- Table View
- List View
Wood Density: Functional Trait in Plants
by Fernando Ramírez Jose KallarackalRecent research has shed light on the crucial role of wood density, a fundamental physical property, as a functional trait. This means wood density isn't just about how much a piece of wood weighs, but how it influences a plant's entire strategy for survival and growth. While variations exist between individual species, a surprising trend has emerged: the majority of this variation can be traced back to a plant's genus or even family. This strong phylogenetic signal indicates that wood density is a deeply ingrained characteristic, shaped by a plant's evolutionary history. This newfound understanding allows us to leverage wood density as a taxon-based functional trait. By considering the typical wood density of a plant group (like a genus or family), we can improve models and predictions related to various ecological and functional aspects in forests and plantations. Over the past couple of decades, scientists have been actively exploring the connections between wood density and a wide range of plant functions. Denser wood is often linked to slower growth rates, delayed reproduction, and increased mechanical strength. It also influences a plant's ability to transport water, resist death (mortality rate), and manage internal water balance (water potential). Additionally, wood density is closely tied to physiological aspects such as gas exchange and xylem hydraulic conductance, which are crucial for nutrient and water movement. Wood density is also an important parameter to determine the carbon sequestration capacity of a tree or vegetation, thus important in climate change research. This proposed book will delve into these fascinating connections, highlighting how wood density acts as a key player in shaping the lives of plants and the overall health of forest ecosystems.
Wood & Fire Safety 2024: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Wood & Fire Safety 2024
by Oisik Das Linda Makovická Osvaldová Laura E. HasburghThis proceedings volume presents new scientific works of the research workers and experts in the field of Wood Science & Fire.It looks into the properties of various tree species across the continents affecting the fire-technical properties of wood and wood-based materials, its modifications, fire-retardant methods and other technological processes that have an impact on wood ignition and burning. The results of these findings have a direct impact on Building Construction and Design describing the fire safety of wooden buildings, mainly large and multi-story ones. The results of these experiments and findings may be applied, or are directly implemented into Fire Science, Hazard Control, Building Safety which makes the application of wood and wood materials in buildings possible, while maintaining strict fire regulations.One part of the contributions focuses on the symbiosis of the material and the fire-fighting technologies. Wood burning has its own specific features, therefore, the fire protection technologies need to be updated regularly. It also includes the issue of the intervention of fire-fighting and rescue teams in the fires of wooden buildings. Presentations deal with the issue of forest fires influenced by the climate changes, relief, fuel models based on the type and the age of the forest stand.
The Wood for the Trees: One Man's Long View of Nature
by Richard ForteyFrom the author of Earth: An Intimate History, an exuberant "biography" of four acres of woodland, evoking a cosmos of living and inanimate things and imagining its millennia of existence A few years ago, award-winning scientist Richard Fortey purchased four acres of woodland in the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire, England. The Wood for the Trees is the joyful, lyrical portrait of what he found there.With one chapter for each month, we move through the seasons: tree felling in January, moth hunting in June, finding golden mushrooms in September. Fortey, along with the occasional expert friend, investigates the forest top to bottom, discovering a new species and explaining the myriad connections that tie us to nature and nature to itself. His textured, evocative prose and gentle humor illuminate the epic story of a small forest. But he doesn't stop at mere observation. The Wood for the Trees uses the forest as a springboard back through time, full of rich and unexpected tales of the people, plants, and animals that once called the land home. With Fortey's help, we come to see a universe in miniature.From the Hardcover edition.
Wood Formation in Trees: Cell and Molecular Biology Techniques
by Nigel ChaffeyTrees are a major component of the biosphere and have played an important part in the world's history and culture. With the modern challenges of global warming and dwindling fossil fuel reserves, trees, and in particular their wood, can provide solutions. Unfortunately, too little is known about the biology of these plants, due largely to a lack of
Wood Fracture Characterization
by Marcelo F. de Moura Nuno DouradoWood Fracture Characterization provides a guide to the application of modern fracture mechanics concepts to wood materials used in structural engineering, which commonly involve discontinuities and irregularities. The authors cover the tests, data reduction schemes and numerical methods devised for wood structural applications, based on cohesive zone analysis, and used to validate experimental-based methodologies. Five detailed Case Studies are included to link theory with engineering practice. This important new text explains the basics of fracture mechanics, and extends them as needed to cover the special behaviour of an anisotropic wood materials.
