Engineering self-organising systems Vol. 3910 ; 3rd International Workshop, ESOA 2005, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 25, 2005, Revised Selected Papers
This book contains recent work from a broad range of areas with the common theme of utilising self-organisation productively. As distributed information infrastructures continue to spread (such as the Internet, wireless and mobile systems), new challenges have arisen demanding robust and scalable solutions. In these new challenging environments the - signers and engineers of global applications and services can seldom rely on centralised control or management, high reliability of devices, or secure en- ronments. At the other end of the scale, ad-hoc sensor networks and ubiquitous computing devices are making it possible to embed millions of smart computing agents into the local environment.
Engineering for Sustainable Development : Theory and Practice
Offers a wide range of civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering industry applications. Readers will also benefit from: A thorough introduction to contemporary sustainability challenges in the engineering discipline Comprehensive discussions of sustainability assessment tools, including triple bottom line assessment (TBL) and the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) In-depth examinations of sustainable engineering strategies, including cleaner production and eco-efficiency methods and environmental management systems Detailed review of green engineering principles and industrial symbiosis in engineering application. A link between product stewardship and the design for the environment
Energy Resources in East Africa: Opportunities and Challenges
East African states have historically shared several resources including energy and common heritage of its people. This book provides information on available sources of energy in the region and how the energy suppliers can exploit them in an integrated form to produce the right blend of energy for various applications e.g., industrial, domestic and recreational uses. We provide an in-depth analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of different energy sources in-terms of environmental, industrialization, distribution costs and impacts. We hope that the book will contribute towards a sustainable exploitation of energy resources for the improvement of the people’s quality of life.
Energy in Africa : Challenges and Opportunities
This open access book presents a picture of the current energy challenges on the African continent (and the Sub-Saharan region in particular) and proposes pathways to an accelerated energy transition. Starting with an analysis of the status quo and the outlook for Africa’s energy demand and energy access, it provides an account of the available resources, including hydrocarbons and renewable energy resources, which are playing an increasingly crucial role. It then moves on to analyze the level of investment required to scale-up Africa’s energy systems, shedding light on the key barriers and elaborating on potential solutions. It also provides a suggestion for improving the effectiveness of EU–Africa cooperation. While mainly intended for policymakers and academics, this book also speaks to a broader audience interested in gaining an overview of the challenges and opportunities of the African energy sector today and in the future.
Energy Demand Challenges in Europe : Implications for policy, planning and practice
This book examines the role of citizens in sustainable energy transitions across Europe. It explores energy problem framing, policy approaches and practical responses to the challenge of securing clean, affordable and sustainable energy for all citizens, focusing on households as the main unit of analysis. The book revolves around ten contributions that each summarise national trends, socio-material characteristics, and policy responses to contemporary energy issues affecting householders in different countries, and provides good practice examples for designing and implementing sustainable energy initiatives. Prominent concerns include reducing carbon emissions, energy poverty, sustainable consumption, governance, practices, innovations and sustainable lifestyles.
Energy branding : Harnessing consumer power
Demonstrating the potential of building strong brands in the energy sector, This book explores the challenges of shifting the perception of energy from a commodity business into a consumer brand. Energy suppliers are increasingly being met with skepticism, indicating the need for a greater focus on marketing and branding in the energy industry. The author examines both perspectives of energy as a commodity business and a consumer brand, as well as the perception of energy consumers across Europe. Topics discussed include green energy, the liberalisation of the electricity industry, and the relationship between consumers and executives in the energy market.
End-User Development
By now, most people have become familiar with the basic functionality and interfaces of computers. However, developing new or modified applications that effectively support users' goals still requires considerable expertise in programming that cannot be expected from most people. Thus, one fundamental challenge for the coming years is to develop environments that allow users who do not have background in programming to develop or modify their own applications, with the ultimate aim of empowering people to flexibly employ advanced information and communication technologies.
