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Kia Persia Literary Agency
KIA Literary Agency was founded in 2002 in Tehran with the aim of promoting and supporting fine literary works in all forms throughout the world. It brings about opportunities for authors, illustrators, publishers, translators, and those involved in this field to meet their counterparts. And at the same time, it introduces them to the world and will inform them of all the related events which take place in the world of art and literature.
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Earth sciencesJune 2014Opportunities to Use Remote Sensing in Understanding Permafrost and Related Ecological Characteristics
Report of a Workshop
by Committee on Opportunities to Use Remote Sensing in Understanding Permafrost and Ecosystems: A Workshop; Polar Research Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council
Permafrost is a thermal condition -- its formation, persistence and disappearance are highly dependent on climate. General circulation models predict that, for a doubling of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, mean annual air temperatures may rise up to several degrees over much of the Arctic. In the discontinuous permafrost region, where ground temperatures are within 1-2 degrees of thawing, permafrost will likely ultimately disappear as a result of ground thermal changes associated with global climate warming. Where ground ice contents are high, permafrost degradation will have associated physical impacts. Permafrost thaw stands to have wide-ranging impacts, such as the draining and drying of the tundra, erosion of riverbanks and coastline, and destabilization of infrastructure (roads, airports, buildings, etc.), and including potential implications for ecosystems and the carbon cycle in the high latitudes. Opportunities to Use Remote Sensing in Understanding Permafrost and Related Ecological Characteristics is the summary of a workshop convened by the National Research Council to explore opportunities for using remote sensing to advance our understanding of permafrost status and trends and the impacts of permafrost change, especially on ecosystems and the carbon cycle in the high latitudes. The workshop brought together experts from the remote sensing community with permafrost and ecosystem scientists. The workshop discussions articulated gaps in current understanding and potential opportunities to harness remote sensing techniques to better understand permafrost, permafrost change, and implications for ecosystems in permafrost areas. This report addresses questions such as how remote sensing might be used in innovative ways, how it might enhance our ability to document long-term trends, and whether it is possible to integrate remote sensing products with the ground-based observations and assimilate them into advanced Arctic system models. Additionally, the report considers the expectations of the quality and spatial and temporal resolution possible through such approaches, and the prototype sensors that are available that could be used for detailed ground calibration of permafrost/high latitude carbon cycle studies.
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FictionPermagel/Permafrost
by Eva Baltasar
Published in Catalan (Club Editor). Shortlisted for the Médicis Étranger Award 2020 (France). Rights sold: World English (And Other Stories), French (Verdier), Spanish (Literatura Random House), Italian (Nottetempo), Portuguese/Portugal (Confluencias), Galician (Kalandraka). The #1 Catalan bestseller and winner of the Llibreter booksellers prize, poet Baltasar’s debut novel is a forthright study of lesbian sexuality and suicide. Permafrost’s no-bullshit lesbian narrator is an uninhibited lover and a wickedly funny observer of modern life. Desperate to get out of Barcelona, she goes to Brussels, ‘because a city whose symbol is a little boy pissing was a city I knew I would like’; as an au pair in Scotland, she develops a hatred of the colour green. And everywhere she goes, she tries to break out of the roles set for her by family and society, chasing escape wherever it can be found: love affairs, travel, thoughts of suicide. Full of powerful, physical imagery, this prize-winning debut novel by acclaimed Catalan poet Eva Baltasar was a word-of-mouth hit in its own language. It is a breathtakingly forthright call for women’s freedom to embrace both pleasure and solitude, and speaks of the body, of sex, and of the self.
