Books on the topic 'Plant functional strategies'

The monograph is devoted to the methodology of material and technical support of railway transport. According to the types of activities, the nature of the material and technical resources used, technologies, means and management systems, Russian railways belong to the category of high-tech industries that must have high quality and technical level, reliability and technological efficiency in operation. For this reason, the logistics system itself, both in structure and in the algorithm of the functions performed as a whole, needs a serious improvement in the quality of its work. The economic situation in Russia requires a revision of the principles and mechanisms of management based on the corporate model of supply chain management, focused on logistics knowledge. In the difficult economic conditions of the current decade, it is necessary to improve the quality of the supply organization of enterprises and structural divisions of railway transport, directly related to the implementation of the process approach, the advantage of which is a more detailed regulation of management actions and their mutual coordination. In order to increase the efficiency of its activities and develop the management system, Russian Railways is developing a lean production system aimed at further expanding the implementation of the principles of customer orientation, ideology and corporate culture. At the present time, the solution of many issues is impossible without a cybernetic approach to the formulation of problems of material and technical support and logistics analysis of information technologies, to the implementation of the developed algorithms and models of development strategies and concepts for improving the business processes of the production system. The management strategy, or the general plan for the implementation of activities for the management of material resources, is based on a fundamental assessment of the alignment and correlation of forces and factors operating in the economic and political field, taking into account the impact on the specific form of the management strategy. The materials will be useful to the heads and specialists of the directorates of the MTO, CDZs and can be used in the scientific research of bachelors, masters and postgraduates interested in the economics of railway transport and supply logistics.

Chapter 10 “Environmental DNA for functional diversity” discusses the potential of environmental DNA to assess functional diversity. It first focuses on DNA metabarcoding and discusses the extent to which this approach can be used and/or optimized to retrieve meaningful information on the functions of the target community. This knowledge usually involves coarsely defined functional groups (e.g., woody, leguminous, graminoid plants; shredders or decomposer soil organisms; pathogenicity or decomposition role of certain microorganisms). Chapter 10 then introduces metagenomics and metatranscriptomics approaches, their advantages, but also the challenges and solutions to appropriately sampling, sequencing these complex DNA/RNA populations. Chapter 10 finally presents several strategies and software to analyze metagenomes/metatranscriptomes, and discusses their pros and cons.

Towards informing the development of new playtesting labs, this chapter outlines the process we used at Player Research for setting up our labs. Setting up a functional lab environment requires a range of considerations—across floor plans, materials selection, technology choices, testing strategies, and more—and in this chapter we describe some of the key lessons we learned along the way.

The Interior Plan is an introductory-level text introducing students to the process of interior design space planning. Topics include the design of effective spatial sequences, functional relationships among project parts, arrangement of furniture, planning effective circulation systems, making spaces accessible, and designing safe environments with efficient emergency egress systems. Exercises throughout the book facilitate learning by encouraging students to apply ideas and concepts immediately after reading about them. In the third edition, the author expands on the evolution of design ideas and how they affect interior environments and the people who use them, thinking sustainably, and how interior elevations and reflective ceilings affect the plan. New to This Edition -New and updated examples in residential, commercial, retail, and hospitality planning -New spreads addressing interior elevations, reflected ceiling plans, and interior planning for sustainability -New pedagogical features in every chapter, including learning objectives, discussion questions, and key terms Instructor Resources -Instructor’s Guide provides suggestions for planning the course and using the text in the classroom, supplemental assignments, and lecture notes -PowerPoint® presentations include images from the book and provide a framework for lecture and discussion STUDIO Features Include: -Download examples of common design pitfalls and how to avoid them -Review concepts with flashcards of essential vocabulary and design strategies

