Affordable housing for smart villages
Initiates a fresh discussion of affordability in rural housing set in the context of the rapidly shifting balance between rural and urban populations. It conceptualises affordability in rural housing along a spectrum that is interlaced with cultural and social values integral to rural livelihoods at both personal and community level. Developed around four intersecting themes: explaining houses and housing in rural settings; exploring affordability in the context of aspirations and vulnerability; rural development agendas involving housing and communities; and construction for resilience in rural communities, the book provides an overview of some of the little understood and sometimes counter-intuitive best practices on rural affordability and affordable housing that have emerged in developing economies over the last thirty years.
Materials Issues for Generation IV Systems ; Status, Open Questions and Challenges
Global warming, shortage of low-cost oil resources and the increasing demand for energy are currently controlling the world's economic expansion while often opposing desires for sustainable and peaceful development. In this context, atomic energy satisfactorily fulfills the criteria of low carbon gas production and high overall yield. However, in the absence of industrial fast-breeders the use of nuclear fuel is not optimal, and the production of high activity waste materials is at a maximum. These are the principal reasons for the development of a new, fourth generation of nuclear reactors, minimizing the undesirable side-effects of current nuclear energy production technology while increasing yields by increasing operation temperatures and opening the way for the industrial production of hydrogen through the decomposition of water.
Low-Cost Approaches to Promote Physical and Mental Health : Theory, Research, and Practice
Most physical and mental health professionals will agree that their time, space, and funds are generally in short supply, even under optimal conditions. Their participants (clients or patients), too, will admit to similar deficits of time and patience, even with optimal motivation. Overburdened mental health facilities are trying to cope with limited budgets and overworked and underpaid personnel. Low-Cost Approaches to Promote Physical and Mental Health addresses both sides of this shortfall by offering either self-administered or easily administered verbal and non-verbal interventions designed to promote positive health behaviors while requiring little or no outside funding.
Low Power Uwb Cmos Radar Sensors
Low Power UWB CMOS Radar Sensors deals with the problem of designing low cost CMOS radar sensors. The radar sensor uses UWB signals in order to obtain a reasonable target separation capability, while maintaining a maximum signal frequency below 2 GHz. This maximum frequency value is well within the reach of current CMOS technologies. The use of UWB signals means that most of the methodologies used in the design of circuits and systems that process narrow band signals, can no longer be applied. Low Power UWB CMOS Radar Sensors provides an analysis between the interaction of UWB signals, the antennas and the processing circuits.
Learning and Teaching for the Twenty-first Century : Festschrift for Professor Phillip Hughes
This book stresses learning and teaching, rather than teaching and learning. The contention of the contributors is that the focus in all educational endeavours should not be primarily on teachers and teaching, but on learners; how to best facilitate learning, in the most effective, enjoyable, relevant and cost-effective ways for learners, whether they be children, youth or adults. The focus is therefore on how learning can be enhanced, through effective teaching; and how individuals can be best prepared to be excellent teachers.
Laplacian Eigenvectors of Graphs : Perron-Frobenius and Faber-Krahn Type Theorems
Eigenvectors of graph Laplacians have not, to date, been the subject of expository articles and thus they may seem a surprising topic for a book. The authors propose two motivations for this new LNM volume: (1) There are fascinating subtle differences between the properties of solutions of Schrödinger equations on manifolds on the one hand, and their discrete analogs on graphs. (2) "Geometric" properties of (cost) functions defined on the vertex sets of graphs are of practical interest for heuristic optimization algorithms. The observation that the cost functions of quite a few of the well-studied combinatorial optimization problems are eigenvectors of associated graph Laplacians has prompted the investigation of such eigenvectors.
La mente medica : Che significa "umanizzazione" della medicina? = The Medical Mind : What does "humanization" of medicine mean?
