This book celebrates the relaunch of the African Pollen Database, presents state-of-the-art of modern and ancient pollen data from sub-Saharan Africa, and promotes Open Access science. Pollen grains are powerful tools for the study of past vegetation dynamics because they preserve well within sedimentary deposits and have a huge diversity in ornamentation that allows different taxa to be determined. The reconstruction of past vegetation from the examination of ancient pollen records thus can be used to characterize the nature of past landscapes (e.g. abundance of forests vs. grasslands), provide insights into changes in biodiversity, and gain empirical evidence of vegetation response to climatic change and human activity. In this, the 35th Volume of "Palaeoecology of Africa", we bring together new data and extensive synthetic reviews to provide novel insights into the relationships between human evolution, human activity, climate change and vegetation dynamics during the Quaternary, the last 2.6 million years.

Current and ongoing climate and land-use change is exerting pressure on modern vegetation formations and threatening the livelihoods and wellbeing of many peoples in Africa. In this book the focus is on the Quaternary because it is during this geological period that the modern vegetation formations developed into their current configurations against a backdrop of high magnitude global climate change (glacial-interglacial cycles), human evolution, and a growing human land-use footprint. In this book the latest information is presented and collated from around the African continent to parameterize past vegetation states, identify the drivers of vegetation change, and assess the vegetation resilience to change. To achieve this research from two broad themes are covered: (i) the present is the key to the past (i.e. studies which improve our understanding of modern environments so that we can better interpret evidence from the past), and (ii) the past is the key to the future (i.e. studies which unlock information on how and why vegetation changed in the past so one can better anticipate trajectories of future change).

This Open Access book will provide a strong foundation for future research exploring past ecological, environmental and climatic change within Africa and the surrounding islands. The book is organized regionally (covering western, eastern, central, and southern Africa) and it contains specialized articles focused on particular topics (such as modern pollen-vegetation relationships and fire as a driver of vegetation change), as well as regional and pan-African syntheses drawing together decades of research to assess key scientific questions (including the role of climate in driving vegetation change and the role of vegetation change in human evolution). These articles will be useful to students and teachers from high school to the highest level of university who are interested in the origins and dynamics of vegetation in Africa. Furthermore, it is also meant to provide societally relevant information that can act as an inspiration for the development of sustainable management practices for the future.

Table of Contents

1. Rise of the Palaeoecology of Africa series

2. The African Pollen Database (APD) and tracing environmental change: State of the Art

3. Preliminary evidence for green, brown and black worlds in tropical western Africa during the Middle and Late Pleistocene

4. Holocene high-altitude vegetation dynamics on Emi Koussi, Tibesti Mountains (Chad, Central Sahara)

5. Timing and nature of the end of the African Humid Period in the Sahel: Insight from pollen data

6. Changes in the West African landscape at the end of the African Humid Period

7. Reconstructing vegetation history of the Olorgesailie Basin during the Middle to Late Pleistocene using phytolith data

8. Sedimentological, palynological and charcoal analyses of the hydric palustrine sediments from the Lielerai-Kimana wetlands, Kajiado, southern Kenya

9. The new Garba Guracha palynological se-quence: Revision and data expansion

10. Lower to Mid-Pliocene pollen data from East African hominid sites, a review

11. Ecosystem change and human-environment interactions of Arabia

12. The challenge of pollen-based quantitative reconstruction of Holocene plant cover in tropical regions: A pilot study in Cameroon

13. A Holocene pollen record from Mboandong, a crater lake in lowland Cameroon

14. Future directions of palaeoecological research in the hyper-diverse Cape Floristic Region: The role of palynological studies

