Environmental information systems (EIS) are concerned with the management of data about the soil, the water, the air, and the species in the world around us. This first textbook on the topic gives a conceptual framework for EIS by structuring the data flow into 4 phases: data capture, storage, analysis, and metadata management. This flow corresponds to a complex aggregation process gradually transforming the incoming raw data into concise documents suitable for high-level decision support. All relevant concepts are covered, including statistical classification, data fusion, uncertainty management, knowledge based systems, GIS, spatial databases, multidimensional access methods, object-oriented databases, simulation models, and Internet-based information management. Several case studies present EIS in practice.

- Presents the reasons behind the decisions taken by automated algorithms - Frames eXplainable AI as a bridge between computer scientists and physicians - Emphasizes transparency in data analysis within healthcare - Covers computer vision and deep learning in tandem - Creates space to discuss human-AI relationships in future healthcare

Reaction Mechanisms in Environmental Organic Chemistry classifies and organizes the reactions of environmentally important organic compounds using concepts and data drawn from traditional mechanistic and physical organic chemistry. It will help readers understand these reactions and their importance for the environmental fates or organic compounds of many types. The book has a molecular and mechanistic emphasis, and it is organized by reaction type. Organic molecules and their fates are examined in an ecosystem context. Their reactions are discussed in terms that organic chemists would use. The book will benefit organic chemists, environmental engineers, water treatment professionals, hazardous waste specialists, and biologists.
Although conceived as a comprehensive monograph, the book could also be used as a text or reference for environmental chemistry classes at the undergraduate or graduate level.

Elms occur, both naturally and cultivated, throughout much of the temperate world. Because of their high tolerance to extreme growing conditions and their widespread distribution, elms have been widely planted in cities, towns and rural areas throughout North America and northern Europe. As such, their current demise due to several pandemics of Dutch elm disease has spurred a huge body of research on breeding for disease resistance, conservation and systematics. The Elms: Breeding, Conservation and Disease Management provides the current state of knowledge in these areas and is an important reference work for pathologists, breeders, taxonomists, and arborists.

Surface Guided Radiation Therapy provides a comprehensive overview of optical surface image guidance systems for radiation therapy. It serves as an introductory teaching resource for students and trainees, and a valuable reference for medical physicists, physicians, radiation therapists, and administrators who wish to incorporate surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) into their clinical practice. This is the first book dedicated to the principles and practice of SGRT, featuring: Chapters authored by an internationally represented list of physicists, radiation oncologists and therapists, edited by pioneers and experts in SGRT Covering the evolution of localization systems and their role in quality and safety, current SGRT systems, practical guides to commissioning and quality assurance, clinical applications by anatomic site, and emerging topics including skin mark-less setups. Several dedicated chapters on SGRT for intracranial radiosurgery and breast, covering technical aspects, risk assessment and outcomes. Jeremy Hoisak, PhD, DABR is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Hoisak's clinical expertise includes radiosurgery and respiratory motion management. Adam Paxton, PhD, DABR is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Utah. Dr. Paxton's clinical expertise includes patient safety, motion management, radiosurgery, and proton therapy. Benjamin Waghorn, PhD, DABR is the Director of Clinical Physics at Vision RT. Dr. Waghorn's research interests include intensity modulated radiation therapy, motion management, and surface image guidance systems. Todd Pawlicki, PhD, DABR, FAAPM, FASTRO, is Professor and Vice-Chair for Medical Physics in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Pawlicki has published extensively on quality and safety in radiation therapy. He has served on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Radiology Oncology (ASTRO) and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM).

This volume contains the lectures presented at the Advanced Study Institute on "Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Catalytic Solid Fuel Conversion for the Production of aean Synthetic Fuels" which was held at Ak;ay, Edremit, Tiirkiye, between July 21 and August 3, 1991. The book includes 23 chapters originally written for the meeting by distinguished scientists an technologists in the field. l would like to acknowledge the contribution of each of the authors in the book. Their efforts have shed light on our understanding in coal science research and better utilization of coal. Three main subjects: structure and reactivity of coal; cleaning of coal and its products, and factors affecting environmental balance of energy usage and solutions for future, were discussed in the Institute and these are presented under six groups in the book. I hope that of great use to research workers from academic and industrial background. the book will be Many people contributed to the success of the Institute on which this volume was based. I take this occasion to thank my colleagues who lectured in the Institute, both for their efforts during the two weeks and their expertly prepared lecture notes that reached to me in time. The Institute was generously sponsored by the Scientific and Environmental Affairs Dh.ision of the NATO and their contribution is deeply acknowledged."

