Nova Science Publishers

Coastal groundwater system changes in response to large-scale land reclamation.

In many crowded coastal urban areas, land is being reclaimed from the sea to expand housing and other construction. The impact of such reclamation on coastal engineering, environment, and marine ecology have been widely studied, but Guo and Jiao (both earth sciences, U. of Hong Kong) look at the impact on groundwater level and seawater interface. They derive steady-state analytical solutions based on Dupuit and Ghyben-Herzberg assumptions to describe the modification of water level and the movement of the interface between fresh groundwater and saltwater in coastal hillside or island situations. Land reclamation increases the water level in the original aquifer, they conclude, and pushes the saltwater interface towards the sea. Thus the water resource is increased in two ways. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Constructed wetlands.

This book covers a range of issues related to wetlands constructed for the treatment of stormwater and wastewater. It begins by outlining the functions and classifications of constructed wetlands and describing treatment processes. The book goes on to provide details of the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of wetlands. A case study from Sydney, Australia, highlights experience gained from managing a large and prominent urban wetland. A final chapter outlines the importance of engaging the community when planning, designing, and constructing wetlands. The book will be useful for environmental professionals, and can also be used as a reference by graduate students of civil and environmental engineering, chemical engineering, environmental management, and environmental science. The editors teach engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Crop rotation.

Nine studies are collected for this volume, which is organized around the broad theme of crop rotation. The studies focus on specialized topics: weed control, herbicides, and rigid ryegrass in Western Australia; issues associated with doing small, single discipline satellite experiments in crop rotation; profitable rotation management and computational procedures for identifying them; a multi-year, cereal-based rotation trial in northern Syria's rainfed semi-arid zone; peanut growing areas in Texas; performances of winter wheat, sugar beet, and field bean crops in the Mediterranean; poplar biomass as renewable energy raw material; a paddy rice system in southern China; and the costs of conversion of native grassland to cropland in the US, a report from the US Government Accountability Office. Contributors work in agriculture, land management and water conservation research, crop and soil sciences, and biology in Australia, the US, Syria, Europe, and China. One chapter has many grammar errors, suggesting poor editing or translation. The editor's credentials are not provided. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Current advances in molecular mycology.

The topic here is the molecular genetics of filamentous fungi, not moldy DNA. Biological, agricultural, and food scientists approach problems of identifying fungus — primarily those that affect food or crops — by increasing the number of fungi characterized with molecular techniques. They describe both the methodology and the information it has provided over the past decade on genomic organization and regulation of gene and pathway expression in various fungi. Among the topics are in silico tools to study phytofungi, molecular markers for characterizing Fusarioum oxysporum formae speciales, exploring Ascochyta rabeie on chickpea as a model to study pathogenicity factors of Aschochyta blight of cool season grain legumes, and the molecular identification and characterization of indoor wood decay fungi and different human pathogenic Candida species. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Cyberinfrastructure technologies and applications.

The 15 papers in this collection discuss new technologies and applications for building an infrastructure to access and manage cyber resources such as supercomputers, data archives, software services, scientific instruments, and virtual organizations. The academic researchers share early experiences with software development and maintenance, resource integration and sharing, cyber environment construction, operation, testing, application enabling, security, and quality of service. Topics include parallel dense linear algebra software in the multicore era, an interoperable information service solution for grids, metascheduling for biomedical pervasive computing, and agricultural data sharing in China. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The diagnostic process in medical practice.

Groves examines the nature of the clinical reasoning process, its development in relation to clinical expertise, and the methods available for its assessment and evaluation. The slim book defines four criteria for the achievement of expertise, assesses the advantages and disadvantages of written formats and computer-based simulations for testing clinical reasoning, and recommends clinical examinations using standardized patients during postgraduate training. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Dietary magnesium; new research.

Magnesium is needed for over 300 known biochemical reactions in the body, and researchers from a wide range of biological and medical sciences describe even more — some reporting their own research and some reviewing the professional literature. The longest article, by a team of five French scientists, looks at chrono-pathological forms of asthma due to magnesium depletion with hypo-function or hyper-function of the biological clock. Other topics include a critical review of epidemiological studies of magnesium intake, the metabolic syndrome, and chronic disease; low birth weight and magnesium from the standpoint of fetal origin hypothesis; enhancing magnesium content in plants by exploiting ionomics and transcriptomics; and a role for magnesium in regulating sodium transport in ruminants. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Distributed energy systems.

Obara (electrical and electronic engineering, Kitami Institute of Technology, Japan) describes a combined heat and power system for residential settings. It first discusses the operation planning of a compound energy system composed of proton exchange membrane fuel cell cogeneration with methanol stem-reforming equipment, a solar module, geo-thermal heat pump, heat storage, water electrolysis equipment, commercial power, and a kerosene boiler. He follows this with a discussion of route planning of heat supply piping in a fuel cell energy network and then concludes with examination of load leveling of the fuel cell system by oxygen concentration control of cathode gas. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Disability; future market demand and costs of long-term services and supports.

