Kinship and Demographic Behavior in the Past
This book examines the role of kinship and the family’s influence on the health outcomes of their children, their children’s selection of marriage partners, couples having higher order births or reduced fertility, individual migration and origins of populations. Mortality patterns are examined to determine the influence of fertility patterns on parents’ mortality, the contribution of parents’ longevity to their children’s lifespan, and the whether a family history of disease affects the risk of dying from that same disease.This volume emphasizes the importance of studies that include and compare other factors related to social organization with information on multi-generational families. The authors elucidate previous explanations and provide provocative new results. Such intergenerational research is crucial in understanding long term demographic trends and processes.
Isotopes in the Water Cycle : Past, Present and Future of a Developing Science
This monograph presents state of the art applications and new developments of isotopes in hydrology, environmental disciplines and climate change studies. Coverage ranges from the assessment of groundwater resources in terms of recharge and flow regime to studies of the past and present global environmental and climate changes.
Compulsory Insurance and Compensation for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage
Oil tankers are not the only vessels that have caused oil pollution at sea. Numerous spills in the past have been of heavy fuel oil from non-tankers. However, the international liability and compensation regime covered only oil pollution damage caused by oil tankers. There was thus a need to bring the law on marine oil pollution responsive to oil pollution damage caused by non-tankers. In March 2001, the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage was adopted following a diplomatic conference at the International Maritime Organization. Though this convention has not yet come into force, its various aspects should already be considered as they will surely affect the maritime industry as a whole and the non-tanker sector, in particular. This book provides a timely and comprehensive study on the concept of compulsory insurance, its main purpose of ensuring compensation and its interrelations with other features such as the rule of strict liability and the limitation of liability under the convention.
Community Schools in Africa : Reaching the Unreached
Over the past decade, community schools similar to those supported by Save the Children have been established in many developing countries, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa. As large numbers of children attend schools started and managed by their own communities and/or by nongovernmental organizations, questions have come up about the impact of such schools at large scale: "Can village-based or community schools have a national impact on access to education, spur improved long-term development strategies and education policy, or achieve or influence Education for All? This book explores these and related questions, drawing on Save the Children’s experience with community-based schooling in four countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, and Uganda.
Communicating Science : A Practical Guide
Each of the main parts is subdivided into two sections, Guidelines and Genres, with entries arranged in alphabetical order. The guidelines are devoted to entries such as acronyms, active or passive voice, body language, figures and captions, introduction, irony, and taking the floor. Within genres, all possible media of communicating science are treated, e.g. the after-dinner speech, conference presentation, keynote lecture, magazine article, research proposal, and teleconference.
Climate Variability and Extremes during the Past 100 Years
This volume provides an up to date overview of climate variability during the 20th century in the context of natural and anthropogenic variability. It compiles a number of contributions to a workshop held in Gwatt, Switzerland, in July 2006 dealing with different aspects of climate change, variability, and extremes during the past 100 years.
Climate change : Environment and history of the Near East
When the ?rst edition of this book was published in 2004, the following year 2005 has happened to have been the warmest year since 1880, when the ?rst reliable worldwide instrumental records came into existance. Claiming no li- age between the publication of our book and the temperature record, yet this record demonstrates the trend of increase in the global surface temperatures during thepast20years,reinforcedbyevidenceofriseofatmosphere’sand oceans’ temperatures, and increased melting of ice and snow in the arctic and antarctic regions as well as on mountain tops. All these observations are par- leled by the increase in the quantity of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere, causing most probably, the global greenhouse effect. In order to try and predict, what might be the impact of this effect on the on the natural and human environments of the Near East, (Figs. 1–1d) the authors adopted the saying that the past is the key for the future. The practical conclusion of this principle says that the acquiring knowledge of the impact of past climate changes on the nature and human societies, may allow conclusions with regard to future possible impact of climate changes. By correlating proxy data of all types, paleo-sea and lake levels, paleo-hydrology, pollen pro?les, environmental isotopes as well as archaeological and historical documents, the authors tried to collect as much as possible of this knowledge.
Circuits and Systems Based on Delta Modulation : Linear, Nonlinear and Mixed Mode Processing
This book is intended for students and professionals who are interested in the field of digital signal processing of delta-sigma modulated sequences. The overall focus is on the development of algorithms and circuits for linear, non-linear, and mixed mode processing of delta-sigma modulated pulse streams. The material presented here is directly relevant to applications in digital communication, DSP, instrumentation, and control.
Chronic Pain and Family : A Clinical Perspective
Chronic pain affects every facet of a patient’s life, and nowhere is this more evident than in the complex arena of family life. Chronic Pain and Family: a Clinical Perspective examines typical family issues associated with prolonged illness, offering realistic ways to approach them in therapy. Informed by current practice and his own experience, noted author/clinician Ranjan Roy brings fresh insights to common pain scenarios and therapeutic impasses, and provides a framework for assessing marital and family relationships when chronic pain is a defining factor. Clinicians will get not only a clearer understanding of sensitive issues, but also effective strategies for engaging clients without turning them off.
Charge Migration in DNA : Perspectives from Physics, Chemistry, and Biology
Charge migration through DNA has been the focus of considerable interest in recent years. A deeper understanding of the nature of charge transfer and transport along the double helix is important in fields as diverse as physics, chemistry and nanotechnology. It has also important implications in biology, in particular in DNA damage and repair. This book presents contributions from an international team of researchers active in this field.
