This interdisciplinary work presents a conceptual framework and brings together constructivist and rationalist accounts of how EU norms are adopted, adapted, resisted or rejected. These chapters provide empirical cases and critical analysis of a rich variety of norm-takers from EU member states, European and non-European states, including the rejection of EU norms in Russia and Africa as well a…
Information Technology plays a major role in our society. Due to system integration and process automation, a company has to rely on performant information systems. To achieve this objective, it is important to have relevant IT processes in place on the one hand to ensure current operation and on the other hand to enable the successful introduction of new technologies. Once IT processes are def…
This book analyzes how climate change adaptation can be implemented at the community, regional and national level. Featuring a variety of case studies, it illustrates strategies, initiatives and projects currently being implemented across the world. In addition to the challenges faced by communities, cities and regions seeking to cope with climate change phenomena like floods, droughts and othe…
Firmly rooted in the theory and practice of sustainable development, this book offers a comprehensive resource on sustainability, focusing on both industrialized and developing nations. Implementing Campus Greening Initiatives: Approaches, Methods and Perspectives is an attempt to promote and disseminate the work being done in this field by universities around the world. The need to integrate t…
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Implementation and Application of Automata, CIAA 2015, held in held in Umeå, Sweden, in August 2015. The 22 revised full papers presented together with 4 invited papers and 2 toool demonstration papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 49 submissions. The papers cover all aspects of cover automata, …
This book provides the reader with the knowledge required in order to understand the chemical, physical, mechanical, and topographical aspects of implant surfaces, as well as their impact on the biological response. Common ways to modify implant surfaces are described, and methods for the evaluation of surface properties are presented in an easy-to-read style. Experimental results that have con…
This work is a scientific monograph that examines the flora and vegetation of natural mineral wetlands in comparison to mineral wetlands affected by bitumen exploitation. The work is of broad relevance because (a) wetland loss and degradation is a global problem; (b) the continued global increase in fossil fuel exploitation is resulting in widespread damage; and (c) bitumen (tar sands, oil sand…
This book presents the results from the Japanese Fisheries Research Agency’s 3-year intensive monitoring of radionuclides in a variety of fish, plankton, benthos, and their living environments after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident in March 2011. The book reveals the dynamics of contamination processes in marine and freshwater fish, mediated by the contamination of wa…
This book aims to systematically elaborate how land-use change directly or indirectly exerts impacts on the ability of ecosystems to provide services for human society. The relationship between land use, ecosystem services and human well-being is a hot topic, and there have been some important achievements in this field, but its continuing growth means that it warrants further research. The …
This thesis approaches impact resistance in dense suspensions from a new perspective. The most well-known example of dense suspensions, a mixture of cornstarch and water, provides enough impact resistance to allow a person to run across its surface. In the past, this phenomenon had been linked to "shear thickening" under a steady shear state attributed to hydrodynamic interactions or granular d…