This book examines the role, history and function of public libraries in contemporary societies as motors that drive development. It analyses through case studies, how contemporary libraries have been redesigned to offer a new kind of public space while also reshaping neglected areas in cities. Broadly understood the book seeks to comprehend contemporary library design, urban development and th…
Molluscs comprise the second largest phylum of animals (after arthropods), occurring in virtually all habitats. Some are commercially important, a few are pests and some carry diseases, while many non-marine molluscs are threatened by human impacts which have resulted in more extinctions than all tetrapod vertebrates combined. This book and its companion volume provide the first comprehensive a…
This book summarizes unique research findings on the hydrodynamic behavior of ice particles (ice crystals, snow, graupel and hailstones) in the atmosphere. The fall behavior of ice hydrometeors determines how and how fast a mixed-phase cloud can grow or dissipate. The book discusses how the authors used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods and numerical simulations to determine these beha…
This book offers an exercise in theoretical planetology, presenting five different scenarios to assess the evolution of habitable conditions on Mars to assess planetary terraforming potential and to give insight into the ongoing search for habitable exoplanets. Four of the scenarios involve Martian satellite capture models, in which gravitational capture via tidal deformation and energy dissipa…
This book is dedicated to the atmosphere of our planet, and discusses historical and contemporary achievements in meteorological science and technology for the betterment of society. The book explores many significant atmospheric phenomena and physical processes from the local to global scale, as well as from the perspective of short and long-term time scales, and links these processes to vario…
This book is mainly focused on the climate change in Southeast Asia and its adjacent regions. It summarizes results from recent scientific research based on observational analysis, data diagnosis, theoretical analysis, and model simulations. The book covers the following research areas: (1) characteristics and mechanisms of spring–summer atmospheric circulation systems, (2) ocean-atmosphere-l…
This book systematically describes the instrument setup for the measurement of nitrate radical (NO3) and dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5), as well as the mixing ratio, chemical behaviors, and atmospheric impacts of NO3 and N2O5 in Beijing, China. It also discusses the instrument design and data analysis method in detail. Based on several field measurements of NO3 and N2O5 in Beijing, it shows the va…
This book discusses how to use the wastewaters, liquid biowastes and soils unfit for agriculture to economically viable aquaculture practices; and putting the emphasis on, aquaculture posology, the science of quantification and administration of doses in aquatic health and aquaculture management. Broadly, aquaculture practices come across three types of problems each; in the context of water qu…
The sustainable development of the agriculture sector is the only option to meet the demands of increased and economically viable production in a changing climate. This means there is a need to introduce the latest technologies to enhance production, and also help policymakers make decisions for the future. Geospatial technologies & tools, such as remote sensing, geographical information system…
This book explains in an easy-to-understand manner the “check” points to keep in mind when inspecting various social infrastructure structures. It is put together in a way that not only engineers who are on the front line of maintenance and management but also engineers who are not normally involved in maintenance and management of social infrastructures as well as general public can unders…
This book demonstrates the measurement, monitoring, mapping, and modeling of forest resources. It explores state-of-the-art techniques based on open-source software & R statistical programming and modeling specifically, with a focus on the recent trends in data mining/machine learning techniques and robust modeling in forest resources. Discusses major topics such as forest health assessment, e…
Energy is a key world issue in the context of climate change and increasing population, 'calling for alternative fuels, better energy storage, and energy-saving devices. This books reviews the principles and applications of metals and metal oxides for energy, with focus on batteries, electrodes, nanomaterials, electronics, supercapacitors, biofuels and sensors.
