Physica Fennica


Book Description







Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements


Book Description

This practical handbook provides a clearly structured, concise and comprehensive account of the huge variety of atmospheric and related measurements relevant to meteorologists and for the purpose of weather forecasting and climate research, but also to the practitioner in the wider field of environmental physics and ecology. The Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements is divided into six parts: The first part offers instructive descriptions of the basics of atmospheric measurements and the multitude of their influencing factors, fundamentals of quality control and standardization, as well as equations and tables of atmospheric, water, and soil quantities. The subsequent parts present classical in-situ measurements as well as remote sensing techniques from both ground-based as well as airborn or satellite-based methods. The next part focusses on complex measurements and methods that integrate different techniques to establish more holistic data. Brief discussions of measurements in soils and water, at plants, in urban and rural environments and for renewable energies demonstrate the potential of such applications. The final part provides an overview of atmospheric and ecological networks. Written by distinguished experts from academia and industry, each of the 64 chapters provides in-depth discussions of the available devices with their specifications, aspects of quality control, maintenance as well as their potential for the future. A large number of thoroughly compiled tables of physical quantities, sensors and system characteristics make this handbook a unique, universal and useful reference for the practitioner and absolutely essential for researchers, students, and technicians.




Exploring and Optimizing Agricultural Landscapes


Book Description

The book informs about agricultural landscapes, their features, functions and regulatory mechanisms. It characterizes agricultural production systems, trends of their development, and their impacts on the landscape. Agricultural landscapes are multifunctional systems, coupled with all nexus problems of the 21th century. This has led to serious discrepancies between agriculture and environment, and between urban and rural population. The mission, key topics and methods of research in order to understanding, monitoring and controlling processes in rural landscapes is being explained. Studies of international expert teams, many of them from Russia, demonstrate approaches towards both improving agricultural productivity and sustainability, and enhancing ecosystem services of agricultural landscapes. Scientists of different disciplines, decision makers, farmers and further informed people dealing with the evolvement of thriving rural landscapes are the primary audience of this book.




Multi-disciplinary Trends in Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Multi-disciplinary Trends in Artificial Intelligence, MIWAI 2016, held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in December 2016. The 22 revised full papers presented together with 5 short papers and 2 abstracts of invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. The workshop solicits papers from all areas of AI including cognitive science; computational intelligence; computational philosophy; game theory; machine learning; multi-agent systems; natural language; representation and reasoning; speech; vision and the web; as well as applications of AI in big data; bioinformatics; biometrics; decision support; e-commerce; image processing; analysis and retrieval; industrial applications; knowledge management; privacy; recommender systems; security; software engineering; spam filtering; surveillance; telecommunications; and web services.




Modeling, Simulation and Optimization of Complex Processes HPSC 2018


Book Description

This proceedings volume highlights a selection of papers presented at the 7th International Conference on High Performance Scientific Computing, which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam, during March 19-23, 2018. The conference has been organized by the Institute of Mathematics of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) of Heidelberg University and the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. The contributions cover a broad, interdisciplinary spectrum of scientific computing and showcase recent advances in theory, methods, and practical applications. Subjects covered include numerical simulation, methods for optimization and control, machine learning, parallel computing and software development, as well as the applications of scientific computing in mechanical engineering, airspace engineering, environmental physics, decision making, hydrogeology, material science and electric circuits.




Nucleating Agents


Book Description

A very important factor in obtaining optimised physical properties from a semi-crystalline polymer is the size of the crystalline structures present in the material, and this crucially depends on the initiation process of crystallisation of the polymer from the melt - nucleation. This review provides information on the development of materials and methods for influencing the nucleation of polymer crystallisation in commercial processing by means of addition of low levels of adjuvants specifically selected for this purpose.




The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe


Book Description

The authors shed new light on the time frame and pathways used by Homo sapiens on its journey from Africa to Europe and provides new insights into the intricate interplay of culture and environment during the past 200,000 years. The new findings also take into account the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental history of East, North-East and North-West Africa, the Middle East, South-East and Central Europe as well as the Iberian Peninsula. The book is a compilation of the key results of a multidisciplinary research project (CRC 806, funded by the German Research Foundation DFG) which studied the dispersal of anatomical modern humans from Africa to Europe. The findings presented here are based on a wealth of new data of recent, intensive studies of archaeological sites, lake sediments and Loess archives which were dated using radiocarbon, luminescence, Uranium/Thorium and paleomagnetic methods. Models based on recent ethnological findings from Africa sharpen our understanding of the possible mixing of societies in the past. Moreover, complex algorithms such as the "Human Dispersal Model" which describes the expansion of hunter-gatherer societies and population development are presented for South-Eastern to Central Europe between 45,000 and 25,000 years ago. Last but not least, educational theories, teaching material and an Open Educational Resource are presented to facilitate the integration of the results from CRC 806 into school-class lectures and to foster competencies in argumentation and comparison. The data presented in this volume are a valuable reference for experts in archaeology, geosciences, anthropology and ethnology including life-science students and academics. The book may be used as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate students, for interested school teachers and the public. It should be attractive and relevant to all readers interested in understanding the pre-history of our own species, their migration routes and motivation to migrate, triggered by complex interactions of their culture and environment.




Joanna Russ


Book Description

Experimental, strange, and unabashedly feminist, Joanna Russ's groundbreaking science fiction grew out of a belief that the genre was ideal for expressing radical thought. Her essays and criticism, meanwhile, helped shape the field and still exercise a powerful influence in both SF and feminist literary studies.Award-winning author and critic Gwyneth Jones offers a new appraisal of Russ's work and ideas. After years working in male-dominated SF, Russ emerged in the late 1960s with Alyx, the uber-capable can-do heroine at the heart of Picnic on Paradise and other popular stories and books. Soon, Russ's fearless embrace of gender politics and life as an out lesbian made her a target for male outrage while feminist classics like The Female Man and The Two of Them took SF in innovative new directions. Jones also delves into Russ's longtime work as a critic of figures as diverse as Lovecraft and Cather, her foundational place in feminist fandom, important essays like "Amor Vincit Foeminam," and her career in academia.