Books in the SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology series

This book explores a dynamic landscape where cutting-edge technologies are revolutionizing various domains. This captivating book delves into the advancements in security, communication, and environmental management, highlighting their profound impact on society. The developments bridge the gap between human needs and technological innovation. Readers will uncover the fascinating world of IoT-driven devices that seamlessly integrate into our lives, ensuring enhanced safety and communication efficiency. This book is a must-read for technology enthusiasts, researchers, and anyone curious about the transformative power of technology in shaping our present and future.

The book explores current characteristics of the urban built environment in view of possible future transformations. A cross-reading analysis of existing public social housing buildings is proposed, based on the investigation of their architectural, structural, and energetic characteristics. The study aims to provide an integrated approach that captures the link between typology, construction, and energy demands, offering a key to understanding the main critical issues and transformation readiness. It focuses on large-scale interventions composing public social housing stocks, realized during the second half of the twentieth century. More than other public interventions, such building stocks clearly lack in meeting current housing needs such as modern apartment architectural layout, energy and structural regulations, and social mix. However, due to their numerical presence, strategical and widespread distribution across urban areas, and transformability, these buildings can bethe target for future strategic regeneration projects. In particular, the book thoroughly investigates the social housing estate constructed in Rome (Italy) after the approval in 1964 of the first urban economic and social housing plan.

This book discusses selected waste and by-products of the food industry. Two commonly used methods of managing these are discussed: anaerobic digestion and composting. The book reviews current research and also brings in the author¿s own research insights to the discussion. The book is aimed at food industry specialists, waste management specialists, scientists, and students. However, the book describes problems in an accessible way, which will make this book useful for beginners in the waste/biogas/composting sector.

This book highlights several methods and quantitative implementations of both probabilistic and fuzzy-based approaches to uncertainty quantification and uncertainty propagation through environmental subsurface pollution models with uncertain input parameters. The book focuses on methods as well as applications in hydrogeology, soil hydrology, groundwater contamination, and related areas (e.g., corrosion of nuclear waste canisters). The methods are illustrated for a broad spectrum of models, from non-differential I/O models to complex PDE solvers, including a novel 3D quasi-analytical model of contaminant transport, and a site-specific computer model of dissolved contaminant migration from a DNAPL (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid) pollution source.

This book assesses the main interrelationships between economic growth processes, life cycle sustainability assessment approaches, and new technologies in the framework of digital transition. In other words, it aims to highlight how sustainability assessment methodologies and artificial intelligence can better support different actors for more sustainable economic growth. Readers of the book would benefit from diverse perspectives on the contributions of evaluation methodologies and digital technologies to more sustainable economic growth. This is important especially for students, policymakers and public institutions. Economic growth is analysed using the concepts of sigma and beta convergence from neoclassical theory and the Verdoorn law of Keynesian development. For sustainability assessments, the book considers methodologies associated with social life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis. In the context of digital technologies, special emphasis is given to machine anddeep learning approaches.

This book explores the previously overlooked negative environmental impact of the sports industry, with a particular emphasis on the carbon footprint of sports facilities and organizations. The authors provide a comprehensive assessment of sustainable development goals, economic, social, and environmental sustainability concepts. They reveal the significant negative effects that the sports sector has on the environment and examine the policies implemented by stakeholders in the industry.The book also explores a case study of the legal policies implemented by the Lithuanian government to reduce the environmental impact of sports. The authors present practical suggestions for environmentally-friendly sports management, supported by examples presented with figures, pictures, and tables.This book fills a gap in the literature, offering suggestions and comments to enrich the practices of stakeholders in the sports industry. It provides an opportunity to make a positive difference for the environment while advancing the field of sports management.

This book highlights the different aspects of the research project ¿E4C Horizon 2020 European Project¿ aimed at fighting the coronavirus by combining the best supercomputing resources and artificial intelligence with state-of-the-art experimental facilities up through clinical validation.Coronavirus disease has become an important public issue across the globe since December 2019. There is an urgent need to develop potent anti-COVID-19 agents for the prevention of the outbreak and stop viral infections.To this aim, a public¿private consortium composed by European and national infrastructures, center of excellence, universities, and a pharmaceutical company started the E4C Horizon 2020 EuropeanProject: Its core idea was to use the EXaSCale smArt pLatform Against paThogEns (EXSCALATE) supercomputing platform for a process known as ¿drug repurposing¿, namely to identify the most promising safe in man drugs for immediate treatment of the already infected population and then novel pan-coronavirus inhibitors to address future emergencies.This ambitious goal exploited a ¿chemical library¿ of 500 billion molecules, thanks to a processing capacity of more than 3 million molecules per second, made available by the computing power of the EXSCALATE platform.

