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Elsevier Science

  • Dynamics, Mobility and Transformation of Pollutants and Nutrients

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 28A
    • English
    623435-28a.gifVolume A deals with the dynamics, mobility and transformation of pollutants and nutrients. Soil is a dynamic system in which soil minerals constantly interact with organic matter and microorganisms. Close association among abiotic and biotic entities governs several chemical and biogeochemical processes and affects bioavailability, speciation, toxicity, transformations and transport of xenobiotics and organics in soil environments. This book elaborates critical research and an integrated view on basic aspects of mineral weathering reactions; formation and surface reactivity of soil minerals with respect to nutrients and environmental pollutants; dynamics and transformation of metals, metalloids, and natural and anthropogenic organics; effects of soil colloids on microorganisms and immobilization and activity of enzymes, and metabolic processes, growth and ecology of microbes. It offers up-to-date information on the impact of such a processes on soil development, agricultural production, environmental protection, and ecosystem integrity.
  • Ecological Significance of the Interactions among Clay Minerals, Organic Matter and Soil Biota

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 28B
    • English
    623435-28b.gifVolume B covers the ecological significance of the interactions among clay minerals, organic matter and soil biota. Soil is a dynamic system in which soil minerals constantly interact with organic matter and microorganisms. Close association among abiotic and biotic entities governs several chemical and biogeochemical processes and affects bioavailability, speciation, toxicity, transformations and transport of xenobiotics and organics in soil environments. This book elaborates critical research and an integrated view on basic aspects of mineral weathering reactions; formation and surface reactivity of soil minerals with respect to nutrients and environmental pollutants; dynamics and transformation of metals, metalloids, and natural and anthropogenic organics; effects of soil colloids on microorganisms and immobilization and activity of enzymes, and metabolic processes, growth and ecology of microbes. It offers up-to-date information on the impact of such a processes on soil development, agricultural production, environmental protection, and ecosystem integrity.
  • Fine Sediment Dynamics in the Marine Environment

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • Johan C. Winterwerp + 1 more
    • English
    Cohesive sediment, or mud, is encountered in most water bodies throughout the world. Often mud is a valuable resource, synonymous with fertile land, enriching the natural environment and used as an important building material. Yet mud also hinders navigation and consequently, dredging operations have been carried out since ancient times to safeguard navigation. Unfortunately, many mud deposits are now contaminated, endangering the eco-system and increasing the costs of dredging operations. The transport and fate of mud in the environment are still poorly understood and the need for basic research remains. This text contains the proceedings of the INTERCOH-2000 conference on progress in cohesive sediment research. It was the sixth in a series of conferences initially started by Professor Ashish Mehta in 1984 as a "Workshop on Cohesive Sediment Dynamics with Special Reference to the Processes in Estuaries". During these conferences the character of the first workshop has always been maintained, that is, small scale and dedicated to the physical and engineering aspects of cohesive sediments, without parallel sessions, but with ample time for discussions during and after the presentations, and followed by a book of proceedings containing thoroughly reviewed papers. INTERCOH-2000 was integrated with the final workshop of the COSINUS project. This project was carried out as a part of the European MAST-3 programme, and almost all European cohesive sediment workers were involved. INTERCOH-2000 focused on the behaviour and modelling of concentrated benthic suspensions, i.e. high-concentrated near-bed suspensions of cohesive sediment. Special attention was paid to: sediment - turbulence interaction; flocculation and settling velocity; high-concentrated mud suspensions; processes in the bed - consolidation; processes on the bed - erosion; field observations on mud dynamics; instrumentation; and numerical modelling.
  • Valence Bond Theory

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 10
    • David Cooper
    • English
    Valence bond (VB) theory, which builds the descriptions of molecules from those of its constituent parts, provided the first successful quantum mechanical treatments of chemical bonding. Its language and concepts permeate much of chemistry, at all levels. Various modern formulations of VB theory represent serious tools for quantum chemical studies of molecular electronic structure and reactivity. In physics, there is much VB-based work (particularly in semi-empirical form) on larger systems. Importance of TopicThe last decade has seen significant advances in methodology and a vast increase in the range of applications, with many new researchers entering the field.Why This TitleValence Bond Theory succeeds in presenting a comprehensive selection of contributions from leading valence bond (VB) theory researchers throughout the world. It focuses on the vast increase in the range of applications of methodology based on VB theory during the last decade and especially emphasizes recent advances.
  • Operational Oceanography

    Implementation at the European and Regional Scales
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 66
    • N.C. Flemming + 6 more
    • English
    The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is an international programme for a permanent global framework of observations, modelling and analysis of ocean variables that are needed to support operational services around the world. The EuroGOOS strategy has two streams: the first is to improve the quality of marine information in European home waters, and the second is to collaborate with similar organisations in other continents to create a new global ocean observing and modelling system that will provide the open ocean forecasts needed to achieve the best possible performance by local marine information services everywhere.EuroGOOS held its second international conference in The Hague in 1999. Here, the operational services already in place in the EuroGOOS regions were presented and evaluated. In addition, a "Forward Look" was presented, with targets for the next 5-10 years.The proceedings of the first EuroGOOS conference were published by Elsevier in the /locate/inca/600827E... Series No. 62 Editors: Stel et al, ISBN 0-444-82892-3.
  • Understanding and Solving Environmental Problems in the 21st Century