This book discusses Nevada in the context of the history of soil investigations; soil-forming factors; general soil regions; soil geomorphology; taxonomic structure of the soils; taxonomic soil regions; soil-forming processes; benchmark, endemic, rare, and endangered soils; and use of soils. With an average mean annual precipitation of 175 mm (7 in), Nevada is the driest state in the USA. Mo…
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of saline and alkaline soils in Latin America, known for having one of the most extensive surface of salt-affected soils in the world. It is organized along two main axes: soils and vegetation. The book discusses the occurrence of such soils in the region, focusing mainly in management strategies for their sustainable use, and it presents acco…
This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computational Structures, FOSSACS 2022, which was held during April 4-6, 2022, in Munich, Germany, as part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2022. The 23 regular papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and sele…
This contributed volume is primarily intended for graduate and professional audiences. The book provides a basic understanding of urban air quality issues, root causes for local and urban air pollution, monitoring and modelling techniques, assessment, and control options to manage air quality at local and urban scale. The book also offers useful information on indoor air quality and smart senso…
This book mainly focuses on the adaptive analysis of damage and fracture in rock, taking into account multiphysical fields coupling (thermal, hydro, mechanical, and chemical fields). This type of coupling is a crucial aspect in practical engineering for e.g. coal mining, oil and gas exploration, and civil engineering. However, understanding the influencing mechanisms and preventing the disaster…
The introduction of sports and recreational facilities into natural environments calls for reflection on their impact on fragile ecosystems. This book is unique in providing an interdisciplinary approach to the ecological restoration of urban and industrial degraded habitats and their use by nearby city-dwellers. For the first time ecologists, sociologists and anthropologists have worked togeth…
This book discusses various aspects of percolation mechanics. It starts with the driving forces and driving modes and then examines in detail the steady state percolation of single-phase incompressible fluids, percolation law of natural gas and percolation of non-Newtonian fluids. Progressing from simple to complex concepts, it also analyzes Darcy’s law, providing a basis for the study of res…
This book collects a series of review articles summarizing the outcomes of collaborative research projects on the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, two of the largest and most disastrous earthquakes in Asia in the last two decades. The articles cover a broad range of aspects,including these earthquakes’ fundamental mechanisms, kinematics, and the geological and geophys…
This book provides a broad overview of essential features of subsurface environmental modelling at the science-policy interface, offering insights into the potential challenges in the field of subsurface flow and transport, as well as the corresponding computational modelling and its impact on the area of policy- and decision-making. The book is divided into two parts: Part I presents models, m…
This book addresses the quantitative measurement of climate change vulnerability at the macro and micro-level and identifies household adaptation strategies to cope with the adverse effects of climate change. Focusing on five different agro-climatic regions of West Bengal: the hill region, foothill region, drought region, and coastal regions of Sunderban and Purba Midnapore, it presents researc…
This revised textbook motivates and illustrates the techniques of applied probability by applications in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS). The author presents information processing and communication systems that use algorithms based on probabilistic models and techniques, including web searches, digital links, speech recognition, GPS, route planning, recommendation systems, c…
Using recent research and case studies, this book offers an evidence-based insight into the embezzler’s mindset as they commit crimes that are costing nations, organisations and individuals increasingly more each year. This mindset is described in detail as the embezzler develops their motivation to steal from their employer, finds a method of stealing, assesses the risks, executes the theft,…
This textbook is intended to give an introduction to neuroscience for students and researchers with no biomedical background. Primarily written for psychologists, this volume is a digest giving a rapid but solid overview for people who want to inform themselves about the core fields and core concepts in neuroscience but don’t need so many anatomical or biochemical details given in “classica…
This book acts as an introductory guide to understanding and using the mapping sentence as a tool in social science and humanities research. The book fills the need for a concise text that simply instructs how and when to use a mapping sentence and provides practical examples. Mapping sentences are a major research component and tool of facet theory. The book begins by covering the background t…
This book aims to address the challenges of defining measurement in social sciences, presenting a conceptualization of the practice of measurement from the perspective of the pragmatic tradition in philosophy. The book reviews key questions regarding the scope and limits of measurement, emphasizing that if the trust that the public places on measures in the social sciences relies on their …
The sciences philosophy, psychology and neuroscience share the basis that all refer to the human being. Therefore, an interdisciplinary collaboration would be desirable. The exchange of criticism is an essential requirement for interdisciplinary collaboration. Criticism must be heard and – if possible – considered. Indeed, criticism can be valid or unwarranted. However, whether criticism is…