After 2 decades, policymakers and regulators agree that electricity market reform, liberalization and privatization remains partly art. Moreover, the international experience suggests that in nearly all cases, initial market reform leads to unintended consequences or introduces new risks, which must be addressed in subsequent “reform of the reforms.” This volume describes the evolution of the market reform process including a number of challenging issues such as infrastructure investment, resource adequacy, capacity and demand participation, market power, distributed generation, renewable energy and global climate change.« Sequel to Electricity Market Reform: An International Perspective in the same series published in 2006« Contributions from renowned scholars and practitioners on significant electricity market design and implementation issues« Covers timely topics on the evolution of electricity market liberalization worldwide..

This book is based on a set of notes developed over many years for an introductory course taught to seniors and entering graduate students in materials science. An Introduction to Aspects of Thermodynamics and Kinetics Relevant to Materials Science is about the application of thermodynamics and kinetics to solve problems within Materials Science. Emphasis is to provide a physical understanding of the phenomenon under discussion, with the mathematics presented as a guide. The problems are used to provide practice in quantitative application of principles, and also to give examples of applications of the general subject matter to problems having current interest and to emphasize the important physical concepts.End of chapter problems are included, as are references, and bibliography to reinforce the text. This book provides students with the theory and mathematics to understand the important physical understanding of phenomena.* Based on a set of notes developed over many years for an introductory course taught to seniors and entering graduate students in materials science* Provides students with the theory and mathematics to understand the important physical understanding of phenomena* Includes end of chapter problems, references, and bibliography to reinforce the text..

This compendium of 29 chapters from 18 countries contains both fundamental and advanced insight into the inevitable shift from cities dominated by the fossil-fuel systems of the industrial age to a renewable-energy based urban development framework. The cross-disciplinary handbook covers a range of diverse yet relevant topics, including: carbon emissions policy and practice; the role of embodied energy; urban thermal performance planning; building efficiency services; energy poverty alleviation efforts; renewable community support networks; aspects of household level bio-fuel markets; urban renewable energy legislation, programs and incentives; innovations in individual transport systems; global urban mobility trends; implications of intelligent energy networks and distributed energy supply and storage; and the case for new regional monetary systems and lifestyles. Presented are practical and principled aspects of technology, economics, design, culture and society, presenting perspectives that are both local and international in scope and relevance...

The progressive dwindling of fossil resources, coupled with the drastic increase in oil prices, have sparked a feverish activity in search of alternatives based on renewable resources for the production of energy. Given the predominance of petroleum- and carbon-based chemistry for the manufacture of organic chemical commodities, a similar preoccupation has recently generated numerous initiatives aimed at replacing these fossil sources with renewable counterparts. In particular, major efforts are being conducted in the field of polymer science and technology to prepare macromolecular materials based on renewable resources. The concept of the bio-refinery, viz. the rational exploitation of the vegetable biomass in terms of the separation of its components and their utilisation as such, or after suitable chemical modifications, is thus gaining momentum and considerable financial backing from both the public and private sectors. This collection of chapters, each one written by internationally recognised experts in the corresponding field, covers in a comprehensive fashion all the major aspects related to the synthesis, characterization and properties of macromolecular materials prepared using renewable resources as such, or after appropriate modifications. Thus, monomers such as terpenes and furans, oligomers like rosin and tannins, and polymers ranging from cellulose to proteins and including macromolecules synthesized by microbes, are discussed with the purpose of showing the extraordinary variety of materials that can be prepared from their intelligent exploitation. Particular emphasis has been placed on recent advances and imminent perspectives, given the incessantly growing interest that this area is experiencing in both the scientific and technological realms.- Discusses bio-refining with explicit application to materials- Replete with examples of applications of the concept of sustainable development- Presents an impressive variety of novel macromolecular materials..

