The Atlantic Forest is one of the 36 hotspots for biodiversity conservation worldwide. It is a unique, large biome (more than 3000 km in latitude; 2500 in longitude), marked by high biodiversity, high degree of endemic species and, at the same time, extremely threatened. Approximately 70% of the Brazilian population lives in the area of this biome, which makes the conflict between biodiversity conservation and the sustainability of the human population a relevant issue. This book aims to cover: 1) the historical characterization and geographic variation of the biome; 2) the distribution of the diversity of some relevant taxa; 3) the main threats to biodiversity, and 4) possible opportunities to ensure the biodiversity conservation, and the economic and social sustainability. Also, it is hoped that this book can be useful for those involved in the development of public policies aimed at the conservation of this important global biome.

Wherever people are working, there is some type of stress—and where there is stress, there is the risk of burnout. It is widespread, the subject of numerous studies in the U.S. and abroad. It is also costly, both to individuals in the form of sick days, lost wages, and emotional exhaustion, and to the workplace in terms of the bottom line. But as we are now beginning to understand, burnout is also preventable. Burnout for Experts brings multifaceted analysis to a multilayered problem, offering comprehensive discussion of contributing factors, classic and less widely perceived markers of burnout, coping strategies, and treatment methods. International perspectives consider phase models of burnout and differentiate between burnout and related physical and mental health conditions. By focusing on specific job and life variables including workplace culture and gender aspects, contributors give professionals ample means for recognizing burnout as well as its warning signs. Chapters on prevention and intervention detail effective programs that can be implemented at the individual and organizational levels. Included in the coverage: · History of burnout: a phenomenon. · Personal and external factors contributing to burnout. · Depression and burnout · Assessment tools and methods. · The role of communication in burnout prevention. · Active coping and other intervention strategies. Skillfully balancing scholarship and accessibility, Burnout for Experts is a go-to resource for health psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and organizational, industrial, and clinical psychologists.

This is by far the most complete and most authoritative translation of the work of Marco Polo (1254-1324). It is based on a manuscript found by Sir Percival David (1892-1964) in the Catedral de Toledo in Spain where it had lain forgotten for 130 years. That manuscript was a copy written in 1795 and was in turn based on a manuscript written in about 1400. The manuscript in Cathedral de Toledo is in Latin. Arthur Christopher Moule (1873-1957) painstakingly transcribed it into type written text. He was so careful to be faithful to the original that he even transcribed meaningless punctuation marks. The Latin text was published as Volume 2 in 1935, even though it was published first. Volume One followed three years later and was published in 1938. After first publishing the Latin original, A. C. Moule went to work translating the Latin into English. Here he gives credit to his predecessors, Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) and Sir Henry Yule (1820-1899). Yule's work was published by his daughter in 1903. A. C. Moule was gratified when his translations often came out the same as theirs. A. C. Moule took 17 different versions of the Marco Polo manuscripts. He then combined them into one document by putting into italics those words that are not found in the other versions. Then, on the outside margins and sometimes in the footnotes, he uses a code to show where and in which version the words in italics can be found. He was careful to note the differences. Every word that is different from the words of Ramusio or Yule is put in italics. In addition, there is a chart showing where the page numbers to this work are different from the page numbers of the other translations. Thus, a reader looking at a page of this book can quickly find the equivalent page in the Yule work.

The goal of this book is to provide an introduction to the practical use of mobile NMR at a level as basic as the operation of a smart phone. Each description follows the same didactic pattern: introduction, basic theory, pulse sequences and parameters, beginners-level measurements, advanced-level measurements, and data processing. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the most popular method for chemists to analyze molecular structures while Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive diagnostic tool for medical doctors that provides high-contrast images of biological tissue depicting the brain function and the beating heart. In both applications large super-conducting magnets are employed which magnetize atomic nuclei of an object positioned inside the magnet. Their circulating motion is interrogated by radio-frequency waves. Depending on the operating mode, the frequency spectrum provides the chemist with molecular information, the medical doctor with anatomic images, while the materials scientist is interested in NMR relaxation parameters, which scale with material properties and determine the contrast in magnetic resonance images. Recent advances in magnet technology led to a variety of small permanent magnets, by which NMR spectra, images, and relaxation parameters can be measured with mobile and low-cost instruments.

This book focuses on the study of how the properties of nanodiscs, such as lipid composition and size, influence the function of the embedding integral membrane protein, bacteriorhodopsin. The author performed systematic studies to show that the lipid composition and the charge of the hydrophobic head and the structure of hydrophilic tails affect the photocycle pathway of bacteriorhodopsin, which is closely associated with its proton-pumping activity. Furthermore, the author demonstrated a highly efficient method for extracting membrane proteins directly from the biological membrane, preserving protein conformation, function and essential native lipids. This book demonstrates optimization and sample preparation, and presents practical methods of preparing membrane protein-embedded nanodisc samples for biophysical studies, which benefit structural and functional studies in the field of membrane protein characterization, both.

In recent years, there has been a major expansion of high pressure research providing unique information about systems of interest to a wide range of scientific disciplines. Since nuclear magnetic resonance has been applied to a wide spec trum of problems in chemistry, physics and biochemistry, it is not surprising to find that high pressure NMR techniques have also had many applications in these fields of science. Clearly, the high information content of NMR experiments combined with high pressure provides a powerful tool in modern chem istry. It is the aim of this monograph, in the series on NMR Basic Principles and Progress, to illustrate the wide range of prob lems which can be successfully studied by high pressure NMR. Indeed, the various contributions in this volume discuss studies of interest to physics, chemical physics, biochemistry, and chemical reaction kinetics. In many different ways, this monograph demonstrates the power of modern experimental and theoretical techniques to investigate very complex systems. The first contribution, by D. Brinkman, deals with NMR and NQR studies of superionic conductors and high-Tc supercon ductors at high pressure. Pressure effects on phase transitions, detection of new phases, and pressure effects on diffusion and spin-lattice relaxation, represent a few of the topics discussed in this contribution of particular interest to solid state physics.