Exergy, Energy System Analysis, and Optimization theme is a component of the Encyclopedia of Energy Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources which is part of the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. These three volumes are organized into five different topics which represent the main scientific areas of the theme: 1. Exergy and Thermodynamic Analysis; 2. Thermoeconomic Analysis; 3. Modeling, Simulation and Optimization in Energy Systems; 4. Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems in Energy Systems Analysis; 5. Sustainability Considerations in the Modeling of Energy Systems. Fundamentals and applications of characteristic methods are presented in these volumes. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.

This book gathers papers presented in the main track of IITI 2019, the Fourth International Scientific Conference on Intelligent Information Technologies for Industry, held in Ostrava–Prague, Czech Republic on December 2–7, 2019. The conference was jointly organized by Rostov State Transport University (Russia) and VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava (Czech Republic) with the participation of the Russian Association for Artificial Intelligence (RAAI). IITI 2019 was devoted to practical models and industrial applications of intelligent information systems. Though chiefly intended to promote the implementation of advanced information technologies in various industries, topics such as the state of the art in intelligent systems and soft computing were also discussed.

This book examines two key aspects of developing environmental indicators for agriculture: identification and design of suitable indicators and how governments might use them for policy purposes.

This up-to-date textbook of global vegetation ecology, which comprises the current state of knowledge, is long overdue and much-needed. It is a translation of the textbook “Vegetation der Erde” (Springer-Spektrum, Heidelberg). A short introductory chapter deals with the fundamentals of vegetation ecology that are of importance for the delimitation and characterization of the global vegetation presented in this book (chorology, evolution of plants, physiognomic and structural characteristics, phytodiversity and the human impact on it as well as general terminology concerning both plant growth forms and on vegetation structure types). In the following chapters the zonal and azonal vegetation from the tropics to the polar regions including high mountains is described and discussed. The main focus is on the characterization of interactions between the spatial location of plants and plant communities on the one hand and site conditions, historic and genetic processes, spatial and temporal patterns, ecophysiology and anthropogenic influences on the other hand. Additional information on specific topics is provided in 51 boxes.

World-systems analysis has developed rapidly over the past thirty years. Today's students and junior scholars come to world-systems analysis as a well-established approach spanning all of the social sciences. The best world-systems scholarship, however, is spread across multiple methodologies and more than half a dozen academic disciplines. Aiming to crystallize forty years of progress and lay the groundwork for the continued development of the field, the Handbook of World-Systems Analysis is a comprehensive review of the state of the field of world-systems analysis since its origins almost forty years ago. The Handbook includes contributions from a global, interdisciplinary group of more than eighty world-systems scholars. The authors include founders of the field, mid-career scholars, and newly emerging voices. Each one presents a snapshot of an area of world-systems analysis as it exists today and presents a vision for the future. The clear style and broad scope of the Handbook will make it essential reading for students and scholars of anthropology, archaeology, geography, political science, history, sociology, and development economics.