Search results for ""author roberto"

This open access book focuses on of the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on human reproduction. It comprehensively discusses the three most important topics in the field: the basic biology of EDCs; the effects of EDCs on human reproduction and human reproductive systems; and potential interventions and practical advice for dealing with the problems caused by EDCs.Presenting a translational approach to endocrine disrupting chemicals research, spanning both basic biology and clinical applications, the book provides a critical link between laboratory investigations and clinical practice. Written by international experts in the field, it is a valuable reference resource for gynaecologists, obstetricians, endocrinologists and experts in reproductive medicine, and a useful tool for anyone interested in the impact of the environment on human reproduction.

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The siren-like qualities of the Sicilian capital are woven layer upon layer, each one revealing a stratum of the city's character. In Palermo, Robert Alajmo lays out a compelling series of reflections on the city's apparently endless facets. Disguised as a tourist's handbook but written from the view of a lifelong resident - with all the experience, affection, inside knowledge and frustrations that entails - Alajmo offers more than the ordinary recommendations for travellers. Palermo has been at history's crossroads since recorded time began; an archive of hidden cultural, architectural and culinary jewels. Its people, their politics and their secrets, are subtly revealed, as is the ineffable presence of the mafia in the cycles of daily life. Ultimately what is described is the essence of the city and its beauty.

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All discourses aimed at asserting the value of human life as such—whether philosophical, ethical, or political—assume the notion of personhood as their indispensable point of departure. This is all the more true today. In bioethics, for example, Catholic and secular thinkers may disagree on what constitutes a person and its genesis, but they certainly agree on its decisive importance: human life is considered to be untouchable only when based on personhood. In the legal sphere as well the enjoyment of subjective rights continues to be increasingly linked to the qualification of personhood, which appears to be the only one capable of bridging the gap between human being and citizen, right and life, and soul and body opened up at the very origins of Western civilization. The radical and alarming thesis put forward in this book is that the notion of person is unable to bridge this gap because it is precisely what creates this breach. Its primary effect is to create a separation in both the human race and the individual between a rational, voluntary part endowed with particular value and another, purely biological part that is thrust by the first into the inferior dimension of the animal or the thing. In opposition to the performative power of the person, whose dual origins can be traced back to ancient Rome and Christianity, Esposito pursues his strikingly original and innovative philosophical inquiry by inviting reflection on the category of the impersonal: the third person, in removing itself from the exclusionary mechanism of the person, points toward the orginary unity of the living being.

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Winner of the Best Picture at the 1998 European Film Awards and the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.'A masterpiece. Romantic, hilarious, and astonishingly moving.' Chicago Tribune1939: Guido, an Italian Jew, comes to a Tuscan town in search of his fortune. He meets and is smitten by schoolteacher Dora, a gentile; but she is already engaged, to a local Fascisto. Nevertheless, Dora is wooed and won by Guido's clownish charm. But the shadow of bigotry threatens to fall across their happiness.1945: Guido and Dora are married, with a son, Giosue. For all Guido's sunny disposition, he cannot ignore the fact that anti-Semitism has become iron law, and he and Giosue are sent to a concentration camp. Begging to be sent with them, Dora is instead confined in an adjoining all-female camp. In the darkest of hours, Guido desperately falls back upon his comedic gift, to try to shield his son from the abysmal fate confronting them. His clowning may be their only hope of survival . . .

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This textbook provides a thorough presentation of the phenomena related to the transport of mass (with and without electric charge), momentum and energy. It lays all the basic physical principles, and then for the more advanced readers, it offers an in-depth treatment with advanced mathematical derivations and ends with some useful applications of the models and equations in specific settings. The important idea behind the book is to unify all types of transport phenomena, describing them within a common framework in terms of cause and effect, respectively, represented by the driving force and the flux of the transported quantity. The approach and presentation are original in that the book starts with a general description of transport processes, providing the macroscopic balance relations of fluid dynamics and heat and mass transfer, before diving into the mathematical realm of continuum mechanics to derive the microscopic governing equations at the microscopic level. The book is

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The creator of buildings that stand out as surrealistic marvels amid the skylines of America, Europe, and Asia, Rem Koolhaas, along with his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), is justly considered as one of the leaders of contemporary architecture. This book, the first critical monograph on the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA, does more than just describe projects and buildings: It places Koolhaas’s career in a cultural context that allows the reader to better understand the creative process of modern architecture. The works considered are presented in chronological and thematic order, thus retracing the career of Koolhaas from his student days to his neo-avant-garde experimentation at the end of the 1970s and finishing with his most recent works in Porto, Seoul, and Beijing. The individual projects are analyzed from conception to construction, paying particular attention to the conceptual and technical reasons for choices of materials and configuration. Overall, the book addresses the theoretical formulations of Koolhaas, offering a reflection on the fundamental principles of the contemporary architectural project.

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Weather has always affected human life. Understanding how weather events form and predicting what kind of weather is coming can help enormously to manage weather-risk and will become even more important as we shift towards strongly weather-dependent energy sources. Some big steps forward in numerical weather prediction have been made in the past 40 years, thanks to advances in four key areas: the way we observe the Earth, the scientific understanding of the phenomena, advances in high-performance computing (that have allowed the use of increasingly complex models), and improved modelling techniques. Today we are capable of predicting extreme events such as hurricanes and extra-tropical windstorms very accurately up to 7 to 10 days ahead. We can predict the most likely path and intensity of storms before they hit a community, estimate the confidence level of the forecast, and can give very valuable indications of their probable impact. Larger-scale phenomena that affect entire countries, such as heat or cold waves, periods with extremely high or low temperatures lasting for days, can be forecast up to 2-to-3 weeks before the events occur. Phenomena that affect a big portion of the oceans or of a continent and that evolve slowly, such as the warming of the sea-surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean when an El Nino event occurs, can be predicted months ahead, and in some cases even longer. Weather Prediction: What Everyone Needs to Know® discusses some of the key topics linked to weather prediction and explains how we got here. It discusses questions that are often asked, such as: how are weather forecasts generated? How complex are the models used in numerical weather prediction, and how to solve them? Was this event predictable? Why was this forecast wrong? How did you manage to predict this hurricane path 10 days before the event? Will weather forecast continue to improve, or is there a predictability limit?

