- Table View
- List View
A Critical Appraisal of Germany's Thermal Retrofit Policy: Turning Down the Heat (Green Energy and Technology)
by Ray Galvin Minna Sunikka-BlankGermany is seen as a leader in thermal retrofit policy and practice, but how effective is its approach? A Critical Appraisal of Germany's Thermal Retrofit Policy examines this policy in context and assesses its effectiveness. It finds that technical constraints and the costs of retrofitting reduce the rate of progress, while planning underestimates the influence of user behavior in the form of rebound and prebound effects. A key finding is that savings can be maximized within a policy that understands the actual behavior and motivation of households, the area where most energy savings are already taking place. The book suggests a new policy paradigm that would encourage a better balance of partial and comprehensive retrofits, utilizing household behavior changes based on a better understanding of fuel saving motivation and fuel price elasticity. In this approach, the thermal building regulations would be made more flexible so that policymakers would: - Promote partial, transitional and cost-optimal retrofits, which are more certain to pay back through fuel savings if they are appropriate to building typology and homeowner budgets. - Promote comprehensive retrofits for reasons other than economic gain, focusing instead on the comfort and environmental benefits of energy-efficient homes. - Invest more heavily in educating households to heat economically, learning from the prebound effect so as to maximize the utility of the homes they currently occupy, and base payback time calculations on actual consumption. The results and findings of this book would be of interest to policymakers, researchers and graduate students alike.
A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends
by Christian Bréthaut Rémi SchweizerThis edited volume provides a critical discussion of particular trends that are widely recognised to influence water management by comparing them with what is actually happening in the field. Among others, these trends include water security, adaptive or integrative management, and the water-energy-food nexus, which are often presented as essential means to reaching more sustainable and resilient water use. However, the extent to which these trends have managed to structure concrete practices in water management remains uncertain. Informed by empirically grounded research, each chapter of this work engages with a particular approach, concept or theory. Together, they provide a nuanced picture of trends in water management that require universal remedies and global norms.
Critical Cases in Electrocardiography: An Annotated Atlas Of Don't-miss Ecgs For Emergency And Critical Care
by Steven R. LowensteinEmergency and critical care providers are often challenged by patients with acute cardiorespiratory symptoms and abnormal electrocardiograms. <P><P>Critical Cases in Electrocardiography emphasizes clinically-relevant topics, focusing squarely on situations where interpretation of the ECG contributes to clinical decision-making. <P>This atlas is unique, in that it includes numerous examples of ECG 'misses' - cases where the computer algorithm or the clinicians (or both) got the diagnosis wrong. While many textbooks include only smaller, black and white ECG tracings, which do not resemble actual clinical practice, this volume is designed to encourage self-study of the ECG by including full-page tracings in their natural color. The book focuses on 'don't miss' ECG tracings in order to help readers advance beyond the stage of 'competent' electrocardiographer. Anatomic and electrophysiologic correlations are emphasized throughout the work, helping readers appreciate the anatomic and electrical origins of the ECG abnormalities, rather than relying solely on pattern memorization.<P> The atlas format encourages quick review of clinical cases, focusing on the ECG tracings.<P> Includes real-life examples of 'easy-to-miss' presentations of common emergencies, teaching advanced readers to diagnose critical emergencies.<P> Anatomic and electrophysiologic correlations are emphasized throughout, helping readers appreciate the anatomic and electrical origins of the ECG abnormalities rather than relying solely on pattern memorization.
A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics: People, Paths, Ideas (Biosemiotics #5)
by Dario MartinelliA critical companion of zoosemiotics is the first attempt to systematise the study of animal communication and signification through its most important and/or problematic terms and concepts, and its most representative scholars. It is a companion, in that it attempts to cover the entire range of key terms in the field, and it's critical, in that it aims not only to describe, but also to discuss, problematise and, in some cases, resolve, these terms.
