Geomechanics is the mechanics of geomaterials, i.e. soils and rocks, and deals with fascinating problems such as settlements, stability of excavations, tunnels and offshore platforms, landslides, earthquakes and liquefaction. This edited book presents recent mathematical and computational tools and models to describe and simulate such problems in geomechanics and geotechnical engineering. It includes a collection of contributions emanating from the three Euroconferences GeoMath ('Mathematical Methods in Geomechanics') that were held between 2000 and 2002 in Innsbruck/Austria and Horto/Greece.

Maximizing reader insights into the challenges facing maritime supply chains and container port logistics service providers in Asia, this book highlights their innovative responses to these challenges through real-world case studies. With a focus on mathematical modeling, simulation and heuristics approaches, this book provides academics, engineers, container terminal operators, students in logistics and supply chain management with the latest approaches that can be used to address the planning and scheduling problem in large container terminal yards. This book can be used on a self-contained basis as teaching cases in an undergraduate or specialist class setting, or on techniques applied to maritime container operations for port operations.

The first edition of this book demystified the process of well log analysis for students, researchers and practitioners. In the two decades since, the industry has changed enormously: technical staffs are smaller, and hydrocarbons are harder to locate, quantify, and produce. New drilling techniques have engendered new measurement devices incorporated into the drilling string. Corporate restructuring and the "graying" of the workforce have caused a scarcity in technical competence involved in the search and exploitation of petroleum. The updated 2nd Edition reviews logging measurement technology developed in the last twenty years, and expands the petrophysical applications of the measurements.

Computers in Earth and Environmental Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies in Hazards and Risk Management addresses the need for a comprehensive book that focuses on multi-hazard assessments, natural and manmade hazards, and risk management using new methods and technologies that employ GIS, artificial intelligence, spatial modeling, machine learning tools and meta-heuristic techniques. The book is clearly organized into four parts that cover natural hazards, environmental hazards, advanced tools and technologies in risk management, and future challenges in computer applications to hazards and risk management. Researchers and professionals in Earth and Environmental Science who require the latest technologies and advances in hazards, remote sensing, geosciences, spatial modeling and machine learning will find this book to be an invaluable source of information on the latest tools and technologies available.

Blasting practices in mines have undergone many changes in the recent past and continue to be honed and reconfigured to meet the demands of today's mining needs. This volume compiles papers of the workshop Blasting in Mines - New Trends, hosted by the Fragblast 10 Symposium . The 17 papers provide a mix which highlight the evolving trends in blasting in mines. These range from special techniques of cast blasting, applications of seed wave modelling for improved fragmentation, to design of mass blasts and controlled blasting for stability of pit-walls. Blasting in Mines - New Trends will be of particular interest to mining and blasting engineers.

Fragmentation characteristics influence mucking productivity, crusher throughput and energy consumption, plant efficiency, yield and recovery, or the price itself of the end product in the case of industrial minerals and aggregates. Reliable, quantitative measurements of fragment sizes are instrumental in controlling and optimizing the blasting results. Measurement and Analysis of Blast Fragmentation presents the latest developments in rock fragmentation measurement techniques and analysis. It includes image analysis and machine vision techniques, either photographic or 3D such as stereo-photogrammetry and laser triangulation; case studies of fragmentation measurements in a variety of situations and used in different optimization and control tasks; fragmentation analysis and new suitable functional descriptions of size distributions, and model-scale fragmentation tests with weighed size distribution data. The contributions in this book were presented at the workshop Measurement and Analysis of Blast Fragmentation, which was hosted by Fragblast 10 (New Delhi, India, November 2012), provide a snapshot of the activity in rock fragmentation measurements and analysis around the world, and are a must-have reference for engineers and researchers working in rock blasting.

There is considerable scope for improving the outcome of any blasting operation through basic understanding and application of the principles of blasting science and technology. The main objective of Performance of Explosives and New Developments is to sensitize the practitioner to critically examine the various empirical approaches in blasting which may have been in use for a long time, but lack any sound material basis. On the other hand, where the empirical approaches have proven of value, significant additional improvement can be achieved through better understanding of the underlying process. None of the components involved in a blasting operation should be treated in isolation, as they are all interlinked. Fragmentation of rock by blasting represents the first stage in the size reduction process which is essential to extraction of valuable minerals and metals. Therefore, understanding the performance of the explosive and initiators under actual field conditions, and critical assessment of the blast results afterwards are central to effective blast design, improved productivity, and novel applications. Performance of Explosives and New Developments presents the state of the art on explosive energy, its utilization in blasting, and some new developments and innovative applications, and is aimed at academics and practitioners in the field.

