Workers in hazardous environments such as mining are constantly exposed to the health and safety hazards of dynamic and unpredictable conditions. One approach to enable them to manage these hazards is to provide them with situational awareness: real-time data (environmental, physiological, and physical location data) obtained from wireless, wearable, smart sensor technologies deployed at the work area. The scope of this approach is limited to managing the hazards of the immediate work area for prevention purposes; it does not include technologies needed after a disaster. Three critical technologies emerge and converge to support this technical approach: smart-wearable sensors, wireless sensor networks, and low-power embedded computing. The major focus of this report is on smart sensors and wireless sensor networks. Wireless networks form the infrastructure to support the realization of situational awareness; therefore, there is a significant focus on wireless networks. Lastly, the “Fut… More >>

A Technology Review of Smart Sensors with Wireless Networks for Applications in Hazardous Work Environments

Cet ouvrage, associant des chercheurs de disciplines et de préoccupations très diverses, a trois objectifs : faire le point sur la question de la douleur et des états associés chez l’animal, interroger l’une par l’autre douleur animale et douleur humaine, clarifier les bases éthiques du débat. Si l’animal, faute de langage comparable au nôtre, ne peut nous déclarer sa douleur, son comportement est cependant loin d’être silencieux. Cette question peut ainsi être ressaisie sous un plus large horizon que celui strictement humain, permettant une compréhension renouvelée. En retour, la reconnaissance de la douleur animale pose à l’homme des problèmes éthiques qu’il ne peut indéfiniment différer.
Cet ouvrage, associant des chercheurs de disciplines et de préoccupations très diverses, a trois objectifs : faire le point sur la question de la douleur et des états associés chez l’animal, interroger l’une par l’autre douleur animale et douleur humaine, clarifier les ba… More >>

Douleur animale, douleur humaine: Données scientifiques, perspectives anthropologiques, questions éthiques

This volume presents findings and insights from contemporary thinking and research on the application of Information Technology in Educational Management. Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT analyses the ways in which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been used, across a range of educational institutions, to support various aspects of educational management. The contents are organized into five sections:
-ICT for Managing Student Learning;
-ICT for Managing Educational Institutions;
-The Management of e-Learning;
-ICT Training for Educational Professionals;
-Reports from Discussion Groups. Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT contains peer-reviewed papers selected from the proceedings of the Fifth International Working Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management (ITEM 2002), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Inf… More >>

Management of Education in the Information Age: The Role of ICT

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2004, held in Erfurt, Germany, in September 2004.
The 22 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning and social agents, analysis and security, negotiation and control, agents and software engineering, simulation and agents, and policies and testing. This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second German Conference on Multiagent Systems Technologies, MATES 2004, held in Erfurt, Germany, in September 2004.
The 22 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on learning and social agents, analysis and security, negotiation and control, agents and software engineering, simulation and agents, and polici… More >>

Multiagent System Technologies: Second German Conference, MATES 2004, Erfurt, Germany, September 29-30, 2004, Proceedings

In the United States, desalination technologies are increasingly used for municipal and industrial water supplies and reclamation of contaminated supplies. At issue for Congress is the federal role in desalination research, demonstration and full-scale facilities, and regulatory requirements. Constraints on wider adoption include financial, environmental, regulatory issues and concerns.

Desalination processes generally treat seawater or brackish water to produce a stream of freshwater, and a separate, saltier stream of water that has to be disposed (often called waste concentrate). Its attractions include creation of a new freshwater source from otherwise unusable waters, and its independence from precipitation, runoff, storage, and recharge. Many states (most notably Florida, California, and Texas) and cities are actively researching and investigating the feasibility of large-scale desalination plants for municipal water supplies. Coastal communities are increasingly consid… More >>

Desalination: Technologies, Use, and Congressional Issues

At the macroeconomic level innovation increasingly means the ability of institutions to cope with uncertainty and change. This change can be associated with technological advances, but also with modifications to the regulatory framework of an industry, shifts in consumer preferences, emerging demographic trends, or even major alternations of global geopolitics. The changes brought about by these conditions ripple throughout an economy, affecting national institutions and individual citizens alike. Innovation for All? considers the case of Portugal from the perspective of innovation theory, providing new insights on how knowledge is generated and diffused over time and across space. The lessons from Portugal’s experience can be applied more broadly to understand the challenges of developing policies that simultaneously promote scientific and technological innovation, societal creativity, and economic growth.At the macroeconomic level innovation increasingly means the ability of institut… More >>

Innovation for All?: Learning from the Portuguese Path to Technical Change and the Dynamics of Innovation

Governments, the media, the information technology industry and scientists publicly argue that information and communication technologies (ICT) will bring about an inevitable transition from “industrial” to “information” or “knowledge-based” economies and societies.  It is assumed that all aspects of our economic and social lives, in both the public and private spheres, will be radically different from what they are today.  The World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003 – Tunis 2005) shows the importance of a worldwide reflection on those topics. 
Perspectives and Policies on ICT in Society explores the ICT policies of different nations and regions such as Africa, China, Europe, and India.  The authors assess the arguments surrounding the impending new age, as well as some of the more sensitive issues of its developments.  This progress will signal an expansion of ICT in many domains – the so-called ubiquity – such as in the workplace, the home, go… More >>

Perspectives and Policies on ICT in Society: An IFIP TC9

To balance the competing goals of reduced infrastructure and enhanced information technology (IT) skills, the Army must manage all its workforces in the IT field. Using Fort Bragg as a test case, this report shows how a linear programming framework helps gauge the impact of decisions that change the IT workforce. With a determination of who can do what in the IT field, the authors conclude that with linear programming the effects of policy changes can be quantified and better understood, various policies can be studied, and the approach can be extended beyond the installation level.To balance the competing goals of reduced infrastructure and enhanced information technology (IT) skills, the Army must manage all its workforces in the IT field. Using Fort Bragg as a test case, this report shows how a linear programming framework helps gauge the impact of decisions that change the IT workforce. With a determination of who can do what in the IT field, the authors conclude that with linear p… More >>

An Optimization Approach to Workforce Planning for the Information Technology Field

The Army1s Spring 1998 Technology Seminar Game was designed to advance theArmy After Next (AAN) process by bringing together military operators andcivilian scientists and technologists to examine future force developmentissues. It used 15 mini-scenarios extracted from previous AAN games. Foreach scenario, an overall mission and required force capabilities requiredto achieve that mission were identified beforehand. A set of System Cards,used in the game as a means of achieving the required capabilities, was alsopreselected. The cards included information about the specifications of aparticular system and the technologies that could be used to build thosesystems. System Cards were thus the fundamental component of the game,linking systems and technologies to the required force capabilities. Theplayers1 involvement included examining the preselected cards, revisingand/or adding new cards, and then cross-evaluating them with the intentionof identifying the most important critical technolog… More >>

Issues and Insights from the Army Technology Seminar Game

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 1st and 2nd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, WEBIST 2005 and 2006, held in Miami, FL, USA, and Setubal, Portugal, respectively.
The 30 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 300 submissions overall. In addition, three keynote presentations are also included. The papers address all relevant aspects of web information systems technologies and applications and are grouped into four parts about internet technology; web interfaces and applications; society, e-business and e-government; and e-learning.This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 1st and 2nd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, WEBIST 2005 and 2006, held in Miami, FL, USA, and Setubal, Portugal, respectively.
The 30 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selecte… More >>

Web Information Systems and Technologies: International Conferences WEBIST 2005 and WEBIST 2006, Revised Selected Papers