This book will not serve as the "encyclopedia of cover crop management," but it's close. The benefits of a wide range of individual cover crops and blends/mixes for specific agronomic crop rotations and geographic locations are included. Descriptions, photographs, and illustrations show how cover crops look in the field, including plant height, leaf architecture, and rooting patterns. Long term benefits are described for soil health, soil structure, water quality, nutrient contributions, soil biodiversity, air quality and climate change. In addition to the "whys" of cover crop use, the book includes details on the "hows:" how to choose cover crops for specific applications and locations; how (and when) to plant; how to manage and maintain the cover for maximum benefit; and how and when to terminate. Planting options include: drilling/planting between rows of an agronomic crop at planting time, or when the crop is short (i.e. corn in early June); "aerial" seeding with an airplane or high-clearance machine shortly before the crop reaches maturity; and drilling/planting immediately after harvest of the agronomic crop. Selected cover crops (blends) can help with pest and disease management. Cover crops are an economic input with an expected return on investment, similar to pesticides and fertilizer. As part of a continuous no-till system, cover crops provide long-term biological, chemical and structural benefits. The resulting increase in soil organic matter means the agronomic crop yields benefit from better water infiltration and water holding capacity, greater availability of nitrogen and other nutrients, deeper rooting, and increased soil microbial activity in the root zone.

We are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies as panaceas has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists' drumbeat about "renewable" energy. Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with "renewable" energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be "sequestered" and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of the characterisation and development of novel materials. Topics discussed include the development of probabilistic simulation model for production optimisation in open pit mines; lead removal from aqueous streams by a novel bioadsorbent; characterisation of clinical bacteria and their control by a medicinal plant; preparation of stronium hexaferrite magnets from celestite and blue dust by mechanochemical route and the investigation of the properties of a borosilicate glass from recycled manganese crust tailing.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of intelligent sensors and models, with a particular focus on the effects of these technologies on the environment. Topics discussed include virtual intelligent sensors; performance predictions in biofilters using intelligent data driven models; a neuro-genetic model for congestion management with distributed computing tool; knowledge-based water and wastewater management model and solid waste management and application of GIS in landfill site selection

This new book presents and discusses current research in the study of computer networks. Topics discussed include an in-depth analysis of prediction performance based on real network traffic; network security; a modified artificial neural network based approach to add new data in a cluster; fuzzy-based controller for improvement of network performance; multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network; fault detection and diagnosis in a distillation column by MLP neural networks and generic architecture for artificial neural networks.

This book presents and discusses research in the study of natural gas systems. Topics discussed include flammability and individual risk assessment for natural gas pipelines; guidelines for developing gas fields associated with edge-water drive; fuzzy estimation and stabilisation in gas life wells based on a new stability map and human health risks assessment due to natural gas pipelines explosions.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of genetic algorithms, fuzzy systems and website classification. Topics discussed include genetic algorithm for optimal design of fuzzy classifiers; design and analysis of type-2 fuzzy PI controller; selection of supply chain through fuzzy outranking techniques; fast web page classification without accessing the web page using machine learning techniques; classification algorithms in handling noisy training data and meta data generation for automates web page classification.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of sustainable petroleum operations. Topics discussed include greening of petroleum operations; a novel environmental risk management model for petroleum operations; an approach for conflict resolution in oil and gas operations; technological analysis and quantitative assessment of oil and gas development and air pollution and carbon assessment framework for oil and gas developments.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of computer science, with a particular focus on information systems, intelligence and knowledge. Topics discussed include intelligent systems for threatening e-mail detection; infrastructure of a context adaptive and pervasive multi-model multimedia computing system; adaptive business intelligence for information and communication technology management; efficiency of machine learning techniques in biomedical data and computer vision and artificial intelligence in flight control of unmanned aerial vehicles.

We are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs; nevertheless, today we are bombarded by proposals for alternative technologies that are more energy-intensive than whatever preceded. "Engineering" has come to mean more processing, greater profit margin, and yet more implosive outcome. Covering up this failure to develop sustainable alternatives highlight only short-term gain. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists' drumbeat about "renewable" energy. Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with "renewable" energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be "sequestered" and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.

This book compiles articles from the Journal of Characterization and Development of Novel Materials. Topics discussed include the perspectives of polymer nanocomposites applications as engineering materials; polymeric nanocomposites based on the organomodified layered silicates; structural analysis of nanocomposites polymer/organoclay microhardness and kinetics and mechanism of emulsion copolymerisation of methyl acrylate with hydrophilic monomers.

This book presents and discusses current research in the study of natural and processed substances. Topics discussed include the characterisation and production of 'healthy' health productions; SEM-based structural and chemical analysis of paraffin wax and beeswax; replacing synthetic adhesives with natural adhesives; molecular structure evaluation of beeswax and paraffin wax; crude and refined petroleum products and the effect of chemical modification on dye adsorption capacity of pistachio hull.

Petroleum engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Subsurface activities are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry, which are the activities of finding and producing hydrocarbons. This book presents current research in the study of sustainable petroleum engineering including topics such as optimisation techniques in groundwater monitoring network design for petroleum contaminant detection; a relation-analysis-based approach for assessing risks of petroleum-contaminated sites and an improved model for predicting formation damage induced by oilfield scales.