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Water shortages are a reality all over the world, and supplying water to urban centers is one of the challenges of modern society. This book examines the processes, uses and importance of water filtration systems. It begins with a discussion on osmosis pretreatment of seawater for thermal desalination. The following chapter reviews the Neptune Project. Chapter three demonstrates that the use of electrocoagulation coupled with microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes is a possible technique to adjust the quality of reclaimed municipal wastewater for water reuse. Chapter four provides an evaluation of ion exchange as a pretreatment method to decrease membrane fouling. The last chapter addresses the treatment of the effluents by-produced in olive mills, generally called olive mill wastewaters.

Different species of the genus Populus, also known as poplars, are of great economic importance as major sources of timber, pulp and fiber. Salix species, or willows, have become very important sources of biomass for bioenergy. Both are characterised by their fast-growing trees, being asexually propagated, and having several species growing in riparian areas prone to flooding. This book studies the cultivation, applications and environmental benefits of poplars and willows. The first chapter begins with a review of the ecological importance and sustainable development of poplar forests in NE China and possible influences on soil properties. Chapter two reviews the properties and practical purposes of willows. Chapter three outlines an experimental project for growing, harvesting, and utilising willow trees in Japan. Chapter four studies the responses of poplars and willows during flooding. The last chapter examines the application of organic wastes from industry and municipalities at short-rotation willow and poplar plantations.

Empowerment is something that gives people hopes and dreams, brings them courage, and prompts them to be filled with the strength to live. It is a wonderful quality that should be present in everyone. People are born with splendid abilities. And throughout their lives, they can continue to demonstrate magnificent strengths. In this book, chapter one covers the latest theories and practices of empowerment. The second chapter reviews how empowerment can be a tool in both treatment and stigma reduction for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). Chapter three discusses empowerment as a tool to enhance social integration among mainland Chinese migrants in Hong Kong. Chapter four provides a theoretical review of experiences of sexual objectification and their consequences for women. The following chapter examines empowerment of women in the tourism and hospitality industry. Chapter six describes how, through their participation in mutual assistance groups, the wives of alcoholic men are able to re-signify conjugal relationships that are usually deeply marked by physical and psychological violence. Chapter seven provides characteristics of the empowerment of Japanese families rearing children. Chapter eight provides a historical overview of the appropriation of empowerment and recovery ideas and approaches in the mental health field in Brazil. The final three chapters assess hope, provide lessons learned from an economic empowerment model, and examines prevention mother to child transmission programs for HIV-positive women living in West Nile Uganda.

This book on cover crops begins with a review of management practices on cover crops, their benefits, constrains associated with their use and possible solutions as experienced in southern Africa. The following chapter aims to review the literature addressing the effect of growing different cover crops under different soil management systems on the soil P dynamics in Brazilian highly weathered soils. Chapter three evaluates the resistance to penetration in three Oxisols under cultivation of five cover crops used for the production of grain, seeds and fodder in different sowing density per hectare, and of spontaneous vegetation, grown in rotation with soybean and corn. The final chapter highlights the impact of plant strips on soil erosion with particular focus on Mediterranean factors affecting vegetation, and its implications for soil productivity from agronomic and environmental perspective.

Aquatic biomass are a promising source for bioethanol production as they can be grown in aquatic environments to avoid the competition with food crops on land. Research on bioethanol production from aquatic biomass is still at an early stage due to the technical and economic barriers. The first chapter of this book reviews various aquatic species, pretreatment methods, and processing techniques that were used for bioethanol production. Chapter two reviews recent anaerobic digestion studies regarding to biogas production from different aquatic plants, the basic operations for biogas production from aquatic plants, reactor design issues, and operational parameters. Chapter three provides a brief review of literature related to water remediation potential of important aquatic plant species, mechanisms of aquatic macrophytes in nutrient and contaminant removal and water purification, and management of aquatic macrophytes for sustainable ecological remediation. Chapter four discusses the stress response of freshwater aquatic plants in particular oxidative stress responding to fluctuations in abiotic environmental stresses. The final chapter examines the catalytic fast pyrolysis of Lemnoideae spp. for production of industrious chemicals.

