Rainwater tank systems have been widely adopted across the world to provide a safe local source of water in underdeveloped rural areas, a substitution for mains water for non potable end uses in water stressed urban areas, as well as providing flooding control in monsoonal climates such as Korea, or combined sewer systems such as Germany. The importance of these systems in cities has grown, as water managers seek to provide a range of decentralised solutions to supply constraints of current water supply systems, whilst reducing the impact of urban development on the natural environment, and increasing resilience to the impacts of climate change. Rainwater tank systems are now often implemented under integrated urban water management (IUWM) and water sensitive urban design (WSUD) philosophies, which take a holistic view of the urban water cycle. Rainwater Tank Systems for Urban Water Supply is based on a comprehensive, multi-million dollar research program that was undertaken in South East Queensland (SEQ) Australia in response to the Millennium drought when the water supply level in the regions drinking water dams dropped to 17% in July 2007 and the area came close to running out of water. In particular, the book provides insights and detailed analysis of design, modelling, implementation, operation, energy usage, economics, management, health risk, social perceptions and implications for water quality/quantity of roof water runoff. The approaches and methodologies included in Rainwater Tank Systems for Urban Water Supply inform and validate research programs, and provide insights on the expected performance and potential pitfalls of the adoption of rainwater tanks systems including: actual harvested yield and resulting mains water savings, optimal sizing for rainwater storages and roof collection systems, expected water quality and implications for managing public health risks, modelling tools available for decision support, operation and management approaches of a decentralised asset at the household scale and community acceptance. The book is suitable for use at undergraduate and post graduate levels and is of particular interest to water professionals across the globe, who are involved in the strategic water planning for a town, city or a region. It is a valuable resource for developers, civil designers, water planners, architects and plumbers seeking to implement sustainable water servicing approaches for residential, industrial and commercial developments.

Returning to Ashok K. Banker’s brilliant epic fantasy world of the Burnt Empire, A Dark Queen Rises features Aqreen and Krushita, a mother and daughter on a quest to protect the innocent and bring down tyrants Queen Aqreen of Aquila leaves her husband Jarsun and flees across the Red Desert. She is determined to keep her daughter from being used by Jarsun to stake his claim to the Burning Throne of Hastinaga, seat of the all-powerful Burnt Empire. But Jarsun is vengeful and can summon legions of demoniac forces at will. The Red Desert is vast, and the journey dangerous. Aqreen and Krushita’s caravan of ten thousand wagons will take several years to reach the only safe harbor, the queendom of Reygar. Jarsun’s pursuit is relentless and his vengeance terrible, but hope shines from the growing powers of little Krushita herself, along with the four-armed, twin-bodied Vanjhani wagon train leader and their band of valiant desert militia. Fierce battles are in store. There are other players in this great game of demigods and mortals, each pursuing their own agendas. The powerful seer-mage Vessa seeks to join Krushita’s talents with that of Drishya, an avatar destined to confront and kill Tyrak, Jarsun’s diabolical son-in-law. Ladislew the assassin aligns with Tyrak for her own reasons. All paths culminate in a feverish finale on the hot sands of Reygar, as father, mother, and daughter confront each other in one ultimate showdown.

Debates about public expenditure in the agricultural sector have reopened in many developing and emerging economies because of high budget deficits and changes in public opinion. As a result, agricultural policy in many of these countries is beginning to take a more market-oriented approach to agrarian problems, most notably through the introduction of contract farming. This book explores the policy issues around contract farming and its transformative potential and addresses the lack of empirical research on this topic by focusing on South Asia: principally India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The book first addresses the effects of contract farming (vertical coordination) on productivity, food security indicators (yield, consumption expenditures, prices), employment and input usage. Then it draws lessons from the South Asian case studies on the impact of institutional changes, like contract farming, on income and food security of smallholder households. The core of the book includes case study chapters on several commodities that are produced under contract farming, including vegetables and fisheries in Bangladesh, low-value crops in Nepal and coffee in India. Other chapters also explore contracts, storage, input usage and technical efficiency in these cases. This book serves as an essential guide to academics, researchers, students, legislative liaisons and think tank groups interested in agrarian issues, agricultural economics and agricultural policy in emerging economies and particularly in South Asia.

