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Towards a Sustainable Future - Life Cycle Management: Challenges and Prospects
by Zbigniew Stanisław Kłos Joanna Kałkowska Jędrzej KasprzakThis open access book includes a selection of contributions from the Life Cycle Management 2019 Conference (LCM) held in Poznań, Poland, and presents different examples of scientific and practical contributions, showing an incorporation of life cycle approach into the decision processes on strategic and operational level. Special attention is drawn to applications of LCM to target, organize, analyze and manage product-related information and activities towards continuous improvement, along the different products life cycle. The selection of case studies presents LCM as a business management approach that can be used by all types of businesses and organizations in order to improve their sustainability performance. This book provides a cross-sectoral, current picture of LCM issues. The structure of the book is based on five-theme lines. The themes represent different objects that are focused on sustainability and LCM practices mainly related to: products, technologies, organizations, markets and policy issues as well as methodological solutions. The book brings together presentations from the world of science and the world of enterprises as well as institutions supporting economic development.
Towards a Territorial Multi-Disaster Buildings' Resistance Certification
by Daniele Fabrizio BignamiDisaster risk is increasing, not only in number of events, but also in incurred losses. Such increases are being driven also by the growing exposure of assets, due to the rapid urban growth, because vulnerability decreases as countries develop, but not enough to compensate. The situation will be more and more critical, due to the growth of the amount of the building stock. Thus we need new initiatives to foster upgrading of existing building and enhancement of land planning strategies. "Safe Home" scheme is aimed at increasing urban safety requirements against hazards under an advanced labeling approach. It provides a quantitative evaluation of building performance through an objective, reproducible approach, assessing risks at a land, urban and building scale. Aim of this rating system is to result in useful information to different users, like land planning decision makers, owners, purchasers, tenants or property and real estate managers.
Towards a Wireless Connected World: Achievements and New Technologies
by Al-Sakib Khan PathanThis book gathers key advances in various areas related to using wireless Internet and wireless connectivity to achieve a more connected world.The world is now highly dependent on Internet connectivity. Even though some parts of the globe remain isolated, the smoothly running world all around us relies on Internet services for countless businesses and activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that exclusively relying on wired Internet would leave out a large part of our tech-savvy world. Hence, wireless connectivity is essential to anywhere, anytime connectivity. Further, in the event of a new pandemic or other disaster of global scale, wireless Internet offers a reliable way to keep us all connected. The contributors to this book, hailing from academia, industrial and research laboratories, report on the latest solutions, trends and technologies with the potential to make wireless Internet more reliable and secure for the years to come.
Towards an Emissions Trading System in Mexico: Outlook on the first ETS in Latin-America and Exploration of the Way Forward (Springer Climate)
by Simone LucatelloThis Open Access book provides detailed information about the incoming Mexican Emissions Trading System, including an analysis on why the system was implemented, how the system was designed, how it operates, how it could work, and how it could be strengthened by 2023 when it will be formally launched. This document is aimed at those who want to understand how an ETS can operate in an emerging economy. Although it has been written for experts and non-experts, this book does not provide the underlying theory of market-based instruments and emissions trading systems in general. The book can be read from start to finish, but can also be used as a reference for specific components of regional ETSs. The book draws upon a meticulous study of background documents and fieldwork from different authors to tell the story of how a Mexican ETS, the first of its kind in Latin America, can be set in the country. The emissions trading system cover many greenhouse gas emissions and has been hailed as one of the cornerstones of the Mexican climate policy. The book also examines and explains how the ETS is designed and implemented.
Towards an Ethical Approach to Animals: A Life Learning about Animal Welfare (Animal Welfare #26)
by Clive PhillipsIn two parts, this open access work offers a broad and often unconventional approach to animal ethics, written by a pioneer in animal welfare science and ethics. The author Clive Phillips, Australia's first professor of animal welfare, first describes his life experience and career in the field, which enabled him to provide thoughts and possible solutions to some of the key problems in human-animal relations following in section two. His memoirs describe a journey from privileged upbringing in the Christian tradition to confronting Australian livestock industries with some of their traditional practices. Experiences meeting livestock farmers, industry supporters and national representative bodies taught him new approaches to the ways in which we manage animals. After building one of the largest animal welfare centers worldwide, Clive Phillips retired and pursues his animal welfare mission independently. The second part introduces novel aspects that evolved with the author over several decades of involvement in animal welfare science. This part takes a wide perspective, asking how important and unique our animal kingdom is, how did it evolve and why, and what are the key issues for our treatment of other animals? It concludes by considering our future relationship with animals and how this will change with current developments in society and in particular contemporary attitudes toward the consumption of animals. This historical and futuristic look at animal ethics is unique, making this book a thought provoking read for all interested. The audience includes, but is not limited to, the areas of veterinary science, ethics and welfare, animal industries, universities and philosophy departments.
