Biochar Production for Green Economy: Agricultural and Environmental Perspectives addresses the advancements and developments for the efficient diversification of biochar toward achieving improved agricultural and environmental benefits.  This comprehensive and cohesive volume is the first to address the potential multi-and transdisciplinary opportunities of effective biochar production and use. Including the potential applicability of not only crop waste biochar but weeds, agroforestry, agroindustry, municipal waste, as well chapters explore surface modified, enriched or tailored biochar for soil amendment, GHGs mitigation, bioremediation of organic, inorganic, metals and other emerging pollutants, as well as soil remediation. It also covers the trending multidisciplinary approaches of nanotechnology, surface chemistry and thermal decomposition advancements being adopted for capacity enhancement and versatile applicability in the field of agriculture, environment science and green energy synthesis. Composition and characteristics of tailored biochar, their interactions, and transformation into the soil and water ecosystem are illustrated. This book is a valuable resource for those pursuing biochar related areas as well as those seeking environmentally sustainable solutions to crop, soil or water issues.

After America's Iraq adventure devolved into a debacle, a chorus of commentators and analysts noted that the U.S. military had no plan to fight a counterinsurgency campaign. Given the failure of conventional tactics, America in the last two years has redoubled its efforts to develop a new strategy to fight the Iraqi insurgency, and has gone so far to place our leading counterinsurgency expert, General David Petraeus, in charge of the Iraq theater. In sum, there seems to be a growing consensus that for better or worse, counterinsurgency will be a core tactic in future American military campaigns. Iraq, of course, presents special problems to the U.S. because of the intensity of religious belief and sectarianism. How do we fight against an insurgency that so often strategically positions itself on 'hallowed ground'--mosques and shrines? Yet Iraq is not unique. As the contributors to Treading on Hallowed Ground show, counterinsurgency efforts on religiously contentious terrain is a widespread phenomenon in recent times, ranging from North Africa to Central and Southeast Asia. Here, C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly have assembled an impressive group of experts to explore the most important counterinsurgency efforts in sacred spaces in our era: churches in Israel, mosques and shrines in Iraq, the Sikh Golden Temple in India, mosques and temples in Kashmir, the Krue Se Mosque in Thailand, and the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia. Taken together, the essays comprise the first comprehensive account of this increasingly pivotal component of contemporary war.

Damping in Fiber Reinforced Composite Materials starts with an introduction to the basic concepts of damping in composite materials. Methods of modeling damping are then covered, along with recent developments in measuring techniques, both local, like polar scanning and global techniques like the Resonalyser method (based on measuring modal damping ratios of composite material plates). The effect of other factors, such as stress, strain-level, stiffness and frequency that need to be considered when determining damping behavior in composite materials are also discussed in detail. Other chapters present a parametric study of a two-phase composite material using different micromechanical models such as Unified micromechanics, and Hashin and Eshelby's to predict elastic moduli and loss factors. A bridging model that incorporates the effect of fiber packaging factors is then compared to FEM results. Final sections cover the effect of the interphase on the mechanical properties of the composite, present a nonlinear model for the prediction of damping in viscoelastic materials, and provide practical examples of damping and principles of vibration control.

Due to the ubiquity of social media and digital information, the use of digital images in today's digitized marketplace is continuously rising throughout enterprises. Organizations that want to offer their content through the internet confront plenty of security concerns, including copyright violation. Advanced solutions for the security and privacy of digital data are continually being developed, yet there is a lack of current research in this area. The Handbook of Research on Multimedia Forensics and Content Integrity features a collection of innovative research on the approaches and applications of current techniques for the privacy and security of multimedia and their secure transportation. It provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area of multimedia forensics and content integrity. Covering topics such as 3D data security, copyright protection, and watermarking, this major reference work is a comprehensive resource for security analysts, programmers, technology developers, IT professionals, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Nanocomposites using BIOVIA Materials Studio, Lammps and Gromacs presents the three major software packages used for the molecular dynamics simulation of nanocomposites. The book explains, in detail, how to use each of these packages, also providing real-world examples that show when each should be used. The latter two of these are open-source codes which can be used for modeling at no cost. Several case studies how each software package is used to predict various properties of nanocomposites, including metal-matrix, polymer-matrix and ceramic-matrix based nanocomposites. Properties explored include mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties. This is the first book that explores methodologies for using Materials Studio, Lammps and Gromacs in the same place. It will be beneficial for students, researchers and scientists working in the field of molecular dynamics simulation.

Security sector reform (SSR) is central to the democratic transitions currently unfolding across the globe, as a diverse range of countries grapple with how to transform militias, tribal forces, and dominant military, police, and intelligence agencies into democratically controlled and accountable security services. SSR will be a key element in shifts from authoritarian to democratic rule for the foreseeable future, since abuse of the security sector is a central technique of autocratic government. This edited collection advances solutions through a selection of case studies from around the world that cover a wide range of contexts.