A unique title comparing rural policies and employment in the two most developed parts of the world - the EU and USA. While both regions are concerned for their vast rural areas, each adopts a strikingly different approach to create and maintain employment there, making rural space attractive to businesses and residents.This book focuses on a major issue of socioeconomic and policy concern, i.e. whether jobs and incomes can be protected or created in rural areas, where often agriculture no longer provides a large and secure basis for employment. Within a 'paired' chapter structure covering both the European Union and the United States of America, it deals with several themes of interest including farm policies, labor entry and exit, and rural and household enterprise diversification. Specific 'special studies' also analyze recent developments within countries or regions.

There is growing knowledge about and appreciation of the importance of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to rural livelihoods in developing countries, and to a lesser extent, developed countries. However, there is also an assumption on the part of policy-makers that any harvesting of wild animal or plant products from the forests and other natural and modified ecosystems must be detrimental to the long-term viability of target populations and species. This book challenges this idea and shows that while examples of such negative impacts certainly exist, there are also many examples of sustainable harvesting systems for NTFPs. The chapters review and present coherent and scientifically sound information and case studies on the ecologically sustainable use of NTFPs. They also outline a general interdisciplinary approach for assessing the sustainability of NTFP harvesting systems at different scales. A wide range of case studies is included from Africa, Asia and South America, using plant and animal products for food, crafts, textiles, medicines and cosmetics.

This book is a comprehensive guide on neural stem cell behavior in health and disease. The book confers the altered behavior of endogenous neural stem cells in neurodegenerative disease conditions and the prospects of neural stem cell therapy for alleviating brain dysfunction in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders.Neural stem cell activity and neurogenesis in the adult brain is now confirmed in virtually all mammalian species including humans. Hence, a series of chapters in the first half of the book discusses the current knowledge on mechanisms of neural stem cell activity, the extent and functional significance of neurogenesis in the adult brain under normal, aged and disease environments, the susceptibility of neural stem cells and the plasticity of neurogenesis to alcohol, drugs of abuse and anesthetic agents, and advanced techniques that trigger neurogenesis in non-neurogenic regions.A second series of chapters in this book are focused on discussing the promise and efficacy of grafting of neural stem cells and/or other stem cells for treating neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, temporal lobe epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injury. The final chapter confers on advances that are made in manufacturing a variety of neural cell types from human pluripotent stem cells that can be used as donor cells for cell transplantation.

There is growing knowledge about and appreciation of the importance of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to rural livelihoods in developing countries, and to a lesser extent, developed countries. However, there is also an assumption on the part of policy-makers that any harvesting of wild animal or plant products from the forests and other natural and modified ecosystems must be detrimental to the long-term viability of target populations and species. This book challenges this idea and shows that while examples of such negative impacts certainly exist, there are also many examples of sustainable harvesting systems for NTFPs. The chapters review and present coherent and scientifically sound information and case studies on the ecologically sustainable use of NTFPs. They also outline a general interdisciplinary approach for assessing the sustainability of NTFP harvesting systems at different scales. A wide range of case studies is included from Africa, Asia and South America, using plant and animal products for food, crafts, textiles, medicines and cosmetics.

