The North American Mosaic has four overarching features. First, it is, to the extent feasible, based on comparable information on the status and trends of major indicators of the state of the environment in Canada,Mexico, and the United States. Second, the report confirms that these three countries together make up an incredibly complex, dynamic, and interconnected ecosystem in which humans play a dominant and decisive role. Third, the report raises important and sometimes disquieting questions concerning the sustainability of some current trends. Finally, the report is a reminder that our economic, social, and physical well-being are utterly dependent on the life-sustaining services provided by nature. This report emphasizes the importance of developing mutually compatible economic, social, and environmental goals and policies across the three-country region.
Organizational Behavior is designed to help students, professionals, and managers develop the competencies and skills that are needed to effectively contribute to an organization. This proven text's strengths lie in its classic research, coverage of contemporary and emerging OB topics, and excellent case selection. Throughout the text, seven core competencies-Managing Self, Managing Diversity, Managing Ethics, Managing Across Cultures, Managing Teams, Managing Communications, and Managing Change-are emphasized and illustrated for the student.
This book is the first of a new series which will present the proceedings of the newly established Nestlé Nutrition Workshop Series: Clinical & Performance Programme aimed at adult nutrition. Undernutrition is a common phenomenon in elderly people, and malnutrition reaches significant levels in those being in hospital, nursing homes or home care programs. Consequences of malnutrition often go unrecognised owing to the lack of specific validated instruments to assess nutritional status in frail elderly persons. The Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) provides a single, rapid assessment of nutritional status in the elderly of different degrees of independence, allowing the prevalence of protein-energy malnutrition to be determined and to evaluate the efficacy of nutritional intervention and strategies. Easy, quick and economical to perform, it enables staff to check the nutritional status of elderly people when they enter hospitals or institutions and to monitor changes occurring during their stay. Moreover, the MNA is predictive of the cost of care and length of stay in hospital. This publication will be of immense assistance to heads of geriatric teaching units, teachers in nutrition, clinicians general practitioners and dieticians, enabling them to better detect, recognise and start treatment of malnutrition in the elderly.
This book highlights scientific achievements in the key areas of sustainable electricity generation and green building technologies, as presented in the vital bi-annual World Renewable Energy Network’s Med Green Forum. Renewable energy applications in power generation and sustainable development have particular importance in the Mediterranean region, with its rich natural resources and conducive climate, making it a perfect showcase to illustrate the viability of using renewable energy to satisfy all energy needs. The papers included in this work describe enabling policies and offer pathways to further develop a broad range of renewable energy technologies and applications in all sectors – for electricity production, heating and cooling, agricultural applications, water desalination, industrial applications and for the transport sector.
Cities of Tomorrow is a critical history of planning in theory and practice in the twentieth century, as well as of the social and economic problems and opportunities that gave rise to it. Trenchant, perceptive, global in coverage, this book is an unrivalled account of its crucial subject. The third edition of Cities of Tomorrow is comprehensively revised to take account of abundant new literature published since its original appearance, and to view the 1990s in historical perspective. This is the definitive edition, reviewing the development of the modern planning movement over the entire span of the twentieth century.
This book presents the research results of an interdisciplinary study on climate change policies by the Enforcing Environmental Policy (EEP) Network, a project supported by the Human Dimension Potential Programme. Contributions are from highly qualified economic and legal specialists based at research institutes across Europe. The book gives answers to several questions related to the implementation of the international rules on climate change, most notably the Kyoto Protocol. It analyses ways and means to facilitate and encourage compliance with the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. It is addressed to policy-makers, academics, business-sector and stakeholders throughout and outside Europe. Due to its interdisciplinary approach, this work is a distinctive and unique product compared to the existing literature on the subject. The effective implementation of climate protection and clean air policy requires an understanding of the political, legal and economic structures and constraints facing policy makers - and this is exactly what this book offers.
This publication presents a set of energy indicators for sustainable development and is an analytical tool for countries to track their progress on energy for sustainable development. The thematic framework, guidelines, methodologies and energy indicators set out in this publication reflect the expertise of five international agencies and organizations (International Atomic Energy Agency, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, International Energy Agency, Eurostat and European Environment Agency). General guidelines and specific methodology sheets for 30 energy indicators are outlined in this report for statisticians, analysts, policy makers and academics to use in their efforts to analyse the effects of energy policies on the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
This guidance is aimed at homeowners and those managing or renting historic or older domestic buildings who may need to commission an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or who have received one for an older property that has been purchased or rented. Details are provided on the type of information included in an EPC, how it is calculated, and its limitations as an assessment method when applied to older buildings. The guidance also covers the issues to be taken into account when commissioning an EPC and considering its recommendations. Almost every older building can accommodate some energy improvements without harming either its special interest or environmental performance. However, an appropriate balance needs to be achieved between building conservation and measures to improve energy efficiency if lasting damage is to be avoided both to a building’s character and significance and its fabric.
Bananas and plantains are among the most important food and cash crops in the world. They are cultivated in more than 135 countries, across the tropics and subtropics, with an annual global production of ca. 130 million metric tonnes. Though bananas are one of the most important components of food security in many developing countries, banana production is threatened by both abiotic and biotic stresses. These include a wide range of diseases and pests, such as bunchy top virus, burrowing nematodes, black Sigatoka or black leaf streak, Fusarium wilt, etc. In recent years, considerable progress has been made and several biotechnological and genomic tools have been employed to help understand and unravel the mysterious banana genome. Molecular and genomic studies have helped to decipher the Musa genome and its evolution. Genetic linkage map and whole genome sequencing of both Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana (progenitors of cultivated banana) have completely changed the way of thinking and the approach on banana crop improvement. Whole-genome sequencing has helped to improve the selection of quantitative traits such as yield, as well as the selection of optimal parents for developing required hybrids in breeding programs. Gene isolation and the analysis of mutants have helped in the characterization of genes of agronomic value and the associated regulatory sequences. With the advent of molecular markers and new statistical tools, it is now possible to measure the diversity, identify genes and useful alleles linked to important agronomic traits. Further these alleles can be incorporated into cultivars through marker assisted selection or through transgenic approach. Transgenic approaches are potential tools for direct transfer of these genes into popular cultivars, which are generally not amenable for conventional breeding techniques, in specific with crops such as bananas which are sterile, triploid and heterozygous thereby making it difficult to reconstruct the recurrent genotypes in banana. Transgenic techniques thus have helped overcome the difficulty of working with sterile, triploid banana crop. In the last five years, enormous amount of new information and techniques have been generated for banana. A comprehensive book entitled “Banana: Genomics and Transgenic Approaches for Genetic improvement” on banana genomics, latest transgenic technologies and tools available for improved crop development in banana will address all these requirements.