An organized collection of budget saving methods, materials, and strategies, these tips are all tried-and-true examples of ways to stretch the media specialist's budget and time, and change even the drabbest library into an inviting oasis of learning. The Shoestring Library offers hope, incentive, and direction to librarians who lack everything but passion. The book is organized around 300 hints—more than 114 of which are green alternatives—for administering a library in tough times. The book is divided into two parts, Support Functions and Physical Plant. The support section investigates such topics as how to best use volunteers and how to get free materials for your library. The physical plant section, amply supplemented with dozens of photos, helps a librarian identify and fix problems with dismal walls, ceilings, windows, shelving, desks, seating, and lighting, proposing low-cost or no-cost solutions to all these woes. Instructions are practical and thorough, concentrating on reuse, re-purposing, and recycling, and each idea is reversible. For quick access, chapters sport distinctive icons; time-management tips, for example, are distinguished by an alarm clock. Designed for institutions from preschools through college, The Shoestring Library proves that there is no expiration date on learning.

This book will help public library administrators, managers, and board members to better plan, strategize, and understand their communities, enabling public libraries to become dynamic, proactive institutions. Research-Based Planning for Public Libraries: Increasing Relevance in the Digital Age takes readers through a logical and effective process for developing a plan and implementing it within the various functions of the library. Grounded in research and best practices, the book offers practical, easy-to-implement advice and direction for today’s public library administrators, managers, and board members. Covering everything from goal-setting, policy-making, and budgeting, to collections, promotions, and access and evaluation, the book details how to better provide and promote access, convey its value to customers, and make the library a more integral part of the community. The author inspires library staff and administrators to reinvent themselves to meet�and overcome�the current challenges they face. The information is specifically tailored towards public librarians, particularly those in management or administration, as well as to LIS faculty and students of public librarianship and library management.

Proteins are an integral part of molecular and cellular structure and function and are probably the most purified type of biological molecule. In order to elucidate the structure and function of any protein it is first necessary to purify it. Protein purification techniques have evolved over the past ten years with improvements in equipment control, automation, and separation materials, and the introduction of new techniques such as affinity membranes and expanded beds. These developments have reduced the workload involved in protein purification, but there is still a need to consider how unit operations linked together to form a purification strategy, which can be scaled up if necessary. The two Practical Approach books on protein purification have therefore been thoroughly updated and rewritten where necessary. The core of both books is the provision of detailed practical guidelines aimed particularly at laboratory scale purification. Information on scale-up considerations is given where appropriate. The books are not comprehensive but do cover the major laboratory techniques and common sources of protein. Protein Purification Techniques focuses on unit operations and analytical techniques. It starts with an overview of purification strategy and then covers initial extraction and clarification techniques. The rest of the book concentrates on different purification methods with the emphasis being on chromatography. The final chapter considers general scale-up considerations. Protein Purification Applications describes purification strategies from common sources: mammalian cell culture, microbial cell culture, milk, animal tissue, and plant tissue. It also includes chapters on purification of inclusion bodies, fusion proteins, and purification for crystallography. A purification strategy that can produce a highly pure single protein from a crude mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and cell debris to is a work of art to be admired. These books (available individually or as a set)are designed to give the laboratory worker the information needed to undertake the challenge of designing such a strategy.

Clinical Acupuncture and Ancient Chinese Medicine provides health care professionals interested in learning or practicing acupuncture the essential theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine on which an effective acupuncture therapy must be based. It describes in detail the human energetic anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and etiology for both mental and physical functions of children, men, women, and the elderly. It offers a step-by-step algorithm for diagnosing physical or mental ailments with diagnostic techniques and formulation processes and treating them with effective strategies, plans, and acupuncture techniques. Clinical Acupuncture and Ancient Chinese Medicine also presents acupuncture as an energy medicine, in contrast to modern medicine, which is a more biochemically and structurally based medicine. Both are integral parts in the spectrum of human medicine, more complementary than alternative to each other. This book helps readers to study and practice acupuncture as part of their continued medical education (CME) and as a natural expansion of their practice to provide additional care for their patients at the energetic level at which a majority of ailments lay. The content is organized in a way that parallels modern medicine so readers can more easily relate and understand concepts that may be otherwise foreign to them. This book describes human health with the belief that a human being is essentially an energetic being and that the interaction of human energy with the energy of nature and the universe is critical to maintaining a healthy life. It provides useful contents for self-care and the ancient practice of life cultivation.

