New Releases by Carlos Ruiz

Overcome common issues and find answers to cloud-related questions through real enterprise scenarios, characters, and dialogue Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Key Features Learn cloud concepts from AWS certified trainers using common analogies from real life Get to grips with the most commonly used services in the AWS cloud Understand how your knowledge from classical on premises IT can be applied to the Cloud Book Description This book makes understanding cloud computing easy by providing relatable examples that simplify the complex technology. By drawing parallels between cloud concepts and everyday scenarios, we will demystify cloud tech, and once you start to understand it, learning cloud computing will be more enjoyable. This book will help you learn about cloud computing in general and AWS specifically, as you follow the journey of TrendyCorp—a fictitious company gearing up to move from traditional IT to cloud computing. You''ll shape your understanding of the cloud through scenarios of interactions between TrendyCorp''s new hires, seasoned IT professionals, external consultants, and the board of directors engaged in modernizing their applications. These characters'' discussions and actions are focused on learning about cloud services by drawing comparisons between the technology and examples taken from real life. Through this book, you''ll realize that cloud computing concepts have more in common with your day-to-day scenarios and situations than you''ve ever imagined. This book offers a conversational and entertaining narrative that anyone working in IT and looking to understand how the cloud works will be able to follow. By the end of it, you''ll have developed a clear and simplified perspective of cloud technologies. What you will learn Implement virtual servers in the cloud Identify the best cloud storage options for a specific solution Explore best practices for networking and databases in the cloud Enforce security with authentication and authorization in the cloud Effectively monitor applications in the cloud Leverage scalability and automation in the cloud Get the hang of decoupled and serverless architecture Grasp the fundamentals of containers and Blockchain in the cloud Who this book is for This book is for anyone who wants to learn AWS cloud computing. It explains all the foundational concepts and mechanisms in detail. So basic knowledge of IT systems or terminologies (like server, storage, IP address, and web applications) is all that you need to get started with this book.

“Ruiz Zafón’s visionary storytelling prowess is a genre unto itself.”—USA Today Return to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits. Bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón conceived of this collection of stories as an appreciation to the countless readers who joined him on the extraordinary journey that began with The Shadow of the Wind. Comprising eleven stories, most of them never before published in English, The City of Mist offers the reader compelling characters, unique situations, and a gothic atmosphere reminiscent of his beloved Cemetery of Forgotten Books quartet. The stories are mysterious, imbued with a sense of menace, and told with the warmth, wit, and humor of Zafón''s inimitable voice. A boy decides to become a writer when he discovers that his creative gifts capture the attentions of an aloof young beauty who has stolen his heart. A labyrinth maker flees Constantinople to a plague-ridden Barcelona, with plans for building a library impervious to the destruction of time. A strange gentleman tempts Cervantes to write a book like no other, each page of which could prolong the life of the woman he loves. And a brilliant Catalan architect named Antoni Gaudí reluctantly agrees to cross the ocean to New York, a voyage that will determine the fate of an unfinished masterpiece. Imaginative and beguiling, these and other stories in The City of Mist summon up the mesmerizing magic of their brilliant creator and invite us to come dream along with him.

Considerada um dos sete pecados capitais, a ira pode levar a sérias conseqüências, como violência, agressão, dizer coisas das quais nos arrependemos mais tarde ou tomar decisões que são contrárias ao que nos beneficia. O mundo está cheio de raiva, raiva e frustração. Todos os dias, há o risco de explodir. Alguns controlam melhor do que outros. O que a Bíblia diz sobre a ira? Existe tal coisa como “boa raiva?” O que devemos pensar da explosão de Jesus no templo? Era que errado? Como nos libertamos da raiva ou, em outras palavras, como a controlamos? Existem maneiras saudáveis de expressar raiva? O que acontece com nossos cérebros e corpos quando ficamos com raiva? Essas e muitas outras perguntas serão respondidas neste guia. Referências bíblicas, histórias bíblicas, rostos modernos da ira e histórias pessoais o ajudam a entender todos os detalhes do que devemos pensar da emoção "raiva". A diferença entre a raiva passiva e a agressiva será explicada, bem como as conexões neurológicas que são feitas cada vez que perdemos a calma. Além disso, são feitas dicas e sugestões para aprender a deixá-lo desaparecer, sem consequências negativas e imprevistas. Torne-se uma pessoa melhor agora, aprendendo mais sobre essas coisas!

