Bøker utgitt av Nova Science Publishers Inc

This book is a compilation of research on oil spills in ice-covered Arctic waters and recommendations for future work. Research entities in governmental, nongovernmental, industrial, and private organizations are identified. An introduction to the topic is provided. In this book, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC) recommended to the federal government an invigorated oil spill research effort in the Arctic and a funding strategy that did not require new fiscal appropriation. Considering the potential for increased energy exploration and production in deeper, offshore waters, as well as an anticipated escalation in shipping in a rapidly evolving marine environment, the risks of oil spills remain a real and growing challenge. In developing these recommendations, USARC worked closely with the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research (ICCOPR), stakeholders, and the public.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938, is the federal legislation that establishes the general minimum wage that must be paid to all covered workers. In general, the FLSA mandates broad general minimum wage coverage. It also specifies certain categories of workers who are not covered by FLSA wage standards, such as workers with disabilities or certain youth workers. The act was enacted because its provisions were meant to both protect workers and stimulate the economy. The FLSA also created the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), within the Department of Labor (DOL), to administer and enforce the act. This book discusses, in brief, the federal minimum wage. It also discusses tax-transfer earnings supplements; poverty; characteristics of minimum wage workers; and the impact of refundable tax credits on poverty rates.

Over the past several decades, job search support groups, commonly referred to as "job clubs," have evolved into one of several important activities used by the public workforce system and faith- and community-based organizations to enhance worker readiness and employability, as well as to provide ongoing support to unemployed and underemployed individuals as they search for jobs. The overall purpose of this book is to describe the key characteristics of job clubs being offered by a range of faith- and community-based organizations (FBCOs); document how they differ from and are similar to the job clubs operated by publicly-funded workforce agencies (such as at American Job Centers [AJCs]; and identify potential approaches that might be used for more rigorous formal evaluation of impacts and effectiveness. The book also discusses detailed data on FBCO''s contributions to relief efforts following hurricanes, and how FBCOs might help in future disasters.

Since 2004, the federal government has made efforts to facilitate demand-response activities, including expanding their use in wholesale electricity markets. Among these efforts, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued regulatory orders affecting Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO)entities that operate the transmission system and administer wholesale markets in some parts of the country. For example, FERC issued orders approving RTO rules for quantifying the extent of demand-response activities and compensating consumers for their demand-response activities. This book provides an update since 2004 and discusses federal efforts to facilitate demand-response activities; FERC efforts to collect and report data on demand response activities; changes in the extent of demand-response activities; key benefits and challenges of current efforts.

The U.S. energy sector is undergoing a profound transformation. The United States is producing more oil and natural gas, is generating more electricity from renewables such as wind and solar, and is consuming less petroleum while holding electricity consumption constant. These developments have had substantial economic and energy security benefits, and they are helping to reduce carbon emissions in the energy sector and thereby tackle the challenge posed by climate change. This book discusses the all-of-the-above energy strategy as a path to sustainable economic growth; the reemergence of the U.S. as a global petroleum producer; the issues Congress faces with the energy policy; and provides an overview of unconventional oil and natural gas.

This book is the result of a study of nine data brokers, representing a cross-section of the industry, undertaken by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shed light on the data broker industry. Data brokers obtain and share vast amounts of consumer information, typically behind the scenes, without consumer knowledge. Data brokers sell this information for marketing campaigns and fraud prevention, among other purposes. Although consumers benefit from data broker practices which, for example, help enable consumers to find and enjoy the products and services they prefer, data broker practices also raise privacy concerns. The FTC found that data brokers operate with a fundamental lack of transparency. The Commission recommends that Congress consider enacting legislation to make data broker practices more visible to consumers and to give consumers greater control over the immense amounts of personal information about them collected and shared by data brokers.

Effective communications for people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs in emergency situations are often in danger of being overlooked or minimized. This book identifies barriers, facilitators, and successful practices to providing effective emergency-related communications. The book examines the current state of affairs concerning the accessibility of emergency-related communications; reviews the enforcement of disability laws and regulations as they pertain to effective communications before, during, and after emergencies. Information on the experiences and perceptions of people with disabilities as they relate to emergency-related communications is also provided.

Sustainable development is all about integrating all of our present day needs with the needs of society, the environment and global citizenship, in a way that does not compromise future generations. Sustainable development also promotes equality, independence, collaboration and empowerment. By maintaining all of our resources and protecting nature so that future generations can also benefit, we encourage a sustainable society and for the environment to grow. Sustainable development has one main objective, which is to create balance between our social, environmental and economic needs, whilst maintaining equality and justice. The way in which we have chosen to live our lives in the recent past has been responsible for the damage that has been caused to the environment. We are polluting the Earth and consuming far more resources than we produce and are therefore damaging the development of future generations. This book has been prepared in order to provide details regarding Sustainable Development and what is behind Sustainability.

This book presents current research on new developments and policies in the American Indian population in the United States. Topics discussed in this compilation include the Indian health service; Indian gaming; fraud and abuse in the Indian tribal sector; and flood insurance.

