Intelligence in Services and Networks focuses on exploring how best the inherent intelligence in networks may be employed and enhanced to provide, firstly, flexibility and open competition in the provision of communications-based services and, secondly, the means for managing and administering end-to-end communication systems that span many independent network operators and service providers. The emphasis in this area of research is on applying the best techniques for system specification and corresponding software development, as a basis for the creation of open platforms, and...

Held in 1993 in Niteroi, Brazil, the first International Conference on Environmental Geochemistry in Tropical Countries established a starting point for this book. The book opens with a discussion of the points that arose during the closing session, summarised by Dr. E.K. Duursma: The Environment in the Tropics Remains Unknown. Most of the processes that occur in temperate environments turn out to be completely different in the tropics. This can already be seen in Chapter 3, where estimates of radionuclide transfer factors reach values considerably greater than in temperate...

Steep crystalline-basement faults, commonly indicated by potential-field anomalies, played a crucial role in evolution of continental cratonic platforms. In the Phanerozoic Western Canada Sedimentary Province, history of crustal block movements and warps is reconstructed from the distribution of depocenters, lithofacies and structures in structural-formational etages in sedimentary cover. Each etage is a rock succession formed during a particular tectonic stage; regional tectonic restructuring closes each stage, and the next stage represents a new tectonic regime. Practical tectonic analysis,...

Only 10% of the 150 or so known impact craters on Earth date from the early Precambrian Era, a time period covering some 88% of the Earth's history. Yet this Era encompasses fundamental events in the origin and evolution of our planet from the origin of life itself to the development of continents. The papers in this volume were presented at a workshop sponsored by the European Science Foundation Scientific Network on Impact cratering held in Cambridge, UK, in December 1998. The papers outline the present state of scientific understanding of the role impacts may have played in the biological...

GPS-Techniques Applied to Geodesy and Surveying contains the proceedings of an international workshop held in April 1988 at the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. It presents a state-of-the-art description of GPS techniques applied to geodesy and surveying with emphasis on monitoring time dependent phenomena. Theoretical, numerical, instrumental and rather general aspects of modern satellite positioning are treated. The articles are easy to read; the book addresses newcomers to the field as well as experts.

Sediments are increasingly recognized as both a carrier and a possible source of contaminants in aquatic systems, and they may also affect groundwater quality and agricultural products when disposed on land. Four aspects are covered reflecting the development of knowledge in particle-associated pollutants during the past twenty-five years: - the identification, surveillance, monitoring and control of sources and distribution of pollutants, - the evaluation of solid/solution relations of contaminants in surface waters, - the study of in-situ processes and mechanisms of pollutant transfer in...

This volume is the result of the dedicated effort undertaken by an international group of scientists and administrators, who have contemplated the challenge of the future of space-based earth science for the next decade. Recognizing the need for defining new milestones both in science and technology, they have developed a detailed report of what could be achieved and what challenges remain after twenty fertile years of space exploration. The reader will find a wealth of information about the role of space geodesy in the Earth Sciences of the 1990's.

Papers from a symposium held in Karlsruhe, March 14-18, 1988.

This volume is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of dynamic biological changes through the Phanerozoic which are associated with mass extinction events and similar biotic crises, and their causal mechanisms. In particular, it documents in detail the complex nature of terrestrial and extraterrestrial feedback loops that are associated with many mass extinction intervals. Authors have been asked to represent most of the known mass extinction events through time, and to comment on the complex earthbound or extraterrestrial causes (or both) for global biotic crises.