Open Access Books - Technology - 2022
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PublicationMicroplastic in the Environment: Pattern and Process( 2022)Michael S. Bank (editors)This open access book examines global plastic pollution, an issue that has become a critical societal challenge with implications for environmental and public health. This volume provides a comprehensive, holistic analysis on the plastic cycle and its subsequent effects on biota, food security, and human exposure. Importantly, global environmental change and its associated, systems-level processes, including atmospheric deposition, ecosystem complexity, UV exposure, wind patterns, water stratification, ocean circulation, etc., are all important direct and indirect factors governing the fate, transport and biotic and abiotic processing of plastic particles across ecosystem types. Furthermore, the distribution of plastic in the ocean is not independent of terrestrial ecosystem dynamics, since much of the plastic in marine ecosystems originates from land and should therefore be evaluated in the context of the larger plastic cycle. Changes in species size, distribution, habitat, and food web complexity, due to global environmental change, will likely alter trophic transfer dynamics and the ecological effects of nano- and microplastics. The fate and transport dynamics of plastic particles are influenced by their size, form, shape, polymer type, additives, and overall ecosystem conditions. In addition to the risks that plastics pose to the total environment, the potential impacts on human health and exposure routes, including seafood consumption, and air and drinking water need to be assessed in a comprehensive and quantitative manner. Here I present a holistic and interdisciplinary book volume designed to advance the understanding of plastic cycling in the environment with an emphasis on sources, fate and transport, ecotoxicology, climate change effects, food security, microbiology, sustainability, human exposure and public policy
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PublicationTechnologies and Applications for Big Data Value( 2022)Edward Curry, Sören Auer, Arne J. Berre, Andreas Metzger, Maria S. Perez, Sonja Zillner (editors)This open access book explores cutting-edge solutions and best practices for big data and data-driven AI applications for the data-driven economy. It provides the reader with a basis for understanding how technical issues can be overcome to offer real-world solutions to major industrial areas.The book starts with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of the book by positioning the following chapters in terms of their contributions to technology frameworks which are key elements of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the upcoming Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. The remainder of the book is then arranged in two parts. The first part “Technologies and Methods” contains horizontal contributions of technologies and methods that enable data value chains to be applied in any sector. The second part “Processes and Applications” details experience reports and lessons from using big data and data-driven approaches in processes and applications. Its chapters are co-authored with industry experts and cover domains including health, law, finance, retail, manufacturing, mobility, and smart cities. Contributions emanate from the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the Big Data Value Association, which have acted as the European data community's nucleus to bring together businesses with leading researchers to harness the value of data to benefit society, business, science, and industry.The book is of interest to two primary audiences, first, undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various fields, including big data, data science, data engineering, and machine learning and AI. Second, practitioners and industry experts engaged in data-driven systems, software design and deployment projects who are interested in employing these advanced methods to address real-world problems.
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PublicationContracting and Safety( 2022)Jan Hayes, Stéphanie Tillement (Editors)This open access book examines the increase in outsourcing, contracting and subcontracting as ways of organising work. It explores the impact of these employment arrangements on public safety, particularly when they are linked to complex supply networks in a range of engineering industries including oil and gas, nuclear power and aviation. The brief provides practical recommendations on how best to manage arrangements that target short-term profitability and also maintain excellence in long-term safety outcomes. The brief is a source of advice for organisations on how to maximise the benefits and minimise long-term system reliability issues that can be introduced by contracting and outsourcing, rather than assuming it to be a wholly negative or positive practice. Contracting and Safety comprises qualitative, empirical studies focusing on high-reliability organisation. As such, this brief provides a rich picture of the experience of working in complex supply chains. It will be of interest to researchers in industrial safety, as well as safety professionals and project managers within engineering industries. This work is licensed under a CC BY
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PublicationCyber Security( 2022)Wei Lu, Yuqing Zhang, Weiping Wen, Hanbing Yan, Chao Li (editors)This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 18th China Annual Conference on Cyber Security, CNCERT 2022, held in Beijing, China, in August 2022. The 17 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 64 submissions. The papers are organized according to the following topical sections: data security; anomaly detection; cryptocurrency; information security; vulnerabilities; mobile internet; threat intelligence; text recognition.
