الصفحة 16
الصفحة 16
Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement : A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development
This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation is especially severe on livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) and lower cropland and rangeland productivity is estimated to be about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22%) of the total global cost of land degradation.
Eco-and ground bio-engineering : The use of vegetation to improve slope stability ; Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Eco-Engineering 13-17 September 2004
In an era where climate change, natural catastrophes and land degradation are major issues, the conservation of soil and vegetation in mountainous or sloping regions has become an international priority. How to avoid substrate mass movement through landslides and erosion using sustainable and ecologically sound techniques is rapidly becoming a scientific domain where knowledge from many different fields is required. These proceedings bring together papers from geotechnical and civil engineers, biologists, ecologists and foresters, who discuss current problems in slope stability research, and how to address those problems using ground bio- and eco-engineering techniques.
Earth Structures : In Transport, Water and Environmental Engineering
This book describes the principles of working with soil as a construction material, including two basic ways of treating it: geosynthetics and stabilization. The book discusses the design logic and ways to control Earth Structures, which differ significantly from other construction materials. Building with Earth involves greater uncertainty and risk, which means that there is a need for better design detailing and improvement in the quality of financial calculations. The general part of the book gives a detailed description of the principles of limit states according to Eurocode 7, after which geotechnical design is also described. Subsequent chapters concentrate on earth structures for transport, water, and environmental projects. The chapter on Earth Structures in transport engineering presents detailed coverage of limit states of stability and deformation. Earth Structures in water engineering prioritizes the limit state of internal erosion. Earth Structures in environmental engineering describes new designs, in which part of the structure is created from non-standard materials which are usually susceptible to internal collapse, double porosity, unsaturation, etc. It also focuses on protecting the surrounding environment from contamination.
Early Nutrition and its Later Consequences : New Opportunities; Perinatal Programming of Adult Health - EC Supported Research
Health problems such as hypertension, tendency to diabetes, obesity, blood lipids, vascular disease, bone health, behaviour and learning and longevity may be ‘imprinted’ during early life. This process is defined as ‘programming’ whereby a nutritional stimulus operating at a critical, sensitive period of pre and postnatal life imprints permanent effects on the structure, physiology and metabolism. For this reason, academics and industry set-up the EC supported Scientific Workshop -Early Nutrition and its Later Consequences: New Opportunities. The prime objective of the Workshop was to generate a sound exchange of the latest scientific developments within the field of early nutrition to look for opportunities for new preventive health concepts. Further, a closer look was taken at the development of food applications which could provide (future) mothers and infants with improved nutrition that will ultimately lead to better future health. The Workshop was organised by the Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Munich, Germany in collaboration with the Danone Institutes and the Infant Nutrition Cluster, a collaboration of three large research projects funded by the EU.
Early Aspects: Current Challenges and Future Directions ; 10th International Workshop, Vancouver, Canada, March 13, 2007, Revised Selected Papers
Traditionally, aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) has focused on the implementation phase of the software lifecycle: aspects are identified and captured mainly in code. Therefore, most current AOSD approaches place the burden for aspect identification and management on the programmer working at low levels of abstraction. However, aspects are often present well before the implementation phase, such as in domain models, requirements and software architecture. Identification and capture of these early aspects ensure that aspects related to the problem domain (as opposed to merely the implementation) will be appropriately captured, reasoned about and available. This offers improved opportunities for early recognition and negotiation of trade-offs and allows forward and backward aspect traceability. This makes requirements, architecture, and implementation more seamless, and allows a more systematic application of aspects.
Dynamical Contact Problems with Friction : Models, Methods, Experiments and Applications
The aim of this book is to describe an efficient procedure to model dynamical contact problems with friction. This procedure is applied to different practical problems and verified by experiments. Friction contacts are used to transmit forces or to dissipate energy. Examples for dynamical engineering systems with friction are brakes, machine tools, motors, turbines, bearings or wheel-rail systems. A better understanding of friction phenomena result in improvements like the reduction of noise and maintenance costs, increased life time of machines and improved energy efficiency. Dependent on the features of the dynamic system with friction contacts, different contact models and solution methods like multi-scaling methods are developed and applied.