By the detailed analysis of the modern development of the mechanics of deformable media can be found the deep internal contradiction. From the one hand it is declared that the deformation and fracture are the hierarchical processes which are linked and unite several structural and scale levels. From the other hand the sequential investigation of the hierarchy of the deformation and destruction is not carried out. The book’s aim is filling this mentioned gap and investigates the hot topic of the fracture of non-ideal media. From the microscopic point of view in the book we study the hierarchy of the processes in fractured solid in the whole diapason of practically used scales. According the multilevel hierarchical system ideology under “microscopic” we understand taking into account the processes on the level lower than relative present strata. From hierarchical point of view the conception of “microscopic fracture” can be soundly applied to the traditionally macroscopic area, namely geomechanics or main crack propagation. At the same time microscopic fracture of the nanomaterials can be well-grounded too. This ground demands the investigation on the level of inter-atomic interaction and quantum mechanical description. The important feature of the book is the application of fibred manifolds and non-Euclidean spaces to the description of the processes of deformation and fracture in inhomogeneous and defected continua. The non-Euclidean spaces for the dislocations’ description were introduced by J.F. Nye, B.A. Bilby, E. Kröner, K. Kondo in fiftieth. In last decades this necessity was shown in geomechanics and theory of seismic signal propagation. The applications of non-Euclidean spaces to the plasticity allow us to construct the mathematically satisfying description of the processes. Taking into account this space expansion the media with microstructure are understood as Finsler space media. The bundle space technique is used for the description of the influence of microstructure on the continuum metrics. The crack propagation is studied as a process of movement in Finsler space. Reduction of the general description to the variational principle in engineering case is investigated and a new result for the crack trajectory in inhomogeneous media is obtained. Stability and stochastization of crack trajectory in layered composites is investigated. The gauge field is introduced on the basis of the structure representation of Lie group generated by defects without any additional assumption. Effective elastic and non-elastic media for nanomaterials and their geometrical description are discussed. The monograph provides the basis for more detailed and exact description of real processes in the material. The monograph will be interesting for the researchers in the field of fracture mechanics, solid state physics and geomechanics. It can be used as well by the last year students wishing to become more familiar with some modern approaches to the physics of fracture and continual theory of dislocations. In Supplement, written by V.V.Barkaline, quantum mechanical concept of physical body wholeness according to H. Primas is discussed with relation to fracture. Role of electronic subsystem in fracture dynamics in adiabatic and non-adiabatic approximations is clarified. Potential energy surface of ion subsystem accounting electron contribution is interpreted as master parameter of fracture dynamics. Its features and relation to non-euclidean metrics of defected solid body is discussed. Quantum mechanical criteria of fracture arising are proposed. Key Features: - Crack represent as a quasi-particle- Finsler metric is taken as intrinsic metric of non-ideal body- Crack is propagate along the geodesic lines- Hierarchical nature of the fracture taking into account - Non-Archimedian numbers are characterized the chaotic properties of hierarchical space..

The book contains 17 groundbreaking, expanded and fully edited professional contributions from the 2006 16th Triennial World Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) identified by the IEA Program Committee. It presents the latest developments in physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics.This work will provide a valuable and sought-after publication for future reference by practitioners and professionals in the ergonomics and human factors field.• State-of-the-art research results by leading researchers and practitioners in ergonomics and human factors, presenting the latest developments in physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics• International authorship endorsed by an eminent International Programme Committee fully endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)..

In the last ten years the neuroscience of language has matured as a field. Ten years ago, neuroimaging was just being explored for neurolinguistic questions, whereas today it constitutes a routine component. At the same time there have been significant developments in linguistic and psychological theory that speak to the neuroscience of language. This book consolidates those advances into a single reference.The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Language provides a comprehensive overview of this field. Divided into five sections, section one discusses methods and techniques including clinical assessment approaches, methods of mapping the human brain, and a theoretical framework for interpreting the multiple levels of neural organization that contribute to language comprehension. Section two discusses the impact imaging techniques (PET, fMRI, ERPs, electrical stimulation of language cortex, TMS) have made to language research. Section three discusses experimental approaches to the field, including disorders at different language levels in reading as well as writing and number processing. Additionally, chapters here present computational models, discuss the role of mirror systems for language, and cover brain lateralization with respect to language. Part four focuses on language in special populations, in various disease processes, and in developmental disorders. The book ends with a listing of resources in the neuroscience of language and a glossary of items and concepts to help the novice become acquainted with the field.Editors Stemmer & Whitaker prepared this book to reflect recent developments in neurolinguistics, moving the book squarely into the cognitive neuroscience of language and capturing the developments in the field over the past 7 years.* History section focuses on topics that play a current role in neurolinguistics research, aphasia syndromes, and lesion analysis* Includes section on neuroimaging to reflect the dramatic changes in methodology over the past decade* Experimental and clinical section reflects recent developments in the field..