This book describes common applied problems that are solved with the use of digital technology. The digital technology has simplified most of our daily activities. Technology has been improving our quality of life where human capability alone is insufficient enough to be utilized. For any challenging tasks, digital technology helps to solve it in very efficient ways and thousands of them are solved on a daily basis without much notice in the public. Software and IT technology let us to complete tasks in just a moment that took days without this technical support. In that sense, this book presents several examples on how software- and IT-based solutions were successfully applied in solving actual engineering problems.

This book surveys the current research on CO2 conversion processes and shows that these can close the carbon cycle as part of a circular economy. The technical and economic feasibility of these processes are examined together and current scientific challenges are signposted, which will guide future R&D. Technology sustainability is key for meeting and keeping decarbonization goals in the long term. However, considering economic and environmental sustainability individually is not enough. An integral view of sustainability that incorporates an energy term in the equation is needed. This book brings this concept to the fore.

This book highlights the role of point-of-care (POC) testing in the effective management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with an in-depth focus on the recent developments in the field, existing gaps, and future directions. POC tests are of utmost importance as they facilitate rapid and decentralized testing without much instrumentation and technical expertise. The book describes the current status of POC COVID-19 testing in three broad categories: Molecular, antigen, and antibody. The advantages, limitations, and adaption of each of the POC tests are reviewed while highlighting their clinical impact in real-world settings. The role of POC testing for COVID-19 screening, diagnosis, and surveillance has been emphasized. The subtle difference between POC and at-home tests is discussed while elaborating on the necessity for the latter for enhancing clinical impacts. A spotlight on the influence of variants on the performance of POC-COVID-19 tests is provided. The consideration of clinical implications of POC testing in hospitals with regards to improving therapeutic options, patient flow, enhancing the infection control measures, and early recruitment of patients into clinical trials is explained. Finally, the future perspectives that will aid the research community in the development of POC tests for COVID-19 or any infectious disease, in general, are presented. Overall, we believe this book can benefit the research community as it (i) presents a comprehensive understanding of current COVID-19 POC testing methods (ii) highlights features required to transform the current tests developed during the past year as POC diagnostics, and (iii) provides insights to address the unmet challenges in the field. 

This book explores the application of data mining and machine learning techniques in studying the activity pattern, decision-making skills, misconducts, and actions resulting in the intervention of VAR in European soccer leagues referees. The game of soccer at the elite level is characterised by intense competitions, a high level of intensity, technical, and tactical skills coupled with a long duration of play. Referees are required to officiate the game and deliver correct and indisputable decisions throughout the duration of play. The increase in the spatial and temporal task demands of the game necessitates that the referees must respond and cope with the physiological and psychological loads inherent in the game. The referees are also required to deliver an accurate decision and uphold the rules and regulations of the game during a match. These demands and attributes make the work of referees highly complex. The increasing pace and complexity of the game resulted in the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to assist and improve the decision-making of on-field referees. Despite the integration of VAR into the current refereeing system, the performances of the referees are yet to be error-free. Machine learning coupled with data mining techniques has shown to be vital in providing insights from a large dataset which could be used to draw important inferences that can aid decision-making for diagnostics purposes and overall performance improvement.A total of 6232 matches from 5 consecutive seasons officiated across the English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga, Italian Serie A as well as the German Bundesliga was studied. It is envisioned that the findings in this book could be useful in recognising the activity pattern of top-class referees, that is non-trivial for the stakeholders in devising strategies to further enhance the performances of referees as well as empower talent identification experts with pertinent information for mapping out future high-performance referees.

This book presents the advancement of coating materials technology especially in agriculture, particularly for fertilizers. Fertilizers are a critical component in meeting rising demands and ensuring global food security. A new generation of fertilizers made by coating granules with biopolymers address these issues. Coating in agriculture is an important area in research for a more sustainable future. Many examples and instances from existing research and related research gaps are discussed. It includes applications of composites as fertilizer's coating, advantages and disadvantages of fertilizer coating from composites, applications of bacteria in composite, applications of bacteria in fertilizer industry as well as the common techniques of coating fertilizers with drying process.

This book puts forward a new mathematical theory to study chaotic phenomenon. The uniform theory is established on the basis of two elementary concept of circle and externally tangent square in mathematics. The author studies the uniformity of a finite set of points distributed in space by uniform theory. This book also illustrates that uniform theory performs better than other indices such as entropy and Lyapunov exponent in chaos measurement by numerous examples. This book develops a new mathematical tool for studying chaos so it will be appealing to students and researchers interested in theory of chaos. It also has potential applications in various fields such as Engineering, Forestry and Ecology.