Changing Forests : Collective Action, Common Property, and Coffee in Honduras
It merges political ecology, collective-action theories, and institutional analysis to study how the people and forests have changed through socioeconomic and political transitions. It studies the complex, often contradictory relationships between the people and their natural resources to understand why forest cover endures."Changing Forests" therefore encompasses three broad phases: (1) the premodern period, which considers historic perturbations in western Honduras from the period of colonialism into the middle of the twentieth century; (2) the period of state-led logging and intervention in La Campa, which caused major degradation in forest cover; and (3) the recent period in which export coffee production transformed property rights, and people’s perceptions of the forest gained new conservationist and economic dimensions. Each phase entails perspectives and experiences that influenced human use of forests, and shaped subsequent transformations.
Challenges and negotiations for women in higher education
There is much ambivalence in women’s experience of the academy as teachers and students. Although today many more women follow academic careers than in the past, they do not find the welcome that they had hoped for and expected. Additionally, women students find that whilst they can now enter through the doors of universities, academic space remains embedded in structures and cultures of gender and social class. This book is a clear and accessible exploration of lifelong learning and educational opportunities for women in higher education. It has been developed from work undertaken by members of the Women in Higher Education Network with chapters organised in three thematic sections: Ambivalent Positions in the Academy / Process and Pedagogy at Work / Career – Identity – Home
Catastrophic Events Caused by Cosmic Objects
Many times all of us could hear from mass media that an asteroid approached and swept past the Earth. Such an asteroid or comet will inevitably strike the planet some day. This volume considers hazards due to collisions with cosmic objects, particularly in light of recent investigations of impacts by the authors. Each chapter written by an expert contains an overview of an aspect and new findings in the field. The main hazardous effects – cratering, shock, aerial and seismic waves, fires, ejection of dust and soot, tsunami are described and numerically estimated. Numerical simulations of impacts and impact consequences have received much attention in the book. Fairly small impacting objects 50 -100 m in diameter pose a real threat to humanity and their influence on the atmosphere and ionosphere is emphasized.
Calixarenes in the Nanoworld
Calixarenes have been widely exploited in all areas of supramolecular chemistry over the past three decades and many recent developments have concerned their applications in the production of chemical entities with the dimensions of nanometres, as in "nanochemistry".Calixarenes in the Nanoworld Relates calixarenes to nanochemistry – key information for industries engaged in the production of high-tech materials. Provides a timely review of both what is known and the exciting prospects provided by calixarenes, Contains several review articles which define the importance of calixarenes as reagents in nanochemistry.
Calcolo stocastico per la finanza = Stochastic Calculation for Finance
Offers an introduction to the mathematical, probabilistic and numerical methods that are the basis of the models for the valuation of derivative instruments, such as options and futures, dealt with in modern financial markets. The book is aimed at readers with scientific training, wishing to develop skills in the field of stochastic calculus applied to finance.
Biosolids treatment processes ; Vol.6
The past 30 years have seen the emergence of a growing desire worldwide to take positive actions to restore and protect the environment from the degrading effects of all forms of pollution: air, noise, solid waste, and water. The Handbook of Environmental Engineering series guides readers to answer the fundamental questions facing pollution in the modern era – How serious is pollution? Is the technology needed to abate it not only available, but feasible? Among the topics included in this, the sixth edition, are: biosolids, flotation thickening, anaerobic and aerobic digestion, pressurized ozonation, lime stabilization, elutriation and polymer conditioning, and animal waste treatment.
Biomineralization : From molecular and nano-structural analyses to environmental science
Over the past 45 years, biomineralization research has unveiled details of the characteristics of the nano-structure of various biominerals; the formation mechanism of this nano-structure, including the initial stage of crystallization; and the function of organic matrices in biominerals, and this knowledge has been applied to dental, medical, pharmaceutical, materials, agricultural and environmental sciences and paleontology. As such, biomineralization is an important interdisciplinary research area, and further advances are expected in both fundamental and applied research.
Biomimicry for Optimization, Control, and Automation
In this book, we focus onhowtousebiomimicryof the functionaloperationofthe “hardwareandso- ware” of biological systems for the development of optimization algorithms and feedbackcontrolsystemsthatextendourcapabilitiestoimplementsophisticated levels of automation. The primary focus is not on the modeling, emulation, or analysis of some biological system. The focus is on using “bio-inspiration” to inject new ideas, techniques, and perspective into the engineering of complex automation systems. There are many biological processes that, at some level of abstraction, can berepresentedasoptimizationprocesses,manyofwhichhaveasa basicpurpose automatic control, decision making, or automation.
Bioarrays : From Basics to Diagnostics
Bioarrays: From Basics to Diagnostics provides an integrated and comprehensive collection of timely articles on the use of bioarray techniques in the fields of biotechnology and molecular medicine. The entire volume is broken into four sections – Bioarray Technology Platforms, Biomarkers and Clinical Genomics, Biomarker Identification Using Clinical Proteomics and Glycomics, and Emerging Technologies in Diagnostics – that create one well-integrated work. Particular emphasis is placed on DNA, protein, and carbohydrate biochips. The volume also looks extensively at oligonucleotides, cDNA, proteins, antibodies, and carbohydrate arrays.
Between dirt and discussion : Methods, methodology and interpretation in historical archaeology
The cases presented in this volume revisit old methods and previous scholarly approaches with new perspectives, along with incorporating the newest technologies available to understanding the past.



