Critical Component Wear in Heavy Duty Engines
by P. A. Lakshminarayanan Nagaraj S. NayakThe critical parts of a heavy duty engine are theoretically designed for infinite life without mechanical fatigue failure. Yet the life of an engine is in reality determined by wear of the critical parts. Even if an engine is designed and built to have normal wear life, abnormal wear takes place either due to special working conditions or increased loading. Understanding abnormal and normal wear enables the engineer to control the external conditions leading to premature wear, or to design the critical parts that have longer wear life and hence lower costs. The literature on wear phenomenon related to engines is scattered in numerous periodicals and books. For the first time, Lakshminarayanan and Nayak bring the tribological aspects of different critical engine components together in one volume, covering key components like the liner, piston, rings, valve, valve train and bearings, with methods to identify and quantify wear. The first book to combine solutions to critical component wear in one volume Presents real world case studies with suitable mathematical models for earth movers, power generators, and sea going vessels Includes material from researchers at Schaeffer Manufacturing (USA), Tekniker (Spain), Fuchs (Germany), BAM (Germany), Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd (India) and Tarabusi (Spain) Wear simulations and calculations included in the appendices Instructor presentations slides with book figures available from the companion site Critical Component Wear in Heavy Duty Engines is aimed at postgraduates in automotive engineering, engine design, tribology, combustion and practitioners involved in engine R&D for applications such as commercial vehicles, cars, stationary engines (for generators, pumps, etc.), boats and ships. This book is also a key reference for senior undergraduates looking to move onto advanced study in the above topics, consultants and product mangers in industry, as well as engineers involved in design of furnaces, gas turbines, and rocket combustion. Companion website for the book: www.wiley.com/go/lakshmi
Critical Discourses of Old Age and Telecare Technologies
by Gizdem AkdurThis book makes an enquiry into policies surrounding old age and telecare. It contextualises telecare within the wider history of health and social care in England to build the case that there are grand narratives of old age embedded in policies. Divided into four sections, the book covers: • Connecting old age with telecare • A general review of old age and telecare • A critical enquiry into discourses and the identity of old age • Conclusions and future directions. The author highlights the manifestation of old age discourses in care policies, how they have been perpetuated yet also transformed in the context of telecare, and what this means about older people. The book will be of interest to students and academics in the fields of gerontology, sociology, old age studies, philosophy, social policy, health and social care policy, information systems, and critical theoreticians
A Critical Ethnography of an Outdoor School: Reimagining the Relationship between Science Education and Climate Change Politics (Critical Ethnographic Research in Education)
by Tristan GleasonBy using critical ethnographic research to explore the practices and policies that sustain a residential outdoor school in the US, this volume problematizes the relationship between science education and climate change politics in the United States. Weaving together empirical data from field work with theoretical resources spanning the sciences and humanities, this volume demonstrates how community activism, political alliances, and policy change have guaranteed the survival of an outdoor school in Oregon. This example enables artful re-examination of the relationship between science education, politics, and policy more broadly, as well as the relation of science education to climate change politics in particular. Gleason ultimately reconstructs science education towards epistemic and ontological pluralism, and illustrates how critical ethnographic research can instigate a reimagining of the relationship between curriculum and how we relate to the world. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in the philosophical underpinnings and implications of science education, environmental education, and educational policy more broadly. Those specifically interested in critical ethnographic research will also benefit from this book.
Critical Information Infrastructures Security: 12th International Conference, Critis 2017, Lucca, Italy, October 8-13, 2017, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #10707)
by Gregorio D'Agostino Antonio ScalaThis book constitutes revised selected papers from the 12th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security, CRITIS 201, held in Lucca, Italy, in October 2017. The 21 full papers and 4 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. They present innovative research and explore new challenges in the field of critical information infrastructures protection (C(I)IP) and deal with multi-disciplinary approaches to relevant C(I)IP problems.
Critical Information Infrastructures Security: 13th International Conference, CRITIS 2018, Kaunas, Lithuania, September 24-26, 2018, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #11260)
by Eric Luiijf Inga Žutautaitė Bernhard M. HämmerliThis book constitutes revised selected papers from the 13th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security, CRITIS 2018, held in Kaunas, Lithuania, in September 2018.The 16 full papers and 3 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 61 submissions. They are grouped in the following topical sections: advanced analysis of critical energy systems, strengthening urban resilience, securing internet of things and industrial control systems, need and tool sets for industrial control system security, and advancements in governance and resilience of critical infrastructures.
Critical Infrastructure Protection in Homeland Security
by Ted G. Lewis"...excellent for use as a text in information assurance or cyber-security courses...I strongly advocate that professors...examine this book with the intention of using it in their programs." (Computing Reviews.com, March 22, 2007)"The book is written as a student textbook, but it should be equally valuable for current practitioners...this book is a very worthwhile investment." (Homeland Security Watch, August 17, 2006)While the emphasis is on the development of policies that lead to successful prevention of terrorist attacks on the nation's infrastructure, this book is the first scientific study of critical infrastructures and their protection. The book models the nation's most valuable physical assets and infrastructure sectors as networks of nodes and links. It then analyzes the network to identify vulnerabilities and risks in the sector combining network science, complexity theory, modeling and simulation, and risk analysis.The most critical components become the focus of deeper analysis and protection. This approach reduces the complex problem of protecting water supplies, energy pipelines, telecommunication stations, Internet and Web networks, and power grids to a much simpler problem of protecting a few critical nodes. The new edition incorporates a broader selection of ideas and sectors and moves the mathematical topics into several appendices.
Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Light of the Armed Conflicts (Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications)
by Tünde Anna Kovács Zoltán Nyikes Tamás Berek Norbert Daruka László TóthThis book summarizes the latest findings in critical infrastructure protection and related research areas. Armed conflicts and wars are now closer to Europe than at any time in the last several decades, and the protection of critical infrastructures has gained new prominence. This situation has also revealed the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and the importance of its protection. The development of technologies, cybertechnologies, and digitalization in all aspects of our daily lives implies new security challenges in critical infrastructure protection and security science and this book addresses the four main dimensions of critical infrastructure protection: 1. Physical protection 2. Cybersecurity 3. Political security 4. Individual security The issue of physical security has accompanied humanity since its birth. Nowadays, this issue has become even more important due to technological advances, as this is the security area that people physically experience—physical protection, including protection against explosions and ballistic attacks, but also defense of objects and guaranteeing transportation security. Cyberspace represents the fifth domain of warfare and a central security question in our age. The base of cyberspace defense is high-quality hardware and expert support. With our lives increasingly digital, cybersecurity's core elements include safety awareness and informatics. Political security, the third dimension, is shaped by diverse political ideologies influencing economies, societies, and other aspects of life. This book explores topics such as migration policies, defense against terrorism, national and international security, and public safety.The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide.The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide. The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide. The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide. The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide. The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety, energy supplies, and economic security. Each chapter of this book emphasizes security, focusing on Central Europe while addressing global concerns. Authored by researchers, experts, and scholars, this book is invaluable for Ph.D. students, professionals, and educators worldwide. The fourth dimension, individual security, spans healthcare, food safety
Critical Infrastructure Protection, Risk Management, and Resilience: A Policy Perspective
by Nancy E. Marion Kelley A. Pesch-CroninThis second edition of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Risk Management, and Resilience continues to be an essential resource for understanding and protecting critical infrastructure across the U.S. Revised and thoroughly updated throughout, the textbook reflects and addresses the many changes that have occurred in critical infrastructure protection and risk management since the publication of the first edition. This new edition retains the book’s focus on understudied topics, while also continuing its unique, policy-based approach to topics, ensuring that material is presented in a neutral and unbiased manner. An accessible and up-to-date text, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Risk Management, and Resilience is a key textbook for upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level courses across Homeland Security, Critical Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and Public Administration.
Critical Infrastructure Protection XVII: 17th IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference, ICCIP 2023, Arlington, VA, USA, March 13–14, 2023, Revised Selected Papers (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology #686)
by Jason Staggs Sujeet ShenoiThe information infrastructure – comprising computers, embedded devices, networks and software systems – is vital to operations in every sector: chemicals, commercial facilities, communications, critical manufacturing, dams, defense industrial base, emergency services, energy, financial services, food and agriculture, government facilities, healthcare and public health, information technology, nuclear reactors, materials and waste, transportation systems, and water and wastewater systems. Global business and industry, governments, indeed society itself, cannot function if major components of the critical information infrastructure are degraded, disabled or destroyed. Critical Infrastructure Protection XVII describes original research results and innovative applications in the interdisciplinary field of critical infrastructure protection. Also, it highlights the importance of weaving science, technology and policy in crafting sophisticated, yet practical, solutions that will help secure information, computer and network assets in the various critical infrastructure sectors. Areas of coverage include: Themes and IssuesSmart Grid Risks and ImpactsNetwork and Telecommunications Systems SecurityInfrastructure SecurityAutomobile Security This book is the seventeenth volume in the annual series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.10 on Critical Infrastructure Protection, an international community of scientists, engineers, practitioners and policy makers dedicated to advancing research, development and implementation efforts focused on infrastructure protection. The book contains a selection of eleven edited papers from the Seventeenth Annual IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection, which was held at SRI International, Arlington, Virginia, USA in the spring of 2023. Critical Infrastructure Protection XVII is an important resource for researchers, faculty members and graduate students, as well as for as well as for policy makers, practitioners and other individuals with interests in homeland security.
