Concern about future supplies of fresh water to society, to meet the full range of human needs, now comes very high on the priority list of global societal issues. An overarching issue, which this ...book addresses, is whether global climate change is a dominant driver of change in the structure and function of all natural water-based ecosystems, or whether direct human population growth and accelerated consumption are playing an equal or greater role. This book divides the whole aquatic realm into 21 ecosystems, from those on land (both saline and fresh water) to those of the open and deep oceans. It draws on the understanding of leading ecologists to summarize the state and likely condition by the year 2025 of each of the ecosystems. Written for academic researchers and environmental professionals, the aim is to put the climate change debate into a broader context as a basis for conservation science and planning.
Global threats of terrorism, drug-smuggling and other crimes have led to a significant increase in research on game theory for security. Game theory provides a sound mathematical approach to deploy ...limited security resources to maximize their effectiveness. A typical approach is to randomize security schedules to avoid predictability, with the randomization using artificial intelligence techniques to take into account the importance of different targets and potential adversary reactions. This book distills the forefront of this research to provide the first and only study of long-term deployed applications of game theory for security for key organizations such as the Los Angeles International Airport police and the US Federal Air Marshals Service. The author and his research group draw from their extensive experience working with security officials to intelligently allocate limited security resources to protect targets, outlining the applications of these algorithms in research and the real world.
This unique volume presents the scientific progress, state-of-art technology, and thrust areas to be focused in electrorheology (ER) and magentorheology (MR). In the last couple of years, this area ...produced significant impacts on automobile industry, bridge and building construction, aerospace industry, and defense industry. Recent innovation in this area lead to new technology, which has great impact on energy production and energy conservation. This book includes all papers presented at the 12th International Conference on ER Fluids and MR Suspensions, held in Philadelphia, USA, August 16 to 20, 2010, providing a comprehensive overview of this flourishing area. It is an essential source of reference for chemists, engineers, physicists, and materials scientists. It is also suitable for science and engineering students.
Adaptive Speciation Dieckmann, Ulf; Doebeli, Michael; Metz, Johan A. J ...
09/2004, Letnik:
v.Series Number 3
eBook
This book was first published in 2004. Unraveling the origin of biodiversity is fundamental for understanding our biosphere. This book clarifies how adaptive processes, rather than geographic ...isolation, can cause speciation. Adaptive speciation occurs when biological interactions induce disruptive selection and the evolution of assortative mating, thus triggering the splitting of lineages. Internationally recognized leaders in the field explain exciting developments in modeling speciation, together with celebrated examples of rapid speciation by natural selection. Written for students and researchers in biology, physics, and mathematics, this book is a groundbreaking treatment of modern speciation science.
An assessment of policy options for future global climate governance, written by a team of leading experts from the European Union and developing countries. Global climate governance is at a ...crossroads. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol was merely a first step, and its core commitments expire in 2012. This book addresses three questions which will be central to any new climate agreement. What is the most effective overall legal and institutional architecture for successful and equitable climate politics? What role should non-state actors play, including multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations, public–private partnerships and market mechanisms in general? How can we deal with the growing challenge of adapting our existing institutions to a substantially warmer world? This important resource offers policy practitioners in-depth qualitative and quantitative assessments of the costs and benefits of various policy options, and also offers academics from wide-ranging disciplines insight into innovative interdisciplinary approaches towards international climate negotiations.
The goal of cultural psychology is to explain the ways in which human cultural constructions—for example, rituals, stereotypes, and meanings—organize and direct human acting, feeling, and thinking in ...different social contexts. A rapidly growing, international field of scholarship, cultural psychology is ready for an interdisciplinary, primary resource. Linking psychology, anthropology, sociology, archaeology, and history, this publication unites the variable perspectives from these disciplines. It comprises over fifty contributed articles, providing a comprehensive overview of contemporary cultural psychology, comparing cultures and the (often differing) human psychological functions occurring within them. It presents a concise history of psychology that includes valuable resources for innovation in psychology in general and cultural psychology in particular; interdisciplinary articles including insights into cultural anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, culture and conceptions of the self, and semiotics and cultural connections; close, conceptual links with contemporary biological sciences, especially developmental biology, and with other social sciences; and a section detailing potential methodological innovations for cultural psychology.
Climate of the Southeast United States Keith Ingram, Kirstin Dow, Lynn Carter, Julie Anderson / Keith Ingram, Kirstin Dow, Lynn Carter, Julie Anderson
2013
eBook
Prepared for the 2013 National Climate Assessment and a landmark study in terms of its breadth and depth of coverage, Climate of the Southeast United States is the result of a collaboration among ...three Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Centers: the Southeast Climate Consortium; the Carolinas Regional Sciences and Assessments; and the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program; with contributions from numerous local, state, federal, and nongovernmental agencies to develop a comprehensive, state of the art look at the effects of climate change in the region. The book summarizes the scientific literature with respect to climate impacts on the Southeast United States, including 11 southern states to the east of the Mississippi River, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands; reviews the historic climate, current climate, and the projected future climate of the region; and describes interactions with important sectors of the Southeast and cross-sectoral issues, namely climate change mitigation, adaptation, and education and outreach. Rich in science and case studies, it examines the latest climate change impacts, scenarios, vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacity and offers decision makers and stakeholders a substantial basis from which to make informed choices that will affect the well-being of the region's inhabitants in the decades to come.
