1) Original book with chapters written by Brazilian researchers and colleagues from Universities in the Global North; 2) New and interdisciplinary interpretations of democracy, development, and sustainability; 3) Word Political Economy theoretical frontier linking class, race, and gender conflicts; 4) Challenges’ diagnoses and proposal of solutions for the future of the World Political Economy after the Covid-19 crisis.

AI Metaheuristics for Information Security in Digital Media examines the latest developments in AI-based metaheuristics algorithms with applications in information security for digital media. It highlights the importance of several security parameters, their analysis, and validations for different practical applications. Drawing on multidisciplinary research including computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, modified/newly developed metaheuristics algorithms, it will enhance information security for society. It includes state-of-the-art research with illustrations and exercises throughout.

The Water Research Institute at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) is proud to have initiated and sponsored the International Workshop "Soil and Aquifer Pollution: Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids - Contamination and Recla- tion," held May 13th-15th, 1996, on the Technion campus in Haifa. Groundwater contamination is one of the pressing issues facing Israel and other countries which depend on groundwater for water supply. In Israel, 60% of the water supply comes from groundwater, most of it from two large aquifers. The Coastal Aquifer underlies the area where the largest concentration of human activity already takes place, and where much of future development is expected to occur. It is a phreatic sandstone aquifer, vulnerable to pollution from activities at the surface. The Mountain Aquifer is recharged in the higher terrain to the east, and flows, first in a phreatic zone, then confined, westward and underneath the Coastal Aquifer. This limestone aquifer has higher permeabilities and flow velo- ties, so pollution can reach the groundwater quite readily. Smaller local aquifers are also important components in the national water system. While measures are taken to protect these aquifers from pollution, there are locations where contamination has already occurred. Furthermore, accidental pollution may not be totally avoided in the future. Therefore, understanding the processes of groundwater contamination, recommending the proper measures for preventing it, and determining the best means for reclamation once pollution has occurred, are of great practical importance. Non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) are among the most significant contaminants.

Natural and agro-ecosystems are frequently exposed to natural or synthetic substances, which, while they have no direct nutritional value or significance in metabolism, may negatively affect plant functioning. These, xenobiotics, may originate from both natural (fires, volcano eruptions, soil or rock erosion, biodegradation) and anthropogenic (air and soil pollution, herbicides) sources. And, while affected plants have only a limited number of possibilities for avoiding accumulation of these compounds, they do exhibit several enzymatic reactions for detoxification including oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis and conjugation reactions. In agro-ecosystems in particular these mechanisms have great significance in relation to herbicide detoxification and tolerance. In this volume an international group of experts present an overview of the nature and distribution of organic xenobiotics, including their uptake, effects on plant functioning and detoxification mechanisms. The particular significance of glutathione S-transferases in bio-indication and bio-monitoring, and in the detoxification of volatile organic air pollutants and herbicides is evaluated, and their potential significance in phytoremediation and bioaccumulation will be discussed. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience, from graduate students to senior researchers in a wide range of disciplines including plant ecology, plant biochemistry, agriculture and environmental management. It will also be of practical interest to environmentalists, policy makers and resource managers.

This book covers selected papers that were presented by participants at a "Wetland Invitational" held in Columbus Ohio, USA in May 2003. They are divided, by subject matter into four general categories: 1. Restoration of a large river basin and delta; 2. Long-term wetland restoration; 3. Creation of wetlands for mitigation of wetland loss; 4. Conservation and restoration of the world s wetlands.
* Provides key integrated, long-term assessments
* Covers a selection of the world's most significant wetlands
* Addresses management approaches for wetland conservation, creation and restoration

This book presents chemical analyses of our most pressing waste, pollution, and resource problems for the undergraduate or graduate student. The distinctive holistic approach provides both a solid ground in theory, as well as a laboratory manual detailing introductory and advanced experimental applications. The laboratory procedures are presented at microscale conditions, for minimum waste and maximum economy. This work fulfills an urgent need for an introductory text in environmental chemistry combining theory and practice, and is a valuable tool for preparing the next generation of environmental scientists.