The first edition of this book is a collection of a series of lectures given by Professor Victor Kac at the TIFR, Mumbai, India in December 1985 and January 1986. These lectures focus on the idea of a highest weight representation, which goes through four different incarnations.The first is the canonical commutation relations of the infinite dimensional Heisenberg Algebra (= oscillator algebra). The second is the highest weight representations of the Lie algebra g of infinite matrices, along with their applications to the theory of soliton equations, discovered by Sato and Date, Jimbo, Kashiwara and Miwa. The third is the unitary highest weight representations of the current (= affine Kac-Moody) algebras. These Lie algebras appear in the lectures in connection to the Sugawara construction, which is the main tool in the study of the fourth incarnation of the main idea, the theory of the highest weight representations of the Virasoro algebra. In particular, the book provides a complete proof of the Kac determinant formula, the key result in representation theory of the Virasoro algebra.The second edition of this book incorporates, as its first part, the largely unchanged text of the first edition, while its second part is the collection of lectures on vertex algebras, delivered by Professor Kac at the TIFR in January 2003. The basic idea of these lectures was to demonstrate how the key notions of the theory of vertex algebras - such as quantum fields, their normal ordered product and lambda-bracket, energy-momentum field and conformal weight, untwisted and twisted representations - simplify and clarify the constructions of the first edition of the book.This book should be very useful for both mathematicians and physicists. To mathematicians, it illustrates the interaction of the key ideas of the representation theory of infinite dimensional Lie algebras and of the theory of vertex algebras; and to physicists, these theories are turning into an important component of such domains of theoretical physics as soliton theory, conformal field theory, the theory of two-dimensional statistical models, and string theory.

The first edition of this book is a collection of a series of lectures given by Professor Victor Kac at the TIFR, Mumbai, India in December 1985 and January 1986. These lectures focus on the idea of a highest weight representation, which goes through four different incarnations.The first is the canonical commutation relations of the infinite dimensional Heisenberg Algebra (= oscillator algebra). The second is the highest weight representations of the Lie algebra g of infinite matrices, along with their applications to the theory of soliton equations, discovered by Sato and Date, Jimbo, Kashiwara and Miwa. The third is the unitary highest weight representations of the current (= affine Kac-Moody) algebras. These Lie algebras appear in the lectures in connection to the Sugawara construction, which is the main tool in the study of the fourth incarnation of the main idea, the theory of the highest weight representations of the Virasoro algebra. In particular, the book provides a complete proof of the Kac determinant formula, the key result in representation theory of the Virasoro algebra.The second edition of this book incorporates, as its first part, the largely unchanged text of the first edition, while its second part is the collection of lectures on vertex algebras, delivered by Professor Kac at the TIFR in January 2003. The basic idea of these lectures was to demonstrate how the key notions of the theory of vertex algebras - such as quantum fields, their normal ordered product and lambda-bracket, energy-momentum field and conformal weight, untwisted and twisted representations - simplify and clarify the constructions of the first edition of the book.This book should be very useful for both mathematicians and physicists. To mathematicians, it illustrates the interaction of the key ideas of the representation theory of infinite dimensional Lie algebras and of the theory of vertex algebras; and to physicists, these theories are turning into an important component of such domains of theoretical physics as soliton theory, conformal field theory, the theory of two-dimensional statistical models, and string theory.

Debates about public expenditure in the agricultural sector have reopened in many developing and emerging economies because of high budget deficits and changes in public opinion. As a result, agricultural policy in many of these countries is beginning to take a more market-oriented approach to agrarian problems, most notably through the introduction of contract farming. This book explores the policy issues around contract farming and its transformative potential and addresses the lack of empirical research on this topic by focusing on South Asia: principally India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The book first addresses the effects of contract farming (vertical coordination) on productivity, food security indicators (yield, consumption expenditures, prices), employment and input usage. Then it draws lessons from the South Asian case studies on the impact of institutional changes, like contract farming, on income and food security of smallholder households. The core of the book includes case study chapters on several commodities that are produced under contract farming, including vegetables and fisheries in Bangladesh, low-value crops in Nepal and coffee in India. Other chapters also explore contracts, storage, input usage and technical efficiency in these cases. This book serves as an essential guide to academics, researchers, students, legislative liaisons and think tank groups interested in agrarian issues, agricultural economics and agricultural policy in emerging economies and particularly in South Asia.

