- Table View
- List View
European Water Law and Hydropolitics: An Inquiry into the Resilience of Transboundary Water Governance in the European Union (Water Governance - Concepts, Methods, and Practice)
by Gábor BaranyaiThis book provides the first comprehensive assessment of the various issues faced by countries in the European Union, where progressing climate change and urbanization pose significant cooperative challenges in a large number of river basins. Conducting a thorough analysis of the intricate web of EU water governance, it reveals that the hydropolitical stability of the European Union is already at risk. Further, given the structural nature of the shortcomings in EU water policy—e.g. the rigidity of the EU’s founding treaties or the institutional complacency of the European Commission—the book argues that these risks are likely to turn into sources of prolonged conflict, unless EU decision-making bodies take steps to address the new hydrological realities early on.
European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: Special Collection of 2020 Papers - Volume 1 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #127)
by Piervincenzo Rizzo Alberto MilazzoThis volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists. The contents of this volume reflect the outcomes of the activities of EWSHM (European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring) in 2020.
European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: Special Collection of 2020 Papers - Volume 2 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #128)
by Piervincenzo Rizzo Alberto MilazzoThis volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists. The contents of this volume reflect the outcomes of the activities of EWSHM (European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring) in 2020.
European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: EWSHM 2022 - Volume 2 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #254)
by Piervincenzo Rizzo Alberto MilazzoThis volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 10th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM), held in Palermo, Italy on July 4-7, 2022. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.
European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: EWSHM 2022 - Volume 3 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #270)
by Piervincenzo Rizzo Alberto MilazzoThis volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 10th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM), held in Palermo, Italy on July 4-7, 2022. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.
European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring: EWSHM 2022 - Volume 1 (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering #253)
by Piervincenzo Rizzo Alberto MilazzoThis volume gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) and more broadly in the fields of smart materials and intelligent systems, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 10th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM), held in Palermo, Italy on July 4-7, 2022. The volume covers highly diverse topics, including signal processing, smart sensors, autonomous systems, remote sensing and support, UAV platforms for SHM, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and SHM for civil structures and infrastructures. The contributions, which are published after a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.
Europe's Changing Woods and Forests: From Wildwood to Managed Landscapes
by Tibor Hartel Thomas Ranius Peter Buckley Peter Savill Chris Quine Matthias Bürgi John Fletcher Robert Hearn Martin Hermy Diego Moreno Tomasz Samojlik George Peterken Xavier Rochel Per Anglestam Jim Latham Emma Goldberg Roberta Cevasco Clive Potter Juha Siitonen Robert RobertOur understanding of the historical ecology of European forests has been transformed in the last twenty years. Bringing together key findings from across the continent, Europe's Changing Woods and Forests: From Wildwood to Managed Landscapes provides a comprehensive account of recent research and the relevance of historical studies to our current conservation and management of forests. Combining theory with a series of regional case studies, this book shows how different aspects of forestry play out according to the landscape and historical context of the local area, with broad implications for woodland history, policy and management. Beginning with an overview of Europe's woods and forests, the book reviews a variety of management techniques (including wood-pastures, coppicing, close-to-nature forestry and the impact of hunting), describes how plants and animals respond to changes in woodland and forest cover, and includes case histories from around the continent. It concludes with a discussion of how lessons learned from the past can help in the future. This book is both a vital resource and an interesting read for foresters, conservationists, landscape historians, geographers and ecologists.
Europe's Changing Woods and Forests
by Diego Moreno Chris Quine Xavier Rochel Jim Latham Juha Siitonen Tibor Hartel Emma Goldberg Peter Buckley Thomas Ranius John Fletcher Per Anglestam Matthias Bürgi Tomasz Samojlik George Peterken Robert Robert Charles Watkins Peter Savill Keith Kirby Roberta Cevasco Robert Hearn Martin Hermy Clive PotterOur understanding of the ecological history of European forests has been transformed in the last twenty years. Bringing together key findings from across the continent, this book provides a comprehensive account of the relevance of historical studies to current conservation and management of forests. It combines theory with a series of regional case studies to show how different aspects of forestry play out according to the landscape and historical context of the local area.