Las inversiones cromosómicas son variantes estructurales donde un segmento de ADN cambia su orientación. Las inversiones cromosómicas reducen la recombinación homóloga y producen diferentes haplotipos en los cromosomas estándar e invertidos. Como resultado, influyen en la adaptación y la selección y desempeñan un papel en la susceptibilidad a las enfermedades humanas. Las inversiones se pueden estudiar con métodos experimentales y bioinformáticos. Los datos de SNP array se pueden usar para determinar genotipos de inversión mediante el uso de diferencias de haplotipos entre cromosomas invertidos y estándares. Sin embargo, estos métodos no están optimizados para grandes cohortes (con miles de individuos, como dbGaP o UK Biobank). Además, los métodos actuales solo pueden genotipar las inversiones con dos haplotipos y la clasificación es difícil de armonizar entre cohortes. Finalmente, se conoce que las inversiones cromosómicas afectan la expresión génica y la metilación del ADN. Sin embargo, no existen métodos precisos para evaluar globalmente el efecto de las inversiones en la expresión génica local o la metilación del ADN. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es desarrollar nuevos métodos robustos y escalables así como herramientas bionformáticas para estudiar los efectos fenotípicos y funcionales de las inversiones cromosómicas, superando las limitaciones existentes. Con este fin, he desarrollado un nuevo método para genotipar las inversiones cromosómicas que se puede usar en grandes cohortes, con inversiones con múltiples haplotipos y que utiliza haplotipos de referencia que permite el análisis conjunto de múltiples cohortes. En segundo lugar, he implementado un método multivariante basado en el análisis de la redundancia para estudiar los efectos de las inversiones cromosómicas en la metilación del ADN y la expresión génica locales. A continuación, he aplicado ambos métodos para estudiar el papel de las inversiones cromosómicas en dos grupos de enfermedades complejas: trastornos del neurodesarrollo y cáncer. Finalmente, he desarrollado un nuevo método para estudiar cómo las inversiones cromosómicas afectan los patrones de recombinación. Este método es aplicable a cualquier región genómica que contenga subpoblaciones con diferentes patrones de recombinación, lo que permite asociar estas subpoblaciones a rasgos fenotípicos.

This title is part of the four-book series "The Tomb of Forgotten Books" These books are like the four entrances to a literary maze, you can reach the heart of it no matter which entrance you start exploring. "The prisoner of the sky" is tells the story of how a mysterious visitor bought an expensive and thus unveil a secret in which may be seen as further complications or relief of a break through.

New York Times Bestseller "Packed with suspense. . . a gripping edge-of-your-seat thriller.” — Washington Book Review The internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark history of Franco’s Spain. In this unforgettable final volume of Ruiz Zafón’s cycle of novels set in the universe of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, beautiful and enigmatic Alicia Gris, with the help of the Sempere family, uncovers one of the most shocking conspiracies in all Spanish history. Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents. As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future. In this haunting novel, Carlos Ruiz Zafón proves yet again that he is a masterful storyteller and pays homage to the world of books, to his ingenious creation of the Cemetery of Forgotten, and to that magical bridge between literature and our lives.