All the cost data you need to keep your estimating accurate, competitive and profitable.Do you work on jobs between 50 and 50,000? - Then this book is for you.Specially written for contractors and small businesses carrying out small works, Spon's Estimating Cost Guide to Plumbing and Heating contains accurate information on thousands of rates each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.The first book to include typical project costs for: rainwater goods installations bathrooms external waste systems central heating systems hot and cold water systems.

Specifically written for contractors and small businesses carrying out small works, this second edition of Spon's Estimating Cost Guide to Small Groundworks, Landscaping Work and Gardening contains accurate information on thousands of rates, each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.This is the first book to focus on this range of external work, including garden maintenance work on blocks of flats and individual houses, schools and sports fields, garden makeovers, laying patios and paths, small land drainage schemes on farmland, and small-scale local authority maintenance work.

The potential application areas for polymer composites are vast. While techniques and methodologies for composites design are relatively well established, the knowledge and understanding of post-design issues lag far behind. This leads to designs and eventually composites with disappointing properties and unnecessarily high cost, thus impeding a wider industrial acceptance of polymer composites. Manufacturing of Polymer Composites completely covers pre- and post-design issues. While the book enables students to become fully comfortable with composites as a possible materials choice, it also provides sufficient knowledge about manufacturing-related issues to permit them to avoid common pitfalls and unmanufacturable designs. The book is a fully comprehensive text covering all commercially significant materials and manufacturing techniques while at the same time discussing areas of research and development that are nearing commercial reality.

All the cost data you need to keep your estimating accurate, competitive and profitable. Do you work on jobs between 50 and 50,000? Then this book is for you. Specially written for contractors, quantity surveyors and clients carrying out small works, this book contains accurate information on thousands of rates each broken down to labour, material overheads and profit.More than just a price book, it gives easy-to-read professional advice on setting up and running a business.

Gradually-varied flow (GVF) is a steady non-uniform flow in an open channel with gradual changes in its water surface elevation. The evaluation of GVF profiles under a specific flow discharge is very important in hydraulic engineering. This book proposes a novel approach to analytically solve the GVF profiles by using the direct integration and Gaussian hypergeometric function. Both normal-depth- and critical-depth-based dimensionless GVF profiles are presented. The novel approach has laid the foundation to compute at one sweep the GVF profiles in a series of sustaining and adverse channels, which may have horizontal slopes sandwiched in between them.

Dynamic Modeling of Environmental Systems is a primer on using models to understand environmental problems. With their many natural, economic, political, and technical aspects, environmental problems require a systems approach. This book provides an introduction to modeling concepts and applications that is specifically geared toward the environmental field. Sections on modeling terminology, the uses of models, the model-building process, and the interpretation of output provide the foundation for detailed applications. After an introduction to the basics of dynamic modeling, the book leads students through an analysis of several environmental problems, including surface-water pollution, matter-cycling disruptions, and global warming. The scientific and technical context is provided for each problem, and the methods for analyzing and designing appropriate modeling approaches is provided. An accompanying CD for both Macintosh and Windows computers contains a run-time version of STELLA modeling software with models from the text. While the mathematical content does not exceed the level of a first-semester Calculus course, the book gives students all of the background, examples, and practice exercises needed both to use and understand environmental modeling. It is suitable for upper-level undergraduate and beginning-graduate-level environmental science courses. The text is also useful for environmental professionals seeking an introduction to modeling in their field. About the Series: The availability of powerful, intuitive software for developing and running simulation models of real-world phenomena promises a revolution in studying, teaching, and thinking about complex problems that range from the functioning of a cell to that of an ecosystem to that of a national economy. The books in the series Modeling Dynamic Systems will promote the spread of "systems thinking" by integrating state-of-the-art modeling techniques with the theories and concepts of specific disciplines or interdisciplinary topics. The unifying theme of the series is the ease, power, and transparency of model-building.

The long-term development of public green spaces such as parks, public gardens, and recreation grounds in London during the twentieth century is a curiously neglected subject, despite the fact that various kinds of green spaces cover huge areas in cities in the UK today. This book explores how and why public green spaces have been created and used in London, and what actors have been involved in their evolution, during the course of the twentieth century. Building on case studies of the contemporary boroughs of Camden and Southwark and making use of a wealth of archival material, the author takes us through the planning and creation stages, to the intended (and actual) uses and ongoing management of the spaces. By highlighting the rise and fall of municipal authorities and the impact of neo-liberalism after the 1970s, the book also deepens our understanding of how London has been governed, planned and ruled during the twentieth century. It makes a crucial contribution to academic as well as political discourse on the history and present role of green space in sustainable cities.

