu, Sumin Kim and Min-Ho Ka --- 5. Analysis of Coastal Areas Using SAR Images: A Case Study of the Dutch Wadden Sea Region / By Corneliu Octavian Dumitru, Gottfried Schwarz, Daniela Espinoza- Molina, Mihai Datcu, Herman Hummel and Christiaan Hummel --- 6. Adaptive Clutter Cancellation Techniques for Passive Radars / By Tamás Pető and Rudolf Seller --- 7. Sense Smart, Not Hard: A Layered Cognitive Radar Architecture / By Stefan Brüggenwirth, Marcel Warnke, Christian Bräu, Simon Wagner, Tobias Müller, Pascal Marquardt and Fernando Rial --- 8. Representation of Radar Micro-Dopplers Using Customized Dictionaries / By Shobha Sundar Ram --- 9. Adaptive Coding, Modulation and Filtering of Radar Signals / By Moutaman Mirghani Daffalla and Ahmed Awad Babiker --- 10. Bispectrum- and Bicoherence-Based Discriminative Features Used for Classification of Radar Targets and Atmospheric Formations / By Alexander Totsky and Karen Egiazarian

Description / Table of Contents: Ali, Z.; Wang, D.; Aamir, M. Fuzzy-Based Hybrid Control Algorithm for the Stabilization of a Tri-Rotor UAV. Sensors 2016, 16(5), 652; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16050652 --- Al-Kaff, A.; García, F.; Martín, D.; De La Escalera, A.; Armingol, J. Obstacle Detection and Avoidance System Based on Monocular Camera and Size Expansion Algorithm for UAVs. Sensors 2017, 17(5), 1061; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17051061 --- Alvarado, M.; Gonzalez, F.; Erskine, P.; Cliff, D.; Heuff, D. A Methodology to Monitor Airborne PM10 Dust Particles Using a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Sensors 2017, 17(2), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020343 --- Bai, G.; Liu, J.; Song, Y.; Zuo, Y. Two-UAV Intersection Localization System Based on the Airborne Optoelectronic Platform. Sensors 2017, 17(1), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010098 --- Balampanis, F.; Maza, I.; Ollero, A. Coastal Areas Division and Coverage with Multiple UAVs for Remote Sensing. Sensors 2017, 17(4), 808; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040808 --- DeMario, A.; Lopez, P.; Plewka, E.; Wix, R.; Xia, H.; Zamora, E.; Gessler, D.; Yalin, A. Water Plume Temperature Measurements by an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Sensors 2017, 17(2), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020306 --- Evans, L.; Jones, T.; Pang, K.; Saimin, S.; Goossens, B. Spatial Ecology of Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) Nesting in a Fragmented Landscape. Sensors 2016, 16(9), 1527; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16091527 --- Fu, C.; Duan, R.; Kircali, D.; Kayacan, E. Onboard Robust Visual Tracking for UAVs Using a Reliable Global-Local Object Model. Sensors 2016, 16(9), 1406; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16091406 --- Gašparović, M.; Jurjević, L. Gimbal Influence on the Stability of Exterior Orientation Parameters of UAV Acquired Images. Sensors 2017, 17(2), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020401 --- Greatwood, C.; Richardson, T.; Freer, J.; Thomas, R.; MacKenzie, A.; Brownlow, R.; Lowry, D.; Fisher, R.; Nisbet, E. Atmospheric Sampling on Ascension Island Using Multirotor UAVs. Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1189; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061189 --- Itkin, M.; Kim, M.; Park, Y. Development of Cloud-Based UAV Monitoring and Management System. Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1913; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111913 --- Kedzierski, M.; Delis, P. Fast Orientation of Video Images of Buildings Acquired from a UAV without Stabilization. Sensors 2016, 16(7), 951; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16070951 --- Kyristsis, S.; Antonopoulos, A.; Chanialakis, T.; Stefanakis, E.; Linardos, C.; Tripolitsiotis, A.; Partsinevelos, P. Towards Autonomous Modular UAV Missions: The Detection, Geo-Location and Landing Paradigm. Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1844; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111844 --- Li, B.; Jiang, Y.; Sun, J.; Cai, L.; Wen, C. Development and Testing of a Two-UAV Communication Relay System. Sensors 2016, 16(10), 1696; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16101696 --- Li, H.; Wu, L.; Li, Y.; Li, C.; Li, H. A Novel Method for Vertical Acceleration Noise Suppression of a Thrust-Vectored VTOL UAV. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2054; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122054 --- Liu, Z.; Wang, Z.; Xu, M. Cubature Information SMC-PHD for Multi-Target Tracking. Sensors 2016, 16(5), 653; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16050653 --- Liu, J.; Guo, B.; Jiang, W.; Gong, W.; Xiao, X. Epipolar Rectification with Minimum Perspective Distortion for Oblique Images. Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1870; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111870 --- Liu, C.; Liu, J.; Song, Y.; Liang, H. A Novel System for Correction of Relative Angular Displacement between Airborne Platform and UAV in Target Localization. Sensors 2017, 17(3), 510; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030510 --- Ma, Y.; Wu, X.; Yu, G.; Xu, Y.; Wang, Y. Pedestrian Detection and Tracking from Low-Resolution Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Thermal Imagery. Sensors 2016, 16(4), 446; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16040446 --- Macharet, D.; Perez-Imaz, H.; Rezeck, P.; Potje, G.; Benyosef, L.; Wiermann, A.; Freitas, G.; Garcia, L.; Campos, M. Autonomous Aeromagnetic Surveys Using a Fluxgate Magnetometer. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2169; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122169

Description / Table of Contents: Mesas-Carrascosa, F.; Notario García, M.; Meroño de Larriva, J.; García-Ferrer, A. An Analysis of the Influence of Flight Parameters in the Generation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Orthomosaicks to Survey Archaeological Areas. Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1838; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111838 --- Ni, J.; Yao, L.; Zhang, J.; Cao, W.; Zhu, Y.; Tai, X. Development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Borne Crop-Growth Monitoring System. Sensors 2017, 17(3), 502; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030502 --- Popescu, D.; Ichim, L.; Stoican, F. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems for Remote Estimation of Flooded Areas Based on Complex Image Processing. Sensors 2017, 17(3), 446; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030446 --- Ramon Soria, P.; Arrue, B.; Ollero, A. Detection, Location and Grasping Objects Using a Stereo Sensor on UAV in Outdoor Environments. Sensors 2017, 17(1), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010103 --- Rodriguez Salazar, L.; Cobano, J.; Ollero, A. Small UAS-Based Wind Feature Identification System Part 1: Integration and Validation. Sensors 2017, 17(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010008 --- Ruano, S.; Cuevas, C.; Gallego, G.; García, N. Augmented Reality Tool for the Situational Awareness Improvement of UAV Operators. Sensors 2017, 17(2), 297; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020297 --- Shi, C.; Salous, S.; Wang, F.; Zhou, J. Cramer-Rao Lower Bound Evaluation for Linear Frequency Modulation Based Active Radar Networks Operating in a Rice Fading Environment. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2072; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122072 --- Sørensen, L.; Jacobsen, L.; Hansen, J. Low Cost and Flexible UAV Deployment of Sensors. Sensors 2017, 17(1), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010154 --- Sun, J.; Li, B.; Jiang, Y.; Wen, C. A Camera-Based Target Detection and Positioning UAV System for Search and Rescue (SAR) Purposes. Sensors 2016, 16(11), 1778; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16111778 --- Tian, J.; Li, X.; Duan, F.; Wang, J.; Ou, Y. An Efficient Seam Elimination Method for UAV Images Based on Wallis Dodging and Gaussian Distance Weight Enhancement. Sensors 2016, 16(5), 662; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16050662 --- Tožička, J.; Komenda, A. Diverse Planning for UAV Control and Remote Sensing. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2199; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122199 --- Vanhoutte, E.; Mafrica, S.; Ruffier, F.; Bootsma, R.; Serres, J. Time-of-Travel Methods for Measuring Optical Flow on Board a Micro Flying Robot. Sensors 2017, 17(3), 571; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030571 --- Vetrella, A.; Fasano, G.; Accardo, D.; Moccia, A. Differential GNSS and Vision-Based Tracking to Improve Navigation Performance in Cooperative Multi-UAV Systems. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2164; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122164 --- Villa, T.; Gonzalez, F.; Miljievic, B.; Ristovski, Z.; Morawska, L. An Overview of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Air Quality Measurements: Present Applications and Future Prospectives. Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1072; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071072 --- Villa, T.; Salimi, F.; Morton, K.; Morawska, L.; Gonzalez, F. Development and Validation of a UAV Based System for Air Pollution Measurements. Sensors 2016, 16(12), 2202; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122202 --- Wang, X.; Liu, J.; Zhou, Q. Real-Time Multi-Target Localization from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Sensors 2017, 17(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010033 --- Wang, Y.; Cao, Y. Coordinated Target Tracking via a Hybrid Optimization Approach. Sensors 2017, 17(3), 472; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17030472 --- Xu, Y.; Yu, G.; Wang, Y.; Wu, X.; Ma, Y. A Hybrid Vehicle Detection Method Based on Viola-Jones and HOG + SVM from UAV Images. Sensors 2016, 16(8), 1325; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081325 --- Xu, L.; Luo, H.; Hui, B.; Chang, Z. Real-Time Robust Tracking for Motion Blur and Fast Motion via Correlation Filters. Sensors 2016, 16(9), 1443; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16091443 --- Yan, Y.; Gao, F.; Deng, S.; Su, N. A Hierarchical Building Segmentation in Digital Surface Models for 3D Reconstruction. Sensors 2017, 17(2), 222; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17020222

Description / Table of Contents: Supramolecular Protein Ligands – Unexplored Teritory Of Potential Pharmacological Activity --- Supramolecular Congo Red As Specific Ligand Of Antibodies Engaged In Immune Complex --- Protein Conditioning For Binding Congo Red And Other Supramolecular Ligands --- Metal Ions Introduced To Proteins By Supramolecular Ligands --- Possible Mechanism Of Amyloidogenesis Of V Domains --- Supramolecular Structures As Carrier Systems Enabling The Use Of Metal Ions In Antibacterial Therapy --- Congo Red Interactions With Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Introduction --- Part I: Bioeconomy Concepts and Research Methods --- Chapter 2: Context --- Chapter 3: Bioeconomy concepts --- Chapter 4: Core principles --- Chapter 4: Inter- and Transdisciplinarity in the Bioeconomy --- Part II: Knowledge Base for Biobased Value Chains --- Chapter 5:Biobased Resources and Value Chains --- Chapter 6: Primary Production --- Chapter 7: Processing of Biobased Resources --- Chapter 8: Markets, Sustainability management and Entrepreneurship.- Part III: Transition to a Sustainable Bioeconomy --- Chapter9:  Modelling and Tools Supporting the Transition to a Bioeconomy --- Chapter 10: Environmental Economics, the Bioeconomy and the Role of Government --- Chapter 11: Economic Growth, Development, and Innovation – The Transformation towards a Knowledge-based Bioeconomy --- Chapter 12: The Bioeconomist

Description / Table of Contents: Part 1. Introduction of Sago Resources- Chapter 1: Status and Outlook of Global Food Security and the Role of Under-Utilized Food Resource: Sago Palm (Hiroyuki Konuma) --- Chapter 2: Growing Area of Sago Palm and Its Environment (M. H. Bintoro) --- Chapter 3: Life and Livelihood in Sago Growing Area (Yukio Toyoda) --- Part 2. Diversity of Sago Resource in Asia and Pacific --- Chapter 4: Genetic Variation, Agronomic Features of Sago Palm in Asia and Pacific (Hiroshi Ehara) --- Chapter 5: Genetic Diversity of Sago Palm Resources in Indonesia (Barahima Abbas) --- Part 3. Sago Industry Contributes for Food Security and Rural Development in Core Producing Countries --- Chapter 6: An Overview of Sago Industry Development from 20th c. to 21st c. (Jong Foh Shoon) --- Chapter 7: Suitability of Peat Swamp Areas for Commercial Production of Sago Crop - Sarawak Experience (Roland Yong Chiew Ming) --- Chapter 8: Feasibility of Small Scale Sago Industries on Small Island in East Indonesia (Wardis Girsang) --- Chapter 9: Addressing Food Insecurity through Food Safety and Cropping of Sago in Papua New Guinea (Aisak G Pue) --- Chapter 10: Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of the Fiji Sago Palm (Dick Watling) --- Part 4. Agricultural Botany of Sago Palm --- Chapter 11: Matter Production as A Basis of Starch Production in Sago Palm (Yoshinori Yamamoto) --- Chapter 12: Morphogenesis of Sago Palm (Satoshi Nakamura) --- Chapter 13: Morphological and Anatomical Characteristics of Sago Palm Starch (Yoji Nitta) --- Part 5. Growth Environment --- Chapter 14: Soil Environment in Sago Palm Forest (Masanori Okazaki) --- Chapter 15: Interaction between Microbes Activities and Sago Palm Growth (Koki Toyoda) --- Part 6. Starch Production and Utilization --- Chapter 16: Study on the Transformation in Extraction and Consumption Processes of Sago Starch in a Traditional Society of Indonesia (Yoshihiko Nishimura) --- Chapter 17: Improvement of Sago Processing Machine (Darma) --- Chapter 18: The Structure and Characteristics of Sago Starch (Masanori Okazaki) --- Chapter 19: Recovery of Starch from Sago Pith Waste and Waste Water Treatment (Budi Santoso) --- Chapter 20: Acid modification of sago starch and its fiber for industrial application (Titi Candra Sunarti) --- Part 6. New Carbohydrate Resources --- Chapter 21: Starch Properties and Uses as food for Human Health and Welfare (Kazuko Hirao) --- Chapter 21: Production, Purification and Health Benefits of Sago Sugar (Kazuko Hirao) --- Chapter 22: Production, Purification and Health Benefits of Sago Sugar (Kopli Bujang) --- Chapter 23: New Sago Starch Resources and Its Properties from Starch Pith Waste and Pacific Sago Palms (Takashi Mishima) --- Part 8. Conclusion --- Chapter 24: Outcomes and Recommendations from the 12th International Sago Symposium (Yoshinori Yamamoto)

Description / Table of Contents: 1.Overview --- 2.In vivo imaging of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the central nervous system --- 3.A new aspect of cholinergic transmission in the central nervous system --- 4.Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor signaling: roles in neuroprotection --- 5.Regulation by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of microglial glutamate transporters: role of microglia in neuroprotection --- 6.Shati/Nat8l and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) have important roles in regulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in neuronal and psychiatric diseases in animal models and humans --- 7.Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in regulation of pathology of cerebrovascular disorders --- 8.Roles of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the pathology and treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases --- 9.SAK3-induced neuroprotection is mediated by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors --- 10.Removal of blood amyloid as a therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer’s disease: the influence of smoking and nicotine

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- Summary --- 2. In-Situ Destructive Sampling --- 2.1 The Concept of Representivity --- 2.2 Plant Sampling Pattern and Design --- 2.3 Biomass Water Equivalent --- 2.4 Conclusions --- 3. Remote Sensing via Satellite Imagery Analysis --- 3.1 Photo-Reflective Properties of Plants --- 3.2 Satellite Image Analysis --- 3.3 Conclusions --- 4. Estimate of Biomass Water Equivalent via the Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor --- 4.1 The role of Biomass in the CRNS Calibration --- 4.2 Relationship between Neutrons and Crop Biomass --- 4.3 Dire4ct Relationship between Neutrons and Biomass --- 4.4 Conclusions

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1. Challenges in Riverine Ecosystem Management --- Part I Human Impacts, Mitigation and Restoration --- Chapter 2. Historic Milestones of Human River Uses and Ecological Impacts --- Chapter 3. River Morphology, Channelization, and Habitat Restoration --- Chapter 4. River Hydrology, Flow Alteration, and Environmental Flow --- Chapter 5. Hydropeaking Impacts and Mitigation --- Chapter 6. Dams: Ecological Impacts and Management --- Chapter 7. Aquatic Habitat Modeling in Running Waters --- Chapter 8. The Role of Sediment and Sediment Dynamics in the Aquatic Environment --- Chapter 9. River Connectivity, Habitat Fragmentation and Related Restoration Meas --- Chapter 10. Phosphorus and Nitrogen Dynamics in Riverine Systems: Human Impacts and Management Options --- Chapter 11. Climate Change Impacts in Riverine Ecosystems --- Chapter 12. Ecotoxicology --- Chapter 13. Land Use --- Chapter 14. Recreational Fisheries – The Need for Sustainability in Fisheries Management of Alpine Rivers --- Part II Management, Methodologies, Governance --- Chapter 15. Restoration in Integrated River Basin Management --- Chapter 16.Adaptive Management of Riverine Socio-ecological Systems --- Chapter 17. Legislative Framework for River Ecosystem Management on International and European Level --- Chapter 18. Ensuring Long-Term Cooperation Over Transboundary Water Resources Through Joint River Basin Management --- Chapter 19. Biomonitoring and Bioassessment --- Chapter 20. Biodiversity and Freshwater Information Systems --- Chapter 21. Ecosystem Services in River Landscapes --- Chapter 22. Public Participation and Environmental Education --- Chapter 23. NGOs in Freshwater Resource Management --- Part III Case Studies --- Chapter 24. Danube Under Pressure: Hydropower Rules the Fish --- Chapter 25. Danube Floodplain Lobau --- Chapter 26. Danube Sturgeons: Past and Future --- Chapter 27. Healthy Fisheries Sustain Society and Ecology in Burkina Faso --- Chapter 28. The Tisza River: Managing a Lowland River in the Carpathian Basin --- Part IV Summary --- Chapter 29. Landmarks, Advances and Future Challenges in Riverine Ecosystem Management

Description / Table of Contents: General Introduction --- Screening Protocols for Heat Tolerance in Rice at the Seedling and Reproductive Stages --- Validation of Screening Protocols for Heat Tolerance in Rice --- Conclusion --- References

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- Preparation techniques - Making anatomical structures visible --- Morphology of the plant body --- Cellular composition of the plant bodies --- Structure of cell walls and cell contents --- Primary, secondary and tertiary meristem --- Stem anatomical structures of major taxonomic units --- Evolution of stems --- Anatomical adaptions to permanent changed environmental conditions --- Anatomical adaptions to temporarily changed environmental conditions --- Coexistence of algae, fungi and vascular plants --- Wood decay --- Fossilization, permineralization, coalification, carbonization and wetwood conservation --- Technically altered wood products

