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Towards Next Generation Energy Storage Technologies: From Fundamentals to Commercial Applications
by Minghua ChenDevelop the clean technologies of the future with these novel energy storage technologies Energy storage is a crucial component of the broader battle to develop clean energy sources and transform the power grid in light of advancing climate change. Numerous new energy storage technologies based on electrochemical redox reactions have recently been developed or proposed, promising to reduce costs and enable energy-dense devices and applications of many kinds. This urgent work demands to be incorporated into chemistry, materials science, and industry at every level. Towards Next Generation Energy Storage Technologies offers a comprehensive overview of these novel technologies and their applications. Beginning with an introduction to the fundamentals of electrochemistry and energy storage, it offers current and future research questions, design strategies, and much more. It is a must-own for scientists and engineers looking to develop the energy grid of the future. Towards Next Generation Energy Storage Technologies readers will also find: Summaries of state-of-the-art research and open challengesDetailed discussion of technologies including lithium-ion batteries, all-solid-state batteries, aqueous multi-valence energy storage systems, and moreDiscussion of applications including electric vehicles, aerospace devices, and many others Towards Next Generation Energy Storage Technologies is ideal for materials scientists, inorganic chemists, electrochemists, electronics engineers, and anyone working on the clean energy grid or electrical devices.
Towards Optimal Point Cloud Processing for 3D Reconstruction (SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering)
by Guoxiang Zhang YangQuan ChenThis SpringerBrief presents novel methods of approaching challenging problems in the reconstruction of accurate 3D models and serves as an introduction for further 3D reconstruction methods. It develops a 3D reconstruction system that produces accurate results by cascading multiple novel loop detection, sifting, and optimization methods.The authors offer a fast point cloud registration method that utilizes optimized randomness in random sample consensus for surface loop detection. The text also proposes two methods for surface-loop sifting. One is supported by a sparse-feature-based optimization graph. This graph is more robust to different scan patterns than earlier methods and can cope with tracking failure and recovery. The other is an offline algorithm that can sift loop detections based on their impact on loop optimization results and which is enabled by a dense map posterior metric for 3D reconstruction and mapping performance evaluation works without any costly ground-truth data. The methods presented in Towards Optimal Point Cloud Processing for 3D Reconstruction will be of assistance to researchers developing 3D modelling methods and to workers in the wide variety of fields that exploit such technology including metrology, geological animation and mass customization in smart manufacturing.
Towards Practical Brain-Computer Interfaces
by Brendan Z. Allison Robert Leeb Anton Nijholt Stephen Dunne José Del R. MillánBrain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are devices that enable people to communicate via thought alone. Brain signals can be directly translated into messages or commands. Until recently, these devices were used primarily to help people who could not move. However, BCIs are now becoming practical tools for a wide variety of people, in many different situations. What will BCIs in the future be like? Who will use them, and why? This book, written by many of the top BCI researchers and developers, reviews the latest progress in the different components of BCIs. Chapters also discuss practical issues in an emerging BCI enabled community. The book is intended both for professionals and for interested laypeople who are not experts in BCI research.
Towards Process Safety 4.0 in the Factory of the Future
by André LaurentThe rapid development of new technologies in the industry of the future implies a major evolution in the industrial safety measures needed to be met, such as societal requirements. Towards Process Safety 4.0 in the Factory of the Future presents the concept of Safety 4.0 from the point of view of process safety, occupational safety and health, as well as systems’ cyber security. Numerous examples illustrate the different approaches of the identified methods and techniques of Safety 4.0. Their concepts, paradigms, structural bases, couplings, complexities and flaws are systematically analyzed. This comprehensive approach to Safety 4.0 is aimed at the wide variety of actors working in the industry of the future.
