Online Communities and Social Computing ; 2nd International Conference, OCSC 2007, Held as Part of HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 22-27, 2007, Proceedings
The 12th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI Inter- tional 2007, was held in Beijing, P.R. China, 22-27 July 2007. This volume, edited by Douglas Schuler, contains papers in the thematic area of Online Communities and Social Computing, addressing the following major topics: • Designing and Developing On-line Communities • Knowledge, Collaboration, Learning and Local On-line Communities
Nutrient Acquisition by Plants : An Ecological Perspective
Adaptation and evolution of terrestrial plants depend, to a large extent, on their ability to acquire nutrients. This is a modern and integrative treatment of the mechanisms controlling plant nutrient uptake and how plants respond to changes in the environment. The following key topics are covered: soil nutrient bioavailability; root responses to variations in nutrient supply; nitrogen fixation; regulation of nutrient uptake by internal plant demand; root characteristics; kinetics of nutrient uptake; root architecture; life span; mycorrhizae; responses to climate change. This integrated view helps us to understand the mechanisms that govern present-day plant communities and is indispensable in models designed to predict the response of plants to a changing climate.
Nucleation and Atmospheric Aerosols ; 17th International Conference, Galway, Ireland, 2007
Atmospheric particles are ubiquitous in the atmosphere: they form the seeds for cloud droplets and they form haze layers, blocking out incoming radiation and contributing to a partial cooling of our climate. They also contribute to poor air quality and health impacts. This book brings together the leading experts from the nucleation and atmospheric aerosols research communities to present the current state-of-the-art knowledge in these related fields.
New perspectives in critical data studies: the ambivalences of data power
Examines the ambivalences of data power. Firstly, the ambivalences between global infrastructures and local invisibilities challenge the grand narrative of the ephemeral nature of a global data infrastructure. They make visible local working and living conditions, and the resources and arrangements required to operate and run them. Secondly, the book examines ambivalences between the state and data justice. It considers data justice in relation to state surveillance and data capitalism, and reflects on the ambivalences between an “entrepreneurial state” and a “welfare state”. Thirdly, the authors discuss ambivalences of everyday practices and collective action, in which civil society groups, communities, and movements try to position the interests of people against the “big players” in the tech industry.
New Horizons for Asian Museums and Museology
This book presents up-to-date information about museums and museology in present-day Asia, focusing on Japan, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Asian countries today have developed or are developing their own museology and museums, which are not simple copies of European or North American models. This book provides readers with carefully chosen examples of museum activities—for example, exhibition and sharing information, database construction, access to and conservation of museum collections, relationships between museums and local communities, and international cooperation in the field of cultural heritage.
Networked Neighbourhoods : The Connected Community in Context
The setting for this book is the networked community. The treatment of the subject matter is broad and interdisciplinary, with contributions from computer science, sociology, design, human factors and communication technology. The chapter contributors, drawn from across Europe and North America, offer a varied prospectus of commentary, critique, sociological enquiry, technological development and research findings, which provides a rounded account of the progressive intermingling of social and electronic networks.
Multiple Classifier Systems ; 7th International Workshop, MCS 2007, Prague, Czech Republic, May 23-25, 2007, Proceedings
These proceedings are a record of the Multiple Classifier Systems Workshop, MCS 2007, held at the Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague in May 2007. the workshop achieved its objective of bringing together researchers from diverse communities (neural networks, pattern rec- nition, machine learning and statistics) concerned with this research topic.
Multi-Agent-Based Simulation VIII ; International Workshop, MABS 2007, Honolulu, HI, USA, May 15, 2007, Revised and Invited Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2007, held in Honolulu, HI, USA in May 2007 as an associated event of AAMAS 2007, the main international conference on autonomous agents and multi-agent systems.The 10 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 20 submissions.The papers are organized in topical sections on architectures; teams, learning, education; economy, trust and reputation.
Multi-Agent-Based Simulation VII ; International Workshop, MABS 2006, Hakodate, Japan, May 8, 2006, Revised and Invited Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2006. The 12 revised full papers presented together with three short papers and two invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 25 submissions during two rounds of reviewing.
Multi-Agent-Based Simulation VI ; International Workshop, MABS 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005, Revised and Invited Papers
This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Multi-Agent-Based Simulation, MABS 2005, held in Utrecht, The Netherlands in July 2005 as an associated event of AAMAS 2005, the main international conference on autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. The 12 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited talk were carefully reviewed. The papers are organized in topical sections on coalition emergence, theories and models, applications, and environments.
Molecular Mechanisms of Plant and Microbe Coexistence
Molecular Mechanisms of Plant and Microbe Coexistence presents studies on the complex and manifold interactions of plants and microbes at the population, genomics and proteomics level. The role of soil microbial diversity in enhancing plant health and plant microbe beneficial symbioses is discussed. Microbial communities are shown in the light of evolution. Main topics include genome coexistence and the functional genomics and proteomics of plant-associated microbes, which could form the basis for new environmentally benign strategies to combat infectious plant diseases and regulate plant growth. Further chapters focus on the role of signaling during the different stages of plant microbe coexistence, in symbiotic or pathogenic relationships, in quorum sensing and plant viral infections. Methods for studying the interactions in the root zone complement the book, which will certainly be of relevance in the practical application to agriculture, food security and for maintaining the balance of our ecosystems.
