Greek-owned shipping has been at the top of the world fleet for the last twenty years. Winner of the 1997 Runciman Award, this richly sourced study traces the development of the Greek tramp fleet from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Gelina Harlaftis argues that the success of Greek-owned shipping in recent years has been a result not of a number of entrepreneurs using flags of convenience in the 1940s, but of networks and organisational structures which date back to the nineteenth century. This study provides the most comprehensive history of development of modern Greek shipping ever published. It is illustrated with numerous maps and photographs, and includes extensive tables of primary data.

In the context of climate change, pollution and food safety, the current challenge is to enhance legumes production to sustain the growing population needs by 2050. This is a daunting task because abiotic and biotic stresses are threatening the growth, survival and productivity of legumes. For instance, the productivity of legumes is documented to be reduced by 14-88% by abiotic stresses. The co-occurrence of abiotic and biotic stresses under field conditions leads to interactive stress types, thus yielding positive or negative outcomes. Legumes react using antioxidant defense, osmoregulatory adjustments, hormonal regulations and molecular mechanisms to tolerate stress. Hence, improving legume productivity requires knowledge on the sensitivity, mechanisms and approaches of stress tolerance in legumes, in order to design new crops and alternative management systems. This book presents advances on bioactive compounds, applications, effect of various stresses and biotechnology-based stress tolerance mechanisms of legumes. This is our second volume on Legume Agriculture and Biotechnology, published in the series Sustainable Agriculture Reviews.

Reservoir Characterization is a collection of papers presented at the Reservoir Characterization Technical Conference, held at the Westin Hotel-Galleria in Dallas on April 29-May 1, 1985. Conference held April 29-May 1, 1985, at the Westin Hotel—Galleria in Dallas. The conference was sponsored by the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research, Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Reservoir characterization is a process for quantitatively assigning reservoir properties, recognizing geologic information and uncertainties in spatial variability. This book contains 19 chapters, and begins with the geological characterization of sandstone reservoir, followed by the geological prediction of shale distribution within the Prudhoe Bay field. The subsequent chapters are devoted to determination of reservoir properties, such as porosity, mineral occurrence, and permeability variation estimation. The discussion then shifts to the utility of a Bayesian-type formalism to delineate qualitative ""soft"" information and expert interpretation of reservoir description data. This topic is followed by papers concerning reservoir simulation, parameter assignment, and method of calculation of wetting phase relative permeability. This text also deals with the role of discontinuous vertical flow barriers in reservoir engineering. The last chapters focus on the effect of reservoir heterogeneity on oil reservoir. Petroleum engineers, scientists, and researchers will find this book of great value.

"The Global status report on road safety 2015, reflecting information from 180 countries, indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries. In the last three years, 17 countries have aligned at least one of their laws with best practice on seat-belts, drink-driving, speed, motorcycle helmets or child restraints. While there has been progress towards improving road safety legislation and in making vehicles safer, the report shows that the pace of change is too slow. Urgent action is needed to achieve the ambitious target for road safety reflected in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2020. Made possible through funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, this report is the third in the series, and provides a snapshot of the road safety situation globally, highlighting the gaps and the measures needed to best drive progress."--Publisher's description.

Some of the most massive and persistent violations of human rights occur in African nations. In Human Rights Under African Constitutions: Realizing the Promise for Ourselves, scholars from a wide range of fields present a sober, systematic assessment of the prospects for legal protection of human rights in Africa. In a series of detailed and highly contextual studies of Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda, experts seek to balance the socioeconomic and political diversity of these nations while using the same theoretical framework of legal analysis for each case study. Standards for human rights protection can be realized only through direct and strong support from a nation's legal and political institutions. The contributors to this volume uniformly conclude that a well-informed and motivated citizenry is the most powerful force for creating the political will necessary to effect change at the national level. In addition to a critical evaluation of the current state of human rights protection in each of these African nations, the contributors outline existing national resources available for protecting human rights and provide recommendations for more effective and practical use of these resources.

Armenia's electricity price hike and more broadly its deteriorating economic circumstances have triggered mass protests in Yerevan. But there is more to "Electric Armenia" than economics. Because of the security concerns related to the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Yerevan was forced into a military alliance with Russia. Moscow did not limit this alliance to security issues, but used the alliance to ensure Armenia's full-fledged political and economic dependence on the Kremlin. In order to accommodate Russian interests, Armenia's governance style has become increasingly top down. This notwithstanding a burgeoning civil society, which is mature enough to stand up in defence of democratic values. New forms of active citizenship are emerging in Armenia, as youth movements raise their voice in Baghramyan Avenue. The current demonstrations may not cause a breakthrough and immediate U-turn in Armenia's domestic and foreign policy priorities, but a value system clash between Armenia and Russia is in the making, exacerbating the ongoing clash in EU-Russia relations.