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Elsevier Science

Silicon in Agriculture
1st Edition
Volume 8
L.E. Datnoff + 2 more
English
Presenting the first book to focus on the importance of silicon for plant health and soil productivity and on our current understanding of this element as it relates to agriculture.Long considered by plant physiologists as a non-essential element, or plant nutrient, silicon was the center of attention at the first international conference on Silicon in Agriculture, held in Florida in 1999.Ninety scientists, growers, and producers of silicon fertilizer from 19 countries pondered a paradox in plant biology and crop science. They considered the element Si, second only to oxygen in quantity in soils, and absorbed by many plants in amounts roughly equivalent to those of such nutrients as sulfur or magnesium. Some species, including such staples as rice, may contain this element in amounts as great as or even greater than any other inorganic constituent. Compilations of the mineral composition of plants, however, and much of the plant physiological literature largely ignore this element. The participants in Silicon in Agriculture explored that extraordinary discrepancy between the silicon content of plants and that of the plant research enterprise.The participants, all of whom are active in agricultural science, with an emphasis on crop production, presented, and were presented with, a wealth of evidence that silicon plays a multitude of functions in the real world of plant life. Many soils in the humid tropics are low in plant available silicon, and the same condition holds in warm to hot humid areas elsewhere. Field experience, and experimentation even with nutrient solutions, reveals a multitude of functions of silicon in plant life. Resistance to disease is one, toleration of toxic metals such as aluminum, another. Silicon applications often minimize lodging of cereals (leaning over or even becoming prostrate), and often cause leaves to assume orientations more favorable for light interception. For some crops, rice and sugarcane in particular, spectacular yield responses to silicon application have been obtained. More recently, other crop species including orchids, daisies and yucca were reported to respond to silicon accumulation and plant growth/disease control. The culture solutions used for the hydroponic production of high-priced crops such as cucumbers and roses in many areas (The Netherlands for example) routinely included silicon, mainly for disease control. The biochemistry of silicon in plant cell walls, where most of it is located, is coming increasingly under scrutiny; the element may act as a crosslinking element between carbohydrate polymers.There is an increased conviction among scientists that the time is at hand to stop treating silicon as a plant biological nonentity. The element exists, and it matters.
Data Analysis Methods in Physical Oceanography
Second and Revised Edition
2nd Edition
Richard E. Thomson + 1 more
W.J. Emery + 1 more
English
Data Analysis Methods in Physical Oceanography is a practical referenceguide to established and modern data analysis techniques in earth and oceansciences. This second and revised edition is even more comprehensive with numerous updates, and an additional appendix on 'Convolution and Fourier transforms'. Intended for both students and established scientists, the fivemajor chapters of the book cover data acquisition and recording, dataprocessing and presentation, statistical methods and error handling,analysis of spatial data fields, and time series analysis methods. Chapter 5on time series analysis is a book in itself, spanning a wide diversity oftopics from stochastic processes and stationarity, coherence functions,Fourier analysis, tidal harmonic analysis, spectral and cross-spectralanalys... wavelet and other related methods for processing nonstationarydata series, digital filters, and fractals. The seven appendices includeunit conversions, approximation methods and nondimensional numbers used ingeophysical fluid dynamics, presentations on convolution, statisticalterminolo... and distribution functions, and a number of importantstatistical tables. Twenty pages are devoted to references.Featuring... An in-depth presentation of modern techniques for the analysis of temporal and spatial data sets collected in oceanography, geophysics, and other disciplines in earth and ocean sciences.• A detailed overview of oceanographic instrumentation and sensors - old and new - used to collect oceanographic data.• 7 appendices especially applicable to earth and ocean sciences ranging from conversion of units, through statistical tables, to terminology and non-dimensional parameters.In praise of the first edition: "(...)This is a very practical guide to the various statistical analysis methods used for obtaining information from geophysical data, with particular reference to oceanography(...)The book provides both a text for advanced students of the geophysical sciences and a useful reference volume for researchers." Aslib Book Guide Vol 63, No. 9, 1998"(...)This is an excellent book that I recommend highly and will definitely use for my own research and teaching." EOS Transactions, D.A. Jay, 1999"(...)In summary, this book is the most comprehensive and practical source of information on data analysis methods available to the physical oceanographer. The reader gets the benefit of extremely broad coverage and an excellent set of examples drawn from geographical observations." Oceanography, Vol. 12, No. 3, A. Plueddemann, 1999"(...)Data Analysis Methods in Physical Oceanography is highly recommended for a wide range of readers, from the relative novice to the experienced researcher. It would be appropriate for academic and special libraries." E-Streams, Vol. 2, No. 8, P. Mofjelf, August 1999
Reaction Kinetics and the Development and Operation of Catalytic Processes
1st Edition
Volume 133
G.F. Froment + 1 more
English
Reaction Kinetics and the Development and Operation of Catalytic Processes is a trendsetter. The Keynote Lectures have been authored by top scientists and cover a broad range of topics like fundamental aspects of surface chemistry, in particular dynamics and spillover, the modeling of reaction mechanisms, with special focus on the importance of transient experimentation and the application of kinetics in reactor design. Fundamental and applied kinetic studies are well represented. More than half of these deal with transient kinetics, a new trend made possible by recent sophisticated experimental equipment and the awareness that transient experimentation provides more information and insight into the microphenomena occurring on the catalyst surface than steady state techniques. The trend is not limited to purely kinetic studies since the great majority of the papers dealing with reactors also focus on transients and even deliberate transient operation. It is to be expected that this trend will continue and amplify as the community becomes more aware of the predictive potential of fundamental kinetics when combined with detailed realistic modeling of the reactor operation.