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Impacts of Climate Change and Climate Variability on Wildlife Resources in Southern Africa: Experience from Selected Protected Areas in Zimbabwe / By Olga L. Kupika, Edson Gandiwa, Shakkie Kativu and Godwell Nhamo --- 2. Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region / By Javier Ferreiro da Costa and Pablo Ramil-Rego --- 3. Methods for Biodiversity Assessment: Case Study in an Area of Atlantic Forest in Southern Brazil / By Maria Raquel Kanieski, Solon Jonas Longhi and Philipe Ricardo Casemiro Soares --- 4. Seabed Biodiversity Shifts Identify Climate Regimes: The 2011 Climate Regime Shift and Associated Cascades / By Jeffrey B. Marliave, Donna M. Gibbs, Laura A. Borden and Charles J. Gibbs --- 5. Safeguarding Marine Biodiversity in a Changing World: Maltese Small-Scale Fisheries and Alien Species / By Adriana Vella and Noel Vella --- 6. Biodiversity of Amphipoda Talitridae in Tunisian Wetlands / By Jelassi Raja, Khemaissia Hajer and Nasri-Ammar Karima --- 7. Biodiversity Restoration and Renewable Energy from Hydropower: Conflict or Synergy? / By Wondmagegn Tafesse Tirkaso, Ing‐Marie Gren, Leonard Sandin, Joel Segersten, David Spjut and Erik Degerman --- 8. Determinants of Orchid Occurrence: A Czech Example / By Zuzana Štípková, Kristina Kosánová, Dušan Romportl and Pavel Kindlmann --- 9. Dark-Colored Forest Bee Apis mellifera in Siberia, Russia: Current State and Conservation of Populations / By Nadezhda V. Ostroverkhova, Aksana N. Kucher, Olga L. Konusova, Ekaterina S. Gushchina, Vadim V. Yartsev and Yury L. Pogorelov --- 10. Integration of Ecological and Socioeconomic Factors in Securing Wildlife Dispersal Corridors in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, Southern Africa / By Simon M. Munthali, Nicholas Smart, Victor Siamudaala, Morris Mtsambiwa and Eleanor Harvie --- 11. Usefulness of Plant Biodiversity in the Cities of Togo / By Radji Raoufou and Kokou Kouami --- 12. Towards an Integrative Taxonomy of the Genus Alstroemeria (Alstroemeriaceae) in Chile: A Comprehensive Review / By Victor L. Finot, Carlos M. Baeza, Eduardo Ruiz, Oscar Toro and Pedro Carrasco --- 13. Ecosystem Services Provided by the Little Things That Run the World / By Olga Maria Correia Chitas Ameixa, António Onofre Soares, Amadeu M.V.M. Soares and Ana I. Lillebø --- 14. Commercial Harvesting of Marula (Sclerocarya Birrea) in Swaziland: A Quest for Sustainability / By Alfred Francis Murye and André J. Pelser --- 15. Synopsis of Mangle Species in Mexico / By Basáñez Muñoz Agustín de Jesús, Serrano Solis Arturo, Martínez Cortés Esmeralda, Cuervo López Liliana, Capistrán Barradas Ascención and Naval Ávila Celina --- 16. Positive Rules Can Lead to Positive Behaviours: Students’ Perceptions of Messages on Information Boards in Protected Areas / By Gregor Torkar, Saša Mezek and Janez Jerman --- 17. Prey Selection of Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck and Schlegel, 1846) in a Freshwater Ecosystem (Lake Eğirdir/Turkey) / By Meral Apaydin Yağci, Ahmet Alp, Abdulkadir Yağci, Vedat Yeğen and Mehmet Ali Turan Koçer --- 18. Importance of Underutilized Field Crops for Increasing Functional Biodiversity / By Franc Bavec, Urška Lisec and Martina Bavec

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Introductory Chapter: Marine Ecology—Biotic and Abiotic Interactions / by Muhammet Turkoglu, Umur Onal and Ali Ismen --- 2. Geo-Biological Coupling of Authigenic Carbonate Formation and Autotrophic Faunal Colonization at Deep-Sea Methane Seeps I: Geo-Biological Settings / by Takeshi Naganuma --- 3. Geo-Biological Coupling of Authigenic Carbonate Formation and Autotrophic Faunal Colonization at Deep-Sea Methane Seeps II. Geo-Biological Landscapes / by Takeshi Naganuma --- 4. Plankton Ecology and Productivity in Jamaican Waters with New and Unique Applications / by Mona K. Webber, Dale F. Webber and Gale Persad Ford --- 5. Ecology of Planktonic Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) / by Stig Skreslet --- 6. Encounters in the Zooplankton: Implications for Pelagic Ecosystem Dynamics / by Laura Sanvicente-Añorve and Miguel Alatorre-Mendieta --- 7. Marine Fisheries in Nigeria: A Review / by Olalekan Jacob Olaoye and Wahab Gbenga Ojebiyi --- 8. Marine Stock Enhancement in India: Current Status and Future Prospects / by Mohammad Serajuddin, Farah Bano, Madhu Awasthi, Pragya Gupta and Graish Kumar --- 9. The Natural Ecology and Stock Enhancement of the Edible Jellyfish (Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye, 1891) in the Liaodong Bay, Bohai Sea, China / by Jing Dong, Bin Wang, Yan Duan, Aiyong Wang, Yulong Li, Ming Sun, Yu Chai, Xiuze Liu, Xuguang Yu, Dong Guo and Xiaolin Wang --- 10. Overview on Mediterranean Shark’s Fisheries: Impact on the Biodiversity / by Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradai, Bechir Saidi and Samira Enajjar --- 11. An Update on Reproduction in Ghost Shrimps (Decapoda: Axiidea) and Mud Lobsters (Decapoda: Gebiidea) / by Patricio Hernáez --- 12. The Role of Microalgae in Renewable Energy Production: Challenges and Opportunities / by Abd Ellatif Mohamed Hussian

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Adaptation in Agriculture / by Panit Arunanondchai, Chengcheng Fei and Bruce A. McCarl --- 2. Climate Adaptive Agricultural Innovation in Nepal: Prospects and Challenges / by Dhanej Thapa, Yuba Raj Subedi and Hemant Ojha --- 3. Naturally Available Genetic Adaptation in Common Bean and Its Response to Climate Change / by Andrés J. Cortés and Matthew W. Blair --- 4. Mitigation of the Negative Impact of Warming on the Coffee Crop: The Role of Increased Air [CO2] and Management Strategies / by Danielly Dubberstein, Weverton P. Rodrigues, José N. Semedo, Ana P. Rodrigues, Isabel P. Pais, António E. Leitão, Fábio L. Partelli, Eliemar Campostrini, Fernando Reboredo, Paula Scotti-Campos, Fernando C. Lidon, Ana I. Ribeiro-Barros, Fábio M. DaMatta and José C. Ramalho --- 5. Agricultural Management Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions / by Upendra M. Sainju --- 6. Low Carbon Technologies for Agriculture in Dryland: Brazilian Experience / by Vanderlise Giongo, Alessandra Monteiro Salviano, Francislene Angelotti, Tatiana Taura, Luiz Fernando Carvalho Leite and Tony Jarbas Ferreira Cunha --- 7. Pepper Crop under Climate Change: Grafting as an Environmental Friendly Strategy / by Consuelo Penella and Angeles Calatayud --- 8. Bringing Climate Smart Agriculture to Scale: Experiences from the Water Productivity Project in East and Central Africa / by Kizito Kwena, Fitih Ademe, Joseph Serge, Nezeghty Asmerom, Bernard Musana, Razaka Razakamiaramanana, Reuben Ruttoh, Hezron Mogaka, Assefa Dereje, Kifle Woldearegey, Anthony Esilaba and Rosemary Emongor --- 9. Climate Control in Mediterranean Greenhouses / by A. Nafi Baytorun and Zeynep Zaimoglu

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Introductory Chapter: Earthworms - The Ecological Engineers of Soil / by Sajal Ray --- 2. Abundance and Diversity of Earthworms in Managed and Non- Managed Fallow Lands of Calakmul Reserve of Campeche, Mexico / by Esperanza Huerta Lwanga, Lucero Sánchez-del Cid, Ligia Esparza- Olguín, Eduardo Martinez-Romero, Ben de Jong and Susana Ochoa-Gaona --- 3. Earthworms and Nematodes: The Ecological and Functional Interactions / by Jair Alves Dionísio, Wilian Carlo Demetrio and Arlei Maceda --- 4. Exploration of Earthworms of India through Online Digital Library / by Samrendra Singh Thakur and Shweta Yadav --- 5. Earthworms and Vermicomposting / by Jorge Domínguez --- 6. Environmental Influence of Soil toward Effective Vermicomposting / by Jaswinder Singh, Sharanpreet Singh, Adarsh Pal Vig and Arvinder Kaur

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- Summary --- 2. In-Situ Destructive Sampling --- 2.1 The Concept of Representivity --- 2.2 Plant Sampling Pattern and Design --- 2.3 Biomass Water Equivalent --- 2.4 Conclusions --- 3. Remote Sensing via Satellite Imagery Analysis --- 3.1 Photo-Reflective Properties of Plants --- 3.2 Satellite Image Analysis --- 3.3 Conclusions --- 4. Estimate of Biomass Water Equivalent via the Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor --- 4.1 The role of Biomass in the CRNS Calibration --- 4.2 Relationship between Neutrons and Crop Biomass --- 4.3 Dire4ct Relationship between Neutrons and Biomass --- 4.4 Conclusions

Description / Table of Contents: Aleotti, J.; Micconi, G.; Caselli, S.; Benassi, G.; Zambelli, N.; Bettelli, M.; Zappettini, A. Detection of Nuclear Sources by UAV Teleoperation Using a Visuo-Haptic Augmented Reality Interface. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2234; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102234 --- Audi, A.; Pierrot-Deseilligny, M.; Meynard, C.; Thom, C. Implementation of an IMU Aided Image Stacking Algorithm in a Digital Camera for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1646; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071646 --- Bae, M.; Yoo, S.; Jung, J.; Park, S.; Kim, K.; Lee, J.; Kim, H. Devising Mobile Sensing and Actuation Infrastructure with Drones. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 624; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020624 --- Brede, B.; Lau, A.; Bartholomeus, H.; Kooistra, L. Comparing RIEGL RiCOPTER UAV LiDAR Derived Canopy Height and DBH with Terrestrial LiDAR. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2371; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102371 --- Christiansen, M.; Laursen, M.; Jørgensen, R.; Skovsen, S.; Gislum, R. Designing and Testing a UAV Mapping System for Agricultural Field Surveying. Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2703; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122703 --- Ćwiąkała, P.; Kocierz, R.; Puniach, E.; Nędzka, M.; Mamczarz, K.; Niewiem, W.; Wiącek, P. Assessment of the Possibility of Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the Documentation of Hiking Trails in Alpine Areas. Sensors 2018, 18(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010081 --- Dong, Q.; Liu, J. Seamline Determination Based on PKGC Segmentation for Remote Sensing Image Mosaicking. Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1721; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081721 --- Fernández-Guisuraga, J.; Sanz-Ablanedo, E.; Suárez-Seoane, S.; Calvo, L. Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Postfire Vegetation Survey Campaigns through Large and Heterogeneous Areas: Opportunities and Challenges. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 586; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020586 --- Hassan-Esfahani, L.; Ebtehaj, A.; Torres-Rua, A.; McKee, M. Spatial Scale Gap Filling Using an Unmanned Aerial System: A Statistical Downscaling Method for Applications in Precision Agriculture. Sensors 2017, 17(9), 2106; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092106 --- Hinas, A.; Roberts, J.; Gonzalez, F. Vision-Based Target Finding and Inspection of a Ground Target Using a Multirotor UAV System. Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2929; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122929 --- Hoshiba, K.; Washizaki, K.; Wakabayashi, M.; Ishiki, T.; Kumon, M.; Bando, Y.; Gabriel, D.; Nakadai, K.; Okuno, H. Design of UAV-Embedded Microphone Array System for Sound Source Localization in Outdoor Environments. Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2535; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112535 --- Kikutis, R.; Stankūnas, J.; Rudinskas, D.; Masiulionis, T. Adaptation of Dubins Paths for UAV Ground Obstacle Avoidance When Using a Low Cost On-Board GNSS Sensor. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2223; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102223 --- Klosterman, S.; Richardson, A. Observing Spring and Fall Phenology in a Deciduous Forest with Aerial Drone Imagery. Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2852; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122852 --- Kong, W.; Hu, T.; Zhang, D.; Shen, L.; Zhang, J. Localization Framework for Real-Time UAV Autonomous Landing: An On-Ground Deployed Visual Approach. Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1437; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061437 --- Li, M.; Chen, R.; Zhang, W.; Li, D.; Liao, X.; Wang, L.; Pan, Y.; Zhang, P. A Stereo Dual-Channel Dynamic Programming Algorithm for UAV Image Stitching. Sensors 2017, 17(9), 2060; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092060 --- Mesas-Carrascosa, F.; Verdú Santano, D.; Pérez Porras, F.; Meroño-Larriva, J.; García-Ferrer, A. The Development of an Open Hardware and Software System Onboard Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Monitor Concentrated Solar Power Plants. Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1329; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061329 --- Ortega-Terol, D.; Hernandez-Lopez, D.; Ballesteros, R.; Gonzalez-Aguilera, D. Automatic Hotspot and Sun Glint Detection in UAV Multispectral Images. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2352; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102352 --- Parsons, M.; Bratanov, D.; Gaston, K.; Gonzalez, F. UAVs, Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, and Machine Learning Revolutionizing Reef Monitoring. Sensors 2018, 18(7), 2026; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18072026 --- Peterson, J.; Chaudhry, H.; Abdelatty, K.; Bird, J.; Kochersberger, K. Online Aerial Terrain Mapping for Ground Robot Navigation. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 630; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020630 --- Poblete, T.; Ortega-Farías, S.; Moreno, M.; Bardeen, M. Artificial Neural Network to Predict Vine Water Status Spatial Variability Using Multispectral Information Obtained from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2488; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112488

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Montmorillonite: An Introduction to Properties and Utilization / by Faheem Uddin --- 2. Recycling of Steelmaking Plant Wastes in Clay Bricks / by Carlos Maurício F. Vieira, Lucas Fonseca Amaral and Sergio N. Monteiro --- 3. Mineralogical and Chemical Characteristics of Raw and Modified Clays and Their Application in Arsenic and Fluoride Removal: Review / by Mugera W. Gitari and Rabelani Mudzielwana --- 4. Polymer-Clay Nanocomposites for Corrosion Protection / by Abdullah Al-Shahrani, Ihsan Taie, Aziz Fihri and Gasan Alabedi --- 5. The Importance of Clay in Geotechnical Engineering / by Nazile Ural --- 6. Clay Grouting Mechanisms and Applications / by Wen-Chieh Cheng --- 7. Calcium Phosphate/Clay Nanotube Bone Cement with Enhanced Mechanical Properties and Sustained Drug Release / by Udayabhanu Jammalamadaka, Karthik Tappa and David K. Mills --- 8. The Effect of Clay Type on the Physicochemical Properties of New Hydrogel Clay Nanocomposites / by Tatiana Munteanu, Claudia Mihaela Ninciuleanu, Ioana Catalina Gifu, Bogdan Trica, Elvira Alexandrescu, Augusta Raluca Gabor, Silviu Preda, Cristian Petcu, Cristina Lavinia Nistor, Sabina Georgiana Nitu and Raluca Ianchis --- 9. Development of Clay Nanoparticles Toward Bio and Medical Applications / by Seyyed Mojtaba Mousavi, Seyyed Alireza Hashemi, Sarvenaz Salahi, Mojgan Hosseini, Ali Mohammad Amani and Aziz Babapoor

Description / Table of Contents: The Role of Respiration in Estimation of Net Carbon Cycle: Coupling Soil Carbon Dynamics and Canopy Turnover in a Novel Version of 3D-CMCC Forest Ecosystem Model / Forests 2017, 8(6), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8060220 --- Climate Impacts on Soil Carbon Processes along an Elevation Gradient in the Tropical Luquillo Experimental Forest / Forests 2017, 8(3), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030090 --- Partitioning Forest‐Floor Respiration into Source Based Emissions in a Boreal Forested Bog: Responses to Experimental Drought / Forests 2017, 8(3), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030075 --- Elevated CO2 and Tree Species Affect Microbial Activity and Associated Aggregate Stability in Soil Amended with Litter / Forests 2017, 8(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030070 --- Effect of Soil Moisture on the Response of Soil Respiration to Open-Field Experimental Warming and Precipitation Manipulation / Forests 2017, 8(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030056 --- Temporal Variability of Soil Respiration in Experimental Tree Plantations in Lowland Costa Rica / Forests 2017, 8(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8020040 --- Spatial Upscaling of Soil Respiration under a Complex Canopy Structure in an Old‐Growth Deciduous Forest, Central Japan / Forests 2017, 8(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8020036 --- Heterotrophic Soil Respiration Affected by Compound Fertilizer Types in Red Pine (Pinus densiflora S. et Z.) Stands of Korea / Forests 2016, 7(12), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7120309 --- Optimization Forest Thinning Measures for Carbon Budget in a Mixed Pine-Oak Stand of the Qingling Mountains, China: A Case Study / Forests 2016, 7(11), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110272 --- Mitigating the Stress of Drought on Soil Respiration by Selective Thinning: Contrasting Effects of Drought on Soil Respiration of Two Oak Species in a Mediterranean Forest / Forests 2016, 7(11), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110263 --- Seasonal Variation in Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Three Age-Stages of Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) Stands in an Alluvial Island, Eastern China / Forests 2016, 7(11), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110256 --- Erratum: Spatial Upscaling of Soil Respiration under a Complex Canopy Structure in an Old-Growth Deciduous Forest, Central Japan; Forests 2017, 8, 36 / Forests 2017, 8(3), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030071

