The series covers new developments in computer technology. Most chapters present an overview of a current subfield within computer science, with many citations and often include new developments in the field by the authors of the individual chapters. Topics include hardware, software, theoretical underpinnings of computing, and novel applications of computers. This current volume emphasizes the role of the internet, the world wide web and other aspects of a distributed computing environment. Open source development as well as computing for the handicapped are additional important topics.

Key Features:

- In-depth surveys and tutorials on new computer technology.
- Well-known authors are researchers in the field.
- Extensive bibliographies with most chapters.
- Important chapters on new technologies for software development: open source development and the technology needed to use the web for electronic commerce.
* In-depth surveys and tutorials on new computer technology.
* Well-known authors are researchers in the field.
* Extensive bibliographies with most chapters.
* Important chapters on new technologies for software development: open source development and the technology needed to use the web for electronic commerce.

This book addresses the core issues involved in the dynamic modeling, simulation and control of a selection of energy systems such as gas turbines, wind turbines, fuel cells and batteries. The principles of modeling and control could be applied to other non-convention methods of energy generation such as solar energy and wave energy. A central feature of Dynamic Modeling, Simulation and Control of Energy Generation is that it brings together diverse topics in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, electro-chemistry, electrical networks and electrical machines and focuses on their applications in the field of energy generation, its control and regulation. This book will help the reader understand the methods of modelling energy systems for controller design application as well as gain a basic understanding of the processes involved in the design of control systems and regulators. It will also be a useful guide to simulation of the dynamics of energy systems and for implementing monitoring systems based on the estimation of internal system variables from measurements of observable system variables. Dynamic Modeling, Simulation and Control of Energy Generation will serve as a useful aid to designers of hybrid power generating systems involving advanced technology systems such as floating or offshore wind turbines and fuel cells. The book introduces case studies of the practical control laws for a variety of energy generation systems based on nonlinear dynamic models without relying on linearization. Also the book introduces the reader to the use nonlinear model based estimation techniques and their application to energy systems.