Alzheimer''s disease (AD) is the most common form of senile dementia worldwide. Anosognosia, a deficit in self-awareness, is recognised as one of the core symptoms of Alzheimer''s disease dementia, in which self-awareness gradually deteriorates with disease progression. Chapter one of this book discusses anosognosia in Alzheimer''s disease. Chapter two examines whether pathological narcissistic personality predicts increased risk of neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD. Chapter three discusses the impairment of instrumental activities of daily living in mild-to-moderate AD patients. Chapter four studies the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in four candidate genes, and compares their frequencies in healthy individuals with the frequencies in Venezuelans diagnosed with AD. Chapter five studies the role of IL-6 genotypes in the late-onset of AD. The last chapter evaluates the risk factors and protective factors for impairment in elderly individuals living in communities in Shanghai.

Academic performance is determined by several factors. The aim of the first paper in this book is to describe the relationship between the goals of adolescents, their everyday life and the influence these factors have on academic achievement. Chapter two focuses on a longitudinal investigation of students'' well-being experiences within the framework of motivational beliefs. Chapter three aims to analyse differences in academic self-attributions and learning strategies between aggressive and nonaggressive Spanish adolescents, and to identify the predictive role of self-attributions and learning strategies in academic promotion of aggressive Spanish adolescents. Chapter four analyses a simulation software and sensitivity analysis for future student academic performance. Chapter five establishes how personal self-regulation and different contexts of stress produce differences in the coping strategies used by students, whether university students or graduates who are preparing for competitive exams. Chapter six provides a model with the main variables that can predict, with a certain degree of accuracy, school achievement and success, in order to put forward interventions and counseling to prevent students from dropping-out of health professions degree courses. Chapter seven critically reviews the different assessments and processes used within medical training and considers the affective implications for students, educators and eventually patients. Chapter eight addresses the teaching of physiology in different continents, and particularly, that of laboratories, and discusses a historical review of medicine in Mexico as well as the birth of Physiology in our country. Chapter nine analyses student performance on the Grade 8 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Mathematics exam for students in two Texas school districts to determine the extent to which differences were present as a function of Saxon Math instruction. The final chapter examines school district size and its impact on black student performance.

Terrorism is a complex phenomenon. Consequently, defense against such a phenomenon cannot be effective when limited to only one professional approach and one aspect of consideration since too many crucial features thus remain unconsidered. Therefore, if we are compelled to defend ourselves against means of mass destruction, we must rely on an intertwined synergy of knowledge from natural sciences, social sciences, and engineering. That requires creative interdisciplinary cooperation, thus experts who are capable and willing to listen to and hear people from other professions who they disagree with, because they are aware that exactly these people are the ones completing their knowledge and skills up. They possess and apply the ethics of interdependence of mutually different ones as components of the same whole, e.g. members of the same team. Such cooperation can be achieved by applying Mulej''s (1979, 2000; Mulej et al., 2013) Dialectical Systems Theory DST as the one among many systems theories, which is not confined to a precise description of complex phenomena labeled Systems. DST rather develops further the main notion of Bertalanffy, the father of systems theory, who created his General Systems Theory as the worldview of holism/wholeness and its corresponding methodology opposing contemporary unduly narrow over-specialisation. Based on DST and a synergy of various systems theories and cybernetics, we elaborated a new category called Cybernetics of Security and Defense Systems''. Following a precisely defined dialectical system of considerations, and later through accurately selected/announced diagnostic steps, we recognised the Resolution on National Security Strategy of the Republic of as an umbrella document, i.e. basic premise and its consequent manifestation in reality: the National Security System has been carefully analysed and diagnosed following a precisely defined dialectical system of aspects/viewpoints and accurately selected/announced diagnostic steps (Ivanua, 2013). Based on the results of the mentioned scientific diagnostic procedure, we recognised the National Security System as pathological. The present scientific monograph is abolishing and establishing, simultaneously: redundancy is replaced with the law of succession and interdependence we established a novelty to innovate the routine of the security and defense systems. The possibility of an opposite effect, i.e. a negative effect, in searching for synergies has been avoided through the concept of requisite holism of behavior (Mulej & Kajzer, 1998), providing a realistic pathway to attain the goal: Novel Cybernetics of Security and Defense Systems.