Description / Table of Contents: Poblete, T.; Ortega-Farías, S.; Ryu, D. Automatic Coregistration Algorithm to Remove Canopy Shaded Pixels in UAV-Borne Thermal Images to Improve the Estimation of Crop Water Stress Index of a Drip-Irrigated Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyard. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020397 --- Qu, Y.; Huang, J.; Zhang, X. Rapid 3D Reconstruction for Image Sequence Acquired from UAV Camera. Sensors 2018, 18(1), 225; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010225 --- Ribeiro-Gomes, K.; Hernández-López, D.; Ortega, J.; Ballesteros, R.; Poblete, T.; Moreno, M. Uncooled Thermal Camera Calibration and Optimization of the Photogrammetry Process for UAV Applications in Agriculture. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2173; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102173 --- Ridolfi, E.; Buffi, G.; Venturi, S.; Manciola, P. Accuracy Analysis of a Dam Model from Drone Surveys. Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1777; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081777 --- Rivas Casado, M.; González, R.; Ortega, J.; Leinster, P.; Wright, R. Towards a Transferable UAV-Based Framework for River Hydromorphological Characterization. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2210; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102210 --- Sandino, J.; Wooler, A.; Gonzalez, F. Towards the Automatic Detection of Pre-Existing Termite Mounds through UAS and Hyperspectral Imagery. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2196; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102196 --- Sandino, J.; Gonzalez, F.; Mengersen, K.; Gaston, K. UAVs and Machine Learning Revolutionising Invasive Grass and Vegetation Surveys in Remote Arid Lands. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 605; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020605 --- Sandino, J.; Pegg, G.; Gonzalez, F.; Smith, G. Aerial Mapping of Forests Affected by Pathogens Using UAVs, Hyperspectral Sensors, and Artificial Intelligence. Sensors 2018, 18(4), 944; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18040944 --- Seo, S.; Choi, J.; Song, J. Secure Utilization of Beacons and UAVs in Emergency Response Systems for Building Fire Hazard. Sensors 2017, 17(10), 2200; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17102200 --- Shen, J.; Su, Y.; Liang, Q.; Zhu, X. Calculation and Identification of the Aerodynamic Parameters for Small-Scaled Fixed-Wing UAVs. Sensors 2018, 18(1), 206; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010206 --- Sola-Guirado, R.; Castillo-Ruiz, F.; Jiménez-Jiménez, F.; Blanco-Roldan, G.; Castro-Garcia, S.; Gil-Ribes, J. Olive Actual “on Year” Yield Forecast Tool Based on the Tree Canopy Geometry Using UAS Imagery. Sensors 2017, 17(8), 1743; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17081743 --- Torres-Rua, A. Vicarious Calibration of sUAS Microbolometer Temperature Imagery for Estimation of Radiometric Land Surface Temperature. Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1499; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071499 --- Uddin, M.; Mansour, A.; Jeune, D.; Ayaz, M.; Aggoune, e. UAV-Assisted Dynamic Clustering of Wireless Sensor Networks for Crop Health Monitoring. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 555; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020555 --- Vanegas, F.; Bratanov, D.; Powell, K.; Weiss, J.; Gonzalez, F. A Novel Methodology for Improving Plant Pest Surveillance in Vineyards and Crops Using UAV-Based Hyperspectral and Spatial Data. Sensors 2018, 18(1), 260; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18010260 --- Wang, X.; Jiang, P.; Li, D.; Sun, T. Curvature Continuous and Bounded Path Planning for Fixed-Wing UAVs. Sensors 2017, 17(9), 2155; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17092155 --- Zhao, Y.; Ma, J.; Li, X.; Zhang, J. Saliency Detection and Deep Learning-Based Wildfire Identification in UAV Imagery. Sensors 2018, 18(3), 712; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18030712 --- Zheng, H.; Bai, T.; Wang, Q.; Cao, F.; Shao, L.; Sun, Z. Experimental Study of Multispectral Characteristics of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle at Different Observation Angles. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/s18020428 --- Zhong, J.; Lei, T.; Yao, G. Robust Vehicle Detection in Aerial Images Based on Cascaded Convolutional Neural Networks. Sensors 2017, 17(12), 2720; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17122720

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Organic Fertilizers and Nutrient Recycling from Diluted Waste Streams / by Bente Foereid --- 2. Olive-Pressed Solid Residues as a Medium for Growing Mushrooms and Increasing Soil Fertility / by Hani Mohamed Awad Abdelzaher, Haifa Abdulaziz S. Alhaithloul and Shaima Mohamed Nabil Moustafa --- 3. Composing of Municipal Solid Waste and Its Use as Fertilizer / by Muhammad Khalid Iqbal --- 4. Relationship of Agronomic Practices to Soil Nitrogen Dynamics / by Congming Zou, Robert C Pearce, John H Grove, Yan Li, Xiaodong Hu, Jie Chen, Junying Li and Yan Jin --- 5. Fostering Fertilizer Use and Welfare Distribution in Tanzania: Implications for Policy and Practice / by Lutengano Mwinuka

Description / Table of Contents: Zambon, I.; Colosimo, F.; Monarca, D.; Cecchini, M.; Gallucci, F.; Proto, A.; Lord, R.; Colantoni, A. An Innovative Agro-Forestry Supply Chain for Residual Biomass: Physicochemical Characterisation of Biochar from Olive and Hazelnut Pellets. Energies 2016, 9(7), 526; doi:10.3390/en9070526. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/7/526 --- Liu, P.; Wang, Q.; Yan, D.; Fang, W.; Mao, L.; Wang, D.; Li, Y.; Ouyang, C.; Guo, M.; Cao, A. Effects of Biochar Amendment on Chloropicrin Adsorption and Degradation in Soil. Energies 2016, 9(11), 869; doi:10.3390/en9110869. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/11/869 --- Fang, W.; Cao, A.; Yan, D.; Han, D.; Huang, B.; Li, J.; Liu, X.; Guo, M.; Wang, Q. The Effect of Two Types of Biochars on the Efficacy, Emission, Degradation, and Adsorption of the Fumigant Methyl Isothiocyanate. Energies 2017, 10(1), 16; doi:10.3390/en10010016. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/1/16 --- Long, J.; Boyette, M. Analysis of Micronized Charcoal for Use in a Liquid Fuel Slurry. Energies 2017, 10(1), 25; doi:10.3390/en10010025. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/1/25 --- Fuente-Hernández, A.; Lee, R.; Béland, N.; Zamboni, I.; Lavoie, J. Reduction of Furfural to Furfuryl Alcohol in Liquid Phase over a Biochar-Supported Platinum Catalyst. Energies 2017, 10(3), 286; doi:10.3390/en10030286. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/3/286 --- Brassard, P.; Godbout, S.; Raghavan, V.; Palacios, J.; Grenier, M.; Zegan, D. The Production of Engineered Biochars in a Vertical Auger Pyrolysis Reactor for Carbon Sequestration. Energies 2017, 10(3), 288; doi:10.3390/en10030288. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/3/288 --- González-Vázquez, M.; García, R.; Pevida, C.; Rubiera, F. Optimization of a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Plant for Low-Temperature Gasification of Biomass. Energies 2017, 10(3), 306; doi:10.3390/en10030306. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/3/306 --- Yang, X.; Wang, H.; Strong, P.; Xu, S.; Liu, S.; Lu, K.; Sheng, K.; Guo, J.; Che, L.; He, L.; Ok, Y.; Yuan, G.; Shen, Y.; Chen, X. Thermal Properties of Biochars Derived from Waste Biomass Generated by Agricultural and Forestry Sectors. Energies 2017, 10(4), 469; doi:10.3390/en10040469. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/4/469 --- Ellison, C.; McKeown, M.; Trabelsi, S.; Boldor, D. Dielectric Properties of Biomass/Biochar Mixtures at Microwave Frequencies. Energies 2017, 10(4), 502; doi:10.3390/en10040502. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/4/502 --- Kang, S.; Sim, B.; Kim, J. Volume and Mass Measurement of a Burning Wood Pellet by Image Processing. Energies 2017, 10(5), 603; doi:10.3390/en10050603. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/5/603 --- Tamošiūnas, A.; Chouchène, A.; Valatkevičius, P.; Gimžauskaitė, D.; Aikas, M.; Uscila, R.; Ghorbel, M.; Jeguirim, M. The Potential of Thermal Plasma Gasification of Olive Pomace Charcoal. Energies 2017, 10(5), 710; doi:10.3390/en10050710. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/5/710 --- Guizani, C.; Jeguirim, M.; Valin, S.; Limousy, L.; Salvador, S. Biomass Chars: The Effects of Pyrolysis Conditions on Their Morphology, Structure, Chemical Properties and Reactivity. Energies 2017, 10(6), 796; doi:10.3390/en10060796. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/6/796 --- Zhao, S.; Ta, N.; Wang, X. Effect of Temperature on the Structural and Physicochemical Properties of Biochar with Apple Tree Branches as Feedstock Material. Energies 2017, 10(9), 1293; doi:10.3390/en10091293. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/9/1293 --- Wanassi, B.; Hariz, I.; Ghimbeu, C.; Vaulot, C.; Jeguirim, M. Green Carbon Composite-Derived Polymer Resin and Waste Cotton Fibers for the Removal of Alizarin Red S Dye. Energies 2017, 10(9), 1321; doi:10.3390/en10091321. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/9/1321 --- Ghouma, I.; Jeguirim, M.; Sager, U.; Limousy, L.; Bennici, S.; Däuber, E.; Asbach, C.; Ligotski, R.; Schmidt, F.; Ouederni, A. The Potential of Activated Carbon Made of Agro-Industrial Residues in NOx Immissions Abatement. Energies 2017, 10(10), 1508; doi:10.3390/en10101508. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/10/1508 --- Jeguirim, M.; Limousy, L. Biomass Chars: Elaboration, Characterization and Applications. Energies 2017, 10(12), 2040; doi:10.3390/en10122040. http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2040

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: The Main Directions and Tasks of Pure and Applied Biogeography in Solving the Global Problems of Our Time by Levente Hufnagel --- Chapter 2: Are Historical Biogeographical Events Able to Promote Biological Diversification? by Julián A. Velasco --- Chapter 3: Ecological Responses to Climate Change at Biogeographical Boundaries by Melinda Pálinkás --- Chapter 4: A Synopsis of Global Mapping of Freshwater Habitats and Biodiversity: Implications for Conservation by Ryan A. McManamay, Natalie A. Griffiths, Christoper R. DeRolph and Brenda M. Pracheil --- Chapter 5: Plant Antiherbivore Defense in Diverse Environments by Alina Morquecho-Contreras, Carmen Zepeda-Gómez and Hermilo Sánchez-Sánchez --- Chapter 6: Vachellia (Acacia) karroo Communities in South Africa: An Overview by Mamokete Dingaan and Pieter J. du Preez --- Chapter 7: Ecological Biogeography of West Usambara Mountains: A Study on the Influence of Abiotic Factors to Spatial Distribution of Plant and Animal Species by Joel Loitu Meliyo, Kenneth F.G. Masuki, Balthazar M. Msanya, Didas N. Kimaro and Loth S. Mulungu

Description / Table of Contents: 1. Introduction --- Part I: Bioeconomy Concepts and Research Methods --- Chapter 2: Context --- Chapter 3: Bioeconomy concepts --- Chapter 4: Core principles --- Chapter 4: Inter- and Transdisciplinarity in the Bioeconomy --- Part II: Knowledge Base for Biobased Value Chains --- Chapter 5:Biobased Resources and Value Chains --- Chapter 6: Primary Production --- Chapter 7: Processing of Biobased Resources --- Chapter 8: Markets, Sustainability management and Entrepreneurship.- Part III: Transition to a Sustainable Bioeconomy --- Chapter9:  Modelling and Tools Supporting the Transition to a Bioeconomy --- Chapter 10: Environmental Economics, the Bioeconomy and the Role of Government --- Chapter 11: Economic Growth, Development, and Innovation – The Transformation towards a Knowledge-based Bioeconomy --- Chapter 12: The Bioeconomist

Description / Table of Contents: Yin, S.; Zhang, X.; Pumpanen, J.; Shen, G.; Xiong, F.; Liu, C. Seasonal Variation in Soil Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Three Age-Stages of Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) Stands in an Alluvial Island, Eastern China. Forests 2016, 7(11), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110256 --- Chang, C.; Sperlich, D.; Sabaté, S.; Sánchez-Costa, E.; Cotillas, M.; Espelta, J.; Gracia, C. Mitigating the Stress of Drought on Soil Respiration by Selective Thinning: Contrasting Effects of Drought on Soil Respiration of Two Oak Species in a Mediterranean Forest. Forests 2016, 7(11), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110263 --- Hou, L.; Li, Z.; Luo, C.; Bai, L.; Dong, N. Optimization Forest Thinning Measures for Carbon Budget in a Mixed Pine-Oak Stand of the Qingling Mountains, China: A Case Study. Forests 2016, 7(11), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7110272 --- Jeong, J.; Bolan, N.; Kim, C. Heterotrophic Soil Respiration Affected by Compound Fertilizer Types in Red Pine (Pinus densiflora S. et Z.) Stands of Korea. Forests 2016, 7(12), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/f7120309 --- Suchewaboripont, V.; Ando, M.; Yoshitake, S.; Iimura, Y.; Hirota, M.; Ohtsuka, T. Spatial Upscaling of Soil Respiration under a Complex Canopy Structure in an Old‐Growth Deciduous Forest, Central Japan. Forests 2017, 8(2), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8020036 --- Raich, J. Temporal Variability of Soil Respiration in Experimental Tree Plantations in Lowland Costa Rica. Forests 2017, 8(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8020040 --- Li, G.; Kim, S.; Han, S.; Chang, H.; Son, Y. Effect of Soil Moisture on the Response of Soil Respiration to Open-Field Experimental Warming and Precipitation Manipulation. Forests 2017, 8(3), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030056 --- Al‐Maliki, S.; Jones, D.; Godbold, D.; Gwynn‐Jones, D.; Scullion, J. Elevated CO2 and Tree Species Affect Microbial  Activity and Associated Aggregate Stability in Soil  Amended with Litter. Forests 2017, 8(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030070 --- Forests Editorial Office Erratum: Spatial Upscaling of Soil Respiration under a Complex Canopy Structure in an Old-Growth Deciduous Forest, Central Japan; Forests 2017, 8, 36. Forests 2017, 8(3), 71; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030071 --- Munir, T.; Khadka, B.; Xu, B.; Strack, M. Partitioning Forest‐Floor Respiration into Source  Based Emissions in a Boreal Forested Bog: Responses  to Experimental Drought. Forests 2017, 8(3), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030075 --- Chen, D.; Yu, M.; González, G.; Zou, X.; Gao, Q. Climate Impacts on Soil Carbon Processes along an Elevation Gradient in the Tropical Luquillo Experimental Forest. Forests 2017, 8(3), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8030090 --- Marconi, S.; Chiti, T.; Nolè, A.; Valentini, R.; Collalti, A. The Role of Respiration in Estimation of Net Carbon Cycle: Coupling Soil Carbon Dynamics and Canopy Turnover in a Novel Version of 3D-CMCC Forest Ecosystem Model. Forests 2017, 8(6), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8060220

Description / Table of Contents: According to the 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects by UN DESA, urbanization could add another 2.5 billion people to the urban population by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. The largest urban growth will take place in India, China and Nigeria. This unprecedented increase in urban population not only poses challenges to providing urban jobs, housing, and infrastructure, but also exerts an increased pressure on urban land and sustainability. As land is a vital yet limited resource, sustainable management of urban land to cater to the needs of this growing urban population is seen as one of the key challenges for achieving an economically efficient, socially equitable, and environmentally safe society. A key tenet for sustainable economic development and smart growth is promoting sustainable urban land development and mitigating land use conflicts. While a large body of literature has dealt with both land use and sustainable development, the study of the interactive effects of these two remains limited. We also need more sophisticated empirical studies examining processes, mechanisms, institutions, equity, and sustainability of urban land use. We also encourage efforts to develop new theories, new concepts and new methods to understand the myriad ways in which urban land and sustainable development correlate each other. This special issue examines patterns, structure, and dynamics of urban land development and sustainability from multiple perspectives, in various contexts and at multiple dimensions (economic, social, political, developmental, environmental, etc.).

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: Electrochemical Sensors Technology by Mohammed Muzibur Rahman and Abdullah Mohamed Asiri --- Chapter 2: Enzyme-Based Electrochemical Glutamate Biosensors by Stanley L. Okon and Niina J. Ronkainen --- Chapter 3: Graphene-Paper Based Electrochemical Sensors by Minwei Zhang, Arnab Halder, Xianyi Cao, Chengyi Hou and Qijin Chi --- Chapter 4: Electrochemical Sensors for Monitoring of Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution by Igor Cretescu, Doina Lutic and Liliana Rosemarie Manea --- Chapter 5: Experimental Analysis of Modified CNTs-Based Gas Sensor by Ju Tang, Xiaoxing Zhang, Song Xiao and Yingang Gui --- Chapter 6: Fabrication and Characterization of Metal-Loaded Mixed Metal Oxides Gas Sensors for the Detection of Hazardous Gases by Chang-Seop Lee and Yong Jae Kim --- Chapter 7: Managing H2O Cross-Sensitivity Using Composite Electrolyte NOx Sensors by Erica Perry Murray, Khawlah Kharashi and Kehinde Adedeji

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: Recent Advances by Adel El-Shahat --- Chapter 2: Electrical Resistivity Sensing Methods and Implications by Marios Sophocleous --- Chapter 3: Resistivity Model of Frozen Soil and High-Density Resistivity Method for Exploration Discontinuous Permafrost by Wei Shan, Zhaoguang Hu, Ying Guo, Chengcheng Zhang and Yao Liu --- Chapter 4: Measurement of the Electrical Resistivity for Unconventional Structures by Lucian Pîslaru-Dănescu and Lipan Laurențiu Constantin --- Chapter 5: Estimation of Hydrological Parameters from Geoelectrical Measurements by Héctor José Peinado Guevara, Jaime Herrera Barrientos, Omar Delgado Rodríguez, Víctor Manuel Peinado Guevara, Omar Llanes Cárdenas and María Ladrón De Guevara Torres --- Chapter 6: Assessment of Cryoprotectant Concentration by Electrical Conductivity Measurement and Its Applications in Cryopreservation by Zhiquan Shu, Hsiu-Hung Chen, Xiaoming Zhou and Dayong Gao

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Steady-State Modeling of Equilibrium Distillation by Vilmar Steffen and Edson Antonio da Silva --- Chapter 2: Short-Cut Methods for Multicomponent Batch Distillation by A. Narváez-García, J.C. Zavala-Loría, A. Ruiz-Marín and Y. Canedo- López --- Chapter 3: Mathematical Modelling of Batch Distillation Columns: A Comparative Analysis of Non-Linear and Fuzzy Models by Adriana del Carmen Téllez-Anguiano, Mario Heras-Cervantes, Juan Anzurez-Marín, Gerardo Marx Chávez-Campos and José Antonio Gutiérrez Gnecchi --- Chapter 4: Distillation: Basic Test in Quality Control of Automotive Fuels by Ma Mercedes del Coro Fernández-Feal, Luis R. Sánchez-Fernández and Blanca Sánchez-Fernández --- Chapter 5: Enhanced Distillation Under Infrared Characteristic Radiation by Kuo-Ting Wang, M. Quinn Brewster and Wei-Hsiang Lai --- Chapter 6: Distillation Techniques in the Fruit Spirits Production by Nermina Spaho --- Chapter 7: Fractional Distillation of Organic Liquid Compounds Produced by Catalytic Cracking of Fats, Oils, and Grease by C. C. Fereira, E. C. Costa, D. A. R. de Castro, M. S. Pereira, A. A. Mâncio, M. C. Santos, D. E. L. Lhamas, S. A. P. da Mota, M. E. Araújo, Luiz E. P. Borges and N. T. Machado --- Chapter 8: Energy Evaluation of the Use of an Absorption Heat Pump in Water Distillation Process by Rosenberg J. Romero and Sotsil Silva-Sotelo --- Chapter 9: Solar Membrane Distillation: Use of a Helically Coiled Fiber by Adel Zrelli

