This book provides a comprehensive description of the architetural techniques to tackle the soft error problem. It covers the new methodologies for quantitative analysis of soft errors as well as novel, cost-effective architectural techniques to mitigate them. To provide readers with a better grasp of the broader problem deffinition and solution space, this book also delves into the physics of soft errors and reviews current circuit and software mitigation techniques.
This book focuses on Renewable Energy (RE) governance – the institutions, plans, policies and stakeholders that are involved in RE implementation – and the complexities and challenges associated with this much discussed energy area. Whilst RE technologies have advanced and become cheaper, governance schemes rarely support those technologies in an efficient and cost-effective way.
Although the exergy method has been featured as the subject of many publishing papers in scientific and engineering journals and at conferences, very few comprehensive books on this subject have been published so far. Practical Approach to Exergy and Thermoeconomic Analyses of Industrial Processes details the exergetic and thermoeconomic analyses of industrial processes using Aspen Plus and a novel Microsoft Excel Application developed by the authors which can be applied to industrial processes across the board. Employing a practical approach to an innovative and complex energy process, every chapter contains extensive explanations of a complex and real case and numerous examples whose solution demonstrates the application of theory to a wide range of real and practical problems. Illustrations, tables and graphs support and illustrate the new methodology to build a deep understanding of the real employment of the fuel used and the cost formation and increase inside the process. Practical Approach to Exergy and Thermoeconomic Analyses of Industrial Processes provides users, students and practitioners of process analysis, power plant design and fuel use optimization, with a broad introduction and approach to computer aided process optimization. It also serves as a comprehensive guide to the operational application of the MHBT to real cases analysis.
Introduction to Thin Film Transistors reviews the operation, application and technology of the main classes of thin film transistor (TFT) of current interest for large area electronics. The TFT materials covered include hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si), transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOS), and organic semiconductors. The large scale manufacturing of a-Si:H TFTs forms the basis of the active matrix flat panel display industry. Poly-Si TFTs facilitate the integration of electronic circuits into portable active matrix liquid crystal displays, and are increasingly used in active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays for smart phones. The recently developed AOS TFTs are seen as an alternative option to poly-Si and a-Si:H for AMOLED TV and large AMLCD TV applications, respectively. The organic TFTs are regarded as a cost effective route into flexible electronics. As well as treating the highly divergent preparation and properties of these materials, the physics of the devices fabricated from them is also covered, with emphasis on performance features such as carrier mobility limitations, leakage currents and instability mechanisms. The thin film transistors implemented with these materials are the conventional, insulated gate field effect transistors, and a further chapter describes a new thin film transistor structure: the source gated transistor, SGT.The driving force behind much of the development of TFTs has been their application to AMLCDs, and there is a chapter dealing with the operation of these displays, as well as of AMOLED and electrophoretic displays. A discussion of TFT and pixel layout issues is also included.For students and new-comers to the field, introductory chapters deal with basic semiconductor surface physics, and with classical MOSFET operation. These topics are handled analytically, so that the underlying device physics is clearly revealed. These treatments are then used as a reference point, from which the impact of additional band-gap states on TFT behaviour can be readily appreciated.This reference book, covering all the major TFT technologies, will be of interest to a wide range of scientists and engineers in the large area electronics industry. It will also be a broad introduction for research students and other scientists entering the field, as well as providing an accessible and comprehensive overview for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes.
To satisfy requirements in the fiscal year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act (U.S. Congress, 2001) to improve the acquisition of services by the Department of Defense, the Air Force established a Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support (AFPEO/CM) who is responsible for management and oversight of a well-defined portfolio of Air Force services acquisition activities. This office is the single point of contact for Air Force services acquisition inquiries and is also responsible for developing long-range plans for cost-effective acquisition of services. To fulfill its responsibilities, the AFPEO/CM needs metrics to help it monitor compliance with statutory requirements, needs to respond to congressional inquiries about specific acquisitions, and needs to effectively manage Air Force services acquisition activities and organizations. RAND Project AIR FORCE was asked to help develop a portfolio of ‘overarching’ measures that will allow the AFPEO/CM to assess the health of Air Force acquisition activities, diagnose problems, and target improvement efforts. This report describes our recommendations. To help develop this portfolio of metrics, we considered the experience of commercial firms, which have long had a ‘strategic’ view of purchasing direct materials (goods) because they are direct inputs to production, but have only recently explored applying such approaches to purchasing services. Through interviews with well-respected chief purchasing officers and other executives involved in service acquisitions, through conference participation, and through a review of the business literature, we found that commercial firms are beginning to manage their service acquisitions in a manner similar to their acquisition of direct materials.