Europe's Early Fieldscapes: Archaeologies of Prehistoric Land Allotment (Themes in Contemporary Archaeology)
by Stijn Arnoldussen Robert Johnston Mette LøvschalThis volume focuses on the development of field systems through time and space and in their wider landscape context, including classical issues pertaining to past land use and management regimes, including manuring, water, land and crop management, and technologies such as slash‐and‐burn cultivation, and use of the ard and plough. This book provides the first comprehensive attempt to bring together and provide a comprehensive insight into the latest prehistoric fieldscape research across Europe. The book raises a broader awareness of some of the main questions and scientific requests that are addressed by scholars working in various fieldscapes across Europe. Themes addressed in this book include (a) mapping and understanding field system morphologies at various scales, (b) the extraction of information on social processes from field system morphologies, (c) the relations between field systems and cultural and natural features of their environment, (d) time-depths and temporalities of usage, and (e) specifics of the underlying agricultural systems, with special attention to matters of continuity and resilience and relation to changing practices. The case-studies explore how to best approach such landscapes with traditional and novel methodologies and targeted research in order to enhance our knowledge further. The volume offers inspiration and guidance for the heritage management of fieldscape heritage – not solely for future scholarly research but foremost to stimulate strategic guidance to frame and support improved protection of evidently vulnerable resources for Europe’s future. This volume is of interest to landscape archaeologists.
Europe's Role in Nation-Building: From the Balkans to the Congo
by Keith Crane James Dobbins Seth G. Jones Christopher S. Chivvis Andrew RadinTwo previous RAND volumes addressed the roles of the United States and the United Nations in nation-building, defined as the use of armed force in the aftermath of a conflict to promote a durable peace and representative government. This volume presents six case studies of recent European-led nation-building missions: Albania, Sierra Leone, Macedonia, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bosnia. It also reviews the Australian assistance mission to the Solomon Islands. Using quantitative and qualitative measures to compare inputs (such military levels, economic assistance and duration) and outcomes (such as levels of security, economic growth, refugee return, and democracy), the analysis concludes that these European-led missions have been competently managed and, within their sometimes quite limited scope, generally successful. Most helped achieve sustained peace, gross domestic product growth, and representative government. The EU has a wide array of civil competencies for nation-building, but it is sometimes slow to deploy them in support of its military operations, particularly when these are conducted far from Europe. The UN offers the most cost-effective means to address most postconflict stabilization requirements and NATO the better framework for large-scale force projection in cases in which the United States is ready to participate. But the EU now offers European governments a viable alternative to both these organizations in cases in which European interests are high, U.S. interests are low, and the UN is, for some reason, unsuitable or unavailable.
Europium Monoxide: Semiconductor And Ferromagnet For Spintronics (Springer Series in Materials Science #265)
by Arnold S. Borukhovich Alexey V. TroshinThis book presents the physical characteristics and possible device applications of europium monoxide as well as materials based on it. It reveals the suitability of this material for device applications in super- and semiconductor spin electronics. Ferromagnetic semiconductors like europium monoxide have contributed to a fascinating research field in condensed matter physics. In the book are presented the electronic and magnetic properties and thermal and resonance parameters of this material, its peculiarities in external fields as a function of non-stoichiometry, doping level, both in single-crystal and thin-film states. Particular attention is paid to the possibility to use this monoxide or its solid solutions (composites) unconventionally for creating spin electronics structures which work at room temperature conditions. This book appeals to researchers, graduate students and professionals engaged in the development of semiconductor spin electronics and computer devices, technologists and theoretical physicists. It is important for the calculation, development and creation of spin memory devices for a quantum computer.
Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control
by Abid A. Ansari Gill Sarvajeet Singh Guy R. Lanza Walter RastEutrophication continues to be a major global challenge to water quality scientists. The global demand on water resources due to population increases, economic development, and emerging energy development schemes has created new environmental challenges to global sustainability. Eutrophication, causes, consequences, and control provides a current account of many important aspects of the processes of natural and accelerated eutrophication in major aquatic ecosystems around the world. The connections between accelerated eutrophication and climate change, chemical contamination of surface waters, and major environmental and ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems are discussed. Water quality changes typical of eutrophication events in major climate zones including temperate, tropical, subtropical, and arid regions are included along with current approaches to treat and control increased eutrophication around the world. The book provides many useful new insights to address the challenges of global increases in eutrophication and the increasing threats to biodiversity and water quality.