1 Zusammenfassung.- Konzept der Studie.- Moeglichkeiten und Grenzen der Kombination beider Ansatze.- Ergebnisse.- Sachbilanz Top-down-Ansatz (Momentaufnahme 1991).- Sachbilanz Bottom-up-Ansatz (Bestandsmodell).- Gegenuberstellung der Ergebnisse.- Eingebrachte Problemstoffe.- Trendfortschreibung.- Leitbilder fur den Baubereich.- 2 Methodischer Ansatz.- 2.1 Bottom-up-Ansatz: Das Modell des Gebaudebestands.- 2.1.1 Stoffflussrelevante Beschreibung des Bestandes in Nutzungs-und Altersklassen.- 2.1.2 Aufbau des Dynamischen Gebaudebestandsmodells.- 2.1.3 Zustand des Bestands - Alterung von Gebauden.- 2.2 Top-down-Ansatz.- 2.2.1 Berechnung kumulierter Groessen im Top-down-Ansatz.- 2.2.2 Vor-und Nachteile des Top-down-Ansatzes.- 2.2.3 Erganzende Erlauterungen zur Vorgehensweise und Datenbasis beim Top-down-Ansatz.- 2.3 Methodik und Datenbasis fur die Bestimmung der eingebrachten Problemstoffe.- 2.3.1 Vorgehensweise.- 2.3.2 Datenquellen und Datenqualitat.- 2.4 Systemgrenzen.- 2.5 Gegenuberstellung des Top-down und Bottom-up-Ansatzes.- 2.6 Sachbilanz.- 2.7 Szenario.- 3 Ergebnisse der Sachbilanz.- 3.1 Bottom-up-Ansatz.- 3.1.1 Stofflager.- 3.1.2 Stoffstroeme.- 3.1.3 Flachen.- 3.1.4 Energie.- 3.1.5 Emissionen und Umweltindikatoren.- 3.1.6 Kosten.- 3.2 Stoffstroeme, Energiestroeme, Luftschadstoffemissionen und Kosten - Top-down-Ansatz.- 3.2.1 Methodik.- 3.2.2 Erstellung der Sachbilanzen.- 3.2.3 Bestimmung jahrlich anfallender Mengen an Abfallen aus den Bereichen "Bauen und Wohnen" fur verschiedene Jahre, Angaben uber weiterverwertete und weiterverwendete Anteile.- 3.2.4 Die Kosten im Sektor "Bauen und Wohnen" im Spiegel der Statistik.- 3.2.5 Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse.- 3.3 Eingebrachte Problemstoffe.- 3.3.1 Aufgabenstellung.- 3.3.2 Allgemeiner Untersuchungsgang.- 3.3.3 Vorgehensweise und Begrenzungen.- 3.3.4 Stofflisten und Problemstofffrachten.- 3.3.5 Ausgewahlte Stoffe.- 3.3.6 Ausgewahlte Tatigkeitsbereiche und zugeordnete Problemstoffe.- 3.3.7 Problemstoffe im Bauschutt.- 3.3.8 Zusammenfassung und Kommentar.- 3.4 Bilanzierung und Diskussion der Ergebnisse der Bottom-up und Top-down-Ansatze.- 3.4.1 Stoffstroeme.- 3.4.2 Energie und Umweltbelastungen.- 3.5 Vergleich mit anderen Studien.- 3.5.1 Stoffstroeme.- 3.5.2 Kosten.- 3.6 Internationaler Vergleich.- 3.7 Landschafts-und Bodenverbrauch.- 3.7.1 Flacheninanspruchnahme durch Wohnungsbauflachen.- 3.7.2 Katasterdaten.- 3.7.3 Baufertigstellungen und Baugenehmigungen.- 3.7.4 Stadtebauliche Strukturtypen und ihr Flachenbedarf.- 4 Szenario.- 4.1 Modellannahmen.- 4.2 Diskussion der Ergebnisse.- 4.3 Kommentar zum Szenario.- 5 Strategische UEberlegungen zur Bestandsbewirtschaftung.- 6 Forschungsbedarf.- 6.1 Methodische Probleme.- 6.2 Untersuchungsbereich.- 6.3 Regionale Erfassung.- 6.4 Gebaudebestand.- 6.4.1 Beschreibung der Gebaude.- 6.4.2 Abriss, Entsorgung, Recycling.- 6.5 Externe Kosten.- 6.6 Bautatigkeit und Baukosten.- 6.7 OEkobilanzen von Baustoffen.- 6.8 Problemstoffe.- 6.9 Datenlage.- 7 Ziele, Massnahmen und Instrumente fur eine nachhaltige Entwicklung im Sektor "Bauen und Wohnen".- 7.1 Nachhaltigkeit im Bereich Bauen und Wohnen - Ziele und gegenwartige Entwicklungstrends.- 7.2 Handlungsfelder fur eine nachhaltige Politik im Sektor "Bauen und Wohnen".- 7.3 Perspektiven zur Fortschreibung des Bestands.- Anhang A: GISBAU-Inhaltsstoffe.- Anhang B: BUWAL-Zusatzstoffe.- Anhang C: Problemstoffe im Bauschutt.

Fundamental environmental challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and pollution are still widely relevant in today's world. Many of these problems have been associated with the architecture, engineering, and construction industries due to the level of resources used in these professions. In recent years, many manufacturers in these fields have expressed the motivation to make necessary changes that would be beneficial to the environment. Despite this progress, there remains a lack of research and assessment on the methods to achieve environmental stability within these architectural fields. Examining the Environmental Impacts of Materials and Buildings provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of ecological performance within modern building design and materials-based construction. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as life cycle assessment, material flows analysis, and sustainability, this book is ideally designed for architects, civil engineers, construction professionals, environmentalists, ecologists, business practitioners, scientists, policymakers, designers, researchers, and academicians seeking research on current trends in environmental performance within building design.

This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book summarizes presentations and discussions from the two-day international workshop held at UC Berkeley in March 2015, and derives questions to be addressed in multi-disciplinary research toward a new paradigm of nuclear safety. The consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011 have fuelled the debate on nuclear safety: while there were no casualties due to radiation, there was substantial damage to local communities. The lack of common understanding of the basics of environmental and radiological sciences has made it difficult for stakeholders to develop effective strategies to accelerate recovery, and this is compounded by a lack of effective decision-making due to the eroded public trust in the government and operators. Recognizing that making a society resilient and achieving higher levels of safety relies on public participation in and feedback on decision-making, the book focuses on risk perception and mitigation in its discussion of the development of resilient communities.