The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 is the most important legislation to affecting U.S. national defense in the last 50 years. This act resulted from frustration in Congress and among certain military officers concerning what they believed to be the poor quality of military advice available to civilian decision-makers. It also derived from the U.S. military's perceived inability to conduct successful joint or multi-service operations. The act, passes after four years of legislative debate, designated the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the principal military advisor to the President and sought to foster greater cooperation among the military services. Goldwater-Nichols marks the latest attempt to balance competing tendencies within the Department of Defense, namely centralization versus decentralization and geographic versus functional distributions of power. As a result of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has achieved prominence, but his assignment is somewhat contradictory: the spokesman and thus the advocate for the Commander in Chief, while simultaneously the provider of objective advice to the President. While the act did succeed in strengthening the CINCs' authority and in contributing to the dramatic U.S. achievements in the Gulf War, the air and ground campaigns revealed weaknesses in the CINCs' capability to plan joint operations. In addition, the increased role of the military in ad hoc peacekeeping operations has challenged the U.S. military's current organizational structure for the quick deployment of troops from the various services. Rapid technological advances and post-Cold War strategic uncertainty also complicate the U.S. military's organizational structure.

There is no doubt that the pace of business has accelerated—products go from concept to release faster than ever, business partnerships and alliances are established (and dissolved) more quickly, competitors react more swiftly to any tilt in the playing field. Whether your business is microprocessors or airplane manufacturing, it will live or die by the degree to which you can anticipate demand for your products and services. InGetting It Right the First Time, John Katsaros and Peter Christy argue that the most successful businesses will be those that accurately predict market conditions—especially the market changes that will occur within the crucial 18-to-36-month innovation window. Or, to paraphrase hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky: skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is. Showcasing dozens of colorful examples of lucrative successes and missed opportunities (from high-tech to financial services to medical devices), the authors present a detailed plan for how you and your company can learn to: identify your top customers in advance of entering the market, successfully position your company and its products to those customers, and catch emerging trends before your competitors do. Eschewing traditional market research techniques—such as focus groups, polls, and surveys— Katsaros and Christy demonstrate how expert interviews with potential early adopters can help identify your killer app—the function that customers most value—and avoid costly trial-and-error. In a viciously competitive world where your company may have only one chance to score big,Getting It Right the First Timeprovides essential guidance for entrepreneurs, marketers, product developers, and business strategists, and offers new insight into the dynamics of innovation.

As more and more equipment incorporates advanced technologies, usability -- the ability of equipment to take advantage of users' skills and thereby to function effectively in the broad range of real work situations -- is becoming an essential component of equipment design. Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools collects six essays that herald a fundamental shift in the way industry and researchers think about usability. In this new, broader definition, usability no longer means safeguarding against human error, but rather enabling human beings to learn, to use, and to adapt the equipment to satisfy better the demands and contingencies of their work. Following an introduction that develops some core concepts of usability, the subsequent chapters: -- describe the role of usability in guiding one of Xerox's largest strategic initiatives -- analyze a Monsanto chemical plant where a study of worker's conversational patterns contributed to the design of a more effective system of controls -- present an empirical study of equipment design practices in U.S. industry which contrasts technology-centered and skill-based design approaches -- summarize recent Scandinavian experiences with user participation in design, with specific reference to the DEMOS and UTOPIA projects -- analyze European experiences that suggest five key criteria for effective human-centered design of advanced manufacturing technology --offer an insightful discussion of the powerful, often hidden human and organizational resources that conventional design processes overlook. Today, three quarters of all advanced technology implementations in manufacturing fail to achieve their performance goals because of inadequate usability. By viewing the human being as a mechanistic system component, and not a particularly reliable one, the traditional "human factors" model of usability virtually ensures that the uniquely human qualities -- experience, adaptation, innovation -- will be neglected, and therefore that new technologies will realize little of their true potential. Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools answers the need for better usability criteria and more effective design and usability assurance processes. In so doing, it leads the way to making a new, broader concept of usability central to design. Its chapters will be of interest to managers and professionals in computer systems, manufacturing engineering, industrial design, and human factors, as well as researchers in disciplines such as computer science, engineering, design studies, sociology, organizational behavior and human resource management, industrial relations, education, and business strategy.

