This PIBR volume examines a number of idiosyncratic elements in the internationalization strategies of BRIC MNEs and, in particular, in their relationship with home country policies: 1. The theoretical challenge: do we need different or more specific theories of EMNEs to assess the phenomenon of BRIC multinationals? 2. The empirical challenge: what marks the changing position of BRIC countries in the world economy? 3. The managerial challenge: with the coming of age of a new breed of multinationals, what distinguishes BRIC multinationals from other (emerging market) multinationals? 4. The policy making challenge: what impact have MNEs from BRIC countries had on their domestic economy?

This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on soil erosion in agriculture. The first chapter identifies different types of soil degradation, focussing primarily on soil erosion by water. The chapter explores the impact of soil erosion processes on soil properties that relate directly to crop growth, including soil depth, water-holding capacity, carbon content and nutrient reserves. The second chapter reviews advances in techniques used to assess and measure soil erodibility by water, such as computer aided tomography. The chapter considers the role of static and dynamic soil properties in the erosion process, as well as the challenges that have developed as a result of climate change. The third chapter assesses the impact of heavy metal contamination on soil and its consequent role in the degradation of soil health. The chapter describes the sources, impacts, indicators and remediation of heavy metal contamination, as well as the development of improved soil management practices, including effective pollution control strategies. The final chapter discusses the implementation of integrated strategies under Conservation Agriculture (CA) farming systems to restore soil productivity in degraded agricultural lands in tropical and subtropical regions in Brazil. The chapter additionally considers the adoption of CA as a tool to prevent and reverse instances of soil degradation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems, ICARIS 2006. The book presents 34 revised full papers, are organized in topical sections on computer simulation of classical immunology, computer simulation of idiotypic network, immunoinformatics conceptual papers, pattern recognition type of application, optimization type of application, control and time-series type of application, danger theory inspired application, and text mining application.