A country's vision for developing renewable and sustainable energy resources is typically propelled by three important drivers – security, cost, and environmental impact. The U.S. currently accounts for a quarter of the world’s total oil consumption, with domestic demands necessitating – at an ever growing cost – a...
Many books on the agrarian history ofWestern Europe begin with the Middle Ages, which is quite understandable, because they are mostly based on written sources. But everybody who is interested in agriculture knows that agriculture started much earlier and also that information on that millennia-long period is provided by archaeology. Admittedly,...
The world population is still growing at an
alarming rate, requiring ever increasing productivity
and less waste in agriculture to cope
with the increasing demands to satisfy food
security for all humans. Alleviation of poverty
is in many countries hampered by a myriad of
insect pests that cause enormous economic...
Somerset, one of England's most rural counties, has for centuries depended on agriculture for much of its income. At the time these photographs were taken much of the county was suffering a downturn in agricultural output. A series of disastrous harvests in the 1880s and the loss of the corn laws. The poverty and hardship on the land...
The southern coast of the North Sea is mainly protected by a single line of defence against flooding. The traditional means for heightening and strengthening the existing coastal barriers are limited due to the increased enormous resource costs, i.e. building materials, funding and space. On the other hand, further interests and needs such as...
This invaluable book offers a comprehensive overview of the technologies and applications of optoelectronic sensors. Based on the R&D experience of more than 70 engineers and scientists, highly representative of the Italian academic and industrial community in this area, this book provides a broad and accurate description of the...
As the field of communications networks continues to evolve, a very interesting and challenging area — wireless sensor networks — is rapidly coming of age. A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of sensor nodes that may be randomly and densely deployed. Sensor nodes are small electronic components capable of sensing many...
Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. It is a discipline that addresses current issues: climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control...
The post-genomic revolution is witnessing the generation of petabytes of data annually, with deep implications ranging across evolutionary theory, developmental biology, agriculture, and disease processes. Data Mining for Systems Biology: Methods and Protocols, surveys and demonstrates the science and technology of converting...
Advances in genome-scale DNA sequencing technologies have revolutionized genetic research on ancient organisms, extinct species, and past environments. When it is recoverable after hundreds or thousands of years of unintended preservation, “ancient DNA” (or aDNA) is often highly degraded, necessitating specialized handling...
In recent years, much has transpired in the field of remote sensing and, in
particular, polarization. Polarization is an outgrowth of multiple, highly
accurate photometric measurements. Plane polarization is the difference
between precision photometric measurements in two mutually perpendicular
directions. Circular polarization...
This book seeks to address some of these difficulties and set out some new solutions. Pests, diseases and weeds eat, infiltrate and smother crops and grab their nutrients. If farmers stood back and let nature take its course, there would be insufficient food. They must do something. Pesticides are easy to use, although often costly for farmers. In...