First published in 1999, this volume begins with a panoramic survey by Nigel Harris of the drama of Asian Urbanization, based on the inaugural plenary lecture he gave to the 5th Asian Urbanization Conference held in London. In the following chapters many experts and practitioners from different countries and cities provide a stimulating portrayal of the processes and outcomes of one of the greatest shifts of population (not just absolutely but proportionately as well) ever to have occurred in human history. Asia includes more than half the world's population, but, apart from the Tiger economies and Japan, it is still overwhelmingly rural. In the last decade or so urbanization has really begun to take off and the shift of population to the cities represents one of the greatest population movements the planet has ever seen. By 2030 more than 50% of Asia's population will be urban and between now and then more than 500 million people in Asia will have moved - looking for jobs, housing, food and water. They will be both part of a problem and most of the solution - building around them the cities they will live in.

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business.

This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it:

• provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment
• shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses
• contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints
• describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product
• includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction.

Published in 1998, Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century examines a number of related themes including: the traditional approach of local and regional planning initiatives developed within the context of national goals; the current decline of bi-polar political and ideological blocs; political decentralization and concurrent economic centralization including the growth of multi-national corporations; devolution of centralized planning powers to regions and localities, and the rise and acceptance of sustainable development concepts. The book is divided into five parts addressing: 1 - adjustments to political, economic and social change; 2 the problems of urban housing and housing and health; 3 - adjustments to environmental change, development policies and sustainability; 4 - the problem of rapid urban growth and mega cities; 5 - adjustments of changing urban networks. The contributors are from several countries worldwide and the chapters examine the issues at a global level.

The linguistic origin of the term Dalit is Marathi, and pre-dates the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement of the 1970s. It was not in popular use till the last quarter of the 20th century, the origin of the term Dalit, although in the 1930s, it was used as Marathi-Hindi translation of the word "Depressed Classes". The changing nature of caste and Dalits has become a topic of increasing interest in India. This edited book is a collection of originally written chapters by eminent experts on the experiences of Dalits in India. It examines who constitute Dalits and engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category, a class phenomenon, and subsumes homogeneity of the entire Dalit population. This book argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations, characterized by heterogeneity of their experiences. It asserts that Dalits have a common urge to liberate from the oppressive and exploitative social arrangement which has been the guiding force of Dalit movement. This book has analysed this movement through three phases: the reformative, the transformative and the confrontationist. An exploration of dynamic relations between subalternity, exclusion and social change, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of sociology, political science and contemporary India.

Food loss is a serious issue in the United States. It affects all aspects of the supply chain, from farmers to consumers. While much is already known about loss at the consumer level, our understanding of the amount of food that never makes it to this stage is more limited. The Economics of Food Loss in the Produce Industry focuses on the economics of food loss as they apply to on-farm produce production, and the losses that are experienced early. The book both analyses current food loss literature and presents new empirical research. It draws lessons from those who have encountered these issues by focusing on how past regional or national estimates of food loss have been conducted with varying degrees of success. It includes chapters on several themes: understanding food loss from an economic perspective; efforts to measure food loss; case studies across commodities within the produce industry; and economic risks and opportunities. The commodity case studies provide detailed discussion of factors impacting changes in loss levels within the produce industry, and a wealth of knowledge on strategies and contexts is developed. The book concludes by identifying critical knowledge gaps and establishing future priorities. This book serves as an essential reference guide for academics, researchers, students, legislative liaisons, non-profit associations, and think tank groups in agriculture and agricultural economics.

First published in 1999, this volume begins with a panoramic survey by Nigel Harris of the drama of Asian Urbanization, based on the inaugural plenary lecture he gave to the 5th Asian Urbanization Conference held in London. In the following chapters many experts and practitioners from different countries and cities provide a stimulating portrayal of the processes and outcomes of one of the greatest shifts of population (not just absolutely but proportionately as well) ever to have occurred in human history. Asia includes more than half the world's population, but, apart from the Tiger economies and Japan, it is still overwhelmingly rural. In the last decade or so urbanization has really begun to take off and the shift of population to the cities represents one of the greatest population movements the planet has ever seen. By 2030 more than 50% of Asia's population will be urban and between now and then more than 500 million people in Asia will have moved - looking for jobs, housing, food and water. They will be both part of a problem and most of the solution - building around them the cities they will live in.