Morris (Director, National Disability Institute) and Hartnett (NCD Capitol Impact) explore the future market demand and costs of long-term services and support for people with disabilities through a review and analysis of the literature and case studies of six individuals. The report analyzes demographic trends, compares different definitions of disability, and explains eligibility pathways for Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

DNA methylation in plants.

Methylation involves the attachment or substitution of a methyl group on a substrate and in biological systems is involved in the regulation of gene expression, regulation of protein function, and RNA metabolism. This volume surveys current knowledge concerning DNA methylation in plants, paying particular attention to the role of DNA methylation in epigenetics and gene silencing, as well as to differences between DNA methylation in plants and animals. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

DNA tumor viruses.

Several aspects of the family of disease-causing viruses that interact directly with human genetic material are examined by virologists, pathologists, and other researchers. They consider such topics as SV40 and cancer, new insights into the role of the dUTP-ase in Epstein-Barr virus, the oncogenesis of human papillomavirus (HPV), human herpesvirus-8 and cortico-steroids, polyomavirus and cancer, and macrophage involvement in the inflammation-induced onset of Epstein-Barr virus-related tumor. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Dresden teamwork concept for medical high risk organizations.

Medical professionals at University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden, Germany, and some others, describe the team and quality management techniques that have been developed there to augment the core competencies in patient care. Overall themes are presented along with views from specialists. The topics include team management as a future key factor of success in hospitals, the consequences of shared mental models and team learning for improving patient care, lessons learned from risk management in anesthesia, team organization in the Stroke Network East Saxony, communication and team management in disaster management, and disaster management in the Elbe flood of 2002. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Drinking water; contamination, toxicity, and treatment.

This collection of research articles on the contamination, toxicity and treatment of drinking water is designed for researchers and field engineers, with expert contributors examining the disease vectors and pathogens that may cause public health crises if safety guidelines for potability are not met. Editors Romero and Molina (no affiliations listed) have collected research articles from around that world that address such topics as electrochemical stripping analysis in water quality control, toxic cyanobacterial blooms found in Italian lakes and ponds and the influence of mined/mineralized areas on the local production of drinking water. Data on the effect of certain metals on toxicity levels of drinking water is also analyzed. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Dyes & pigments; new research.

In the opening chapter of this collection, two pharmacy professors from Charles University in Prague review the history of photodynamic therapy, its photophysical and photochemical principles, and the biological effects of the photosensitizers. Four of the chapters discuss different approaches to removing dyes from wastewater. Other topics of the 16 papers include removal of dyes from clay surfaces, inorganic pigments to color ceramic materials, synthesis and characterization of substituted metallophthalocyanines, and enhanced anthraquinone dye production from Rubiaceae plants. No peer review process is noted and no editor credentials are cited. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Environmental management.

Environmental management deals with the use and conservation of natural resources, protection of habitats, and control of hazards, and includes the field of applied ecology. This work presents the latest research in the field from around the world. Some specific topics covered include ecomaterials imperatives in developed and newly industrialized nations, constructed wetlands for the treatment of highway runoff, ecosystem service payments to participating landowners, factors affecting deforestation in India's Deccan Plateau, and the fate of pesticides in the environment. The book includes b&w and color photos, maps, and illustrations. Information on the editor is not given. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Evidence based treatment for eating disorders; children, adolescents, and adults.

The opening four chapters in this collection review the biological and psychological underpinnings of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and obesity. The remaining 15 chapters report on intensive treatments for eating disorders, various psychotherapy approaches, and pharmacological therapies. Topics include day treatment for anorexia, medical and nutritional treatment of children and adolescents, evidence-guided treatment for males, treatment resistance, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, family-based treatment, and integrated cognitive-affective therapy. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Experimental functional map of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell.

Funded by an EPSRC grant, this work reviews the primary in situ diagnostic techniques for analyzing polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance and describes a suite of techniques being used at Imperial College London to construct an experimental functional map of PEFC operation. The procedures measure electrolyte resistance, carbon monoxide distribution, current density, contact resistance between the gas diffusion layer and flow-field plates, and reactant flow in the channels of the flow-field plates. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Flexible text searching.

After surveying well-known sequential exact and approximate string searching algorithms, this slim monograph proposes hybrid parallel implementations that combine the advantages of static and dynamic parallel methods in order to reduce the load imbalance and communication overhead. The authors are professors in the Department of Applied Informatics at the University of Macedonia. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Fuzzy measurement of sustainability.

One of the most fundamental questions of sustainable development, according to this work, is how to define and measure sustainability in a mathematical sense. It proffers a mathematical model for evaluating sustainability that serves as both definition and measuring scheme. The model is constructed using fuzzy logic on a step-by-step basis, eventually allowing for conducting sustainability assessments of different countries' environmental or societal situations. The model is then applied to ranking the nations of the world according to their sustainability. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Genetic diversity & variability of hepatitis B virus.

This work provides information to fill the gap in the knowledge of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes in Latin America and the Caribbean region. It details the epidemiology of HBV in the region, and describes HBV variants and mutants and their impact. Mathet is affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Viral Hepatitis at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Information on Cuestas is not given. B&w images, and a few color illustrations, are included. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)