Up to 85% of the world population suffers from low back pain, a clinical condition often related to the intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (31). Altered disc cell nutrition affects cell viability and can generate catabolic cascades that degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM). Also, a major degenerative biochemical change in the disc is the proteoglycan (PG) loss, which affects the osmotic pressure and hydration that is critical for cell nutrition. However, the relationship between biochemical degradation and nutrition along degeneration is unclear. The effect of cartilage endplates (CEP) tissue changes through known composition data remains unknown as well. Experiments have limited capacity in the study of multiple IVD interactions, while theoretical models are promising tools to this aim. Thus, this PhD thesis used computer models to study the relationship between disc degeneration and cell nutrition, and focuses on indirect mechanotransduction phenomena that occur in the IVD. Porohyperelastic IVD finite element models, including all tissues, were used. Such models consider the role of solid-fluid interaction within the IVD. In Chapter 3 a convergence study was performed to access the stability of local predictions under fast load rates. In Chapter 4 the models were updated by adding the viscoelastic collagen fibres of the annulus fibrosus (AF) and the osmotic pressure of the nucleus pulposus (NP). They were coupled to a transport-cell viability model, and a design of experiment (DOE) was used to study the effect of disc composition on cell nutrition. In Chapter 5 the transport model was modified to allow PG updates, depending on PG half-life and PG production related to predicted oxygen pressure. In Chapter 6, a composition-dependent permeability formulation was created for the CEP to focus on the impact of CEP degradation. Three days of diurnal load cycle were simulated for all transport-cell viability simulations. Solute concentrations were evaluated along the mid-sagittal plane path. Chapter 3 showed that unrealistic spatial oscillations in the fluid velocity predictions were due to material discontinuities. Previous stabilization strategies did not eliminate the oscillations. However, the creation of a material transition zone combined with local refinement reduced them by 91%. The model obtained warranted the stability of local calculations for long lasting loads. Chapter 4 results revealed that none of DOE combinations affected the cell viability, and that water reductions altered the most disc nutrition. Moreover, NP degeneration might affect the AF nutrition, possibly explaining the tears found in grade III discs. In Chapter 5, IVD nutrition affected the PG content, which seemed to simulate natural ageing. Also, PG loss altered disc mechanical behaviour but neither cell viability nor nutrition. However, the inclusion of NP dehydration reduced solute levels, which might activate catabolic processes. Chapter 6 showed that CEP permeability would increase with 31. Also, CEP degeneration alone produced NP dehydration under compression, which affected disc nutrition. The results suggested that the CEP might play a key role in 31. Interestingly, cell death was predicted when CEP degeneration was combined to AF and NP degeneration, questioning the paradigm that CEP calcification might be responsible for cell death along 31. This PhD thesis identified different paths related to 31. On one hand, NP dehydration and PG loss reduced glucose at the inner AF, weakening the latter due to inflammation and enzyme activation. Meanwhile, nutrition regulated the PG content, which can explain natural ageing but probably not accelerated degeneration processes. However, CEP degeneration caused NP dehydration, and the combined degeneration of all disc tissues activated the cell death. All these simulated events are important to understand 31 and might promote the development of new experimental explorations and treatment strategies.

From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique hardcovers—featuring cover art by Jessica Hische It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. In a design collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, the series features unique cover art by Hische, a superstar in the world of type design and illustration, whose work has appeared everywhere from Tiffany & Co. to Wes Anderson''s recent film Moonrise Kingdom to Penguin''s own bestsellers Committed and Rules of Civility. With exclusive designs that have never before appeared on Hische''s hugely popular Daily Drop Cap blog, the Penguin Drop Caps series debuted with an ''A'' for Jane Austen''s Pride and Prejudice, a ''B'' for Charlotte Brönte''s Jane Eyre, and a ''C'' for Willa Cather''s My Ántonia. It continues with more perennial classics, perfect to give as elegant gifts or to showcase on your own shelves. Z is for Zafón. Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in what he finds in the “cemetery of lost books,” a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