Eva
by Peter DickinsonEva's hospital room looks out onto the skyscrapers of a huge city, but since waking up from her coma she only dreams of trees <P><P> Thirteen-year-old Eva opens her eyes to find herself in a hospital, her body paralyzed while it heals from a devastating accident. Her mother says that Eva will be able to move her hands and face soon and that everything is going to be fine, but something in her voice tells Eva it's not that simple. The doctors give Eva a keyboard that turns her typing into speech and controls a mirror that rotates to look around the room and out the window--every direction except back at her bed. What are the doctors trying to hide from her? And why, in an overpopulated world where humans have tamed all the wild places, does Eva keep dreaming of a forest she's never seen?<P> Winner of Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Senior Award
Eva
by Peter DickinsonEva&’s hospital room looks out onto the skyscrapers of a huge city, but since waking up from her coma she only dreams of trees Thirteen-year-old Eva opens her eyes to find herself in a hospital, her body paralyzed while it heals from a devastating accident. Her mother says that Eva will be able to move her hands and face soon and that everything is going to be fine, but something in her voice tells Eva it&’s not that simple. The doctors give Eva a keyboard that turns her typing into speech and controls a mirror that rotates to look around the room and out the window—every direction except back at her bed. What are the doctors trying to hide from her? And why, in an overpopulated world where humans have tamed all the wild places, does Eva keep dreaming of a forest she&’s never seen?This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Peter Dickinson including rare images from the author&’s collection.
Evacuation Modeling Trends
by Arturo Cuesta Orlando Abreu Daniel AlvearThis 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 modeling approaches, the book discusses benefits and challenges of current techniques. The representation of evacuees is a central issue, including human behavior and the proper implementation of representational tools. Key topics include the nature and importance of the different parameters involved in ASET and RSET and the interactions between them. A review of the current literature on verification and validation methods is provided, with a set of recommended verification tests and examples of validation tests. The book concludes with future challenges: new scenarios and factors for future model developments, addresses the problem of using deterministic and/or stochastic approaches and proposes, and discusses the use of evacuation models for supporting timely decisions in real-time. Written by international experts, Evacuation Modeling Trends is designed for those involved in safety, from emergency and intervention personnel to students, engineers and researchers.
Evaluating And Improving Undergraduate Teaching: In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics
by Committee on Recognizing Evaluating Rewarding Developing Excellence in Teaching of Undergraduate Science Mathematics Engineering TechnologyEconomic, academic, and social forces are causing undergraduate schools to start a fresh examination of teaching effectiveness. Administrators face the complex task of developing equitable, predictable ways to evaluate, encourage, and reward good teaching in science, math, engineering, and technology.Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics offers a vision for systematic evaluation of teaching practices and academic programs, with recommendations to the various stakeholders in higher education about how to achieve change.What is good undergraduate teaching? This book discusses how to evaluate undergraduate teaching of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology and what characterizes effective teaching in these fields.Why has it been difficult for colleges and universities to address the question of teaching effectiveness? The committee explores the implications of differences between the research and teaching cultures-and how practices in rewarding researchers could be transferred to the teaching enterprise.How should administrators approach the evaluation of individual faculty members? And how should evaluation results be used? The committee discusses methodologies, offers practical guidelines, and points out pitfalls.Evaluating, and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics provides a blueprint for institutions ready to build effective evaluation programs for teaching in science fields.
Evaluating Climate Change Impacts (Chapman And Hall/crc Applied Environmental Statistics Ser.)
by Vyacheslav Lyubchich, Yulia R. Gel, K. Halimeda Kilbourne, Thomas J. Miller, Nathaniel K. Newlands and Adam B. SmithEvaluating Climate Change Impacts discusses assessing and quantifying climate change and its impacts from a multi-faceted perspective of ecosystem, social, and infrastructure resilience, given through a lens of statistics and data science. It provides a multi-disciplinary view on the implications of climate variability and shows how the new data science paradigm can help us to mitigate climate-induced risk and to enhance climate adaptation strategies. This book consists of chapters solicited from leading topical experts and presents their perspectives on climate change effects in two general areas: natural ecosystems and socio-economic impacts. The chapters unveil topics of atmospheric circulation, climate modeling, and long-term prediction; approach the problems of increasing frequency of extreme events, sea level rise, and forest fires, as well as economic losses, analysis of climate impacts for insurance, agriculture, fisheries, and electric and transport infrastructures. The reader will be exposed to the current research using a variety of methods from physical modeling, statistics, and machine learning, including the global circulation models (GCM) and ocean models, statistical generalized additive models (GAM) and generalized linear models (GLM), state space and graphical models, causality networks, Bayesian ensembles, a variety of index methods and statistical tests, and machine learning methods. The reader will learn about data from various sources, including GCM and ocean model outputs, satellite observations, and data collected by different agencies and research units. Many of the chapters provide references to open source software R and Python code that are available for implementing the methods.