Nondestructive Characterization of Materials X
1st Edition
R.E. Green + 4 more
English
The papers published in these peer-reviewed proceedings represent the latest developments in nondestructive characterization of materials and were presented at the Tenth International Symposium on Nondestructive Characterization of Materials held on June 26 - 30, 2000 in Karuizawa, Japan. The symposium was held concurrently with three other symposia and one workshop. This symposium is the tenth in the series that began in 1983 and became an international meeting in 1986.The symposium started with a Plenary Lecture entitled 'Application of Non-contact Ultrasonics to Nondestrctive Characterization of Materials' by Professor R.E. Green, Jr. Various characterization methods were presented at the symposium, including ultrasonics, X-ray, eddy currents, laser, thermal wave, acoustic emission, optical fibers, optics, magnetics and ultrasonic microscope. Thin films and coatings as well as smart materials were also emphasized in this symposium.
Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation
SEMC 2001 (2 Volume Set)
1st Edition
A. Zingoni
English
Following on from the International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, held in Cape Town in April 2001, this book contains the Proceedings, in two volumes. There are over 170 papers written by Authors from around 40 countries worldwide. The contributions include 6 Keynote Papers and 12 Special Invited Papers. In line with the aims of the SEMC 2001 International Conference, and as may be seen from the List of Contents, the papers cover a wide range of topics under a variety of themes. There is a healthy balance between papers of a theoretical nature, concerned with various aspects of structural mechanics and computational issues, and those of a more practical nature, addressing issues of design, safety and construction. As the contributions in these Proceedings show, new and more efficient methods of structural analysis and numerical computation are being explored all the time, while exciting structural materials such as glass have recently come onto the scene. Research interest in the repair and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure continues to grow, particularly in Europe and North America, while the challenges to protect human life and property against the effects of fire, earthquakes and other hazards are being addressed through the development of more appropriate design methods for buildings, bridges and other engineering structures.
Handbook of Process Algebra
1st Edition
J.A. Bergstra + 2 more
English
Process Algebra is a formal description technique for complex computer systems, especially those involving communicating, concurrently executing components. It is a subject that concurrently touches many topic areas of computer science and discrete math, including system design notations, logic, concurrency theory, specification and verification, operational semantics, algorithms, complexity theory, and, of course, algebra.This Handbook documents the fate of process algebra since its inception in the late 1970's to the present. It is intended to serve as a reference source for researchers, students, and system designers and engineers interested in either the theory of process algebra or in learning what process algebra brings to the table as a formal system description and verification technique. The Handbook is divided into six parts spanning a total of 19 self-contained Chapters. The organization is as follows. Part 1, consisting of four chapters, covers a broad swath of the basic theory of process algebra. Part 2 contains two chapters devoted to the sub-specialization of process algebra known as finite-state processes, while the three chapters of Part 3 look at infinite-state processes, value-passing processes and mobile processes in particular. Part 4, also three chapters in length, explores several extensions to process algebra including real-time, probability and priority. The four chapters of Part 5 examine non-interleaving process algebras, while Part 6's three chapters address process-algebra tools and applications.