15. An atlas of southern African pollen types and their climatic affinities

16. Pollen productivity estimates from KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa

17. Modern pollen-vegetation relationships in the Drakensberg Mountains, South Africa

18. A Late Holocene pollen and microcharcoal record from Eilandvlei, southern Cape coast, South Africa

19. A ~650 year pollen and microcharcoal record from Vankervelsvlei, South Africa

20. Pollen records of the 14th and 20th centuries AD from Lake Tsizavatsy in southwest Madagascar

21. Modern pollen studies from tropical Africa and their use in palaeoecology

22. Vegetation response to millennial- and orbital-scale climate changes in Africa:

A view from the Ocean

23. Inside-of-Africa: How landscape openness shaped Homo sapiens evolution by facilitating dispersal and gene-flow in Middle and Late Pleistocene Africa

24. The role of palaeoecology in conserving African ecosystems

Future predictions are always a topic of interest. Precise estimates are crucial in many activities as forecasting errors can lead to big financial loss. The sequential analysis of data and information gathered from past to present is call time series analysis. This book covers the recent advancements in time series forecasting. The book includes theoretical as well as recent applications of time series analysis. It focuses on the recent techniques used, discusses a combination of methodology and applications, presents traditional and advanced tools, new applications, and identifies the gaps in knowledge in engineering applications. This book is aimed at scientists, researchers, postgraduate students and engineers in the areas of supply chain management, production, inventory planning, and statistical quality control.

Drying processes are among the most energy-consuming operations in industry. Flame spray drying (FSD) is a novel approach to reduce the energy supply needed for the spray drying process. Flame Spray Drying: Equipment, Mechanism, and Perspectives describes FSD technology and current developments in flame techniques and evaluates potential industrial implementation. Details advantages of FSD in terms of energy consumption and reduced drying time Promotes applications of biofuels for the drying process Analyzes the FSD method from CFD modelling to product quality Evaluates potential safety and product degradation risks Provides examples of potential applications of the FSD technique in drying of different materials This book describes an important new technique that is useful to chemical and process engineering researchers, professionals, and students working with drying technologies.

A large and growing number of manufacturers are realizing the substantial financial and environmental benefits of sustainable business practices. To develop more sustainable societies, industries need to better understand how to respond to environmental, economic, and social challenges and transform industrial behavior. The objective of this book is to provide the required knowledge and accelerate the transition towards a sustainable industrial system. The book will help industries to enhance operational efficiency by reducing costs and waste. It will help them increase customer response, reach new customers, and gain competitive advantage. It offers innovation, scenario planning, and strategic analysis that goes beyond compliance, as well as case studies and remedies to the industry 4.0 challenges. Professionals, as well as students, can refer to this book to add to their knowledge on Industry 4.0 and develop new ideas and solutions to the existing and future problems.

Presents a comparison between conventional and advanced manufacturing methods of FGM fabrication Discusses the fundamentals and advancements of FGMs Offers case studies from labs all over the world by key research groups Covers the entire concept of recent trends and advancements in the manufacturing of FGMs via different techniques Includes the principles and working details of various processing techniques and limitations

The importance of good documentation can build a strong foundation for any thriving organization. This reference text provides a detailed and practical treatment of technical writing in an easy to understand manner. The text covers important topics including neuro-linguistics programming (NLP), experimental writing against technical writing, writing and unity of effect, five elements of communication process, human information processing, nonverbal communication and types of technical manuals. Aimed at professionals and graduate students working in the fields of ergonomics, aerospace engineering, aviation industry, and human factors, this book: Provides a detailed and practical treatment of technical writing. Discusses several personal anecdotes that serve as real-work examples. Explores communications techniques in a way that considers the psychology of what "works" Discusses in an easy to understand language, stories, and examples, the correct steps to create technical documents.

The book uses a systems-based approach to show how innovation is pervasive in all facets of endeavors, including business, industrial, government, the military, and even academia. It presents chapters that provide techniques and methodologies for achieving the transfer of science and technology assets for innovation applications. By introducing Innovation, the book and offers different viewpoints, both qualitative and quantitative. It includes the role that systems can play and discusses approaches along technical and process issues. There is a showcase of innovation applications, and coverage on how to manage innovation individually as well as within a team and it also includes how to develop, manage, and sustain innovation in various organizations. Open-ended questions and exercises are included at the end of chapters with no need for a solutions manual. Written for the advance-level textbook market as well as for the professional reader, it targets those within the engineering, business, and management fields.