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FictionBoulder
by Eva Baltasar
Short, intense and full of dazzling images, Boulder is the story of a woman who wants to be alone. Life makes it very difficult for her and she betrays herself. After the successful Permagel/Permafrost, Eva Baltasar's second novel explores the contradictions of motherhood. In 2018, Permagel/Permafrost became a 'must-read' thanks to an enthusiastic reception, although it did not have a great advertising campaign behind it. Written with functional prose, the book brought together the lesbian experience and the death wish with a touch of ironical rawness. Translation rights of Permagel/Permafrost were acquired by Literatura Random House (World Spanish, already published), Verdier (France, publication Fall 2020), Nottetempo (Italy, already published), And Other Stories (World English, publication 2021), Kalandraka (Galician, to be published) andConfluencias (Portugal, to be published). Two years later, Eva Baltasar (Barcelona, 1978) has published Boulder, the second novel of the triptych where Baltasar explores the voice, life and body of three women. The book begins with the narrator in Chiloé (an island in Chile, in Patagonia), although she comes from a precarious situation in Barcelona. She flees the city and ends up embarking on a merchant ship and decides to stay there as a cook. One day, when the ship is docked, the protagonist/narrator - nameless throughout the novel - falls in love with Samsa, an Icelandic geologist who ends up taking her to her island and who will call her Boulder. Driven by desire and what she assumes to be love, she leaves the ocean and her work on the ship, to move to land and start a typical life that she does not know if she will get used to. We will accompany Boulder on her journey to the common things: a house, a woman, and a daughter. The normality of a life from which she doesn’t know what to expect. In Iceland Boulder and Samsa will live a more or less conventional life as a couple, but the protagonist will always keep an eye on her old life of isolation in the sea. When, after a few years in Iceland, Samsa tells Boulder that she wants to be a mother we already know that things will not go well because the protagonist has already warned us: "I am not a children person." The protagonist's happiness is based on not feeling responsible for anything or anyone, not hurting anyone and making her life. As Eva Baltasar puts it, “loneliness can be hard, but it also frees you up." Boulder explores other major themes that we could also read in Permagel/Permafrost, such as motherhood and living as a couple, which can enrich you but also end up diluting you in that couple. Through this relationship Eva Baltasar addresses issues such as couple relationships, and how these change before the arrival of motherhood. The author manages to give a twist to this topic and shows us a totally different perspective of motherhood from the one we are used to. It teaches us that there is another reality, another way of seeing it beyond that beautiful and happy stage that we have always been told. It also tells us about sexuality and how desire within a couple is transformed over the years, in a direct and taboo-free way. The landscape is also very important in Boulder: desolate landscapes like the ones we find in Chiloé, the ocean or Iceland. It is those open spaces with few people around that the protagonist likes. To say Eva Baltasar is also to speak of an elaborate, poetic language which makes the story slide smoothly. Boulder also reflects on this, because “language stakes us when we are born and shapes us, governs our cells.” Baltasar thinks that the way we speak also “builds us as people and sometimes we are not aware of it.”
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The environmentSeptember 1995Wetlands
Characteristics and Boundaries
by Committee on Characterization of Wetlands, National Research Council
"Wetlands" has become a hot word in the current environmental debate. But what does it signify? In 1991, proposed changes in the legal definities of wetlands stirred controversy and focused attention on the scientific and economic aspects of their management. This volume explores how to define wetlands. The committee--whose members were drawn from academia, government, business, and the environmental community--builds a rational, scientific basis for delineating wetlands in the landscape and offers recommendations for further action. Wetlands also discusses the diverse hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands, and makes recommendations concerning so-called controversial areas such as permafrost wetlands, riparian ecosystems, irregularly flooded sites, and agricultural wetlands. It presents criteria for identifying wetlands and explores the problems of applying those criteria when there are seasonal changes in water levels. This comprehensive and practical volume will be of interest to environmental scientists and advocates, hydrologists, policymakers, regulators, faculty, researchers, and students of environmental studies.
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Earth sciencesApril 2001Enhancing NASA's Contributions to Polar Science
A Review of Polar Geophysical Data Sets
by Committee to Review NASA's Polar Geophysical Data Sets; Polar Research Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Research Council
The high latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctic, together with some mountainous areas with glaciers and long-lasting snow, are sometimes called the cryosphere-defined as that portion of the planet where water is perennially or seasonally frozen as sea ice, snow cover, permafrost, ice sheets, and glaciers. Variations in the extent and characteristics of surface ice and snow in the high latitudes are of fundamental importance to global climate because of the amount of the sun's radiation that is reflected from these often white surfaces. Thus, the cryosphere is an important frontier for scientists seeking to understand past climate events, current weather, and climate variability. Obtaining the data necessary for such research requires the capability to observe and measure a variety of characteristics and processes exhibited by major ice sheets and large-scale patterns of snow and sea ice extent, and much of these data are gathered using satellites. As part of its efforts to better support the researchers studying the cryosphere and climate, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-using sophisticated satellite technology-measures a range of variables from atmospheric temperature, cloud properties, and aerosol concentration to ice sheet elevation, snow cover on land, and ocean salinity. These raw data are compiled and processed into products, or data sets, useful to scientists. These so-called "polar geophysical data sets" can then be studied and interpreted to answer questions related to atmosphere and climate, ice sheets, terrestrial systems, sea ice, ocean processes, and many other phenomena in the cryosphere. The goal of this report is to provide a brief review of the strategy, scope, and quality of existing polar geophysical data sets and help NASA find ways to make these products and future polar data sets more useful to researchers, especially those working on the global change questions that lie at the heart of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise.