This book was primarily written for an audience that has heard about neural networks or has had some experience with the algorithms, but would like to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental material. For those that already have a solid grasp of how to create a neural network application, this work can provide a wide range of examples of nuances in network design, data set design, testing strategy, and error analysis.Computational, rather than artificial, modifiers are used for neural networks in this book to make a distinction between networks that are implemented in hardware and those that are implemented in software. The term artificial neural network covers any implementation that is inorganic and is the most general term. Computational neural networks are only implemented in software but represent the vast majority of applications.While this book cannot provide a blue print for every conceivable geophysics application, it does outline a basic approach that has been used successfully...

The book deals with an environmentally important family of polymers designed to be disposed of in industrial and municipal compost facilities after their useful life. These compostable plastics undergo degradation and leave no visible, distinguishable or toxic residue. Environmental concerns and legislative measures taken in different regions of the world make composting an increasingly attractive route for the disposal of redundant polymers.This book provides up-to-date results and information about compostable polymer materials in a coherent and comprehensive manner. It covers the entire spectrum of preparation, properties, degradation, and environmental issues. The emphasis is on recent studies concerning compostability and ecotoxicological assessment of polymer materials--important issues from the ecological point of view. Moreover, the thermal behavior of compostable polymers is described. Their price evolution over the past decade, an estimation of the market and future perspectives are presented.- Focus on the composting process, compostability standards, compost quality and composting studies- Coherent and uniformly presented information about methods of preparation; properties, processing and applications- Up-to-date information on ecotoxicity testing and studies of polymers- Overview of thermal stability and thermal degradation process of compostable polymer materials- Presents future perspectives of compostable polymers, including evolution of price during last decade- Information about waste management evolution in Europe, USA and Asia (China) with emphasis on composting during the last decade..

This monograph summarizes research conducted at Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloy during many decades in part together with Alcoa Inc. The research covered areas of the structure, properties, thermal resistance, corrosion and fatigue of aluminum alloys in industrial manufacturing.· Emphasis on interconnection among phase equilibria, thermodynamics and microstructure of alloys;· Systematic overview of all phase diagrams with Al that are important for the development of casting aluminium alloys· Diagrams ("processing windows") of important technological properties such as castability, molten metal fluidity, tendency to hot pre-solidification cracking, porosity· Mathematical models for alloy mechanical properties facilitating the down-selection of best prospect candidates for new alloy development · New principles of design of eutectic casting aluminium alloys· Examples of successful novel casting alloy development, including alloys for high-strength applications, alloys with transition metals, and novel alloys utilizing aluminium scrap..

Climate for the 21st century is expected to be considerably different from the present and recent past. Industrialization growth combined with the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and massive deforestation are well above the values over the past several decades and are expected to further grow. Air temperature is rising rapidly well as does the weather variability producing frequent extreme events. Six of the ten warmest years occurred in the 1990s. Temperatures predicted for the 21st century ranges well above the present day value. The time period of the last 100-200 years covered by the direct meteorological observations is too short and does not provide material to reliably assess what may happen over the next hundred(s) years. A faithful prediction of the future requires understanding how climate system works, i.e. to reconstruct past climate much further in the past. Borehole paleoclimatology enables climate reconstruction of the past several millennia, unlike proxy methods provides direct past temperature assessment and can well broaden the areal range to the remote regions poorly covered with meteorological observations. Considerable debates have recently focused on the causes of the present-day warming, i.e. to distinguish between the natural and anthropogenic contribution to the observed temperature increase, eventually to quantify their regional distribution. Complex interpretation of borehole data with the proxies and additional socio-economic information can hopefully help. On observed data taken in various places all over the world we demonstrate suitable examples of the interaction between the subsurface temperature response to time changes in vegetation cover, land-use (farming) and urbanization. Precise temperature-time monitoring in shallow subsurface can further provide the magnitude of the present-day warming within relatively short time intervals. As far as we know, there exists so far no book dealing entirely with the subject of the Borehole climatology. Only relatively rarely this method is mentioned in otherwise plentiful literature on climate reconstruction or on climate modelling. There are, however, series of papers focussing on various borehole--climate related studies in numerous journals (e.g. Global and Planetary Change, Climate Change, Tectonophysics, Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters, etc). Time to time a special issue appears to summarize papers on this topic presented during specialized symposia. Key Features - Description of a new useful alternative paleoclimate reconstruction method- A suitable source of information for those wishing to learn more about climate change- Material for lecturing and use in the classroom- Ample practical examples of borehole temperature inversions worldwide- Ample illustrations and reference list- Authors have a good knowledge of the problem based on more than 20 years of experience, one of them actually pioneered the methodKey Features - Description of a new useful alternative paleoclimate reconstruction method- A suitable source of information for those wishing to learn more about climate change- Material for lecturing and use in the classroom- Ample practical examples of borehole temperature inversions worldwide- Ample illustrations and reference list- Authors have a good knowledge of the problem based on more than 20 years of experience, one of them actually pioneered the method..