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks: An Overview by Velmani Ramasamy --- Chapter 2: Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) by Noman Shabbir and Syed Rizwan Hassan --- Chapter 3: Gradient Descent Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks by Nuha A.S. Alwan and Zahir M. Hussain --- Chapter 4: A Novel Hybrid Methodology Applied Optimization Energy Consumption in Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks by Plácido Rogerio Pinheiro, Álvaro Meneses Sobreira Neto, Alexei Barbosa Aguiar and Pedro Gabriel Calíope Dantas Pinheiro --- Chapter 5: WSN in Conservation Management by Akbar Ghobakhlou and Shane Inder --- Chapter 6: Recent Advances on Implantable Wireless Sensor Networks by Hugo Dinis and Paulo M. Mendes --- Chapter 7: Low-Cost Energy-Efficient Air Quality Monitoring System Using Wireless Sensor Network by Kavi Kumar Khedo and Vishwakarma Chikhooreeah --- Chapter 8: Modern Clustering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks by I.S. Akila, S.V. Manisekaran and R. Venkatesan --- Chapter 9: Fuzzy Adaptive Setpoint Weighting Controller for WirelessHART Networked Control Systems by Sabo Miya Hassan, Rosdiazli Ibrahim, Nordin Saad, Vijanth Sagayan Asirvadam, Kishore Bingi and Tran Duc Chung --- Chapter 10: A Hybrid Sink Repositioning Technique for Data Gathering in Wireless Sensor Networks by Prerana Shrivastava

Description / Table of Contents: Igneous oceanic crust is one of the largest potential habitats for life on earth, and microbial activity supported by rock-water-microbe reactions in this environment can impact global biogeochemical cycles. However, our understanding of the microbiology of this system, especially the subsurface “deep biosphere” component of it, has traditionally been limited by sample availability and quality. Over the past decade, several major international programs (such as the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations, the current International Ocean Discovery Program and its predecessor Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, and the Deep Carbon Observatory) have focused on advancing our understanding of life in this cryptic, yet globally relevant, biosphere. Additionally, many field and laboratory research programs are examining hydrothermal vent systems –a seafloor expression of seawater that has been thermally and chemically altered in subseafloor crust – and the microbial communities supported by these mineral-rich fluids. The Frontiers in Microbiology 3 September 2017 | Recent Advances in Geomicrobiology of the Ocean Crust papers in this special issue bring together recent discoveries of microbial presence, diversity and activity in these dynamic ocean environments. Cumulatively, the articles in this special issue serve as a tribute to the late Dr. Katrina J. Edwards, who was a pioneer and profound champion of studying microbes that “rust the crust”. This special issue volume serves as a foundation for the continued exploration of the subsurface ocean crust deep biosphere.

Description / Table of Contents: Editorial: Integrative Research on Organic Matter Cycling across Aquatic Gradients / Nicholas D. Ward. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00131 --- Influence of Major Storm Events on the Quantity and Composition of Particulate Organic Matter and the Phytoplankton Community in a Subtropical Estuary, Texas / Nicolas E. Reyna, Amber K. Hardison and Zhanfei Liu. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00043 --- The Fate of Carbon in Sediments of the Xingu and Tapajós Clearwater Rivers, Eastern Amazon / Dailson J. Bertassoli, André O. Sawakuchi, Henrique O. Sawakuchi, Fabiano N. Pupim, Gelvam A. Hartmann, Michael M. McGlue, Cristiano M. Chiessi, Matthias Zabel, Enno Schefuß, Tatiana S. Pereira, Rudney A. Santos, Samantha B. Faustino, Paulo E. Oliveira and Denise C. Bicudo. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00044 --- Flux of Dissolved and Particulate Low-Temperature Pyrogenic Carbon from Two High-Latitude Rivers across the Spring Freshet Hydrograph / Allison N. Myers-Pigg, Patrick Louchouarn and Roman Teisserenc. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00038 --- Environmental Drivers of Dissolved Organic Matter Molecular Composition in the Delaware Estuary / Helena Osterholz, David L. Kirchman, Jutta Niggemann and Thorsten Dittmar. doi: 10.3389/feart.2016.00095 --- Molecular and Optical Properties of Tree-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter in Throughfall and Stemflow from Live Oaks and Eastern Red Cedar / Aron Stubbins, Leticia M. Silva, Thorsten Dittmar and John T. Van Stan. doi: 10.3389/feart.2017.00022 --- Composition and Transformation of Dissolved Organic Matter in the Baltic Sea / Michael Seidel, Marcus Manecki, Daniel P. R. Herlemann, Barbara Deutsch, Detlef Schulz-Bull, Klaus Jürgens and Thorsten Dittmar. doi: 10.3389/feart.2017.00031 --- Evaluation of Primary Production in the Lower Amazon River Based on a Dissolved Oxygen Stable Isotopic Mass Balance / William C. Gagne-Maynard, Nicholas D. Ward, Richard G. Keil, Henrique O. Sawakuchi, Alan C. Da Cunha, Vania Neu, Daimio C. Brito, Diani F. Da Silva Less, Joel E. M. Diniz, Aline De Matos Valerio, Milton Kampel, Alex V. Krusche and Jeffrey E. Richey. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00026 --- Surface Gradients in Dissolved Organic Matter Absorption and Fluorescence Properties along the New Zealand Sector of the Southern Ocean / Eurico J. D'Sa and Hyun-cheol Kim. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00021 --- The Genesis and Exodus of Vascular Plant DOM from an Oak Woodland Landscape / Peter J. Hernes, Robert G. M. Spencer, Rachael Y. Dyda, Anthony T. O'Geen and Randy A. Dahlgren. doi: 10.3389/feart.2017.00009 --- Carbon Dioxide Emissions along the Lower Amazon River / Henrique O. Sawakuchi, Vania Neu, Nicholas D. Ward, Maria de Lourdes C. Barros, Aline M. Valerio, William Gagne-Maynard, Alan C. Cunha, Diani F. S. Less, Joel E. M. Diniz, Daimio C. Brito, Alex V. Krusche and Jeffrey E. Richey. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00076 --- Short-Term Dissolved Organic Carbon Dynamics Reflect Tidal, Water Management, and Precipitation Patterns in a Subtropical Estuary / Peter Regier and Rudolf Jaffé. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00250 --- Impact of Wetland Decline on Decreasing Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentrations along the Mississippi River Continuum / Shuiwang Duan, Yuxiang He, Sujay S. Kaushal, Thomas S. Bianchi, Nicholas D. Ward and Laodong Guo. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00280 --- Microbially-Mediated Transformations of Estuarine Dissolved Organic Matter / Patricia M. Medeiros, Michael Seidel, Scott M. Gifford, Ford Ballantyne, Thorsten Dittmar, William B. Whitman and Mary Ann Moran. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00069 --- Dissolved Organic and Inorganic Carbon Flow Paths in an Amazonian Transitional Forest / Vania Neu, Nicholas D. Ward, Alex V. Krusche and Christopher Neill. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2016.00114

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- Human brown adipose tissue plasticity: hormonal and environmental manipulation --- The energy sensor AMPK: Adaptations to exercise, nutritional and hormonal signals --- Plasma steroids and cardiorespiratory fitness response to regular exercise --- Sending the signal: Muscle glycogen availability as a regulator of training adaptation --- Optimized engagement of macrophages and satellite cells in the repair and regeneration of exercised muscle --- Skeletal muscle microRNAs: Roles in differentiation, disease and exercise --- Tryptophan-kynurenine metabolites in exercise and mental health --- FNDC5/irisin - their role in the nervous system and as a mediator for beneficial effects of exercise on the brain

Description / Table of Contents: 1. The Biodiversity Data Impediment to a Sustainable World (Working in a Networked World) --- 2. Essential Biodiversity Variables --- 3. Stratification and Terrestrial Ecosystem Observations --- 4. Ecosystem Services --- 5. Species Observations --- 6. Monitoring Changes in Genetic Diversity --- 7. Marine and Coastal Systems --- 8. Biodiversity Observations for Freshwater Ecosystems --- 9. Remote Sensing for Biodiversity --- 10. Involving Citizen Scientists in Biodiversity Observation --- 11. Biodiversity Modelling --- 12. Cyber-Architecture --- 13. Using Data for Decision-Making: From Observations To Indicators and Other Policy Tools --- 14. Capacity Building in Biodiversity Monitoring – Case Studies

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Localized Bessel Beams: Basic Properties and Emerging Communication Applications by Sandra Costanzo --- Chapter 2: Transionospheric Microwave Propagation: Higher-Order Effects up to 100 GHz by Mohammed Mainul Hoque, Norbert Jakowski and Jens Berdermann --- Chapter 3: Ka-to-W Band EM Wave Propagation: Tropospheric Effects and Countermeasures by Lorenzo Luini, Roberto Nebuloni and Carlo Riva --- Chapter 4: Photon Propagation Through Dispersive Media by Patricio Robles and Francisco Pizarro --- Chapter 5: Light Wave Propagation and Scattering Through Particles by Yi Ping Han, Zhi Wei Cui and Jia Jie Wang --- Chapter 6: Slow Electromagnetic Waves: Theory and New Applications by Giuseppe Di Massa --- Chapter 7: Numerical Investigation about Frequency Behaviour of Conformal FSS by Giovanni Leone, Francesco Mattiello and Rocco Pierri --- Chapter 8: A Rain Estimation System Based on Electromagnetic Propagation Models and DVB-S Opportunistic Sensors by Daniele Caviglia, Matteo Pastorino, Andrea Randazzo and Andrea Caridi --- Chapter 9: Real-Time Electromagnetic Signal Processing: Principles and Illustrations by Shulabh Gupta and Christophe Caloz --- Chapter 10: Manipulating Electromagnetic Waves with Zero Index Materials by Shiyang Liu, Jialin Zhou, Ying Han, Xinning Yu, Huajin Chen and Zhifang Lin

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: Smart Antennas and Beam-formation by Modar Shbat, Francisco C. Ordaz-Salazar and Javier S. González- Salas --- Chapter 2: The Design of a 360°-Switched-Beam-Base Station Antenna by Mohamed Aymen El Cafsi, Mourad Nedil, Lotfi Osman and Ali Gharsallah --- Chapter 3: Compressive Reflector Antenna Phased Array by Ali Molaei, Juan Heredia Juesas and Jose Angel Martinez Lorenzo --- Chapter 4: Detect and Pointing Algorithms Performance for a 2D Adaptive Antenna Array by Tiago Varum, João N. Matos and Pedro Pinho --- Chapter 5: Beamformer Based on Quaternion Processes by Jian-wu Tao and Wen-xiu Chang

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Membrane Thermodynamics for Osmotic Phenomena by Albert S. Kim and Heyon-Ju Kim --- Chapter 2: Pulsating Flow Effects on Hydrodynamics in a Desalination Membrane Filled with Spacers by Armando A. Soares, João Silva, Eliseu Monteiro and Abel Rouboa --- Chapter 3: Desalination: A Means of Increasing Irrigation Water Sources for Sustainable Crop Production by OrevaOghene Aliku --- Chapter 4: Application of Multilayer Thin Film Technology in Desalination Membrane by Syed Javaid Zaidi and Farid Fadhillah --- Chapter 5: Phase Equilibria and Phase Separation of the Aqueous Solution System Containing Lithium Ions by Long Li, Yafei Guo and Tianlong Deng --- Chapter 6: Marmara Seawater Desalination by Membrane Distillation: Direct Consumption Assessment of Produced Drinking Water by Coskun Aydiner, Derya Y. Koseoglu Imer, Salim Oncel, Esra Can Dogan, Ali Oguzhan Narci, Serif Cakmak, Tugba Nur Yilmaz, Emin Ender Celebi and Yasemin Melek Tilki --- Chapter 7: On the Purification of Agro-Industrial Wastewater by Membrane Technologies: The Case of Olive Mill Effluents by Javier Miguel Ochando-Pulido and Antonio Martinez-Ferez --- Chapter 8: Solar Thermal-Driven Desalination Pursuing Products of Pure Water and Salts and Leaving Minimum Impact to Environment by Ben Xu, Peiwen Li and Penghua Guo --- Chapter 9: Responding to Water Challenges Through Desalination: Energy Considerations by George Arampatzis, Avraam Kartalidis and Dionysis Assimacopoulos --- Chapter 10: Importance and Significance of UF/MF Membrane Systems in Desalination Water Treatment by Iqbal Ahmed, Khaled S. Balkhair, Muhammad H. Albeiruttye and Amer Ahmed Jamil Shaiban --- Chapter 11: NEREU Project: Construction of a Plasma Reactor for Reform of Greenhouse Gases for Treatment of Wastewater of the Marine Farms by André Pedral S. de Sena --- Chapter 12: Low-Cost Multi-Effect Solar Still: Alternative Appropriate Technology for Personal Desalination by Pak Hunkyun

Description / Table of Contents: Microwave systems are key components of every modern wireless communication system. The main objective of this book was to collect as many different state-of-the-art studies as possible in order to cover in a single volume the main aspects of microwave systems and applications. This book contains 17 chapters written by acknowledged experts, researchers, academics, and microwave engineers, providing comprehensive information and covering a wide range of topics on all aspects of microwave systems and applications. This book is divided into four parts. The first part is devoted to microwave components. The second part deals with microwave ICs and innovative techniques for on-chip antenna design. The third part presents antenna design cases for microwave systems. Finally, the last part covers different applications of microwave systems.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Chitosan as Source for Pesticide Formulations by Sebastián D. Ippólito, Julieta R. Mendieta, María C. Terrile, Claudia V. Tonón, Andrea Y. Mansilla, Silvana Colman, Liliana Albertengo, María S. Rodríguez and Claudia A. Casalongué --- Chapter 2: Chitosan in Agriculture: A New Challenge for Managing Plant Disease by Laura Orzali, Beatrice Corsi, Cinzia Forni and Luca Riccioni --- Chapter 3: Chitosan from Marine Crustaceans: Production, Characterization and Applications by Jimena Bernadette Dima, Cynthia Sequeiros and Noemi Zaritzky --- Chapter 4: Alginate and Sericin: Environmental and Pharmaceutical Applications by Thiago Lopes da Silva, Jacyara Moreira Martins Vidart, Meuris Gurgel Carlos da Silva, Marcelino Luiz Gimenes and Melissa Gurgel Adeodato Vieira --- Chapter 5: Chitosan, Chitosan Derivatives and their Biomedical Applications by Gustavo Adolfo Muñoz Ruiz and Hector Fabio Zuluaga Corrales --- Chapter 6: Chitosan: Strategies to Increase and Modulate Drug Release Rate by David Lucio and María Cristina Martínez-Ohárriz --- Chapter 7: Marine Polysaccharides as Multifunctional Pharmaceutical Excipients by G. Thirumurugan and M.D. Dhanaraju --- Chapter 8: Speculations on the Use of Marine Polysaccharides as Scaffolds for Artificial Nerve ‘Side-’Grafts by Sherif M. Amr and Basma Ekram --- Chapter 9: Marine Polysaccharides in Medicine by Rajendra S. Dongre --- Chapter 10: Applications of Chitosan in Wastewater Treatment by Petronela Nechita --- Chapter 11: Flow Properties of Lambda Carrageenan in Aqueous Systems by Andrea Rivera del Rio, Mariana Ramírez-Gilly and Alberto Tecante --- Chapter 12: Chitosan-Based Sustainable Textile Technology: Process, Mechanism, Innovation, and Safety by Jagadish Roy, Fabien Salaün, Stéphane Giraud, Ada Ferri and Jinping Guan --- Chapter 13: Chitosan-Based Thermosensitive Materials by Waldo Argüelles-Monal, Maricarmen Recillas-Mota and Daniel Fernández-Quiroz --- Chapter 14: Chitosan and Phthaloylated Chitosan in Electrochemical Devices by Zurina Osman and Abdul Kariem Arof

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Terahertz (THz) Spectroscopy: A Cutting-Edge Technology by William Ghann and Jamal Uddin --- Chapter 2: Terahertz Nanoantennas for Enhanced Spectroscopy by Riccardo Piccoli, Andrea Rovere, Andrea Toma, Roberto Morandotti and Luca Razzari --- Chapter 3: Research on Hydrogen-Bonded Materials Using Terahertz Technology by Kei Takeya and Kodo Kawase --- Chapter 4: Terahertz Fiber Sensing by Borwen You and Ja-Yu Lu --- Chapter 5: Terahertz Detectors (THzDs): Bridging the Gap for Energy Harvesting by Kapil Bhatt, Shilpi Shriwastava, Sandeep Kumar, Sandeep and Chandra Charu Tripathi --- Chapter 6: THz Metamaterial Characterization Using THz-TDS by Christopher H. Kodama and Ronald A. Coutu, Jr. --- Chapter 7: Determining the Complex Refractive Index of Materials in the Far-Infrared from Terahertz Time-Domain Data by Maxime Bernier, Frédéric Garet and Jean-Louis Coutaz --- Chapter 8: Terahertz Waveform Measurements Using a Chirped Optical Pulse and Terahertz Spectroscopy of Reverse Micellar Solution: Towards Time-resolved Terahertz Spectroscopy of Protein in Water by Hiroshi Murakami --- Chapter 9: Application of Terahertz Technology in Biomolecular Analysis and Medical Diagnosis by Xin Zhang and Zhuoyong Zhang --- Chapter 10: Broadly Tunable CW Terahertz Sources Using Intrinsic Josephson Junction Stacks in High-Temperature Superconductors by Manabu Tsujimoto, Takanari Kashiwagi, Hidetoshi Minami and Kazuo Kadowaki --- Chapter 11: Terahertz Pulse Detection Techniques and Imaging Applications by Sung-Liang Chen and L. Jay Guo --- Chapter 12: Semiconductor THz Lasers and Their Applications in Spectroscopy of Explosives by Mykhailo Klymenko, Oleksiy V. Shulika and Igor A. Sukhoivanov --- Chapter 13: Terahertz Spectroscopy for Gastrointestinal Cancer Diagnosis by Faustino Wahaia, Irmantas Kašalynas, Gintaras Valušis, Catia D. Carvalho Silva and Pedro L. Granja --- Chapter 14: Nanostructured Indium Tin Oxides and Other Transparent Conducting Oxides: Characteristics and Applications in the THz Frequency Range by Ci-Ling Pan, Chan-Shan Yang, Ru-Pin Pan, Peichen Yu and Gong-Ru Lin --- Chapter 15: Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics at p-n Junction of Cu(In,Ga)Se2- Based Solar Cells Measured by Optical Pump Terahertz Probe Spectroscopy by Woo-Jung Lee and Yong-Duck Chung