Social media has quickly become one of the most effective tools in reaching masses of people. As environmental issues are becoming more prevalent and frequently acknowledged, social media is playing an important role in sharing various environmental problems as well as suitable solutions. Environmental Awareness and the Role of Social Media is an essential reference source for individuals seeking to raise awareness of environmental issues through social media platforms. The book examines social media's use in disaster awareness, sustainability promotion, and marketing environmentally friendly products from an international perspective. This book is an excellent resource for environmentalists, environmental activists, scientists, public figures, policy makers, academicians, and individuals interested in research focused on the impact of social media on issues that affect the entire planet.

The children are putting up a Christmas play for their parents. The only problem is that everyone wants to play Santa!

In recent years the world's focus on South Asia has increased dramatically. With the events of 9/11, the detonation of atomic weapons by both India and Pakistan, the discovery of an illicit nuclear proliferation network based in Islamabad, regime change in an unstable Afghanistan, and the rise of India as an economic power, global interest in the region has reached perhaps an all-time high. Leading experts analyze the key strategic, political, and economic issues touching on South Asia and its role in the world in the essays that make up this inaugural volume in the Current History Books Series.

Focusing on modern South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, this authoritative volume provides an overview of the events and trends that have rocked this increasingly volatile region over the past decade. Edited and with an introduction by Sumit Ganguly, a leading expert on the region, this volume provides a critical introduction to South Asia. South Asia also contains current maps as well as a "Recent Chronology of Events" that provides a decade's worth of information on the region, organized by year and by country. This timely and comprehensive collection of essays provides a definitive account of modern South Asia.

If beauty is truth and aesthetic realization is the loftiest goal of human soul then tender shadows of poetry is the sweetest abode of yearning heart. This unique collection of poetry tried to touch every nooks and corners of human emotion. Joy, beauty, passion, fun, sorrow, love, loss, and childishness make this collection of poems an anthology of wide spectrum within a single tone. This book is a collection of sweet romantic love poems, intensely funny limericks, and song lyrics, adoration of beauty of nature, twisted satires and wonderfully crafted haikus. Unique rhyming style, soft free verses, vivid imagery entices the reader to the land of Muses.

The complexity of cancer demands an integrated approach from both a cancer biology standpoint and a pharmaceutical basis to understand the different anticancer modalities. Current research has been focused on conventional and newer anticancer modalities, recent discoveries in cancer research, and also the advancements in cancer treatment. There is a current need for more research on the advances in cancer therapeutics that bridge the gap between basic research (pharmaceutical drug development processes, regulatory issues, and translational experimentation) and clinical application. Recent promising discoveries such as immunotherapies, promising therapies undergoing clinical trials, synthetic lethality, carbon beam radiation, and other exciting targeted therapies are being studied to improve and advance the studies of modern cancer treatment. The Handbook of Research on Advancements in Cancer Therapeutics serves as a comprehensive guide in modern cancer treatment by combining and merging the knowledge from both cancer biology and the pharmacology of anticancer modalities. The chapters come from multi-disciplinary backgrounds, including scientists and clinicians from both academia and various industries, to discuss nascent personalized therapies and big data-driven cancer treatment. While highlighting topic areas that include cancer prevention, cancer therapeutics, and cancer treatments through the lenses of technology, medicine/drugs, and alternate therapies, this book is ideally intended for oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, and cancer biologists, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in understanding the most fundamental aspects of cancer and the available therapeutic opportunities.

The need of video compression in the modern age of visual communication cannot be over-emphasized. This monograph will provide useful information to the postgraduate students and researchers who wish to work in the domain of VLSI design for video processing applications. In this book, one can find an in-depth discussion of several motion estimation algorithms and their VLSI implementation as conceived and developed by the authors. It records an account of research done involving fast three step search, successive elimination, one-bit transformation and its effective combination with diamond search and dynamic pixel truncation techniques. Two appendices provide a number of instances of proof of concept through Matlab and Verilog program segments. In this aspect, the book can be considered as first of its kind. The architectures have been developed with an eye to their applicability in everyday low-power handheld appliances including video camcorders and smartphones.

This book presents novel research techniques, algorithms, methodologies and experimental results for high level power estimation and power aware high-level synthesis. Readers will learn to apply such techniques to enable design flows resulting in shorter time to market and successful low power ASIC/FPGA design.

The years since the early 1980s have seen exceptionally fast rates of change in every aspect of the telecommunications industry. These include major technology changes and the convergence of the broadcasting, information technology and telecommunications industries. The earlier view of telecommunications as a natural monopoly has now given way to one in which almost all parts are susceptible to some form of competition. Simultaneously, market structure has changed through the replacement of the former monopolistic, vertically integrated telephone companies by a variety of competing firms. These developments have been accompanied by major legislative and regulatory developments, including the passing in the United States of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the introduction of a large number of new laws and regulations in Europe and elsewhere. The same changes have seen a massive expansion of independent regulatory agencies. This volume provides detailed reviews and commentaries on these contemporary changes in the landscape of a major industry from an academic perspective, yet in an analytical manner designed for a wide audience of academics and professionals with an interest in the telecommunications industry. The contents are set out in three main sections. The chapters in section one deal with the economic characteristics of the sector, which define the industry's structure. Sections two and three deal respectively with regulation and competition. Regulatory and competition issues continuously interact with each other, as each set of issues influences the other. The industry continues to evolve through the interaction of the various processes. Volume 1 of the handbook aims to provide an integrated set of concepts, evidence and facts that will enable the reader to understand this process.