ABC-CLIO's Contemporary World Issues series comprises comprehensive, balanced, one-volume reference handbooks on important topics related to science, technology, and medicine; the environment; society; politics, law, and government; criminal justice; and gender and ethnicity.

Each volume offers:
-- An authoritative introductory essay on the subject
-- A chronology of events, legislation, movements, and initiatives
-- Biographies of activists, advocates, and legislators
-- A compilation of relevant facts in the form of tables, figures, and documents
-- A directory of leading organizations and agencies
-- An annotated list of print resources
-- An annotated list of valuable nonprint resources, such as computer databases, information available on the Internet, and audiovisual materials
-- A glossary of relevant terms
-- A comprehensive subject index
-- Well suited for circulating collections as well as reference shelves

- The book discusses the recent techniques in NGS data analysis which is the most needed material by biologists (students and researchers) in the wake of numerous genomic projects and the trend toward genomic research. - The book includes both theory and practice for the NGS data analysis. So, readers will understand the concept and learn how to do the analysis using the most recent programs. - The steps of application workflows are written in a manner that can be followed for related projects. - Each chapter includes worked examples with real data available on the NCBI databases. Programming codes and outputs are accompanied with explanation. - The book content is suitable as teaching material for biology and bioinformatics students. Meets the requirements of a complete semester course on Sequencing Data Analysis Covers the latest applications for Next Generation Sequencing Covers data reprocessing, genome assembly, variant discovery, gene profiling, epigenetics, and metagenomics

Most applications generate large datasets, like social networking and social influence programs, smart cities applications, smart house environments, Cloud applications, public web sites, scientific experiments and simulations, data warehouse, monitoring platforms, and e-government services. Data grows rapidly, since applications produce continuously increasing volumes of both unstructured and structured data. Large-scale interconnected systems aim to aggregate and efficiently exploit the power of widely distributed resources. In this context, major solutions for scalability, mobility, reliability, fault tolerance and security are required to achieve high performance and to create a smart environment. The impact on data processing, transfer and storage is the need to re-evaluate the approaches and solutions to better answer the user needs. A variety of solutions for specific applications and platforms exist so a thorough and systematic analysis of existing solutions for data science, data analytics, methods and algorithms used in Big Data processing and storage environments is significant in designing and implementing a smart environment. Fundamental issues pertaining to smart environments (smart cities, ambient assisted leaving, smart houses, green houses, cyber physical systems, etc.) are reviewed. Most of the current efforts still do not adequately address the heterogeneity of different distributed systems, the interoperability between them, and the systems resilience. This book will primarily encompass practical approaches that promote research in all aspects of data processing, data analytics, data processing in different type of systems: Cluster Computing, Grid Computing, Peer-to-Peer, Cloud/Edge/Fog Computing, all involving elements of heterogeneity, having a large variety of tools and software to manage them. The main role of resource management techniques in this domain is to create the suitable frameworks for development of applications and deployment in smart environments, with respect to high performance. The book focuses on topics covering algorithms, architectures, management models, high performance computing techniques and large-scale distributed systems.

The process of developing predictive models includes many stages. Most resources focus on the modeling algorithms but neglect other critical aspects of the modeling process. This book describes techniques for finding the best representations of predictors for modeling and for nding the best subset of predictors for improving model performance. A variety of example data sets are used to illustrate the techniques along with R programs for reproducing the results.

HAPM Component Life Manual has broken new ground, it is the first document to provide extensive life-span assessments (suitable for insurance purposes) for a wide range of building components which are classified within the concept of quality specifications. A further benefit is that it does not seek to be prescriptive. It indicative 'benchmarks' against which new or differing specifications can be assessed, in that sense it is both robust and flexible.