Evaluating IT Projects (Routledge Focus on Business and Management)
by Eriona ShtëmbariProject management disciplines have been a part of IT for many years. Why then, are so many challenges still directly associated with how a project is managed? Many projects fail for a myriad of reasons; most, however, stem from poor or inadequate project evaluation and performance appraisal, while, improved project planning and direction is considered to be one of the key factors to IT project success. Eriona Shtembari arranges evaluation methods and techniques into three groups, managerial-financial-and-development. This book explores the process of project evaluation and the purposes of evaluation, given its strong relationship to the success of the project. It examines IT project evaluation; identifies methods and techniques to be used throughout the project life cycle; examines the benefits of project evaluation and proposes a systematic approach/framework of project evaluation to serve as a tool for successful project management. <P><P>Shtembari analyses the most up-to-date research relating to the process and methods/techniques of project evaluation, throughout the project life cycle. From the systematic literature review, she identifies the most usable methods and techniques in project evaluation and focuses on the adequacy of these methods and techniques in the service sector. The theoretical underpinning of the book, serves as a base to interpret the interviews in the case study and build a theory as to how the project evaluation context relates to the proposed scientific theory. The findings in this book provide solutions for practitioners to help them boost the evaluation framework and consequently improve their IT project management.
Evaluating Measurement Accuracy: A Practical Approach
by Semyon G. Rabinovich"Evaluating Measurement Accuracy, 2nd Edition" is intended for those who are concerned with measurements in any field of science or technology. It reflects the latest developments in metrology and offers new results, but is designed to be accessible to readers at different levels: scientists who advance the field of metrology, engineers and experimental scientists who use measurements as tool in their professions, students and graduate students in natural sciences and engineering, and, in parts describing practical recommendations, technicians performing mass measurements in industry, quality control, and trade. This book presents material from the practical perspective and offers solutions and recommendations for problems that arise in conducting real-life measurements. This new edition adds a method for estimating accuracy of indirect measurements with independent arguments, whose development Dr. Rabinovich was able to complete very recently. This method, which is called the Method of Enumeration, produces estimates that are no longer approximate, similar to the way the method of reduction described in the first edition removed approximation in estimating uncertainty of indirect measurements with dependent arguments. The method of enumeration completes addressing the range of problems whose solutions signify the emergence of the new theory of accuracy of measurements. A new method is added for building a composition of histograms, and this method forms a theoretical basis for the method of enumeration.
Evaluating Measurement Accuracy: A Practical Approach
by Semyon G. Rabinovich"Evaluating Measurement Accuracy, 2nd Edition" is intended for those who are concerned with measurements in any field of science or technology. It reflects the latest developments in metrology and offers new results, but is designed to be accessible to readers at different levels: scientists who advance the field of metrology, engineers and experimental scientists who use measurements as tool in their professions, students and graduate students in natural sciences and engineering, and, in parts describing practical recommendations, technicians performing mass measurements in industry, quality control, and trade. This book presents material from the practical perspective and offers solutions and recommendations for problems that arise in conducting real-life measurements. This new edition adds a method for estimating accuracy of indirect measurements with independent arguments, whose development Dr. Rabinovich was able to complete very recently. This method, which is called the Method of Enumeration, produces estimates that are no longer approximate, similar to the way the method of reduction described in the first edition removed approximation in estimating uncertainty of indirect measurements with dependent arguments. The method of enumeration completes addressing the range of problems whose solutions signify the emergence of the new theory of accuracy of measurements. A new method is added for building a composition of histograms, and this method forms a theoretical basis for the method of enumeration. Additionally, as a companion to this book, a concise practical guide that assembles simple step-by-step procedures for typical tasks the practitioners are likely to encounter in measurement accuracy estimation is available at SpringerLink.