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Roles of the Environment in Plant Life-History Trade-offs by Yang Liu, Jeffrey L. Walck and Yousry A. El-Kassaby --- Chapter 2: Decoding the Transcriptome of Rice Seed During Development by Arunima Mahto, Iny Elizebeth Mathew and Pinky Agarwal --- Chapter 3: Transcriptome (ESTs) of Avocado “Native” Mexicano Early Seed Development Shows Abundance of Regulatory, Antioxidant and Defense Genes by Luis María Suárez-Rodríguez, Fernando Sánchez-Albarrán, Huber León-Corona and Rodolfo López-Gómez --- Chapter 4: Identification and Mapping of Phosphorylated Isoforms of the Major Storage Protein of Potato Based on Two- Dimensional Electrophoresis by Javier Bernal, María López-Pedrouso, Daniel Franco, Susana Bravo, Lucio García and Carlos Zapata --- Chapter 5: Seed Dormancy by Mustafa Yildiz, Ramazan Beyaz, Mehtap Gursoy, Murat Aycan, Yusuf Koc and Mustafa Kayan --- Chapter 6: Characterization of Genotype by Planting Date Effects on Runner-Type Peanut Seed Germination and Vigor Response to Temperature by Timothy L. Grey, Charles Y. Chen, Russell Nuti, Walter Scott Monfort and George Cutts III --- Chapter 7: Impact of Conditions of Water Supply on the Germination of Tomato and Pepper Seeds by Yekaterina Shapira, Edward Bormashenko, Gene Whyman, Bat- Chen Lubin and Elyashiv Drori --- Chapter 8: Metabolic Processes During Seed Germination by Awatif S. Ali and Alaaeldin A. Elozeiri --- Chapter 9: Free Radicals and Antioxidant System in Seed Biology by Fadime Eryılmaz Pehlivan --- Chapter 10: Anatomical and Chemical Insights into the White Clover (Trifolium repens L.) Seed Coat Associated to Water Permeability by Alberto Aníbal Galussi and María Esther Moya --- Chapter 11: Morphological Studies on Seeds of Scrophulariaceae s.l. and Their Systematic Significance by Balkrishna Ghimire, Go Eun Choi, Hayan Lee, Kweon Heo and Mi Jin Jeong --- Chapter 12: Seed Transmission of Tobamoviruses: Aspects of Global Disease Distribution by Aviv Dombrovsky and Elisheva Smith --- Chapter 13: Biology of Seed Vigor in the Light of -omics Tools by Isaac Oludayo Daniel --- Chapter 14: The Potential of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) Seeds for Development of Functional Foods by Chandra Shekhar Singh and Vinod Kumar Paswan --- Chapter 15: Genetic Improvement of Oilseed Crops Using Modern Biotechnology by Diego Villanueva-Mejia and Javier Correa Alvarez --- Chapter 16: Application of Mechanics to Plant Seeds as a Granular or Particulate Material by Michal Petrů and Ivan Mašín

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Rational Fitting Techniques for the Modeling of Electric Power Components and Systems Using MATLAB Environment by Eduardo Salvador Bañuelos-Cabral, José Alberto Gutiérrez-Robles and Bjørn Gustavsen

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Bandwidth Enhancement Techniques by Seyed Ali Razavi Parizi --- Chapter 2: Miniature Planar Antenna Design for Ultra-Wideband Systems by Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Mohammad Naser-Moghadasi, Ramazan Ali Sadeghzadeh, Bal Singh Virdee and Ernesto Limiti --- Chapter 3: Design and Analysis of Microstrip Patch Antennas Using Artificial Neural Network by Vivek Singh Kushwah and Geetam Singh Tomar --- Chapter 4: Circularly Polarized T-Stub Coupled Microstrip Antenna Structure for WLAN by Milind Thomas Themalil --- Chapter 5: Bio-Inspired Microstrip Antenna by Alexandre Jean René Serres, Georgina Karla de Freitas Serres, Paulo Fernandes da Silva Júnior, Raimundo Carlos Silvério Freire, Josiel do Nascimento Cruz, Tulio Chaves de Albuquerque, Maciel Alves Oliveira and Paulo Henrique da Fonseca Silva --- Chapter 6: Printed Planar Antenna Designs Based on Metamaterial Unit- Cells for Broadband Wireless Communication Systems by Mohammad Alibakhshikenari, Mohammad Naser-Moghadasi, Ramazan Ali Sadeghzadeh, Bal Singh Virdee and Ernesto Limiti --- Chapter 7: Low-SAR Miniaturized Handset Antenna Using EBG by Kamel Salah Sultan, Haythem Hussien Abdullah and Esmat Abdel- Fatah Abdallah

Description / Table of Contents: 1. The Biodiversity Data Impediment to a Sustainable World (Working in a Networked World) --- 2. Essential Biodiversity Variables --- 3. Stratification and Terrestrial Ecosystem Observations --- 4. Ecosystem Services --- 5. Species Observations --- 6. Monitoring Changes in Genetic Diversity --- 7. Marine and Coastal Systems --- 8. Biodiversity Observations for Freshwater Ecosystems --- 9. Remote Sensing for Biodiversity --- 10. Involving Citizen Scientists in Biodiversity Observation --- 11. Biodiversity Modelling --- 12. Cyber-Architecture --- 13. Using Data for Decision-Making: From Observations To Indicators and Other Policy Tools --- 14. Capacity Building in Biodiversity Monitoring – Case Studies

Description / Table of Contents: Retention Requirements for Alpine Ski Bindings --- Helmet Use and Self-Reported Risk Taking in Skiing and Snowboarding --- Evaluating the Performance of Helmet Linings Incorporating Fluid Channels --- Polarizing Filters in Ski Sports --- Emergency Release for Winter Sports Equipment --- Analyzing the Riding Behavior of Recreational Skiers and Snowboarders --- Reaction Times of Skiers and Snowboarders --- Gender-Specific Effects of Smoking and Alcohol Consumption on the Risk of Falling in Downhill Skiers --- Hydration Packs Modify Professional Skiers Hydration Levels in All Day Skiing: A Randomized Controlled Trial --- Are ACL Injuries Related to Perceived Fatigue in Female Skiers? --- Aging Trends in Alpine Skiing --- Skiing and Boarding Injuries on Norwegian Slopes during Two Winter Seasons --- Skiing and Snowboarding Injuries in the Czech Republic in Winter Seasons 2003–2008 --- Relative Motion of ACL Insertion Points In Vivo: A Case Study, Including Skiing Maneuvers --- Jumper Kinematics on Terrain Park Jumps: Relationship between Takeoff Speed and Distance Traveled --- Reaction Forces and Moments in Carved Turns

Description / Table of Contents: Mutagenesis for Crop Breeding and Functional Genomics --- Chemical and Physical Mutagenesis in Jatropha curcas --- Chemical Mutagenesis and Chimera Dissolution in Vegetatively Propagated Banana --- Mutation Induction Using Gamma Irradiation and Embryogenic Cell Suspensions in Plantain (Musa spp.) --- Optimization of Somatic Embryogenesis in Cassava --- Creation of a TILLING Population in Barley after Chemical Mutagenesis with Sodium Azide and MNU --- Site-Directed Mutagenesis in Barley by Expression of TALE Nuclease in Embryogenic Pollen --- Doubled Haploidy as a Tool for Chimera Dissolution of TALEN-Induced Mutations in Barley --- Field Evaluation of Mutagenized Rice Material --- Root Phenotyping Pipeline for Cereal Plants --- Breeding New Aromatic Rice with High Iron using Gamma Radiation and Hybridization --- Utilizing NIRS for Qualitative and Non-Destructive Identification of Seed Mutants in Large Populations --- Protocols for Proteome Analyses of Jatropha curcas --- Low-Cost Methods for DNA Extraction and Quantification --- A Protocol for Benchtop Extraction of Single-Strand-Specific Nucleases for Mutation Discovery --- A Protocol for Validation of Doubled Haploid Plants by Enzymatic Mismatch Cleavage --- Bioinformatics-Based Assessment of the Relevance of Candidate Genes for Mutation Discovery --- Mutation Detection by Analysis of DNA Heteroduplexes in TILLING Populations of Diploid Species --- Determining Mutation Density using Restriction Enzyme Sequence Comparative Analysis (RESCAN) --- Next-Generation Sequencing for Targeted Discovery of Rare Mutations in Rice

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- 1 The Visible Universe Starts With – Believe It or Not – Correlation --- 2 Correlation=Differentiation=Order --- 3 Some Basic Characteristics of this Ordering Process as Thus Conceived --- 4 Hierarchy and Emergence Theories --- 5 Causation --- 6 The Arrow of Time --- 7 Complexity --- 8 Life --- 9 Energy --- 10 Globalization (Make It or Break It) --- 11 Ethics, Thermodynamics, and The Anthropocene --- Appendix A: Note on Ontology and Epistemology --- Appendix B: A Selection of Human Social Conventions Which Favor Cooperative, and Thus Correlated, or Coordinated, Behavior --- Appendix C: Quantitative Wikis For Energy Supply and Distribution Modeling

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Multi-Species Stand Classification: Definition and Perspectives by Ana Cristina Gonçalves --- Chapter 2: Effects of Experimental Sowing on Agroforestry Ecosystem Primary Production during Recovery from Agricultural Abandonment in a Semi-Arid Region of Central Western Spain by Jimmy-Edgar Alvarez-Diaz, María del Carmen Santa-Regina and Ignacio Santa-Regina --- Chapter 3: Methodological Considerations in the Study of Earthworms in Forest Ecosystems by Dylan Rhea-Fournier and Grizelle González --- Chapter 4: Characterizing Predictability of Fire Occurrence in Tropical Forests and Grasslands: The Case of Puerto Rico by Ana Carolina Monmany, William A. Gould, María José Andrade- Núñez, Grizelle González and Maya Quiñones --- Chapter 5: Remote Sensing and Forest Conservation: Challenges of Illegal Logging in Kursumlija Municipality (Serbia) by Miomir M. Jovanović and Miško M. Milanović --- Chapter 6: From Paper to Carbon Money: Financing Forest Conservation and Offset by Valny Giacomelli Sobrinho

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Carrier Mobility in Field-Effect Transistors by Philippe Gaubert and Akinobu Teramoto --- Chapter 2: Resonant Tunneling and Two-dimensional Gate Transistors by Vladimir Popov --- Chapter 3: High Electron Mobility Transistors: Performance Analysis, Research Trend and Applications by Muhammad Navid Anjum Aadit, Sharadindu Gopal Kirtania, Farhana Afrin, Md. Kawsar Alam and Quazi Deen Mohd Khosru --- Chapter 4: Quantum Confinement in High Electron Mobility Transistors by Shovon Pal, Sascha R. Valentin, Arne Ludwig and Andreas D. Wieck --- Chapter 5: Group III–V Semiconductor High Electron Mobility Transistor on Si Substrate by Ravindiran Munusami and Shankar Prabhakar --- Chapter 6: Metal-Semiconductor Interfaces in Thin-Film Transistors by Miguel Dominguez, Pedro Rosales, Alfonso Torres, Jose A. Luna- Lopez, Francisco Flores and Mario Moreno --- Chapter 7: Organic Field-Effect Transistor: Device Physics, Materials, and Process by Jingjing Chang, Zhenhua Lin, Chunfu Zhang and Yue Hao --- Chapter 8: Field-Effect Transistors for Gas Sensing by Toshihiro Yoshizumi and Yuji Miyahara --- Chapter 9: Transistors as an Emerging Platform for Portable Amplified Biodetection in Preventive Personalized Point-of-Care Testing by Zhihui Yi and Jonathan Sayago

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Treatment of Organic Recalcitrant Contaminants in Wastewater by Asmita Gupta and Indu Shekhar Thakur --- Chapter 2: Application of Macrobiological Methods in the Settlement Wastewater Treatment by Dragan Milićević, Slaviša Trajković and Milan Gocić --- Chapter 3: Microbe-Based Strategy for Plant Nutrient Management by Shaon Ray Chaudhuri, Madhusmita Mishra, Sonakshi De, Biswajit Samal, Amrita Saha, Srimoyee Banerjee, Abhinandan Chakraborty, Antara Chakraborty, Sonali Pardhiya, Deepak Gola, Joyeeta Chakraborty, Sourav Ghosh, Kamlesh Jangid, Indranil Mukherjee, Mathummal Sudarshan, Rajib Nath and Ashoke Ranjan Thakur --- Chapter 4: Mitigating Environmental Risks of Wastewater Reuse for Agriculture by Ahmed Al-Busaidi and Mushtaque Ahmed --- Chapter 5: Spreading of Antibiotic Resistance with Wastewater by Sadik Dincer and Esra Sunduz Yigittekin --- Chapter 6: Comparative Assessment of Pharmaceutical Removal from Wastewater by the Microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana, Chlorella vulgaris and Scenedesmus obliquus by Carla Escapa Santos, Ricardo Nuno de Coimbra, Sergio Paniagua Bermejo, Ana Isabel García Pérez and Marta Otero Cabero --- Chapter 7: Pulp Mill Wastewater: Characteristics and Treatment by María Noel Cabrera --- Chapter 8: Molecular Biomonitoring of Microbial Communities in Tannery Wastewater Treatment Plant for the Removal of Retanning Chemicals by Adey Feleke Desta, Joyce Nzioki, Solomon Maina and Francesca Stomeo --- Chapter 9: Application of Mixed Microbial Culture Biofilms for Manganese (II), Cobalt (II), and Chromium (VI) Biosorption by Horizontal Rotating Tubular Bioreactor by Tonči Rezić, Iva Rezić, Michaela Zeiner and Božidar Šantek --- Chapter 10: Electrocoagulative and Biological Treatment of Laundry Wastewater by Terelle Ramcharan and Ajay Bissessur --- Chapter 11: Biohydrogen Production from Wastewaters by Periyasamy Sivagurunathan, Gopalakrishnan Kumar, Arivalagan Pugazhendhi, Guangyin Zhen, Takuro Kobayashi and Kaiqin Xu --- Chapter 12: Valorization of Glucose-Based Wastewater Through Production of Hydrogen, Volatile Fatty Acids and Alcohols by Eduardo Lucena Cavalcante de Amorim, Leandro Takano Sader, Lucas Rodrigues Ramos and Edson Luiz Silva --- Chapter 13: Production of Biogas and Performance Evaluation of Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment (POME) by Abdurahman Hamid Nour and Azhari Hamid Nour

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter by Tõnu Trump --- Chapter 2: Reliable Broadcast over Cognitive Radio Networks: A Bipartite Graph-Based Algorithm by Yasir Ahmed Al-Mathehaji, Said Boussakta and Martin Johnston --- Chapter 3: Outage Performance Analysis of Underlay Cognitive Radio Networks with Decode-and-Forward Relaying by Mustafa Namdar and Arif Basgumus --- Chapter 4: Analog-to-Digital Conversion for Cognitive Radio: Subsampling, Interleaving, and Compressive Sensing by José Ramón García Oya, Fernando Muñoz Chavero and Rubén Martín Clemente --- Chapter 5: Reconfigurable Antennas for UWB Cognitive Radio Communication Applications by Yingsong Li and Yanyan Wang

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Properties of GaP Studied over 50 Years by Sergei L. Pyshkin and John Ballato --- Chapter 2: Microcavities for Silica-Fiber-Based Quantum Information Processing by Hai-Zhi Song --- Chapter 3: LED and Phototransistor Simulation by Sergey Yurchuk, Oleg Rabinovich and Sergey Didenko --- Chapter 4: Hybrid Optoelectronic Router for Future Optical Packet- Switched Networks by Salah Ibrahim and Ryo Takahashi --- Chapter 5: Research on the Characteristics of Silicon MOS-Like Light- Emitting Structure by Utilizing the Technology of Field-Induced Optical Radiation Mechanisms by Kaikai Xu --- Chapter 6: Phosphor-LED-Based Wireless Visible Light Communication (VLC) and Its Applications by Chien-Hung Yeh and Chi-Wai Chow --- Chapter 7: Microscopic Particle Manipulation via Optoelectronic Devices by Xiaolu Zhu and Yifei Yang --- Chapter 8: Hybrid Silicon-Organic Heterojunction Structures for Photovoltaic Applications by Andrey Kosarev, Ismael Cosme, Svetlana Mansurova, Antonio J. Olivares and Hiram E. Martinez --- Chapter 9: Modeling of Silicon Photonic Devices for Optical Interconnect Transceiver Circuit Design by Binhao Wang --- Chapter 10: Candidate Materials as Gain Media in Organic, Triplet-Based, Room-Temperature masers Targeting the ISM Bands by Erinn van Wynsberghe and Ayse Turak --- Chapter 11: Analysis of a Resonant AC-AC LED Driver by Teodosescu Petre Dorel, Szekely Norbert Csaba, Sabau Madalina Sabina and Bojan Mircea --- Chapter 12: Ultraviolet Sensors Based on Two-Dimensional Zinc Oxide Structures by Naif H. Al-Hardan, Muhammad Azmi Abdul Hamid, Roslinda Shamsudin and Norinsan Kamil Othman --- Chapter 13: The Optical Phenomena of Interplay between Nanobio Complexes: A Theoretical Insight into Their Biomedical Applications by Ruby Srivastava --- Chapter 14: Sputtered Indium Tin Oxide Films for Optoelectronic Applications by Oleksandr Malik and Francisco Javier de la Hidalga-Wade --- Chapter 15: Surface-Barrier Photodiodes with Transparent Electrodes for High-Performance Detection in the UV-NIR Spectrum by Oleksandr Malik and Francisco Javier De la Hidalga-Wade --- Chapter 16: Spectral Responses in Quantum Efficiency of Emerging Kesterite Thin-Film Solar Cells by Sanghyun Lee and Kent J. Price

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: Plant Ecology by Zubaida Yousaf and Habiba Ramazan --- Chapter 2: Detection of Environmental Mutagens Through Plant Bioassays by Özlem Aksoy --- Chapter 3: Ecology of Woody Plants in African Savanna Ecosystems by Allan Sebata --- Chapter 4: Modification in Grassland Ecology under the Influence of Changing Climatic and Land Use Conditions by Jimin Cheng, Chengcheng Gang, Liang Guo, Wei Li, Jingwei Jin, Jishuai Su and Lin Wei --- Chapter 5: Leaf Ecology and Radiocesium Contamination in Trees/Forests by Toshihiro Yoshihara --- Chapter 6: Plant-Microbe Ecology: Interactions of Plants and Symbiotic Microbial Communities by Ying-Ning Ho, Dony Chacko Mathew and Chieh-Chen Huang --- Chapter 7: Phytosociological Surveys in Weed Science: Old Concept, New Approach by Germani Concenço, Patrícia Menegaz de Farias, Néstor Fabio Alzate Quintero, Fábio Schreiber, Leandro Galon, Michely Tomazi, Ivana Santos Moisinho, Mariane Camponogara Coradini, William Christofari Ceolin and André Andres --- Chapter 8: Ecological Response to Global Change: Changes in C:N:P Stoichiometry in Environmental Adaptations of Plants by Renato de Mello Prado and Gilmara Pereira da Silva --- Chapter 9: Biogeographical Areas of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic, Republic of Haiti) by Ana Cano Ortiz, Carmelo María Musarella and Eusebio Cano Carmona

Description / Table of Contents: The “landscape Approach” is widely promoted as a way to reconcile biodiversity conservation with both commercial agriculture and local peoples’ demands for land. Landscape approaches imply a strong role for local communities in decision making and, therefore, local citizen science plays a role in determining landscape outcomes (Sayer et al., under review). Many claims and counter claims are made about the success and failure of local management in achieving good forest outcomes. There is significant uncertainty about the incentives for local people to manage forests for their global carbon storage and biodiversity values. Local people may be more concerned about immediate economic returns and less about the long term global environmental values of their forests. This Special Issue seeks to assemble papers that provide empirical evidence for the success of landscape and community managed initiatives to conserve biodiversity. We are seeking papers that report upon successful biodiversity conservation projects that have operated at a landscape scale and those that have been led by local communities. We are also interested in cases where these approaches were attempted but were less successful. Our ultimate goals is to identify the conditions under which these approaches have succeeded and those where they have been less successful.