This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of the global health impacts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air, conducted on the basis of a high-resolution emission inventory, global chemical transport modeling, and probabilistic risk assessment. One of the main strengths of the thesis is the concentration downscaling process, which provides a linkage between emissions and exposure concentrations at a comparatively high resolution. Moreover, by focusing on individual susceptibility, the thesis proposes an instrumental revision of current risk assessment methodology and argues that, if individual susceptibility were not taken into consideration, the overall risk would be underestimated by 55% and the proportion of highly vulnerable populations would be underestimated by more than 90%.

This volume contains reviews on different aspects of human, animal and plant bioclimatology; the mechanisms linking human melanoma with radiation from both the sun and artificial sources; field and experimental studies on the health of farm animals in adverse climatic environments and the impact of climatic extremes on airborne disease organisms and their hosts' defense mechanisms; measurement techniques used in plant bioclimatology, including thermoelectric methods of measuring sap flow and transpiration in plants, remote sensing techniques: the use of lasers in both spectrofluorometry, and the study of the geometrical structure of plant canopies and the use of radar mounted in aircraft and satellites to monitor forest size and state.

With oil resources approaching their limits, biofuels have become increasingly attractive. This book provides a detailed description of the ecological implications of second and third generation biofuel feedstock production systems, beginning with an introduction to the importance of ecological sustainability alongside economic viability. The book is divided into sections describing theoretical foundation and benefits of various biofuel cropping systems, and providing a description of practical ecological limitations to achieve those fundamental benefits. The book covers such critical issues as greenhouse gas emissions, carbon balance, water cycle components, other biogeochemical and socioeconomic interactions alongside life cycle analysis principals for achieving sustainability. These are some of the most important sustainability, environmental and economic issues which biofuel industry and scientific community is seeking answers to.

This book provides an overview of the current and emerging industrial applications of ionic liquids, covering the core processes, the practical implementation and technical challenges involved, and exploring potential future directions for research and development. The introductory chapter describes the unique physical and chemical properties of ionic liquids, and illustrates the vast potential for application of these materials across the industrial landscape. Following this, individual chapters written by leading figures from industry and academia address specific processes and products, such as the development of a new chloroaluminate ionic liquid as an alkylation catalyst and a new class of capillary gas chromatography (GC) columns with stationary phases based on ionic liquids. Over the past twenty years, ionic liquids have moved from being considered as mere academic curiosities to having genuine applications in fields as wide-ranging as biotechnology, biorefineries, catalysis, pharmaceuticals, renewable fuels, and sustainable energy. This book highlights several commercial products and processes that use or will soon be using ionic liquids.

The book reveals how green buildings are currently being adapted and applied in developing countries. It includes the major developing countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Cambodia, Ghana, Nigeria and countries from the Middle East and gathers the insights of respected green building researchers from these areas to map out the developing world's green building revolution. The book highlights these countries' contribution to tackling climate change, emphasising the green building benefits and the research behind them. The contributing authors explore how the green building revolution has spread to developing countries and how national governments have initiated their own green building policies and agendas. They also explore how the market has echoed the green building policy, and how a business case for green buildings has been established. In turn, they show how an international set of green building standards, in the form of various techniques and tools, has been incorporated into local building and construction practices. In closing, they demonstrate how the developing world is emerging as a key player for addressing the energy and environmental problems currently facing the world. The book helps developers, designers and policy-makers in governments and green building stakeholders to make better decisions on the basis of global and local conditions. It is also of interest to engineers, designers, facility managers and researchers, as it provides a holistic picture of how the industry is responding to the worldwide call for greener and more sustainable buildings.

The sea is steadily rising, presently at ~3.4 mm/y, already costing Billions in Venice, on the Thames River and in New York City, to counter sea-level-related surges. Experts anticipate an accelerated rise, and credible predictions for sea level rise by the year 2100 range from 12 inches to above 6 feet. Study of the Earth's geologic history, through ice-core samples, links sea level rise to temperature rise. Since the lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is measured in centuries, and it has upset the balance of incoming and outgoing energy, the Earth's temperature will continue to rise, even if carbon burning ceases. Engineering the Earth's solar input appears increasingly attractive and practical as a means to lower Earth's temperature, and thus, to lower sea level. The cost of engineering the climate appears small, comparable, even, to the already-incurred costs of sea level rise represented by civil engineering projects in London, Venice and New York City. Feasible deployment of geoengineering, accompanied by some reduction in carbon burning, is predicted to lower the sea level by the order of one foot by 2100 AD, negating the expected rise, to provide an immense economic benefit. The accompanying lower global temperature would reduce the severity of extreme weather, and restore habitability to lethally hot parts of the world. This book is primarily conceived to aid and inform the educated citizen: aspects may also interest climate workers.

Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development takes stock of cultural and environmental contexts in many different regions of the world by exploring literature and film. Artists and scholars working in the social ecology, environmental justice, and postcolonial arenas have long recognized that as soon as we tug on a thread of "ecodegradation," we generally find it linked to some form of cultural oppression. The reverse is also often true. In the spirit of postcolonial ecocriticism, the studies collected by Scott Slovic, R. Swarnalatha, and Vidya Sarveswaran emphasize the impossibility of disentangling environmental and cultural problems. While not all the authors explicitly invoke Karen Thornber's term "ecoambiguity" or the concepts and terminology of postcolonial ecocriticism, their articles frequently bring to light various ironies. For example, the fact that Ukrainian environmental experience in the twenty-first century is defined by one of the world's most infamous industrial disasters, the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986, yet Ukrainian culture, like many throughout the world, actually cherishes a profound, even animistic, attachment to the wonders of nature. The repetition of this and other paradoxes in human cultural responses to the more-than-human world reinforces our sense of the congruities and idiosyncrasies of human culture. Every human culture, regardless of its condition of economic and industrial development, has produced its own version of "environmental literature and art"-but the nuances of this work reflect that culture's precise social and geophysical circumstances. In various ways, these stories of community and development from across the planet converge and diverge, as told and explained by distinguished scholars, many of whom come from the cultures represented in these articles.

This book analyses the state of the natural environment and the causes of its degradation using the biosphere approach. Further, those issues that must be resolved immediately on the global level are identified following the ideas defined by V.I. Vernadsky, and new principles of Man-Nature interaction are pursued. The modern world currently faces three global trends inducing biosphere degradation and the aggravation of ecological hazards, namely: a) rapid and uncontrolled growth of human population on the Earth and insufficient natural resources to sustain it; (b) technogenesis development; and (c) global climate change and the aggravation of natural disasters. Ecological safety and military security are becoming the crucial conditions for the survival of modern civilization. To mitigate the ecological strain on the Earth, the technogenesis strategy should be changed and many other pressing issues must be resolved. These problems should be addressed using the biosphere approach, because the individual human being is the biosphere constituent, and his or her safety cannot be provided without maintaining the entire natural system on our planet.

This book summarizes the current state of knowledge concerning bacteria that use halogenated organic compounds as respiratory electron acceptors. The discovery of organohalide-respiring bacteria has expanded the range of electron acceptors used for energy conservation, and serves as a prime example of how scientific discoveries are enabling innovative engineering solutions that have transformed remediation practice. Individual chapters provide in-depth background information on the discovery, isolation, phylogeny, biochemistry, genomic features, and ecology of individual organohalide-respiring genera, including Dehalococcoides, Dehalogenimonas, Dehalobacter, Desulfitobacterium and Sulfurospirillum, as well as organohalide-respiring members of the Deltaproteobacteria. The book introduces readers to the fascinating biology of organohalide-respiring bacteria, offering a valuable resource for students, engineers and practitioners alike.