In recent years, multi-threaded processors have become more and more popular in industry in order to increase the system aggregated performance and per-application performance, overcoming the limitations imposed by the limited instruction-level parallelism, and by power and thermal constraints. Multi-threaded processors are widely used in servers, desktop computers, lap-tops, and mobile devices. However, multi-threaded processors introduce complexities when accounting CPU (computation) capacity (CPU accounting), since the CPU capacity accounted to an application not only depends upon the time that the application is scheduled onto a CPU, but also on the amount of hardware resources it receives during that period. And given that in a multi-threaded processor hardware resources are dynamically shared between applications, the CPU capacity accounted to an application in a multi-threaded processor depends upon the workload in which it executes. This is inconvenient because the CPU accounting of the same application with the same input data set may be accounted significantly different depending upon the workload in which it executes. Deploying systems with accurate CPU accounting mechanisms is necessary to increase fairness among running applications. Moreover, it will allow users to be fairly charged on a shared data center, facilitating server consolidation in future systems. This Thesis analyses the concepts of CPU capacity and CPU accounting for multi-threaded processors. In this study, we demonstrate that current CPU accounting mechanisms are not as accurate as they should be in multi-threaded processors. For this reason, we present two novel CPU accounting mechanisms that improve the accuracy in measuring the CPU capacity for multi-threaded processors with low hardware overhead. We focus our attention on several current multi-threaded processors, including chip multiprocessors and simultaneous multithreading processors. Finally, we analyse the impact of shared resources in multi-threaded processors in operating system CPU scheduler and we propose several schedulers that improve the knowledge of shared hardware resources at the software level.

Back Cover excerpt Thousands of books have been written about happiness and how to achieve it but these do not consider outer influences from other humans in our life. Of course, all of us would like to be happy and without problems. But many of us have had bad experiences or some sort of problems in our daily life without them having a logical cause or a possible explanation. Some things did not go as expected despite all of our efforts. We are sometimes victims of unforeseen accidents. We sometimes are also unable to reach our foreseen immediate goals which previously were considered very simple even though we were fighting hard to achieve them. We do not know why these events occur but most people attribute it to a possible bad luck at the time or something which was meant to be. A second group either by superstition, or rightly sustained, attribute them to a third partys influence that is considered as an evil-eyed person or bird of ill omen. A third smaller group attributes causes to premeditated attacks from witches or sorcerers and to have been the target of curses or spells. Negative intentions that could be either normal or enhanced are what we call psychic attacks. My idea is to give orientation on something undeniable that exists although is blindly rejected by many. Superstitions and myths are analyzed into a logical, rational and partly scientific framework. There are strong cultural differences between people from the western hemisphere and those from the orient, and even between people that speak a common language but are separated by geographical or political boundaries. But when common human reactions and events are observed in several different environments, this makes us think that certain truth should be something underlying as the origin and outcomes of those events.

A chilling, compelling mystery from the internationally bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind. When fourteen-year-old Irene Sauvelle moves with her family to Cape House on the coast of Normandy, she''s immediately taken by the beauty of the place--its expansive cliffs, coasts, and harbors. There, she meets a local boy named Ishmael, and the two soon fall in love. But a dark plot is about to unfold involving a reclusive toymaker who lives in a gigantic mansion filled with mechanical beings and shadows of the past. As strange lights shine through the fog surrounding a small, barren island, Irene''s younger brother dreams of a dark creature hidden deep in the forest. And when a young girl is found murdered, her body at the end of a path torn through the woods by a monstrous, inhuman force, Irene and Ishmael wonder--has a demonic presence been unleashed on the inhabitants of Cape House? Together, they''ll have to survive the most terrifying summer of their lives.