The loss (complete or partial) of verbal language as a result of some brain condition with preservation of the primary inputs (like auditory, visual or somatosensory projections) and outputs (like motor projections) can be defined as aphasia. The first chapter of this book deals, principally, with some psychological and epistemological issues in the aphasia topic. It discusses the models and approaches for characterising aphasia. People who develop aphasia must adjust their lifestyles and learn to cope with the activity limitations that follow from their disability. Aphasia can profoundly affect a person''s capacity for academic achievement, occupation, social participation, and also financing. This is especially true for children, who have yet to go out into the world to become a member of society. Chapter two and three discuss the phenomenon and impact of acquired aphasia in children. The final chapter examines subcortical aphasia.

Basic library skills and Information Technology skills are foundations of information literacy competences. Information literacy is also essential for everybody to continue lifelong learning independently. In this sophisticated information society, it becomes more serious that an information gap between library users with information literacy and those without information literacy is increasingly expanded by the spread of the Internet in recent years. Library use education, in all kinds of libraries, is necessary for every library user to improve one''s own information literacy and make use of information resources. Many different kinds of libraries, such as school libraries, public libraries and academic libraries, carry out information literacy education and library use education for library users to perform their own lifelong learning in Japan. This book "Information Literacy Education in Japanese Libraries for Lifelong Learning" clarifies the issues of information literacy education in school libraries, public libraries and academic libraries from a viewpoint of lifelong learning for every library user. For example, the main issues in school libraries in Japan are to create their own school library websites, to provide meaningful and appropriate contents for library users, and to provide user-friendly Web-OPAC for children in their own school library websites. On the other hand, in public libraries in Japan, the main issues concerning children''s web pages and young adult web pages in public library websites are: to provide adequate web content especially for library use education toward children and young adults; to improve the usability of web contents; and to provide Web-OPAC for children, which is different from Web-OPAC for adults. Meanwhile, the main issues in Japanese academic libraries are to have a variety of educational content, as well as to execute more advanced library use education far beyond library orientations. Also, it is important for academic libraries to make use of Computer-Assisted Instruction for library use education in order for every library user with to learn different content at their own pace. This book describes unique and important studies of information literacy education concerning school libraries, public libraries, and academic libraries in both Japan and the USA. Also, this book is of great significance in regards to finding the essential guidelines for library use education and information literacy education. This book will be of great interest to undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, and librarians in Library and Information Science.

Oxytocin (OT), a hormone with a well-known function in childbirth, breast milk secretion, formation of the mother-infant bonding process and social empathy, has recently been revisited from a systemic perspective to uncover possible links with or etiological characteristics of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Chapter one aims to provide an overview of the association of OT and its genetic polymorphisms with the most prevalent NCDs in the world population, seeking to integrate it to the thrifty phenotype hypothesis throughout the ontogenetic process. Chapter two examines the experimental evidence accumulated over the last few decades which indicates that oxytocin can play a beneficial role in cardiovascular control. Chapter three studies recent evidence that demonstrates intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves face-processing. The final chapter contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the age-related changes in body composition, sexual, and feeding behavior, in which oxytocin and cortisol probably play a relevant role.

In this next edition of "Advances in Medicine and Biology," chapters include research on differential diagnosis, along with potential treatments for insomnia in children and adults; the effectiveness of biobehavioral interventions to relieve joint and muscle dysfunction that occurs in Temporomandibular Joint and Muscle Disorders (TMJMD), when they are implemented in community-based clinics; the pharmacological and therapeutic potential of scorpion venom and their toxins; the relief of chemical-induced acute colitis through the use of non-anticoagulant oligosaccharides of enoxaparin; the expression and function of macrophage CXCR7''s link to atherosclerosis; the participation of microtubules in intracellular cholesterol transport through cytosolic lipid-protein particles in rat astrocytes; and teeth and amelogenin in xenopus.

