Ecological Engineering Design: Restoring and Conversing Ecosystem Services
By Marty D. Matlock
Ecologically-sensitive building and landscape design is a broad,
intrinsically interdisciplinary field. Existing books independently
cover narrow aspects of ecological design in depth (hydrology,
ecosystems, soils, flora and fauna, etc.), but none of these books can
boast of the integrated approach taken by this one. Drawing on the
experience of the authors, this book begins to define explicit design
methods for integrating consideration of ecosystem processes and
services into every facet of land use design, management, and policy.
The approach is to provide a prescriptive approach to ecosystem design
based upon ecological engineering principles and practices. This book
will include a novel collection of design methods for the non-built and
built environments, linking landscape design explicitly to ecosystem
services.
In this eye-opening work, the president of the ACLU
takes a hard look at the human and social costs of the War on Terror. A
decade after 9/11, it is far from clear that the government's hastily
adopted antiterrorist tactics--such as the Patriot Act--are keeping us
safe, but it is increasingly clear that these emergency measures in fact
have the potential to ravage our lives--and have already done just that
to countless Americans.
From the Oregon lawyer falsely suspected of involvement with terrorism
in Spain to the former University of Idaho football player arrested on
the pretext that he was needed as a "material witness" (though he was
never called to testify), this book is filled with unsettling stories of
ordinary people caught in the government's dragnet. These are not just
isolated mistakes in an otherwise sound program, but demonstrations of
what can happen when our constitutional protections against government
abuse are abandoned. Whether it's running a chat room, contributing to a
charity, or even urging a terrorist group to forego its violent
tactics, activities that should be protected by the First Amendment can
now lead to prosecution. Blacklists and watchlists keep people grounded
at airports and strand American citizens abroad, although these lists
are rife with errors--errors that cannot be challenged. National
Security Letters allow the FBI to demand records about innocent people
from libraries, financial institutions, and internet service providers
without ever going to court. Government databanks now brim with
information about every aspect of our private lives, while efforts to
mount legal challenges to these measures have been stymied.
Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being and
Sustainability
By Andrew L. Dannenberg
The environment that we construct affects both humans and our natural
world in myriad ways. There is a pressing need to create healthy places
and to reduce the health threats inherent in places already built.
However, there has been little awareness of the adverse effects of what
we have constructed-or the positive benefits of well designed built
environments.
Written by a team of global experts, Nanotechnology
for Environmental Decontamination covers the latest methods for using
nanomaterials, processes, and tools to remediate toxin-contaminated
water, air, soil, groundwater, and wastewater. This groundbreaking work
discusses the use of nanotechnology to neutralize microbes, pesticides,
heavy metals, industrial chemicals, chemical and biological warfare
agents, and other toxic substances. In-depth details on the physics,
chemistry, and technology of nanomaterials, nanostructures, and
nanotechnology for decontamination are included in this authoritative
resource.
Shari'a in the West 
By Rex Ahdar
In February 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams,
delivered a public lecture in which he stated that it "seem[ed]
unavoidable" that certain aspects of Islamic law (Shari'a) would be
recognized and incorporated into British law. The comments provoked
outrage from sections of the public who viewed any recognition of
Shari'a law in Britain with alarm. In July 2008 Lord Phillips, Lord
Chief Justice of England and Wales, weighed into the fray. He praised
the Archbishop's speech and gave qualified support for Shari'a
principles to govern certain family and civil disputes.
Responding to the polarised debate that followed these lectures, this is
a collection of short essays written by distinguished and prominent
scholars addressing the question of the accommodation of Shari'a within
the legal systems of the liberal-democratic West. The matters raised in
the two 2008 lectures provide a springboard for lively discussion,
criticism and debate on both the specific question of religious/cultural
accommodation by the law and the wider issues of multiculturalism,
equality before the law and the desirability of parallel jurisdictions
for particular faith communities.
By Surya Santoso, Mark F. McGranaghan, Roger Dugan
Electrical Power Systems Quality, Third Edition, is
a complete, accessible, and up-to-date guide to identifying and
preventing the causes of power quality problems. The information is
presented without heavy-duty equations, making it practical and easily
readable for utility engineers, industrial engineers, technicians, and
equipment designers. This in-depth resource addresses the essentials of
power quality and tested methods to improve compatibility among the
power system, customer equipment, and processes.
Schelling's Game Theory: How to Make Decisions 
By: Robert V. Dodge
Thomas Schelling won the Nobel Prize in economics "for having enhanced
our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory
analysis." This came after he had taught a course in game theory and
rational choice to advanced students and government officials for 45
years. In this book, Robert Dodge provides in language for a broad
audience, the concepts that Schelling taught. Armed with Schelling's
understanding of game theory methods and his approaches to problems, the
general reader can improve daily decision making. Mathematics often
make game theory challenging but was not a major part of Schelling's
course and is even less of a factor in this book. Along with a summary
of the material Schelling presented, included are problems from the
course and similar less challenging questions. While considerable
analysis is done with the basic game theory tool -- the two-by-two
matrix -- much of the book is descriptive and rational decision-making
is explained with stories. Chapter supplements are added to illuminate
points presented by Schelling, including writings by Paul Krugman,
Thomas Friedman, Steven Levitt, and others.
By: Ernesto Estrada
This book deals with the analysis of the structure
of complex networks by combining results from graph theory, physics, and
pattern recognition. The book is divided into two parts. 11 chapters
are dedicated to the development of theoretical tools for the structural
analysis of networks, and 7 chapters are illustrating, in a critical
way, applications of these tools to real-world scenarios. The first
chapters provide detailed coverage of adjacency and metric and
topological properties of networks, followed by chapters devoted to the
analysis of individual fragments and fragment-based global invariants in
complex networks. Chapters that analyse the concepts of
communicability, centrality, bipartivity, expansibility and communities
in networks follow. The second part of this book is devoted to the
analysis of genetic, protein residue, protein-protein interaction,
intercellular, ecological and socio-economic networks, including
important breakthroughs as well as examples of the misuse of structural
concepts.
Coastal Processes and Geomorphology 
By: Gerhard Masselink, Michael G. Hughes, Jasper Knight
The world's coastlines represent a vast range of dynamic environments,
processes and landforms. Heavily settled and intensely used, coasts are
of enormous importance to humans. Understanding how they are shaped and
why they change is crucial to our future.
Introduction to Coastal Processes and Geomorphology examines coastal
systems through the processes and landforms that are found in major
coastal environments worldwide. The major factors controlling coastal
morphodynamic behaviour are considered, including sea level, tides,
waves and sediment properties and the book explores the impact of these
factors on the behaviour of deltas, estuaries, beaches and barriers,
sand dunes, and rocky and coral coastlines.