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PublicationData-Driven Fault Detection and Reasoning for Industrial Monitoring( 2022)Jing Wang, Jinglin Zhou, Xiaolu Chen"This open access book assesses the potential of data-driven methods in industrial process monitoring engineering. The process modeling, fault detection, classification, isolation, and reasoning are studied in detail. These methods can be used to improve the safety and reliability of industrial processes. Fault diagnosis, including fault detection and reasoning, has attracted engineers and scientists from various fields such as control, machinery, mathematics, and automation engineering. Combining the diagnosis algorithms and application cases, this book establishes a basic framework for this topic and implements various statistical analysis methods for process monitoring. This book is intended for senior undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in fault diagnosis technology, researchers investigating automation and industrial security, professional practitioners and engineers working on engineering modeling and data processing applications. This is an open access book." This work is licensed under a CC BY
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PublicationxxAI - Beyond Explainable AI( 2022)Andreas Holzinger, Randy Goebel, Ruth Fong, Taesup Moon, Klaus-Robert Müller, Wojciech Samek (editors)This is an open access book.Statistical machine learning (ML) has triggered a renaissance of artificial intelligence (AI). While the most successful ML models, including Deep Neural Networks (DNN), have developed better predictivity, they have become increasingly complex, at the expense of human interpretability (correlation vs. causality). The field of explainable AI (xAI) has emerged with the goal of creating tools and models that are both predictive and interpretable and understandable for humans.Explainable AI is receiving huge interest in the machine learning and AI research communities, across academia, industry, and government, and there is now an excellent opportunity to push towards successful explainable AI applications. This volume will help the research community to accelerate this process, to promote a more systematic use of explainable AI to improve models in diverse applications, and ultimately to better understand how current explainable AI methods need to be improved and what kind of theory of explainable AI is needed.After overviews of current methods and challenges, the editors include chapters that describe new developments in explainable AI. The contributions are from leading researchers in the field, drawn from both academia and industry, and many of the chapters take a clear interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. The concepts discussed include explainability, causability, and AI interfaces with humans, and the applications include image processing, natural language, law, fairness, and climate science.
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PublicationHandbook of Digital Face Manipulation and Detection( 2022)Christian Rathgeb, Ruben Tolosana, Ruben Vera-Rodriguez, Christoph Busch (editors)This open access book provides the first comprehensive collection of studies dealing with the hot topic of digital face manipulation such as DeepFakes, Face Morphing, or Reenactment. It combines the research fields of biometrics and media forensics including contributions from academia and industry. Appealing to a broad readership, introductory chapters provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, which address readers wishing to gain a brief overview of the state-of-the-art. Subsequent chapters, which delve deeper into various research challenges, are oriented towards advanced readers. Moreover, the book provides a good starting point for young researchers as well as a reference guide pointing at further literature. Hence, the primary readership is academic institutions and industry currently involved in digital face manipulation and detection. The book could easily be used as a recommended text for courses in image processing, machine learning, media forensics, biometrics, and the general security area.