The linguistic origin of the term Dalit is Marathi, and pre-dates the militant-intellectual Dalit Panthers movement of the 1970s. It was not in popular use till the last quarter of the 20th century, the origin of the term Dalit, although in the 1930s, it was used as Marathi-Hindi translation of the word "Depressed Classes". The changing nature of caste and Dalits has become a topic of increasing interest in India. This edited book is a collection of originally written chapters by eminent experts on the experiences of Dalits in India. It examines who constitute Dalits and engages with the mainstream subaltern perspective that treats Dalits as a political and economic category, a class phenomenon, and subsumes homogeneity of the entire Dalit population. This book argues that the socio-cultural deprivations of Dalits are their primary deprivations, characterized by heterogeneity of their experiences. It asserts that Dalits have a common urge to liberate from the oppressive and exploitative social arrangement which has been the guiding force of Dalit movement. This book has analysed this movement through three phases: the reformative, the transformative and the confrontationist. An exploration of dynamic relations between subalternity, exclusion and social change, the book will be of interest to academics in the field of sociology, political science and contemporary India.

Published in 1998, Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century examines a number of related themes including: the traditional approach of local and regional planning initiatives developed within the context of national goals; the current decline of bi-polar political and ideological blocs; political decentralization and concurrent economic centralization including the growth of multi-national corporations; devolution of centralized planning powers to regions and localities, and the rise and acceptance of sustainable development concepts. The book is divided into five parts addressing: 1 - adjustments to political, economic and social change; 2 the problems of urban housing and housing and health; 3 - adjustments to environmental change, development policies and sustainability; 4 - the problem of rapid urban growth and mega cities; 5 - adjustments of changing urban networks. The contributors are from several countries worldwide and the chapters examine the issues at a global level.

In recent years, developed countries have formulated public policies in agriculture ranging from supporting rural life and farm income to promoting sustainability of food and fibre production. Public Policy in Agriculture: Impact on Labor Supply and Household Income addresses the lack of empirical research in this area. It explores the impact of differing approaches to public policy through a series of international case studies, from the USA and Canada to South Korea, Norway, Slovenia and Taiwan. At a time when much of the developed world has been experiencing budget deficits and policy-makers and the public in general have re-opened the debate on public expenditures in the agricultural sector, this is a timely volume. Mishra, Viaggi and Gomez y Paloma have written an authoritative guide to agricultural public policy that will serve as a reference for academics, researchers, students, and policy-makers.

This book is a collection of a series of lectures given by Prof. V Kac at Tata Institute, India in Dec '85 and Jan '86. These lectures focus on the idea of a highest weight representation, which goes through four different incarnations.The first is the canonical commutation relations of the infinite-dimensional Heisenberg Algebra (= oscillator algebra). The second is the highest weight representations of the Lie algebra gl of infinite matrices, along with their applications to the theory of soliton equations, discovered by Sato and Date, Jimbo, Kashiwara and Miwa. The third is the unitary highest weight representations of the current (= affine Kac-Moody) algebras. These algebras appear in the lectures twice, in the reduction theory of soliton equations (KP KdV) and in the Sugawara construction as the main tool in the study of the fourth incarnation of the main idea, the theory of the highest weight representations of the Virasoro algebra.This book should be very useful for both mathematicians and physicists. To mathematicians, it illustrates the interaction of the key ideas of the representation theory of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras; and to physicists, this theory is turning into an important component of such domains of theoretical physics as soliton theory, theory of two-dimensional statistical models, and string theory.