A vision-type dream on someone so far unknown to him and a series of personal experiences shatter the religious convictions of the author of this book as he struggles for more than twenty years to find a logical explanation for inter-connected events and premonitory dreams. In the search for his possible connection with the man in the dream, an ex-president of the USA, he analyzed several theories and finally found one that suggest another world and the existence of one life or many others beyond this one. Straining against all that he had previously believed he initially discounts the possibility of reincarnation but after countless discards and rejections he finally accepts it as being the only rational explanation to the doubts presented. In a process of past-life regression, inexplicable new evidence and memories appear which are later corroborated. However, he blatantly refuses to accept these memories as being his own because there is no scientific approach to justify their existence in his mind, as there had been no regular inputs or physical recording process in the brain which could account for their presence. As a result of this, a theory forms in the author''s mind which he refers to as Hyperlink'', which could offer a rational explanation for the possible access to remote memories of past lives and opens in the process a window on a world without the limits of time or space; one in which reincarnation links all.

This addition to the ISOR series introduces complementarity models in a straightforward and approachable manner and uses them to carry out an in-depth analysis of energy markets, including formulation issues and solution techniques. In a nutshell, complementarity models generalize: a. optimization problems via their Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions b. on-cooperative games in which each player may be solving a separate but related optimization problem with potentially overall system constraints (e.g., market-clearing conditions) c. conomic and engineering problems that aren’t specifically derived from optimization problems (e.g., spatial price equilibria) d. roblems in which both primal and dual variables (prices) appear in the original formulation (e.g., The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) or its precursor, PIES). As such, complementarity models are a very general and flexible modeling format. A natural question is why concentrate on energy markets for this complementarity approach? s it turns out, energy or other markets that have game theoretic aspects are best modeled by complementarity problems. The reason is that the traditional perfect competition approach no longer applies due to deregulation and restructuring of these markets and thus the corresponding optimization problems may no longer hold. Also, in some instances it is important in the original model formulation to involve both primal variables (e.g., production) as well as dual variables (e.g., market prices) for public and private sector energy planning. Traditional optimization problems can not directly handle this mixing of primal and dual variables but complementarity models can and this makes them all that more effective for decision-makers.

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julián, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city''s dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco''s dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love, and will ultimately transform their lives.

1st European Workshop on AppRoaches to MObiquiTous Resilience May 08, 2012-May 11, 2012 Sibiu, Romania. You can view more information about this proceeding and all of ACM�s other published conference proceedings from the ACM Digital Library: http://www.acm.org/dl.

IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence (BI) provides a proven enterprise BI platform with an open data strategy, providing customers with the ability to leverage data from any source, package it into a business model, and make it available to consumers in various interfaces that are tailored to the task. IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes complements the existing Cognos BI capabilities and continues the tradition of an open data model. It focuses on extending the scalability of the IBM Cognos platform to enable speed-of-thought analytics over terabytes of enterprise data, without having to invest in a new data warehouse appliance. This capability adds a new level of query intelligence so you can unleash the power of your enterprise data warehouse. This IBM Redbooks® publication addresses IBM Cognos Business Intelligence V10.2 and specifically, the IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes capabilities. This book can help you in the following ways: Understand core features of the Dynamic Cubes capabilities of IBM Cognos BI V10.2 Learn by example with practical scenarios using the IBM Cognos samples This book uses fictional business scenarios to demonstrate the power and capabilities of IBM Cognos Dynamic Cubes. It primarily focuses on the roles of modeler, administrator, and IT architect.

A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the mechanical beings he has created ...an enigma surrounding strange lights that shine through the mists that envelop the small island on which the old lighthouse stands...a shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods...these are the elements of a mystery that bind will bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in the Blue Bay. He mother has taken a job as a housekeeper for the toymaker, Lazarus, but his house contains more secrets than Irene and Ishmael have bargained for.

A dark mystery lurks in the heart of Calcutta in this young adult novel from bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from the original Spanish by acclaimed translator Lucia Graves. Set in Calcutta in the 1930s, The Midnight Palace begins on a dark night when an English lieutenant fights to save newborn twins Ben and Sheere from an unthinkable threat. Despite monsoon-force rains and terrible danger lurking around every street corner, the young lieutenant manages to get them to safety, but not without losing his own life... Years later, on the eve of Ben and Sheere''s sixteenth birthday, the mysterious threat reenters their lives. This time, it may be impossible to escape. With the help of their brave friends, the twins must take a stand against the terror that watches them in the shadows of the night—and face the most frightening creature in the history of the City of Palaces.

