BRILL

Canis africanis; a dog history of Southern Africa.

In what is hopefully the beginning of a worldwide series, this examines the role of the dog as an element, however ubiquitous and yet hidden, in the development of African society. In 13 lively but scholarly rigorous articles, contributors examine the role of pedigreed and un-pedigreed dogs as indicators of society, the pre-colonial dog and its place as evidence of status, a curious case of bestiality, the place of dogs in perceptions about morality in the Cape Colony, the ordering of public space according to people and dogs in early nineteenth-century Cape Town, the lessons learned in an 1893 rabies epidemic, dog poisoning and colonial intervention, police dogs and the imposition of the state, gambling as a colonizing act, representations of dogs in literature and in the visual arts, and dog breeding as an indicator of social class. Illustrations include well-chosen period photographs. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Collembola of Fennoscandia and Denmark; Part II: Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona.

Part I, Poduromorpha, appeared ten years ago, and this volume completes the survey of Collembola, springtails, in the Nordic countries by looking at the 239 species of Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona. It continues the detailed studies and use of mouth part morphology — especially structures of labium, labrum, and maxilla — to identify species. Most of the 17 color plates are multiple images comparing species or illustrating stages of development. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Entomopathogenic nematodes; systematics, phylogeny and bacterial symbionts.

Nguyen (entomology and nematology, U. of Florida, US) and Hunt (CABI Europe-UK) present a monograph collecting and synthesizing the scientific information on entomopathogenic nematodes in the Families Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae, with the emphasis being on taxonomy and morphology. Following the introduction, the chapters provide an overview of taxonomy and systematics, followed by information on methodology, morphology, and identification; species descriptions; phylogeny and evolution; bacterial symbionts; and the use of the nematodes as biological control organisms. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Graphics and text in the production of technical knowledge in China; the warp and the weft.

Tu, technical images, and their relationship to written text in the production of technical knowledge is explored by mostly European scholars of Chinese history and culture. They consider graphics both as symbolic mediation and as technical illustrations across a broad range of graphic forms and categories of specialized knowledge, from metaphysical cosmograms and magical talismans to mathematical diagrams and coroner's charts. The final sections look at the era of print culture and Western influences. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Post-embryonic development of the copedoda.

The existence of these crustaceans has been known since the time of Aristotle, but only in the past 250 years have scholars published reports of their post-embryonic development. Ferrari (invertebrate zoology, Smithsonian Institution) and Dahms (biology, Institute of Marine Biology) have gathered here all the published information known about this stage of copedod life. By carefully considering both nauplius and copepod development, they can compare across species as they describe variation in the number of stages of development, limbs and appendages, internal anatomy, behaviors, seasonal cycles and migration, ecology and mortality, and the patterning of the appendages of the copepods. They also provide a summary of the implications for the development of phylogeny and avenues for further studies. Their bibliography is comprehensive and they provide a very useful glossary. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Practical materia medica of the medieval eastern Mediterranean according to the Cairo Genizah.

Lev (public health, U. of Haifa) and Amar (archaeology, Bar Ilan U.) have searched through discarded books deposited in a synagogue in Cairo from about the 10th to the 19th centuries to find references on medical plants and other substances from the region. The information was gathered from many sources over many centuries, and their goal here is to identify which herbs and materials were actually used, rather than those identified merely from tradition or theory. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Theory and practice of transboundary environmental impact assessment.

Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are increasingly being applied to activities that may cause environmental damage across national borders. This book describes 13 systems of transboundary environmental impact assessment (TEIA) that exist or are in development in different parts of the world. The book takes a broad approach, looking at transboundary EIA between states, EIA for activities in international and shared areas, and EIA required by international financial institutions. Contributors are academics and practitioners in environmental law, international law, and cultural heritage protection from around the world. Bastmeijer teaches environmental law at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Koivurova directs the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Center, University of Lapland. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Towards a European forest information system.

A European Forest Institute Research Report, this volume provides details of the Network for a European Forest Information Service project that ran from 2003 to 2005, and explored an overall information system architecture based on existing data-reporting structures at national, European Union, and international levels. The project focused on the development of standards and procedures for providing metadata and illustrated options of remote access to data hosted at different locations. The report also describes the advanced information system demonstrator that runs within a network of distributed datasets, and recommendations and challenges to building an operational forest information system. The project included data providers and users, the IT community, and terminology experts, and was carried out as an accompanying measure in the Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme of the European Commission. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)