Composite materials have been representing most significant breakthroughs in various industrial applications, particularly in aerospace structures, during the past thirty five years. The primary goal of Advanced Mechanics of Composite Materials is the combined presentation of advanced mechanics, manufacturing technology, and analysis of composite materials. This approach lets the engineer take into account the essential mechanical properties of the material itself and special features of practical implementation, including manufacturing technology, experimental results, and design characteristics. Giving complete coverage of the topic: from basics and fundamentals to the advanced analysis including practical design and engineering applications. At the same time including a detailed and comprehensive coverage of the contemporary theoretical models at the micro- and macro- levels of material structure, practical methods and approaches, experimental results, and optimisation of composite material properties and component performance. The authors present the results of more than 30 year practical experience in the field of design and analysis of composite materials and structures.* Eight chapters progressively covering all structural levels of composite materials from their components through elementary plies and layers to laminates* Detailed presentation of advanced mechanics of composite materials * Emphasis on nonlinear material models (elasticity, plasticity, creep) and structural nonlinearity..

Major advancement in the U-Th measurement techniques since the 1990's have resulted in new opportunities for the use of these nuclides to probe into aquatic processes in greater detail. This volume provides state-of-the-art reviews on the applications of U-Th series nuclides to "time" and "tag" in a variety of processes occurring in aquatic systems.* this book provides state of art reviews on the applications of U-Th Series nuclides to 'time'and 'tag' key processes occurring in aquatic systems.* the book is self-contained, each chapter presents nuclide source functions, processes regulating their distributions and models used to describe them. * the book emphasizes current thinking in the field and future directions...

This book is an attempt to illustrate current status of modern nanotechnology. The book is divided into 3 main sections, introduction and conclusion. The introduction describes general questions of the problem and main lines of the research activities. In the first section methods of the nanostructures construction are described. Second section is dedicated to the Structure-property relationship. Special attention is paid to the description of the most powerful experimental methods and tools used in nanotechnology, such as probe microscopies, spectroscopied, and scattering methods, including the utilization of synchrotron radiation facilities. The third section describes the applications of nanotechnology in electronics, biotechnology and diagnostics. Conclusion part presents a summary of the status of works in this area and gives some perspectives of the further development.- Reference to practically all original works with essential results, that resulted in the development of nanotechnology- Coherent group of well-known authors in the field of nanotechnology- Book spans topics applicable for both the didactic and research..

The aesthetic appearance of various objects is important to human beings. One measure of the quality of an object is its surface quality, which can be characterized with the concept of gloss. Nowadays measurement of the gloss is a routine off-line method in assessment of quality of product at various sectors of industry. The book gives a fresh treatment on the concept of gloss. Theoretical description will be on more general basis of optical physics than in other sources. The text will give a modern treatise of machine vision based glossmeters and furnish the ideas how to measure and analyse gloss from complex-structured objects. Innovations of machine vision and gloss data analysis by embedded micro-controllers and microprocessors are trademarks that fill the gaps of older textbooks. Key Features: - modern treatment of gloss - presents novel glossmeter based high technology- completes principle of machine vision- application in industrial environment- emphasis on pedagogical presentation- modern treatment of gloss - describes novel glossmeter-based high technology- presents principles of machine vision- gives applications in industrial environment- emphasis on pedagogical presentation..

Mechanics is the science of studying energy and forces, and their effects on matter. It involves mechanisms, kinematics, cross sections, and transport. Radiation mechanism describes how various types of radiation interact with different targets (atoms and nuclei). The book addresses the above four aspects of radiation mechanics integrating these aspects of radiation behavior in a single treatise under the framework of “radiation mechanics".- Covers all aspects of radiation mechanics - Helps non-nuclear graduates readily familiarize themselves with radiation - Integrates and coordinates mechanisms, kinematics, cross sections and transport in one volume- End of each chapter problems to further assist students in understanding the underlying concepts- Use of computations and Internet resources included in the problems..