Endoscopic Surgery of the Potential Anatomical Spaces
Potential anatomical spaces" have attracted surgeons in the past and in recent years. Due to the development of modern imaging techniques and the advent of minimally invasive surgery, access to these spaces has become a real surgical option. The purpose of this book is to document the challenges related to "potential anatomical spaces", traditionally described as "hidden" spaces. The spread of video-assisted surgery and its application in the management of diseases involving organs or anatomical structures placed in the "potential spaces" (neck, mediastinum, pro-peritoneum and retro-peritoneum, subfacial space of the leg, and axilla), has rendered their surgical anatomy less abstract.
Enabling the City : Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Encounters in Research and Practice
Focuses on how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary processes of knowledge production may contribute to urban transformation at a local level in the 21st century, striking a balance between enthusiastic support for such transformational potential and a cautious note regarding the persistent challenges to the ethos as well as the practice of inter and transdisciplinarity. The rich stories reflect different research and local practice cultures, exploring issues such as ageing, community, health and dementia, public space, energy, mobility cultures, heritage, housing, re-use, and renewal, as well as more universal questions about urban sustainability and climate change, and perhaps most importantly, education.
Employability and Industrial Mutations : Between Individual Trajectories and Organizational Strategic Planning ; Vol.4
Employability and Industrial Mutations presents a definition of employability and the associated challenges for public authorities, organizations and employees: managing unemployment, successful change and employee empowerment. It then examines several worker profiles to better understand what “being employable” means.
Emissions Trading and Business
Emissions trading challenges the management of companies in an entirely new manner. It does not only allow for a bigger flexibility in management decisions concerning emission issues like other marked based environmental policy instruments. Furthermore it changes the code by which environmental policy steers management decisions from hierarchical to monetary information.
Emissions Trading : Institutional Design, Decision Making and Corporate Strategies
Emissions trading challenges the management of companies in an entirely new manner: Not only does it, like other market-based environmental policy instruments, allow for a bigger flexibility in management decisions concerning emission issues. More importantly, it shifts the mode of governance of environmental policy from hierarchy to market. But how is this change reflected in management processes, decisions and organizational structures? The contributions in this book discuss the theoretical implications of different institutional designs of emissions trading schemes, review schemes that have been implemented in the US and Europe, and evaluate the range of investment decisions and corporate strategies which have resulted from the new policy framework.
Emerging Threats to Energy Security and Stability; Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Emerging Threats to Energy Security and Stability, London, United Kingdom, from 23 to 25 January 2004
In particular, it sought to assess emerging threats to energy security and stability and discuss new security strategies to protect global energy supplies from regional instability and terrorism. The format involved a wide-ranging international group of poli- formers and advisers from NATO, Partner and other countries, in a unique forum for intensive expert discussion. Background The international community is increasingly conscious of the need to develop new energy security strategies in order to protect global energy supplies from regional instability and terrorism. Energy security is a vital element in international stability. However, a variety of energy-related economic, technical, and military/political factors pose serious challenges to the international community’s pursuit of energy security and stability: The global economy is expected to continue to be largely dependent on oil and gas for the next twenty to thirty years.
Emerging States at Crossroads
This volume analyzes the economic, social, and political challenges that emerging states confront today. Notwithstanding the growing importance of the ‘emerging states’ in global affairs and governance, many problems requiring immediate solutions have emerged at home largely as a consequence of the rapid economic development and associated sociopolitical changes. The middle-income trap is a major economic challenge faced by emerging states. This volume regards interest coordination for technological upgrading as crucial to avoid the trap and examines how various emerging states are grappling with this challenge by fostering public-private cooperation, voluntary associations of market players, and/or social networks. Social disparity is another serious problem. This volume argues that the economic, social, and political problems are interwoven in the sense that the emerging states need to build political consensus in order to tackle the economic and social difficulties. Democratic institutions have not always been successful in this respect.
Emerging States and Economies : Their Origins, Drivers, and Challenges Ahead
This book asks why and how some of the developing countries have “emerged” under a set of similar global conditions, what led individual countries to choose the particular paths that led to their “emergence,” and what challenges confront them. If we are to understand the nature of major risks and uncertainties in the world, we must look squarely at the political and economic dynamics of emerging states. Their rapid economic development has changed the distribution of wealth and power in the world. Yet many of them have middle income status. To global governance issues, they tend to adopt approaches that differ from those of advanced industrialized democracies. At home, rapid economic growth and social changes put pressure on their institutions to change. This volume traces the historical trajectories of two major emerging states. It also analyzes cross-country data to find the general patterns of economic development and sociopolitical change in relation to globalization and to the middle income trap.
