Enfield Pub. & Dist. Co.

Mechanics from Aristotle to Einstein.

Convinced that "...the story of the development of mechanics from Galileo to Einstein's special theory of relativity is the most remarkable story in all secular history," Crowe (emeritus, philosophy of science, U. of Notre Dame) draws on courses he taught to undergraduates who did not necessarily have familiarity with such fundamental concepts as motion, time, and acceleration. The text includes chronologies of scientists' lives, diagrams, and primary and secondary references. Distributed by Enfield. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Microbial biotechnology in horticulture; v.2.

This is the second in what appears to be planned as a three-volume set collecting papers on microbial biotechnology in horticulture. Editors Ray (Central Tuber Crops Research Institute — Regional Center, India) and Ward (biology, U. of Waterloo, Canada) present nine papers discussing horticultural applications of plant genetic engineering, the role of microorganisms in recombinant DNA technology and synthetic biology, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, mycorrhizal symbiosis, application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the production of fruits and ornamental crops, molecular biology of and advances in the development of baculoviruses as biological pest control agents, natural antimicrobials to improve storage and shelf life of horticultural and agricultural products, and mycotoxins in fruits and fruit-derived products. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Modeling crop production systems; principles and application.

This textbook is intended for students of agronomy, plant breeding, agricultural meteorology, crop physiology, agricultural economics, entomology, plant pathology, soil sciences, and environmental sciences, though it is noted that it may also be beneficial to planners at national and state levels. Singh (plant physiology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, India) espouses simulation of all or part of the soil-plant-atmosphere systems to address adequate food production while minimizing environmental degradation. The book contains the minimal mathematical prerequisites for calculus, matrix algebra, and statistics needed to understand the conceptual content, though students are asked to have a sufficient knowledge of the areas of crop production systems to which the mathematical concepts are applied. Distributed in the US by Enfield. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Monitoring and evaluation of soil conservation and watershed development projects.

The editors (variously affiliated with Wageningen U. in the Netherlands, U. of East Anglia in the UK, the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation in Thailand, and the World Bank in France) have collected 25 contributions from academics and practitioners that collectively are intended to aid stakeholders in conducting monitoring and evaluation activities for soil conservation and watershed development projects. Opening papers address principles of monitoring and evaluation and describe current practices in case studies from Nicaragua, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Mali. Physical parameters in monitoring and evaluation are discussed in papers specifically concerned with assessment of water erosion of cultivated land, monitoring erosion using microtopographic features, geomatics, use of environmental radionuclides to monitor soil erosion and sedimentation, and other topics. A final section explores social, economic, and institutional aspects and includes case studies from the United States, Australia, and Pakistan. Distributed in the US by Enfield. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Ocean environment and fisheries.

Intended for scientists, teachers, and students specializing in fishery oceanography, physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, biological oceanography, and fisheries, this work by Reddy (former head of the department of Fishery Oceanography at the U. of Agricultural Sciences, India) describes the physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic features at various depths for all the 15 regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans as categorized by the Food and Agriculture Organization and presents information on the commercially important marine fishes and details of fish catches in all of these regions since 1950. His book also contains information on maximum and minimum annual mean values of various oceanographic factors, recent studies carried out on the influence of oceanographic factors on fisheries, and aspects of fisheries forecasts connected to different ocean environmental factors. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The origin of higher clades; osteology, myology, phylogeny, and evolution of bony fishes and the rise of tetrapods.

Diogo (anthropology, George Washington University) presents a cladistic analysis of osteichthyan higher-level interrelationships based on a phylogenetic comparison of 356 characters in 80 extent and fossil terminal taxa representing all major groups of Osteichthyes. The morphological features analyzed concern the bones, cartilage, muscles, and ligaments of the cephalic region, anterior vertebrae, and pectoral girdle. Each clade entry comments on previous hypotheses and provides an anatomical drawing of a representative member. A separate chapter traces the origin and evolution of the Weberian apparatus, and compares the use of mycological versus osteological structures in phylogenetic reconstructions. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Physiology of stressed crops; v.5: Membrane system.

Gupta (soil sciences, U. of Georgia, Athens) presents the fifth and final volume in this series on crop stress physiology, focusing on the role of the plant cell membrane as influenced by different stresses. Current research on the following stresses is discussed: cold and freezing, heat, drought, salinity, hypoxia oxidative stress, UV-radiation, nutrient deficiency, heavy metal toxicity, soil acidity, mechanical stress and wounding, and low humidity stress. This book is distributed in the US by Enfield. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Progresses in fracture and strength of materials and structures; proceedings; 3v.

Held in November of 2006, the Asian Pacific Conference Fracture and Strength covered aspects of fracture and strength of materials, paying particular attention to advanced materials ranging from nanoscale to macroscale and modern structural systems ranging from large scale plants to micro-devices. Edited by Zhou (Harbin Institute of Technology, China), Tu (East China U. of Science and Technology, China) and Xie (U. of Science and Technology Beijing, China), these four volumes collect 756 papers selected after peer review from the approximately 1300 submitted. The papers are organized into sections on fatigue and fracture, strength/hardening and toughening, high temperature materials and strength, deformation behavior, friction and wear, simulation of fatigue and fracture, damage mechanics, advanced composite materials, advanced ceramic materials, new structural metal materials, welding and joining technology, nano and bio materials, non-destructive evaluation, reliability and its application, design and assessment of structural components, and package materials and related issues of information technology. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Silicon carbide and related materials 2006; ECSCRM proceedings.

Over the course of these two volumes, the editors (of the NASA Glenn Research Center, U. of South Florida, and U. of Pittsburgh) present 421 papers (35 being invited or plenary) from the September 2005 International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials, these materials being wide-bandgap semiconductors with properties that make them useful for the fabrication of high-power and high-frequency electronic devices, as well as light-emitters and sensors. The first volume contains papers that were presented in technical sessions on silicon carbide (SiC) bulk growth; SiC homoepitaxial, heteropolytic, and heteroepitaxial growth; physical properties and characterization issues including stacking faults, point defects, impurities, surfaces and interfaces, fundamental properties, and wafer mapping; and porous SiC and SiC nanoparticlses and nanowires. The second volume contains the papers from the technical sessions on implantation and doping of SiC, contacts, oxides, chemical-mechanical polishing of SiC, micromachining, and other processing topics; unipolar devices, bipolar devices, and sensors and detectors; III-nitrides (covering growth of III-nitrides, physical properties and characterization, surfaces and interfaces, and devices); and related materials. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Stability of motion; the role of multicomponent Liapunov's functions.

This work deals with fundamental problems, concepts, and methods of stability theory, and with applications to stability analysis of nonlinear systems. Areas of investigation include continuous systems, systems on metric spaces, discrete-time systems, systems with delay, and uncertain systems. Focus is on the concept of polystability of separable motions, stability of large scale systems, polydynamics on time scales with application to discrete-time neural networks, and interval stability. The book is addressed to graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in aerospace engineering, applied physicists, control and electrical engineers, industrial engineers, and performance analysts. Martynyuk is chief of the Stability of Processes Department at the Institute of Mechanics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev. There is no subject index. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)