Modelling community structure in freshwater ecosystems
"The book presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. Such an approach will make it possible to: 1) set up procedures for robust and sensitive ecosystem evaluation, based on the prediction of the excepted community structure; 2) model community structure in disturbed ecosystems, taking into account all the relevant ecological variables; 3) test ecosystem sensitivity to natural and anthropic disturbance; and 4) explore specific actions to be taken for the restoration of ecosystem integrity."--Jacket.
Modeling of Biological Materials
This interdisciplinary collection of surveys highlights the central role played by the mathematical modeling of mechanical properties having an effect on the biology, chemistry, and physics of living matter. One of the main goals of the book is to present—in a single, self-contained resource—topics that are widely scattered across the literature in a variety of journals having mutually nonintersecting communities of readers, such as applied mathematicians, engineers, biologists, and physicians. Readers coming from diverse backgrounds are provided with basic modeling ideas and tools to address important problems in the medical and health sciences. Presented are appropriate models as well as their implementation through numerical and computer simulations, which may lead to potential technological innovations useful in medicine.
Mixed Finite Elements, Compatibility Conditions, and Applications : Lectures given at the C.I.M.E. Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy June 26–July 1, 2006
Since the early 70's, mixed finite elements have been the object of a wide and deep study by the mathematical and engineering communities. The fundamental role of this method for many application fields has been worldwide recognized and its use has been introduced in several commercial codes. An important feature of mixed finite elements is the interplay between theory and application. Discretization spaces for mixed schemes require suitable compatibilities, so that simple minded approximations generally do not work and the design of appropriate stabilizations gives rise to challenging mathematical problems.
Microbial Activity in the Rhizosphere
The rhizosphere is a very complex environment in which the effects of the plant on soil microorganisms and the effects of the microorganisms on the plant are interacting and are interdependent. Plant root exudates and breakdown products attract microbes and feed them and, in turn, the plants often benefit from the microbes. Interactions among microorganisms and plant roots are essential for nutritional requirements of the plant. Plant growth, development and productivity are largely dependent on the soil environment in the root region rhizosphere. The new techniques of studying the rhizosphere enables us to get a much better understanding of the dynamics of the rhizosphere population, such rhizosphere studies being of interest to agriculturists, soilbiologists, chemists, microbiologists and molecular biologists. The rhizosphere microbes in?uence the root environment in several ways. They may change the oxidation-reduction potential, influence the availability of moisture and nutrients, produce growth inhibiting or growth promoting substances in the form of exudates, provide competition and possibly induce many other effects. My corrhizal associations are beneficial in mineral uptake and in increasing root surface area for effective ion absorption. Antagonism, ompetition and synergism in soil and the rhizoplane (rhizosphere) are the most important microbial interactions to consider in the study of rhizosphere biology. With the growing information on the production of growth regulators, competitiveness of the microbes in the rhizosphere, microsymbionts, and other factors, their effect upon plant growth will become more evident. Experiments on the introduction of microbes or their products in the rhizosphere will help to improve our understandingofthebiologyoftherhizosphere.
Mediterranean Island Landscapes : Natural and Cultural Approaches
Mediterranean islands exhibit many similarities in their biotic ecological, physical and environmental characteristics. There are also many differences in terms of their human colonization and current anthropogenic pressures. This book addresses in three sections these characteristics and examines the major environmental changes that the islands experienced during the Quaternary period. The first section provides details on natural and cultural factors which have shaped island landscapes. It describes the environmental and cultural changes of the Holocene and their effects on biota, as well as on the current human pressures that are now threats to the sustainability of the island communities. The second section focuses on the landscapes of the largest islands namely Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Cyprus, Crete, Malta and the Balearics. Each island chapter includes a special topic reflecting a particular characteristic of the island. Part three presents strategies for action towards sustainability in Mediterranean islands and concludes with a comparison between the largest islands.
Invasive forest insects, introduced forest trees, and altered ecosystems : Ecological pest management in global forests of a changing world
Demand for timber and fibre continues to grow and is being met by increased reliance on plantation forestry. Many of the plantations that are being grown around the globe are non-native species that have characteristics of rapid growth and good commercial qualities. In some cases, the high rates of production are a result of the absence of native herbivore and diseases. This limited pest status is threatened as pest species move around the globe. At the same time there is concern about threats of these non-native plantation species on native communities and the impact of changing climates on forest productivity. This volume explores many of these issues for the first time.
Introduction to development engineering
Introduces the emerging field of development engineering and its constituent theories, methods, and applications. It is both an instructional text for students and a resource for researchers and practitioners involved in the design and scaling of technologies for low-resource communities. The scope is broad, ranging from the development of mobile applications for low-literacy users to hardware and software solutions for providing electricity and water in remote environments. It is also highly interdisciplinary, drawing on methods and theories from the social sciences as well as engineering and the natural sciences.
Interval / Probabilistic Uncertainty and Non-Classical Logics
Contains proceedings of the first international workshop that brought together researchers working on interval and probabilistic uncertainty and on non-classical logics. We hope that this workshop will lead to a boost in the much-needed collaboration between the uncertainty analysis and non-classical logic communities, and thus, to better processing of uncertainty.
Internet and Network Economics ; Vol. 4286 ; 2nd International Workshop, WINE 2006, Patras, Greece, December 15-17, 2006, Proceedings
Constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Internet and Network Economics, WINE 2006, held in Patras, Greece in December 2006. The 32 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 79 submissions. The papers contain foundational and mathematical work from theories, methodologies, and applications in computer science, economics, mathematics, and management sciences for solving problems arisen in internet technologies, grid computing, network communication protocols, as well as social economic issues in virtual communities enabled through the World Wide Web.



















