الصفحة 33
الصفحة 33
Environmental Policy Instruments for Conserving Global Biodiversity
If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. —Mark 9:23 The current, unprecedented loss of global biodiversity as a result of anthropo genic interference in the world's ecosystems is affecting human well-being across the globe with increasing severity. It therefore represents a major chal lenge in international environmental policymaking. With the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the community of states has recognized the in creasing importance of preserving biodiversity. Given the extensive context of biodiversity loss and preservation, this study focuses on two issues, which are at the center of the public discussion regarding the objectives of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity, and that are addressed by specific policy instruments. The first issue is the regulation of cross-border trade in genetic information and genetic resources. Here, the question is whether the commercial use of genetic information derived from bio diversity can create incentives for its preservation. The second issue involves the conservation of biodiversity through the protection of ecologically valuable eco systems from human use.
Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean
This book is a non-technical interdisciplinary collection of 12 essays, each of which uses natural or social science methods. The essays analyze a representative set of environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. They consider problems at international, regional, national, and local levels and examine current and historical environmental policy. The essays are organized according to theme and approach into five parts: -conservation challenges; -national policies, local communities, and rural development; -market mechanisms for protecting public goods; -public participation and environmental justice; -the effects of development policies on the environment. Contributors are researchers from Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the United States
Environmental health impacts of transport and mobility
Transport and mobility are essential parts of the current organization of society. Complex activities are interwoven in such a way that problems occurring from the actual process of constant movement cannot be separated, as they are so tightly interconnected. This book examines the health effects of transport and mobility by addressing the major issues related to the subject and analyzing their consequences. Thus not only are air pollution, noise, and sedentarism and its related endocrine problems discussed, but topics such as jet-lag, accidents and violent displacement are also addressed. The strength of this book over others in the field lies in its multidisciplinary approach to the issues by a number of experts in different scientific fields who are documenting the health effects of transport and mobility. Moreover, it enhances the understanding of the issues by integrating information from different geographical regions.
Environmental Crises
This book studies the art and science of analyzing, assessing and anticipating environmental change. Among the issues considered are the observational evidence, statistical analysis and dynamic modeling as well as visioning of not-implausible changes in the environment, the changing public perception of the environment, functions of the environment and its use. Coverage also reviews a series of four prominent cases, namely climate change, the emissions of gasoline lead into the atmosphere and water bodies, fisheries policies and the management of marine oil pollution.
Environmental Chemistry : Green Chemistry and Pollutants in Ecosystems
Environmental chemistry is a new, fast developing science aimed at deciphering fundamental mechanisms ruling the behaviour of pollutants in ecosystems. Applying this knowledge to current environmental issues leads to the remediation of environmental media, and to new, low energy, low emission, sustainable processes. This book describes the state-of-the-art advances regarding the pollution of water, soils, atmosphere, food and living organisms by toxic metals, fossil fuels, pesticides and other organic pollutants. Furthermore, the eco-toxicology section presents novel bio-assays to assess the toxicity of various pollutants such as dioxins and endocrine disrupters within complex media. The green chemistry section highlights novel chemical reactions based upon environmentally friendly conditions. The analytical chemistry section describes very sensitive methods which trace the fate of pollutants in complex ecosystems.
Environmental change and human security : Recognizing and acting on hazard impacts
This book focuses on the linkage between human and environmental security and takes both a conceptual and a pragmatic approach to complex environmental issues (such as soil erosion, desertification, water degradation, demographic shifts, food security and agricultural prospects, urbanization trends, hazard-induced migrations) that affect human security. The book is the direct outcome of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), sponsored by the Science for Peace and Security Programme (SPS), Salve Regina University, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The book summarizes the collective work of both natural and social science disciplines in regard to how best address, mitigate, adapt, or achieve resilience
Environment Learning for Indoor Mobile Robots : A Stochastic State Estimation Approach to Simultaneous Localization and Map Building
This monograph covers theoretical aspects of simultaneous localization and map building for mobile robots, such as estimation stability, nonlinear models for the propagation of uncertainties, temporal landmark compatibility, as well as issues pertaining the coupling of control and SLAM. One of the most relevant topics covered in this monograph is the theoretical formalism of partial observability in SLAM. The authors show that the typical approach to SLAM using a Kalman filter results in marginal filter stability, making the final reconstruction estimates dependant on the initial vehicle estimates. However, by anchoring the map to a fixed landmark in the scene, they are able to attain full observability in SLAM, with reduced covariance estimates.