Il presente testo intende chiarire misconoscimenti e riduzionismi che paralizzano il pur auspicato mutamento della medicina e le sue articolazioni in differenti professionalità. La Psicologia Clinica si pone come chiave per leggere la mentalità collettiva che sottende l’attuale cultura sanitaria medicalizzante, che si scontra con le esigenze della persona umana, negando, oltretutto, quanto la psicosomatica oggi ci dice circa la costante modulazione psichica di tutti i processi organici, nella salute così come in tutte le malattie. L’umanizzazione della medicina non è un surplus eticamente giusto per il malato: è un indispensabile agente terapeutico. La sua mancanza è iatrogena.
Comparative risk assessment and environmental decision making
Decision making in environmental projects is typically a complex and confusing process characterized by trade-offs between socio-political, environmental, and economic impacts. Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) is a methodology applied to facilitate decision making when various activities compete for limited resources. CRA has become an increasingly accepted research tool and has helped to characterize environmental profiles and priorities on the regional and national level. CRA may be considered as part of the more general but as yet quite academic field of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Considerable research in the area of MCDA has made available methods for applying scientific decision theoretical approaches to multi-criteria problems, but its applications, especially in environmental areas, are still limited. The papers show that the use of comparative risk assessment can provide the scientific basis for environmentally sound and cost-efficient policies, strategies, and solutions to our environmental challenges.
China's Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategies and Pathways : Comprehensive Report
This book introduces a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive research on China's long-term low-carbon emission strategies and pathways. After comprehensively considering China’s own socioeconomic conditions, policy design, energy mix, and other macro-development trends and needs, the research team has proposed suggestions on China’s low-carbon development strategies and pathways until 2050, with required technologies and policies in order to realize the goals of building a great modern socialist country and a beautiful China.
Chernobyl: Catastrophe and Consequences
The long-term effects of the Chernobyl incident on the environment are still becoming apparent, twenty years after the event. This book, written by two researchers with frontline experience in this field, provides a detailed review of these over a wide range of ecosystems. It also discusses the responses and countermeasures utilised to combat the effects of the accident, as well as considering the health, social, psychological and economic impacts on the human population. Chernobyl - Catastrophe and Consequences provides a comprehensive assessment of the Chernobyl accident and its long-term consequences draws on the most recent measurements of contamination in the terrestrial and aquatic food chains discusses the sociological consequences of such disasters in detail This book adds valuable weight to the debate about the environmental cost of nuclear power and the issue of nuclear safety.
CDMA Radio with Repeaters
This book analyzes the interaction of the CDMA system within a mobile channel environment, emphasizing repeaters, diversities, and other performance-enhancing means. The authors provide a unique and clear description of repeater-embedded networks’ planning, design, and optimization in different scenarios. Simple physically-based expressions are developed and supported by extensive field experience, and provide insight into the network dynamics. CDMA Radio with Repeaters is intended for wireless RF engineers and system architects, and for researchers working on advanced wireless networks, including MIMO systems. The material also provides insight for helping cellular managers and business assess costs and risks. This book is also suitable as a reference book for graduate courses.
Bridging divides : Maritime canals as invasion corridors
Maritime canals dissolve natural barriers to the dispersal of marine organisms, thus providing novel opportunities for natural dispersal, as well as for shipping-mediated transport. The introduction of alien species has proved to be one of the most profound and damaging of anthropogenic deeds - with both ecological and economic costs. This book is the first to assess the impacts of the world’s three principal maritime canals – the Kiel, the Panama, the Suez – as invasion corridors for alien biota. These three canals differ in their hydrological regimes, the types of biotas they connect, and in their permeability to invasions.
Blind Equalization and System Identification : Batch Processing Algorithms, Performance and Applications
Discrete-time signal processing has had a momentous impact on advances in engineering and science over recent decades. The rapid progress of digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits in processing speed, functionality and cost-effectiveness has led to their ubiquitous employment in signal processing and transmission in diverse milieux. Topics covered include: • SISO, MIMO and 2-d non-blind equalization (deconvolution) algorithms. • SISO, MIMO and 2-d blind equalization (deconvolution) algorithms. • SISO, MIMO and 2-d blind system identification algorithms. • algorithm analyses and improvements. • applications of SISO, MIMO and 2-d blind equalization/identification algorithms.
