Book categories

Seismic Methods and Applications

A Guide for the Detection of Geologic Structures, Earthquake Zones and Hazards, Resource Exploration, and Geotechnical Engineering

by Andreas Stark

2010

This book has been written for those who need a solid understanding of the seismic exploration method without difficult mathematics. It is presented in a format that allows one to naturally progress from the underlying physical principles to the actual seismic method. The mathematics needed for the subject is kept as simple as possible; students only need high school physics and mathematics to thoroughly grasp the principles covered. Dr. Stark has developed this text and honed its content with feedback from hundreds of students over nearly two decades of teaching seismic exploration geophysics. This textbook will teach students the principles for the detection of geologic structures, earthquake zones and hazards, resource exploration, and geotechnical engineering.This title is Winner of 20...

Against the Tide

A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done

by Martín López Corredoira & Carlos Castro Perelman (Editors)

2008

Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions". It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to...

Integrated Planning and Management of Natural Resources

A Guide to Writing Sustainable Development Plans for Tropical Coastal Areas

by Dwight Watson

2008

Integrated coastal zone management is a process of good governance that guides decision-making on the equitable allocation and sustainable use of natural resources. Integrated Planning and Management of Natural Resources describes systematic planning procedures for writing a hierarchy of strategic, zoning, management, and action plans. These plans can be adapted to any coastal management area in order to realize the social, economic, and environmental benefits that can be derived from spatially allocating, developing, and regulating the use of its diverse natural resources.

Axial Character Seriation in Mammals

An Historical and Morphological Exploration of the Origin, Development, Use, and Current Collapse of the Homology Paradigm

by Aaron G. Filler

2007

Modern biology is increasingly focused on the role of repetitive anatomical structures in the embryological construction of organisms. The discovery of the homeobox (Hox) genes by Edward Lewis in 1978 ushered in a series of stunning revelations such as the fundamental commonality of insect segments and mammalian vertebrae – a wild and ridiculed idea first proposed by Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1822 that has now been proven correct. Axial Character Seriation in Mammals is an unabridged edition of the 1986 Harvard University PhD Thesis of Aaron G. Filler, MD, PhD that pioneered our modern reassessment of mammalian vertebrae in the light of the new homeotic biology. As Dr. Filler points out in fascinating detail, the leading explanations of similarity among animals before Darwin were ...

An Atlas of Opossum Organogenesis

Opossum Development

by William J. Krause, Ph.D.

2008

This atlas presents a series of photographic illustrations and line drawings that summarize the major developmental events that occur during organogenesis in the opossum (Didelphis virginiana).It will be of interest to General Biologists, Zoologists, Wildlife Biologists, Embryologists and Medical Scientists.

An Introduction to Vitamins, Minerals and Oxidative Stress

The Role of Micronutrients and Reactive Oxygen Species in Normal and Pathological Processes

by Stefan A. Hulea

2008

This book presents in simple and concise terms the biological functions of vitamins and minerals, what makes them essential to life and why they must be replenished daily from food. The best food sources for these micronutrients and the daily recommended intakes of vitamins and minerals are also presented. Information on these important micronutrients is all presented in one place (Part I) as opposed to the current text books where it is scattered throughout the text, making its retrieval tedious and time-consuming. In addition, the trace elements get an adequate coverage in contrast to the current texts. The second part introduces the reader to the concept of oxidative stress and the role of free radicals (mainly of oxygen and nitrogen) in the regulation of several biological processes ...

The Kiloparsec-Scale Structure and Kinematics of High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies

by David R. Law

2008

We study the spatially resolved properties of star-forming galaxies at redshift z ~ 2 - 3 on scales ~ 1 kpc using a combination of morphological and kinematic analyses in an effort to characterize the major mechanisms of galaxy formation in the young universe. Using a sample of 216 galaxies which have been spectroscopically confirmed to lie between redshifts z = 1.8 - 3.4 in the GOODS-N field we demonstrate that rest-UV morphology (as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope) is statistically uncorrelated with physical properties such as star formation rate and is therefore unable to support the hypothesis that the prevalence of irregular morphologies indicates a high major merger fraction. Further, we present a sample of 13 galaxies observed with the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph and the...

