Forever Chemicals: Environmental, Economic, and Social Equity Concerns with PFAS in the Environment provides the reader with an understanding of the complex and interwoven issues associated with per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in our environment. The chapters provide in-depth perspective into various issues, including health, regulation, detection, clean-up strategies and technologies, and more. Taken together or as the reader's interests lead them, the variety of topics covered in the book present a balanced perspective on this complex topic. It will address the current state of PFAS and where indicators are pointing for future developments. The book is also a deeper investigation of the regulatory challenges, analytical hurdles, and toxicological progress to date for the suite of PFAS chemicals. Features Explains the trends that will affect future policy and regulatory decisions Looks holistically at 4000+ PFAS chemicals Includes PFAS risk assessments at contaminated sites and biomonitoring insights Provides in-depth discussions on remediation technologies Illustrates quality and diversified content Provides a balanced perspective on this complex topic

Brain and Behavior Computing offers insights into the functions of the human brain. This book provides an emphasis on brain and behavior computing with different modalities available such as signal processing, image processing, data sciences, statistics further it includes fundamental, mathematical model, algorithms, case studies, and future research scopes. It further illustrates brain signal sources and how the brain signal can process, manipulate, and transform in different domains allowing researchers and professionals to extract information about the physiological condition of the brain. Emphasizes real challenges in brain signal processing for a variety of applications for analysis, classification, and clustering. Discusses data sciences and its applications in brain computing visualization. Covers all the most recent tools for analysing the brain and it's working. Describes brain modeling and all possible machine learning methods and their uses. Augments the use of data mining and machine learning to brain computer interface (BCI) devices. Includes case studies and actual simulation examples. This book is aimed at researchers, professionals, and graduate students in image processing and computer vision, biomedical engineering, signal processing, and brain and behavior computing.

Military robots and other, potentially autonomous robotic systems such as unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) could soon be introduced to the battlefield. Look further into the future and we may see autonomous micro- and nanorobots armed and deployed in swarms of thousands or even millions. This growing automation of warfare may come to represent a major discontinuity in the history of warfare: humans will first be removed from the battlefield and may one day even be largely excluded from the decision cycle in future high-tech and high-speed robotic warfare. Although the current technological issues will no doubt be overcome, the greatest obstacles to automated weapons on the battlefield are likely to be legal and ethical concerns. Armin Krishnan explores the technological, legal and ethical issues connected to combat robotics, examining both the opportunities and limitations of autonomous weapons. He also proposes solutions to the future regulation of military robotics through international law.

These proceedings summarize the best papers in each research field represented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (GfA) in the German-speaking area, held at Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics of RWTH Aachen University from March 2-4. The meeting featured more than 200 presentations and 36 posters reflecting the diversity of subject matter in the field of human and industrial engineering. This volume addresses human factors and safety specialists, industrial engineers, work and organizational psychologists, occupational medicines as well as production planners and design engineers.

"Designing Inclusive Futures" reflects the need to explore, in a coherent way, the issues and practicalities that lie behind design that is intended to extend our active future lives. This encompasses design for inclusion in daily life at home but also extends to the workplace and for products within these contexts. For example, given trends in employment sector growth, skills requirements, labour supply and demographic change, there is a need to predict the critical areas where individual capabilities are mismatched with the physical, social and organisational demands of work. This mismatch, which can be addressed within the domain of inclusive design, is pervasively linked to real artefacts in workspaces and their intersection with the health factors that relate to ageing. This book is the result of the fourth CWUAAT workshop held in Cambridge, England in April 2008.

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technology: Principles and Applications consists of the construction and working details of all modern additive manufacturing and 3D-printing technology processes and machines, while also including the fundamentals, for a well-rounded educational experience. The book is written to help the reader understand the fundamentals of the systems. This book provides a selection of additive manufacturing techniques suitable for near-term application with enough technical background to understand the domain, its applicability, and to consider variations to suit technical and organizational constraints. It highlights new innovative 3D-printing systems, presents a view of 4D printing, and promotes a vision of additive manufacturing and applications toward modern manufacturing engineering practices. With the block diagrams, self-explanatory figures, chapter exercises, and photographs of lab-developed prototypes, along with case studies, this new textbook will be useful to students studying courses in Mechanical, Production, Design, Mechatronics, and Electrical Engineering.