The perception, valuation, and manipulation of human environments all have their own layered histories. So Sumit Guha argues in this sweeping examination of a pivotal five hundred years when successive empires struggled to harness lands and peoples to their agendas across Asia. Ecologies of Empire in South Asia, 1400–1900 compares the practices of the Mughal and British Empires to demonstrate how their fluctuating capacity for domination was imbricated in the formation of environmental knowledge itself. The establishment of imperial control transforms local knowledge of the world into the aggregated information that reproduces centralized power over it. That is the political ecology that reshapes entire biomes. Animals and plants are translocated; human communities are displaced or destroyed. Some species proliferate; others disappear. But these state projects are overlaid upon the many local and regional geographies made by sacred cosmologies and local sites, pilgrimage routes and river fords, hot springs and fluctuating aquifers, hunting ranges and nesting grounds, notable trees and striking rocks. Guha uncovers these ecological histories by scrutinizing little-used archival sources. His historically based political ecology demonstrates how the biomes of a vast subcontinent were changed by struggles to make and to resist empire.

Designed to serve as a reference work for practitioners, academics, and scholars worldwide, this book is the first of its kind to explain complex cybercrimes from the perspectives of multiple disciplines (computer science, law, economics, psychology, etc.) and scientifically analyze their impact on individuals, society, and nations holistically and comprehensively. In particular, the book shows: How multiple disciplines concurrently bring out the complex, subtle, and elusive nature of cybercrimes How cybercrimes will affect every human endeavor, at the level of individuals, societies, and nations How to legislate proactive cyberlaws, building on a fundamental grasp of computers and networking, and stop reacting to every new cyberattack How conventional laws and traditional thinking fall short in protecting us from cybercrimes How we may be able to transform the destructive potential of cybercrimes into amazing innovations in cyberspace that can lead to explosive technological growth and prosperity

Networked information technology (NIT) systems are synonymous with network-centric or net-centric systems and constitute the cornerstone of the fast-growing information age. NIT systems' field of application ranges from the traditional worldwide telecommunication systems, banking and financial transactions, on-line travel reservation systems, and remote data acquisition and control to the present-day e-commerce and distance learning to tomorrow's patient medical records, remote surgery, intelligent transportation systems, and communications and control in deep space. To date, however, the design and development of NIT systems have been ad-hoc, and lacking a scientific theory. A new text presents a scientific theory of NIT systems and logically develops the fundamental principles to help synthesize control algorithms for these systems. The algorithms are referred to as asynchronous, distributed decision-making (ADDM) algorithms, and their characteristics include correct operation, robustness, reliability, scalability, stability, and performance. The book explains through several case studies and actual research the conception, development, experimental testing, validation, and rigorous performance analysis of practical ADDM algorithms for real-world systems from a number of diverse disciplines. It concludes by exploring the benefits and impact of ADDM algorithms in the future. Topics and features: *develops a logical yet practical approach to synthesizing ADDM algorithms for NIT systems *addresses design of NIT systems using a scientific manner *essential for NIT engineers who plan to design, build, deploy, maintain, and evolve NIT systems that span virtually every aspect of human behavior *includes actual case studies to help readers develop clarity and application of key principles

Rapid advances in microelectronic integration and the advent of Systems-on-Chip have fueled the need for high-level synthesis, i.e., an automated approach to the synthesis of hardware from behavioral descriptions.
SPARK: A Parallelizing Approach to the High - Level Synthesis of Digital Circuits presents a novel approach to the high-level synthesis of digital circuits -- that of parallelizing high-level synthesis (PHLS). This approach uses aggressive code parallelizing and code motion techniques to discover circuit optimization opportunities beyond what is possible with traditional high-level synthesis. This PHLS approach addresses the problems of the poor quality of synthesis results and the lack of controllability over the transformations applied during the high-level synthesis of system descriptions with complex control flows, that is, with nested conditionals and loops.
Also described are speculative code motion techniques and dynamic compiler transformations that optimize the circuit quality in terms of cycle time, circuit size and interconnect costs. We describe the SPARK parallelizing high-level synthesis framework in which we have implemented these techniques and demonstrate the utility of SPARK's PHLS approach using designs derived from multimedia and image processing applications. We also present a case study of an instruction length decoder derived from the Intel Pentium-class of microprocessors. This case study serves as an example of a typical microprocessor functional block with complex control flow and demonstrates how our techniques are useful for such designs.
SPARK: A Parallelizing Approach to the High - Level Synthesis of Digital Circuits is targeted mainlyto embedded system designers and researchers. This includes people working on design and design automation. The book is useful for researchers and design automation engineers who wish to understand how the main problems hindering the adoption of high-level synthesis among designers.