Entry Inhibitors in HIV Therapy
The introductory chapters of this book present an overview of entry inhibitors, review current knowledge of how Env mediates entry, and discuss the challenge of genetic diversity in this region of the viral genome. Subsequent chapters feature current information on individual classes of entry inhibitors that target each step of the virus entry pathway, from attachment to membrane fusion. There is an emphasis on the complex determinants of entry inhibitor susceptibility, resistance mechanisms, the need for clinical phenotyping, and how these issues create new challenges for antiretroviral therapy. Encouraging pre-clinical studies of entry inhibitors as microbicidesare also discussed. The final chapters highlight the current status of entry inhibitors in clinical studies, the major milestone achieved with FDA approval of enfuvirtide, and review drug development, past and present.
Entrepreneurship in the Region
The articles in this book provide strong evidence for the importance of regional factors that shape entrepreneurship and new firm formation processes. It is shown that regional differences of start-up rates and entrepreneurial attitudes are not at all elusive but tend to be rather persistent and prevail over longer periods of time. The evidence clearly suggests that the regional level can be an appropriate starting point for entrepreneurship policy and that research on the issue may considerably benefit from properly accounting for the spatial dimension.
Entrepreneurship : Concepts, Theory and Perspective
Entrepreneurship can, at times, seem like a veritable jungle where finding one's way can prove to be difficult. This book functions as a map locating the most important issues: those where an acceptable consensus already exists, and those that remain open to discussion.
Entity-Oriented Search
This open access book covers all facets of entity-oriented search—where “search” can be interpreted in the broadest sense of information access—from a unified point of view, and provides a coherent and comprehensive overview of the state of the art. It represents the first synthesis of research in this broad and rapidly developing area. Selected topics are discussed in-depth, the goal being to establish fundamental techniques and methods as a basis for future research and development. Additional topics are treated at a survey level only, containing numerous pointers to the relevant literature. A roadmap for future research, based on open issues and challenges identified along the way, rounds out the book.
Enterprising worlds : A geographic perspective on economics, environments & ethics
Enterprising World represents the culmination of several years of work by geographers, planners, and economists. The chapters included in this volume represent the collective efforts of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. This collection is the result of the 2005 annual meeting in Toledo, Ohio (USA). The chapters have been selected based on their contribution to the broader community of economic geographers and policymakers and to demonstrate the inherent interconnectedness of these themes (and at times the conceptual tension that exists between ethics, economics, and the environment) insofar as these important issues shape the contours and cleavages of contemporary regional development.
Enterprise ontology : Theory and methodology
Such a theory and a matching methodology, which has passed the test of practical experience, constitute the contents of this book. The enterprise ontology, as developed by Dietz, is the starting point for profoundly understanding the organization of an enterprise and subsequently for analyzing, (re)designing, and (re)engineering it. The approach covers numerous issues in an integrated way: business processes, in- and outsourcing, information systems, management control, staffing etc.
Enterprise interoperability II : New challenges and approaches
Interoperability: the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort from the user is a key issue in manufacturing and industrial enterprise generally. It is fundamental to the production of goods and services quickly and at low cost at the same time as maintaining levels of quality and customisation. Interoperability is achieved if internal and external collaborators can interact on at least three levels: data, applications and business enterprise (through the architecture of an enterprise model and making allowance for the semantics of both partners). Not only a problem of software and IT technologies, it implies support for communication and transactions between different organisations that must be based on shared business references. Today, a new and important consideration must be taken into account – economic business evaluation and the definition of dissemination policy.
Enterprise interoperability : New challenges and approaches
Interoperability: the ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without special effort from the user is a key issue in manufacturing and industrial enterprise generally. It is fundamental to the production of goods and services quickly and at low cost at the same time as maintaining levels of quality and customisation. Interoperability is achieved if internal and external collaborators can interact on at least three levels: data, applications and business enterprise (through the architecture of an enterprise model and making allowance for the semantics of both partners). Not only a problem of software and IT technologies, it implies support for communication and transactions between different organisations that must be based on shared business references. Today, a new and important consideration must be taken into account – economic business evaluation and the definition of dissemination policy.