Towards Radical Regeneration: Design Modelling Symposium Berlin 2022
by Christoph Gengnagel Olivier Baverel Giovanni Betti Mariana Popescu Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen Jan WurmThis book reflects and expands on the current trends in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries to respond to the unfolding climate and biodiversity crisis. Shifting away from the traditional focus, narrowly centered on efficiency, the book presents a variety of approaches to move the AEC community from an approach that presents new challenges in all areas of the industry, from a linear, extractive paradigm to circular and regenerative one. The book presents contributions including research papers and case studies, providing a comprehensive overview of the field as well as perspectives from related disciplines, such as computer science, biology and material science. The chapter authors were invited speakers at the 8th Design Modelling Symposium “Towards Radical Regeneration”, which took place at the University of the Arts in Berlin in September 2022.
Towards Resilient Social IoT Sensors and Networks: A Trust Management Approach (Smart Sensors, Measurement and Instrumentation #48)
by Quan Z. Sheng Adnan Mahmood Subhash SagarThis book, at first, explores the evolution of the IoT to SIoT and offers a comprehensive understanding of SIoT and trust management vis-à-vis SIoT. It subsequently envisages trust quantification models by employing key SIoT-specific trust features, including SIoT relationships (e.g., friendships, working relationships, and community-of-interest), direct observations, and indirect observations, to augment the idea of trust quantification of a SIoT object. Furthermore, diverse trust aggregation techniques, i.e., conventional weighted sum, machine learning, and artificial neural networks, are proposed so as to address the challenges of the trust aggregation. Finally, the book outlines the future research directions for emphasizing the importance of trustworthiness management in the evolving notion of the SIoT.
Towards Sustainability in the Wine Industry by Valorization of Waste Products: Bioactive Extracts (Sustainability: Contributions through Science and Technology)
by Pamela Zorro Mateus, Patricia Joyce Garcés Polo, Siby I.This volume in our Sustainability: Contributions through Science and Technology series reviews the use of alternative green technologies (pressurized liquid and super-critical fluid extractions) for grape biomass valorization. Environmental sustainability and circular economy are discussed in relation to agro-industrial waste in the winemaking industry. The waste contaminates water and soil and, in large quantities, it has been related to bad odors, a high content of organic matter in water, and greenhouse gas emissions over the entire winemaking industry. Here, the authors illustrate how green extraction of commercially valuable substances can be scaled up at an industrial level. Features : Reports on waste valorization in the winemaking industry and converting the waste into more useful products including oils, antioxidants and other valuable materials Explores research which contributes to environmental sustainability and circular economy in the winemaking industry Describes other ways to reduce the ecological footprint of the wine industry such as using less fertilizer, more benign pesticides and reduction of water footprint Proposes options for a potential wine waste biorefining. Reviews alternative uses of agro-industrial wine wastes as sources of additives for the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.
Towards Sustainable Cities in China
by Jingzhu ZhaoTo promote China's sustainable city construction and development, this Brief has preliminarily used an assessment indicator system and development index of a sustainable city, based on a summary and analysis of the existing Sustainable City theories and practices both at home and aboard. Meanwhile, mainly based on the data from 2008, this Brief has made a tentative assessment of the development level of Sustainable City in some major Chinese cities.
Towards Sustainable Customization: Proceedings of the 8th Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production Conference (CARV2021) and the 10th World Mass Customization & Personalization Conference (MCPC2021), Aalborg, Denmark, October/November 2021 (Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering)
by Kjeld Nielsen Ann-Louise Andersen Rasmus Andersen Thomas Ditlev Brunoe Maria Stoettrup Schioenning Larsen Alessia Napoleone Stefan KjeldgaardThis book features state-of-the-art contributions from two well-established conferences: Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production Conference (CARV2020) and Mass Customization and Personalization Conference (MCPC2020). Together, they focus on the joint design, development, and management of products, production systems, and business for sustainable customization and personalization. The book covers a large range of topics within this domain, ranging from industrial success factors to original contributions within the field.
Towards Sustainable Food Production in Africa: Best Management Practices and Technologies (Sustainability Sciences in Asia and Africa)
by Morris Fanadzo Nothando Dunjana Hupenyu Allan Mupambwa Ernest DubeThis edited book is focused on Sustainable Development Goal 2. It offers a comprehensive and topical collection of practices, technologies and innovations in the field of sustainable food production and security under a changing climate. It is a one-stop handbook for farmers, researchers, extensionists, policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to identify and disseminate best fit technologies for local and regional landscapes. It offers an understanding of the challenges, risks and uncertainties as well as opportunities to foster productive and sustainable food production. Smallholder farming and agriculture in general is facing a serious threat from climate change that has resulted in erratic and unpredictable rainfall and increased temperatures, among other abiotic stresses. These climate change induced pressures have reduced productivity mainly among the smallholder farmers, who are critical in driving the attainment of sustainable development goals like SDG 2, 12 and 13. The objective of the book is to document effective and practicable practices and technologies that can be adopted by smallholder African farmers as mitigation measures against the effects of climate change. This book is of interest to researchers, agricultural scientists, climate change scientists, capacity builders and policymakers.
Towards Sustainable Livelihoods and Ecosystems in Mountain Regions
by Vishwambhar Prasad SatiSustainable livelihoods and ecosystems are far-reaching and burning issues in the wake of high growth of population, low production and per ha yield of crops and depletion of biodiversity resources. Mountainous regions of the world are facing the menace of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. Further, tremendous growth in population and slow pace of development have together forced most of the population to live below poverty line. Traditionally depending upon cultivating subsistence crops for food requirement, the people living in mountainous region are unable to produce sufficient food grains to run their livelihood smoothly. The Himalayas is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and has an abundance of natural resources: land, water and forest - life sustaining factors. The geo-environmental conditions - climate and landscape further enhance the possibility of sustainable livelihoods through eco-tourism, harnessing water resources and utilizing forests and their products sustainably. Diversifying agricultural practices through cultivating cash and cereal crops and enhancing livelihood options through extensive use of timber and non-timber based forestry products can help to eradicate poverty and provide food security. This book consists of an introduction and nine chapters, covering geo-environmental setting, socio-economy and population profile, sustainable livelihoods: diversification and enhancement, livelihood analysis, development of tourism and hydroelectricity, case studies, mountain ecosystems, sustainable mountain development and also presents a conclusion.
Towards Sustainable Natural Resources: Monitoring and Managing Ecosystem Biodiversity
by Meenu Rani Bhagwan Singh Chaudhary Saleha Jamal Pavan KumarNatural resources not only contribute to overall growth of the economy but also help reduce poverty by providing employment and food security to populations on the continent, and is thus the most inclusive growth sector of the economy of Asian countries. Global weather and climate studies are also increasingly being considered a vital source of information to understand the earth’s environment, in particular in the framework of weather and climate studies, land use transformation and human influence across these areas. Satellite earth observing systems provide a unique tool to monitor these changes. This book includes significant and up to date contributions in the field of sustainable natural resources conservation across the globe. While the range of applications and innovative techniques is constantly increasing, this book provides a summary of key case studies where satellite data offers critical information to help understand the causes and effects of those environmental changes, allowing us to reflect on how to minimize their negative impacts. This book is of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of remote sensing, geographical information, meteorology, and environmental sciences. Scientists and graduate to post-graduate-level students in environmental science will also find valuable information in this book.
Towards Sustainable Use of Rangelands in North-West China
by Guolin Li Victor Squires Limin Hua Degang ZhangThis book reviews the extent of resource debasement in China's pastoral zones and offers solutions for their sustainable use. The 5-parts deal with rangelands and the people who manage them, and assess the prospects for rehabilitation. Topics include Livestock husbandry development and agro-pastoral integration in NW China; Ecological restoration and control of rangeland degradation. Despite widespread degradation, the book reveals the possibilities for rehabilitation and the implementation of sustainable use and for reclamation of degraded lands.
Towards the Automatization of Cranial Implant Design in Cranioplasty II: Second Challenge, AutoImplant 2021, Held in Conjunction with MICCAI 2021, Strasbourg, France, October 1, 2021, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #13123)
by Jianning Li Jan EggerThis book constitutes the Second Automatization of Cranial Implant Design in Cranioplasty Challenge, AutoImplant 2021, which was held in conjunction with the 24th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2021, in Strasbourg, France, in September, 2021. The challenge took place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 7 papers are presented together with one invited paper, one qualitative evaluation criteria from neurosurgeons and a dataset descriptor. This challenge aims to provide more affordable, faster, and more patient-friendly solutions to the design and manufacturing of medical implants, including cranial implants, which is needed in order to repair a defective skull from a brain tumor surgery or trauma. The presented solutions can serve as a good benchmark for future publications regarding 3D volumetric shape learning and cranial implant design.
Towards the Integration of IoT, Cloud and Big Data: Services, Applications and Standards (Studies in Big Data #137)
by Vinay Rishiwal Pramod Kumar Anuradha Tomar Priyan Malarvizhi KumarThis book discusses integration of internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, and big data. It presents a unique platform where IoT, cloud computing, and big data are fused together and can be foreseen as a perfect solution to many applications. Usually, IoT, cloud computing, and big data are researched separately on the basis of their properties, underlying technologies, and other open issues. Integration of IoT, cloud computing and big data is not that easy and can face key open issues like standardization of interfaces, power and energy efficiency in both data processing and transmission, security and privacy, storage mechanisms for future applications, scalability and flexibility, and QoS provisioning for end user applications. Integration of IoT, cloud computing, and big data represents the next big rise for future industry and business applications. This integration opens new exhilarating directions for research and it is discussed in this book.
Towards the Internet of Things: Architectures, Security, and Applications (EAI/Springer Innovations in Communication and Computing)
by Mohammad Ali Jabraeil Jamali Bahareh Bahrami Arash Heidari Parisa Allahverdizadeh Farhad NorouziThis book presents a comprehensive framework for IoT, including its architectures, security, privacy, network communications, and protocols. The book starts by providing an overview of the aforementioned research topics, future directions and open challenges that face the IoT development. The authors then discuss the main architectures in the field, which include Three- and Five-Layer Architectures, Cloud and Fog Based Architectures, a Social IoT Application Architecture. In the security chapter, the authors outline threats and attacks, privacy preservation, trust and authentication, IoT data security, and social awareness. The final chapter presents case studies including smart home, wearables, connected cars, industrial Internet, smart cities, IoT in agriculture, smart retail, energy engagement, IoT in healthcare, and IoT in poultry and farming.Discusses ongoing research into the connection of the physical and virtual worlds;Includes the architecture, security, privacy, communications, and protocols of IoT;Presents a variety of case studies in IoT including wearables, smart cities, and energy management.
Towards the Local Government’s Integrated Accountability Framework: A Critical Lesson from Socio-Environmental Issues in Indonesia
by Habib Muhammad ShahibThis book shows the growing phenomenon and the broad impact of socio-environmental conflicts in the grassroots communities—farmers, fishermen and urban poor—in Indonesia, as the effects of government’s development strategies based on neoliberal and New Public Management (NPM) views without a clear accountability system or socio-environmental accountability practices and reports are becoming apparent. Inspired by the emancipatory socio-environmental accounting discourse, which focuses on the socio-local context in developing alternative models of accountability based on local views and people's aspirations, this book uses research methodology based on the principles put forth by Indonesian national hero and critical scholar Tan Malaka to develop a framework of integrated accountability for the local government. This book fills the present gap in English publications that analyse the intents and outcomes of the public management reforms in Indonesia with regard to socio-environmental issues, as a basis for further research at the international level as well as policymaking in Indonesia. As the Indonesian government has recently undertaken key structural and accounting reforms in the public sector, this book is a timely and valuable read for graduate students, researchers,- and policymakers.
Towards the Optical Control of Resonantly Bonded Materials: An Ultrafast X-Ray Study (Springer Theses)
by Yijing HuangThis thesis describes key contributions to the fundamental understanding of materials structure and dynamics from a microscopic perspective. In particular, the thesis reports several advancements in time-domain methodologies using ultrafast pulses from X-ray free-electron lasers (FEL) to probe the interactions between electrons and phonons in photoexcited materials. Using femtosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction, the author quantifies the coherent atomic motion trajectory upon sudden excitation of carriers in SnSe. This allows the reconstruction of the nonequilibrium lattice structure and identification of a novel lattice instability towards a higher-symmetry structure not found in equilibrium. This is followed by an investigation of the excited-state phonon dispersion in SnSe using time-resolved X-ray diffuse scattering which enables important insight into how photoexcitation alters the strength of specific bonds leading to the novel lattice instability observed in X-ray diffraction. Finally, by combining ultrafast X-ray diffraction and ARPES, the author performs quantitative measurements of electron-phonon coupling in Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3. The findings highlight the importance of time-resolved X-ray scattering techniques based on FELs, which reveals the details of interplay between electron orbitals, atomic bonds, and structural instabilities. The microscopic information of electron phonon interaction obtained from these methods can rationalize ways to control materials and to design their functional properties.
Towards THz Chipless High-Q Cooperative Radar Targets for Identification, Sensing, and Ranging (Springer Theses)
by Alejandro Jiménez-SáezThis work systematically investigates the use of high-quality (high-Q) resonators as coding particles of chipless cooperative radar targets to overcome clutter. Due to their high-Q, the backscattered signature can outlast clutter and permit reliable readouts in dynamic environments as well as its integration in other types of cooperative radar targets for joint identification, sensing, and ranging capabilities.This is first demonstrated with temperature and pressure sensors in the microwave frequency range, which include the characterization of a novel temperature sensor for machine tool monitoring up to 400 °C, as well as inside the machine. Afterwards, the thesis proposes and demonstrates the use of metallic as well as dielectric Electromagnetic BandGap (EBG) structures to enable the realization and to enhance the capabilities at mm-Wave and THz frequencies compared to microwave frequencies with compact monolithic multi-resonator cooperative radar targets. Furthermore, this work studies the integration of resonators as coding particles inside larger retroreflective configurations such as Luneburg lenses to achieve long-range and high accuracy for localization and, at the same time, frequency coding robust against clutter for identification. Finally, the successful readout of these cooperative radar targets is demonstrated in cluttered dynamic environments, as well as with readers based on Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radars.
Towards Tree-level Evapotranspiration Estimation with Small UAVs in Precision Agriculture
by Haoyu Niu YangQuan ChenEstimating evapotranspiration (ET) has been one of the most critical research areas in agriculture because of water scarcity, the growing population, and climate change. The accurate estimation and mapping of ET are necessary for crop water management. Traditionally, researchers use water balance, soil moisture, weighing lysimeters, or an energy balance approach, such as Bowen ratio or eddy covariance towers to estimate ET. However, these ET methods are point-specific or area-weighted measurements and cannot be extended to a large scale. On the other hand, while remote sensing is able to provide spatially distributed measurements, the spatial resolution of multispectral satellite images is often not enough for crops with clumped canopy structures, such as trees and vines. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can mitigate these spatial and temporal limitations. Lightweight cameras and sensors can be mounted on the UAVs and take high-resolution images. Unlike satellite imagery, the spatial resolution of the UAV images can be at the centimeter-level. UAVs can also fly on-demand, which provides high temporal imagery. This book examines the different UAV-based approaches of ET estimation. Models and algorithms, such as mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC), the two-source energy balance (TSEB) model, and machine learning (ML) are discussed. It also covers the challenges and opportunities for UAVs in ET estimation, with the final chapters devoted to new ET estimation methods and their potential applications for future research.
Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems (Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering #102)
by Maria Isabel Aldinhas Ferreira Mohammad Osman TokhiThis present book provides valuable insights on the technical, societal and legal challenges posed by the use of artificial intelligent systems in a plethora of different applications, from embodied robotic systems to ML algorithms. Engaging with concerns about equity, privacy, surveillance and respect for human dignity, “Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems” highlights the fundamental factors on which stakeholders’ trust relies, identifying benchmarking, standardisation and certification as milestones grounding and consolidating that future trust. The multidisciplinary approach followed will make this book a valuable resource for all those involved in the production and deployment of AIs, as well as for academia and legal practitioners.