New Tools, Old Tasks explores how Integrated Operations (IO) will influence the safety of offshore drilling operations. The book is based on several years of practical experience combined with a research study on the safety of IO within the drilling domain. The overall objective of the book is to explore how safety can be understood in the change process of Integrated Operations, and to provide recommendations for how IO may be developed and implemented in a way that will benefit both safety and efficiency of the operations. A crucial thread throughout the book is that the understanding of normal work processes is key to understanding the conditions for safe operations. This is reflected in the book's structure and content; the nature of normal drilling operations is the focus, including how technologies and work processes are aligned to meet the dominating challenges of the industry (these challenges need not be directly linked to safety/risk). It is argued that the influence of IO on the safety of drilling operations depends more on how IO relates to the existing fundamental challenges of drilling operations than on the design and properties of the different IO technologies and work processes as such.

Rapid advancements in train control and in-cab technologies provide significant opportunities for rail operators to improve efficiency and enhance their operations. New technologies often provide elegant solutions to existing problems or new capabilities for the operator. However, new technologies may also represent a significant form of risk. Thus, it is important to balance the potential for significant improvement with justifiable concern about how the technology may unpredictably change the nature of the work. If a technology is designed and implemented without considering the substantive human factors concerns, that technology may lead to unintended consequences that can introduce safety issues and disrupt network performance. It is important to note that even a well-designed and beneficial technology may be rejected by the users who see it as a threat to their jobs, status or working conditions. This book discusses the issues surrounding rail technology and introduces a 'toolkit' of human factors evaluation methods. The toolkit provides a practical and operationally focused set of methods that can be used by managers considering investing in technology, staff charged with implementing a technology, and consultants engaged to assist with the design and evaluation process. This toolkit can help to ensure that new rail technologies are thoughtfully designed, effectively implemented, and well received by users so that the significant investment associated with developing rail technologies is not wasted.

A continually evolving discipline, human reliability assessment (HRA) has elements of controversy from the definition of terms to the application of appropriate methods for the representation of human failure probability. The idea that human error is a random event is falling out of favor and the concept that humans can be set up to fail or succeed depending on context is gaining credibility. An in-depth exploration of current theories, Human Reliability Assessment Theory and Practice demonstrates how to model, change, and apply new approaches to a number of different high-risk industries. The book covers data and data sources, choice of methods, training of individuals, use of simulators for HRA purposes, and the relationship between psychology, human factors, accident analyses, and human reliability. Author Anthony Spurgin has been in the forefront of HRA development for the past 20 years and has contributed to developing human reliability methods and tools that have been applied to the enhancement of nuclear power plant and space vehicle safety. He explores reactor performance and the demands it makes on operators to ensure plant safety. He also covers the roles of plant management in the decision-making applied to both design and operation. The book includes a number of accident studies that illustrate the key roles of operators and managers in accident mitigation and control. The heart of HRA will always be to find creative ways of helping designers, management, operators, and authorities increase the safety and profitability of technological systems. Drawing on his personal experience, Spurgin reviews HRA from the viewpoint of the operator. The book uses examples from the nuclear industry, always on the forefront of safety, and translates how to apply the concepts to other high risk industries.

The extensive safety restrictions imposed globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic have brought significant changes to almost all environmental parameters. The largest pandemic of the century has left an indelible mark on all aspects of human life and the environment. This book revolves around COVID-19 and its influence on all biotic and abiotic components on earth, with a focus on the regulatory role of air quality during the pandemic, environmental toxicity and susceptibility to COVID-19, and the impact of the lockdown on different ecosystems. The book fundamentally explains the biology of SARS-CoV-2 and the pathophysiology and epidemiology of COVID-19. Dedicated chapters highlight the ongoing global cutting-edge research on COVID-19, control and safety measures, and public health concerns. COVID-19 and Emerging Environmental Trends: A Way Forward is aimed at graduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers in environmental and medical science, health and safety, and ecology. This book offers a multiperspective and multidisciplinary approach to the discussion of the pandemic as well as emerging environmental issues, current trends, and a way forward. As humanity stands face-to-face with the largest global crisis in recent times, this book helps readers to easily understand its various aspects from a beginner's perspective, without going into the intricate technicalities of medical science or environmental science, and beautifully juxtaposes critical issues with lucid language and flexible scientific explanations.

• Covers all aspects of why CBRN studies should be integrated into police education. • Provides guidance on teaching aspects of police education and practical information on scene sampling and chain of custody principles. • The first book to focus on why police need CBRN training to act effectively as first responders to incidents in the community.

