This Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented, both in Africa and beyond. The author illustrates important aspects of Africa's history with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent. The multitude of topics that the reader will learn about in this succinct work i…
Welcome to the 4th edition of this handbook. Over the previous editions, we have tried to evolve the content and style to make the book more accessible and useful to our readers. This has continued in edition four with alterations, in response to reader feedback and as a result of new data emerging in many cancer fields. Oncology has continued to produce novel diagnostics, treatment strategies,…
Two thirds of our planet is covered with water. Every fragment of land, from the great contingent of Eurasia to the tiniest pasific island, has a shore. The total length of shorelines is huge. Yet the width is hardly measurable in comparison - it is often just a few yards. Shores are strange places, being the edge of the land as well as the edge of the sea. The sea level rises falls with the ti…
Available beds in any correctional facility have a tendency to become filled—no matter what the size of the facility. Jail crowding is a symptom of the policies and practices of the larger criminal justice system. The changes that have occurred in the nation’s jail population during the past 30 years provide evidence that policy shifts alone can bring about dramatic changes in the demand fo…
All robust seals are characterized by the absence of any pathway by which fluid or gas might escape. Detail differences exist in the manner by which zero clearance is obtained — welding, brazing, soldering, ground fits or lapped finishes — or the yielding of a softer material wholly or partially confined between two harder and stiffer members of the assembly. The O-ring seal falls in the la…
As evidenced by the successful area-wide insect pest control programmes described in this book, the sterile insect technique (SIT), a component of these programmes, has come of age. The technology has expanded rapidly — additional target species, new rearing techniques, better understanding of genetics and insect behaviour, and especially integration into operational area-wide integrated pest…
Planet Earth is an ocean planet. We can hardly ignore the fact that the ocean covers almost two thirds of our planet. Since the dawn of time, humankind has had an ambivalent relationship with the immensity and hostility of this very specific environment. However, the ocean holds a strong attraction for human societies, with nearly 40% of the world’s population living less than 100 km from the…
Why is it that we so readily accept the boundary lines drawn around nations or around regions like ‘Asia’ as though they were natural and self-evident, when in fact they are so mutable and often so very arbitrary? What happens to people not only when the borders they seek to cross become heavily guarded, but also when new borders are drawn straight through the middle of their lives? The ess…