Rock Fragmentation by Blasting contains the papers presented at the 10th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting (New Delhi, India, 26-29 November 2012), and represents the most advanced forum on blasting science and technology. The contributions cover all major recent advancements in blasting and fragmentation, from realistic treatment of the target rock; modelling, measurement and prediction of blast results; control of blast-induced damage, to special blast designs applicable to civil construction and demolition projects. The latest developments on environmental issues associated with blasting operations such as vibrations, flyrock, and dust are also included. Rock Fragmentation by Blasting provides the state-of-the-art in explosives and blasting engineering, and will be a valuable source of information for researchers and practitioners involved in these areas.

This book discusses various aspects, challenges, and solutions for developing systems-of-systems for situation awareness, using applications in the domain of maritime safety and security. Topics include advanced, multi-objective visualization methods for situation awareness, stochastic outlier selection, rule-based anomaly detection, an ontology-based event model for semantic reasoning, new methods for semi-automatic generation of adapters bridging communication gaps, security policies for systems-of-systems, trust assessment, and methods to deal with the dynamics of systems-of-systems in run-time monitoring, testing, and diagnosis. Architectural considerations for designing information-centric systems-of-systems such as situation awareness systems, and an integrated demonstrator implementing many of the investigated aspects, complete the book.

This book deals with an effect in celestial mechanics that has become quite important in exoplanet research. The Lidov-Kozai effect reveals itself in coherent periodic variations (which can be very large) of the inclination and eccentricity of an orbiting body in the presence of an inclined perturber. The effect is known to be important in the motion of many asteroids and planetary satellites. What is more, now it attracts more and more interest in the astronomical and astrophysical community due to its relevance for many exoplanetary systems. Recent years witnessed major advancements in its theory. It would be no exaggeration to say that nowadays the Lidov-Kozai effect becomes one of the most studied astrophysical effects. This book covers the multitude of the Lidov-Kozai effect's modern applications and its theory developments. It will be useful for researchers and students working in astrophysics, celestial mechanics, stellar dynamics, theoretical mechanics, space missions design, depending on the interests of the reader. The book is self-contained. It provides the full detailed coverage of the effect's theory and applications.

Release from prison is matter of increasing interest throughout Europe. On the one hand, arguments about the need to reduce prison numbers, as well the consistent findings that prisoners can be integrated into society more effectively if they are subject to a period of supervision in the community, have made early release policies attractive to governments and to academic commentators. On the other hand, there are concerns that early release may not be applied fairly to all prisoners. This book aims to meet the need for comparative information on release from prison across Europe and explores some of the key themes and issues. The body of the book focuses on country perspectives, providing an invaluable survey of the situation in a number of European countries. The introductory and concluding chapters place the comparative material in a broader perspective. They explain how release policy is related to wider questions about justice and fairness in prison-related decision-making and the changing place of imprisonment in European society.

This book deals with a number of contentious issues in Chinese management as China emerges as a global economic player, with a greater role in international business during a global economic crisis. This step is in tandem with an economically driven foreign policy. Since the 1980s, Chinese management while still in transition, has benefited from an infusion of capital, technology and managerial expertise through inward direct investment via joint and wholly-owned foreign ventures. As the so-called 'workshop of the world', China and its exports, especially labour-intensive goods, face protectionism in the United States and the European Union. To circumvent these barriers, the Chinese leaders are emphasising domestic consumption, itself dependent on rising personal income levels and an improved national social insurance system, and a move to high-tech products, themselves requiring indigenous innovation. The creation of a knowledge economy, in addition to outward investment in manufacturing, could lead to a distinctive independent style of Chinese management. Simultaneously, China's participation in intra-regional trade underlines the nation's role in Asian regional business networks. Such developments in turn present a challenge to Western and global business. This book was published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

The goals of the 10th International Space Conference on Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment ICPMSE-10J, since its inception in 1992, have been to facilitate exchanges between members of the various engineering and science disciplines involved in the development of space materials, including aspects of LEO, GEO and Deep Space environments, ground-based qualification, and in-flight experiments and lessons learned from operational vehicles that are closely interrelated to disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, solar-terrestrial interactions and space life sciences.