Towards Ubiquitous Low-power Image Processing Platforms
by Magnus Jahre Diana Göhringer Philippe MilletThis book summarizes the key scientific outcomes of the Horizon 2020 research project TULIPP: Towards Ubiquitous Low-power Image Processing Platforms. The main focus lies on the development of high-performance, energy-efficient embedded systems for the growing range of increasingly complex image processing applications. The holistic TULIPP approach is described in the book, which addresses hardware platforms, programming tools and embedded operating systems. Several of the results are available as open-source hardware/software for the community. The results are evaluated with several use cases taken from real-world applications in key domains such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), robotics, space and medicine.Discusses the development of high-performance, energy-efficient embedded systems for the growing range of increasingly complex image processing applications;Covers the hardware architecture of embedded image processing systems, novel methods, tools and libraries for programming those systems as well as embedded operating systems to manage those systems;Demonstrates results with several challenging applications, such as medical systems, robotics, drones and automotive.
Towards Ulam Type Multi Stability Analysis: A Novel Approach for Fuzzy Dynamical Systems (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control #523)
by Reza Saadati Tofigh Allahviranloo Safoura Rezaei Aderyani Chenkuan LiThe main target of this book is to present a new concept of Ulam-type stability, i.e., multi-stability, through the classical, well-known special functions and to obtain the best approximation error estimates by a different concept of perturbation stability including fuzzy approaches for uncertainty considerations. This stability allows us to obtain diverse approximations depending on various special functions that are initially chosen and to evaluate maximal stability and minimal error which enable us to obtain a unique optimal solution of functional equations, inequalities, and fractional equations. Stability analysis in the sense of the Ulam and its different kinds has received considerable attention from the researchers. However, how to effectively generalize the Ulam stability problems and to evaluate optimized controllability and stability are new issues. The multi-stability not only covers the previous concepts but also considers the optimization of the problem and provides a comprehensive discussion of optimizing the different types of the Ulam stabilities of mathematical models used in the natural sciences and engineering disciplines with fuzzy attitudes. Besides, this book also deals with nonlinear differential equations with various boundary conditions or initial value problems, based on the matrix Mittag-Leffler function, fixed point theory, as well as Babenko's approach to study uniqueness and existence of solutions. In general, the benefits for the readers can be concluded as follows: 1. Evaluates maximal stability with minimal error to get a unique optimal solution. 2. Discusses an optimal method of the alternative to study existence, uniqueness, and different types of Ulam stabilities under special consideration of the fuzzy approaches. 3. Delves into the new study of boundary value problems of fractional integro-differential equations with integral boundary conditions and variable coefficients.
Towards Unmanned Apple Orchard Production Cycle: Recent New Technologies (Smart Agriculture #6)
by Zhao Zhang Xufeng WangThe book provides the most recent technology for sensing and automation in apple production cycle in terms of bagging robotics, flower pollination robotics, pruning robotics, and harvest robotics. It does not only summarize the development of technology progress, but also discuss the future trend for unmanned apple production cycle. Though apple production still mainly relies on manual labor, a huge number of innovative technologies emerge during the past years, which pave the road for unmanned apple orchard management. A book summarizing all these new and innovative technologies is needed, to provide an easy approach to understand this field quickly and comprehensively, which drives the publication of this book. This book is a useful reference for students, researchers, and practitioners in the field of apple production.
Towards User-Centric Intelligent Network Selection in 5G Heterogeneous Wireless Networks: A Reinforcement Learning Perspective
by Zhiyong Du Bin Jiang Qihui Wu Yuhua Xu Kun XuThis book presents reinforcement learning (RL) based solutions for user-centric online network selection optimization. The main content can be divided into three parts. The first part (chapter 2 and 3) focuses on how to learning the best network when QoE is revealed beyond QoS under the framework of multi-armed bandit (MAB). The second part (chapter 4 and 5) focuses on how to meet dynamic user demand in complex and uncertain heterogeneous wireless networks under the framework of markov decision process (MDP). The third part (chapter 6 and 7) focuses on how to meet heterogeneous user demand for multiple users inlarge-scale networks under the framework of game theory. Efficient RL algorithms with practical constraints and considerations are proposed to optimize QoE for realizing intelligent online network selection for future mobile networks. This book is intended as a reference resource for researchers and designers in resource management of 5G networks and beyond.