The primary aim of Wood Structure and Environment is to reveal the hidden ecological richness in stems and roots from trees, shrubs and herbs. The detailed, lucid text will inspire researchers to consider the anatomic microcosm of wood plants and use it as a retrospective source of information, solving problems related to ecophysiology, competition, site conditions, population biology, earth science, wood quality and even human history.

Laser-Beam Interactions with Materials treats, from a physicist's point of view, the wide variety of processes that lasers can induce in materials. Physical phenomena ranging from optics to shock waves are discussed, as are applications in such diverse fields as semiconductor annealing, hole drilling and fusion plasma production. The approach taken emphasizes the fundamental ideas and their interrelations. The newcomer is given the necessary important background material, while the active research worker finds a critical and comprehensive review of the field.

In its broadest sense, and according to the traditional conception, wood chemistry is a comprehensive discipline, ranging from fundamental studies to practical applications. The manifold constituents, located in different morphological regions in the wood, results in an extreme complexity of wood chemistry. Ever more sophisticated endeavors needing fundamental studies and advanced analytical methods are necessary in order to delve deeper into various problems in pulping and papermaking. Gradually, new, improved ana lytical methods, originally developed for research purposes, are currently...

Cellulose as an abundant renewable material has stimulated basic and applied research that has resulted in significant progress in polymer science. This book discusses reliable crystal structures of all cellulose polymorphs and cellulose derivatives. Models are represented in graphs, together with a collection of geometrical data and the atomic coordinates. This book is a concise guide for members of the materials and life sciences communities interested in cellulose and related materials.

Throughout the world 10 million tons of wood are used every year for paper-making, cellulose preparations, tobacco filters, cloth and dietary supplements. Wood is mainly composed of polysaccharides and lignin which are hydrophilic and hydrophobic respectively. This book describes the academic approaches to native bonds between lignin and the carbohhydrates in wood and other plants. The roles of lignin-carbohydrates complexes are discussed for practical use and wood processing. The authors describe the close relationship between lignin-carbohydrate complexes and biobleaching of kraft pulp, and...

This text constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Visual Information Systems, VISUAL 2002, held in Hsin Chu, Taiwan, in March 2002. The 28 revised full papers presented together with one invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on content-based indexing, search and retrieval visual information, system architectures, image/video databases, networked video and applications in various fields.

Considerable activity in the acoustics of wood has occurred since the first edition of this book in 1995. An informal survey of a number of the published articles and papers presented at international conferences revealed that the interest of the wood science community is continually increasing. In this context, I felt c- pelled to revise the text in accordance with newer findings and this prompted the addition in the present book of 159 new references added to the existing 850 in the first edition. As a result of the favorable comments upon the first edition, from students and colleagues, I...

This book on the Nondestructive Characterization and Imaging of Wood by Professor Voichita Bucur is truly the most outstanding reference on the subject ever written. Since the origins of mankind, wood has played a key role in the history of humans and other living creatures, ranging from provision of life from trees giving air, heat, light, and food to nourish their bodies to structures to protect them from the elements. Wood has also played a key role in one of the world's primary religions. Nondestructive diagnostics methods have long found application in medi cal practice for examination...

This richly-illustrated book presents the information necessary for fiber analysis in the field of pulp and paper. A discussion of raw-material structure and the features used for species identification in pulp is followed up by the description of 117 fiber species. Of these, 83 are wood fibers and 34 are of nonwood origin. The tree species range across all five continents, 29 from Eurasia, 38 from North America and 16 from the southern hemisphere and the tropics. Informative micrographs, identification tables, and distribution maps aid species differentiation, making this atlas ideal for...

Volumes Three and Four of this encyclopaedia represent a complete inventory of all monocotyledons (except grasses and orchids, which are treated in separate volumes). The classification followed here is based on molecular studies as well as on the body of information available on this group.