The knowledge of environmental conditions on and around the Moon, Mars, Venus and the low Earth orbit as well as other possible candidates for landing such as asteroids have become an important issue, and protecting both hardware and human life from the effects of space environments has taken on a new meaning in light of the increased interest in space travel and colonization of other planets.

And while many material experiments have been carried out on the ground and in open space in the last 50 years (LDEF, MEEP, SARE, MISSE, AOP, DSPSE, ESEM, EURECA, HST, MDIM, MIS, MPID, MPAC and SEED), many questions regarding the environmental impact of space on materials remain either poorly understood or unanswered. The coming generations of scientists will have to continue this work and tackle new challenges, continuing to build the level of confidence humans will need to continue the colonization of space. It is hoped that the proceedings of the ICPMSE-10J presented in this book will constitute a small contribution to doing so."

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the role space is playing in unlocking Latin America's developmental aspirations. It explains how space and its applications can be used to support the development of the full range and diversity of Latin American societies, while being driven by Latin American goals. The Latin American space sector is currently undergoing a phase of rapid and dynamic expansion, with new actors entering the field and with space applications increasingly used to support the continent's social, economic, and political development. All across Latin America, attention is shifting to space as a fundamental part of the continental development agenda, and the creation of a Latin American space agency is evidence of this. Additionally, while in recent years, great advances in economic and social development have lifted many of Latin America's people out of poverty, there is still much that needs to be done to fulfill the basic needs of the population and to afford them the dignity they deserve. To this end, space is already being employed in diverse fields of human endeavor to serve Latin America's goals for its future, but there is still a need for further incorporation of space systems and data. The book is of great interest to researchers, professionals and students in fields such as Space Studies, International Relations, Governance, Social and Rural Development, and many others.

Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much energy over a < 100 second burst is still a mystery. The leading candidate for the GRB progenitor is currently a massive star which collapses to form a black hole-accretion disk system that powers the GRB. GRB afterglows, however, do not always show the expected behavior of a relativistic blast wave interacting with the stellar wind that such a progenitor should have produced before its collapse. In this book, the author uses the Zeus-MP astrophysical hydrodynamics code to model the environment around a stellar progenitor prior to the burst. He then develops a new semi-analytic MHD and emission model to produce light curves for GRBs encountering these realistic density profiles. The work ultimately shows that the circumburst medium surrounding a GRB at the time of the explosion is much more complex than a pure wind, and that observed afterglows are entirely consistent with a large subset of proposed stellar progenitors.

Wild Track is an exploration of birdsong and the ways in which that sound was conveyed, described and responded to through text, prior to the advent of recording and broadcast technologies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Street links sound aesthetics, radio, natural history, and literature to explore how the brain and imagination translate sonic codes as well as the nature of the silent sound we "hear" when we read a text. This creates an awareness of sound through the tuned attention of the senses, learning from sound texts of the natural world that sought – and seek – to convey the intensity of the sonic moment and fleeting experience. To absorb these lessons is to enable a more highly interactive relationship with sound and listening, and to interpret the subtleties of audio as a means of expression and translation of the living world.

The book provides readers with a snapshot of recent research and industrial trends in field of industrial acoustics and vibration. Each chapter, accepted after a rigorous peer-review process, reports on a selected, original piece of work presented and discussed at the Second International Conference on Acoustics and Vibration (ICAV2018), which was organized by the Tunisian Association of Industrial Acoustics and Vibration (ATAVI) and held March 19-21, in Hammamet, Tunisia. The contributions cover advances in both theory and practice in a variety of subfields, such as: smart materials and structures; fluid-structure interaction; structural acoustics as well as computational vibro-acoustics and numerical methods. Further topics include: engines control, noise identification, robust design, flow-induced vibration and many others. This book provides a valuable resource for both academics and professionals dealing with diverse issues in applied mechanics. By combining advanced theories with industrial issues, it is expected to facilitate communication and collaboration between different groups of researchers and technology users.