Critical Infrastructure Protection XVIII: 18th IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference, ICCIP 2024, Arlington, VA, USA, March 18–19, 2024, Proceedings (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology #725)
by Jason Staggs Sujeet ShenoiThe cyber infrastructure – comprising computers, embedded devices, networks and software systems – is vital to operations in every sector: chemicals, commercial facilities, communications, critical manufacturing, dams, defense industrial base, emergency services, energy, financial services, food and agriculture, government facilities, healthcare and public health, information technology, nuclear reactors, materials and waste, transportation systems, and water and wastewater systems. Global business and industry, governments, indeed society itself, cannot function if major components of the critical infrastructure are degraded, disabled or destroyed.Critical Infrastructure Protection XVIII describes original research results and innovative applications in the interdisciplinary field of critical infrastructure protection. Also, it highlights the importance of weaving together science, technology and policy to craft sophisticated, yet practical, solutions that will help secure information, computer and network assets in the various critical infrastructure sectors. Areas of coverage include: Infrastructure Security Advanced Manufacturing Security Industrial Control System Security Infrastructure Modeling This book is the eighteenth volume in the annual series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.10 on Critical Infrastructure Protection, an international community of scientists, engineers, practitioners and policy makers dedicated to advancing research, development and implementation efforts focused on infrastructure protection. The book contains a selection of nine edited papers from the Eighteenth Annual IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection, which was held at SRI International, Arlington, Virginia, USA in the spring of 2024. Critical Infrastructure Protection XVIII is an important resource for researchers, faculty members and graduate students, as well as for policy makers, practitioners and other individuals with interests in homeland security.
Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience: Theories, Methods, Tools and Technologies (Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications)
by Dimitris Gritzalis Marianthi Theocharidou George StergiopoulosThis book presents the latest trends in attacks and protection methods of Critical Infrastructures. It describes original research models and applied solutions for protecting major emerging threats in Critical Infrastructures and their underlying networks. It presents a number of emerging endeavors, from newly adopted technical expertise in industrial security to efficient modeling and implementation of attacks and relevant security measures in industrial control systems; including advancements in hardware and services security, interdependency networks, risk analysis, and control systems security along with their underlying protocols.Novel attacks against Critical Infrastructures (CI) demand novel security solutions. Simply adding more of what is done already (e.g. more thorough risk assessments, more expensive Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems, more efficient firewalls, etc.) is simply not enough against threats and attacks that seem to have evolved beyond modern analyses and protection methods.The knowledge presented here will help Critical Infrastructure authorities, security officers, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) personnel and relevant researchers to (i) get acquainted with advancements in the field, (ii) integrate security research into their industrial or research work, (iii) evolve current practices in modeling and analyzing Critical Infrastructures, and (iv) moderate potential crises and emergencies influencing or emerging from Critical Infrastructures.
Critical Infrastructures: Transportation by Road and Rail (Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality #31)
by Bogdan I. Vamanu Adrian V. Gheorghe Polinpapilinho F. KatinaThis book addresses a key issue in today's society: the safer transport of dangerous goods, taking into account people, the environment and economics. In particular, it offers a potential approach to identifying the issues, developing the models, providing the methods and recommending the tools to address the risks and vulnerabilities involved. We believe this can only be achieved by assessing those risks in a comprehensive, quantifiable and integrated manner. Examining both rail and road transportation, the book is divided into three sections, covering: the mature and accepted (by both academia and practitioners) methodology of risk assessment; the vulnerability assessment - a novel approach proposed as a vital complement to risk; guidance and support to build the tools that make methods and equations to yield: the Decision Support Systems. Throughout the book, the authors do not endeavor to provide THE solution. Instead, the book offers insightful food for thought for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike.
Critical Infrastructures, Key Resources, Key Assets: Risk, Vulnerability, Resilience, Fragility, and Perception Governance (Topics in Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality #34)
by Adrian V. Gheorghe Polinpapilinho F. Katina Dan V. Vamanu Roland PulferIn the face of increasing failures, comments attributed to Albert Einstein loom large: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. " There is a pervasive feeling that any attempt to make sense of the current terrain of complex systems must involve thinking outside the box and originating unconventional approaches that integrate organizational, managerial, social, political, cultural, and human aspects and their interactions. This textbook offers research-based models and tools for diagnosing and predicting the behavior of complex techno-socio-economic systems in the domain of critical infrastructures, key resources, key assets and the open bazaar of space, undersea, and below-ground systems. These models exemplify emblematic models in physics, within which the critical infrastructures, as well as society itself and its paraphernalia, share the profile of many-body systems featuring cooperative phenomena and phase transitions - the latter usually felt as disruptive occurrences. The book and its models focus on the analytics of real-life-business actors, including policy-makers, financiers and insurers, industry managers, and emergency responders.