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The present volume aims to provide an overview of the current understanding of the so-called Critical Infrastructure (CI), and particularly the Critical Information Infrastructure (CII), which not only forms one of the constituent sectors of the overall CI, but also is unique in providing an element of interconnection between sectors as well as often also intra-sectoral control mechanisms. The 14 papers of this book present a collection of pieces of scientific work in the areas of critical infrastructure protection. In combining elementary concepts and models with policy-related issues on one hand and placing an emphasis on the timely area of control systems, the book aims to highlight some of the key issues facing the research community.

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Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations Comprehensively covers research and development initiatives to enhance the environmental sustainability of the??aviation sector Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations provides a comprehensive and timely outlook of recent research advances in aeronautics and air transport, with emphasis on both long-term sustainable development goals and current achievements. This book discusses some of the most promising advances in aircraft technologies, air traffic management and systems engineering methodologies for sustainable aviation. The topics covered include: propulsion, aerodynamics, avionics, structures, materials, airspace management, biofuels and sustainable lifecycle management. The physical processes associated with various aircraft emissions — including air pollutants, noise and contrails — are presented to support the development of computational models for aircraft design, flight path optimization and environmental impact assessment. Relevant advances in systems engineering and lifecycle management processes are also covered, bridging some of the existing gaps between academic research and industry best practices. A collection of research case studies complements the book, highlighting opportunities for a timely uptake of the most promising technologies, towards a more efficient and environmentally sustainable aviation future. Key features: Contains important research and industry relevant contributions from world-class experts. Addresses recent advances in aviation sustainability including multidisciplinary design approaches and multi-objective operational optimisation methods. Includes a number of research case studies, addressing propulsion, aerostructures, alternative aviation fuels, avionics, air traffic management, and sustainable lifecycle management solutions. Sustainable Aviation Technology and Operations is an excellent book for aerospace engineers, aviation scientists, researchers and graduate students involved in the field.

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The contributions in this volume discuss numerous hot topics of interdisciplinary interest in plasma physics, astrophysics, and fluid dynamics. It collects the articles presented at a Workshop that has gathered world experts with a broad spectrum of research interests.

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Two decades of work from a sustainability-minded Peruvian architectural firm This substantial paperback monograph chronicles 20 years of projects from Peruvian architectural studio Poggione+Biondi, helmed by René Poggione and Susel Biondi. Compiling a selection of their projects through photographic documentation and drawings, it also features texts by Zaida Muxí and Josep Maria Montaner that narrate the process and evolution of Poggione+Biondi's architecture. Among the firm’s acclaimed buildings are a hotel in Miraflores; the Campo Oeste House in Cieneguilla; and the Verdea apartments in Miraflores. In these buildings, as in all of their projects—from universities to parks and landscape works—sustainable materials and integration of natural materials are prominent features.

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"Digital media" is increasingly finding its way into the discussions of the humanities classroom. But while there is a number of grand theoretical texts about digital literature there as yet is little in the way of resources for discussing the down-to-earth practices of research, teaching, and curriculum necessary for this work to mature. This book presents contributions by scholars and teachers from different countries and academic environments who articulate their approach to the study and teaching of digital literature and thus give a broader audience an idea of the state-of-the-art of the subject matter also in international comparison.

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This book presents an updated perspective on spinal implants currently used in thoraco-lumbar spine surgery, leading to a rigid or dynamic spine fusion. The development of new surgical devices and techniques is mostly focused on a spinal fusion for lumbar instability due to trauma, tumours or degenerative or infectious diseases. Pedicle-screw fixation and fusion are currently considered to be the gold standard for most of the above-mentioned pathologies, and modern implants are designed to improve the accuracy of pedicle-screw placement and to allow the use of new surgical techniques and minimally invasive approaches. The content is relevant for surgeons, orthopaedic specialists, neurosurgeons, physiotherapists and osteopaths.

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Silver Universe explores the topic of aging through an interdisciplinary lens while promoting their new idea of “active living” which incorporates exercise alongside a healthy diet and the implementation of disease prevention. The diverse group of contributors shed light on the connections between the psychological, emotional, and physical aspects of aging. From psychology (both clinical and social), through neurology, neurogenetics, gerontology, nutrition, economics, communication, law, tourism and theology, this book offers complimentary views on active living to ensure a high quality of life.

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A consistent problem that confronts disaster reduction is the disjunction between academic and expert knowledge and policies and practices of agencies mandated to deal with the concern. Although a great deal of knowledge has been acquired regarding many aspects of disasters, such as driving factors, risk construction, complexity of resettlement, and importance of peoples’ culture, very little has become protocol and procedure. Disaster Upon Disaster illuminates the numerous disjunctions between the suppositions, realities, agendas, and executions in the field, goes on to detail contingencies, predicaments, old and new plights, and finally advances solutions toward greatly improved outcomes.

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