1 Aufgaben, Wirkungsweise und Bedeutung von Lagerungen.- 1.1 Funktionsweise.- 1.2 Geschichtlicher Ruckblick.- 1.3 Lagerarten.- 2 Tribologische Grundlagen und Kenngroessen der Schmierstoffe.- 2.1 Reibung und Verschleiss.- 2.1.1 Reibungsarten.- 2.1.2 Reibungszustande.- 2.1.3 Stribeck-Kurve.- 2.2 Schmierstoffe.- 2.2.1 Aufgaben und Einteilung der Schmierstoffe.- 2.2.1.1 Aufgaben.- 2.2.1.2 Einteilung.- 2.2.2 Kenngroessen von Schmierstoffen.- 2.2.2.1 Viskositat und Dichte.- 2.2.2.2 Thermische Kenngroessen von Schmierstoffen.- 2.2.3 Viskositatsklassifikation der Schmieroele.- 2.2.3.1 ISO-Normoele.- 2.2.3.2 SAE-Klassifikation.- 2.2.3.3 Weitere Motorenoel-Klassifikationen.- 2.2.4 Additive fur Motorenoele.- 2.2.5 Prufung von Motorenoelen, Gebrauchtoel-Eigenschaften.- 2.2.5.1 Motorenoelprufung.- 2.2.5.2 Veranderung von Motorenoelen im Gebrauch.- 3 Schmiersysteme von Verbrennungsmotoren.- 3.1 Funktion und Bestandteile von Schmiersystemen.- 3.2 Schmierstoffpumpen.- 3.3 Schmierstoffilter und Filtersysteme.- 3.3.1 Anforderungen.- 3.3.2 Filterbauarten.- 3.4 Schmieroelkuhlung.- 3.5 Steuerungs- und Sicherheitsbauteile.- 3.6 Schmiersysteme unterschiedlicher Motorentypen.- 3.6.1 PKW-Motoren.- 3.6.2 LKW- und kleinere Industrie-Motoren.- 3.6.3 Mittelschnell laufende Motoren.- 3.6.4 Motorradmotoren und schnell laufende Zweitaktmotoren.- 4 Die Lagerung von Verbrennungsmotoren und ihre Belastung.- 4.1 Dynamisch beanspruchte Gleitlager.- 4.2 Lager des Kurbeltriebes.- 4.2.1 Kolbenbolzenlager.- 4.2.2 Pleuellager.- 4.2.3 Grundlager.- 4.2.4 Weitere Lagerstellen.- 4.3 Kraftezerlegung.- 4.3.1 Kolbenbolzenlager.- 4.3.2 Pleuellager.- 4.3.3 Grundlager.- 4.4 Berechnungsmethoden bei Mehrzylindermotoren.- 5 Hydrodynamische Berechnung von Verbrennungsmotoren-Gleitlagern.- 5.1 Theoretische Grundlagen.- 5.1.1 Druckaufbau durch Tangentialbewegung (Keildruck).- 5.1.2 Druckaufbau durch Radialbewegung (Verdrangungsdruck).- 5.2 Berechnung der Wellenverlagerungsbahn.- 5.2.1 Ausgangspunkt und Berechnungsverfahren.- 5.2.2 Verfahren der uberlagerten Tragkrafte.- 5.3 Berechnung der Reibungsleistung.- 5.4 Berechnung der OEldurchsatzmenge.- 5.5 Warmebilanz.- 5.6 Maximaler Schmierfilmdruck.- 5.7 Umwandlung der raumfesten in koerperfeste Koordinaten.- 5.7.1 Grundlager.- 5.7.2 Pleuellager.- 5.7.3 Kolbenbolzenlager.- 5.8 Winkelgeschwindigkeiten der Lager eines Kurbeltriebes.- 5.9 EDV-Paket zur Auslegung dynamisch beanspruchter Radialgleitlager.- 5.10 Elastohydrodynamische Lagerberechnung - EHD.- 5.10.1 Vorteile und Aussagefahigkeit der elastohydrodynamischen Berechnung.- 5.10.2 Theoretische Grundlagen der EHD-Berechnungsmethode.- 5.10.3 Vergleich der Berechnungs- und Messergebnisse.- 6 Auslegung von Verbrennungsmotorenlagerungen.- 6.1 Auslegungskenngroessen und ihre Optimierung.- 6.1.1 Betriebszustand (Lagerbelastung).- 6.1.2 Lagerabmessungen.- 6.1.3 Schmierstoff und Schmierung.- 6.2 Optimierung der Einflussgroessen - Optimalauslegung.- 6.2.1 Bedeutung und Moeglichkeiten.- 6.2.2 Beurteilungsgroessen fur eine Optimalauslegung, ubliche Grenzwerte.- 6.2.3 Einfluss des relativen Lagerspieles.- 6.2.4 Einfluss von OElzufuhrungstemperatur und -druck.- 6.2.5 Art und Lage der Schmierstoffzufuhrung.- 6.2.6 Steifigkeit von Kurbelwelle, Lager und lagerumgebenden Bauteilen.- 6.2.7 Einfluss der Kurbelwellengestaltung (Massenausgleich).- 6.3 Schlussfolgerungen fur die Lagerauslegung aus der Anwendung von EDV-Programmpaketen.- 7 Konstruktive Gestaltung von Lagern.- 7.1 Lagerbauarten und konstruktive Details.- 7.1.1 Lagerbuchsen.- 7.1.2 Dunnwandige Lagerschalen mit und ohne Anlaufring.- 7.1.3 Schmierstoffzufuhrungselemente.- 7.1.4 Axiallager.- 7.2 Lagerschalenpresssitz.- 7.3 Grobgestaltung - Ruckwirkung der Lagerumgebung auf die Lagerparameter.- 7.4 Feingestaltung von Lagern.- 7.4.1 Kleines Pleuelauge.- 7.4.2 Kolbenbolzenaugen.- 7.4.3 Grosses Pleuelauge.- 7.4.4 Grundlager und Anordnung der OElbohrungen in den Kurbelwellen.- 7.4.5 Nockenwellenlager.- 7.4.6 Ausgleichswellenlager