In western countries there is a long tradition studying the academic performance of students. Today there is enough empirical evidence showing the link between social origin and educational performance. The first chapter of this book shows how the social class, socio-economic status of family and parents'' expectations about the academic development of their children influence in the educational performance. Chapter two focuses on the empirical literature regarding the relationship of the 65% instructional expenditure ratio, education production function, student achievement, and school district wealth. Chapter three dives into the aspects of executive functioning and its relation to academic achievement, as well as analyses the connection between the academic achievement and the perception the children have of their own executive functioning. Chapter four analyses in detail, in accordance with previous theoretical and empirical data, self-protective mechanisms, self-handicapping and defensive pessimism. Chapter five examines the interrelations between academic striving, effective functioning, personal resolve, and school experience of secondary school students. Chapter six examines the influence of shared and non-shared environmental influences on math-based reaction time/chronometric tasks, as well as their influence on the relationship between chronometric and standardised paper-and-pencil tasks. Chapter seven examines the historical framework underlying postsecondary education in the United States and in Texas, current issues of student attrition, retention, and college success, and ethnicity as it relates to student performance, attrition, and persistence. Chapter eight discusses the role of executive functions on academic performance in Mexican at-risk adolescents. Chapter nine analyses Hispanic student achievement in reading and mathematics as a function of grade span configuration. The final chapter is an overview of the transformation in education through ubiquitous access to the digital universe.

This book looks at one of the most serious types of highway accidentscollisions involving vehicles traveling the wrong way on high-speed divided highways. The goal of this investigative project is to identify relevant safety recommendations to prevent wrong-way collisions on such highways and access ramps. The investigations included in the book take a focused view of the driver and highway issues affecting wrong-way collisions. The book addresses the following safety issues concerning wrong-way driving: driver impairment, primarily from alcohol use, with consideration of older driver issues and possible drug involvement; the need to establish, through traffic control devices and highway design, distinctly different views for motorists approaching entrance and exit ramps; monitoring and intervention programs for wrong-way collisions; and in-vehicle driver support systems.

As part of the nation''s unemployment insurance (UI) system, overseen by DOL, states provide benefits to eligible unemployed workers, with additional weeks of benefits sometimes provided by the federal government in times of economic stress. Since the 1960s, states have had maximum UI benefit durations of 26 weeks or longer. However, since 2011, nine states have reduced their maximum benefit durations. This book examines the circumstances in which states reduced the maximum duration of UI benefits; the implications of these reductions for individuals; the effects on federal UI costs; and their broader economic effects. Furthermore, the book analyses recent changes to state Unemployment Compensation (UC) programs.

Book & CD-ROM. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began in 1975 to evaluate the effectiveness of vehicle safety technologies associated with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. By June 2014, NHTSA had evaluated the effectiveness of virtually all the life-saving technologies introduced in passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans from about 1960 up through about 2010. A statistical model estimates the number of lives saved from 1960 to 2012 by the combination of these life-saving technologies. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for 1975 to 2012 documents the actual crash fatalities in vehicles that, especially in recent years, include many safety technologies. This book focuses exclusively on the fatality reduction attributable to vehicle safety technologies introduced since 1956 (when factory-installed lap belts first became optionally available on some cars) and, from 1968 onwards, largely associated with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and/or related programs such as safety ratings. It develops a vehicular fatality-risk index by calendar year that measures how much safer the average car or LTV on the road has become relative to a car or LTV on the road in 1955.

While the power to prescribe rules as to which aliens may enter the United States and which aliens may be removed resides solely with the federal government, the impact of alien migration -- whether lawful or unlawful -- is arguably felt most directly in the communities where aliens settle. State and local responses to unlawfully present aliens within their jurisdictions have varied considerably, particularly as to the role that state and local police should play in enforcing federal immigration law. Some states, cities, and other municipalities have sought to play an active role in immigration enforcement efforts. However, others have been unwilling to assist the federal government in enforcing measures that distinguish between residents with legal immigration status and those who lack authorisation under federal law to be present in the United States. In some circumstances, these jurisdictions have actively opposed federal immigration authorities'' efforts to identify and remove certain unlawfully present aliens within their jurisdictions. This book discusses legal issues related to state and local measures that limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It provides a brief overview of the constitutional principles informing the relationship between federal immigration authorities and state and local jurisdictions, including the federal government''s power to preempt state and local activities under the Supremacy Clause, and the Tenth Amendment''s proscription against Congress directly "commandeering" the states to administer a federally enacted regulatory scheme. It also discusses various types of measures adopted or considered by states and localities to limit their participation in federal immigration enforcement efforts; discusses the authority of state and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law through the investigation and arrest of persons believed to have violated such laws; and describes federal statutes.