The book focuses on mathematical modelling of COVID-19 pandemic using the Susceptible, Infectious, and Recovered (SIR) model. The predictive modelling of the disease, with the exact facts and figures, provides a ground to reason about growing trends and its future trajectory. The book emphasizes on how the pandemic actually spreads out, lockdown impact analysis, and future course of actions based on mathematical calculations. Moreover, since COVID-19 spread outburst has been twice, the intensity studies and comparative analysis of the two waves of COVID-19 are another interesting feature of the book content. The book is a knowledge base for various researchers and academicians to dive into the detailing of the COVID spread (mathematical) model and understand how it could be explored to draw outcomes. To represent the factual information and analytical results effectively, graphical and diagrammatic representations have been appended at appropriate places. To keep the explanation simple and yet concrete, mathematical concepts have also been introduced; to carry out analysis to generate results for understanding the viral dynamics.

This book presents theory and applications of recently introduced butterfly optimization algorithm (BOA). It also highlights hybridization process in the basic structure of BOA with in-depth analysis of complexity. This book also describes the constraint handling process. The newly introduced variant is implemented and validated on a set of linear and nonlinear real works problems of engineering and pulp and paper industry. The simulated results are compared with most of the basic algorithms. Comparative and nonparametric statistical result analysis illustrates the efficacy of the algorithm. 

This book highlights the rapidly emerging field of solution-processed halide perovskite lasers. These amazing materials not only possess exceptional photovoltaic properties, but are also outstanding optical gain media. Halide perovskites are the latest member of solution-processed optical gain media, joining organics and traditional semiconductor colloidal quantum dots. Amplified spontaneous emission and lasing have been demonstrated in various halide perovskite configurations and nanostructures with wavelengths tunable over the visible and infrared wavelengths (400-1000 nm).This book provides comprehensive information on perovskite lasing, starting with some fundamentals of lasers and their basic operating principles. Unambiguous methods for identifying lasing light emission are presented, while the basic optoelectronic properties of perovskite materials are also discussed, with an emphasis on their photophysics, using ultrafast optical spectroscopy techniques. The viability of perovskites as a gain media within a suitable resonator, as well as the characterization methods for optical gain, are highlighted. The book closes with a discussion on the remaining challenges (such as electrical driven lasing and material stabilities) that need to be tackled, and the future of this new family of lasers.

As a client or a developer, what do you need to consider when developing an age-appropriate website or mobile application? This book explains how age-related limitations affect the use of websites and mobile applications. If gerontological aspects are not taken into account in the design of digital channels, older people tend to do without them. Therefore, websites and mobile applications need to take into account the needs of older people. In the book, you will find useful recommendations on how to do this so that your websites and mobile apps are easy to use for everyone.

This book explores the topic of proximity and its relations in the design of contemporary urban fabrics and public spaces. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and reflections on the future of cities have lately shed light on the concept of proximity, which is intended as the relationship between communities and urban functions and as relations among people, built spaces, and open spaces. The proximity is a historic and fertile field of interest for American and Northern European urban studies; it is a spatial and social program seemingly surpassed by the styles and rhythms of contemporary city life, but today it is back in vogue with different purposes. Meanwhile, the action research developed by the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Politecnico di Milano for the Municipality of Milan reached its conclusion (2018-2020). The research work focused on contextualizing the new M4 Metro line stations under construction, and jointed mobility flows and places, long-range networks and local ones, boosting the idea of metro stations as regenerative urban thresholds and urban platforms for enabling environmental, sustainable settlement, and active mobility systems. In other words, the action research for Milan shows how to achieve the concept of proximity in the urban design practice in a dense, stratified, and complex urban context.

This book explores the potential contribution of cultural heritage in the enhancement of the territories, investigating the possibilities but also the criticalities involved in the process. Based on the knowledge process built on the Monasteries of Haghpat, Sanahin, Geghard and moreover, in the Upper Azat Valley in Armenia, the work suggests the development of an integrated design approach with interdisciplinary focus. The conservation of the Architectural Heritage of these sites is a priority for the identity safeguard but also to start virtuous processes able to ensure a sustainable development for places and communities. The objective of this work is the setting of pilot strategies and guidelines for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage as an engine for a compatible and sustainable tourism development of the area, with tangible impact on social and economic development of the country. The work would benefit local authorities and communities, as well as researchers involved in these topics.

The book deals with urban reactivation, a particular form of regeneration intervention which in addition to the physical-spatial dimension of the places also-and above all-considers the social and relational dynamics that the intervention is able to activate. In this sense, the concept of activation (or reactivation) emphasizes the act of putting something into or back into operation, whether it concerns the material components of a container (a building or a place) or the immaterial components of a content (a need, or a function), starting from the exploitation of opportunities that the architectural project contributes to revealing, developing and accompanying.