Investigations on Multi-Sensor Image System and Its Surveillance Applications

by Zheng Liu

2010

This thesis investigates the issues of implementing multi-sensor imaging system for surveillance applications. Three topics for the fusion of infrared and electro-optic images are studied, i.e. registration, fusion, and evaluation. The first topic is the image registration or alignment, which is to associate corresponding pixels in multiple images to the same physical point in the scene. A trajectory-based method for registering infrared and electro-optic video sequences is proposed in this study. The initial registration parameters are derived from matching the trajectories across the consecutive video frames. Further refinement can be carried out by applying a maximum mutual information approach. The frame difference, from which the feature point is detected, is found with an...

Environmental Policy Processes Surrounding South Africa’s Plastic Bags Regulations

Tensions, Debates and Responses in Waste Product Regulation

by Godwell Nhamo

2008

This study was conducted in South Africa. South Africa is the first country within the Southern African Development Community to have regulated plastic shopping bags waste through the imposition of both a standard on thickness and a levy. Given this scenario, the Plastic Bags Regulations present an illustrative case for researching complexity, uncertainty and controversies surrounding a new trend in environmental policy making, namely waste product regulation. The thesis focuses on understanding and investigating tensions, debates and responses emerging from the policy process as actors and actor-networks put not only the Plastic Bags Regulations into circulation as focal actant (token) but also other actants and actant-networks as well. To this end, a research question that addressed envi...

Discovering Postmodern Cosmology

Discoveries in Dark Matter, Cosmic Web, Big Bang, Inflation, Cosmic Rays, Dark Energy, Accelerating Cosmos

by Jerome Drexler

2008

Learn how a world-class inventor-scientist is currently tackling the greatest scientific mysteries of the universe -- and succeeding. With his new book, Drexler provides a viable baseline to jump-start debate on a standard model for postmodern cosmology. It is the first book to not only address these seven unsolved cosmic mysteries, shown in this book's subtitle, but also offer plausible explanations for each of them. The correlation of these seven cosmic phenomena by Drexler offers a revolutionary advance in cosmological research and potentially broad acceptance and use of the related concepts. This book was written for open-minded cosmologists, astronomers, astrophysicists, physicists, engineers, students, enthusiasts and those at NASA, NSF, DOE and ESO who want to understand postmod...

Toluene and Ethyl Acetate Biodegradation by Peat Biofilters

Respirometric and Microbial Community Evolution Monitoring

by Javier Álvarez Hornos

2008

Air streams discharged from industrial sources contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for which environmental regulations are being increasingly restrictive. Biofiltration is an environmentally friendly technology for treatment of waste gases containing relatively low concentration of VOCs, because of its simplicity, low cost and non-generating hazardous residues. In this work, three laboratory-scale peat biofilters were operated at 90s empty bed residence time for a continuous period of 7 months. Biodegradation of ethyl acetate, toluene, or a 1:1 mixture were investigated (these compounds are among the key pollutants in the exhaust air from printing and coating facilities, and paint manufacturing). A CO2 emissions monitoring and the determination the dynamics of living and dead cells, ...

Flood Routing in Ungauged Catchments Using Muskingum Methods

by Mesfin H. Tewolde

2008

River stage or flow rates are required for the design and evaluation of hydraulic structures. Most river reaches are ungauged and a methodology is needed to estimate the stages, or rates of flow, at specific locations in streams where no measurements are available. Flood routing techniques are utilised to estimate the stages, or rates of flow, in order to predict flood wave propagation along river reaches. Models can be developed for gauged catchments and their parameters related to physical characteristics such as slope, reach width, reach length so that the approach can be applied to ungauged catchments in the region. The objective of this study is to assess Muskingum-based methods for flow routing in ungauged river reaches, both with and without lateral inflows. Using observed data, th...

