Behind the public's hope of effective action by governments on environmental issues lies a complex terrain of conceptual confusion, conflicts of interest and philosophical dispute. This is why some of the world's leading environmental thinkers have come together in this volume to probe critically the new language being developed by environmental professionals. They examine the contradictions inherent in the fashionable notion of sustainable development. They explore the emerging conflicts over the distribution of environmental risks between North and South. And they warn that 'global ecology' seen in a managerial perspective, may degenerate into an effor to redesign and manage Nature in order to keep economic growth going in the face of a rising tide of resource plunder and pollution. This book seeks to launch a critical debate in order to clarify the issues involves and what might constitute appropriate action.

Global Ecology focuses on the perception of the biosphere or the ecosphere as a unified cooperative system with numerous synergistic effects, which describe the distinctive properties of this sphere. This book is subdivided into five parts dealing with diverse aspects in global ecology. The first part of the book provides comprehensive description of the biosphere, including its unique characteristics and evolution. This part also describes various spheres in the biosphere, such as the hydrosphere, noosphere, and pedosphere as well as their composition. The next part focuses on the global cycles, including calcium, carbon, iron, microbial nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, and water cycles. In addition, global balances and flows are explained. Presented in the third part are the results of the global cycles and flows as well as the patterns of the climatic factors and marine currents. There is also a part discussing the climate interactions, climatic changes, and its effect on the living organisms. The book concludes by covering the application of stoichiometry in the biosphere and in ecosystems. The book offers a comprehensive view of global ecology and ecological stoichiometry, which will aid in the processes of global ecology. - Provides an overview of the theory and application of global ecology - International focus and range of ecosystems makes Global Ecology an indispensable resource to scientists - Based on the bestselling Encyclopedia of Ecology - Full-color figures and tables support the text and aid in understanding

The application and interpretation of statistics are central to ecological study and practice. Ecologists are now asking more sophisticated questions than in the past. These new questions, together with the continued growth of computing power and the availability of new software, have created a new generation of statistical techniques. These have resulted in major recent developments in both our understanding and practice of ecological statistics. This novel book synthesizes a number of these changes, addressing key approaches and issues that tend to be overlooked in other books such as missing/censored data, correlation structure of data, heterogeneous data, and complex causal relationships. These issues characterize a large proportion of ecological data, but most ecologists' training in traditional statistics simply does not provide them with adequate preparation to handle the associated challenges. Uniquely, Ecological Statistics highlights the underlying links among many statistical approaches that attempt to tackle these issues. In particular, it gives readers an introduction to approaches to inference, likelihoods, generalized linear (mixed) models, spatially or phylogenetically-structured data, and data synthesis, with a strong emphasis on conceptual understanding and subsequent application to data analysis. Written by a team of practicing ecologists, mathematical explanations have been kept to the minimum necessary. This user-friendly textbook will be suitable for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of ecology, evolution, environmental studies, and computational biology who are interested in updating their statistical tool kits. A companion web site provides example data sets and commented code in the R language.

This book gathers papers on interactive and collaborative mobile learning environments, assessment, evaluation and research methods in mobile learning, mobile learning models, theory and pedagogy, open and distance mobile learning, life-long and informal learning using mobile devices, wearables and the Internet of Things, game-based learning, dynamic learning experiences, mobile systems and services for opening up education, mobile healthcare and training, case studies on mobile learning, and 5G network infrastructure. Today, interactive mobile technologies have become the core of many—if not all—fields of society. Not only do the younger generation of students expect a mobile working and learning environment, but also the new ideas, technologies and solutions introduced on a nearly daily basis also boost this trend. Discussing and assessing key trends in the mobile field were the primary aims of the 13th International Conference on Interactive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning (IMCL2019), which was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 31 October to 01 November 2019. Since being founded in 2006, the conference has been devoted to new approaches in interactive mobile technologies, with a focus on learning. The IMCL conferences have since become a central forum of the exchange of new research results and relevant trends, as well as best practices. The book’s intended readership includes policymakers, academics, educators, researchers in pedagogy and learning theory, schoolteachers, further education lecturers, practitioners in the learning industry, etc.

Occupation Analysis in Practice is the essential book for all future and current occupational therapists. It offers a practical approach to the analysis of occupations in real world practice. The book frames occupation as the key component for analysis and builds upon previous work limited to analysis at the activity level. It examines the interests, goals, abilities and contexts of individuals, groups, institutions and communities, along with the demands of the occupation. It presents examples of occupation analysis in different practice context including working with children, health promotion, indigenous health, medico-legal practice; mental health and occupational rehabilitation. The book has four sections. Section 1 introduces theoretical perspectives of the concept of occupation analysis and how such analysis relates to particular models of Occupational Therapy practice and the generic World Health Organisation International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Section 2 discusses analysis of particular components of occupation that support practice. These include culture, spirituality, home and community environments as well as self-care and leisure. Section 3 applies analysis of occupations to particular specialties encountered in practice. Section 4 considers the application of Occupation Analysis within professional reasoning and goal setting. FEATURES International team of contributors Examples of occupation analysis proforma Application to a wide range of practice areas. Glossary of key terms Incudes the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

The two-volume set LNCS 7031 and 7032 constitutes the proceedings of the 10th International Semantic Web Conference, ISWC 2011, held in Bonn, Germany, in October 2011. Part I, LNCS 7031, contains 50 research papers which were carefully reviewed and selected from 264 submissions. The 17 semantic web in-use track papers contained in part II, LNCS 7032, were selected from 75 submissions. This volume also contains 15 doctoral consortium papers, selected from 31 submissions. The topics covered are: ontologies and semantics; database, IR, and AI technologies for the semantic web; management of semantic web data; reasoning over semantic web data; search, query, integration, and analysis on the semantic web; robust and scalable knowledge management and reasoning on the web; interacting with semantic web data; ontology modularity, mapping, merging and alignment; languages, tools, and methodologies for representing and managing semantic web data; ontology, methodology, evaluation, reuse, extraction and evolution; evaluation of semantic web technologies or data; specific ontologies and ontology pattern for the semantic web; new formalisms for semantic web; user interfaces to the semantic web; cleaning, assurance, and provenance of semantic web data; services, and processes; social semantic web, evaluation of semantic web technology; semantic web population from the human web.

"A fascinating historical narrative about the unfolding sequence of large ecosystem research programs over the past 40 years. As a player on this stage, Coleman conveys the intimate personalities and politics while still offering insightful and objective evaluations. Interwoven throughout the story is a remarkably detailed textbook of ecosystem science from then until today."--Paul G. Risser, University of Oklahoma

It is estimated that roughly 1000 new ecological and environmental models join the ranks of the scientific literature each year. The international peer-reviewed literature reports some 20,000 new models spanning the period from 1970-2010. Just to keep abreast of the field it is necessary to design a handbook of models that doesn't merely list them,

This volume addresses and challenges issues which question the core values of the science and practice of restoration ecology. It analyzes the paradox arising from the desire to produce ecological restorations that fit within an historical ecological context, produce positive environmental benefits and also result in landscapes with social meaning.