It''s wartime, and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village where they''ve recently bought a home. But from the minute they cross the threshold, strange things begin to happen. In that mysterious house still lurks the spirit of Jacob, the previous owners'' son, who died by drowning. With the help of their new friend Roland, Max and Alicia Carver begin to explore the strange circumstances of that death and discover the existence of a mysterious being called the Prince of Mist--a diabolical character who has returned from the shadows to collect on a debt from the past. Soon the three friends find themselves caught up in an adventure of sunken ships and an enchanted stone garden--an adventure that will change their lives forever.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of the international phenomenon The Shadow of the Wind, comes a riveting masterpiece about love, literature, and betrayal. • “[Zafón''s] visionary storytelling prowess is a genre unto itself." —USA Today In this powerful, labyrinthian thriller, David Martín is a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat. Holed up in a haunting abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, he furiously taps out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated. Thus, when he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own. Once again, Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.

Previous work has demonstrated that coflowering plant species (those that flower simultaneously in the same place) can potentially compete for pollination services. Competition for pollination among plant species can negatively impact their reproductive success. To minimise competition, plants can partition the activity of shared pollinators through releasing their floral resources at different times. Resource partitioning has been studied in several individual plant species, and some guilds of plants (e.g. African acacias), but little is known about temporal changes in resources at a community level. This thesis examines the spatiotemporal changes of floral resources at a community level and its implications for pollinator activity patterns. The temporal patterns of nectar and pollen provision of 70 plant species in two different plots were investigated at Mpala, in north central Kenya between 2004 and 2006. The communities studied showed that seasonal and daily microclimatic fluctuations significantly affect flowering patterns, times of flower opening, dehiscence and nectar production; and consequently the overall amount of pollen mass and nectar volume available at different times. I explored the effects of daily temporal changes in floral resource availability on pollinator activity patterns both in a guild of Malvaceae plant species, and at the community level through pollination webs. Detailed observations of daily patterns of resource provision and floral visitation in six Malvaceae plant species showed that plants can effectively avoid competition through attracting different pollinators, and via resource partition. Examination of daily changes in resource availability and the links portrayed in plant-visitor webs revealed that visitors move from one plant species to another, actively tracking changes in floral resource provision. These results suggest that in combination with physiological limitations imposed to the pollinators by temperature, bottom-up influences are a main force shaping daily pollinator activity patterns at a community level. Competition for pollination can only occur if plant species flower simultaneously and share pollinators within the same geographic area. Competition for pollination has been investigated in at least two African communities, but none of these studies have assessed the geographic spatial scale over which competition among coflowering species might happen. With the aim of measuring the geographic distance that pollinators visiting African acacias fly whilst foraging, I used molecular techniques to conduct paternity analysis as a proxy of how far pollen is carried away from particular trees within a population of Senegalia (Acacia) mellifera. The paternity analysis showed that pollinators move on average a maximum of 60 metres from the sampled trees, and that trees producing more flowers (resources) receive more visits, confirming that if sufficient resources are available pollinators can stay within relatively small geographic areas. Pollen movement only provides a partial measurement of the genetic neighbourhood of individual plants, because genes via seed dispersal can travel longer distances than those encompassed by the pollinators foraging areas. To investigate patterns of genetic variability in S. mellifera, I used microsatellites to conduct landscape genetic analyses including 25 adult populations and 9 seedling populations. Fourteen distinctive genetic clusters separated by four main geographic barriers were identified in the analyses. Significantly higher inbreeding was found in the seedling populations than in the adult populations. I discuss the possibility that this situation has been caused by anthropogenic exploitation and fragmentation of the adult stands.