623435-28a.gifVolume A deals with the dynamics, mobility and transformation of pollutants and nutrients. Soil is a dynamic system in which soil minerals constantly interact with organic matter and microorganisms. Close association among abiotic and biotic entities governs several chemical and biogeochemical processes and affects bioavailability, speciation, toxicity, transformations and transport of xenobiotics and organics in soil environments. This book elaborates critical research and an integrated view on basic aspects of mineral weathering reactions; formation and surface reactivity of soil minerals with respect to nutrients and environmental pollutants; dynamics and transformation of metals, metalloids, and natural and anthropogenic organics; effects of soil colloids on microorganisms and immobilization and activity of enzymes, and metabolic processes, growth and ecology of microbes. It offers up-to-date information on the impact of such a processes on soil development, agricultural production, environmental protection, and ecosystem integrity.

This study offers information about the claims and beliefs of the New Age as well as background to the physical, biological, neurophysiological, cultural anthropological, psychological and quantum theoretical facts that are part of discussions of this form of holistic spirituality.

This book focuses on the development of a theory of info-dynamics to support the theory of info-statics in the general theory of information. It establishes the rational foundations of information dynamics and how these foundations relate to the general socio-natural dynamics from the primary to the derived categories in the universal existence and from the potential to the actual in the ontological space. It also shows how these foundations relate to the general socio-natural dynamics from the potential to the possible to give rise to the possibility space with possibilistic thinking; from the possible to the probable to give rise to possibility space with probabilistic thinking; and from the probable to the actual to give rise to the space of knowledge with paradigms of thought in the epistemological space. The theory is developed to explain the general dynamics through various transformations in quality-quantity space in relation to the nature of information flows at each variety transformation. The theory explains the past-present-future connectivity of the evolving information structure in a manner that illuminates the transformation problem and its solution in the never-ending information production within matter-energy space under socio-natural technologies to connect the theory of info-statics, which in turn presents explanations to the transformation problem and its solution. The theoretical framework is developed with analytical tools based on the principle of opposites, systems of actual-potential polarities, negative-positive dualities under different time-structures with the use of category theory, fuzzy paradigm of thought and game theory in the fuzzy-stochastic cost-benefit space. The rational foundations are enhanced with categorial analytics. The value of the theory of info-dynamics is demonstrated in the explanatory and prescriptive structures of the transformations of varieties and categorial varieties at each point of time and over time from parent–offspring sequences. It constitutes a general explanation of dynamics of information-knowledge production through info-processes and info-processors induced by a socio-natural infinite set of technologies in the construction–destruction space.

This book collects independent contributions on current developments in quantum information theory, a very interdisciplinary field at the intersection of physics, computer science and mathematics. Making intense use of the most advanced concepts from each discipline, the authors give in each contribution pedagogical introductions to the main concepts underlying their present research and present a personal perspective on some of the most exciting open problems. Keeping this diverse audience in mind, special efforts have been made to ensure that the basic concepts underlying quantum information are covered in an understandable way for mathematical readers, who can find there new open challenges for their research. At the same time, the volume can also be of use to physicists wishing to learn advanced mathematical tools, especially of differential and algebraic geometric nature.

Written for people of various professions and offering a modern approach to using value analysis for product development, this is a structured process that unites interdisciplinary teams in an organization to select and analyze projects in terms of investment potential and to integrate quality and productivity. It contains four sections that describe the nature, measurement, design and management of value.