    Toward a New, Integrated Hard Problem Science
    • 1st Edition
    • R. Costanza + 1 more
    • English
    The aim of this book is to encourage integration of the natural and social sciences with the policy and design-making community, and thereby develop a deeper understanding of complex environmental problems. Its fundamental themes are:• integrated modeling and assessment• complex, adaptive, hierarchical systems• ecosystem services • science and decision-making• ecosystem health and human health• quality of life and the distribution of wealth and resources.This book will act as a state of the art assessment of integrated environmental science and its relation to real world problem solving. It is aimed not only at the academic community, but also as a sourcebook for managers, policy makers, and the informed public. It deals both with the state of the science and the level of consensus among scientists on key environmental issues. The concepts underlying this book were developed at the 2nd EcoSummit workshop held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, June, 2000, with active participation from all delegates, and attempts to present their collective view.
  • Boundary Elements: Theory and Applications

    • 1st Edition
    • John T. Katsikadelis
    • English
    The author's ambition for this publication was to make BEM accessible to the student as well as to the professional engineer. For this reason, his maintask was to organize and present the material in such a way so that the book becomes "user-friendly" and easy to comprehend, taking into account only the mathematics and mechanics to which students have been exposed during their undergraduate studies. This effort led to an innovative, in many aspects, way of presentingBEM, including the derivation of fundamental solutions, the integral representation of the solutions and the boundary integral equations for various governing differentialequation... in a simple way minimizing a recourse to mathematics with which the student is not familiar. The indicial and tensorial notations, though they facilitate the author's work and allow to borrow ready to use expressions from the literature, have been avoided in the present book. Nevertheless, all the necessary preliminary mathematical concepts have been included in order to make the book complete and self-sufficient.Thro... the book, every concept is followed by example problems, which have been worked out in detail and with all the necessary clarifications. Furthermore, each chapter of the book is enriched with problems-to-solve. These problems serve a threefold purpose. Some of them are simple and aim at applying and better understanding the presented theory, some others are more difficult and aim at extending the theory to special cases requiring a deeper understanding of the concepts, and others are small projects which serve the purpose of familiarizing the student with BEM programming and the programs contained in the CD-ROM.The latter class of problems is very important as it helps students to comprehend the usefulness and effectiveness of the method by solving real-life engineering problems. Through these problems students realize that the BEM is a powerful computational tool and not an alternative theoretical approach for dealing with physical problems. My experience in teaching BEM shows that this is the students' most favorite type of problems. They are delighted to solve them, since they integrate their knowledge and make them feel confident in mastering BEM.The CD-ROM which accompanies the book contains the source codes of all the computer programs developed in the book, so that the student or the engineer can use them for the solution of a broad class of problems. Among them are general potential problems, problems of torsion, thermal conductivity,deflect... of membranes and plates, flow of incompressible fluids, flow through porous media, in isotropic or anisotropic, homogeneous or composite bodies, as well as plane elastostatic problems in simply or multiply connected domains. As one can readily find out from the variety of the applications, the book is useful for engineers of all disciplines. The author is hopeful that the present book will introduce the reader to BEM in an easy, smooth and pleasant way and also contribute to itsdissemination as a modern robust computational tool for solving engineering problems.
  • Origin and Prediction of Abnormal Formation Pressures

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 50
    • V.A. Serebryakov + 2 more
    • English
    Knowledge of the presence of abnormally-high pressure zones (AHFP) prior to drilling into them can prevent considerable economic losses and, possibly, save human lives. The various origins (undercompaction, tectonics, etc.) of AHFPs are discussed, followed by the description of predictive techniques in clastic, carbonate and salt-bearing formations. In addition to the well-logging predictive techniques, the authors discuss smectite-illite transformation and the chemistry of interstitial solutions. Other topics covered include (a) abnormally low formation pressures and subsidence, and (b) mathematical modelling. Loss of potential production may result if AHFPs are not properly identified and evaluated. Many hydrocarbon-bearing formations with AHFPs are erroneously "condemned".This book is of interest to engineers and geologists involved in the (a) evaluation, (b) drilling in, (c) completing, and (d) producing from hydrocarbon reservoirs with AHFPs.
  • Do Seizures Damage The Brain

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 135
    • T. Sutula + 1 more
    • English
    What are the consequences, if any, of repeated brief seizures that are the defining feature of epilepsy? A firm answer to this question has been surprisingly elusive for a variety of reasons. Clearly there is a subset of patients who appear to tolerate seizures with relatively limited long-term consequences, and not all patients are destined to progress to intractability with frequent seizures and disability. This variability and individual susceptibility has made it difficult to make statements that fairly apply to the full range of people with epileptic disorders, whose disorders span a broad spectrum from mild with excellent control and few limitations, to severe with multiple daily seizures and pronounced disability that affects employment, educational performance, an personal life.This volume seeks to explore the spectrum of severe to more subtle damage that may be a consequence of seizures. The contributing authors have addressed these questions and related issues using a variety of methods in experimental models and in patients with epilepsy.
  • Nanoporous Materials III

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 141
    • M. Jaroniec + 1 more
    • English
    Nanoporous Materials III contains the invited lectures and peer-reviewed oral and poster contributions to be presented at the 3rd Conference on Nanoporous Materials, which will be hosted in Ottawa, Canada, June 2002. The work covers complementary approaches to and recent advances in the field of nanostructured materials with pore sizes larger than 1nm, such as periodic mesoporous molecular sieves M41S and FSM16 and related materials including clays, carbon molecular sieves, colloidal crystal templated organic and inorganic materials, porous polymers and sol gels. The broad range of topics covered in relation to the synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous materials are of great importance for advanced adsorption, catalytic and separation processes as well as the development of nanotechnology.The contents of this title are based on topics to be discussed by invited lecturers, which deal with periodic mesoporous organosilicas, stability and catalytic activity of aluminosilicate mesostructures, electron microscopy studies of ordered materials, imprinted polymers and highly porous metal-organic frameworks. The other contributions deal with tailoring the surface and structural properties of nanoporous materials, giving a detailed characterization as well as demonstrating their usefulness for advanced adsorption and catalytic applications.