Eric Franklin's first edition of Conditioning for Dance was a bestseller—and it is back and better than ever, offering state-of-the-art conditioning exercises for dancers. An internationally renowned master teacher, Franklin has developed a science-based method of conditioning that is taught and practiced in companies and schools around the world. In this new edition of Conditioning for Dance, he integrates the latest scientific research on strength, flexibility, and conditioning into his dance exercises. New to This Edition Since the first edition, the topic of dancers’ health, wellness, and conditioning has taken on even greater importance in the dance community. Franklin has responded to this increased emphasis by adding these new exercises and resources: • Over 100 new conditioning exercises—for all parts of the body—to support dancers in a wide range of genres, forms, and styles • Over 100 new illustrations and photos to explain and show the exercises • Two new chapters with exercises for a complete conditioning plan In addition, the book is now available in full color to enhance image quality in showing technique. Conditioning for Dance now has separate chapters for shoulders and feet, with additional information on calves and ankles. Franklin also offers practical tips to help you develop your personal conditioning plan. Applying Principles Through the Franklin Method Conditioning for Dance uses the principles of resistance training, physics, anatomy, biomechanics, and neuroplasticity (using imagery for positive mental and physical changes) as applied to dance conditioning. Conditioning for Dance blends imagery, focus, and conditioning exercises for dancers to enhance their technique and performance while practicing injury-prevention strategies. Franklin uses experiential anatomy to show and explain how the conditioning principles work to condition your body. As you undertake the exercises, you gain awareness of the body's function and design and take in the knowledge of the principles through movement. This method, known as the Franklin Method, leads to greater understanding of your body, enhanced performance, and fewer injuries. Franklin developed the training systems within the book as well as a line of equipment, including the Franklin Band and Franklin Balls. Franklin has designed the exercises to transfer directly into dance steps; as such, they are appropriate for incorporating into the preparation time for dance classes. Immediate Benefits Conditioning for Dance offers you the culmination of decades of wisdom and experience in dance conditioning from a master teacher. By using its practical exercises, mind–body relationships, and conditioning routines, and in transferring the book knowledge to body experience, you will notice immediate benefits to your conditioning, strength, and flexibility. You will become kinesthetically aware, create great dance technique from within your own body, and begin to craft injury-free and artistically successful routines.

The Director’s 2021 annual report on the work of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (the Bureau), Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, highlights the technical cooperation undertaken by the Bureau during the period from July 2020 to June 2021, within the framework of the 2020–2025 Strategic Plan of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The theme of the report is: Working through the COVID-19 Pandemic. The period covered has been the most challenging ever encountered by PAHO. The pandemic, through its devastating health and economic consequences, has severely impacted people’s lives and livelihoods and disrupted countries, societies, economies, and their development. This has occurred in conjunction with the inevitable challenges on the road to equitable, sustainable development and the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030. The publication opens with a preface by the Director of PASB, a concise executive summary, and a brief introduction. It then presents a comprehensive review of PAHO’s technical cooperation, and of the Bureau’s institutional and strengthening functions. The report highlights achievements, challenges, and lessons learned as the Bureau undertook technical cooperation with PAHO Member States at national, subregional, and regional levels within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, working with traditional and new partners to find equitable solutions for emerging and persisting health issues in the Region of the Americas. It also looks ahead, analyzing those opportunities brought to light by the COVID-19 experience for strengthening PAHO’s promotion of and contribution to equity and progressive realization of the right to health. Moreover, it indicates how the Bureau, with the concurrence and guidance of Member States, and in collaboration with partners, will take advantage of such opportunities. This report is complemented by the Financial Report of the Director, and the Report of the External Auditor for the year 2020.