Wood in Our Future: Proceedings of a Symposium Environmental Implications of Wood as a Raw Material for Industrial Use
by Board On AgricultureThe United States produces 25% of the world's wood output, and wood supports a major segment of the U.S. industrial base. Trees provide fiber, resins, oils, pulp, food, paper, pharmaceuticals, fuel, many products used in home construction, and numerous other products. The use of wood as a raw material must consider production efficiencies and natural resource conservation as well as efficient, profitable use of solid wood, its residues, and by-products.To better assess the use of wood as a raw material, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service asked the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture to bring together experts to review the analytical techniques used to follow the life-cycle of wood production--from tree to product--and assess the environmental impacts. This resulting book provides a base of current knowledge, identifying what data are lacking, where future efforts should be focused, and what is known about the methodologies used to assess environmental impacts. The book also focuses on national and international efforts to develop integrated environmental, economic, and energy accounting methologies.
Wood Pellet as a Renewable Source of Energy: From Production to Consumption (University Of Tehran Science And Humanities Ser.)
by Pourya Sadeghi Ashkan Hosseini Abooali Golzary Mohammad Ali AbdoliThis book takes the reader on a journey from the moment that raw wood material enters the factory to the final pellet consumption. It starts by reviewing biomass application and its role for the future development of renewable energies, discussing different biomass conversion methods as alternatives to direct utilization. The second chapter then comprehensively examines densification processes, with a focus on the pelleting process. Chapter three further elaborates on the pelleting process, including an overview of the pellet structure and properties, and the history of this process. The subsequent chapters provide a detailed account of the production process from raw material delivery to final distribution, addressing the chemical and physical quality, and presenting measurement methods and standards. In the final chapters, the authors describe in detail the pellet combustion process and emissions.
Wood-rotting non-gilled Agaricomycetes of Himalayas
by I. B. PrasherThe present volume by the author is based on the outcome of extensive explorations in the Himalayas for more than a decade. It incorporates the original research findings along with that based on literature survey. It is intended to provide a comprehensive account of an important group of fungi which has a direct bearing on wood industry and forest ecosystem besides commercial application in bioremediation and pollution control. It is the first step in providing the mycologists with consolidated, systematically up-to-date and illustrative monograph of wood-rotting fungi of Himalayas. Every year the students of the post graduate colleges and universities particularly Indian sub-continent go in for fungal forays to collect fungi which forms part of their course curriculum. This book will serve as a field manual for identification. The book has more than 240 color photographs and 123 plates of camera lucida drawings covering all the fungi which have been reported till-to-date from the study area.
Wood Waste Management and Products (Sustainable Materials and Technology)
by Siti Noorbaini Sarmin Mohammad Jawaid Rob EliasThis book examines the application of wood waste in various advancements in environmental fields, such as construction, renewable energy, bio-absorbent, and agricultural and wood-based material. Featuring illustrations, and tables summarizing the latest research, it gathers up-to-date information on the application of various types of wood waste which could be applied in a practical manner to materially reduce nuisance created by fallout of wood-based industries from different sources. Given its scope, the book is a valuable reference book for research students and reference resources for researchers, academics, and industrial scientists working in the field of wood waste management and their utilization.
Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane
by Kirsten W. LarsonThis riveting nonfiction picture book biography explores both the failures and successes of self-taught engineer Emma Lilian Todd as she tackles one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane.Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring--she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. Illustrator Tracy Subisak's art brings to life author Kirsten W. Larson's story of this little-known but important engineer.
Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard
by Michael RuhlmanThere are fewer than 10,000 wooden boats in America, but the circulation of WoodenBoat magazine exceeds 180,000. What is it about these boats that has captured the popular imagination? With his "lively blend of reportage [and] reflection" (Los Angeles Times), Michael Ruhlman sets off for a renowned boatyard in Martha's Vineyard to follow the construction of two boats-Rebecca, a 60-foot modern pleasure schooner, and Elisa Lee, a 32-foot powerboat. Filled with exquisite details and stories of the sea, this exciting exploration of a nearly forgotten craft and the colorful personalities involved will enthrall wooden boat owners as well as craftspeople of every stripe, nature enthusiasts, and fans of compelling nonfiction.