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PublicationThe Belt and Road Initiative Green Development Case Studies Report 2020( 2022)BRI International Green Development CoalitionThis is an Open Access book. In accordance with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it showcases 17 projects under the framework of Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). These projects cover ninefields, namely, biodiversity and ecosystem, clean energy, clean water, sustainable transportation, solid waste treatment, sustainable consumption and production, green buildings, sustainable foodproduction and corporate social responsibility. Aiming at achieving green development, these projects, in their implementation, adhere to the concept of ecological civilization, combine China’s strict environmental protection systems and international standards, and take various measures of environmental protection based on the conditions of the local environment. These measures include joint efforts with local governments, businesses and communities, optimizating of design and construction plans, strict controling over different types of pollutants, and in situ conservation of species and ecosystems.The experience and practice of these 13 projects set an example for the latecomers
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PublicationFoundations of Robotics( 2022)Damith Herath, David St-Onge (Editors)"This open access book introduces key concepts in robotics in an easy to understand language using an engaging project-based approach. It covers contemporary topics in robotics, providing an accessible entry point to fundamentals in all the major domains. A section is dedicated to introducing programming concepts using Python, which has become a language of choice in robotics and AI. The book also introduces the reader to the Robot Operating System (ROS), the ubiquitous software and algorithmic framework used by researchers and the industry. The book provides an inspired, up-to-date and multidisciplinary introduction to robotics in its many forms, including emerging topics related to robotics on Machine Learning, ethics, Human-Robot Interaction, and Design Thinking. The book also includes interviews with industry experts, providing an additional layer of insight into the world of robotics. The book is made open access through the generous support from Kinova Robotics. The book is suitable as an undergraduate textbook in a relevant engineering course. It is also suitable for students in art and design, high school students, and self-learners who would like to explore foundational concepts in robotics. This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND
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PublicationGreen Economy in the Transport Sector( 2022)John Ogony Odiyo, Peter Bitta Bikam, James Chakwizira (editors)This open access book is interdisciplinary and provides cross-sectoral and multi-dimensional exploration of sustainable development and transportation in South Africa. Drawing on work from different disciplines, the book contributes not only to academia but also seeks to inform urban and regional policy with the view of contributing to the national aspirations of South Africa as espoused in the National Development Plan (NDP), 2030, National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) Draft (2019), National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (NCASS) Draft (2019), Green Transport Strategy for South Africa (2018–2050), and National Transportation Plan (NATMAP), 2050. Adopting a multi-dimensional assessment, the book provides a background for co-production concerning climate change, sustainable development, and transportation in the Global South. The book contributes in its analysis of the institutional and legislative framework that relates to the climate change, skills and knowledge transfer, sustainable development, and transportation in South Africa, as these are responsible for the evolution of the green economy and transport sector in the country. The connections among different sectors and issues such as environment, transport modes, technology innovation, vehicle management and emission control, skills and knowledge transfer, legislative and policy framework, and the wider objectives of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially goals 11 to 13. The success stories relating to climate change, sustainable development, and transportation in South Africa are identified together with the best possible practices that may inform better environmental, urban and regional planning, policy, practice, and management.
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PublicationAnalysis of Reaction-Diffusion Models with the Taxis Mechanism( 2022)Yuanyuan Ke, Jing Li, Yifu WangThis open access book deals with a rich variety of taxis-type cross-diffusive equations. Particularly, it intends to show the key role played by quasi-energy inequality in the derivation of some necessary a priori estimates. This book addresses applied mathematics and all researchers interested in mathematical development of reaction-diffusion theory and its application and can be a basis for a graduate course in applied mathematics.
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PublicationFraming Global Mathematics( 2022)Norbert SchappacherThis open access book is about the shaping of international relations in mathematics over the last two hundred years. It focusses on institutions and organizations that were created to frame the international dimension of mathematical research. Today, striking evidence of globalized mathematics is provided by countless international meetings and the worldwide repository ArXiv. The text follows the sinuous path that was taken to reach this state, from the long nineteenth century, through the two wars, to the present day. International cooperation in mathematics was well established by 1900, centered in Europe. The first International Mathematical Union, IMU, founded in 1920 and disbanded in 1932, reflected above all the trauma of WW I. Since 1950 the current IMU has played an increasing role in defining mathematical excellence, as is shown both in the historical narrative and by analyzing data about the International Congresses of Mathematicians. For each of the three periods discussed, interactions are explored between world politics, the advancement of scientific infrastructures, and the inner evolution of mathematics. Readers will thus take a new look at the place of mathematics in world culture, and how international organizations can make a difference. Aimed at mathematicians, historians of science, scientists, and the scientifically inclined general public, the book will be valuable to anyone interested in the history of science on an international level.
