by
Vallero, Daniel A.
Call Number
174.957 22
Publication Date
2007
Summary
Biomedical Ethics for Engineers provides biomedical engineers with a new set of tools and an understanding that the application of ethical measures will seldom reach consensus even among fellow engineers and scientists. The solutions are never completely technical, so the engineer must continue to improve the means of incorporating a wide array of societal perspectives, without sacrificing sound science and good design principles. Dan Vallero understands that engineering is a profession that profoundly affects the quality of life from the subcellular and nano to the planetary scale. Protecting and enhancing life is the essence of ethics; thus every engineer and design professional needs a foundation in bioethics. In high-profile emerging fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and green engineering, public concerns and attitudes become especially crucial factors given the inherent uncertainties and high stakes involved. Ethics thus means more than a commitment to abide by professional norms of conduct. This book discusses the full suite of emerging biomedical and environmental issues that must be addressed by engineers and scientists within a global and societal context. In addition it gives technical professionals tools to recognize and address bioethical questions and illustrates that an understanding of the application of these measures will seldom reach consensus even among fellow engineers and scientists. Working tool for biomedical engineers in the new age of technology Numerous case studies to illustrate the direct application of ethical techniques and standards Ancillary materials available online for easy integration into any academic program.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.8761
by
Schmitz, Oswald J.
Call Number
577.82 22
Publication Date
2010
Summary
An ecosystem's complexity develops from the vast numbers of species interacting in ecological communities. The nature of these interactions, in turn, depends on environmental context. How do these components together influence an ecosystem's behavior as a whole? Can ecologists resolve an ecosystem's complexity in order to predict its response to disturbances? Resolving Ecosystem Complexity develops a framework for anticipating the ways environmental context determines the functioning of ecosystems. Oswald Schmitz addresses the critical questions of contemporary ecology: How should an ecosystem be conceptualized to blend its biotic and biophysical components? How should evolutionary ecological principles be used to derive an operational understanding of complex, adaptive ecosystems? How should the relationship between the functional biotic diversity of ecosystems and their properties be understood? Schmitz begins with the universal concept that ecosystems are comprised of species that consume resources and which are then resources for other consumers. From this, he deduces a fundamental rule or evolutionary ecological mechanism for explaining context dependency: individuals within a species trade off foraging gains against the risk of being consumed by predators. Through empirical examples, Schmitz illustrates how species use evolutionary ecological strategies to negotiate a predator-eat-predator world, and he suggests that the implications of species trade-offs are critical to making ecology a predictive science. Bridging the traditional divides between individuals, populations, and communities in ecology, Resolving Ecosystem Complexity builds a systematic foundation for thinking about natural systems.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0630
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by
McCann, Kevin S. (Kevin Shear), 1964- author.
Call Number
577.16 23
Publication Date
2012
Summary
"Human impacts are dramatically altering our natural ecosystems. The implications of these human impacts on the sustainability and functioning of these amazingly complex entities remains uncertain. As a result, food web theory has experienced a proliferation of research that seeks to address this critical area. This book synthesizes modern and classical results into a general theory. Finally, this book takes this general theoretical framework and discusses the implications of human impact for the stability and sustainability of ecological systems"--
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0619
by
Arthington, Angela H.
Call Number
577.64
Publication Date
2012
Summary
Environmental Flows describes the timing, quality, and quantity of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the human well-being and livelihoods that depend upon them. It answers crucial questions about the flow of water within and between different kinds of ecosystems. What happens when the flow or the availability of water is curtailed or diverted, either naturally or by human activity? How will climate change alter the availability of water and impact aquatic ecosystems? Methodological developments from the simplest hydrological formulas to large-scale framew.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0563
by
Howarth, Robert Warren.
Call Number
577.82 23
Publication Date
2013
Summary
A resource for students and teachers to understand the importance of biomes and ecosystems; to appreciate the study of ecology and how it affects life around the world; to learn of the flora and fauna in biomes and ecosystems; and to initiate educational discussion on the subjects.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0541
6.
by
Post, Eric S. (Eric Stephen)
Call Number
577.22 23
Publication Date
2013
Summary
Rising temperatures are affecting organisms in all of Earth's biomes, but the complexity of ecological responses to climate change has hampered the development of a conceptually unified treatment of them. In a remarkably comprehensive synthesis, this book presents past, ongoing, and future ecological responses to climate change in the context of two simplifying hypotheses, facilitation and interference, arguing that biotic interactions may be the primary driver of ecological responses to climate change across all levels of biological organization. Eric Post's synthesis and analyses o.
Format:
Electronic Resources
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0.0534
by
Weiher, Evan, 1961-
Call Number
577.82 22
Publication Date
1999
Summary
It is over twenty years since Jared Diamond focused attention on the possible existence of assembly rules for ecological communities. This volume provides a current status examination of the existence and nature of assembly rules, using both theoretical and empirical approaches in a variety of systems.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0527
by
Balée, William L., 1954-
Call Number
304.2 21
Publication Date
1998
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0527
by
Coleman, David C., 1938-
Call Number
577.072 22
Publication Date
2010
Summary
In Big Ecology, David C. Coleman documents his historically fruitful ecological collaborations in the early years of studying large ecosystems in the United States. As Coleman explains, the concept of the ecosystem--a local biological community and its interactions with its environment--has given rise to many institutions and research programs, like the National Science Foundation's program for Long Term Ecological Research. Coleman's insider account of this important and fascinating trend toward big science takes us from the paradigm of collaborative interdisciplinary research, starting with th.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0514
by
Ritchie, Mark E., 1960-
Call Number
577 22
Publication Date
2010
Summary
Understanding and predicting species diversity in ecological communities is one of the great challenges in community ecology. Popular recent theory contends that the traits of species are "neutral" or unimportant to coexistence, yet abundant experimental evidence suggests that multiple species are able to coexist on the same limiting resource precisely because they differ in key traits, such as body size, diet, and resource demand. This book presents a new theory of coexistence that incorporates two important aspects of biodiversity in nature--scale and spatial variation in the supply of limit.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0491
by
Culver, Stephen J.
Call Number
577.22 22
Publication Date
2000
Summary
Includes information on Asia, Australia, Britain, climate change, corals, environmental change, Europe, faunal turnovers, Flandrian environmental history, glaciation, human evolution, land bridges, mammals, North America, oceanic circulation, plant record, pollen records, reef communities, rifting, sea levels, species diversity/richness, Tibetan Plateau, terrestrial vertebrates, etc.
Format:
Electronic Resources
Relevance:
0.0471
by
National Geographic Maps (Firm)
Call Number
MAP 916 AFR
Publication Date
2001
Format:
Maps
Relevance:
0.0445
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