Evaluating Measurement Accuracy
by Semyon G. Rabinovich"Evaluating Measurement Accuracy" is intended for anyone who is concerned with measurements in any field of science or technology. It reflects the latest developments in metrology and offers new results, but is designed to be accessible to readers at different levels: meteorologists, engineers and experimental scientists who use measurements as tools in their professions, graduate and undergraduate students in the natural sciences and engineering, and technicians performing complex measurements in industry, quality control, and trade. The material of the book is presented from the practical perspective and offers solutions and recommendations for problems that arise in conducting real-life measurements. This inclusion is a notable and unique aspect of this title as complex measurements done in industry and trade are often neglected in metrological literature, leaving the practitioners of these measurements to devise their own ad-hoc techniques.
Evaluating Novel Threats to the Homeland
by David R. Frelinger Michael J. Lostumbo Robert W. Button Brian A. JacksonChanges in technology and adversary behavior will invariably produce new threats that must be assessed by defense and homeland security planners. An example of such a novel threat is the use of cruise missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by terrorist groups. Individual threats cannot be assessed in isolation, however, since adversaries always have many options for staging attacks. To examine this threat, RAND utilized a ?red analysis of alternatives? approach, wherein the benefits, costs, and risks of different options are considered from the point of view of a potential adversary. For several types of attacks, the suitability of these systems was compared against other options. This approach can help defense planners understand how the capabilities that different attack modes provide address key adversary operational problems. Given the insights this analysis produced about when these systems would likely be preferred by an attacker, RAND explored defensive options to address the threat. UAVs and cruise missiles represent a ?niche threat? within a larger threat context; therefore, defenses were sought that provide common protection against both this and other asymmetric threats. The monograph concludes with a discussion of cross-cutting lessons about this threat and the assessment of novel threats in general.
Evaluating Options for U.S. Greenhouse-Gas Mitigation Using Multiple Criteria
by Liisa Ecola Michael Toman Thomas Light Nicholas BurgerChoosing policy responses to mitigate greenhouse gases (GHGs) is one of the great challenges that the United States faces. It will require balancing cost-effectiveness and other objectives that reflect the institutional and political realities of passing major federal legislation with widespread impacts on U.S. producers and consumers. This paper develops a framework for evaluating U.S. GHG-mitigation policy that balances several criteria.
Evaluating Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility Projects: An Ethnographic Approach
by Tony KealyThis book discusses sustainable development decision-making. Focusing on decisions to invest in wind turbine technology as part of a corporation’s CO2 emission reduction strategy, it presents a new evaluation framework, based on the triple bottom line framework widely used by businesses to communicate their adherence to corporate social responsibility. This new framework allows the evaluation of strategic corporate decisions to invest in wind turbines to mitigate global warming in the context of a corporation’s social responsibility, and includes an objective measurement stage to add rigor to the evaluation process. The book describes the use of measured data from wind turbine projects to both develop and validate the methodology, and also identifies key enablers and barriers as businesses attempt to successfully integrate corporate social responsibility into their overall business strategy. Given its scope, the book appeals to postgraduate students, researchers, and business professionals interested in the environmental impact of corporations. Featuring case studies from Ireland, it is particularly relevant to audiences within Europe.
Evaluating Sustainable Food System Innovations: A Global Toolkit for Cities (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)
by Élodie Valette Alison Blay-Palmer Beatrice Intoppa Amanda Di Battista Ophélie Roudelle Géraldine ChaboudThis book presents URBAL, an approach that applies impact pathway mapping to understand how food system innovations in cities, and their territories, change and impact food system sustainability. Around the world, people are finding innovative ways to make their food systems more sustainable. However, documenting and understanding how these innovations impact the sustainability of food system can be a challenge. The Urban Driven Innovations for Sustainable Food Systems (URBAL) methodology responds to these constraints by providing innovations with a simple, open-source, resource-efficient tool that is easily appropriated and adaptable to different contexts. URBAL is designed to respond to the demands of field stakeholders, whether public or private, to accompany and guide them in their actions and decision-making with regard to sustainability objectives. This book presents this qualitative and participatory impact assessment method of food innovations and applies it to several cases of food innovation around the world, including the impact of agricultural districts in Milan, chefs and gastronomy in Brasilia, e-commerce in Vietnam, eco-friendly farm systems in Berlin and The Nourish to Flourish governance process in Cape Town. The book demonstrates how food innovations can impact different dimensions of sustainability, positively and negatively, and identify the elements that facilitate or hinder these impacts. The volume reflects on how to strengthen the capacity of these stakeholders to disseminate their innovations on other scales to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable food systems. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars working on sustainable food systems, urban food, food innovation and impact assessment, as well as policymakers, practitioners and funders interested in these areas.