The United States has roughly 19,700 airports that provide critical services to the aviation system and local communities across the country. Commercial aviation transports roughly 650 million passengers annually and moves billions in revenue ton-miles of freight safely and securely across the country. Airports and air carriers connect large and small communities, create jobs and contribute significant benefits to the local and national economy. Airports are not only gateways to the aviation system for millions of passengers who fly commercially, they are important staging points for emergency services, law enforcement, and disaster relief also transporting cargo, and providing reliever runways if necessary. In small and rural communities, airports are life lines that connect their residents to the national and international aviation systems. This book provides an analysis and improvement options for air services in small and rural communities.

Coastal areas across the United States are beginning to incorporate sea level rise adaptation into their community planning. One of the most challenging aspects of adapting to sea level rise is understanding the economic implications of future inundation risk, and the costs and benefits of different adaptation options. Communities are already grappling with difficult decisions about how to locate, maintain, and protect expensive community infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, and wastewater treatment plants. This book provides a framework that community leaders and planners can use to make more economically informed decisions about adapting to sea level rise and storm flooding. The four-step framework can be used to perform a holistic assessment of costs and benefits of different adaptation approaches across a community, or to focus in on select infrastructure. The book also discusses the expertise needed at each step in the process.

Plants have a very specific and efficient mechanism to obtain, translocate and store nutrients from the surrounding environment. The precise mechanism that helps a plant in nutrient translocation from root to shoot also, in the same way, transfers and stores toxic metals within their structure. Metal toxicity generally causes multiple direct or indirect effects on plants, affecting nearly all of their physiological functions. Plant tolerance to heavy metals depends largely on plant efficiency in uptake, translocation and sequestration of heavy metals in specific cell organelles or specialized tissues. The main purpose of this book is to present a holistic view of the recent advancement in the field of accumulation and remediation using plants, the green solar powered alternative to ameliorate heavy metal from the polluted environment. The key features of the book are related to metal transporters and metal accumulation mechanisms under heavy metal stress in plants, plant transcriptional regulation and responses under metal contamination, multiple toxic metal contaminations and its phytoremediation approaches etc. Based on the advancement of research in recent years, the information compiled in this book will bring an in-depth knowledge on the bioaccumulation of metals, their transportation in natural conditions or genetically modified plants and their strategy to cope with the toxicity to survive in the hostile environment.

It is often stated that "it takes a village" to improve the health of a population. This proverb implies that it takes the work of many individuals, not necessarily from the same occupation or educational or social background, to achieve this goal. To improve the health of a population, a system comprised of educators, community leaders, public health and health care practitioners, researchers, faith-based leaders, municipal workers, and many others working, in diverse urban and/or rural communities, across the globe towards a common goal via evidence-based practice, policy development, education and health literacy initiatives, or a combination thereof, is required. Interprofessional collaborations can be fruitful endeavors with respect to improving health at a population and/or individual level. However, if we examine these interdisciplinary collaborations from a development standpoint, not every professional is trained to work with professionals from other disciplines. How do we prepare an interprofessional workforce capable of working collaboratively? You will find some of the answers in this book.

Methanogenesis or biomethamation is a very impressive phenomenon which has noticeable effects on both natural and engineered environments. This process is held by methanogens, which produce methane as the major end product of their metabolism in a unique energy-generating process. The organisms received much attention because they catalyse the terminal step in the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter under sulphate-limiting conditions and are essential for both the recycling of carbon compounds and the maintenance of the global carbon flux on Earth. Furthermore, methane is an important greenhouse gas that directly contributes to climate changes and global warming. Hence, the understanding of the biochemical processes leading to methane formation is of major interest. This book focuses on the methanogenesis processes in natural and engineered environments with emphasis on mechanism recognition, modelling and resource management as well as its ecological impacts. The aim of this book is to examine methanogenesis from different points of view, describing scientific methods to minimize its hazardous impacts, providing an assessment of the existing technologies, and highlighting various aspects of bio-fuel production and cogeneration in seven chapters which have been prepared by authors from completely different professional areas and majors.

This book deals with the multi-cultural phenomenon of the emotions industry, as well as the cynical manner in which that industry exploits its consumers in various cultures. The book was written in order to illuminate the fact that the culture industry has developed a "new" configuration dominated by the production and distribution of emotions the emotions industry. The emotions industry is an industry that provides an incentive to exaggerate emotions in order to accumulate social, cultural or economic wealth. It endeavors to create emotional needs by connecting between the realization of these needs and consumer culture; by blurring the boundaries between authentic and simulated emotions, between real and imagined authenticity; by encouraging the externalization of inner worlds for financial gain, generating income or any other result; by revealing emotional worlds that gradually become merchandise, an effective and productive means of promoting economic, political, social or cultural processes. Obviously this is only possible on the condition that we are capable of controlling emotional processes, responding or delaying reactions, opening up and including or closing up and excluding our surroundings. This ability to regulate emotions lies at the foundation of the emotions industry, which shapes the interaction between emotion, cognition and behavior, commercial-economic and private interests, social-cultural and spiritual needs. Thus emotional regulation is transformed into a production line of emotional expectations and reactions, which specializes in creating emotional products and marketing them to the public in the framework of mass consumer culture.