In the past decades, the main stream of microelectronics progress has been mainly powered by Moore’s law which focuses on IC miniaturization down to nanoscale. While the microelectronics community around the world continues to invent new solutions to keep Moore’s law alive, there is a fast increasing need for non-digital and mixed-signal ‘More than Moore’ (MtM) type technologies that are still based upon or derived from silicon technologies, but do not simply scale with Moore’s law. Typical examples are devices incorporating RF, power/high voltage, passive components, sensors and actuators, MEMS, Bio-chip/bio-systems, microfluidics, solid-state lighting, etc.. The increasing momentum of MtM is triggered by the increasing needs for high level heterogeneous system integration including non-digital functions, the necessity to speed up innovative product creation and to broaden the product portfolio of IC fabs, and the limiting cost and time factors of advanced system-on-chip (SoC) development. It is believed that MtM will add value to society on top of and beyond advanced semiconductors technologies, with fast increasing marketing potentials, and that it will drive paradigm shift for technologies, applications and business models.
Geometric programming is used for design and cost optimization, the development of generalized design relationships, cost ratios for specific problems, and profit maximization. The early pioneers of the process – Zener, Duffin, Peterson, Beightler, Wilde, and Phillips — played important roles in the development of geometric programming. There are three major areas: 1) Introduction, History, and Theoretical Fundamentals, 2) Applications with Zero Degrees of Difficulty, and 3) Applications with Positive Degrees of Difficulty. The primal-dual relationships are used to illustrate how to determine the primal variables from the dual solution and how to determine additional dual equations when the degrees of difficulty are positive. A new technique for determining additional equations for the dual, Dimensional Analysis, is demonstrated. The various solution techniques of the constrained derivative approach, the condensation of terms, and dimensional analysis are illustrated with example problems. The goal of this work is to have readers develop more case studies to further the application of this exciting tool.Table of Contents: Introduction / Brief History of Geometric Programming / Theoretical Considerations / The Optimal Box Design Case Study / Trash Can Case Study / The Open Cargo Shipping Box Case Study / Metal Casting Cylindrical Riser Case Study / Inventory Model Case Study / Process Furnace Design Case Study / Gas Transmission Pipeline Case Study / Profit Maximization Case Study / Material Removal/Metal Cutting Economics Case Study / Journal Bearing Design Case Study / Metal Casting Hemispherical Top Cylindrical Side Riser\Case Study / Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Cylinders Case Study / Material Removal/Metal Cutting Economics with Two Constraints / The Open Cargo Shipping Box with Skids / Profit Maximization Considering Decreasing Cost Functions of Inventory Policy / Summary and Future Directions / Thesis and Dissertations on Geometric Programming
The Markov chain approximation methods are widely used for the numerical solution of nonlinear stochastic control problems in continuous time. This book extends the methods to stochastic systems with delays. Because such problems are infinite-dimensional, many new issues arise in getting good numerical approximations and in the convergence proofs. Useful forms of numerical algorithms and system approximations are developed in this work, and the convergence proofs are given. All of the usual cost functions are treated as well as singular and impulsive controls. A major concern is on representations and approximations that use minimal memory. Featuring numerical algorithms and examples with applications to control and modern communications systems, this book is the first on the subject and will be of great interest to all those who work with stochastic delay equations and whose main interest is in either the use of the algorithms or in the underlying mathematics. An excellent resource for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners, the work may be used as a graduate-level textbook for a special topics course or seminar on numerical methods in stochastic control.