Why Study Supervision? This book presents two compelling reasons to study supervision and supervisory leadership: Influential Position: Supervisors exert considerable influence on organizational settings. Supervisors have been schooled, developed, and trained for their responsibilities. They can function more effectively than if they learn through informal, sometimes haphazard means. It thus pays to learn about supervision because supervisors can influence how efficiently and effectively their organization functions. Career Path: Many career paths lead to supervision. Supervisors are everywhere. Supervisors are teachers, doctors, accountants, lawyers, plumbers, and electricians. If you aspire to advance within your occupation, you may find that one career path leads to supervision. Preparing for supervisory responsibilities can prepare you for advancement. You may thus have a personal stake – your own future – in learning about what supervisors do and how they do it. In addition, this book: Provides strategies for building solid relationships with team members. Uses positivity as a foundational practice to lead and encourage other employees. Provides guidelines on how to hold employees accountable and set high expectations. Presents strategies to engage, coach, and develop employees by creating a positive environment to influence attitudes and behaviors. Offers various approaches for managing time and increasing productivity.

Recent results on the nature of low-, intermediate- and high-energy nuclear forces as well as on the internal structure of nucleons and atomic nuclei are presented. Prospects to find a new state of the nuclear matter at extreme conditions that existed in the early Universe and the utilisation of the nuclear energy are discussed.

This book contains contributions from inorganic, organic and polymer chemists, who report on the state of the art in ring opening metathesis polymerization, acyclic diene metathesis and alkyne polymerization. Topics covered are: mechanism of ROMP reactions, new catalysts for ROMP, new products by ROMP, new catalysts for ADMET, new products by ADMET, degradation of polymers by metathesis reactions, alkyne polymerization and metathesis, and industrial applications of metathesis reactions.

This book is the result of a conference held biannually at the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College. It uses an interdisciplinary approach to focus on important ecological impacts of acid deposition, the transboundary nature of the pollutants that cause acid rain, and domestic and international policies designed to reduce the emission of these pollutants. The book combines research findings and the policy analyses of experts from different academic disciplines with the positions advanced by representatives of various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Because the volume explores many aspects of the acid rain issue, it will be of interest to a diverse audience that includes researchers, students, concerned citizens, policy analysts, and members of NGOs and government agencies who could use the text as background for discussion pertaining to the science and policy of acid deposition.

The rapid growth of the discipline of aquatic ecology has been driven both by scientific interest in the complexities of aquatic ecosystems and by their enormous environmental importance and sensitivity. This book focuses on the remarkably diverse roles played by underwater plants, and is divided into three parts: 10 thematic chapters, followed by 18 case studies, and rounded off by three integrative chapters. The topics range from macrophytes as fish food to macrophytes as mollusc and microbe habitat, making this of interest to aquatic ecologists as well as limnologists, ecosystem ecologists, microbial ecologists, fish biologists, and environmental managers.

Unique selling point: * Based on years of personal leadership and mentoring experience Core audience: * Emergency workers and business leaders are the primary market. Place in the market: * Will help people to navigate personal leadership issues in the post-COVID world

Statistics is strongly tied to applications in different scientific disciplines, and the most challenging statistical problems arise from problems in the sciences. In fact, the most innovative statistical research flows from the needs of applications in diverse settings. This volume is a testimony to the crucial role that statistics plays in scientific disciplines such as genetics and environmental sciences, among others. The articles in this volume range from human and agricultural genetic DNA research to carcinogens and chemical concentrations in the environment and to space debris and atmospheric chemistry. Also included are some articles on statistical methods which are sufficiently general and flexible to be applied to many practical situations. The papers were refereed by a panel of experts and the editors of the volume. The contributions are based on the talks presented at the Workshop on Statistics and the Sciences, held at the Centro Stefano Franscini in Ascona, Switzerland, during the week of May 23 to 28, 1999. The meeting was jointly organized by the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich, with the financial support of the Minerva Research Foundation. As the presentations at the workshop helped the participants recognize the po tential role that statistics can play in the sciences, we hope that this volume will help the reader to focus on the central role of statistics in the specific areas presented here and to extrapolate the results to further applications."