Towards an Increased Security: Green Innovations, Intellectual Property Protection and Information Security (Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems #372)
by Elena G. Popkova Julia V. Ragulina Andrey A. PolukhinThis book aims to show that modern socio-economic and entrepreneurial systems are on the path to the increase of security and to determine the obstacles they face on this path, as well as determine the opportunities for overcoming these obstacles. The purpose of this book is to study new achievements in the sphere of the provision of security. The originality of this book consists in the development of the fundamental basis of the provision of modern socio-economic systems’ security through development and application of the new classification of the directions of provision of security—food and ecological, information and technological, and personnel and intellectual—and their systemic consideration.Five parts of this book elaborate on progressive green innovations in agriculture and the modern experience of food security provision; legal regulation of sustainable development and environmental security; economic security of regions and green innovations in natural resources management; technological security in the digital environment, data protection and information security; and security and the priority for personnel management and intellectual property protection.The target audience of this book are scholars, who will find in it the fundamental inventions and empirical studies of the international experience of security provision; representatives of public authorities, who will find in the book the recommendations on monitoring and regulation of food and ecological, information and technological, and personnel and intellectual security; and subjects of entrepreneurship, who will find in the book the applied solutions for corporate management of security.
Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks: Statistical Methods and Applications
by Alexander Mehler Matthias Dehmer Frank Emmert-StreibFor over a decade, complex networks have steadily grown as an important tool across a broad array of academic disciplines, with applications ranging from physics to social media. A tightly organized collection of carefully-selected papers on the subject, Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks: Statistical Methods and Applications presents theoretical and practical results about information-theoretic and statistical models of complex networks in the natural sciences and humanities. The book's major goal is to advocate and promote a combination of graph-theoretic, information-theoretic, and statistical methods as a way to better understand and characterize real-world networks. This volume is the first to present a self-contained, comprehensive overview of information-theoretic models of complex networks with an emphasis on applications. As such, it marks a first step toward establishing advanced statistical information theory as a unified theoretical basis of complex networks for all scientific disciplines and can serve as a valuable resource for a diverse audience of advanced students and professional scientists. While it is primarily intended as a reference for research, the book could also be a useful supplemental graduate text in courses related to information science, graph theory, machine learning, and computational biology, among others.
Towards an Intelligent Learning Management System Under Blended Learning
by Sofia B. Dias José A. Diniz Leontios J. HadjileontiadisWhat are the key channels to change in blended instructional practice as they relate to the use of a learning management system (LMS)? What role LMS users' profiles play in facilitating change in practice? Can we model users' quality of interaction (QoI) with LMS? How inclusiveness and affectiveness could lead to a personalized intelligent LMS (iLMS)? If these questions sound intrinsic to you and to your own experience and circumstance, then this book fits absolutely to you. Here, the term Blended - viewed as a fuzzy concept - is understood as a stepping-stone on the way to the future, to explain the multiple ways human beings think/act/feel of society in the 21st century and to embrace the opportunity of humans to re/co-construct new knowledge through the intermediation role of the technology. Initially, based on an online learning environment' theoretical framework, some current issues of the educational processes in the digital age of Web 2. 0 are analyzed. Then, after exploring the main methodological procedures, characteristic examples of research case studies follow, including LMS users' trends and profiles and modeling of their QoI using fuzzy logic. This book offers useful information that evokes initiatives towards rethinking of the value, efficiency, inclusiveness, affectiveness and personalization of the iLMS-based b-learning environment, both by the educators, the LMS designers and educational policy decision makers.
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 Jan Egger Jianning LiThis 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 Pramod Kumar Anuradha Tomar Vinay Rishiwal 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 Wireless Heterogeneity in 6G Networks
by Abraham George G. Ramana MurthyThe connected world paradigm effectuated through the proliferation of mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT), and the metaverse will offer novel services in the coming years that need anytime, anywhere, high-speed access. The success of this paradigm will highly depend on the ability of the devices to always obtain the optimal network connectivity for an application and on the seamless mobility of the devices. This book will discuss 6G concepts and architectures to support next-generation applications such as IoT, multiband devices, and high-speed mobile applications. IoT applications put forth significant challenges on the network in terms of spectrum utilization, latency, energy efficiency, large number of users, and supporting different application characteristics in terms of reliability, data rate, and latency.While the 5G network developmentwas motivated by the need for larger bandwidth and higher quality of service (QoS), 6G considerations are supporting many users with a wide application requirement, lowering network operating cost, and enhanced network flexibility. Network generations beyond 5G are expected to accommodate massive number of devices with the proliferation of connected devices concept in connected cars, industrial automation, medical devices, and consumer devices.This book will address the fundamental design consideration for 6G networks and beyond. There are many technical challenges that need to be explored in the next generation of networks, such as increased spectrum utilization, lower latency, higher data rates, accommodating more users, heterogeneous wireless connectivity, distributed algorithms, and device-centric connectivity due to diversified mobile environments and IoT application characteristics. Since 6G is a multidisciplinary topic, this book will primarily focus on aspects of device characteristics, wireless heterogeneity, traffic engineering, device-centric connectivity, and smartness of application.