The concept of the manual is simple yet profound. Seven component groups contain a range of component types and sub-types each of which has been given a life class designation. The life classes embrace good practice, a normal amount of maintenance and typical exposure conditions. If a new component does not match an existing HAPM class, then a new 'benchmark' can be defined and a life assigned.

Students from all engineering disciplines, as well as professional engineers, need to understand company finance in order to work effectively within commercial organisations. Corporate finance is therefore an essential aspect of the education of every engineer. Written by an engineer, this innovative book provides a course in company finance, illustrated with numerous case studies of well-known engineering companies - including Rolls Royce, ICI, British Aerospace, Ferranti, Ford, Glaxo, GEC, British Steel, PowerGen and others. General principles are related to the affairs of specific companies, thus giving an effective overview for the busy engineer.

Drinking water quality has been a matter of concern for several decades. Disinfection of drinking water improves its microbiological quality and prevents disease outbreaks. However, continuously increasing scientific research concerns the presence of organic and inorganic contaminants in water. Many of these compounds, named haloforms, originate from the procedure of disinfection, being formed during reactions of disinfectants with natural organic matter present in water. Haloforms may possess carcinogenic or mutagenic properties; therefore minimization of their concentrations in drinking water is a critical issue. Regulatory measures are becoming more and more stringent, as new health effects become known and optimized high-sensitivity analytical methodologies are being developed. Up-to-date research findings concerning all these aspects have been collected, critically reviewed, summarized, and are presented and discussed in the present book.

This text offers information on the theory of major drinking water treatment processes and contains real-life practical examples. It aims to create guidelines for the design of unit processes that operate within an overall framework for water treatment plants.

Chemistry for the Protection of the Environment 4 focuses on:

a [ Environmental aspects of agricultural practices

a [ Field characterization and quantification of chemical constituents

a [ Fate of contaminants in the environment/environmental monitoring

a [ Thermal treatment technologies

a [ Remediation of contaminated sites

a [ Wastewater treatment and sludge management

a [ Environmental Security

a [ Risk Assessment and Environmental Management

This volume is the proceedings of the first CPE conference in the new millennium and the thirteenth in a well-established series of conferences on Chemistry for the Protection of the Environment, first established in 1976. With support of the U.S. EPA, the series of conferences provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange of ideas among international specialists, from diverse fields and backgrounds, on the chemical aspects of environmental protection. Over the years, the CPE conferences have gathered participants from more and more countries, and the scope of interests have been broadened. Held in Hilo, Hawaii, this was the first of these international conferences to take place in the United States. The Organizing Committee attracted to the conference a wide range of talented scientists and engineers who have useful ideas to contribute on how to clean our environment.

Any pollution control or pollution cure action today must take into consideration not only one element of the environment, like water, air or soil but also proper environmental handling and related problems. In all cases, chemical processes play a highly significant role. In recent years there has been a shift from wastewatertechnologies and pollutant monitoring problems to environment management and solid wastes issues. This book provides a forum for chemical scientists and engineers who are dedicated to the worthy mission of making a cleaner, healthier world for everyone.

The central goals of Chemistry for the Protection of the Environment are to improve technology transfer and scientific dialogue, thereby leading to better comprehension of and solution to a broad spectrum of environmentally related problems.

This book provides a survey and analysis of the different ways in which women's work is valued throughout the world. It challenges the narrow definition of work as paid work, as that excludes so many of women's activities. It looks at ways in which women's worth has been consistently undervalued in industrial as well as non-industrial countries, in socialist as well as free-enterprise economies. These practices distort the national product of countries heavily dependent on women's labour, but, above all, they are among the most obvious marks of the exploitation of women. Technological changes are already altering established female/male divisions of labour. Transnational enterprises, often located in Special Economic Zones, are reducing differences between industrial and nonindustrial countries. Valuing women's work correctly, whether unpaid in the home or underpaid outside it, is part of the battle against discrimination and poverty. Men who do similar work also benefit. It is the crucial step towards the achievement of male/female equality. The book will be particularly valuable for those concerned with the issues, in trade unions, women's groups, international agencies and NGOs and for course in economics and social studies.