Climate change adaptation is the ability of a society or a natural system to adjust to the (changing) conditions that support life in a certain climate region, including weather extremes in that region. The current discussion on climate change adaptation began in the 1990s, with the publication of the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Since the beginning of the 21st century, most countries, and many regions and municipalities have started to develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies and plans. But since the implementation of adaptation measures must be planned and conducted at the local level, a major challenge is to actually implement adaptation to climate change in practice. One challenge is that scientific results are mainly published on international or national levels, and political guidelines are written at transnational (e.g., European Union), national, or regional levels—these scientific results must be downscaled, interpreted, and adapted to local municipal or community levels. Needless to say, the challenges for implementation are also rooted in a large number of uncertainties, from long time spans to matters of scale, as well as in economic, political, and social interests. From a human perspective, climate change impacts occur rather slowly, while local decision makers are engaged with daily business over much shorter time spans.Among the obstacles to implementing adaptation measures to climate change are three major groups of uncertainties: (a) the uncertainties surrounding the development of our future climate, which include the exact climate sensitivity of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the reliability of emission scenarios and underlying storylines, and inherent uncertainties in climate models; (b) uncertainties about anthropogenically induced climate change impacts (e.g., long-term sea level changes, changing weather patterns, and extreme events); and (c) uncertainties about the future development of socioeconomic and political structures as well as legislative frameworks.Besides slow changes, such as changing sea levels and vegetation zones, extreme events (natural hazards) are a factor of major importance. Many societies and their socioeconomic systems are not properly adapted to their current climate zones (e.g., intensive agriculture in dry zones) or to extreme events (e.g., housing built in flood-prone areas). Adaptation measures can be successful only by gaining common societal agreement on their necessity and overall benefit. Ideally, climate change adaptation measures are combined with disaster risk reduction measures to enhance resilience on short, medium, and long time scales.The role of uncertainties and time horizons is addressed by developing climate change adaptation measures on community level and in close cooperation with local actors and stakeholders, focusing on strengthening resilience by addressing current and emerging vulnerability patterns. Successful adaptation measures are usually achieved by developing “no-regret” measures, in other words—measures that have at least one function of immediate social and/or economic benefit as well as long-term, future benefits. To identify socially acceptable and financially viable adaptation measures successfully, it is useful to employ participatory tools that give all involved parties and decision makers the possibility to engage in the process of identifying adaptation measures that best fit collective needs.