Woody Plants and Woody Plant Management: Ecology: Safety, and Environmental ImPatt (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment)
by Rodney W. BoveyA presentation of strategies for managing woody plants and using research data to select the most appropriate control methods. It analyzes the responses of over 370 North American woody plants to commercially available herbicides. The authors provide methods to manage woody plants that interfere with recreation, watershed yield, animal and plant di
Woody Plants of Utah
by Leila M. Shultz Kimball T. Harper Renée Van Buren Janet G. CooperA comprehensive guide that includes a vast range of species and plant communities and employs thorough, original keys. Based primarily on vegetative characteristics, the keys don't require that flowers or other reproductive features be present, like many plant guides. And this guide's attention to woody plants as a whole allows one to identify a much greater variety of plants. That especially suits an arid region such as Utah with less diverse native trees. Woody plants are those that have stems that persist above ground even through seasons that don't favor growth, due to low precipitation or temperatures. Woody Plants of Utah employs dichotomous identification keys that are comparable to a game of twenty questions. They work through a process of elimination by choosing sequential alternatives. Detailed, illustrated plant descriptions complement the keys and provide additional botanical and environmental information in relation to a useful introductory categorization of Utah plant communities. Supplementary tools include photos, distribution maps, and an illustrated glossary.
Woody Plants of Utah: A Field Guide with Identification Keys to Native and Naturalized Trees, Shrubs, Cacti, and Vines
by Renee Van Buren Janet G. Cooper Leila M. Shultz Kimball T. HarperA comprehensive guide that includes a vast range of species and plant communities and employs thorough, original keys. Based primarily on vegetative characteristics, the keys don't require that flowers or other reproductive features be present, like many plant guides. And this guide's attention to woody plants as a whole allows one to identify a much greater variety of plants. That especially suits an arid region such as Utah with less diverse native trees. Woody plants are those that have stems that persist above ground even through seasons that don't favor growth, due to low precipitation or temperatures. Woody Plants of Utah employs dichotomous identification keys that are comparable to a game of twenty questions. They work through a process of elimination by choosing sequential alternatives. Detailed, illustrated plant descriptions complement the keys and provide additional botanical and environmental information in relation to a useful introductory categorization of Utah plant communities. Supplementary tools include photos, distribution maps, and an illustrated glossary.
The Woolly Monkey
by Thomas R. Defler Pablo R. StevensonWoolly monkeys are large, attractive and widespread primates found throughout many parts of the Amazon basin. It is only in the last twenty-five years or so that long-term studies of woollies in their forest habitat have been successful; they have not generally been successfully kept in captivity. But now, especially because of their size, these creatures are pressed on all sides by bush meat hunters and forest fragmentation. Their future is becoming critically precarious and the editors feel that it is time to showcase these animals with a full book. The editors draw together a number of recent woolly monkey studies from three Amazonian countries, including five taxa of woolly monkeys, four of which have recently been reclassified without using new biological criteria as species rather than subspecies (Groves, 2001, 2005; Rylands & Mittermeier, 2009). This volume provides a diversity of studies by well-known researchers and advanced students on a wide range of subjects using newly generated data, including a criticism of the recent taxonomic changes. The varied information contained within The Woolly Monkey: Behavior, Ecology, Systematics and Captive Research will help readers understand these handsome animals and will, we hope, energize them to contribute to their conservation.
Words And Arms: With Supplementary Data
by Wolfram F HanriederThis comprehensive dictionary of terms frequently used in discussions of national security and defense policy contains approximately 800 entries on weapons systems, strategy concepts, military organization, and related items. Part 2 presents a more extensive treatment of such concepts as strategic force doctrine and deployment, Soviet and U.S. poli
Words And Rules (SCIENCE MASTERS)
by Prof Steven PinkerOne of the world's science superstars presents a brilliantly illuminating, entertaining and cutting-edge account of how language actually works.How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Chaucer's English almost incomprehensible? Steven Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the sources of the major themes in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain. Pinker makes sense of all of this with the help of a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules.
Words Can Change Your Brain: 12 Conversation Strategies to Build Trust, Resolve Conflict, and Increase Intimacy
by Andrew Newberg Mark Robert WaldmanIn our default state, our brains constantly get in the way of effective communication. They are lazy, angry, immature, and distracted. They can make a difficult conversation impossible. But Andrew Newberg, M.D., and Mark Waldman have discovered a powerful strategy called Compassionate Communication that allows two brains to work together as one.<P><P> Using brainscans as well as data collected from workshops given to MBA students at Loyola Marymount University, and clinical data from both couples in therapy and organizations helping caregivers cope with patient suffering, Newberg and Waldman have seen that Compassionate Communication can reposition a difficult conversation to lead to a satisfying conclusion. <P>Whether you are negotiating with your boss or your spouse, the brain works the same way and responds to the same cues. The truth, though, is that you don't have to understand how Compassionate Communication works. You just have to do it. Some of the simple and effective takeaways in this book include: * Make sure you are relaxed; yawning several times before (not during) the meeting will do the trick * Never speak for more than 20-30 seconds at a time. After that they other person's window of attention closes. * Use positive speech; you will need at least three positives to overcome the effect of every negative used * Speak slowly; pause between words. This is critical, but really hard to do. * Respond to the other person; do not shift the conversation. * Remember that the brain can only hold onto about four ideas at one time Highly effective across a wide range of settings, Compassionate Communication is an excellent tool for conflict resolution but also for simply getting your point across or delivering difficult news.
Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia
by R. E. Johannes"Johannes' book ... beautifully illustrates the encyclopedic knowledge of practical sea lore possessed by traditional fishers, a knowledge that may still not be equaled by the scientific inventory of reef life in many island groups." - William C. Clarke, The Contemporary Pacific
Work and Occupation in French and English Mental Hospitals, c.1918-1939 (Mental Health in Historical Perspective)
by Jane FreebodyThis open access book demonstrates that, while occupation has been used to treat the mentally disordered since the early nineteenth century, approaches to its use have varied across different countries and in different time periods. Comparing how occupation was used in French and English mental institutions between 1918 and 1939, one hundred years after the heyday of moral therapy, the book is an essential read for those researching the history of mental health and medicine more generally. It provides an overview of the legislation, management structures and financial conditions that affected mental institutions in France and England, and contributed to their differing responses to the new theories of occupational therapy emerging from the USA and Germany during the interwar period.
Work Function and Band Alignment of Electrode Materials: The Art of Interface Potential for Electronic Devices, Solar Cells, and Batteries (NIMS Monographs)
by Michiko YoshitakeThis book covers a wide range of topics on work function and band alignment, from the basics to practical examples. Work function and band alignment determine electric properties at the interface including surfaces, such as electron emission, the Schottky barrier height, and ohmic contact. Basic physics is used to systematically explain how to adjust and measure work function and how to modify the band alignment required for controlling work function in functional materials and electrodes. Methods introduced in the book help to improve device performance and to solve the problems of controlling the voltage and efficiency of devices in a great variety of applications, including electronic devices, optical devices such as displays, and energy devices such as solar cells and batteries. Understanding the technical methods necessary for controlling work function and band alignment can help to solve problems such as non-ohmic contact at source–electrode or drain–electrode interfaces in metal–oxide–silicon structures, which directly contributes to improving power saving and reducing heat generation in computers.
Work in the Future: The Automation Revolution
by Robert Skidelsky Nan CraigThis short, accessible book seeks to explore the future of work through the views and opinions of a range of expertise, encompassing economic, historical, technological, ethical and anthropological aspects of the debate. The transition to an automated society brings with it new challenges and a consideration for what has happened in the past; the editors of this book carefully steer the reader through future possibilities and policy outcomes, all the while recognising that whilst such a shift to a robotised society will be a gradual process, it is one that requires significant thought and consideration.
The Work of Nature: How The Diversity Of Life Sustains Us
by Harold A. Mooney Yvonne Baskin Jane Lubchenco Abigail Rorer Paul R. Ehrlich"We do not question that flesh and bone and leaf litter will decay to dust, that seeds will sprout season after season and find renewed nourishment in the soil, that rivers can flow endlessly without running dry, that we can breathe a lifetime without depleting the air of oxygen.... What humans have not fully appreciated until recently is that these services are the work of nature, performed by the rich diversity of microbes, plants, and animals on the earth." --from The Work of NatureThe lavish array of organisms known as "biodiversity" is an intricately linked web that makes the earth a uniquely habitable planet. Yet pressures from human activities are destroying biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. How many species can be lost before the ecological systems that nurture life begin to break down?In The Work of Nature, noted science writer Yvonne Baskin examines the threats posed to humans by the loss of biodiversity. She summarizes and explains key findings from the ecological sciences, highlighting examples from around the world where shifts in species have affected the provision of clean air, pure water, fertile soils, lush landscapes, and stable natural communities.As Baskin makes clear, biodiversity is much more than number of species -- it includes the complexity, richness, and abundance of nature at all levels, from the genes carried by local populations to the layout of communities and ecosystems across the landscape. Ecologists are increasingly aware that mankind's wanton destruction of living organisms -- the planet's work force -- threatens to erode our basic life support services. With uncommon grace and eloquence, Baskin demonstrates how and why that is so.Distilling and bringing to life the work of the world's leading ecologists, The Work of Nature is the first book of its kind to clearly explain the practical consequences of declining biodiversity on ecosystem health and function.