Enterprise architecture at work : Modelling, communication and analysis
n enterprise architecture tries to describe and control an organisation’s structure, processes, applications, systems and techniques in an integrated way. The unambiguous specification and description of components and their relationships in such an architecture requires a coherent architecture modelling language.Since an architecture model is useful not only for providing insight into the current or future situation but can also be used to evaluate the transition from ‘as-is’ to ‘to-be’, the authors also describe analysis methods for assessing both the qualitative impact of changes to an architecture and the quantitative aspects of architectures, such as performance and cost issues. The modelling language and the other techniques presented have been proven in practice in many real-life case studies. So this book is an ideal companion for enterprise IT or business architects in industry as well as for computer or management science students studying the field of enterprise architecture.
Enhancing urban environment by environmental upgrading and restoration ; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on enhancing urban environment : environmental upgrading of municipal pollution control facilities and restoration of urban waters, Rome, Italy from 6 - 9 November 2003.
As urban areas keep growing, water infrastructure ages, and the requirements on environmental protection become more rigorous, there is a continual need for upgrading water pollution control facilities and restoring degraded urban waters. Such issues are addressed in this book by focusing on five major topics: (a) Upgrading stormwater management facilities, (b) Retrofitting / upgrading combined sewer overflow (CSO) facilities, (c) Optimising/upgrading sewage treatment plant performance, (d) Urban stream restoration, and (e) Challenges in restoring urban environment. Each chapter contains some overview papers followed by research or case study papers. Besides presentations of new approaches and accomplishments in the field of upgrading and restoration, several papers provide analysis of vast needs in this field in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which either recently joined the European Union (EU) or are preparing for accession, and need to comply with the existing EU directives dealing with environmental protection. As such, this book will be of primary interest to researchers and university lecturers dealing with environmental upgrading and restoration, environmental planners from all levels of government, municipal engineers and politicians, and finally the private industry representatives (consultants, private utilities and environmental technology suppliers) searching for new business opportunities among the new or aspiring members of EU.
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment : Deriving an Appropriate Model
Provides a practical guide on the effective use of assessment. It includes the use of assessment tools and pedagogical design that help students deepen their learning. Major issues on assessment and some excellent examples are presented as a useful resource to university teachers in enhancing teaching and students' learning. It will also be found useful by teachers when implementing various assessment methods. School administrators and teaching development professionals will find the book useful when making decisions related to learning and teaching issues in their institutions.
Engineering Stochastic Local Search Algorithms. Designing, Implementing and Analyzing Effective Heuristics ; International Workshop, SLS 2007, Brussels, Belgium, September 6-8, 2007, Proceedings
Stochastic local search (SLS) algorithms enjoy great popularity as powerful and versatile tools for tackling computationally hard decision and optimization pr- lems from many areas of computer science, operations research, and engineering. However, in recent years it has become evident that at the core of this development task there is a highly complex engineering process, which combines various aspects of algorithm design with empirical analysis techniques and problem-specific background, and which relies heavily on knowledge from a number of disciplines and areas, including computer science, operations research, artificial intelligence, and statistics. This development process needs to be - sisted by a sound methodology that addresses the issues arising in the various phases of algorithm design, implementation, tuning, and experimental eval- tion.
Engineering societies in the agents world V : 5th international workshop, ESAW 2004, Toulouse, France, October 20-22, 2004 : revised selected and invited papers
The ?rst workshop “Engineering Societies in the Agents World” (ESAW) was held in August 2000, in conjunction with the 14th European Conference on Arti?cial Intelligence (ECAI 2000) in Berlin. It was launched by a group of - searchers who thought that the design and development of MASs (multi-agent systems) not only needed adequate theoretical foundations but also a call for new techniques, methodologies and infrastructures to develop MASs as arti?cial societies. The second ESAW was co-located with the European Agent Summer School (ACAI 2001) in Prague, and mostly focused on logics and languages, middleware, infrastructures and applications. In Madrid, the third ESAW c- centrated on models and methodologies and took place with the “Cooperative Information Agents” workshop (CIA 2002). The fourth ESAW in London was the ?rst one that ran as a stand-alone event: apart from the usual works on methodologies and models, it also stressed the issues of applications and m- tidisciplinary models. Based on the success of previous ESAWs, and also given that the di?cult challenges in the construction of arti?cial societies are not yet fully addressed, the ?fth ESAW workshop was organized in the same spirit as its predecessors.
