This book presents the status of research on very massive stars in the Universe. While it has been claimed that stars with over 100 solar masses existed in the very early Universe, recent studies have also discussed the existence and deaths of stars up to 300 solar masses in the local Universe. This represents a paradigm shift for the stellar upper-mass limit, which may have major implications …
This book introduces the basic concepts, synthesis techniques, and applications of vertically-oriented graphene. The authors detail emerging applications of vertically-oriented graphene such as field emitters, atmospheric nanoscale corona discharges, gas sensors and biosensors, supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells (catalyst supports) and electrochemical transducers. They offer a p…
Vertebrates and Invertebrates of European Cities: Selected Non-Avian Fauna is the first known account of the vertebrate and invertebrate fauna of several cities in Europe and throughout the rest of the world. It excludes birds, which are described in a companion volume. The book contains eleven chapters about nine cities distributed throughout Europe. The chapters start with the history of the …
This volume provides the reader with recent advances in the fields of molecular toxinology, the biotechnological applications of venom toxins, and antivenom production. The content of the twenty chapters of Venom Genomics and Proteomics illustrates not only the enormous progress made since the implementation of omics technologies in the field of toxinology, but one also realizes the road still …
This Brief examines the impact of the Oxford Transport Strategy in central Oxford as a means of assessing the effect of reduced traffic congestion in the city centre on its sustainability. Air pollution (from vehicular traffic) has been monitored at three locations in central Oxford on the High Street, St Aldates and St Ebbes (background monitoring station). There is a further monitoring site s…
Ion channels are the major class of membrane proteins responsible for rapid and regulated transport of ions across biological membranes and for the generation and propagation of electrical signals in the brain, heart, and skeletal and vascular tissues. Ion channels are also known to play critical roles in regulation of cell proliferation, insulin secretion and intracellular signaling in a varie…
The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of two unorthodox scientific ideas, the varying-gravity hypothesis and the expanding-earth hypothesis. As such, it provides a fascinating insight into a nearly forgotten chapter in both the history of cosmology and the history of the earth sciences. The hypothesis that the force of gravity decreases over cosmic time was first proposed by …
The aim of this monograph is to present a general method of proving continuity of Lyapunov exponents of linear cocycles. The method uses an inductive procedure based on a general, geometric version of the Avalanche Principle. The main assumption required by this method is the availability of appropriate large deviation type estimates for quantities related to the iterates of the base and fiber …
The last financial crisis revealed a gap between business practice and ethics. In Value Economics, Griffiths and Lucas examine some of the reasons for this ethical gap and discuss the resulting loss of confidence in the financial system. One of the reasons has been hazy or inadequate thinking about how we value economic enterprises. With the close link between the creation of value and business…
This book provides information on best practices and new thinking regarding the validation of alternative methods for toxicity testing. It covers the validation of experimental and computational methods and integrated approaches to testing and assessment. Validation strategies are discussed for methods employing the latest technologies such as tissue-on-a-chip systems, stem cells and transcript…