Tower Dog: Life Inside the Deadliest Job in America
by Doug DelaneyAn insider's look at the rough and tumble workers throughout America who are risking their lives--and losing them at an alarmingly high rate--all in the name of connectivity.What is the price of staying connected, of that phone in your hand or that watch on your wrist?Recent TV shows would have you believe that the most dangerous job in America is a crab fisherman, or maybe even an ice road trucker. But what U.S. Department of Labor unequivocally recognizes as the most dangerous job in America belongs to the tower dog, the men and women who work on cell towers across the country, building the networks that keep us all connected.In Tower Dog: Life Inside the Deadliest Job in America, Douglas Scott Delaney, a tower dog for more than fifteen years, draws readers into this dark and high-stakes world that most don't even know exists, yet rely on every minute of every day. This risk-laden profession has been covered by NBC Dateline, Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, but none of these reports have provided the real, inside story of these men and women who have always lived on the edge of society; a fascinating mix of construction crews and thrill-seekers. Delaney is a brash and illuminating guide, and Tower Dog gives us the real experience of what it's like for the workers balanced precariously above the clouds.
Tower of Glass (Gateway Essentials)
by Robert SilverbergFrom the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author: &“High adventure, considerable tension, and—most important—social consciousness&” (Harlan Ellison). Simeon Krug is the king of the universe. A self-made man, he is the Bill Gates of the era, having built a megacommercial empire on the backs of his products: androids, genetically engineered human slaves. Having amassed incredible wealth, his next major goal is to communicate with aliens living in an uninhabitable world, sending a mysterious signal. This requires building a mile high tower in the arctic tundra. The androids want civil equality with humans, but are divided on the best means to the goal—political agitation or religious devotion to Krug, their creator. And Krug&’s son, Manuel, is reluctant to step into his role as heir to his father&’s empire.
Tower to Tower: Gigantism in Architecture and Digital Culture (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Henriette Steiner Kristin VeelA cultural history of gigantism in architecture and digital culture, from the Eiffel Tower to the World Trade Center.The gigantic is everywhere, and gigantism is manifest in everything from excessively tall skyscrapers to globe-spanning digital networks. In this book, Henriette Steiner and Kristin Veel map and critique the trajectory of gigantism in architecture and digital culture—the convergence of tall buildings and networked infrastructures—from the Eiffel Tower to One World Trade Center. They show how these two forms of gigantism intersect in the figure of the skyscraper with a transmitting antenna on its roof, a gigantic building that is also a nodal point in a gigantic digital infrastructure.Steiner and Veel focus on two paradigmatic tower sites: the Eiffel Tower and the Twin Towers of the destroyed World Trade Center (as well as their replacement, the One World Trade Center tower). They consider, among other things, philosophical interpretations of the Eiffel Tower; the design and destruction of the Twin Towers; the architectural debates surrounding the erection of One World Trade Center on the Ground Zero site; and such recent examples of gigantism across architecture and digital culture as Rem Koolhaas's headquarters for China Central TV and the phenomenon of the “tech giant.” Examining the cultural, architectural, and media history of these towers, they analyze the changing conceptions of the gigantism that they represent, not just as physical structures but as sites for the projection of cultural ideas and ideals.
Town and Infrastructure Planning for Safety and Urban Quality: Proceedings of the XXIII International Conference on Living and Walking in Cities (LWC 2017), June 15-16, 2017, Brescia, Italy
by Michèle Pezzagno & Maurizio TiraToday, citizens advocate greater environmental sustainability, better services and the improvement of urban quality by promoting safer mobility, especially for the most vulnerable road users. Addressing these issues, Town and Infrastructure Planning for Safety and Urban Quality contains papers presented at the XXIII International Conference “Living and Walking in Cities” (Brescia, Italy, 15-16 June 2017). The contributions discuss town planning issues, look at best practices and research findings across the broad spectrum of urban and transport planning, with particular attention to the safety of pedestrians in the city. The main topics of the book are: - Urban regeneration. A focus on walkability (vulnerable road users; boosting and planning soft mobility)- Road safety and urban planning - vulnerable road users: planning for safety (integrated land use and transport planning; methodological approaches and case studies; integrated tools for town and transport planning; shaping public spaces and walkability; transport solutions for tourism)- Innovative and traditional solutions for Italian cities- Extra-European approaches to town and infrastructure planning- Different perspectives in road safety: prevention, infrastructure, sharing- Advances in road safety Town and Infrastructure Planning for Safety and Urban Quality is a powerful plea for a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive approach to urban mobility and planning, and will be of interest to academics, consultants and practitioners interested in these areas.