Across European cities the use of urban space is controversial and subject to diverging interests. On the one hand citizens are increasingly aware of the necessity for self-organising to reclaim green spaces. On the other hand local authorities have started to involve citizens in the governance of urban green spaces. While an increased level of citizen participation and conducive conditions for citizens' self-organisation are a desirable development per se, the risk of functionalising civil society actors by the local authority for neoliberal city development must be kept in mind. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 29 European cities from all four European geographic regions, this book examines the governance of urban green spaces and urban food production, focusing on the contribution of citizen-driven activities. Over the course of the book, Schicklinski identifies best practice examples of successful collaboration between citizens and local government. The book concludes with policy recommendations with great practical value for local governance in European cities in times of the growth-turn. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars, and policy-makers with an interest in environmental governance, urban geography, and sustainable development.

Includes Recommendations for Analysis, Design Practice, Design Charts, Tables, and More Using a unified approach to address a medley of engineering and construction problems, Slope Stability Analysis and Stabilization: New Methods and Insight, Second Edition provides helpful practical advice and design resources for the practicing engineer. This text examines a range of current methods for the analysis and design of slopes, and details the limitations of both limit equilibrium and the finite element method in the assessment of the stability of a slope. It also introduces a variety of alternative approaches for overcoming numerical non-convergence and the location of critical failure surfaces in two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases. What's New in the Second Edition: This latest edition builds on the concepts of the first edition and covers the case studies involved in slope stability analysis in greater detail. The book adds a chapter on the procedures involved in performing limit equilibrium analysis, as well as a chapter on the design and construction practice in Hong Kong. It includes more examples and illustrations on the distinct element of slope, the relation between limit equilibrium and plasticity theory, the fundamental connections between slope stability analysis and the bearing capacity problem, as well as the stability of the three-dimensional slope under patch load conditions. Addresses new concepts in three-dimensional stability analysis, finite element analysis, and the extension of slope stability problems to lateral earth pressure problems Offers a unified approach to engineering and construction problems, including slope stability, bearing capacity, and earth pressure behind retaining structures Emphasizes how to translate the conceptual design conceived in the design office into physical implementation on site in a holistic way Discusses problems that were discovered during the development of associated computer programs This text assesses the fundamental assumptions and limitations of stability analysis methods and computer modelling, and benefits students taking an elective course on slope stability, as well as geotechnical engineering professionals specializing in slope stability

Southern Africa’s maritime interests are considerable: its oceans and ports are essential to the wealth of the region, are crucial for trade and are an important source of employment, food and energy. However, regional governments do not place sufficient attention on the Blue Economy and its potential to stimulate economic growth. Of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, goal Number 14 (Life Below Water) is the least funded. Less than 1% of Official Development Assistance goes toward this goal, and even private investment and funding from philanthropic organizations is grossly inadequate to meet Africa’s blue economy needs. It is vital for the international community to face up to the challenges of Africa’s Blue Economy and start working on solutions and for southern Africa’s Blue Economy policies and goals to be expanded. Just as sustainable development green initiatives show promise, so too could Blue Economy projects and activities. Southern Africa’s rich coastal and marine resources need to be managed on both a national and regional level if they are to be used in a long-term, sustainable way. This book provides, for the first time, a concise study of the constraints and opportunities that the Blue Economy offers for southern Africa and the role that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) could play in fostering a sustainable use of its ocean and coastal resources.

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.

This book examines the greening of civil codes from a comparative perspective. It takes into account the increasing requirements of supranational rules, which favour measures to reduce global warming and its negative environmental impacts; it discusses the necessity to expand distributive justice given the current ecological emergency; and it reflects on which private law legal tools potentially may be employed to defend nature’s interests. The work fills a gap in the growing literature on developing rights of nature and ecosystem in transnational law. While the focus is on the environmental issues pertaining to the new civil codes and new projects of civil codes, the book promotes interdisciplinary research applicable to a range of environmental and natural resources–focused courses across the social sciences, especially those related to comparative law systems, legal anthropology, legal traditions in the world, political science and international relations.