Policy-makers and the public, it has famously been said, are more interested in the possibility of non-linear dislocations and surprises in the behaviour of the environment than in smooth extrapolations of current trends. The International Task Force in Forecasting Environmental Change (1993-1998) dedicated its work to developing procedures...

Complex environmental problems are often reduced to an inappropriate level of simplicity. While this book does not seek to present a comprehensive scientific and technical coverage of all aspects of the subject matter, it makes the issues, ideas, and language of environmental engineering accessible and understandable to the nontechnical...

Plants are not just a pretty part of the landscape; they keep the entire planet, with all of its human and nonhuman inhabitants, alive. Stanley Rice documents the many ways in which plants do this by making oxygen, regulating the greenhouse effect, controlling floods, and producing all the food in the world. Plants also create natural...

The idea that some day robots may have emotions has captured the imagination of many and has been dramatized by robots and androids in such famous movies as 2001 Space Odyssey's HAL or Star Trek's Data. By contrast, the editors of this book have assembled a panel of experts in neuroscience and artificial intelligence who have dared to...

But long before AS3, Flash developers were experimenting with 3D. And applications like Papervision3D formalized...

Mobility is no longer a technological revolution. It is more about how businesses and governments can provide a better social infrastructure through mobile applications and services. While e-government was an important step taken by many governments, provision of services through mobile technologies is now inevitable. Public demand for...

Research into grid computing has been driven by the need to solve large-scale, increasingly complex problems for scientific applications. Yet the applications of grid computing for business and casual users did not begin to emerge until the development of the concept of cloud computing, fueled by advances in virtualization techniques, coupled...

The book presents an overview of 3-D cinematography, the science and technology of generating 3-D models of dynamic scenes from multiple cameras at video frame rates. The book covers recent developments in computer vision and computer graphics that have made 3-D cinematography possible, and reviews the challenges and open issues that need to...

This is the first complete account of the physics of the creep and fracture of ice, and their interconnectivity. It investigates the deformation of low-pressure ice, which is fundamental to glaciers, polar ice sheets and the uppermost region of icy moons of the outer Solar System. The book discusses ice structure and its defects, and...

Healthcare practitioners and managers increasingly find themselves in clinical situations where they have to think fast and process myriad diagnostic test results, medications and past treatment responses in order to make decisions. Effective problem solving in the clinical environment or classroom simulated lab depends on a healthcare...

In the decade since the introduction of the first commercial lithium-ion battery research and development on virtually every aspect of the chemistry and engineering of these systems has proceeded at unprecedented levels. This book is a snapshot of the state-of-the-art and where the work is going in the near future. The book is intended not...

This book provides a concise introduction to the mathematical aspects of the origin, structure and evolution of the universe. The book begins with a brief overview of observational and theoretical cosmology, along with a short introduction of general relativity. It then goes on to discuss Friedmann models, the Hubble constant and deceleration...