Description / Table of Contents: There is observational evidence that global mean sea levels are rising and there is concern that the rate of rise will accelerate throughout the 21st century, significantly threatening growing coastal communities. Modern society is vulnerable to even small changes in sea level. More than 600 million people currently live within 10 m of present-day sea level, in an area that generates 10% of the world’s total GDP. An assessment of 136 of the world’s largest port cities estimated that, by the 2070s, the population exposed to flooding risk may grow by more than a factor of three in these cities due to the combined effects of sea level rise, land subsidence, population growth and urbanization, with asset exposure increasing to more than ten times current levels. Therefore, understanding future sea level rise and variability is of utmost importance. In June 2015 we are holding a workshop in Majorca, Spain with a focus on sea level variability and change (see https://slrmallorca.wordpress.com for more details). Over 100 sea level experts from around the world will attend this workshop, from a range of different disciplines. We would like to propose a Research Topic, based on the papers presented at this workshop. The main aims of the workshop are to: 1.) Evaluate the current state-of-knowledge of sea level science; 2.) Identify gaps and unresolved questions in any aspect of sea level science; and 3.) Design future research to address these issue. The workshop will provide a forum for the discussion and the exchange of ideas on key sea level issues, and foster collaboration across the wide range of disciplines involved in sea level research. All aspects of sea level changes will be covered, from global to regional, observations and modelling, processes driving mean sea level changes and extremes, from the geological scale to the instrumental era and future projections and including impacts on the coastal zones.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: Sea Urchin - Knowledge and Perspectives by Maria Agnello --- Chapter 2: Sea Urchin Covering Behavior: A Comparative Review by Morgan A. Ziegenhorn --- Chapter 3: Effects of Environmental Factors on Reproduction of the Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus Intermedius by Peter M. Zhadan, Marina A. Vaschenko and Tatyana N. Almyashova --- Chapter 4: Morphological and Biochemical Profiles of the Gonadal Cycle in the Sea Urchin Paracentrotus lividus: Wild Type vs. Bred by Bernardetta Anna Tenuzzo, Elisabetta Carata, Stefania Mariano and Luciana Dini --- Chapter 5: Importance of Gamete Quality in Ecotoxicological Application: Natural versus Bred Population in Paracentrotus lividus by Sartori Davide, Lera Samantha, Silvia Giuliani, Simona Macchia, Lorenzo Morroni, David Pellegrini and Andrea Gaion --- Chapter 6: The Sea Urchin Embryo: A Model for Studying Molecular Mechanisms Involved in Human Diseases and for Testing Bioactive Compounds by Maria Di Bernardo and Marta Di Carlo

Description / Table of Contents: Petroleum hydrocarbons are both a product of, and rich substrate for, microorganisms from across all Domains of life. Rooted deeply in the history of microbiology, hydrocarbons have been studied as sources of carbon and energy for microorganisms for over a century. As global demand for petroleum and its refined products continues to rise, so do challenges associated with environmental pollution, oil well souring, infrastructure corrosion, oil recovery, transport, refining, and upgrading of heavy crude oils and bitumens. Advances in genomics, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering has invigorated interest in petroleum microbial biotechnology as interest grows in technologies for in situ methane production, biodesulfurization and biodenitrogenation, bio-upgrading of heavy crudes, microbial enhanced oil recovery, corrosion control, and biocatalysts for generating value-added products. Given the complexity of the global petroleum industry and the harsh conditions in which it operates, a deeper understanding of the ecophysiology of aerobic and anaerobic microbial communities that have associations with petroleum hydrocarbons is needed if robust technologies are to be deployed successfully. This research topic highlights recent advances in microbial enhanced oil recovery, methanogenic hydrocarbon metabolism and carbon dioxide sequestration, bioremediation, microbiologically influenced corrosion, biodesulfurization, and the application of metagenomics to better understand microbial communities associated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Description / Table of Contents: The deep subsurface is, in addition to space, one of the last unknown frontiers to human kind. A significant part of life on Earth resides in the deep subsurface, hiding great potential of microbial life of which we know only little. The conditions in the deep terrestrial subsurface are thought to resemble those of early Earth, which makes this environment an analog for studying early life in addition to possible extraterrestrial life in ultra-extreme conditions. Early microorganisms played a great role in shaping the conditions on the young Earth. Even today deep subsurface microorganisms interact with their geological environment transforming the conditions in the groundwater and on rock surfaces. Essential elements for life are richly present but in difficultly accessible form. The elements driving the microbial deep life is still not completely identified. Most of the microorganisms detected by novel molecular techniques still lack cultured representatives. Nevertheless, using modern sequencing techniques and bioinformatics the functional roles of these microorganisms are being revealed. We are starting to see the differences and similarities between the life in the deep subsurface and surface domains. We may even begin to see the function of evolution by comparing deep life to life closer to the surface of Earth. Deep life consists of organisms from all known domains of life. This Research Topic reveals some of the rich diversity and functional properties of the great biomass residing in the deep dark subsurface.

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- Preface --- Contributors --- Part I. The Nympalid Groundplan (NGP) and Diversification --- Chapter1:The common developmental origin of eyespots and parafocal elements;And a new model-mechanism for color pattern formation --- Chapter2:Exploring color pattern diversification in early lineages of Satyrinae (Nymphalidae) --- Chapter3:Camouflage variation on a theme of the Nymphalid Ground Plan --- Chapter4:Morphological evolution repeatedly caused by mutations in signaling ligand genes --- Part II. Eyespots and Evolution --- Chapter5:Physiology and evolution of wing pattern plasticity in Bicyclus butterflies: a critical review ofthe literature --- Chapter6:Spatial variation in boundary conditions can govern selection and location of eyespots inbutterfly wings --- Chapter7:Self-Similarity, Distortion Waves, and the Essence of Morphogenesis: A Generalized View ofColor Pattern Formation in Butterfly Wings --- Part III. Developmental Genetics --- Chapter8:A practical guide to CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in Lepidoptera --- Chapter9:What can we learn about adaptation from the wing pattern genetics of Heliconiusbutterflies? --- Chapter10:Molecular mechanism and evolutionary process underlying female-limited Batesian mimicry in Papilio polytes --- Part IV. Ecological Aspects and Adaptation --- Chapter11:Chemical Ecology of Poisonous Butterflies: Model or Mimic?— A Paradox of Sexual Dimorphisms in Müllerian Mimicry --- Chapter12:A model for population dynamics of the mimetic butterfly Papilio polytesin Sakishima Islands, Japan (II) --- Chapter13:Evolutionary trends in phenotypic elements of seasonal forms of the tribe Junoniini(Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) --- Chapter14:Estimating the mating success of male butterflies in the field.-Part V. Color Patterns of Larva and Other Insects --- Chapter15:Molecular Mechanisms of Larval Color Pattern Switch in the Swallowtail Butterfly --- Chapter16:Drosophila guttifera as a model system for elucidating color pattern formation --- Chapter17:Molecular mechanisms underlying color vision and color formation in dragonflies

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- In vitro modeling of complex neurological diseases --- Aquatic model organisms in neurosciences : the genome editing revolution --- Genome-wide genetic screening in the mammalian CNS --- CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Knockin and Knockout in Zebrafish --- Dissecting the role of synaptic proteins with CRISPR --- Recurrently Breaking Genes in Neural Progenitors: Potential Roles of DNA Breaks in Neuronal Function, Degeneration and Cancer --- Neuroscience research using non-human primate models and genome editing --- Multiscale genome engineering: Genome-wide screens and targeted approaches --- Using Genome Engineering to Understand Huntington’s Disease --- Therapeutic gene editing in muscles and muscle stem cells

Description / Table of Contents: Primer on Ontologies --- The Gene Ontology and the Meaning of Biological Function --- Primer on the Gene Ontology --- Best Practices in Manual Annotation with the Gene Ontology --- Computational Methods for Annotation Transfers from Sequence --- Text Mining to Support Gene Ontology Curation and Vice Versa --- How Does the Scientific Community Contribute to Gene Ontology? --- Evaluating Computational Gene Ontology Annotations --- Evaluating Functional Annotations of Enzymes Using the Gene Ontology --- Community-Based Evaluation of Computational Function Prediction --- Get GO!: Retrieving GO Data Using AmiGO, QuickGO, API, Files, and Tools --- Semantic Similarity in the Gene Ontology --- Gene-Category Analysis --- Gene Ontology: Pitfalls, Biases, and Remedies --- Visualizing GO Annotations --- A Gene Ontology Tutorial in Python --- Annotation Extensions --- The Evidence and Conclusion Ontology (ECO): Supporting GO Annotations --- Complementary Sources of Protein Functional Information: The Far Side of GO --- Integrating Bio-Ontologies and Controlled Clinical Terminologies: From Base Pairs to Bedside Phenotypes --- The Vision and Challenges of the Gene Ontology

Description / Table of Contents: Land degradation which is caused by multiple forces-extreme weather conditions and anthropogenic activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility-negatively affects food production, livelihoods, and the provision of other ecosystem goods and services. Land degradation can also lead to climate change and affect human health. The problem is more pronounced in least developing countries due to overdependence of natural resources for survival. Sustainable ways to reduce land degradation and desertification demand research and advocacy of sustainable land management practices. This book is organized into two sections. The first section covers three major aspects, viz., an understanding of patterns of land degradation and desertification for developing mitigation strategies, land-atmosphere interaction from response of land cover to climate change effects of Karst rocky desertification, and the effect of unprecedented human activity into land degradation and desertification processes using natural and human-induced landscape research. The last section dwells on the relationship between soil degradation and crop production and an examination on how land degradation impacts the quality of soil in communal rangelands. Environmentalists, land-use planners, ecologists, pedologists, researchers, and graduate students will find this book to be an essential resource.

Description / Table of Contents: Parcellations and connectivity patterns in human and macaque cerebral cortex --- Nanoconnectomics --- Inhibitory cell cypes, circuits and receptive fields in mouse visual cortex --- Form meets function in the brain: observing the activity and structure of specific neural connections --- The network for intracortical communication in mouse visual cortex --- The brain in space --- In-vivo connectivity in monkeys --- Connectome networks: from cells to systems --- Intra- and Inter-hemispheric connectivity supporting hemispheric specialization --- Genetics of the connectome and the ENIGMA project

Description / Table of Contents: Increasing innovations and applications make microfluidics a versatile choice for researchers in many disciplines. This book consists of multiple review chapters that aim to cover recent advances and new applications of microfluidics in biology, electronics, energy, and materials sciences. It provides comprehensive views of various aspects of microfluidics ranging from fundamentals of fabrication, flow control, and droplet manipulation to the most recent exploration in emerging areas such as material synthesis, imaging and novel spectroscopy, and marriage with electronics. The chapters have many illustrations showcasing exciting results. This book should be useful for those who are eager to learn more about microfluidics as well as researchers who want to pick up new concepts and developments in this fast-growing field.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1 Introduction to the SAMPLES Approach --- Chapter 2 Targeting Landscapes to Identify Mitigation Options --- Chapter 3 Determining Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Associated with Land Use and Land Cover Change --- Chapter 4 Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Managed and Natural Soils --- Chapter 5 A Comparison of Methodologies for Measuring Methane Emissions from Ruminants --- Chapter 6 Quantifying Tree Biomass Carbon Stocks and Fluxes in Agricultural Landscapes --- Chapter 7 Methods for Smallholder Quantification of Soil Carbon Stocks and Stock Changes --- Chapter 8 Yield Estimation of Food and Non-Food Crops in Smallholder Production Systems --- Chapter 9 Scaling Point and Plot Measurements of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes, Balances and Intensities to Whole Farms and Landscapes --- Chapter 10 Methods for Environment-Productivity Trade-off Analysis in Agricultural Systems

Description / Table of Contents: Climate change affects all components of marine ecosystems. For endothermic top predators, i.e. seabirds and marine mammals, these impacts are often complex and mediated through trophic relationships. In this Research Topic, leading researchers attempt to identify patterns of change among seabirds and marine mammals, and the mechanisms through which climate change drives these changes.

Description / Table of Contents: The copper-cobalt outcrops of Upper Katanga and north-western Zambia host a particular flora which comprises an estimated 750 species of which more than 400 are treated in this copper-cobalt field guide. The aim of this book, resulting from several years of intensive field work and study, is to bring together the basic knowledges permitting an easy approach to the identification of a great number of the species to be encountered. More than 400 species are illustrated with color photographs and/or drawings together with comments concerning synonyms, habit, description, ecology and distribution. Plant species are listed and colour-coded according to classification: Cyanoprocaryota, lichenized Fungi, Anthocerophyta, Marchantiophyta and Bryophyta (red edge), Lycophyta and Monilophyta (green edge), Magnoliopsida (blue edge) and Liliopsida (yellow edge). An index allows easy location either according to genus and species. An account of the research on copper-cobalt ecosystems carried out during the last ten years in southeastern D.R. Congo is also presented. The editors have spent more than twenty years in the area concerned and have collected more than 8,500 voucher specimens, including eleven species new to science (holotypes).

Description / Table of Contents: Part I Wheat Genetics: Past, Present, and Future --- 1 Prof. H. Kihara’s genome concept and advancements in wheat cytogenetics in his school --- 2 How a gene from Japan revolutionized the world of wheat: CIMMYT’s quest for combining genes to mitigate threats to global food security --- Part II Germplasm and Genetic Diversity --- 3 Genetic resources of Triticum --- 4 Development of core set of wheat (Triticum spp.) germplasm conserved in the National Genebank in India --- 5 Transfer to wheat of potentially new stem rust resistance genes from Aegilops speltoides --- 6 Genetic variation and its geographical distribution in Aegilops caudata L.: morphology, hybrid sterility and gametocidal genes --- Part III Cytogenetics and Allopolyploid Evolution --- 7 Wheat chromosome analysis --- 8 New aneuploids of common wheat --- 9 Chromosomal changes over the course of polyploid wheat evolution and domestication --- Part IV Toward Whole Genome Sequencing --- 10 Comprehensive functional analyses of expressed sequence tags in common wheat --- 11 Development of the BAC physical maps of wheat chromosome 6B for its genomic sequencing --- Part V Structural and Functional Genomics --- 12 Sequencing of wheat chromosome 6B: toward functional genomics --- 13 Genetic mechanisms of vernalization requirement duration in winter wheat cultivars --- 14 Building ultra-dense genetic maps in the presence of genotyping errors and missing data --- Part VI Functional Gene Analysis and Molecular Tools --- 15 Exploiting comparative biology and genomics to understand a trait in wheat, Ph1 --- 16 The specific features of anthocyanin biosynthesis regulation in wheat --- 17 Association of wheat miRNAs with hybrid incompatibility in interspecific crosses of Triticum and Aegilops --- 18 High efficiency wheat transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens --- 19 extra early-flowering (exe) mutants in einkorn wheat generated by heavy-ion beam irradiation --- Part VII Biotic Stress Response --- 20 Stem rust resistance - two approaches --- 21 Germplasm enhancement for resistance to Pyrenophora tritici-repentis in wheat --- 22 Next Generation Sequencing enabled genetics in hexaploid wheat --- Part VIII Abiotic Stress Response --- 23 Genomics approaches to dissect the genetic basis of drought resistance in durum wheat --- 24 Hybrid breeding in wheat --- 25 Broadening the genetic diversity of common and durum wheat for abiotic stress tolerance breeding --- 26 Early maturity in wheat for adaptation to high temperature stress --- 27 Gene expression profiles involved in development of freezing tolerance in common wheat --- Part IX Improvement of Grain Quality --- 28 Coping with wheat quality in a changing environment - Proteomics evidence for stress caused by environmental changes --- 29 Starch modification: a model for wheat MAS breeding --- 30 Quality characteristics of soft kernel durum - a new cereal crop --- 31 Proposal of international gluten research group --- 32 Enlargement of the genetic diversity for grain quality in bread wheat through alien introgression --- 33 Complex G x E interactions and QTL clusters govern end-use quality traits in hexaploid wheat --- 34 A consistent QTL for flour yield on chromosome 3B in the soft winter wheat variety, Kitahonami --- Part X Marker-Assisted Breeding --- 35 Recent improvements in Japanese wheat varieties --- 36 Determining the order of resistance genes Qsng-3BS, Fhb1 and Sr2 and combining them in coupling on wheat chromosome 3BS --- 37 Meta-analysis of resistance to Fusarium head blight in tetraploid wheat – implications for durum wheat breeding --- 38 Interest of a multiparental and outcrossing wheat population for fine mapping --- 39 The effect of Earliness per se (Eps) genes on flowering time in bread wheat --- Part XI Toward Sustainable Wheat Production --- 40 Recapitulating the OECD-CRP session (sponsored by the OECD’s Co-operative Research Program on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems --- 41 Exploring genetic resources to increase adaptation of wheat to climate change --- 42 Genomic approaches towards durable fungal disease resistance in wheat --- 43 Review and new progress in wheat wide hybridization for improving the resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses --- 44 Global crop improvement networks to bridge technology gaps --- 45 Genomic selection in plants: empirical results and implications for wheat breeding --- 46 Dietary fibre: wheat genes for enhanced human health --- BM Appendix I: Program --- Appendix II: Poster Presentation List --- Appendix III: Committees

Description / Table of Contents: This Encyclopedia comprises the current knowledge in marine geosciences whereby not only basic but also applied and technical sciences are covered. Through this concept a broad scale of users in the field of marine sciences and techniques is addressed, from students and scholars in academia to engineers and decision makers in industry and politics. Globally growing demand of energy and mineral resources, reliable future projection of climate processes and the protection of coasts to mitigate the threats of disasters and hazards require a comprehensive understanding of the structure, ongoing processes and genesis of the marine geosphere. Beyond the “classical” research fields in marine geology in current time more general concepts have been evolved integrating marine geophysics, hydrography, marine biology, climatology and ecology. As an umbrella the term “marine geosciences” has been broadly accepted for this new complex field of research and the solutions of practical tasks in the marine realm.