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Travel & holiday guidesMay 2013Svalbard (Spitsbergen)
with Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayen
by Andreas Umbreit
This stunningly gorgeous, seriously remote Arctic archipelago is about as far from civilization as you can get in Europe. Permafrost freezes the ground up to half a kilometre in depth, while winter temperatures can drop to over 40 below zero. But Svalbard's glorious mountains, majestic fjords and sprawling valleys are the perfect setting for adventurous journeys out to the back of beyond - by snowmobile, snowshoe or Siberian husky. Much of David Attenborough's BBC documentary Frozen Planet was shot on and around Svalbard. _x000D_ _x000D_ This new edition includes extensive information on the history, wildlife and landscape of this unique destination with detailed information on national parks and areas of exploration unavailable in other books. It is essential reading for visitors to the region and serves as an introduction to scientists, journalists, politicians and polar enthusiasts.
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MemoirsJuly 2018Dancing on Thin Ice
Travails of a Russian Dissenter
by Arkady Polishchuk
How did a Soviet Jewish dissident, raised an atheist communist, come to be a powerful voice on behalf of Russian evangelical Christians? It’s a true story of Cold War bravery and danger. – Publishers Weekly In 1970s USSR, Arkady Polishchuk tries to emigrate. He’s a Russian Jew and journalist with critical “State secrets”—identities of KGB officers influencing foreign affairs through a state-run magazine for which he is the editor. In the course of his memoir, we are along with Polishchuk as he covers anti-Semitic show trials, writes samizdat, is arrested, followed and surveilled, collaborates with refuseniks and smuggles eyewitness testimony of persecuted Christians to the West.
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850 Questions and Answers
by Chiara Brizzolara
Over 110 different topics and 850 questions in a 128-page book with hundreds of beautiful photos and illustrations.
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December 2001Eisenhorn: Xenos
by Dan Abnett
The Inquisition moves amongst mankind like an avenging shadow, striking down the enemies of humanity with uncompromising ruthlessness. When he finally corners an old foe, Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn is drawn into a sinister conspiracy. As events unfold and he gathers allies - and enemies - Eisenhorn faces a vast interstellar cabal and the dark power of daemons, all racing to recover an arcane text of abominable power: an ancient tome known as the Necroteuch.
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HorticultureJune 2020Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases Emission
by Pratap Bhattacharya
The book Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases Emissions presents the principles, practices along with key messages on different relevant issues on climate change and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in agriculture. The other important feature of the book is that techniques of GHGs measurements at field level with examples are presented which could be useful for practical studies. The book should give students a good foundation in climate change studies and inspire them to take up further studies in the advanced area of environmental sciences.
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Waste managementJanuary 2011Agriculture and Waste Management for Sustainable Future
by Asoke Kumar Sannigrahi
In this book the author has selected important topics like global warming, e-wastes management, solid waste management, organic farming, vermicomposting and alternatives to fossil fuels. Lot of information and data are included for the benefit of science and engineering students as well as research scholars working on these lines. Hope this book will be useful to them as reference book and will be a priced collection for their own library. All the topics are debatable, some say in favour while other say against of it while the author has tried to analyze all topics from scientific background. Global warming, though not agreed by many people, has already started showing its symptoms by irregular rains, hot summer in some places while cold winter somewhere else indicating the imbalance of nature. A systematic, low cost and employment generating approach has been discussed to manage the solid waste menace of the urban locality. Easy vermicomposting technique and its prospects and problems are discussed in detail for the benefit of people. The necessity of alternatives to petroleum fuel for keeping the wheels of nations progress always in dynamic speed has also been narrated with facts and figures. Hope, all these will attract the readers to refer the book in different perspective
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Agriculture & farmingJanuary 2013Climate Change and Agricultural Food Production
by Kibria, Golam et.al.
The book ‘Climate Change and Agricultural Food Production: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Remedies provides an overview of climate change impacts on all agricultural food producing sectors (agriculture, livestock and fisheries), food contamination, and food safety (microbial pathogens, toxic biological & toxic chemical contaminants), food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation measures to counteract or minimise or reduce the effects of climate change on agriculture, livestock and fisheries. It reviews and summarizes research results, data and information from the world including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, North America, Polar Regions and Small Island Nations. The book has been structured as textbook, reference book and extension book and written in simple and plain English with key facts and acronyms and glossary provided in each with tables and figures to benefit a wide range of readeThe key data and information provided in each are highlighted below:
