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Decision-Making for a Sustainable Environment: A Systemic Approach (Social Environmental Sustainability)
by Chris MaserIncreasingly, environmental decision making is like playing a multidimensional game of chess. With interactions between the atmosphere, the litho-hydrosphere, and the biosphere, the game is at once a measure of complexity, uncertainty, interdisciplinary acuity, social-environmental sustainability, and social justice for all generations. As such, it
Decision-Making in Design, Maintenance, Planning, and Investment of Wind Energy (International Series in Operations Research & Management Science #355)
by Daniela BorissovaThis book demonstrates how decision-making models can be applied to solve specific real-life problems, with a particular emphasis on wind energy. In a step-by-step manner, it guides the reader through decision-making, the formulation of optimization models, and the methods for solving them. After providing an overview of various models for the design of wind farms, it presents an optimization model for deciding which economy (country) to invest in and models for selecting suppliers. A dedicated chapter focuses on different models for monitoring and predictive maintenance for wind turbines (farms) due to the construction of turbine blades and vibration. It shows how combinatorial optimization models can help to make optimal decisions for one-dimensional cutting stock of blanks, their processing, and determining the optimal composition for production. Moreover, it discusses how the energy consumption balance index formed by conventional and renewable sources can be determined and presents a means of identifying the relative share of wind energy consumption among the other renewable sources. Operations research professionals, students, and decision-makers alike will find this book to be a valuable resource for tackling real-world challenges and driving sustainable advances in wind energy solutions.
Decision-Making in Energy Systems
by Vivek D. BhiseThis is a comprehensive book on how to make complex decisions on energy systems problems involving different technologies, environmental effects, costs, benefits, risks, and safety issues. Using Industrial and Systems Engineering techniques for decision-making in Energy Systems, the book provides the background knowledge and methods to incorporate multiple criteria involved in solving energy system problems. It offers methods, examples, and case studies illustrating applications. Decision-Making in Energy Systems discusses subjective as well as objective methods, approaches, and techniques taken from the systems and industrial engineering domain and puts them to use in solving energy systems problems. It uses an integrated approach by including effects of all technical, economic, environmental, and safety considerations as well as costs and risks. The book is specially designed for practicing engineers from industrial/systems engineering who work in energy systems engineering industries. Aimed at graduate students, researchers, and managers involved in various energy generating, distributing, and consuming companies, the book helps the reader to understand, evaluate, and decide on solutions to their energy-related problems.
Decision-Making in Environmental Health: From Evidence to Action
by D. Briggs C. Corvalan G. ZielhuisDecision-Making in Environmental Health examines the need for information in support of decision-making in environmental health. It discusses indicators of environmental health, methods of data collection and the assessment of exposure to and the health impact of different environmental risk factors.
Decision-Making in High Risk Organizations Under Stress Conditions
by Anthony J. Spurgin David W. StupplesThis book discusses management decision-making under accident conditions as a vehicle to confirm the importance of clear decision-making guided by a systems approach on how an organization functions related to the role of managers, operators, and the operation of the plant. The book shows how to effectively assess the reliability of an organization particularly those organizations responsible for critical infrastructure. The authors have used Stafford Beer’s cybernetic model as a basis to model the behavior and reliability of such organizations. A series of case studies are used to draw conclusions not only how training, experience, and education can improve the strategy and response of management to reduce the probability of an economic or social disaster, but also draw attention to the fact that managers need to be made aware of the consequences of their decisions. Poor management decisions made under stress conditions can lead to the collapse of an organization together with its underlying business, possibly linked to a social disaster with loss of life. Some technology-ignorant management decisions even under non-stress conditions can lead to dangerous situations, which can increase the economic burden placed on an organization. This book describes such situations in order to promote improvement in organizational preparedness by training, experience, and education to reduce safety and economic risks. This book offers:• Case studies of accidents that have affected different HROs (high-risk organizations) and others, due to poor decision-making by management• Training methods (advocated by Admiral Hyman Rickover, adopted by military bodies and others) to prepare staff to make critical decisions under difficult conditions and examine their applicability to training managers of high-risk facilities• Documentation on how making decisions in difficult situations have psychological constraints related to the degree of preparedness and the tools available to aid the decision maker(s)• Studies on the key actions taken before, during, and after accidents and how these management decisions can affect accident propagation, and how one could improve management decision-making by the use of training in decision-making and an understanding of Ross Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.• Simulation techniques to improve training of front-line operators and management• Consideration of cost and investment evaluations and how they can distort the selection of tactics and measures that ensure successful operations and avoidance of accidents
Decision-making Analysis and Optimization Modeling of Emergency Warnings for Major Accidents
by Wenmei Gai Yan Du Yunfeng DengThis book highlights cutting-edge research into emergency early warning management and decision-making for severe accidents. Using toxic gas leakages as examples, it puts forward new design methods for emergency early warning systems, as well as a systematic description of emergency early warning information communication mechanisms and characteristics of regional evacuation, based on a wide range of theories, including safety engineering, information engineering, communication, behaviorology and others. The book applies a range of methods, such as case analysis, questionnaire interviews, and multi-objective optimization modeling. Drawing on this basis, it subsequently proposes a multi-objective optimization modeling and algorithm for emergency path selection, together with an evacuation risk assessment method. Divided into six chapters prepared by an international team of researchers, the book addresses the design of early warning systems, communication and dissemination mechanisms of early warning information, characteristics of regional evacuation, multi-objective optimization of emergency paths, and evacuation risk assessment. The book offers an essential reference guide for engineering technicians and researchers in a wide range of fields, including emergency management, safety science and engineering, disaster relief engineering, and transportation optimization, as well as graduate students in related majors at colleges and universities.
Decision-making Strategies for Automated Driving in Urban Environments (Springer Theses)
by Antonio ArtuñedoThis book describes an effective decision-making and planning architecture for enhancing the navigation capabilities of automated vehicles in the presence of non-detailed, open-source maps. The system involves dynamically obtaining road corridors from map information and utilizing a camera-based lane detection system to update and enhance the navigable space in order to address the issues of intrinsic uncertainty and low-fidelity. An efficient and human-like local planner then determines, within a probabilistic framework, a safe motion trajectory, ensuring the continuity of the path curvature and limiting longitudinal and lateral accelerations. LiDAR-based perception is then used to identify the driving scenario, and subsequently re-plan the trajectory, leading in some cases to adjustment of the high-level route to reach the given destination. The method has been validated through extensive theoretical and experimental analyses, which are reported here in detail.
Decision-making Tools to Support Innovation: Guidelines and Case Studies
by Manon Enjolras Daniel Galvez Mauricio CamargoScientific thinking concerning the way in which we drive innovation has been widely developed in recent years. It is known that the process of innovation consists of a succession of decision-making processes that require simultaneous technical, economical, organizational and sustainable compromises. Indeed, all innovative activities in business require stakeholders to seek out the best compromise between various, often contradictory dimensions of the same problems. Through studying practical cases from various fields (e.g. energy, marketing and sustainable development), this book addresses all the stages of the innovation process, highlighting some of the main decisions that can be faced by organizations. Based on the historical research conducted at the ERPI Laboratory (University of Lorraine) in Nancy, France, this book presents six innovation practices: strategy, creativity, design, project management, human resources and capitalization of knowledge. These practices are then illustrated through examples of decision support methods' applications.
Decisions and Trends in Social Systems: Innovative and Integrated Approaches of Care Services (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #189)
by Šárka Hošková-Mayerová Fabrizio Maturo Daniela SoituThis book presents a systemic perspective on the broadly perceived problem of social care, meant in terms of a network engaging balanced resources and actors to assure the functionality, in an integrative approach. The approach involves individual, institutional and organizational structures, at the micro, mezzo- and macro-levels, in their interrelations, with proper contexts for understandings, interpretations and actions by stakeholders. The papers presented suggest ways of changes, involving even participant actors as changing agents, taking into account evolving behaviors and human relations, policies and inter-institutional frameworks, from many points of view. In the first part, various aspects, notably economic and emotional, of innovative and integrated approaches to long-term care are dealt with. Different aspects are considered exemplified by legal, educational, economic, environmental, cultural and those related to the perception of aging, labor market for the elderly, perceived quality of life, etc. The planning and management of social services are discussed in terms of a functional, and effective and efficient system, with the identification and analysis of actors and processes, and transformation policies. This is done at the local, regional and global levels.
Deckungsbeitragsrechnung für Ingenieure (essentials)
by Ekbert HeringDeckungsbeiträge dienen dazu, die Fixkosten eines Unternehmens bzw. der Unternehmensbereiche zu decken. Dazu müssen die fixen und die variablen Kosten bekannt sein. Der Deckungsbeitrag DB errechnet sich aus: DB = Netto-Umsatz - variable Kosten. Diese Kenngröße kann aus der Kostenrechnung leicht ermittelt werden, da Netto-Umsatz und variable Kosten in der Regel bekannt sind. Mit einer mehrstufigen Deckungsbeitragsrechnung können verschiedene Preisuntergrenzen definiert werden. Mit Deckungsbeiträgen können auch Marktpreise kalkuliert und eine Break-Even-Analyse durchgeführt werden (Bestimmung des Break-Even-Umsatzes: Umsatz, bei der gerade kein Gewinn oder Verlust auftritt oder der Break-Even-Stückzahl: Mindeststückzahl bei Gewinn = 0). Ausführliche Beispiele und Grafiken veranschaulichen die Zusammenhänge.
Declarative Models of Concurrent Cyclic Processes (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control #438)
by Grzegorz BocewiczThis monograph presents a new declarative approach dedicated to the analysis of behaviors and synthesis of structures of Systems of Cyclic Concurrent Multimodal Processes (SCCMP). These kinds of problems are some of the most difficult cyclic scheduling problems - both from the computational side and the complexity of the models used. SCCMP is understood as a set of processes (in particular, multimodal processes) that execute operations cyclically on a set of jointly used (shared) resources (processors, machines, means of transport, etc.). They model the functioning of numerous systems encountered in practical settings and which are characterized by cyclic (periodic) behavior. Typical examples are the passenger railway system, the manufacturing system, the transportation system, and etc.Considered problems, i.e., the behavior analysis problem, the structure prototyping problem, and the problem of mutual reachability of various SCCMP behaviors, are strongly NP-hard. This feature implies that computationally-efficient algorithms need to be sought. They would enable the evaluation of selected aspects of the considered system's functions, such as service costs, transport time, etc., in real-time mode.In that context, the presented monograph fills the gap in the field of SCCMP modeling. Its aim is to present declarative models of systems of cyclic multimodal processes. Such models allow the development of computationally-efficient methods of analysis of the behavior and synthesis of the structure of SCCMP. The particular issues raised in this study concern: · Modeling of SCCMP with regular/fractal structures, i.e., structures composed of repeating fragments.· Determining the conditions of mutual reachability of various SCCMP behaviors.· Modeling of SCCMP described by fuzzy variables.The monograph is addressed to researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in operations management, operations research, computer science, and industrial engineering. Declarative models of concurrent cyclic processes will serve as an essential reference for professionals working on cyclic scheduling problems in computer science, manufacturing, communication, and transportation services, as well as in many other areas.
Decline of Agrarian Democracy
by Grant McconnellPresents the history of the agrarian movements from the past centuries to the new transformations; how they came to be and why they were existed and who they represented. A book that sequentially takes the readers through every process of the evolution,.
Decoding Black Swans and Other Historic Risk Events: Themes of Progress and Opportunity for Risk Science
by Terje Aven Shital ThekdiThe field of risk science continues to learn from the long history of events to develop principles and practices that enable individuals, organizations, and societies to understand and manage future risk. Reflecting on these histories reminds us that risk and uncertainty are prevalent, yet it remains important to consider what is on the horizon: the possibility of future events, the consequences of those events, our vulnerability to those events, and how to recover from those events.Decoding Black Swans and Other Historic Risk Events offers a guide to understanding risk events and how to act before they occur. This book explores past risk events and analyzes how risk science principles apply to those events and studies whether current risk science concepts and approaches could potentially have avoided, reduced the impact, or supported recovery following the risk event. New insights are obtained by applying recent research progress in understanding and managing risk, considering aspects including quality of evidence, information, and misinformation in risk studies. The analysis results are used to identify how risk science approaches contribute to the overall management of risk and societal safety, and where improvements can be obtained, allowing the reader to possess a toolkit for identifying and planning for unsafe events.This title will be a critical read for professionals in the fields of occupational health and safety, risk management, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, energy, marine engineering, environmental engineering, business and management, and healthcare.
Decoding Eurocode 7
by Andrew Harris Andrew BondThe purpose and impact of Eurocode 7, the new geotechnical design standard, is explained in this guide. The authors describe the Principles and Application Rules embodied in the standard to show how these differ from traditional (UK) practice.Essential information is brought together and presented succinctly in summary tables and diagrams. Numerous detailed worked examples illustrate important concepts, and are based on an existing design problem for which a traditional solution is known. A critical appraisal is given of the impact of Eurocode 7 on current UK design practice.Selected Contents 1. Introduction 2. Structural design 3. Geotechnical design 4. Design assisted by testing 5. Ground characterization 6.
Decoding Marine Genetic Resource Governance Under the BBNJ Agreement (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Fran HumphriesThis open access book provides practical guidance for understanding the new treaty adopted in June 2023 that will change the way biodiversity is governed in about two thirds of the oceans known as areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction is an achievement for global cooperation in conservation, sustainability and equity. The treaty provisions in Part II on Marine Genetic Resource (MGR) governance were the most contentious element of negotiations, resulting in significant innovation and compromise. It has an ambitious framework with many details yet to be fleshed out after the treaty comes into force. There is no comprehensive guidance for stakeholders about what the treaty means for their current and future research and development (R&D) and commercialisation of MGR of ABNJ, digital sequence information and associated traditional knowledge. Through a detailed commentary and real world examples, this book interprets and analyses the treaty text to offer practical considerations, guidelines and tools to assist policy makers as well as scientists and commercial end users to align their R&D practices with the expected implementation of the treaty.
Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education: A Cultural Studies Contribution (Routledge Research in Education)
by Caroline StockmanThe process of integrating technology into education often overlooks that technology is a sign; it is not a neutral message conveyor, but rather a material artefact placed into a context inevitably subject to culture. In an original and novel combination, Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education brings together two academic domains not previously pursued together, yet which diverge in many ways: cultural studies and technology acceptance studies. Drawing on empirical data, Stockman demonstrates that teachers activate a meaning-making process through encoding and decoding signs around technology as an artefact of culture, and as a result their acceptance behaviour and decisions rely on the dynamics of the cultural whole to which they belong. In this study, technology acceptance is revisited as an issue of cultural negotiation; the common approach, which provides an instrumental view on technology as a neutral tool, is insufficient for the topic of technology acceptance. Rather than proposing yet another model of technology acceptance, Decoding Technology Acceptance in Education offers a renewed frame of mind and the conclusions it provides are of vital importance to the theoretical and practical advancement of technology acceptance studies, as well as to the practical integration of technology into education. Providing original empirical evidence for the influence of culture on educational decision-making, the book raises awareness for the importance of cultural research in areas where it has been under-considered. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of technology acceptance and technology use in education, as well as those interested in cultural studies.
Decoding the Mechanisms of Antikythera Astronomical Device
by Jian-Liang Lin Hong-Sen YanThis book presents a systematic design methodology for decoding the interior structure of the Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical device from ancient Greece. The historical background, surviving evidence and reconstructions of the mechanism are introduced, and the historical development of astronomical achievements and various astronomical instruments are investigated. Pursuing an approach based on the conceptual design of modern mechanisms and bearing in mind the standards of science and technology at the time, all feasible designs of the six lost/incomplete/unclear subsystems are synthesized as illustrated examples, and 48 feasible designs of the complete interior structure are presented. This approach provides not only a logical tool for applying modern mechanical engineering knowledge to the reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism, but also an innovative research direction for identifying the original structures of the mechanism in the future. In short, the book offers valuable new insights for all readers who are interested in the Antikythera mechanism.
Decoherence: A Time & Shadows Mystery
by Liana BrooksReaders of Blake Crouch's DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu's TIME SALVAGER will love Liana Brooks' DECOHERENCE--the thrilling, time-bending conclusion to the Time & Shadow series!Samantha Rose and Linsey MacKenzie have established an idyllic life of married bliss in Australia, away from the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation, away from mysterious corpses, and--most of all--away from Dr. Emir's multiverse machine.But Sam is a detective at heart, and even on the other side of the world, she can't help wonder if a series of unsolved killings she reads about are related--not just to each other, but to the only unsolved case of her short career. She knows Jane Doe's true name, but Sam never discovered who killed the woman found in an empty Alabama field in spring of 2069. She doesn't even know which version of herself she buried under a plain headstone. When Mac suddenly disappears, Sam realizes she is going to once more be caught up in a silent war she still doesn't fully understand. Every step she takes to save Mac puts the world she knows at risk, and moves her one step closer to becoming the girl in the grave.
Decolonial Pedagogy: Examining Sites of Resistance, Resurgence, and Renewal
by Njoki Nathani Wane Kimberly L. ToddThrough innovative and critical research, this anthology inquires and challenges issues of race and positionality, empirical sciences, colonial education models, and indigenous knowledges. Chapter authors from diverse backgrounds present empirical explorations that examine how decolonial work and Indigenous knowledges disrupt, problematize, challenge, and transform ongoing colonial oppression and colonial paradigm. This book utilizes provocative and critical research that takes up issues of race, the shortfalls of empirical sciences, colonial education models, and the need for a resurgence in Indigenous knowledges to usher in a new public sphere. This book is a testament of hope that places decolonization at the heart of our human community.
Decolonising Blue Spaces in the Anthropocene: Freshwater management in Aotearoa New Zealand (Palgrave Studies in Natural Resource Management)
by Karen Fisher Meg Parsons Roa Petra CreaseThis open access book crosses disciplinary boundaries to connect theories of environmental justice with Indigenous people’s experiences of freshwater management and governance. It traces the history of one freshwater crisis – the degradation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Waipā River– to the settler-colonial acts of ecological dispossession resulting in intergenerational injustices for Indigenous Māori iwi (tribes). The authors draw on a rich empirical base to document the negative consequences of imposing Western knowledge, worldviews, laws, governance and management approaches onto Māori and their ancestral landscapes and waterscapes. Importantly, this book demonstrates how degraded freshwater systems can and are being addressed by Māori seeking to reassert their knowledge, authority, and practices of kaitiakitanga (environmental guardianship). Co-governance and co-management agreements between iwi and the New Zealand Government, over the Waipā River, highlight how Māori are envisioning and enacting more sustainable freshwater management and governance, thus seeking to achieve Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ). The book provides an accessible way for readers coming from a diversity of different backgrounds, be they academics, students, practitioners or decision-makers, to develop an understanding of IEJ and its applicability to freshwater management and governance in the context of changing socio-economic, political, and environmental conditions that characterise the Anthropocene.
Decommissioning the Brent Spar
by Tony Rice Paula OwenDecommissioning of Brent Spar chronicles the events leading up to the recent decision to recycle the offshore installation in a Norwegian fjord; the Greenpeace campaign to stop it being dumped at sea; the repercussions of Shell's decision to abort the decommissioning at the eleventh hour; and the dialogue processes that have occurred to attempt to
Decontamination of Fresh and Minimally Processed Produce
by Vicente M. Gómez-LópezAttempts to provide safer and higher quality fresh and minimally processed produce have given rise to a wide variety of decontamination methods, each of which have been extensively researched in recent years. Decontamination of Fresh and Minimally Processed Produce is the first book to provide a systematic view of the different types of decontaminants for fresh and minimally processed produce. By describing the different effects – microbiological, sensory, nutritional and toxicological – of decontamination treatments, a team of internationally respected authors reveals not only the impact of decontaminants on food safety, but also on microbial spoilage, vegetable physiology, sensory quality, nutritional and phytochemical content and shelf-life. Regulatory and toxicological issues are also addressed. The book first examines how produce becomes contaminated, the surface characteristics of produce related to bacterial attachment, biofilm formation and resistance, and sublethal damage and its implications for decontamination. After reviewing how produce is washed and minimally processed, the various decontamination methods are then explored in depth, in terms of definition, generation devices, microbial inactivation mechanisms, and effects on food safety. Decontaminants covered include: chlorine, electrolyzed oxidizing water, chlorine dioxide, ozone, hydrogen peroxide, peroxyacetic acid, essential oils and edible films and coatings. Other decontamination methods addressed are biological strategies (bacteriophages, protective cultures, bacteriocins and quorum sensing) and physical methods (mild heat, continuous UV light, ionizing radiation) and various combinations of these methods through hurdle technology. The book concludes with descriptions of post-decontamination methods related to storage, such as modified atmosphere packaging, the cold chain, and modeling tools for predicting microbial growth and inactivation. The many methods and effects of decontamination are detailed, enabling industry professionals to understand the available state-of-the-art methods and select the most suitable approach for their purposes. The book serves as a compendium of information for food researchers and students of pre- and postharvest technology, food microbiology and food technology in general. The structure of the book allows easy comparisons among methods, and searching information by microorganism, produce, and quality traits.
Decontamination of Heavy Metals: Processes, Mechanisms, and Applications
by Jiaping Paul ChenHeavy metals, such as lead, chromium, cadmium, zinc, copper, and nickel, are important constituents of most living organisms, as well as many nonliving substances. Some heavy metals are essential for growth of biological and microbiological lives, yet their presence in excessive quantities is harmful to humans and interferes with many environmental
Deconvolution of Images and Spectra: Second Edition
by Peter A. JanssonDeconvolution is a technique in signal or image processing that is applied to recover information. When it is employed, it is usually because instrumental effects of spreading and blurring have obscured that information. In 1996, Deconvolution of Images and Spectra was published (Academic Press) as a second edition of Jansson's 1984 book, Deconvolution with Applications in Spectroscopy. This landmark volume was first published to provide both an overview of the field, and practical methods and results.The present Dover edition is a corrected reprinting of the second edition. It incorporates all the advantages of its predecessors by conveying a clear understanding of the field while providing a selection of effective, practical techniques. The authors assume only a working knowledge of calculus, and emphasize practical applications over topics of theoretical interest, focusing on areas that have been pivotal to the evolution of the most effective methods. This tutorial is essentially self-contained. Readers will find it practical and easy to understand.