There are very few books that focus on the unique challenges of technology leadership that are written by a technology leader. This book examines leadership challenges that technologists face and provides simple strategies and practical tools for increasing personal leadership skills. The book provides a path to move from being an average leader to being a great leader.

All people should have access to all that is available in their community and beyond. Neurodiverse individuals often experience barriers when engaging with businesses, even when obstacles can be easily remedied. This book will provide business owners, leaders, managers, team members, and associates the tools to integrate strategies and techniques that will enhance neurodiversity and inclusion, improving the delivery of a quality experience and increasing a varied customer base.

Human error plays a significant role in many accidents involving safety-critical systems, and it is now a standard requirement in both the US and Europe for Human Factors (HF) to be taken into account in system design and safety assessment. This book will be an essential guide for anyone who uses HF in their everyday work, providing them with consistent and ready-to-use procedures and methods that can be applied to real-life problems. The first part of the book looks at the theoretical framework, methods and techniques that the engineer or safety analyst needs to use when working on a HF-related project. The second part presents four case studies that show the reader how the above framework and guidelines work in practice. The case studies are based on real-life projects carried out by the author for a major European railway system, and in collaboration with international companies such as the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Volvo, Daimler-Chrysler and FIAT.

Considers the life-cycle cost analysis of designing energy efficient electrical distribution systems. Addresses design requirements to integrate buildings with smart grids and micro-grids. Provides an overview of both standard and energy efficient electrical distribution components, including transformers, protection devices, conductors, controllers, and panels. Features a new chapter on optimal design energy efficient and resilient power systems. Includes case studies, exercises, and end-of-chapter problems.

Post Normal Accident revisits Perrow's classic Normal Accident published in 1984 and provides additional insights to our sociological view of safety-critical organisations. The operating landscape of high-risk systems has indeed profoundly changed in the past 20 to 30 years but the core sociological models of safety remain associated with classics of the 1980s and 1990s. This book examines the conceptual and empirical evolutions of the past two to three decades to explore their implications for safety management based on several strands of works in various research traditions in safety (e.g. cognitive engineering and system safety, high-reliability organisation, sociology of safety, regulatory studies) and other interdisciplinary fields (e.g. international business, globalisation studies, strategy management, ecology). It offers a new and insightful interpretation to the challenges of today. It investigates how globalisation has reconfigured the operating landscape of high-risk systems and emphasises the importance of thinking safety through a strategic angle. This book serves as an ideal resource for the safety professionals and safety researchers from any established disciplines such as sociology, engineering, psychology, political science or management. Features: Introduces an original analysis of popular safety writings, including Normal Accident, by Perrow Identifies the importance of thinking safety from a sociological angle with the help of key writers Stresses the need for greater sensitivity to strategy and "errors from the top" when it comes to the safety of high-risk systems Explains how globalisation has reconfigured the operating landscape of high-risk systems Renews our understanding of the current safety management challenges in an increasingly global risk picture

This new handbook is about the practices of conducting research on military issues. As an edited collection, it brings together an extensive group of authors from a range of disciplinary perspectives whose chapters engage with the conceptual, practical and political questions raised when doing military research. The book considers a wide range of questions around research about, on and with military organisations, personnel and activities, from diverse starting-points across the social sciences, arts and humanities. Each chapter in this volume: Describes the nature of the military research topic under scrutiny and explains what research practices were undertaken and why. Discusses the author's research activities, addressing the nature of their engagement with their subjects and explaining how the method or approach under scrutiny was distinctive because of the military context or subject of the research. Reflects on the author's research experiences, and the specific, often unique, negotiations with the politics and practices of military institutions and military personnel before, during and after their research fieldwork. The book provides a focussed overview of methodological approaches to critical studies of military personnel and institutions, and processes and practices of militarisation and militarism. In particular, it engages with the growth in qualitative approaches to military research, particularly research carried out on military topics outside military research institutions. The handbook provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to how critical military research is being undertaken by social scientists and humanities scholars today, and sets out suggestions for future approaches to military research. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, war and conflict studies, and research methods in general.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital engineering have become prevalent in business, industry, government, and academia. However, the workforce still has a lot to learn on how to leverage them. This handbook presents the preparatory and operational foundations for the efficacy, applicability, risk, and how to take advantage of these tools and techniques. "Handbook of Mathematical and Digital Engineering Foundations for Artificial Intelligence: A Systems Methodology" provides a guide for using digital engineering platforms for advancing AI applications. The book discusses an interface of education and research in the pursuit of AI developments and highlights the facilitation of advanced education through AI and digital engineering systems. It presents an integration of soft and hard skills in developing and using AI and offers a rigorous systems approach to understanding and using AI. This handbook will be the go-to resource for practitioners and students on applying systems methodology to the body of knowledge of understanding, embracing, and using digital engineering tools and techniques.