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PublicationThe Vortex and The Jet( 2022)Reiner Decher"This open access book is an introduction for the lay reader to understand the basics of flight. The exposure is to the mysteries of lift generation by wings and the basic function of the jet propulsion engine. The text relies on simple descriptions of the physics of air flow without unduly involving mathematics. The text is richly illustrated with sketches and photographs to enrich verbal descriptions. The book takes the viewpoint that a reader does not have a background in the engineering of airplane components but is interested in the subject. The description is in terms of easy-to-understand terminology, occasional use of humor, references to everyday experiences, and occasionally to an algebraic relationship when that is unavoidable. This book would serve a student aspiring to be an engineer to begin grappling with the phenomena involved and the techniques used to analyze these phenomena. The practitioner, as well as the beginner, in the art of flying an airplane is well served with the knowledge exposed here. The text makes no apology for technical complexity. Its introduction is rigorous and provides a sound footing for further study." This work is licensed under a CC BY
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PublicationPandemics: Insurance and Social Protection( 2022)María del Carmen Boado-Penas, Julia Eisenberg, Şule Şahin (editors)This open access book collects expert contributions on actuarial modelling and related topics, from machine learning to legal aspects, and reflects on possible insurance designs during an epidemic/pandemic. Starting by considering the impulse given by COVID-19 to the insurance industry and to actuarial research, the text covers compartment models, mortality changes during a pandemic, risk-sharing in the presence of low probability events, group testing, compositional data analysis for detecting data inconsistencies, behaviouristic aspects in fighting a pandemic, and insurers’ legal problems, amongst others. Concluding with an essay by a practicing actuary on the applicability of the methods proposed, this interdisciplinary book is aimed at actuaries as well as readers with a background in mathematics, economics, statistics, finance, epidemiology, or sociology.
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PublicationComputer Aided Verification( 2022)Sharon Shoham, Yakir Vizel (editors)This open access two-volume set LNCS 13371 and 13372 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 34rd International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, CAV 2022, which was held in Haifa, Israel, in August 2022.The 40 full papers presented together with 9 tool papers and 2 case studies were carefully reviewed and selected from 209 submissions. The papers were organized in the following topical sections:Part I: Invited papers; formal methods for probabilistic programs; formal methods for neural networks; software Verification and model checking; hyperproperties and security; formal methods for hardware, cyber-physical, and hybrid systems. Part II: Probabilistic techniques; automata and logic; deductive verification and decision procedures; machine learning; synthesis and concurrency.This is an open access book.
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PublicationPerspectives on Digital Humanism( 2022)Hannes Werthner, Erich Prem, Edward A. Lee, Carlo Ghezzi (editors)This open access book aims to set an agenda for research and action in the field of Digital Humanism through short essays written by selected thinkers from a variety of disciplines, including computer science, philosophy, education, law, economics, history, anthropology, political science, and sociology. This initiative emerged from the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism and the associated lecture series.Digital Humanism deals with the complex relationships between people and machines in digital times. It acknowledges the potential of information technology. At the same time, it points to societal threats such as privacy violations and ethical concerns around artificial intelligence, automation and loss of jobs, ongoing monopolization on the Web, and sovereignty. Digital Humanism aims to address these topics with a sense of urgency but with a constructive mindset. The book argues for a Digital Humanism that analyses and, most importantly, influences the complex interplay of technology and humankind toward a better society and life while fully respecting universal human rights. It is a call to shaping technologies in accordance with human values and needs.