Mathematical models are used to convert real-life problems using mathematical concepts and language. These models are governed by differential equations whose solutions make it easy to understand real-life problems and can be applied to engineering and science disciplines. This book presents numerical methods for solving various mathematical models. This book offers real-life applications, includes research problems on numerical treatment, and shows how to develop the numerical methods for solving problems. The book also covers theory and applications in engineering and science. Engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and researchers working on real-life mathematical problems will find this book useful.

This book provides an up-to-date, accessible, and comprehensive coverage of human cold stress from principles and theory to practical application. It defines cold stress and how people respond to it. It describes how to assess a cold environment to predict when discomfort, wind-chill, hypothermia, shivering, frostbite, and other consequences will occur. It also advises on what to do to prevent unacceptable outcomes, including determination and selection of clothing to preserve comfort and health. The book will be of interest to practitioners and students and anyone involved with fields such as textiles, clothing, and industrial hygiene.

In today's competitive markets, considering the demand and the supply chain sides is crucial to keeping revenue and customer satisfaction maximized. Managing and planning demand play a vital role in the sustainability of a company. This is the first book to the discuss managerial, mathematical, and conceptual framework of influencing factors on demand along with accurate mathematical analyses to evaluate and raise revenue. The book provides an understanding of the key elements that impact buyer demand. It presents the mathematical relationship between the influencing factors and the demand functions. It discusses the methods used for inspiring demand, how to measure demand dependency on components such as price, quality, and inventory, and it helps management improve alignment between supply and demand by affecting the level and understanding of the role within supply chain management (SCM). This book is applicable for the professional as well as for academia. It can help those working in SCM, project management, production, inventory control, scheduling, engineering management, retail management, and operations management.

This book highlights topics ranging from green chemistry and engineering to bioremediation, smart technologies, and sustainable business practices. The common threads running through this volume are the need for urgent action, a vision for a sustainable future, and the awareness that solutions must be widely accessible and advance the welfare of all nations, especially in the face of climate change. The authors delineate how we can protect and restore natural ecosystem potential to achieve environmental sustainability. They provide a clear idea of today's environmental challenges and solutions, focus on energy use patterns and the reduction of energy consumption, advocate for increased environmental awareness, and discuss environmental monitoring systems. The book contains many domestic and international case studies and showcases visionary ideas in action to illustrate sustainability principles. This volume provides an in-depth reference for stakeholders from academia, government, and industry on the latest research in environmental sustainability solutions. Inspired by the common wisdom that we do not inherit this Earth from our ancestors but instead borrow it from our children, the authors offer solutions to emergent problems. This research comprises an important contribution to the global effort to build a more sustainable tomorrow.

Operational excellence, as a quest in the prevailing digital era, is predicated on a systems view of the operating environments in business, industry, government, academia, and other organizational entities. This book uses a systems-based approach to show how operational excellence can be pursued, achieved, and sustained. It offers a systems perspective for operational excellence and discusses the evolution of products from the classical operation era to present day digital operations. It covers the role of global markets on domestic operations, presents operational work design and ergonomics, and combines industrial engineering, advanced research, and practical experience. This book is a useful guide for scholars, practitioners and those involved in engineering, management, and business fields.

Problem-solving and better thinking skills are among the top skills that employers are looking for. This book presents various methods of problem-solving that can be adapted to any field. It focuses on a set of a dozen new approaches with an ending result to finding better solutions to problems that you may have previously found difficult. The book discusses problem-solving based upon new thinking skills and presents the relationship between problem-solving and creativity. A connection between problem-solving and re-engineering is presented as the book explores the ability to tackle new and difficult problems in all aspects of life. It points you in the direction of how to easily find better solutions to problems that previously were found to be difficult. Target audience is general engineers, systems engineers, scientists, technologists, mathematicians, and lawyers.

