A few years of diligent and meticulous research has gone into the creation of this book about the history of the ancestors of our wider family.

Water, Land, and Forest Susceptibility and Sustainability, Volume 2: Insight Towards Management, Conservation and Ecosystem Services brings an interdisciplinary perspective to solving complex problems in sustainability, utilizing the latest research and technologies, and includes case studies that emphasize the applications of remote sensing, GIS, and image processing for addressing the current state and future needs to achieve sustainability. As forests, land, and water are among the most precious resources on earth, emphasizing the need to conserve them for future generations and, of course, a safe and sustainable planet. The assessment of the susceptibility of all these three precious resources must therefore be addressed to inform their sustainable management. This second volume focuses on environmental management, conservation, and ecosystem services and provides information on forest, land, and water resources, presenting in integrated manner various aspects of their characterization, susceptibility, and sustainability.

Presents a key overview of the latest advances in the synthesis, engineering and fabrication of carbon quantum dots for sustainable technologies

Applications of Metagenomics: Agriculture, Environment, and Health examines current metagenomics methods and their applications in soil, polluted environment sites, agriculture production, and health care, with separate sections dedicated to each application area. Special attention is paid to the biotechnological study of novel microbial resources for social welfare. Beyond applications, the book discusses evolving next generation technology and techniques used for carrying out metagenomics studies, and in doing so highlights the latest research and advances in the field, along with ways to adapt these approaches for different study types across the biological sciences.Chapter topics range from metagenomics for studying root microbial communities to microbial diversity of the rhizosphere, fungal diversity, microbial biodiversity in forest environments, the human microbiome, and disease epidemiology, with one chapter dedicated to Covid-19 metagenomics.

This book examines the synthetic approaches, properties, applications, and recyclability of bio-based superabsorbent polymers (SAP) in depth. It describes and compares bio-based SAPs with petro-based SAPs. Additionally, it explores the structure–property relationships of bio-based SAPs derived from various natural sources. The book covers current and emerging applications in health and hygiene products, agriculture, construction, and other areas. It also explores the recycling and reusing methods available for water recovery, pressure sensitive adhesives, etc. It discusses the issues behind the sharp increase in research attention, namely the prevailing research hotspots/clusters and suggestions with regard to present studies, works that have been significant and pivotal in the development of SAP research, and the current advances and future directions of research. It also presents the emerging applications of superabsorbent polymers.

Computational Structural Mechanics: Static and Dynamic Behaviors provides a cutting-edge treatment of functionally graded materials and the computational methods and solutions of FG static and vibration problems of plates. Using the Rayleigh-Ritz method, static and dynamic problems related to behavior of FG rectangular, Levy, elliptic, skew and annular plates are discussed in detail. A thorough review of the latest research results, computational methods and applications of FG technology make this an essential resource for researchers in academia and industry.

This book is a guide to endocrine surgery for practising and trainee endocrinologists. Divided into 45 chapters, the text begins with an overview of applied embryology, physiology, and surgical anatomy of the endocrine glands. The next section explains thyroid function tests and their interpretation. Each of the following chapters covers the surgical management of a different thyroid-related disorder. The final sections discuss allied topics including endocrine radiology, pathology, the role of nuclear medicine in endocrine surgery, and radiotherapy. Each chapter concludes with clinical pearls to assist learning. With an internationally recognised editor and author team, the comprehensive text is highly illustrated with photographs, radiographic images, flow charts, and diagrams.

This book describes the state-of-the-art in energy efficient, fault-tolerant embedded systems. It covers the entire product lifecycle of electronic systems design, analysis and testing and includes discussion of both circuit and system-level approaches. Readers will be enabled to meet the conflicting design objectives of energy efficiency and fault-tolerance for reliability, given the up-to-date techniques presented.

Recent advancements and innovations in medical image and data processing have led to a need for robust and secure mechanisms to transfer images and signals over the internet and maintain copyright protection. The Handbook of Research on Information Security in Biomedical Signal Processing provides emerging research on security in biomedical data as well as techniques for accurate reading and further processing. While highlighting topics such as image processing, secure access, and watermarking, this publication explores advanced models and algorithms in information security in the modern healthcare system. This publication is a vital resource for academicians, medical professionals, technology developers, researchers, students, and practitioners seeking current research on intelligent techniques in medical data security.

Recent improvements in business process strategies have allowed more opportunities to attain greater developmental performances. This has led to higher success in day-to-day production and overall competitive advantage. The Handbook of Research on Manufacturing Process Modeling and Optimization Strategies is a pivotal reference source for the latest research on the various manufacturing methodologies and highlights the best optimization approaches to achieve boosted process performance. Featuring extensive coverage on relevant areas such as genetic algorithms, fuzzy set theory, and soft computing techniques, this publication is an ideal resource for researchers, practitioners, academicians, designers, manufacturing engineers, and institutions involved in design and manufacturing projects.

Terrestrial mass movements (i.e. cliff collapses, soil creeps, mudflows, landslides etc.) are severe forms of natural disasters mostly occurring in mountainous terrain, which is subjected to specific geological, geomorphological and climatological conditions, as well as to human activities. It is a challenging task to accurately define the position, type and activity of mass movements for the purpose of creating inventory records and potential vulnerability maps. Remote sensing techniques, in combination with Geographic Information System tools, allow state-of-the-art investigation of the degree of potential mass movements and modeling surface processes for hazard and risk mapping. Similarly, through statistical prediction models, future mass-movement-prone areas can be identified and damages can to a certain extent be minimized. Issues of scale and selection of morphological attributes for the scientific analysis of mass movements call for new developments in data modeling and spatio-temporal GIS analysis.
The book is a product of a cooperation between the editors and several contributing authors, addressing current issues and recent developments in GI technology and mass movements research. Its fundamental treatment of this technology includes data modeling, topography, geology, geomorphology, remote sensing, artificial neural networks, binomial regression, fuzzy logic, spatial statistics and analysis, and scientific visualization. Both theoretical and practical issues are addressed.

This book details the chemistry of visible light-induced photocatalysis using different classes of nanocomposites. Starting with a general introduction and explanation of basic principles and mechanisms of (visible) light-induced photocatalysis in the first two chapters (not omitting a plaidoyer for furthering research and development in this promising field), the following chapters detail the different types and classes of nanocomposites currently used in light-induced photocatalytic applications, including e.g. metal and mixed metal-oxide nanoparticles and -composites, nanoporous materials, polymeric and carbon-based nanocomposites. They explain the characteristics and importance of the different types of nanocomposites, as well as their synthesis and fabrication.In the end of the book an outlook on the unique applications of novel nanocomposites is offered, for example in water treatment and disinfection and removal of pollutants from wastewater, self-cleaning window panes based on photoactive materials, and many more. The book also addresses the challenges in present photocatalytic research, and therefore is a must-read for everybody interested in the developing field of nanocomposites and visible light-induced photocatalysis.