Critical Infrastructures Resilience: Policy and Engineering Principles
by Auroop Ratan Ganguly Udit Bhatia Stephen E. FlynnThis text offers comprehensive and principled, yet practical, guidelines to critical infrastructures resilience. Extreme events and stresses, including those that may be unprecedented but are no longer surprising, have disproportionate effects on critical infrastructures and hence on communities, cities, and megaregions. Critical infrastructures include buildings and bridges, dams, levees, and sea walls, as well as power plants and chemical factories, besides lifeline networks such as multimodal transportation, power grids, communication, and water or wastewater. The growing interconnectedness of natural-built-human systems causes cascading infrastructure failures and necessitates simultaneous recovery. This text explores the new paradigm centered on the concept of resilience by approaching the challenges posed by globalization, climate change, and growing urbanization on critical infrastructures and key resources through the combination of policy and engineering perspectives. It identifies solutions that are scientifically credible, data driven, and sound in engineering principles while concurrently informed by and supportive of social and policy imperatives. Critical Infrastructures Resilience will be of interest to students of engineering and policy.
Critical Insights on Colonial Modes of Seeing Cattle in India: Tracing the Pre-history of Green and White Revolutions (Asia in Transition #27)
by Himanshu UpadhyayaThis book traces the contours of the symbiotic relationship between crop cultivation and cattle rearing in India by reading against the grain of several official accounts from the late colonial period to the 1980s. It also skillfully unpacks the multiple cultural expressions that revolve around cattle in India and the wider subcontinent to show how this domestic animal has greatly impacted political discourses in South Asia from colonial times, into the postcolonial period. The author begins by demonstrating the dependence between the nomadic cattle breeder and the settled cultivator, at the nexus of land-livestock-agriculture, as indicated in the writings of Sir Albert Howard, who espoused some of the most sophisticated ideas on integration, holism, and mixed farming in an era when agricultural research was marked by increasing specialisation and compartmentalisation. The book springboards with the views of colonial experts who worked at imperial science institutions but passionately voiced dissenting opinions due to their emotional investment in the lives of Indian peasants, of whom Howard was a leading light. The book presents Howard and his contemporaries’ writings to then engage contemporary debates surrounding organic agriculture and climate change, tracing the path out of the treadmill of industrial agriculture and factory farming. In doing so, the book shows how, historically, animal rearing has been critically linked to livelihood strategies in the Indian subcontinent. At once a dispassionate reflection on the role played by cattle and water buffaloes in not just supporting farm operations in the agro-pastoral landscape, but also in contributing to millions of livelihoods in sustainable ways while fulfilling the animal protein in the Indian diet, the book presents contemporary lessons on development perspectives relating to sustainable and holistic agriculture. A rich and sweeping treatment of this aspect of environmental history in India that tackles the transformations prompted by the arrival of veterinary medicine, veterinary education and notions of scientific livestock management, the book is a rare read for historians, environmentalists, agriculturalists, development practitioners, and animal studies scholars with a particular interest in South Asia.
Critical Learning in Digital Networks (Research in Networked Learning)
by Petar Jandrić Damir BorasThis ambitious multidisciplinary volume assembles diverse critical-theory approaches to the current and future states of networked learning. Expert contributors expand upon the existing literature by analyzing the ethical aspects of networked learning and the ongoing need for more open, inclusive, and socially engaged educational practice. Chapters explore in depth evolving concepts of real and virtual, the processes of learning in, against, and beyond the internet, and the role of critical pedagogy in improving social conditions. In all, coverage is both realistic and positive about the potential of digital technologies in higher education as well as social and academic challenges on the horizon. Included among the topics: Counting on use of technology to enhance learning. Decentralized networked learning through online pre-publication. The reality of the online teacher. Moving from urban to virtual spaces and back. The project of a virtual emancipatory pedagogy. Using information technologies in the service of humanity. It is no longer a question of "Can technology enhance learning" it's a given that it does. Critical Learning in Digital Networks offers education researchers, teacher educators, instructional technologists, and instructional designers tools and methods for strengthening this increasingly vital interconnection.
