This book discusses the commercialization of biofuels and the Brazilian government policies for the promotion of renewable energy program in Brazil, which could be a learning module for several countries for implementing biofuels policy to improve their socioeconomic status and make them energy independent. Researchers in academia and industries, policy makers, and economic analysts will be assisted by important source of information in their ongoing research and future perspectives. This book will benefit graduate and postgraduate students of chemical and biochemical engineering, forestry, microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology, applied chemistry, environmental science, sustainable energy, and biotech business disciplines by signifying the applied aspects of bioenergy production from various natural sources and their implications. Graduate and postgraduate students as well as postdoctoral researchers will find clear concepts of feedstock analysis, feedstock degradation, microbial fermentation, genetic engineering, renewable energy generation and storage, climate changes, and techno-economic analysis of biofuels production technologies.

This book addresses the diversity of tropical microorganisms and its applications in agriculture, renewable energy production and environmental protection. It covers several tropical habitats such as rain forests, mangroves, sea and river waters and describes how microorganisms isolated from these regions can be used to control insects and plant diseases, to improve sugar cane and biofuels production among other applications. The book also aims to bring researchers’ attention to the potential of tropical microorganisms for biotechnological purposes, an area that is still far from being well explored.

Occupational Safety and Hygiene presents selected papers from the International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene – SHO2013 (Guimarães, Portugal, 14-15 February 2013), which was organized by the Portuguese Society for Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SPOSHO). The contributions from 15 different countries focus on: - Occupational safety - Risk assessment - Safety management - Ergonomics - Management systems - Environmental ergonomics - Physical environments - Construction safety - Human factors The papers included in the book are mainly based on research carried out at universities and other research institutions, but they are also based on practical studies developed by Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) practitioners within their companies. As a result, this book will be useful to get acquainted with the state-of-the-art of the research within the aforementioned domains, as well as with some practical tools and approaches that are currently used by OHS professionals worldwide.

The CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool is an online resource intended to support researchers and librarians who need accurate bibliographic information. This free resource can be used to quickly and easily look up or confirm publication titles and abbreviations, as well as CODEN, ISBN, or ISSN codes. The CASSI database contains a listing of publications indexed by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) since 1907.

Tropical biomass: a resource for all seasons; Sugar planting vs energy planting; Energy cane theory; Energy cane management; Energy cane utilization; Lignocellulose utilziation.

The Amazon basin is a key component of the global carbon cycle. Not only is the old-growth rainforests in the basin huge carbon storage with about 120 billion metric tons of carbon in their biomass, but they also process annually twice the rate of global anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions through respiration and photosynthesis. In addition, the basin is the largest global repository of biodiversity and produces about 20 percent of the world s flow of fresh water into the oceans. Despite the large CO2 efflux from recent deforestation, the Amazon rainforest is still considered to be a net carbon sink or reservoir because vegetation growth on average exceeds mortality. However, current climate trends and human-induced deforestation may be transforming forest structure and behavior. Amazon forest dieback would be a massive event, affecting all life-forms that rely on this diverse ecosystem, including humans, and producing ramifications for the entire planet. Clearly, with changes at a global scale at stake, there is a need to better understand the risk, and dynamics of Amazon dieback. Therefore, the purpose of the book is to assist in understanding the risk, process and dynamics of potential Amazon dieback and its implications.