Hard coal mining is characterised by features that pose numerous challenges to its current operations and cause strategic and operational problems in planning its development. The most important of these include the high capital intensity of mining investment projects and the dynamically changing environment in which the sector operates, while the long-term role of the sector is dependent on factors originating at both national and international level. At the same time, the conditions for coal mining are deteriorating, the resources more readily available in active mines are being exhausted, mining depths are increasing, temperature levels in pits are rising, transport routes for staff and materials are getting longer, effective working time is decreasing, natural hazards are increasing, and seams with an increasing content of waste rock are being mined. The mining industry is currently in a very difficult situation, both in technical (mining) and economic terms. It cannot be ignored, however, that the difficult financial situation of Polish mining companies is largely exacerbated by their high operating costs. The cost of obtaining coal and its price are two key elements that determine the level of efficiency of Polish mines. This situation could be improved by streamlining the planning processes. This would involve striving for production planning that is as predictable as possible and, on the other hand, economically efficient. In this respect, it is helpful to plan the production from operating longwalls with full awareness of the complexity of geological and mining conditions and the resulting economic consequences. The constraints on increasing the efficiency of the mining process are due to the technical potential of the mining process, organisational factors and, above all, geological and mining conditions. The main objective of the monograph is to identify relations between geological and mining parameters and the level of longwall mining costs, and their daily output. In view of the above, it was assumed that it was possible to present the relationship between the costs of longwall mining and the daily coal output from a longwall as a function of onerous geological and mining factors. The monograph presents two models of onerous geological and mining conditions, including natural hazards, deposit (seam) parameters, mining (technical) parameters and environmental factors. The models were used to calculate two onerousness indicators, Wue and WUt, which synthetically define the level of impact of onerous geological and mining conditions on the mining process in relation to: —— operating costs at longwall faces – indicator WUe, —— daily longwall mining output – indicator WUt. In the next research step, the analysis of direct relationships of selected geological and mining factors with longwall costs and the mining output level was conducted. For this purpose, two statistical models were built for the following dependent variables: unit operating cost (Model 1) and daily longwall mining output (Model 2). The models served two additional sub-objectives: interpretation of the influence of independent variables on dependent variables and point forecasting. The models were also used for forecasting purposes. Statistical models were built on the basis of historical production results of selected seven Polish mines. On the basis of variability of geological and mining conditions at 120 longwalls, the influence of individual parameters on longwall mining between 2010 and 2019 was determined. The identified relationships made it possible to formulate numerical forecast of unit production cost and daily longwall mining output in relation to the level of expected onerousness. The projection period was assumed to be 2020–2030. On this basis, an opinion was formulated on the forecast of the expected unit production costs and the output of the 259 longwalls planned to be mined at these mines. A procedure scheme was developed using the following methods: 1) Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) – mathematical multi-criteria decision-making method, 2) comparative multivariate analysis, 3) regression analysis, 4) Monte Carlo simulation. The utilitarian purpose of the monograph is to provide the research community with the concept of building models that can be used to solve real decision-making problems during longwall planning in hard coal mines. The layout of the monograph, consisting of an introduction, eight main sections and a conclusion, follows the objectives set out above. Section One presents the methodology used to assess the impact of onerous geological and mining conditions on the mining process. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is reviewed and basic definitions used in the following part of the paper are introduced. The section includes a description of AHP which was used in the presented analysis. Individual factors resulting from natural hazards, from the geological structure of the deposit (seam), from limitations caused by technical requirements, from the impact of mining on the environment, which affect the mining process, are described exhaustively in Section Two. Sections Three and Four present the construction of two hierarchical models of geological and mining conditions onerousness: the first in the context of extraction costs and the second in relation to daily longwall mining. The procedure for valuing the importance of their components by a group of experts (pairwise comparison of criteria and sub-criteria on the basis of Saaty’s 9-point comparison scale) is presented. The AHP method is very sensitive to even small changes in the value of the comparison matrix. In order to determine the stability of the valuation of both onerousness models, a sensitivity analysis was carried out, which is described in detail in Section Five. Section Six is devoted to the issue of constructing aggregate indices, WUe and WUt, which synthetically measure the impact of onerous geological and mining conditions on the mining process in individual longwalls and allow for a linear ordering of longwalls according to increasing levels of onerousness. Section Seven opens the research part of the work, which analyses the results of the developed models and indicators in individual mines. A detailed analysis is presented of the assessment of the impact of onerous mining conditions on mining costs in selected seams of the analysed mines, and in the case of the impact of onerous mining on daily longwall mining output, the variability of this process in individual fields (lots) of the mines is characterised. Section Eight presents the regression equations for the dependence of the costs and level of extraction on the aggregated onerousness indicators, WUe and WUt. The regression models f(KJC_N) and f(W) developed in this way are used to forecast the unit mining costs and daily output of the designed longwalls in the context of diversified geological and mining conditions. The use of regression models is of great practical importance. It makes it possible to approximate unit costs and daily output for newly designed longwall workings. The use of this knowledge may significantly improve the quality of planning processes and the effectiveness of the mining process.