Durability of reinforced concrete structures
Reinforced concrete structures corrode as they age, with significant financial implications, but it is not immediately clear why some are more durable than others. This book looks at the mechanisms for corrosion and how corrosion engineering can be used for these problems to be minimized in future projects. Several different examples of reinforced concrete structures with corrosion problems are described and the various life enhancement solutions considered and applied are discussed. The book includes a chapter on the effectiveness of corrosion monitoring techniques and questions why the reality is at odds with current theory and standards.
Drugs Easily Explained
Provides an overview of the most common diseases and the drugs used to treat them. The book is designed for a general audience. It provides patients with essential information about how medications work and what side effects and interactions to expect. Finally, the book gives patients advice on what they can do themselves to improve drug therapy and safety. Summaries, bullet points, tables and diagrams support the information process.
Drug development and approval process
Drug discovery is the process of identifying and characterizing molecules with the potential to safely modulate disease, with a goal to bring medicines that can improve the lives of patients. It is a lengthy and resource intensive process, that requires close cooperation across multiple disciplines. Optimizing the process of drug discovery is of great interest to the pharmaceutical industry, as the efficient identification and selection of suitable drug candidates can have a dramatic impact on the cost and profitability of new medicines.
Drug delivery technology : Herbal bioenhancers in pharmaceuticals
Bioenhancers have been used in Ayurveda historically and are now being investigated for their pharmacological effi cacy. Herbal bioenhancers work on the gastrointestinal tract to improve absorption and drug bioavailability by acting on the drug metabolic process. Many herbal drugs show low activity due to their poor lipid solubility or improper molecular size. Piperine, gingerol, naringin, quercetin, niaziridin, glycyrrhizin, allicin, curcumin, genistein and others are able to enhance the bioavailability of active pharmaceuticals. This book details various facets of herbal bio-enhancers in a single comprehensive text.
Drug Absorption Studies : In Situ, In Vitro and In Silico Models
In the last 15 years, a great number of cell- or tissue-based in vitro models have been introduced into the biopharmaceutics arena. These models mimic the different biological barriers that a drug has to overcome to finally reach its target organ/cell/receptor. These in vitro models have been found very useful in not only characterising the permeability behaviour of drugs molecules in epithelial and endothelial tissues, but also studying drug delivery systems for improved delivery and enhanced absorption. Compared to the complex in vivo situation, in vitro models offer a fast, convenient approach with cost advantages most of times. Most importantly, they can be standardised and automatised to be applicable to the high-throughput screening. Starting at the molecular level of studies, continuing with cell monolayer models (both primary and cell lines) and in situ techniques as a final testing format, the book provides a practical approach to contemporary in vitro techniques for drug absorption studies. In addition, chapters on high-throughput assays, in vitro-in vivo correlation, bioinformatics and regulatory issues are covered, giving a comprehensive overview of available models and techniques. Moreover, an appendix comprised with a number of practical protocols is available online, updated as needed, should prove very helpful to apply the techniques directly to the benchside.
DNA computing ; Vol. 3384 10th International workshop on DNA computing, DNA10, Milan, Italy, June 7-10, 2004, Revised Selected Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed postproceedings of the 10th International Workshop on DNA Based Computers, DNA10, held in Milano, Italy in June 2004. The 39 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement from an initial total of 94 submissions. The papers address all current issues in DNA based computing and biomolecular computing ranging from theoretical and methodological issues to implementations and experimental aspects.
Distributed and parallel computing ; 6th International conference on algorithms and architectures for parallel processing, ICA3PP, Melbourne, Australia, October 2-3, 2005, Proceedings
There are many applications that require parallel and distributed processing to allow complicated engineering, business and research problems to be solved in a reasonable time. Parallel and distributed processing is able to improve company profit, lower costs of design, production, and deployment of new technologies, and create better business environments. The major lesson learned by car and aircraft engineers, drug manufacturers, genome researchers and other specialist is that a computer system is a very powerful tool that is able to help them solving even more complicated problems. That has led computing specialists to new computer system architecture and exploiting parallel computers, clusters of clusters, and distributed systems in the form of grids.