In the current age of manufacturing revival in the U.S. and other developed countries, companies are looking for ways to maintain or gain advantage over competitors from low-cost countries. This book presents a firsthand account of actual projects in three different industries to help leaders and middle managers structure their own turnaround or improvement projects. The book uses a case-based approach for Lean implementation and presents a summary of lessons learned and insights on change management. It includes examples of Robotic Process Automation concepts used in manufacturing and offers several examples of analytical tools used to solve operations management problems. The first-person, story-based approach makes this book an engaging read for operations leaders and middle management in the areas of quality management, engineering management, business management, and manufacturing, as well as postgraduate students.

This is a history of the hydropolitics of the Nile Valley from 1900 to 1988. Attempts to develop the Nile and control its waters are of vital significance to the future of the inhabitants of Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and East Africa. Acute drought and heavy flooding in the Nile Basin have brought disaster in the past, and the history of the area is the story of human effort to control the precious waters of the river. Written by Robert O. Collins, distinguished authority in the field, this highly interdisciplinary study will appeal to those interested in the environment, politics, third world development, anthropology, zoology, and economic history. Robert O. Collins, University of California, Santa Barbara, was the author Africa: A Short History and Darfur: The Long Road to Disaster (with J. Millard Burr), as well as many other titles available from Markus Wiener.

This book describes the fundamental phenomena of, and computational methods for, hydraulic transients, such as the self-stabilization effect, restriction of the Joukowsky equation, real relations between the rigid and elastic water column theories, the role of wave propagation speed, mechanism of the attenuation of pressure fluctuations, etc. A new wave tracking method is described in great detail and, supported by the established conservation and traveling laws of shockwaves, offers a number of advantages. The book puts forward a novel method that allows transient flows to be directly computed at each time node during a transient process, and explains the differences and relations between the rigid and elastic water column theories. To facilitate their use in hydropower applications, the characteristics of pumps and turbines are provided in suitable forms and examples. The book offers a valuable reference guide for engineers and scientists, helping them make transient computations for their own programming, while also contributing to the final standardization of methods for transient computations.

This book covers an interdisciplinary approach for understanding mathematical modeling by offering a collection of models, solved problems related to the models, the methodologies employed, and the results using projects and case studies with insight into the operation of substantial real-time systems. The book covers a broad scope in the areas of statistical science, probability, stochastic processes, fluid dynamics, supply chain, optimization, and applications. It discusses advanced topics and the latest research findings, uses an interdisciplinary approach for real-time systems, offers a platform for integrated research, and identifies the gaps in the field for further research. The book is for researchers, students, and teachers that share a goal of learning advanced topics and the latest research in mathematical modeling.

Differential equations play a noticeable role in engineering, physics, economics, and other disciplines. They permit us to model changing forms in both mathematical and physical problems. These equations are precisely used when a deterministic relation containing some continuously varying quantities and their rates of change in space and/or time is recognized or postulated. This book is intended to provide a straightforward introduction to the concept of partial differential equations. It provides a diversity of numerical examples framed to nurture the intellectual level of scholars. It includes enough examples to provide students with a clear concept and also offers short questions for comprehension. Construction of real-life problems is considered in the last chapter along with applications. Research scholars and students working in the fields of engineering, physics, and different branches of mathematics need to learn the concepts of partial differential equations to solve their problems. This book will serve their needs instead of having to use more complex books that contain more concepts than needed.

Manufacturing Parameters and Entrepreneurship provides a guide that helps business leaders understand and apply the production parameters and estimation techniques needed for commercial success. This book covers important concepts in depth, including manufacturing space, manufacturing quality, production backorders, space consideration, quality aspects, maximum inventory control, entrepreneurial application, and quality inclusion. Key features: Covers manufacturing parameters, their estimation, and effects in a single volume. Discusses conceptualization, formulation, and analysis of space consideration. Provides basic understanding and mathematical treatment of quality aspects in detail. Discusses in detail concepts such as manufacturing space, manufacturing quality, and production backorders. Covers stock out situations in detail. Manufacturing Parameters and Entrepreneurship will be an invaluable addition to the libraries of graduate students and professionals in the field of industrial engineering, production engineering, and manufacturing science and engineering.