This book explores the application of service design to urban commons. It originates from a project developed by the research group of POLIMI DESIS Lab of Politecnico di Milano, aimed at imagining the future of the Reggio Emilia Ducal Palace and its park - the Reggia di Rivalta. The peculiarity of the project lays in the idea that the design of a (public) space should be informed by the design of its services, because the development of specific activities actually builds a fundamental part of the identity of a place, conceiving both the tangible and intangible dimensions as part of a single creative process. The combination of a participatory process and the integration of spatial and service design led to infrastructuring a multi-stakeholder participatory action research of envisioning the future of a public good. This effort has been thus framed into a working methodology, specific tools and progressive outputs, which are defined as Service Master Planning (the process), and Service Master Plan (the product), allowing service design professionals to expand their knowledge and develop skills for a new field of application connected to urban planning.

This book provides a hands-on guide towards conducting state-of-the-art engineering research and gaining a patent. It lists pragmatic, step-by-step instructions that cover every stage in engineering research and patent gaining, from choosing a topic to the presentation of research outcomes or patent application. The topics include the introduction and basic concepts of engineering research; research problem and questions; use of libraries, literature search and review; developing a research plan; research data collection methods, analysis and interpretation; project report writing and presentations; and inventions and patents. This book is ideal for engineering undergraduate and postgraduate students and/or first-time or novice researchers and academics intending to launch their research studies and careers.

This book systematically summarizes the accuracy, precision, and repeatability levels of field-based tests applied in soccer. It considers such details as the effectiveness of tests for different age categories and sexes. In this book, the readers will be able to check all the field-based tests conceived for fitness assessment in soccer through a large systematic review made to the literature. In addition a brief characterization of each test and presentation of the concurrent validity and repeatability levels for each test will be provided. Finally, the book contains a general discussion of the implications of the tests for different methodological approaches to training. It will be use to sports scientists and practitioners.

This open access book presents a set of practical tools and collaborative solutions in multi-disciplinary settings to foster the Alpine Space health tourism industry¿s innovation and competitiveness. The proposed solutions emerge as the result of the synergy among health, environment, tourism, digital, policy and strategy professionals. The approach underlines the pivotal role of a sustainable and ecomedical use of Alpine natural resources for health tourism destinations, and highlights the need of integrating aspects of natural resources¿ healing effects, a shared knowledge of Alpine assets through digital solutions, and frames strategic approaches for the long-term development of the sector.The volume exploits the results of the three-years long EU research project HEALPS 2, which involved several stakeholders from the health tourism, healthcare and sustainable tourism industries. This book is relevant for health tourism destinations and facilities (hotels, clinics, wellnessand spa companies), regional and local authorities (policy makers), business support organizations, researchers involved in digital healthcare and geoinformatics.

This book examines the background of fourth-generation biofuel production, use of genetically modified microalgae for production of fourth-generation biofuels; cultivation and harvesting of genetically modified microalgae; residue from biofuel extraction; health and environmental concerns of fourth-generation biofuels; regulations on cultivation and processing of the genetically modified algae; carbon dioxide sequestration; water footprint and current status and key challenges. The topic caters to academic researchers and industrial experts, who work in the field of biofuels as source of alternative fuel to achieve environmental and economic sustainability.

This book introduces basic concepts related to computer-aided simulation of welding and prepares the reader to perform the simulation of welding by commercial simulation software. It focuses on conceptualizing the physics of welding, heat transfer, stress development and microstructure development in welding. This book helps the reader to implement these concepts in any commercial software to simulate the welding process according to their own requirement.

This book reports four structural equation models (SEM) for quantifying the relationship between the most important lean manufacturing (LM) practices applied to the manufacturing industry. The SEMs are evaluated using 220 responses to a survey applied to manufacturing companies applying LM principles in the production system and are related to: distribution and maintenance, production process and quality system, supply chain and quality, and an integrator model. The findings identify the most important activities for every LM practices and how they are related. These relationship' values will help administrators, managers, engineers to focus their efforts on these most important activities, facilitating the decision-making process.

This book aims to critically assess the Cartesian stance that affirms robotic and AI technologies as candidates to supplant human capacities in non-routine intellectual nature activities based on social power relations. In the argumentation listed, the contradictions that this hypothesis approaches will be exposed, mainly in a historical and social analysis based on a complex and uncertain sociological perspective, added by a discussion within the scope of the Chaos theory. Finally, an outline of the current era, fostered by extremisms and extremists, will be described in terms of its contradictions in an attempt at sociological analysis. For this, some crucial and unsettling questions will be asked, and an effort to come up with answers will be made for some.