Cactus plants are precious natural resources that provide nutritious food for people and livestock, especially in dryland areas. Originally published in 1995, this extensively revised edition provides fresh insights into the cactus plant’s genetic resources, physiological traits, soil preferences and vulnerability to pests. It provides invaluable guidance on managing the resource to support food security and offers tips on how to exploit the plant’s culinary qualities.
A unique approach to the challenges of complex environmental systems Environmental Transport Processes, Second Edition provides much-needed guidance on mass transfer principles in environmental engineering. It focuses on working with uncontrolled conditions involving biological and physical systems, offering examples from diverse fields, including mass transport, kinetics, wastewater treatment, and unit processes. This new edition is fully revised and updated, incorporating modern approaches and practice problems at the end of chapters, making the Second Edition more concise, accessible, and easy to use. The book discusses the fundamentals of transport processes occurring in natural environments, with special emphasis on working at the biological physical interface. It considers transport and kinetics in terms of systems that involve microorganisms, along with in-depth coverage of particles, size spectra, and calculations for particles that can be considered either spheres or fractals. The book's treatment of particles as fractals is especially unique and the Second Edition includes a new section on exoelectrogenic biofilms. It also addresses dispersion in natural and engineered systems unlike any other book on the subject. Readers will learn to tackle with confidence complex environmental systems and make transport calculations in heterogeneous environments with mixtures of chemicals.
Soil and Sediment Remediation discusses in detail a whole set of remediative technologies currently available to minimise their impact. Technologies for the treatment of soils and sediments in-situ (landfarming, bioscreens, bioventing, nutrient injection, phytoremediation) and ex-situ (landfarming, bio-heap treatment, soil suspension reactor) will be discussed. The microbiological, process technological and socio-economical aspects of these technologies will be addressed. Special attention will be given to novel biotechnological processes that utilise sulfur cycle conversions, e.g. sulfur and heavy metal removal from soils. Also the potential of phytoremediation will be highlighted. In addition, treatment schemes for the clean-up of polluted megasites, e.g. harbours and Manufactured Gaswork Plants (MGP), will be elaborated. The aim of Soil and Sediment Remediation is to introduce the reader in: the biogeochemical characteristics of soil and sediments- new techniques to study soil/sediment processes (molecular probes, microelectrodes, NMR) clean up technologies for soils polluted with organic (PAH, NAPL, solvents) or inorganic (heavy metals) pollutants- preventative and remediative strategies and technologies available in environmental engineering novel process applications and bioreactor designs for bioremediation the impact of soil pollution on society and its economic importance.
The Bacteria: Volume VII: Mechanisms of Adaptation explores the mechanisms of bacterial adaptations and covers topics ranging from bacterial spores, cysts, and stalks to nitrogen fixation, bacterial chemotaxis, bacteriophage growth, and the structure and biosynthesis of bacterial cell walls. The roles of appendages and surface layers in adaptation of bacteria to their environment are also considered, along with cell division in Escherichia coli. This volume is comprised of nine chapters and begins with a discussion on the structure, properties, formation, and regulation of spores, cysts, and stalks in actinomycetes, blue-green bacteria, myxobacteria, Bacillus, Azotobacter, and Caulobacter. The reader is then introduced to the biochemistry, regulation, genetics, and evolution of nitrogen fixing in organisms; the receptors involved in bacterial chemotaxis and the nature of the sensing mechanism; the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria; and bacterial functions involved in nutrient detection and acquisition. The roles played by organelles and surface layers in the adaptation of bacteria to their environment are also examined. The final chapter deals with the regulation of, and coordination between, the multitude of events involved in cell division in Escherichia coli. This monograph will be a useful resource for microbiologists, bacteriologists, biochemists, and biologists.
Antimicrobial Drug Resistance presents information regarding the ability of organisms to resist natural and synthetically derived inhibitors. It presents the view of the authors who made significant contributions to the understanding of resistance. The book focuses on inhibitors classified as antifungal, antiviral, and antimalarial, as well as metal ions. It also covers numerous reactions, which have been genetically and biochemically analyzed in this context. Additionally, some chapters cover resistance plasmids of most of the clinically important bacteria. The book is designed to aid those involved in microbiological and pharmaceutical research on antimicrobial agents, clinical infectious diseases and medical microbiology, teaching microbiology and pharmacology, pharmaceutical marketing, and infection control.
This is the second volume on Environmental Nanotechnology. The first chapter discusses the synthesis of nanomaterial and mainly the green synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials. Furthermore, a comperative discussion about resistive and capacitive measurement of nano-based biosensor is reviewed and the efficient delivery of nutraceutical with the help of nano-vehicles are explained. Moreover, the book also includes reviews on such topics as nanopharmaceuticals, health benefits and the toxic impact of heavy metal nanomaterials and the impact of several nanomaterials on plant abiotic stress and have focussed on the long term impacts of nanomaterials on agroecosystems. The reader will also find presentations on molecularly imprinted polymeric nanocomposites, critical and comparative comments on Nano-biosensors and Nano-aptasensors and on applications of nanotechnology for the remediation and purification of water with a main focus on drinking water. The last chapter presents a comprehensive review on plasmonic nanoparticle based sensors whereby the authors have hypothesized the future applications in the environment which can be plausible in the near future.
This volume is based on the recognition that heritage is popular and popular culture is now readily transformed into heritage, whose meanings and myths reshape social life and political and economic realities, as well as re-make "tradition". The papers in this volume consider: What does popular heritage look like? To whom does it speak? Is it active in dissolving class and cultural boundaries or just in reproducing new ones? How do societies manage a heritage that is fluid, immediate and that straddles extremes of serious conflict and hedonistic frivolity? When and under what circumstances is the creation and expression of new cultural forms - popular culture - capable of being transformed into heritage?