Discusses digital fashion design and e-prototyping, including 2D/3D CAD, fashion simulation, fit analysis, digital pattern cutting, marker making, and the zero-waste concept Covers digital human modelling and VR/AR technology Details digital fashion business and promotion, including application of e-tools for supply chain, e-commerce, block chain technologies, big data, and AI

Discusses digital fashion design and e-prototyping, including 2D/3D CAD, fashion simulation, fit analysis, digital pattern cutting, marker making, and the zero-waste concept Covers digital human modelling and VR/AR technology Details digital fashion business and promotion, including application of e-tools for supply chain, e-commerce, block chain technologies, big data, and AI

This book focuses on and promotes the applications of the diverse tools and techniques of industrial engineering to the design and operation of systems in industry, business, the government, and the military. Industrial engineering is growing rapidly as an educational option and is a practice favorite in Asia, South America, and many parts of Europe. This book will meet the needs of those growth markets. Industrial Engineering in Systems Design: Guidelines, Practical Examples, Tools, and Techniques offers a wide range of engineering tools from checklists to in-depth analysis guidelines for systems design and operation. The book discusses the integration of industrial and systems engineering from both qualitative and quantitative techniques for systems design. In addition, guidelines for operational resiliency for industry in the case of disruptions, such as a pandemic are covered, and the book provides case examples for industries in developing and under-developed nations. The inclusion of practical examples of where industrial engineering has contributed to the advancement and survival of industries makes this book a very interesting and useful resource. This is a practical guide for professional engineers and consultants involved in the design and operation of systems, particularly manufacturing, production, and supply chain systems, and can also be used as a reference for students.

Special functions play a very important role in solving various families of ordinary and partial differential equations as well as their fractional-order analogs which model real-life situations. Due to the non-local nature and memory effect, fractional calculus is capable of modeling many situations which arise in engineering. This book includes a collection of related topics associated with such equations and their relevance and significance in engineering. Special Functions in Fractional Calculus and Engineering highlights the significance and applicability of special functions in solving fractional-order differential equations with engineering applications. The book focuses on the non-local nature and memory effect of fractional calculus in modeling relevant to engineering science and covers a variety of important and useful methods using special functions for solving various types of fractional-order models relevant to engineering science. The book goes on to illustrate the applicability and usefulness of special functions by justifying their numerous and widespread occurrences in the solution of fractional-order differential, integral, and integrodifferential equations. The book holds a wide variety of interconnected fundamental and advanced topics with interdisciplinary applications that combine applied mathematics and engineering sciences. useful to graduate students, Ph.D. scholars, researchers, and educators interested in special functions, fractional calculus, mathematical modeling, and engineering. .

This book is timely and discusses the effects from the pandemic. Written for longevity, and may be useful to compare this pandemic and the response to future events. The book is written for academia: social sciences, public health, information science, emergency management, and policy fields, and is easier informational reading for the layperson.

This book is about the simulation and modeling of novel chaotic systems within the frame of fractal-fractional operators. The methods used, their convergence, stability, and error analysis are given, and this is the first book to offer mathematical modeling and simulations of chaotic problems with a wide range of fractal-fractional operators, to find solutions. Numerical Methods for Fractal-Fractional Differential Equations and Engineering: Simulations and Modeling provides details for stability, convergence, and analysis along with numerical methods and their solution procedures for fractal-fractional operators. The book offers applications to chaotic problems and simulations using multiple fractal-fractional operators and concentrates on models that display chaos. The book details how these systems can be predictable for a while and then can appear to become random. Practitioners, engineers, researchers, and senior undergraduate and graduate students from mathematics and engineering disciplines will find this book of interest._

- The author is one of the most influential AI reseachers of recent decades. - Written in an accessible language, the book provides a probing account of AI today and proposes a new narrative to connect and make sense of events that happened in the recent tumultuous past and enable us to think soberly about the road ahead. - The book is divided into ten carefully crafted and easily-digestible chapters, each grapples with an important question for AI, ranging from the scientific concepts that underpin the technology to wider implications for society, using real examples wherever possible.