Volume 7, devoted to the vital and rapidly expanding research area around metal-carbon bonds (see also MILS-6), focuses on the environment. With more than 2500 references, 35 tables, and nearly 50 illustrations, many of these in color, it is an essential resource for scientists working in the wide range from organometallic chemistry, inorganic biochemistry, environmental toxicology all the way through to physiology and medicine. In 14 stimulating chapters, written by 29 internationally recognized experts, Organometallics in Environment and Toxicology highlights in an authoritative and timely manner environmental cycles of elements involving organometal(loid) compounds as well as the analytical determination of such species. This book examines methane formation involving the nickel coenzyme F430, as well as the organometal(loid) compounds formed by tin, lead, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, and mercury. In addition, it deals with the environmental bioindication, biomonitoring, and bioremediation of organometal(loid)s, and it terminates with methylated metal(loid) species occurring in humans by evaluating assumed and proven health effects caused by these compounds.

Responsible Care - A Case Study is the first book of its kind to provide insight into the development and evolution of Responsible Care and its influence of societal outcomes on the basis of case studies. It provides readers in industry, government, and academia with the principles and innovative thinking associated with the Responsible Care ethic as a means to promote and implement such advanced concepts in their own institution. The book is not only a teaching aid for university curriculum, it also serves as a practical tool to industrial management and staff to improve industrial policies. The last chapter illustrates a practical example of a workshop held at McMaster University, Canada, which can be used as a model for readers to use this book as an educational tool.

This monograph describes ways of using trees and their byproducts in environmental protection technologies and methodologies throughout their lifecycles. The tree, the planet's main source of biomass, is an indispensable tool for sustainable technologies, and the authors present a holistic picture of how and why in this volume. The authors describe the indispensable role of the living tree in phytoremediation and biomonitoring and detail the relationship of the tree with its surrounding ecosystem. The direct and indirect relationships of a tree at its vegetation period with various components of the ecosystem (i.e. atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and soil) contribute to the role of a tree as the medium for integrating aerogenic and edaphic pollutants. Trees phytostabilize pollutants in their organisms and remove them from the soil. The ability of some species of trees to reflect the quality of the environment makes a basis for the environmental bioindication, while quantitative representation of the chemical composition of the surrounding environment allows for the use of trees in biomonitoring. Morphological features of trees (e.g. annual tree rings) allow us to observe environmental conditions in the past and retrospectively evaluate them. This monograph also details how wood products (e.g. biochar, chips, bark, etc.) of a tree after it has died are used in environmental technologies. Due to the specific morphological form and physical and chemical composition of wood products, they may be used as active materials in the technologies aimed at reducing pollution in an effective and sustainable manner.

The book presents a collection of selected papers from the I Workshop of the Venezuelan Society of Fluid Mechanics held on Margarita Island, Venezuela from November 4 to 9, 2012. Written by experts in their respective fields, the contributions are organized into five parts: - Part I Invited Lectures, consisting of full-length technical papers on both computational and experimental fluid mechanics covering a wide range of topics from drops to multiphase and granular flows to astrophysical flows, - Part II Drops, Particles and Waves - Part III Multiphase and Multicomponent Flows - Part IV Atmospheric and Granular Flows - and Part V Turbulent and Astrophysical Flows. The book is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as for physicists, chemists and engineers teaching and working in the field of fluid mechanics and its applications. The contributions are the result of recent advances in theoretical and experimental research in fluid mechanics, encompassing both fundamentals as well as applications to fluid engineering design, including pipelines, turbines, flow separators, hydraulic systems and biological fluid elements, and to granular, environmental and astrophysical flows.

Putting forward an innovative approach to solving current technological problems faced by human society, this book encompasses a holistic way of perceiving the potential of natural systems. Nature has developed several materials and processes which both maintain an optimal performance and are also totally biodegradable, properties which can be used in civil engineering. Delivering the latest research findings to building industry professionals and other practitioners, as well as containing information useful to the public, 'Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering' serves as an important tool to tackle the challenges of a more sustainable construction industry and the future of buildings.