This book provides a clear understanding regarding the fundamentals of matrix and determinant from introduction to its real-life applications. The topic is considered one of the most important mathematical tools used in mathematical modelling. Matrix and Determinant: Fundamentals and Applications is a small self-explanatory and well synchronized book that provides an introduction to the basics along with well explained applications. The theories in the book are covered along with their definitions, notations, and examples. Illustrative examples are listed at the end of each covered topic along with unsolved comprehension questions, and real-life applications. This book provides a concise understanding of matrix and determinate which will be useful to students as well as researchers.

This book offers a survey of successful attributes of the systems engineer. It focuses on the key positive attributes of what today’s systems engineer should be and puts a model in place for achievement and behavior for future systems engineers. The book, in survey form, provides a description of how and why systems engineers can be, and have been, successful. It offers successful attributes, focuses on the key positive qualities, and drills down to the success features to aim for and the failure characteristics to avoid. The ending result is that it sets a model for achievement and behavior for future systems engineers to follow a successful path. This book will be helpful to systems engineers, industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, general engineers, and those in technical management.

This book is for beginners who are struggling to understand and optimize non-linear problems. The content will help readers gain an understanding and learn how to formulate real-world problems and will also give insight to many researchers for their future prospects. It proposes a mind map for conceptual understanding and includes sufficient solved examples for reader comprehension. The theory is explained in a lucid way. The variety of examples are framed to raise the thinking level of the reader and the formulation of real-world problems are included in the last chapter along with applications. The book is self-explanatory, well synchronized and written for undergraduate, post graduate and research scholars.

This book introduces linear transformation and its key results, which have applications in engineering, physics, and various branches of mathematics. Linear transformation is a difficult subject for students. This concise text provides an in-depth overview of linear trans-formation. It provides multiple-choice questions, covers enough examples for the reader to gain a clear understanding, and includes exact methods with specific shortcuts to reach solutions for particular problems. Research scholars and students working in the fields of engineering, physics, and different branches of mathematics need to learn the concepts of linear transformation to solve their problems. This book will serve their need instead of having to use the more complex texts that contain more concepts then needed. The chapters mainly discuss the definition of linear transformation, properties of linear transformation, linear operators, composition of two or more linear transformations, kernels and range of linear transformation, inverse transformation, one-to-one and onto transformation, isomorphism, matrix linear transformation, and similarity of two matrices.

This book is for those interested in number systems, abstract algebra, and analysis. It provides an understanding of negative and fractional numbers with theoretical background and explains rationale of irrational and complex numbers in an easy to understand format. This book covers the fundamentals, proof of theorems, examples, definitions, and concepts. It explains the theory in an easy and understandable manner and offers problems for understanding and extensions of concept are included. The book provides concepts in other fields and includes an understanding of handling of numbers by computers. Research scholars and students working in the fields of engineering, science, and different branches of mathematics will find this book of interest, as it provides the subject in a clear and concise way.

Computational hydraulics and hydrologic modeling are rapidly developing fields with a wide range of applications in areas ranging from wastewater disposal and stormwater management to civil and environmental engineering. These fields are full of promise, but the abundance of literature that now exists contains many new terms that are not always defined. Computational Hydraulics and Hydrology: An Illustrated Dictionary defines more that 4,000 basic terms and phrases related to water conveyance with emphasis on computational hydraulics and hydrologic modeling. Compiled by Nicolas G. Adrien, a noted consulting engineer with three decades of experience, this dictionary includes detailed references to actual modeling studies, nearly 100 illustrations, 150 equations and formulas, and many notations. It also includes a chapter of application examples and another containing more than 6,000 related terms with a list of resources where interested readers can find additional definitions. Other dictionaries and glossaries related to these areas tend to be either dated or much narrower in scope. This dictionary offers broad, practice-based coverage of terms culled directly from the latest texts, references, and actual engineering reports. Computational Hydraulics and Hydrology: An Illustrated Dictionary stands alone in providing ready access to the vocabulary of these subjects.