From Magma to Tephra
Modelling Physical Processes of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions
1st Edition
Volume 4
A. Freundt + 1 more
English
Hot magma rising through the Earth's crust releases gases that expand and may come into contact with external water that vaporizes. The magma is then fragmented into an accelerating gas-particle/droplet mixture that is shot into the atmosphere, possibly in an overpressured state, where it may buoyantly rise up into the stratosphere as an ash plume, partially or totally collapse back to the surface, or rapidly expand sideways, or undergo a combination of these processes. Tephra is then deposited on the Earth's surface by pyroclastic fall, flow or surge, or some hybrid mechanism. The combination of processes that operate from the degassing of magma to the emplacement of tephra makes an explosive volcanic eruption, and the physical characterization of these processes is the scope of this book.In this book we summarize the insights into key aspects of explosive volcanic eruptions gained from physical modelling to date.The seven chapters are arranged in an order reflecting the sequence from processes acting within the volcanicconduit through dynamics of eruption and transport through the atmosphere to mechanisms of emplacement on the Earth's surface.Chapter 1 reviews the progress made in understanding how magma vesiculates and fragments, considering results obtained by experiment, theory, and analysis of the vesicle-texture of pumice. Magmatic fragmentation is discussed in terms of brittle failure as tensile strength is exceeded by internal and/or external stresses. The explosive fragmentation of hot magma upon contact to external water is experimentally shown in Chapter 2, emphasizing the need for water-entrapment configurations to cause explosive interaction during which extremely high stresses fracture melt in a brittle fashion. The motion through the conduit of vesiculating magma below the fragmentation level, and of the gas-particle/droplet mixture above fragmentation is investigated in Chapter 3. Pressure evolution along the conduit and exit velocity at the vent are shown tovary with initial magma chamber pressure, magma composition, and composition of the mixed H2O+CO2 volatile phase. Chapter 4 then reviews the processes that control the dynamic evolution of eruption columns during rise into the stratosphere or collapse to form pyroclastic flows, considering supersonic dynamics, influence of the atmosphere, and time-dependent unsteadiness effects. Transport and fallout of pyroclasts from eruption columns with or without cross-wind are the topic ofChapter 5, showing how deposit characteristics can be used to estimate eruption parameters such as discharge rate and column height. The generation, transport and emplacement of pyroclastic flows is discussed in Chapter 6, reviewing the presently much debated transport concepts ranging from grain flow through fluidized flow to suspension currents,and elaborating the suspension-current model thought to be applicable to widespread ignimbrites. Finally, Chapter 7 summarizes observations from nuclear explosions and characteristics of pyroclastic surge deposits as a basis to then theoretically analyze the compressible two-phase flow of both dry and wet pyroclastic surges.
Capillary Electrochromatography
1st Edition
Volume 62
F. Svec + 1 more
English
This book discusses the evolution and uses for capillary electrochromatograph... as a new dimension to current separation science. With the emergence of this technique the selection of available separation mechanisms increases dramatically. The book also discusses the new horizons in the separation of non-polar compounds which have been opened as a result of CEC. Over ten chapters authors cover a wide variety of topics and provide the reader with necessary theoretical background, description of the instrumentation, modes of operation and methods of detection and an overview of the broad variety of applications of capillary electrochromatograph... view the full contents as a pdf, please click /inca/publications/m...
Fracture Mechanics Testing Methods for Polymers, Adhesives and Composites
1st Edition
Volume 28
D.R. Moore + 2 more
English
This book is an overview of ESIS Technical Committee 4's activities since the mid-1980s. A wide range of tests is described and the numerous authors is a reflection of the wide and enthusiastic support we have had. With the establishment of the Technical Committee 4, two major areas were identified as appropriate for the activity. Firstly there was an urgent need for standard, fracture mechanics based, test methods to be designed for polymers and composites. A good deal of academic work had been done, but the usefulness to industry was limited by the lack of agreed standards. Secondly there was a perceived need to explore the use of such data in the design of plastic parts. Some modest efforts were made in early meetings to explore this, but little progress was made. In contrast things moved along briskly in the standards work and this has dominated the activity for the last fourteen years. The design issue remains a future goal.
The Role of DNA Damage and Repair in Cell Aging
1st Edition
Volume 4
B.A. Gilchrest + 1 more
English
Aging occurs at the level of individual cells, a complex interplay between intrinsic "programming" and exogenous "wear and tear", with genetically-determin... cellular capacity to repair environmentally-indu... DNA damage playing a central role in the rate of aging and its specific manifestations. In 12 chapters, "The Role of DNA Damage and Repair in Cell Aging" provides an intellectual framework for aging of mitotic and post-mitotic cells, describes a variety of model systems for further studies, and reviews current concepts of DNA responses and their relationship to the phenomenon of aging.As part of a series entitled "Advances in Cell Aging and Gerontology," this volume also summarizes seminal recent discoveries such as the molecular basis for Werner syndrome (a mutant DNA helicase), the complementary roles of telomere shortening and telomerase activity in cell senescence versus immortalization, the role of apoptosis in the homeostasis of aging tissue, and the existence of an inducible SOS-like response in mammalian cells that minimizes DNA damage from repeatedly encountered injurious environmental agents. Insights into the relationship between cellular aging and age-associated diseases, particularly malignancies, are also provided in several chapters.This book is an excellent single source of information for anyone interested in DNA repair, mechanisms of aging, or certainly their intersection. Students will gain a general appreciation of these fields, but even the most senior investigators will benefit from the detailed coverage of rapidly advancing areas.

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