Emerging Environmental Technologies
This book exclusively focuses on the technologies that would be in the forefront in near to far future. Each and every article in the book discusses the current environmental challenges, the novel innovation and future directions. The topics covered in the book include microbial fuel cells, hybrid solar lighting, bacterial swimming for environmental remediation, cleaner engines, nanoparticles for effluent treatment, surface catalysis and proteins as gas hydrates inhibitors.
Emerging Drugs in Sport
Offers a timely analysis of the new challenges posed by this phenomenon in the anti-doping community. The authors present the first comprehensive perspective on the rapidly shifting doping scenario and reflect on use, regulation, policy, and market structure of NPS used in sports. They highlight the challenges with the list of prohibited substances and methods in and out of competition. They also evaluate how methods to detect new drugs present an ongoing battle for doping control as they have to be adapted constantly. Topics covered within the chapters include: Contamination of Sports Supplements with Novel Psychoactive Substances Untested Supplement Use Among Athletes: An Overlooked Phenomenon? International Drug Control: Protecting the Health of the Athlete Analysis of New Chemical Entities in a Sport Context Emerging Drugs in Sport establishes a clear benchmark on the policy discussion, drawing from available evidence and sources, including athletes' personal experiences, to generate a fact-based resource that informs a research as well as wider audience.
Embedded Software and Systems ; Vol. 3820 ; 2nd International Conference, ICESS 2005, Xi'an, China, December 16-18, 2005, Proceedings
Welcome to the proceedings of the 2005 International Conference on Emb- ded Software and Systems (ICESS 2005) held in Xian, China, December 16-18, 2005. With the advent of VLSI system level integration and system-on-chip, the center of gravity of the computer industry is now moving from personal c- puting into embedded computing. Embedded software and systems are incre- ingly becoming a key technological component of all kinds of complex technical systems, ranging from vehicles, telephones, aircraft, toys, security systems, to medical diagnostics, weapons, pacemakers, climate control systems, etc. The ICESS 2005 conference provided a premier international forum for - searchers, developers and providers from academia and industry to address all resulting profound challenges; to present and discuss their new ideas, - search results, applications and experience; to improve international com- nication and cooperation; and to promote embedded software and system - dustrialization and wide applications on all aspects of embedded software and systems.
Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing ; IFIP International Conference, EUC 2007, Taipei, Taiwan, December 17-20, 2007, Proceedings
This book provides a forum for engineers and scientists in academia, industry, and governmentto address challenges and to present and discuss their ideas, results, work in progress and experience.
Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing - EUC 2005 ; International Conference EUC 2005, Nagasaki, Japan, December 6-9, 2005, Proceedings
Welcome to the proceedings of the 2005 IFIP International Conference on - bedded and Ubiquitous Computing (EUC 2005), which was held in Nagasaki, Japan, December 6–9, 2005. Embedded and ubiquitous computing is emerging rapidly as an exciting new paradigm to provide computing and communication services all the time, - erywhere. Its systems are now pervading every aspect of life to the point that they are hidden inside various appliances or can be worn unobtrusively as part of clothing and jewelry. This emergence is a natural outcome of research and technological advances in embedded systems, pervasive computing and c- munications, wireless networks, mobile computing, distributed computing and agent technologies, etc. Its tremendous impact on academics, industry, gove- ment, and daily life can be compared to that of electric motors over the past century, in fact it but promises to revolutionize life much more profoundly than elevators, electric motors or even personal computers. The EUC 2005 conference provided a forum for engineers and scientists in academia, industry, and government to address profound issues including te- nical challenges, safety, and social, legal, political, and economic issues, and to present and discuss their ideas, results, work in progress, and experience on all aspects of embedded and ubiquitous computing.



