Biosolids engineering and management
Biosolids Engineering and Management, is a collection of methods of practical design, calculation and numerical examples that illustrate how organized, analytical reasoning can lead to the discovery of clear, direct solutions, especially in the areas of biosolids management, treatment, disposal and beneficial use. The book’s including sludge and biosolids transport, pumping and storage, sludge conversion to biosolids, chlorination, stabilization, regulatory requirements, costs, agricultural land application, landfill, ocean disposal, combustion, incineration and sludge treatment process selection.
Biogeochemical cycles in globalization and sustainable development
This valuable study of environmental subsystems functioning under various climatic and anthropogenic conditions provides a unique insight into the social context of global changes in biogeochemical cycles and demonstrates current understanding of globalization and sustainable development.
Bioactive Molecules and Medicinal Plants
Use of medicinal plants is as old as human civilization and continuous efforts are being made to improve medicinal plants or produce their products in high amounts through various technologies. About 200,000 natural products of plant origin are known and many more are being identifed from higher plants and microorganisms. Some plant-based drugs have been used for centuries and there is no alternative medicine for many drugs, such as cardiac glycosides. However, natural products research was sidelined to pave the way for com- natorial chemistry, which was expected to produce large numbers of synthetic compounds for high-throughput screening (HTS). This line of work has failed to deliver desirable results. Moreover, it is not possible for all pharmaceutical companies and institutions to adopt costly HTS technology. Therefore, medi- nal plants and their bioactive molecules are always in demand and are a central point of research. While planning this book, we endeavored to incorporate - ticles that cover the entire gamut of current medicinal plants research.
Basic Principles of Fresnel Antenna Arrays
This book provides us a with the basics of the various Fresnel Antenna approaches, in order to achieve low-cost, low-profile, and lightweight antenna in the microwave/millimeter wave band. The book further presents a novel hexagonal FZPL antenna which can be more effectively packed in an array due to its shape.
Average-Cost Control of Stochastic Manufacturing Systems
This book is concerned with hierarchical control of manufacturing systems under uncertainty. It focuses on system performance measured in long-run average cost criteria, exploring the relationship between control problems with a discounted cost and that with a long-run average cost in connection with hierarchical control. A new theory is articulated that shows that hierarchical decision making in the context of a goal-seeking manufacturing system can lead to a near optimization of its objective. The approach in the book considers manufacturing systems in which events occur at different time scales.
Ages, generations and the social contract : The demographic challenges facing the welfare state
Our societies are ageing. The Family is changing. Labour force behaviour is evolving. How is the organisation of family and collective solidarity adapting in this context of longer life spans, low fertility, and work that is simultaneously scarce and abundant? The welfare states are currently facing three main challenges: ensure satisfactory living conditions for the elderly without increasing the cost burden on the active population, reduce social inequality, and maintain equity between successive generations. In this book, researchers from different countries compare their experiences and offer contrasting views on the future of social protection. They consider the theoretical aspects of the intergenerational debate, relations between generations within the family, the living standards of elderly people, and the question of social time.
Advances in Electronic Testing : Challenges and Methodologies
The book is a comprehensive elaboration on important topics which capture major research and development efforts today. The motivation and inspiration behind this book is to deliver a thorough text that focuses on the evolution of test technology, provides insight about the abiding importance of discussed topics, records today’s state of the art and industrial practices and trends, reveals the challenges for emerging testing methodologies, and envisages the future of this journey. The book consists of eleven edited chapters written by experts in Defect-Oriented Testing, Nanometer Technologies Failures and Testing, Silicon Debug, Delay Testing, High-Speed Test Interfaces, DFT-Oriented Low-Cost Testers, Embedded Cores and System-on-Chip Testing, Memory Testing, Mixed-Signal Testing, RF Testing and Loaded Board Testing.



















