Critical embedded systems have to provide a high level of dependability. In automotive domain, for example, TDMA protocols are largely recommended because of their deterministic behavior. Nevertheless, under the transient environmental perturbations, the loss of communication cycles may occur with a certain probability and, consequently, the system may fail. This paper analyzes the impact of th...

This chapter provides an overview of the major stages of prenatal central nervous system (CNS) development. CNS development plays the central role in the primary argument of this book. That argument is that the prenatal CNS is particularly vulnerable to environmental perturbations because it is rapidly developing during that time period. Further, we argue that many of the learning and behaviora...

Environmental perturbations such as changes in land use, climate, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations may alter organic matter inputs to surface soils. While the carbon (C) cycle response to such perturbations has received considerable Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/sl0533-012-9793-l) contains supplementary material, which is availabl...

TDMA is largely adopted by many networks for providing to real-time applications with determinism. However, this determinism could be jeopardized under the transient environmental perturbations, causing application failures. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the transient perturbations (especially due to Electromagnetic Interferences) on the application dependability. We give a contri...

This chapter provides an overview of the major stages of prenatal central nervous system (CNS) development. CNS development plays the central role in the primary argument of this book. That argument is that the prenatal CNS is particularly vulnerable to environmental perturbations because it is rapidly developing during that time period. Further, we argue that many of the learning and behaviora...

Gene-knockout experiments on single-cell organisms have established that expression of a substantial fraction of genes is not needed for optimal growth. This problem acquired a new dimension with the recent discovery that environmental and genetic perturbations of the bacterium Escherichia coli are followed by the temporary activation of a large number of latent metabolic pathways, which sugges...

Pre-natal and early post-natal ovarian development has become a field of increasing importance over recent years. The full effects of perturbations of ovarian development on adult fertility, through environmental changes or genetic anomalies, are only now being truly appreciated. Mitigation of these perturbations requires an understanding of the processes involved in the development of the ovar...

Atmospheric composition is controlled by the emission, photochemistry and transport of many trace gases. Understanding the time scale as well as the chemical and spatial patterns of perturbations to trace gases is needed to evaluate possible environmental damage (e.g. stratospheric ozone depletion or climate change) caused by anthropogenic emissions. This paper reviews lessons learned from trea...