This book is a collection of a series of lectures given by Prof. V Kac at Tata Institute, India in Dec '85 and Jan '86. These lectures focus on the idea of a highest weight representation, which goes through four different incarnations.The first is the canonical commutation relations of the infinite-dimensional Heisenberg Algebra (= oscillator algebra). The second is the highest weight representations of the Lie algebra gl of infinite matrices, along with their applications to the theory of soliton equations, discovered by Sato and Date, Jimbo, Kashiwara and Miwa. The third is the unitary highest weight representations of the current (= affine Kac-Moody) algebras. These algebras appear in the lectures twice, in the reduction theory of soliton equations (KP KdV) and in the Sugawara construction as the main tool in the study of the fourth incarnation of the main idea, the theory of the highest weight representations of the Virasoro algebra.This book should be very useful for both mathematicians and physicists. To mathematicians, it illustrates the interaction of the key ideas of the representation theory of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras; and to physicists, this theory is turning into an important component of such domains of theoretical physics as soliton theory, theory of two-dimensional statistical models, and string theory.

Feeding the increasing global population, which is projected to reach ~10 billion by 2050, there has been increasing demands for more improved/sustainable agricultural management practices that can be followed by farmers to improve productivity without jeopardizing the environment and ecosystem. Indeed, about 95% of our food directly or indirectly comes from soil. It is a precious resource, and sustainable soil management is a critical socio-economic and environmental issue. Maintaining the environmental sustainability while the world is facing resource degradation, increasing climate change and population explosion is the current challenge of every food production sectors. Thus, there is an urgent need to evolve a holistic approach such as conservation agriculture to sustain higher crop productivity in the country without deteriorating soil health. Conservation Agriculture (CA), is a sustainable approach to manage agro-ecosystems in order to improve productivity, increase farm profitabilty and food security and also enhance the resource base and environment. Worldwide, it has been reported various benefits and prospects in adopting CA technologies in different agro-climatic conditions. Yet, CA in arid and semi-arid regions of India and parts of south Asia raises uncertainities due to its extreme climates, large scale residue burning, soil erosion and other constraints such as low water holding capacity, high potential evapotranspiration, etc . Thus, the proposed book has 30 chapters addressing all issues relevant to conservation agriculture/no-till farming system. The book also gives further strengthening existing knowledge in relation to soil physical, chemical and biological processes and health within close proximity of CA as well as machinery requirements. Moreover, the information on carbon (C) sequestration, C credits, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, mitigation of climate change effects and socio-economic view on CA under diverse ecologies namely rainfed, irrigated and hill eco-region is also deliberated. For large scale adoption of CA practices in South Asian region especially in India and other countries need dissemination of best-bet CA technologies for dominant soil types/cropping systems through participatory mode, strong linkages and institutional mechanism and public-private-policy support. We hope this book gives a comprehensive and clear picture about conservation agriculture/no-till farming and its associated problem, challenges, prospects and benefits. This book shall be highly useful reference material to researchers, scientists, students, farmers and land managers for efficient and sustainable management of natural resources.

This is a concise book with comprehensive information on coal and biomass ash generated from their combustion in thermal power plants. It presents detailed studies on ash generated from contrasting coal and biomass feedstocks, and provides a comparative evaluation of these different ashes in terms of their origin, properties, environmental hazards. Potential utilizations with specific advantages and disadvantages of the respective ashes are elaborated in detail, including some innovative means of ash utilization for value addition purposes. By addressing both the theory and commercial exploitation of these products, this book will be helpful for industrialists, academicians and researchers alike.

This book discusses urban planning and regional development practices in the twentieth century, and ways in which they are currently being transformed. It addresses questions such as: What are the factors affecting planning dynamics at local, regional, national and global scales? With the push to adopt a market paradigm in land development and infrastructure, the relationship between resource management, sustainable development and the role of governance has been transformed. Centralized planning is giving way to privatization, not only in the traditional regions but also in newly emerging regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Further, attempts are being made to bring planning related decision-making closer to the people who are most affected by it. Presenting a collection of studies from scholars around the world and highlighting recent advances in the field, the book is a valuable reference guide for those engaged in urban transformations, whether as graduate students, researchers, practitioners or policymakers.