Ecohydrology of water-controlled ecosystems

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Hermann J. Heege

High yields and environmental control in crop farming call for precise adaptations to local growing conditions. Treating large fields in a uniform way by high capacity machinery cannot be regarded as a sustainable method for many situations. Because differences existing within single fields must be considered. The transition from former field work carried out manually or by small implements to present day high capacity machinery caused that the farmers lost the immediate and close contact with soils and crops. However, modern sensing and controlling technology can make up for this deficit. High tech methods that include proximal sensing and signals from satellites can provide for controls that allow adjusting farming operations to small fractions of one ha and sometimes even down to some m2, hence in a site-specific mode. This applies to operations for soil cultivation, sowing, fertilizing and plant protection. This book deals with concepts, applications and results, and has an interdisciplinary approach that pervades all chapters.

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Richard and Louise Spilsbury

Describes how rocks become soil, the importance of soil in the environment, and the physical characteristics of different kinds of soils.

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Supriyo Datta

Recent advances in technology have made it possible to fabricate structures whose dimensions are much smaller than the mean free path of an electron. This is the first text-book to give a thorough account of the theory of electronic transport in such mesoscopic systems. Important concepts are illustrated by reference to relevant experimental results. The book begins with a chapter summarizing the necessary background material. The next chapter introduces the 'transmission formalism' which is widely used in describing mesoscopic transport. The applicability of this formalism to different transport regimes is examined and practical methods for evaluating the transmission function are discussed. This formalism is then used to describe three key topics in mesoscopic physics: quantum Hall effect, localization, and double-barrier tunneling. Optical analogies to mesoscopic phenomena are discussed briefly. The book closes with a simple intuitive description of the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and its relation to the transmission formalism. Emphasizing basic concepts and techniques throughout, and complete with problems and solutions, the book will be of great interest to graduate students as well as to established researchers interested in mesoscopic physics and nanoelectronics.

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Robert E. Farrell, Jr

This laboratory guide represents a growing collection of tried, tested and optimized laboratory protocols for the isolation and characterization of eukaryotic RNA, with lesser emphasis on the characterization of prokaryotic transcripts. Collectively the chapters work together to embellish the RNA story, each presenting clear take-home lessons, liberally incorporating flow charts, tables and graphs to facilitate learning and assist in the planning and implementation phases of a project. This edition includes approximately 30% new material, including chapters on the more recent technologies of RNA interference including: RNAi; Microarrays; Bioinformatics. It also includes new sections on: new and improved RT-PCR techniques; innovative 5. and 3. RACE techniques; subtractive PCR methods; methods for improving cDNA synthesis.