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- 1. Innovation for Marginalized Smallholder Farmers and Development: an Overview and Implications for Policy and Research --- Part 1 Innovation for the Rural Poor: Theory, Trends and Impacts --- 2. Institutional and technological innovations in polycentric systems –pathways for escaping marginality --- 3. Innovations for Food and Nutrition Security: Impacts and Trends --- 4. Psychology of Innovation: Innovating human psychology? --- 5. An optimization model for technology adoption of marginalized smallholders --- Part 2 Diversification of Agricultural Production and Income --- 6. The BRAC Approach to Small Farmers' Innovations --- 7. Agricultural Research and Extension Linkages in Amhara Region, Ethiopia --- 8. Transaction costs on the Ethiopian formal seed market and innovations for encouraging private sector investments --- 9. Agricultural Service Delivery Through Mobile Phone: Local innovations and Technological Opportunities in Kenya --- 10. Identification and Acceleration of Farmer Innovativeness in Upper East Ghana --- 11. Gender, social equity and innovations in smallholder farming systems: pitfalls and pathways --- 12. Assessing the Sustainability of Agricultural Technology Options for Poor Rural Farmers --- 13. Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management Innovations in Central Asia --- 14. Biomass-based value web. A Novel Perspective for Emergng Bioeconomies in Sub-Saharan Africa --- Part 3 Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture --- 15. Adoption of Stress-tolerant Rice Varieties in Bangladesh --- 16. More than cereal based cropping innovations for improving food and livelihood security of poor small holders in marginal areas of Bangladesh --- 17. Integrated Rice-fish Farming System in Bangladesh: An Ex-Ante Value Chain Evaluation Framework --- 18. Technologies for Maize, Wheat, Rice and Pulses in Marginal Districts of Odisha and Bihar --- 19. Technological Innovations for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana --- 20. Potential impacts of yield increasing crop technologies on poverty reduction in two districts of Ethiopia

Description / Table of Contents: Phylogenetics and conservation biology: drawing a path into the diversity of life --- The value of phylogenetic diversity --- The PD phylogenetic diversity framework: linking evolutionary history to feature diversity for biodiversity conservation --- Reconsidering the loss of evolutionary history: how does non-random extinction prune the tree-of-life?- Phylogenetics and conservation in New Zealand: the long and the short of it --- What is the meaning of extreme phylogenetic diversity? The case of phylogenetic relict species --- Using phylogenetic dissimilarities among sites for biodiversity assessments and conservation --- Phylogenetic diversity measures and their decomposition: a framework based on hill numbers --- Split diversity: measuring and optimizing biodiversity using phylogenetic split networks --- The rarefaction of phylogenetic diversity: formulation, extension and application --- Support in area prioritization using phylogenetic information --- Assessing hotspots of evolutionary history with data from multiple phylogenies: an analysis of endemic clades from New Caledonia --- Representing hotspots of evolutionary history in systematic conservation planning for European mammals --- Priorities for conservation of the evolutionary history of amphibians in the cerrado --- Global spatial analyses of phylogenetic conservation priorities for aquatic mammals --- Metapopulation capacity meets evolutionary distinctness: spatial fragmentation complements phylogenetic rarity in prioritization. - Patterns of species, phylogenetic and mimicry diversity of clearwing butterflies in the Neotropics --- Conservation of phylogenetic diversity in Madagascar’s largest endemic plant family, Sarcolaenaceae --- The future of phylogenetic systematics in conservation biology: linking biodiversity and society

Description / Table of Contents: Bats in the Anthropocene --- Urbanisation and its effects on bats – a global meta-analysis --- Bats and roads --- Responses of tropical bats to habitat fragmentation, logging, and deforestation --- Insectivorous bats and silviculture: balancing timber production and bat conservation --- Bats in the anthropogenic matrix: Challenges and opportunities for the conservation of Chiroptera and their ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes --- Dark matters: the effects of artificial lighting on bats --- Bats and water: anthropogenic alterations threaten global bat populations --- White-nose syndrome in bats --- Zoonotic viruses and conservation of bats --- Impacts of Wind Energy Development on Bats: a Global Perspective --- Exploitation of Bats for Bushmeat and Medicine --- The conflict between pteropodid bats and fruit growers: species, legislation and mitigation --- Bats and buildings: The conservation of synanthropic bats --- Conservation ecology of cave bats --- The roles of taxonomy and systematics in bat conservation --- Networking networks for global bat conservation --- Cute, Creepy, or Crispy – how values, attitudes and norms shape human behavior toward bats. 

Description / Table of Contents: The International Symposium on Hearing is a prestigious,triennial gathering where world-class scientists present and discuss the most recent advances in the field of human and animal hearing research. The 2015 edition will particularly focus on integrative approaches linking physiological, psychophysical and cognitive aspects of normal and impaired hearing. Like previous editions, the proceedings will contain about 50 chapters ranging from basic to applied research, and of interest to neuroscientists, psychologists, audiologists, engineers, otolaryngologists, and artificial intelligent researchers

Description / Table of Contents: Foreword --- 1. Innovation for Marginalized Smallholder Farmers and Development: an Overview and Implications for Policy and Research --- Part 1 Innovation for the Rural Poor: Theory, Trends and Impacts --- 2. Institutional and technological innovations in polycentric systems –pathways for escaping marginality --- 3. Innovations for Food and Nutrition Security: Impacts and Trends --- 4. Psychology of Innovation: Innovating human psychology? --- 5. An optimization model for technology adoption of marginalized smallholders --- Part 2 Diversification of Agricultural Production and Income --- 6. The BRAC Approach to Small Farmers' Innovations --- 7. Agricultural Research and Extension Linkages in Amhara Region, Ethiopia --- 8. Transaction costs on the Ethiopian formal seed market and innovations for encouraging private sector investments --- 9. Agricultural Service Delivery Through Mobile Phone: Local innovations and Technological Opportunities in Kenya --- 10. Identification and Acceleration of Farmer Innovativeness in Upper East Ghana --- 11. Gender, social equity and innovations in smallholder farming systems: pitfalls and pathways --- 12. Assessing the Sustainability of Agricultural Technology Options for Poor Rural Farmers --- 13. Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management Innovations in Central Asia --- 14. Biomass-based value web. A Novel Perspective for Emergng Bioeconomies in Sub-Saharan Africa --- Part 3 Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture --- 15. Adoption of Stress-tolerant Rice Varieties in Bangladesh --- 16. More than cereal based cropping innovations for improving food and livelihood security of poor small holders in marginal areas of Bangladesh --- 17. Integrated Rice-fish Farming System in Bangladesh: An Ex-Ante Value Chain Evaluation Framework --- 18. Technologies for Maize, Wheat, Rice and Pulses in Marginal Districts of Odisha and Bihar --- 19. Technological Innovations for Smallholder Farmers in Ghana --- 20. Potential impacts of yield increasing crop technologies on poverty reduction in two districts of Ethiopia

Description / Table of Contents: A brief overview of techniques for modulating neuroendocrine and other neural systems --- Basics of stem cell biology as applied to the brain --- Human pluripotent-derived lineages for repairing hypopituitarism --- Recapitulating hypothalamus and pituitary development using ES/iPS cells --- Regulation of body weight and metabolism by tanycyte-derived neurogenesis in young adult mice --- Genetic dissection of the neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to stressful challenges --- Pituitary stem cells: quest for hidden functions --- Pituitary stem cells during normal physiology and disease --- Epigenetic mechanisms of pituitary cell fate specification --- Advances in stem cells biology: new approaches to understand depression --- Perspective on stem cells in developmental biology, with special reference to neuroendocrine systems.

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- Objectives --- Protocol for measuring soil salinity --- Protocol for screening for salt tolerance in rice --- Protocol for screening for salt tolerance in barley and wheat.  

Description / Table of Contents: FOREWORD --- 2. GENERAL INTRODUCTION --- 2.1. Background analysis --- 2.2. Migratory Birds and HPAI --- 2.3. Using SIA to understand the dissemination of HPAI – The way ahead! --- 3. ANIMAL MIGRATION TRACKING METHODS --- 3.1. Extrinsic Markers --- 3.2. Intrinsic Markers --- 3.3. The Stable Isotopes of Water on a Spatial Scale --- 3.4. Deriving isoscapes in the absence of GNIP data --- 3.5. Use of Stable Isotopes in Migration Studies --- 3.6. Approaches for Determining Migratory Connectivity --- 4. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS --- 4.1. Sample Collection and Tissue Preparation --- 4.2. Other Stable Isotopes for Migration Research --- 5. REFERENCES

Description / Table of Contents: The Epigenetic And Metabolic Language Of the Circadian Clock --- Molecular Architecture of the Circadian Clock in Mammals --- Circadian Mechanisms in Bioenergetics and Cell Metabolism --- Control of metabolism by central and peripheral clocks in Drosophila --- Circadian post-transcriptional control of metabolism --- Redox and Metabolic Oscillations in the Clockwork --- Rev-erbs: Integrating Metabolism Around the Clock --- Control of sleep-wake cycles in Drosophila --- Circadian metabolomics: insights for biology and medicine --- Rhythms within rhythms: the importance of oscillations for glucocorticoid hormones --- The genetics of autism spectrum disorders.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1 Introduction to the SAMPLES Approach --- Chapter 2 Targeting Landscapes to Identify Mitigation Options --- Chapter 3 Determining Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Associated with Land Use and Land Cover Change --- Chapter 4 Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Managed and Natural Soils --- Chapter 5 A Comparison of Methodologies for Measuring Methane Emissions from Ruminants --- Chapter 6 Quantifying Tree Biomass Carbon Stocks and Fluxes in Agricultural Landscapes --- Chapter 7 Methods for Smallholder Quantification of Soil Carbon Stocks and Stock Changes --- Chapter 8 Yield Estimation of Food and Non-Food Crops in Smallholder Production Systems --- Chapter 9 Scaling Point and Plot Measurements of Greenhouse Gas Fluxes, Balances and Intensities to Whole Farms and Landscapes --- Chapter 10 Methods for Environment-Productivity Trade-off Analysis in Agricultural Systems

Description / Table of Contents: Advances in next generation sequencing technologies, omics, and bioinformatics are revealing a tremendous and unsuspected diversity of microbes, both at a compositional and functional level. Moreover, the expansion of ecological concepts into microbial ecology has greatly advanced our comprehension of the role microbes play in the functioning of ecosystems across a wide range of biomes. Super-imposed on this new information about microbes, their functions and how they are organized, environmental gradients are changing rapidly, largely driven by direct and indirect human activities. In the context of global change, understanding the mechanisms that shape microbial communities is pivotal to predict microbial responses to novel selective forces and their implications at the local as well as global scale. One of the main features of microbial communities is their ability to react to changes in the environment. Thus, many studies have reported changes in the performance and composition of communities along environmental gradients. However, the mechanisms underlying these responses remain unclear. It is assumed that the response of microbes to changes in the environment is mediated by a complex combination of shifts in the physiological properties, single-cell activities, or composition of communities: it may occur by means of physiological adjustments of the taxa present in a community or selecting towards more tolerant/better adapted phylotypes. Knowing whether certain factors trigger one, many, or all mechanisms would greatly increase confidence in predictions of future microbial composition and processes. This Research Topic brings together studies that applied the latest molecular techniques for studying microbial composition and functioning and integrated ecological, biogeochemical and/or modeling approaches to provide a comprehensive and mechanistic perspective of the responses of micro-organisms to environmental changes. This Research Topic presents new findings on environmental parameters influencing microbial communities, the type and magnitude of response and differences in the response among microbial groups, and which collectively deepen our current understanding and knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of microbial structural and functional responses to environmental changes and gradients in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The body of work has, furthermore, identified many challenges and questions that yet remain to be addressed and new perspectives to follow up on.

Description / Table of Contents: Terraforming is the process of making other worlds habitable for human life. Its counterpart on Earth – geoengineering – is receiving serious consideration as a way to address climate change. Contemporary environmental awareness and our understanding of climate change is influenced by science fiction, and terraforming in particular has offered scientists, philosophers, and others a motif for thinking in complex ways about our impact on planetary environments. This book asks how science fiction has imagined how we shape both our world and other planets and how stories of terraforming reflect on science, society and environmentalism. It traces the growth of the motif of terraforming in science fiction from H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) to James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar (2009), in stories by such writers as Olaf Stapledon, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ernest Callenbach, Pamela Sargent, Frederick Turner and Kim Stanley Robinson. It argues for terraforming as a nexus for environmental philosophy, the pastoral, ecology, the Gaia hypothesis, and the politics of colonisation and habitation. Amidst contemporary anxieties about climate change, terraforming offers an important vantage from which to consider the ways humankind shapes and is shaped by their world.

Description / Table of Contents: Phylogenetics and conservation biology: drawing a path into the diversity of life --- The value of phylogenetic diversity --- The PD phylogenetic diversity framework: linking evolutionary history to feature diversity for biodiversity conservation --- Reconsidering the loss of evolutionary history: how does non-random extinction prune the tree-of-life?- Phylogenetics and conservation in New Zealand: the long and the short of it --- What is the meaning of extreme phylogenetic diversity? The case of phylogenetic relict species --- Using phylogenetic dissimilarities among sites for biodiversity assessments and conservation --- Phylogenetic diversity measures and their decomposition: a framework based on hill numbers --- Split diversity: measuring and optimizing biodiversity using phylogenetic split networks --- The rarefaction of phylogenetic diversity: formulation, extension and application --- Support in area prioritization using phylogenetic information --- Assessing hotspots of evolutionary history with data from multiple phylogenies: an analysis of endemic clades from New Caledonia --- Representing hotspots of evolutionary history in systematic conservation planning for European mammals --- Priorities for conservation of the evolutionary history of amphibians in the cerrado --- Global spatial analyses of phylogenetic conservation priorities for aquatic mammals --- Metapopulation capacity meets evolutionary distinctness: spatial fragmentation complements phylogenetic rarity in prioritization. - Patterns of species, phylogenetic and mimicry diversity of clearwing butterflies in the Neotropics --- Conservation of phylogenetic diversity in Madagascar’s largest endemic plant family, Sarcolaenaceae --- The future of phylogenetic systematics in conservation biology: linking biodiversity and society

Description / Table of Contents: Hippocampal mechanisms for the segmentation of space by goals and boundaries --- Cortical Evolution: Introduction to the Reptilian Cortex --- Flow of information underlying a tactile decision in mice --- The Visual Brain: Computing through Multiscale Complexity --- Grid cells and spatial maps in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus --- The striatum and decision-making based on value --- Decoding the dynamics of conscious perception: The temporal generalization method --- Sleep and synaptic down-selection --- Federating and integrating what we know about the brain at all scales - a challenge for the future. Computer science meets the clinical neurosciences

Description / Table of Contents: Part I : Agro-Food Systems --- Food Security in the Southern Mediterranean/North Africa --- Sustainability in cereal crop production in Mediterranean environments --- Innovative crop productions for healthy foods: the case of Chia --- The hidden costs of livestock environmental sustainability: the case of Podolian cattle --- Feeding, nutrition and sustainability in dairy enterprises: the case of Mediterranean buffaloes (bubalus bubalis) --- Sustainability of sheep and goat production systems --- The role of local sheep and goat breeds and their products as a tool for sustainability and safeguard of the Mediterranean environment --- Innovative use of jenny milk from sustainable rearing --- Sustainable agricultural practices in disease defence of traditional crops in Southern Italy: the case study of tomato cherry protected by Trichoderma harzianum T-22 against Cucumber mosaic virus --- Development of integrated disease control measures for the valorisation of traditional crops in Southern Italy: the case study of "Fagiolo di Sarconi" --- Fostering sustainable climate change adaptations: a case study of the Turkish Cypriot Community’s adoption of pomegranate farming --- The role of women in the sustainability of the wine industry through the analysis of case studies --- Part II : Natural Resource Systems and Environment --- The effects of climate change on the multifunctional role of Basilicata’s forests: the effects induced on yield and CO2 absorption --- Wildlife agriculture interactions, spatial analysis and trade-off between environmental sustainability and risk of economic damage --- The sustainability of non-renewable resources use at regional level: a case study on allocation of oil royalties --- Land use sector involvement in mitigation policies across carbon markets --- Evaluating the role of soil variability on potential groundwater pollution and recharge in a Mediterranean agricultural watershed --- Grazing and biodiversity conservation: highlights on a Nature 2000 network site --- Evaluation of native grasses for sustainable turfgrass in the bioclimatic Mediterranean Region.-Biodiversity of hypogeous fungi in Basilicata --- Part III: New technologies --- New technologies for the sustainable management and planning of rural land and environment --- Processing plants and technologies for a sustainable Mediterranean food chain --- Geophysical techniques for plant, soil and root research related to Satellite technologies to support the sustainability of agricultural production --- Electrolyzed water in the food industry as supporting of environmental sustainability