An Investigation of the Mechanism of PAX7 Mediated Oncogenesis via In Silico and In Vitro Biology

by Dr. Maika Graceina Mitchell

2008

The Pax gene family appears to have evolved by a combination of gene duplication and / or genome duplication events over a long period of evolutionary time. The highly conserved paired box sequence within the Pax genes encodes a paired DNA binding domain, indicating that the Pax proteins are transcription factors which bind and regulate downstream target genes. Nine Pax genes (Pax1 - Pax9) listed in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, contain this motif. Some members of the Pax family, which includes Pax3 and Pax7, encode a second DNA binding domain of the paired-type homeodomain (HD) class. Pax3 and Pax7 are closely related paired box family members specifically expressed in the dorsal neural tube and the developing somites and in proliferating and migratin...

Life in the Universe

The Abundance of Extraterrestrial Civilizations

by James N. Pierce

2008

This book explores the science of extraterrestrial life, with a particular emphasis on the existence of intelligent alien civilizations. It introduces the reader to the basic chemistry associated with life on Earth and describes the planetary and stellar environments that allow us to exist. It also discusses the likelihood of alien life developing at other locations in our galaxy, along with the possibility that we will meet or communicate with them. This book is suitable for use as a text in an introductory "Life in the Universe" course.

Magnetic Fields Near and Far

Galactic and Extragalactic Single-Dish Radio Observations of the Zeeman Effect

by Timothy Robishaw

2008

According to astrophysical theory, magnetic fields should play an important role in the structure and dynamics of the interstellar medium. While astronomical observations confirm this directly, the observational record is sparse. This is because magnetic fields can only be measured via polarimetric methods, and most of these methods can only provide an indirect inference of the magnetic field strength. The Zeeman effect, however, is the only method by which in situ measurements of astrophysical magnetic fields can be made. The spectral signature of Zeeman splitting is imprinted in the circular polarization spectrum of radiation received from an astronomical source. In order to make a reliable detection at radio frequencies, one must employ careful calibrations and account for...

Deficit Irrigation for Wheat Cultivation Under Limited Water Supply Condition

by Md. Hossain Ali

2008

Vertical and horizontal expansion of irrigated agriculture to feed the increasing population has contributed to excessive groundwater withdrawal and affected the availability of water in terms of both quality and quantity. To sustain agricultural growth, strategic measures should be adopted to reduce water consumption while minimizing adverse effect on yield. The effect of deficit irrigation on wheat yield was studied in three consecutive years (2002-03 to 2004-05) in field and pot. Ten irrigation treatments were imposed in a randomized complete block (RCB) design covering full deficit, no deficit at all, single deficit at different stages, and alternate deficits. Water deficit was created by withholding irrigation at different growth stages. The results indicate that deficit irrigation st...

Effect of Prenatal Zinc Supplementation on Malarial Morbidity, Pregnancy Anaemia and Birth Weight

by Dr. Mahama Saaka

2008

Anaemia and malaria are two related problems of public health significance in malaria-endemic countries, including Ghana, that continue to impact negatively on pregnancy outcomes, despite interventions being put in place to address them. The reasons for the apparent lack of efficacy of routine iron supplementation in reducing the risks of preterm and other adverse pregnancy outcomes are not clearly established in Ghana. It is not also known whether all pregnant women benefit from iron supplementation and whether there are some other factors that limit the effectiveness of prenatal iron supplementation. This study tested the primary hypothesis that ‘prenatal zinc supplementation in combination with malaria prophylaxis and an iron and folic acid intervention package in a zinc-deficient and m...

Gender Differences in Performance of Chemistry Practical Skills among Senior Six Students in Kampala District

by Fredrick Ssempala

2008

The aim of this study was to determine if there were gender differences in the performance of Chemistry practical skills among senior six girls and boys in selected mixed secondary schools in Kampala District from February to March 2004. The study participants were drawn from five mixed secondary schools in the district. A total of fifty students participated, half of them girls and the other half boys. A cross sectional descriptive research design was used involving both quantitative and qualitative research strategies. The instruments of data collection were a Chemistry practical test (Quantitative analysis), student questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Questionnaires were filled out by all students and forty randomly selected students were interviewed by the researcher. The follow...