Past progress and future challenges R.J. Wheater Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK. In the past two decades much has been achieved in the sphere of breeding endangered species, and we should be pleased that our co operative efforts have already borne so much fruit. However, on balance and despite the best efforts of conservationists, the position of wildlife in the wild places where they are best conserved has become worse, often dramatically worse. Before returning to th...

The New York Times Bestseller that explores animal intelligence and will alter the way we as humans view other species.Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a fish? Or a parrot, dolphin, or an elephant? Do they experience thoughts that are similar to ours, or have feelings of grief and love? These are tough questions, but scientists are answering them. They know that ants teach and rats love to be tickled. They’ve discovered that dogs have thousand-...

The rapidly increasing number of threatened flora and fauna species worldwide is one of the chief problems confronting environmental professionals today. This problem is largely due to the impact humans have had on land use through development (e.g. agricultural, residential, industrial, infrastructure and mining developments). The requirement for developers to implement measures to reduce the impacts of development on wildlife is underpinned by government legislation. A variety of measures o...

This highly illustrated manual provides practical guidance on structural steelwork detailing. It:· describes the common structural shapes in use and how they are joined to form members and complete structures· explains detailing practice and conventions· provides detailing data for standard sections, bolts and welds· emphasises the importance of tolerances in order to achieve proper site fit-up· discusses the important link between good detailing and...

This book is one of the most up-to-date and cutting-edge texts available on the rapidly growing application area of neural networks. Neural Networks and Pattern Recognition focuses on the use of neural networksin pattern recognition, a very important application area for neural networks technology. The contributors are widely known and highly respected researchers and practitioners in the field. - Features neural network architectures on the cutting edge of neural network research - Brings...

This book presents an overview of modeling definitions and concepts, theory on human behavior and human performance data, available tools and simulation approaches, model development, and application and validation methods. It considers the data and research efforts needed to develop and incorporate functions for the different parameters into comprehensive escape and evacuation simulations, with a number of examples illustrating different aspects and approaches. After an overview of basic ...

The Study of Movement Speeds Down Stairs closely examines forty-three unique case studies on movement patterns down stairwells. These studies include observations made during evacuation drills, others made during normal usage, interviews with people after fire evacuations, recommendations made from compiled studies, and detailed results from laboratory studies. The methodology used in each study for calculating density and movement speed, when known, are also presented, and this book ident...

This volume gathers distinguished researchers on travel behavior from a variety of disciplines, to offer state-of-the-art research and analysis encompassing environmental, traffic and transport psychology; transport planning and engineering; transport geography; transport economics; consumer services research; environmental sociology and well-being research. The underlying dilemma is that neither contemporary transportation technology nor contemporary travel behaviors are sustainable. The ...

The Conference on Traffic and Granular Flow brings together international researchers from different fields ranging from physics to computer science and engineering to discuss the latest developments in traffic-related systems. Originally conceived to facilitate new ideas by considering the similarities of traffic and granular flow, TGF'15, organised by Delft University of Technology, now covers a broad range of topics related to driven particle and transport systems. Besides the classical...

This SpringerBrief explores the evacuation characteristics of children and their self-preservation capability during fire situations. An international survey among teachers from day-care centers and experts in child development indicates an age-limit at which pre-school children may be considered capable of evacuating a location without direct intervention by an instructor. The survey examines the ability of children to understand and follow simple instructions, walk on horizontal surfaces...

Whales are mysterious and fascinating creatures. Despite modern technology, their world is still largely unexplored and unknown. They can only be seen, or rather glimpsed, when they are near the sea surface, either from boats, or perhaps from shore, or underwater by divers. They also reach astonishing sizes – the blue whale, for example, can grow to 30 metres in length, equivalent to the height of a six-storey building, and can weigh more than 130 tonnes. Seven ‘Great Whales’ are found in the...

An Expert Guide to Developing More-Durable and Cost-Effective Asphalt PavementsWritten by distinguished experts from countries around the world, Modeling of Asphalt Concrete presents in-depth coverage of the current materials, methods, and models used for asphalt pavements.Included is state-of-the-art information on fundamental material properties and mechanisms affecting the performance of asphalt concrete, new rheological testing and analysis tec...