Critical Mass: A Novel (A Delta-v Novel #2)
by Daniel SuarezIn New York Times bestselling author Daniel Suarez's latest space-tech thriller, a group of pioneering astropreneurs must overcome never-before-attempted engineering challenges to rescue colleagues stranded at a distant asteroid—kicking off a new space race in which Earth's climate crisis could well hang in the balance. When unforeseen circumstances during an innovative—and unsanctioned—commercial asteroid-mining mission leave two crew members stranded, those who make it back must engineer a rescue, all while navigating a shifting web of global political alliances and renewed Cold War tensions. With Earth governments consumed by the ravages of climate change and unable to take the risks necessary to make rapid progress in space, the crew must build their own nextgen spacecraft capable of mounting a rescue in time for the asteroid's next swing by Earth. In the process they'll need to establish the first spin-gravity station in deep space, the first orbiting solar power satellite and refinery, and historic infrastructure on the moon's surface—all of which could alleviate a deepening ecological, political, and economic crisis back on Earth, and prove that space-based industry is not only profitable, but possibly humanity's best hope for a livable, peaceful future.
Critical Materials and Sustainability Transition
by Arda Işıldar Eric D. van Hullebusch Donald HuisinghCritical minerals play a vital role in the ongoing energy transition, which aims to shift global energy systems towards more sustainable and low-carbon alternatives. These minerals, also known as critical minerals, are essential components in various clean energy technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. They possess unique properties that enable efficient energy generation, storage, and transmission. For instance, neodymium, a rare earth element, is crucial for the production of high-performance magnets used in wind turbines and electric motors. Lithium, another critical mineral, is a key component in rechargeable batteries powering electric vehicles and energy storage solutions. As the demand for clean energy technologies continues to rise, securing a sustainable and reliable supply of critical minerals becomes increasingly important to support the global energy transition and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In this book, we investigate various aspects of critical mineral governance in the context of sustainability transition. We give perspectives around the critical metal requirements of sustainability transition in a forward-looking manner. We discuss the answers to the following questions: What role do the critical raw materials play in the transition to a sustainable economy and energy systems transformation? What are the bottlenecks in achieving a sustainable critical material supply? How do the critical minerals enable renewable energy transition and sustainable development? What is their role in the sustainability transition? How is mineral criticality assessed? And how critical are minerals? What are some regional differences in terms of critical mineral availability, processing capacity, and the supply chain? What strategy should be followed in deciding between primary raw materials and secondary raw materials in supplying critical raw materials for the transition to a sustainable economy? What is the (known) critical material budget, and how does it fit with the climate pledges? The authors of the chapters of this book take a multi-perspective approach and provide insights from industrial ecology, environmental engineering, and sustainable management of natural resources. The information provided will help readers to understand critical metal requirements of present and future key technologies and will help societies to develop and implement sustainable supply strategies.
Critical Needs For Research In Veterinary Science
by Committee on the National Needs for Research in Veterinary ScienceResearch in veterinary science is critical for the health and well-being of animals, including humans. Food safety, emerging infectious diseases, the development of new therapies, and the possibility of bioterrorism are examples of issues addressed by veterinary science that have an impact on both human and animal health. However, there is a lack of scientists engaged in veterinary research. Too few veterinarians pursue research careers, and there is a shortage of facilities and funding for conducting research. This report identifies questions and issues that veterinary research can help to address, and discusses the scientific expertise and infrastructure needed to meet the most critical research needs. The report finds that there is an urgent need to provide adequate resources for investigators, training programs, and facilities involved in veterinary research.
Critical Perspectives on Open Development: Empirical Interrogation of Theory Construction (International Development Research Centre)
by Arul Chib, Caitlin M. Bentley, and Matthew L. SmithTheoretical and empirical analyses of whether open innovations in international development instrumentally advantages poor and marginalized populations.Over the last ten years, "open" innovations--the sharing of information without access restrictions or cost--have emerged within international development. But do these practices instrumentally advantage poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public sharing of information and communication resources contributes (or not) towards a process of positive social transformation. The contributors offer both theoretical and empirical analyses that cover a broad range of applications, emphasizing the underlying aspects of open innovations that are shared across contexts and domains.
Critical Perspectives on Technology and Education
by Scott Bulfin Nicola F. Johnson Chris BigumThis book offers critical readings of issues in education and technology and demonstrates how researchers can use critical perspectives from sociology, digital media, cultural studies, and other fields to broaden the "ed-tech" research imagination, open up new topics, ask new questions, develop theory, and articulate an agenda for informed action.