Through the results of a developed case study of information system for low temperature geothermal energy, GIS to Support Cost-effective Decisions on Renewable Sources addresses the issue of the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in evaluating cost-effectiveness of renewable resource exploitation on a regional scale. Focusing on the design of a Decision Support System, a process is presented aimed to transform geographic data into knowledge useful for analysis and decision-making on the economic exploitation of geothermal energy. This detailed description includes a literature review and technical issues related to data collection, data mining, decision analysis for the informative system developed for the case study. A multi-disciplinary approach to GIS design is presented which is also an innovative example of fusion of georeferenced data acquired from multiple sources including remote sensing, networks of sensors and socio-economic censuses. GIS to Support Cost-effective Decisions on Renewable Sources is a useful, practical reference for engineers, managers and researchers involved in the design of GIS, decision support systems, investment planning/strategy in renewable energy and ICT innovation in this field.
‘Deena Newman is sassy, single, and arguably the sexiest attorney at a prestigious law firm. She’s highly competent and valued, but most of her success has come by way of bedrooms rather than boardrooms. When the position of a lifetime comes available, Deena slips into her stilettos for the ultimate seduction. But will this last run on the corporate ladder secure her future or cost her everything she’s worked for? Sometimes passion and power carry a price, and dreams turn into nightmares.’
Its bad enough that the guy Shelby fell in love with at brat camp last summer had a dark secret, but helping him protect it has come at a huge cost. Its goodbye, Beverly Hills mansion; hello, creepy Swiss boarding school.
This book presents nine chapters based on fundamental and applied research of alternative energies. At the present time, the challenge is that technology has to come up with solutions that can provide environmentally friendly energy supply options that are able to cover the current world energy demand. Experts around the world are working on these issues for providing new solutions that will break the existing technological barriers. This book aims to address key pillars in the alternative energy field, such as: biomass energy, hydrogen energy, solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric power, geothermal energy and their environmental implications, with the most updated progress for each pillar. It also includes the life cycle assessment (LCA) and thermoeconomic analysis (TA) as tools for evaluating and optimising environmental and cost subjects. Chapters are organized into fundamental research, applied research and future trends; and written for engineers, academic researches and scientists.
The Handbook of Environmental Engineering series is an incredible collection of methodologies that study the effects of pollution and waste in their three basic forms: gas, solid, and liquid. This exciting new addition to the series, Volume 15: Modern Water Resources Engineering , has been designed to serve as a water resources engineering reference book as well as a supplemental textbook. We hope and expect it will prove of equal high value to advanced undergraduate and graduate students, to designers of water resources systems, and to scientists and researchers. A critical volume in the Handbook of Environmental Engineering series, chapters employ methods of practical design and calculation illustrated by numerical examples, include pertinent cost data whenever possible, and explore in great detail the fundamental principles of the field. Volume 15: Modern Water Resources Engineering, provides information on some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advances in the field today from a panel of esteemed experts.
When properly conducted, risk analysis enlightens, informs, and illuminates, helping management organize their thinking into properly prioritized, cost-effective action. Poor analysis, on the other hand, usually results in vague programs with no clear direction and no metrics for measurement. Although there is plenty of information on risk analysis, it is rare to find a book that explains this highly complex subject with such startling clarity. Very few, if any, focus on the art of critical thinking and how to best apply it to the task of risk analysis.
Advances in Quantum Chemistry presents surveys of current developments in this rapidly developing field that falls between the historically established areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. With invited reviews written by leading international researchers, each presenting new results, it provides a single vehicle for following progress in this interdisciplinary area. This volume continues the tradition with high quality and thorough reviews of various aspects of quantum chemistry. It contains a variety of topics on the use of quantum mechanical methods to calculate molecular properties including response properties. Linear and non-linear response methods have been developed and implemented for most of the approximate wave functions used in quantum chemistry, giving a range of computational methods of varying cost and accuracy. Thus it is presently possible to calculate for example excitation energies, linear and nonlinear optical properties, one- and multi-photon transition rates, and magnetically induced transition moments for a wide range of molecules and target accuracies. These calculations aid in the interpretation of a wide range of spectroscopy including electron spin resonance, nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic circular dichroism and general laser spectroscopy.
