Oil shales are broadly dermed as petroleum source rocks containing sufficiently high contents of organic matter (above ca 10-15 wt. %) to make utilisation a possibility. Like coal, the world's reserves of oil shales are vast being many times larger than those proven for crude oil. Indeed, some of the largest deposits occur in the USA and Europe where Estonia and Turkey have large reserves. The first recorded interest in oil shale retorting was an English patent in 1694 (Eele, Hancock and Porter, No. 330) which refers to distilling noyle from some kind of stone." The oil shale retorting...

An important aspect of molecular engineering is the property directed' synthesis of large molecules and molecular assemblies. Synthetic expertise has advanced to a state which allows the assembly of supramolecules containing thousands of atoms using a construction kit' of molecular building blocks. Expansion in the field is driven by the appearance of new building blocks and by an improved understanding of the rules for joining them in the design of nanometer-sized devices.
Another aspect is the transition from supramolecules to materials. At present no single molecule (however large)...

Since A. Kowalsky's first report of the spectrum of cytochrome c in 1965, interest in the detection, assignment and interpretation of paramagnetic molecules has surged, especially in the last decade.
Two classes of systems have played a key role in the development of the field: heme proteins and iron-sulfur proteins. These two systems are unique in many respects, one of which is that they contain well-defined chromophores, each of which can be studied in detail outside the protein matrix. They are the most successfully studied macromolecules, and the first eight and last six of...

This volume consists of invited lectures and seminars presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Gamma Ray Sky with COMPTON GRO and SIGMA," which was held at the Centre de Physique Theorique of Les Houches (France) in January / February 1994. The school has been planned by a Scientific Organizing Committee. It was organized with the aim of providing students and young researchers with an up-to-date account of the high-energy phenomena in the vicinity of compact objets and the diffuse gamma-ray backgrounds after the early results from the gamma-ray telescope SIGMA and the four...

Environmental informatics is a field of applied computer science that develops and uses the techniques of information processing for environmental protection, research and engineering. The multidisciplinary nature of environmental problems needs environmental informatics as a bridge and mediator between many disciplines and institutions. The present book presents a wide range of topics currently being pursued in the area, including basic methodological issues and typical applications. A significant number of recognised experts have contributed to the volume, discussing the methodology and...

High Performance Computing in the Geosciences surveys the state of the art of programs presently being developed which require high performance computing for their implementation, provides a guide for decision making in regard to computing directions in future numerical models, and provides an overview of future developments in massively parallel processing and their implications for numerical modelling in the geosciences.

Of all the books written about the problems of sustainable development and environmental protection, Sustainable Development: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy is one of the first to examine the role of science, economics and law, and ethics as generally applied to decision making on sustainable development, particularly in respect to the recommendations contained in Agenda 21. Specifically, the book examines the role, capabilities, and certain strengths and weaknesses of these disciplines and their ethical implications in the context of sustainable development problems....

This volume contains sOOeen essays written by his students and colleagues in honor of Maurice Natanson. The essays explore some of the diverse themes Professor Natanson has pursued through forty years of teaching and philosophizing in the tradition of existential phenomenology. Because it also includes a lengthy biographical and philosophical interview where one can find an absorbing account of Natanson's Lebens/au/in his own words, there is no need to detail that polypragmatic career here. Suffice to say that even passing acquaintance with the man and the work will reveal that Edmund...

Collapsing engineering soils are a formidable hazard around the world. These difficult materials also include some of the world's most fertile agricultural soils, fostering dense human populations which are therefore increasingly at risk. Despite an impressive literature on the engineering aspects of collapsing soils, these materials are coming under increasing scrutiny by scientists in other fields. This is most evidently the case with soil scientists, stratigraphers and sedimentologists. Past earth surface conditions have a direct influence on the detailed behaviour of collapsible soils: as...

It is hard to imagine that another elementary analysis book would contain ma- terial that in some vision could qualify as being new and needed for a discipline already abundantly endowed with literature. However, to understand analysis, be- ginning with the undergraduate calculus student through the sophisticated math- ematically maturing graduate student, the need for examples and exercises seems to be a constant ingredient to foster deeper mathematical understanding. To a talented mathematical student, many elementary concepts seem clear on their first encounter. However, it is the belief...