What is this sound? What does that sound indicate? These are two questions frequently heard in daily conversation. Sound results from the vibrations of elastic media and in daily life provides informative signals of events happening in the surrounding environment. In interpreting auditory sensations, the human ear seems particularly good at extracting the signal signatures from sound waves. Although exploring auditory processing schemes may be beyond our capabilities, source signature analysis is a very attractive area in which signal-processing schemes can be developed using mathematical expressions. This book is inspired by such processing schemes and is oriented to signature analysis of waveforms. Most of the examples in the book are taken from data of sound and vibrations; however, the methods and theories are mostly formulated using mathematical expressions rather than by acoustical interpretation. This book might therefore be attractive and informative for scientists, engineers, researchers, and graduate students who are interested in the mathematical representation of signals and the applications of Fourier analysis. The book can be described as being practically self-contained but does assume readers are familiar with introductory topics in discrete signal processing, as in the discrete Fourier transform. Hence this book might be also usable as a textbook in graduate courses in applied mathematics on topics such as complex functions. Almost all scientific phenomena are sensed as waves propagating in some space. Over the years, waveform analysis has therefore been one of the resilient academic areas of study and still is seen as fertile ground for development. In particular, waveform analysis based on the theory of linear systems would be a good example where a physical interpretation can be given to the mathematical theory of complex functions in terms of magnitude, angle, poles, and zeros of complex functions. For readers who are interested in the physical aspects of sound and vibration data or elementary formulation of wave equations and their solutions, the book Sound and Signals by M. Tohyama (Springer 2011) is recommended. It can serve as a complementary companion to this present volume or independently as a good reference.

This book treats the experimental methods used to determine the physical properties of explosives and explosions - physical principles, operating procedures and evaluations of results. Aimed at practicing engineers as well as experimental physicists who investigate the effects of explosions, this book will be of interest to research laboratories, manufacturers of explosives, military training establishments, technical laboratories and so forth.

New trends in mineral deposits mining largely consist of intensifying and concentrating mining operations. Innovative technologies helping to increase technical-economic indices, extraction volume, working efficiency and safety rules are presented in this book.

A guide for students and professionals, this introductory course book covers the basic principles of remote sensing and its applications in mine environment monitoring. Building from a reader's basic knowledge of mine monitoring, it teaches how to implement remote sensing techniques and how to interpret the acquired data for different purposes. Following a general introduction to remote sensing principles and image analysis, mine subsidence monitoring, slope stability monitoring, reclamation planning and implementation, and post-closure mine and land use analysis are explained and illustrated. With the help of case studies, the techniques and tools presented are demonstrated. With an increasing importance of sustainable mining, this accurate text is intended for the education of university students in mining, civil, geological and environmental engineering. Researchers and professionals in these disciplines may find it beneficial as well to guide their professional monitoring investigations.

The present book is the outcome of an Advanced Study Institute meeting, which was held in Kallithea, Chalkidiki, in Northern Greece, from 12-25 May 1991 and attended by 69 delegates from 18 countries. The Institute brought together scientists, engineers and technologists currently involved in basic and applied research on the different aspects of flotation. The Institute covered subjects in four major areas of flotation: a) fundamentals; b) chemical technology aspects; c) mineral processing; and d) water and wastewater treatment. Apart from the papers reproduced in this volume, several short oral communications were also presented. Participants also had the opportunity to visit the Hellenic Chemical Products & Fertilizers Co. Ltd. mixed sulphides plant, in Chalkidiki. Conference participants, whose interest and research projects are in this broad field of science and engineering, provided a well-informed discussion of the problems encountered, as well as possible directions of future technological developments. It is hoped that this book is not only a good record of the presentations made (formal and informal), analyzing the state-of-the-art in flotation, but will also be helpful for students, scientists and technologists working in the fields of separation processes and in particular mineral processing and wastewater engineering. All the invited speakers and the participants made this summer school possible, worthwhile and enjoyable. The sponsorship by the NATO Scientific Affairs Division is gratefully ack nowledged. The Editors would like to thank the members of the Organizing Committee, Dr. B.A."