Disrupting Finance : FinTech and Strategy in the 21st Century
This Pivot demonstrates how a variety of technologies act as innovation catalysts within the banking and financial services sector. Traditional banks and financial services are under increasing competition from global IT companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon and PayPal whilst facing pressure from investors to reduce costs, increase agility and improve customer retention. Technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, mobile technologies, big data analytics and social media therefore have perhaps more potential in this industry and area of business than any other. This book defines a fintech ecosystem for the 21st century, providing a state-of-the art review of current literature, suggesting avenues for new research and offering perspectives from business, technology and industry.
Discrete and computational geometry; Japanese Conference, JCDCG 2004, Tokyo, Japan, October 8-11, 2004
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the Japanese Conference on Discrete Computational Geometry, JCDCG 2004, held in Tokyo, Japan in October 2004, to honor Janos Pach on his fiftieth year. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement from over 60 talks at the conference. All current issues in discrete algorithmic geometry are addressed.
Digital watermarking ; Vol. 3304 ; 3rd International Workshop, IWDW 2004, Seoul, Korea, October 30 - November 1, 2004, revised selected papers
We are happy to present to you the proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Digital Watermarking, IWDW 2004. Since its modern reappearance in the academic community in the early 1990s, great progress has been made in understanding both the capabilities and the weaknesses of digital watermarking. On the theoretical side, we all are now well aware of the fact that digital watermarking is best viewed as a form of communication using side information. In the case of digital watermarking the side information in question is the document to be watermarked. This insight has led to a better understanding of the limits of the capacity and robustness of digital watermarking algorithms. It has also led to new and improved watermarking algorithms, both in terms of capacity and imperceptibility. Similarly, the role of human perception, and models thereof, has been greatly enhanced in the study and design of digital watermarking algorithms and systems. On the practical side, applications of watermarking are not yet abundant. The original euphoria on the role of digital watermarking in copy protection and copyright protection has not resulted in widespread use in practical systems. With hindsight, a number of reasons can be given for this lack of practical applications.
Digital Removable Partial Denture Technology : From Design Analysis to Practical Skills
Introduces esthetic clasp as an innovative method that improves the appearance of clasps by changing the clasp design. It details the concept of esthetic clasp, the classification of esthetic clasp design methods, the clinical pathway of esthetic clasp techniques, many selected cases, and the logos of different kinds of esthetic clasps.
Digital Phase Lock Loops : Architectures and Applications
This exciting new book covers various types of digital phase lock loops. It presents a comprehensive coverage of a new class of digital phase lock loops called the time delay tanlock loop (TDTL). It also details a number of architectures that improve the performance of the TDTL through adaptive techniques that overcome the conflicting requirements of the locking rage and speed of acquisition. These requirements are of paramount importance in many applications including wireless communications, consumer electronics and others. Digital Phase Lock Loops then illustrates the process of converting the TDTL class of digital phase lock loops for implementation on an FPGA-based reconfigurable system. These devices are being utilized in software-defined radio, DSP-based designs and many other communication and electronic systems to implement complex high-speed algorithms.
Digital Marketing Outreach : The Future of Marketing Practices
Looks at diverse areas of business and non-business activities involving the use of digital platforms to augment marketing initiatives and improve reach, sales, and social media engagement. The volume analyses various themes including viral marketing, influencer marketing, webrooming behaviour, online impulse buying, telemedicine, social media advertising, and app-based cab services. It examines the role of digital marketing in creating a positive and favourable brand image for organizations by advertising their social responsiveness on social media and studies the influence of political brand value on social media activities.
Digital Government : E-Government Research, Case Studies, and Implementation
New information technologies are being applied swiftly to all levels of government service: local, county, regional and even national and international. Information technology (IT) is being used to improve data management and data sharing, planning and decision support, service delivery, and more. Application areas affected by government mandates to improve e-government service include healthcare and safety; law enforcement, security, and justice; education; land use; and many others. Information technology is being used to increase public access to information, to provide more convenient and timely transaction services, and to increase citizen participation in the establishment of government regulations and other processes. DIGITAL GOVERNMENT: E-Government Research, Case Studies, and Implementation provides the field with a definitive, interdisciplinary, and understandable review of recent IT and related research of particular importance to digital government. The book also includes explorations of current and future policy implications, and case studies of successful applications in a variety of government settings.