Concrete has clearly emerged as the most economical and durable material for the building of the vast majority of marine structures. Reinforced concrete too has overcome the technological problems making it a suitable material for the construction of advanced marine structures such as offshore drilling platforms, superspan bridges and undersea tunnels. As the world becomes increasingly ocean-oriented for energy and other resources it is predicted that construction activities during the 21st century will be dominated by concrete sea structures. The performance of concrete in the marine environment is presented here giving state-of-the-art reviews of the nature of the marine environment; the composition and properties of concrete; history of concrete performance in seawater; major causes of deterioration of concrete in the marine environment; selection of materials and mix proportioning for durable concrete; recommended concrete practice; and repair of deteriorated marine structures. It should be of value to any design or construction engineer responsible for marine structures.

Organocatalysis is considered today one of the three pillars in asymmetric catalysis, along with biocatalysis and organometallic catalysis. The possibility to combine organocatalysis with radical chemistry, photocatalysis and enabling technologies opened new avenues in organic synthesis.

Estuaries are eternally enriched. Their positions at the foot of watersheds and their convenience as receiving bodies for the wastes of cites, towns and farms results in continuous addition of nutrients - those elements and compounds which are essential for organic production. Such materials must be added to these complex bodies of water to sustain production, since there is a net loss of water and its contents to the oceans. Enrichment from land and the ocean and the subsequent cycling of the original chemicals or their derivatives contribute to the extraordinarily high values of estuaries for human purposes. Many estuaries are able to assimilate large quantities of nutrients despite the great fluctuations which occur with variations in the flow from tributaries. The nutrients can be stored, incorporated in standing crops of plants, released, cycled and exported - and the system frequently achieves high production of plants and and animals without creation of any undesirable results of enrichment. Excessive enrichment with the same elements and compounds can, however, be highly detrimental to estuaries and their uses. Coastal cities are usually located on the estuaries which provided a harbor for the- and which now receive partially treated sewage and other wastes from the expanding population and industrial activity. Conversion of woodlands to agricultural use and the extensive application of fertilizers have resulted in the flow of large quantities of nutrients down the hill or slopes and eventually into the estuary.

If you are responsible for oak management, Managing Oak Forests in the Eastern United States is for you. It is the definitive practical guide for anyone interested in improving stewardship of eastern oak forests. Organized into three sections, the first section, "Background and Biology: Setting the Stage," helps you establish a solid understanding of the history and ecology of eastern oak ecosystems. It examines the question "Why do we manage oaks?" and looks at some of the challenges faced in oak management such as fire, wildlife management, and oak regeneration. It also provides a description and distribution of oak forests across the eastern United States and discusses the biology of oaks. The second section, "Silviculture: What Is in the Tool Box," gives you a practical understanding of how management can be implemented in eastern oak forests. It covers natural regeneration, artificial regeneration, and use of prescribed fires, competition control, and intermediate treatments. The third and final section, "Managing Oaks: How Do I Make It Work for Me?" helps you clarify your objectives and chart a course to bring about the desired outcomes for the forests you are managing. This section assists you in evaluating your progress in managing your oaks and what changes you will need to make. It provides details on management objectives for upland oaks, woodlands and savannahs, and bottomland oaks. It also gives you guidance on managing deer impacts on oak forests. The last chapter is specifically designed to help you get started.

Artificial Intelligence for Capital Market throws light on application of AI/ML techniques in the financial capital markets. This book discusses the challenges posed by the AI/ML techniques as these are prone to "black box" syndrome. The complexity of understanding the underlying dynamics for results generated by these methods is one of the major concerns which is highlighted in this book: Features: Showcases artificial intelligence in finance service industry Explains Credit and Risk Analysis Elaborates on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology Focuses on optimal choice of asset pricing model Introduces Testing of market efficiency and Forecasting in Indian Stock Market This book serves as a reference book for Academicians, Industry Professional, Traders, Finance Mangers and Stock Brokers. It may also be used as textbook for graduate level courses in financial services and financial Analytics.