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PublicationData Spaces( 2022)Edward Curry, Simon Scerri, Tuomo Tuikka (editors)Edward Curry is the Established Professor of Data Science and Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at University of Galway, Ireland. Edward has contributed to the foundations of data spaces with contributions to semantics, knowledge graphs, incremental data management, data governance, and multimodal processing. Edward is co-founder and elected Vice President of the Big Data Value Association, an industry-led European big data community. Simon Scerri has over 15 years of research experience exploring Knowledge Graph methodologies and applications, with the objective of strengthening and diversifying Data Value Chains to realise various data infrastructures. Currently, Simon fulfils the role of a senior technical consultant at metaphacts GmbH, Germany. Previously, Simon fronted the Knowledge Graph competency area at the Enterprise Information Systems department in Fraunhofer IAIS. Tuomo Tuikka is the Lead of Data Space Solutions at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He is involved in many European and national research and innovation activities especially on data spaces, data infrastructures, big data, and artificial intelligence. Tuomo is a member of the Board of the Big Data Value Association, the Gaia-X Finland hub steering group, and leads the data analytics spearhead program at the city of Oulu.
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PublicationBrainlesion: Glioma, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injuries( 2022)Alessandro Crimi, Spyridon Bakas (editors)This two-volume set LNCS 12962 and 12963 constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 7th International MICCAI Brainlesion Workshop, BrainLes 2021, as well as the RSNA-ASNR-MICCAI Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) Challenge, the Federated Tumor Segmentation (FeTS) Challenge, the Cross-Modality Domain Adaptation (CrossMoDA) Challenge, and the challenge on Quantification of Uncertainties in Biomedical Image Quantification (QUBIQ). These were held jointly at the 23rd Medical Image Computing for Computer Assisted Intervention Conference, MICCAI 2020, in September 2021. The 91 revised papers presented in these volumes were selected form 151 submissions. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held virtually.This is an open access book.
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PublicationDeployment and Operation of Complex Software in Heterogeneous Execution Environments( 2022)Elisabetta Di Nitto, Jesús Gorroñogoitia Cruz, Indika Kumara, Dragan Radolović, Kamil Tokmakov, Zoe Vasileiou (editors)This open access book provides an overview of the work developed within the SODALITE project, which aims at facilitating the deployment and operation of distributed software on top of heterogeneous infrastructures, including cloud, HPC and edge resources. The experts participating in the project describe how SODALITE works and how it can be exploited by end users. While multiple languages and tools are available in the literature to support DevOps teams in the automation of deployment and operation steps, still these activities require specific know-how and skills that cannot be found in average teams. The SODALITE framework tackles this problem by offering modelling and smart editing features to allow those we call Application Ops Experts to work without knowing low level details about the adopted, potentially heterogeneous, infrastructures. The framework offers also mechanisms to verify the quality of the defined models, generate the corresponding executable infrastructural code, automatically wrap application components within proper execution containers, orchestrate all activities concerned with deployment and operation of all system components, and support on-the-fly self-adaptation and refactoring.
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PublicationFood Systems Resilience( 2022)Ana I. Ribeiro-Barros, Ana I. Ribeiro-Barros, Luis F. Goulao, Lucas Daniel Tivana (Editors)This book addresses some of the major challenges of food systems associated with a diversity of agricultural contexts and priorities. It contributes to the conversation on global food and nutrition security by unpacking the intertwined connections between food system resilience, food policies, and global food markets. The contributing authors provide careful analyses of how shocks to food systems (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns) and crises to global food systems (e.g., the global food price crisis of 2008) have disrupted the food value chains in ways that undermine global initiatives to achieve food and nutrition security for all. The book is divided into two sections. Section 1 focuses on global food systems transformation with the goal of moving towards resilience. Two chapters in this section employ a global context approach to address the key factors undermining food systems’ resilience and sustainability. Section 2 presents case studies drawn from Africa, Asia, and Europe with different pathways for the transition to food systems resilience, highlighting the importance of policy approaches as well as smart and innovative strategies to ensure the production of nutritious foods at affordable costs, the reduction of food wastage, and the valorization of sub-products.