Description / Table of Contents: The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project: Phase I Activities by a Global Community of Science (Cynthia Rosenzweig, James W Jones, Jerry L Hatfield, John M Antle, Alexander C Ruane, and Carolyn Z Mutter) --- AgMIP's Transdisciplinary Agricultural Systems Approach to Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (John M Antle, Roberto O Valdivia, Kenneth J Boote, Sander Janssen, James W Jones, Cheryl H Porter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, and Peter J Thorburn) --- AgMIP Climate Data and Scenarios for Integrated Assessment (Alexander C Ruane, Jonathan M Winter, Sonali P McDermid, and Nicholas I Hudson) --- Cropping Systems Modeling in AgMIP: A New Protocol-Driven Approach for Regional Integrated Assessments (Peter J Thorburn, Kenneth J Boote, John N G Hargreaves, Perry L Poulton, and James W Jones) --- Representative Agricultural Pathways and Scenarios for Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (Roberto O Valdivia, John M Antle, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Joost Vervoort, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ibrahima Hathie, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Richard Mulwa, Charles Nhemachena, Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Herath Rasnayaka, and Harbir Singh) --- Data Interoperability Tools for Regional Integrated Assessments (Cheryl H Porter, Chris Villalobos, Dean Holzworth, Roger Nelson, Jefffrey W White, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, Meng Zhang, Sander Janssen, Rob Knapen, James W Jones, Kenneth J Boote, John Hargreaves, and John M Antle) --- The AgMIP GRIDded Crop Modeling Initiative (AgGRID) and the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) (Joshua Elliott and Christoph Müller) --- The AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP): Methods and Protocols (Sonali P McDermid, Alexander C Ruane, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Nicholas I Hudson, Monica D Morales, Prabodha Agalawatte, Shakeel Ahmad, L R Ahuja, Istiqlal Amien, Saseendran S Anapalli, Jakarat Anothai, Senthold Asseng, Jody Biggs, Federico Bert, Patrick Bertuzzi, Virender S Bhatia, Marco Bindi, Ian Broad, Davide Cammarano, Ramiro Carretero, Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha, Uran Chung, Stephanie Debats, Paola Deligios, Giacomo De Sanctis, Thanda Dhliwayo, Benjamin Dumont, Lyndon Estes, Frank Ewert, Roberto Ferrise, Thomas Gaiser, Guillermo Garcia, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Vellingiri Geethalakshmi, Edward Gerardeaux, Richard Goldberg, Brian Grant, Edgardo Guevara, Jonathan Hickman, Holger Hoffmann, Huanping Huang, Jamshad Hussain, Flavio Barbosa Justino, Asha S Karunaratne, Ann-Kristin Koehler, Patrice K Kouakou, Soora Naresh Kumar, Arunachalam Lakshmanan, Mark Lieffering, Xiaomao Lin, Qunying Luo, Graciela Magrin, Marco Mancini, Fabio Ricardo Marin, Anna Dalla Marta, Yuji Masutomi, Theodoros Mavromatis, Greg McLean, Santiago Meira, Monoranjan Mohanty, Marco Moriondo, Wajid Nasim, Lamyaa Negm, Francesca Orlando, Simone Orlandini, Isik Ozturk, Helena Maria Soares Pinto, Guillermo Podesta, Zhiming Qi, Johanna Ramarohetra, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Helene Raynal, Gabriel Rodriguez, Reimund Rötter, Vaishali Sharda, Lu Shuo, Ward Smith, Val Snow, Afshin Soltani, K Srinivas, Benjamin Sultan, Dillip Kumar Swain, Fulu Tao, Kindie Tesfaye, Maria I Travasso, Giacomo Trombi, Alex Topaj, Eline Vanuytrecht, Federico E Viscarra, Syed Aftab Wajid, Enli Wang, Hong Wang, Jing Wang, Erandika Wijekoon, Lee Byun-Woo, Yang Xiaoguang, Ban Ho Young, Jin I Yun, Zhigan Zhao, and Lareef Zubair) --- Uncertainty in Agricultural Impact Assessment (Daniel Wallach, Linda O Mearns, Michael Rivington, John M Antle, and Alexander C Ruane) --- Uncertainties in Scaling-Up Crop Models for Large-Area Climate Change Impact Assessments (Frank Ewert, Lenny G J van Bussel, Gang Zhao, Holger Hoffmann, Thomas Gaiser, Xenia Specka, Claas Nendel, Kurt-Christian Kersebaum, Carmen Sosa, Elisabet Lewan, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Matthias Kuhnert, Fulu Tao, Reimund Rötter, Julie Constantin, Helene Raynal, Daniel Wallach, Edmar Teixeira, Balasz Grosz, Michaela Bach, Luca Doro, Pier Paolo Roggero, Zhigan Zhao, Enli Wang, Ralf Kiese, Edwin Haas, Henrik Eckersten, Giacomo Trombi, Marco Bindi, Christian Klein, Christian Biernath, Florian Heinlein, Eckart Priesack, Davide Cammarano, Senthold Asseng, Joshua Elliott, Michael Glotter, Bruno Basso, Guillermo A Baigorria, Consuelo C Romero, and Marco Moriondo) --- Statistical Analysis of Large Simulated Yield Datasets for Studying Climate Change Effects (David Makowski, Senthold Asseng, Frank Ewert, Simona Bassu, Jean-Louis Durand, Pierre Martre, Myriam Adam, Pramod K Aggarwal, Carlos Angulo, Christian Baron, Bruno Basso, Patrick Bertuzzi, Christian Biernath, Hendrik Boogaard, Kenneth J Boote, Nadine Brisson, Davide Cammarano, Andrew J Challinor, Sjakk J G Conijn, Marc Corbeels, Delphine Deryng, Giacomo De Sanctis, Jordi Doltra, Sebastian Gayler, Richard Goldberg, Patricio Grassini, Jerry L Hatfield, Lee Heng, Steven Hoek, Josh Hooker, Tony L A Hunt, Joachim Ingwersen, Cesar Izaurralde, Raymond E E Jongschaap, James W Jones, Armen R Kemanian, Christian Kersebaum, Soo-Hyung Kim, Jon Lizaso, Christoph Müller, Naresh S Kumar, Claas Nendel, Garry J O'Leary, Jorgen E Olesen, Tom M Osborne, Taru Palosuo, Maria V Pravia, Eckart Priesack, Dominique Ripoche, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Fredirico Sau, Mickhail A Semenov, Iurii Shcherbak, Pasquale Steduto, Claudio Stöckle, Pierre Stratonovitch, Thilo Streck, Iwan Supit, Fulu Tao, Edmar I Teixeira, Peter Thorburn, Denis Timlin, Maria Travasso, Reimund Rötter, Katharina Waha, Daniel Wallach, Jeffrey W White, Jimmy R Williams, and Joost Wolf) --- Crop Diseases and Climate Change in the AgMIP Framework (Ariena H C van Bruggen, James W Jones, Jose Mauricio C Fernandes, Karen Garrett, and Kenneth J Boote) --- Perspectives on Climate Effects on Agriculture: The International Efforts of AgMIP in Sub-Saharan Africa (Job Kihara, Dilys S MacCarthy, Andre Bationo, Saidou Koala, Jonathan Hickman, Jawoo Koo, Charles Vanya, Samuel Adiku, Yacob Beletse, Patricia Masikate, Karuturi P C Rao, Carolyn Z Mutter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, and James W Jones) --- Climate Change Impacts on West African Agriculture: An Integrated Regional Assessment (CIWARA) (Samuel G K Adiku, Dilys S MacCarthy, Ibrahima Hathie, Madina Diancoumba, Bright S Freduah, Joseph Amikuzuno, P C Sibiry Traore, Seydou Traore, Eric Koomson, Alhassane Agali, Jon I Lizaso, Dougbedji Fatondji, Myriam Adams, Lodoun Tigana, Daouda Z Diarra, Ousmane N'diaye, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Agricultural Systems in East Africa (Karuturi P C Rao, Gummadi Sridhar, Richard M Mulwa, Mary N Kilavi, Anthony Esilaba, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Projected Impacts of Climate Change Scenarios on the Production of Maize in Southern Africa: An Integrated Assessment Case Study of the Bethlehem District, Central Free State, South Africa (Yacob G Beletse, Wiltrud Durand, Charles Nhemachena, Olivier Crespo, Weldemichael A Tesfuhuney, Matthew R Jones, Mogos Y Teweldemedhin, Sunshine M Gamedze, Pontsho M Bonolo, Syanda Jonas, SueWalker, Patrick Gwimbi, Thembeka N Mpuisang, Davide Cammarano, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Crop-Livestock Intensification in the Face of Climate Change: Exploring Opportunities to Reduce Risk and Increase Resilience in Southern Africa by Using an Integrated Multi-modeling Approach (Patricia Masikati, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Katrien Descheemaeker, Olivier Crespo, Sue Walker, Christopher J Lennard, Lieven Claessens, Arthur C Gama, Sebastiao Famba, Andre F van Rooyen, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessments of the Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture: An Overview of AgMIP Regional Research in South Asia (Sonali P McDermid, Guntuku Dileepkumar, K M Dakshina Murthy, S Nedumaran, Piara Singh, Chukka Srinivasa, B Gangwar, N Subash, Ashfaq Ahmad, Lareef Zubair, and S P Nissanka) --- Impact of Climate Change on the Rice–Wheat Cropping System of Pakistan (Ashfaq Ahmad, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ghulam Rasul, Syed Aftab Wajid, Tasneem Khaliq, Fahd Rasul, Umer Saeed, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Jamshad Hussain, Irfan Ahmad Baig, Syed Asif Ali Naqvi, Syed Ahsan Ali Bokhari, Shakeel Ahmad, Wajid Naseem, Gerrit Hoogenboom, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Climate Change Assessment through Linking Crop Simulation with Economic Modeling — Results from the Indo-Gangetic Basin (Nataraja Subash, Babooji Gangwar, Harbir Singh, Guillermo Baigorria, Alok Kumar Sikka, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Maize Farms and Farm Household Incomes in South India: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu (Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Raji Reddy Danda, Lakshmanan Arunachalam, Dakshina Murthy, Sunandini Prema, Sreenivas Gade, Sonali P McDermid, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka (Lareef Zubair, Sarath P Nissanka, W M W Weerakoon, Dumindu I Herath, Asha S Karunaratne, A S M Prabodha, M B Agalawatte, Rasnayaka M Herath, S Zeenas Yahiya, B V R Punyawardene, Janan Vishwanathan, Punya Delpitiya, A Erandika N Wijekoon, Janaka Gunaratna, Sewwandhi S K Chandrasekara, P Wickramagamage, K D N Weerasinghe, Champa M Navaratne, Ruchika S Perera, Asela I Gunesekara, G M Pradeep Kumara, Daniel Wallach, Roberto O Valdivia, and Sonali P McDermid) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The Brazil Experience (Eduardo D Assad, Fábio R Marin, Roberto O Valdivia, and Cynthia Rosenzweig) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The China Experience (Fulu Tao and Erda Lin) --- AgMIP Training in Multiple Crop Models and Tools (Kenneth J Boote, Cheryl H Porter, John Hargreaves, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Peter Thorburn, and Carolyn Mutter) --- Major Findings and Future Activities (Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel)

Description / Table of Contents: Introduction --- Health and Safety Considerations --- Sample Collection and Storage --- Low-Cost DNA Extraction --- PCR Amplification for Low-Cost Mutation Discovery --- Enzymatic Mismatch Cleavage and Agarose Gel Evaluation of Samples --- Alternative Enzymology for Mismatch Cleavage for TILLING and Ecotilling: Extraction of Enzymes form Common Weedy Plants --- Example Data --- Conclusions.  

Description / Table of Contents: Part I : Agro-Food Systems --- Food Security in the Southern Mediterranean/North Africa --- Sustainability in cereal crop production in Mediterranean environments --- Innovative crop productions for healthy foods: the case of Chia --- The hidden costs of livestock environmental sustainability: the case of Podolian cattle --- Feeding, nutrition and sustainability in dairy enterprises: the case of Mediterranean buffaloes (bubalus bubalis) --- Sustainability of sheep and goat production systems --- The role of local sheep and goat breeds and their products as a tool for sustainability and safeguard of the Mediterranean environment --- Innovative use of jenny milk from sustainable rearing --- Sustainable agricultural practices in disease defence of traditional crops in Southern Italy: the case study of tomato cherry protected by Trichoderma harzianum T-22 against Cucumber mosaic virus --- Development of integrated disease control measures for the valorisation of traditional crops in Southern Italy: the case study of "Fagiolo di Sarconi" --- Fostering sustainable climate change adaptations: a case study of the Turkish Cypriot Community’s adoption of pomegranate farming --- The role of women in the sustainability of the wine industry through the analysis of case studies --- Part II : Natural Resource Systems and Environment --- The effects of climate change on the multifunctional role of Basilicata’s forests: the effects induced on yield and CO2 absorption --- Wildlife agriculture interactions, spatial analysis and trade-off between environmental sustainability and risk of economic damage --- The sustainability of non-renewable resources use at regional level: a case study on allocation of oil royalties --- Land use sector involvement in mitigation policies across carbon markets --- Evaluating the role of soil variability on potential groundwater pollution and recharge in a Mediterranean agricultural watershed --- Grazing and biodiversity conservation: highlights on a Nature 2000 network site --- Evaluation of native grasses for sustainable turfgrass in the bioclimatic Mediterranean Region.-Biodiversity of hypogeous fungi in Basilicata --- Part III: New technologies --- New technologies for the sustainable management and planning of rural land and environment --- Processing plants and technologies for a sustainable Mediterranean food chain --- Geophysical techniques for plant, soil and root research related to Satellite technologies to support the sustainability of agricultural production --- Electrolyzed water in the food industry as supporting of environmental sustainability

Description / Table of Contents: This edited book, Toxicity and Hazard of Agrochemicals, is intended to provide an overview of toxicology that examines the hazardous effects of common agrochemicals employed every day in our agricultural practices. Furthermore, it is hoped that the information in the present book will be of value to those directly engaged in the handling and use of agrochemicals and that this book will continue to meet the expectations and needs of all interested in the different aspects of human and environmental risk toxicities.

Description / Table of Contents: In the last three decades, research has extensively focused on the role of Fe and other mineral nutrients in regulating biological processes, ranging from the surface to the deep ocean. This has produced major breakthroughs in our understanding of the fundamental role of those bioactive elements on the carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycles and ecosystem function. However, biological processes cannot be entirely sustained by that small set of chemical elements, and new scientific evidence suggests that trace metals other than Fe (e.g., Co, Mo and Ni) as well as essential organic growth factors (e.g., vitamins) may also be crucial in most aquatic systems.

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: 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: Is planting grass margins around fields beneficial for wildlife? Which management interventions increase bee numbers in farmland? Does helping migrating toads across roads increase populations? How do you reduce predation on bird populations? What Works in Conservation has been created to provide practitioners with answers to these and many other questions about practical conservation. This book provides an assessment of the effectiveness of 648 conservation interventions based on summarized scientific evidence relevant to the practical global conservation of amphibians, reducing the risk of predation for birds, conservation of European farmland biodiversity and some aspects of enhancing natural pest control and soil fertility. It contains key results from the summarized evidence for each conservation intervention and an assessment of the effectiveness of each by international expert panels. The volume is published in partnership with the Conservation Evidence project and is fully linked to the project's website where more detailed evidence and references can be freely accessed.

Description / Table of Contents: Deep subsurface microbiology is a highly active and rapidly advancing research field at the interface of microbiology and the geosciences; it focuses on the detection, identification, quantification, cultivation and activity measurements of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes that permeate the subsurface biosphere of deep marine sediments and the basaltic ocean and continental crust. The deep subsurface biosphere abounds with uncultured, only recently discovered and – at best - incompletely understood microbial populations. In spatial extent and volume, Earth’s subsurface biosphere is only rivaled by the deep sea water column. So far, no deep subsurface sediment has been found that is entirely devoid of microbial life; microbial cells and DNA remain detectable at sediment depths of more than 1 km; microbial life permeates deeply buried hydrocarbon reservoirs, and is also found several kilometers down in continental crust aquifers. Severe energy limitation, either as electron acceptor or donor shortage, and scarcity of microbially degradable organic carbon sources are among the evolutionary pressures that have shaped the genomic and physiological repertoire of the deep subsurface biosphere. Its biogeochemical role as long-term organic carbon repository, inorganic electron and energy source, and subduction recycling engine continues to be explored by current research at the interface of microbiology, geochemistry and biosphere/geosphere evolution. This Research Topic addresses some of the central research questions about deep subsurface microbiology and biogeochemistry: phylogenetic and physiological microbial diversity in the deep subsurface; microbial activity and survival strategies in severely energy-limited subsurface habitats; microbial activity as reflected in process rates and gene expression patterns; biogeographic isolation and connectivity in deep subsurface microbial communities; the ecological standing of subsurface biospheres in comparison to the surface biosphere – an independently flourishing biosphere, or mere survivors that tolerate burial (along with organic carbon compounds), or a combination of both? Advancing these questions on Earth’s deep subsurface biosphere redefines the habitat range, environmental tolerance, activity and diversity of microbial life.

Description / Table of Contents: Viruses infect numerous microorganisms including, predominantly, Bacteria (bacteriophages or phages) but also Archaea, Protists, and Fungi. They are the most abundant and ubiquitous biological entities on Earth and are important drivers of ecosystem functioning. Little is known, however, about the vast majority of these viruses of microorganisms, or VoMs. Modern techniques such as metagenomics have enabled the discovery and description of more presumptive VoMs than ever before, but also have exposed gaps in our understanding of VoM ecology. Exploring the ecology of these viruses – which is how they interact with host organisms, the abiotic environment, larger organisms, and even other viruses across a variety of environments and conditions – is the next frontier. Integration of a growing molecular understanding of VoMs with ecological studies will expand our knowledge of ecosystem dynamics. Ecology can be studied at multiple levels including individual organisms, populations, communities, whole ecosystems, and the entire biosphere. Ecology additionally can consider normal, equilibrium conditions or instead perturbations. Perturbations are of particular interest because measuring the effect of disturbances on VoM-associated communities provides important windows into how VoMs contribute to ecosystem dynamics. These disturbances in turn can be studied through in vitro, in vivo, and in situ experimentation, measuring responses by VoM-associated communities to changes in nutrient availability, stress, physical disruption, seasonality, etc., and could apply to studies at all ecological levels. These are considered here across diverse systems and environments.

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: 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