Toxic Air Pollution: A Comprehensive Study Non-Criteria Air Pollutants
by Paul J. LioyThe difficulties with addressing toxic air pollutants are the cheer number of compounds present in the atmosphere and their sources. The purpose of this book is to develop an approach to understanding toxic air pollutants through synthesis of the scientific results obtained in the Airbourne Toxic Element and Organic Substance (ATEOS) project.
Toxic Chemicals: Risk Prevention Through Use Reduction
by Thomas E. Higgins Jayanti A. Sachdev Stephen A. EnglemanCatastrophic events such as the Bhopal, India tragedy and rising incidences of cancer in areas neighboring industrial facilities have heightened concern over the use of toxic chemicals in manufacturing and industry. Based on the authors' research conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this book explores the history of toxic chemical release reporting programs, presents data on the toxicity of chemicals currently in use, discusses variables that contribute to the relative toxicity of a substance, compares existing programs for reducing environmental threats, and provides specific recommendations for reducing or eliminating the use of toxic chemicals.
Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco
by Lindsey DillonToxic City presents a novel critique of postindustrial green gentrification through a study of Bayview-Hunters Point, a historically Black neighborhood in San Francisco. As cities across the United States clean up and transform contaminated waterfronts and abandoned factories into inviting spaces of urban nature and green living, working-class residents—who previously lived with the effects of state abandonment, corporate divestment, and industrial pollution—are threatened with displacement at the very moment these neighborhoods are cleaned, greened, and revitalized. Lindsey Dillon details how residents of Bayview-Hunters Point have fought for years for toxic cleanup and urban redevelopment to be a reparative process and how their efforts are linked to long-standing struggles for Black community control and self-determination. She argues that environmental racism is part of a long history of harm linked to slavery and its afterlives and concludes that environmental justice can be conceived within a larger project of reparations.
Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water: A Guide to Their Public Health Consequences, Monitoring and Management (Studies In The Growth Economies Of Asia #Vol. 18)
by Martin Welker Ingrid ChorusCyanobacterial toxins are among the hazardous substances most widely found in water. They occur naturally, but concentrations hazardous to human health are usually due to human activity. Therefore, to protect human health, managing lakes, reservoirs and rivers to prevent cyanobacterial blooms is critical. This second edition of Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water presents the current state of knowledge on the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins as well as their impacts on health through water-related exposure pathways, chiefly drinking-water and recreational activity. It provides scientific and technical background information to support hazard identification, assessment and prioritisation of the risks posed by cyanotoxins, and it outlines approaches for their management at each step of the water-use system. It sets out key practical considerations for developing management strategies, implementing efficient measures and designing monitoring programmes. This enables stakeholders to evaluate whether there is a health risk from toxic cyanobacteria and to mitigate it with appropriate measures. This book is intended for those working on toxic cyanobacteria with a specific focus on public health protection. It intends to empower professionals from different disciplines to communicate and cooperate for sustainable management of toxic cyanobacteria, including public health workers, ecologists, academics, and catchment and waterbody managers. Ingrid Chorus headed the department for Drinking-Water and Swimming-Pool Hygiene at the German Environment Agency. Martin Welker is a limnologist and microbiologist, currently with bioMérieux in Lyon, France.
Toxic Metal Chemistry in Marine Environments
by Muhammad SadiqPresents an integrated chemical behavior of selected toxic metals: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, and lead. All important processes that may affect their marine chemistry are discussed. Thermodynamic calculations are performed to propose the most probable route of chemical behavior.
Toxic Pollutants in China
by Zhengtao Liu Zhenguang YanThe book presents some of the findings of research into China's water quality criteria for toxic pollutants, including heavy metals, PAHs and emerging pollutant. Water quality criteria (WQC) are the scientific basis for establishing water quality standards (WQSs). For a long time, the study of WQC in China has been neglected, so that almost all of China's WQSs were developed based on foreign WQC. This book provides valuable information for environmental management and revision of WQSs. It has been written for researchers and graduate students in the field of environmental science and risk assessors for chemical and pollutants etc. Dr. Zhen-guang Yan is an Associate Professor at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences. Dr. Zhengtao Liu is a Professor at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Toxic Properties of Pesticides (Environmental Science And Pollution Ser. #12)
by Nicholas P. Cheremisinoff John Allison KingThis work offers concise, detailed information on the toxicological properties of, and safe handling practices for, pesticides. It provides an overview of the registration process, registration procedures and supplemental registration. An alphabetic listing of over 800 chemicals, including their applications - from insecticides and growth regulators to herbicides, repellents and synergists - is provided.