Around the world concerns about cost, efficiency, and safety – employee, product, process and consumer — have led to changes in the way food plants are planned, constructed and evaluated. From initiation of major capital requests to legal design requirements to project management and plant operations, food engineers and scientists must understand the myriad of requirements and responsibilities of successful food facilities. J. Peter Clark provides that guidance in this complete volume.
Liquid Crystals [LCs] are synthetic functional materials par excellence and are to be found in many types of LCDs; LCs self-assemble into ordered, but fluid, supramolecular structures and domains; they can be oriented in large homogeneous monodomains by electric and magnetic fields, Langmuir Blodgett techniques and also by self-orientation on suitable alignment layers; they are also anisotropic with preferred axes of light absorption, emission and charge transport with excellent semiconducting properties; they are soluble in organic solvents and can be deposited as uniform thin layers on device substrates, including plastic, by low-cost deposition processes, such as spin coating and doctor blade techniques; reactive mesogens [polymerisable LC monomers] can be photopatterned and fixed in position and orientation as insoluble polymer networks. LCs are increasingly being used as active components in electronic and photonic organic devices, such as Organic Light-Emitting Diodes [OLEDs], Organic Field Effect Transistors [OFETs], Thin Film Transistors [TFTs] and photovoltaic cells [PVs]. Such devices on plastic substrates represent a major component of the plastic electronics revolution. The self-assembling properties and supramolecular structures of liquid crystals can be made use of in order to improve the performance of such devices. The relationships between chemical structure, liquid crystalline behaviour and other physical properties, such as charge-transport, photoluminescence and electroluminescence are discussed and explained. For example, high carrier-mobility, polarised emission and enhanced output-coupling are identified as the key advantages of nematic and smectic liquid crystals for electroluminescence. The advantageous use of anisotropic polymer networks formed by the polymerisation of reactive mesogens [RMs] in devices with multilayer capability and photopatternability is described. The anisotropic transport and high carrier mobilities of columnar liquid crystals make them promising candidates for photovoltaics and transistors. The issues in the design and processing of liquid crystalline semiconductors for such devcies with improved performance are described. The photonic properties of chiral liquid crystals and their use as mirror-less lasers are also discussed.
In The New Masters of Capital, Timothy J. Sinclair examines a key aspect of the global economy-the rating agencies. In the global economy, trust is formalized in the daily operations of such firms as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, which continuously monitor the financial health of bond-issuers ranging from private corporations to local and national governments. Their judgments affect unimaginably large sums, approximately $30 trillion in outstanding debt issues, according to a recent Moody’s estimate. The difference between an AA and a BB rating may cost millions of dollars in interest payments or determine if a corporation or government can even issue bondsWithout bond rating agencies, there would be no standard means to compare risks in the global economy, and international investment would be problematic. Most observers assume that the agencies are neutral and scientific, and that they interpret their role in narrowly economic terms. But these agencies, by their nature, wield extraordinary power and exert massive influence over public policy. Sinclair offers a highly accessible account of these institutions, their origins, and the rating processes they use to judge creditworthiness. Illustrated with a wide range of cases, this book offers a fresh assessment of the role of an often-overlooked institution in the dynamics of modern global capitalism.
Shipping imperfect software is like going into debt. When you incur debt, the illusion of doing things faster can lead to exponential growth in the cost of maintaining software. , debt takes five major forms: technical, quality, configuration management, design, and platform experience. In today’s rush to market, software debt is inevitable. And that’s okay – if you’re careful about the debt you incur, and if you quickly pay it back.
Modern appliances are complex machines with processors, operating systems, and application software. While there are books that will tell you how to run , on embedded hardware, and books on how to build a Linux application, Linux Appliance , is the first book to demonstrate how to merge the two and create a Linux appliance. You’ll see for yourself why Linux is the embedded operating system of choice for low-cost development and a fast time to market.,
Linux Appliance Design shows how to build better appliances – appliances with more types of interfaces, more dynamic interfaces, and better debugged interfaces.
