This book focuses on emerging technologies in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) namely efficient information dissemination between vehicles, infrastructures, pedestrians and public transportation systems. It covers the state-of-the-art of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), with centralized and decentralized (Peer-to-Peer) communication architectures, considering several application scenarios. With a detailed treatment of emerging communication paradigms, including cross networking and distributed algorithms. Unlike most of the existing books, this book presents a multi-layer overview of information dissemination systems, from lower layers (MAC) to high layers (applications). All those aspects are investigated considering the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones/tablets and embedded systems, i.e. technologies that during last years completely changed the current market, the user expectations, and communication networks. The presented networking paradigms are supported and validated by means of extensive simulative analysis and real field deployments in different application scenarios. This book represents a reference for professional technologist, postgraduates and researchers in the area of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), wireless communication and distributed systems.   

This book presents theory-driven discussion on the link between implementing green shipping practices (GSP) and shipping firm performance. It examines the shipping industry's challenge of supporting economic growth while enhancing environmental performance. Consisting of nine chapters, the book covers topics such as the conceptualization of green shipping practices(GSPs), measurement scales for evaluating GSP implementation, greening capability, greening and performance relativity (GPR), green management practice, and green shipping network. In view of the increasing quest for environment protection in the shipping sector, this book provides a good reference for firms to understand and evaluate their capability in carrying out green operations on their shipping activities.

This is a revision of Guru/Hiziroglu: Electric Machinery and Transformers 2/e. The text is designed for the standard third or fourth year (junior/senior) course in electrical engineering commonly called electric machinery or electromechanical energy conversion. This text discusses the principles behind building the primary infrastructure for the generation of electricity (such as hydroelectric dams, turbines, etc.) that supplies the energy needs of people throughout the world. In addition to power generation, the book covers the basics of various types of electric motors, from large electric train motors, to those in hair dryers and smaller devices. The largest markets for a book such as this will be found in countries with developing infrastructures.

This book deals with the challenge of exploiting ambient vibrational energy which can be used to power small and low-power electronic devices, e.g. wireless sensor nodes. Generally, particularly for low voltage amplitudes, low-loss rectification is required to achieve high conversion efficiency. In the special case of piezoelectric energy harvesting, pulsed charge extraction has the potential to extract more power compared to a single rectifier. For this purpose, a fully autonomous CMOS integrated interface circuit for piezoelectric generators which fulfills these requirements is presented. Due to these key properties enabling universal usage, other CMOS designers working in the field of energy harvesting will be encouraged to use some of the shown structures for their own implementations. The book is unique in the sense that it highlights the design process from scratch to the final chip. Hence, it gives the designer a comprehensive guide of how to (i) setup an appropriate harvester model to get realistic simulation results, (ii) design the integrated circuits for low power operation, (iii) setup a laboratory measurement environment in order to extensively characterize the chip in combination with the real harvester and finally, (iv) interpret the simulation/measurement results in order to improve the chip performance. Since the dimensions of all devices (transistors, resistors etc.) are given, readers and other designers can easily re-use the presented circuit concepts.

This edited volume presents new insights and challenges in the field of electric mobility in relation to new mobility and infrastructure concepts as well as to renewable energies. The book covers the socio-economic view on the topic as well as technical aspects and thus offers valuable knowledge for future business models. It primarily addresses practitioners and researchers in the field but may also be of use to graduate students.

Lubrication of Electrical and Mechanical Components in Electric Power Equipment presents an analysis of multiple applications of lubricants in the power industry for both electrical and mechanical parts. One of the key features of this book includes a look at the use of lubricants for surfaces of electrical and mechanical parts protection from mechanical wear and friction. Also included are examples of degradation due to fretting, as well as corrosion protection when lubricant is a barrier between metallic surfaces and atmospheric pollutants. This book analyzes the effects of chemical composition and consistency (fluids, greases, solid lubricants) and the durability of lubricants in regard to various types of contacts and mechanical parts material, design and load. Focused on the importance of carefully choosing the lubricants to maintain a stable contact resistance; preserve the physical integrity of the contact surface; and extend the useful life of mechanical parts, such as bearings, the author presents an exhaustive list of lubricants manufacturers and products recommended for use in the electrical industry.

This book captures selected peer reviewed papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Automotive Technologies, ICSAT 2013, held in Ingolstadt, Germany. ICSAT is the state-of-the-art conference in the field of new technologies for transportation. The book brings together the work of international researchers and practitioners under the following interrelated headings: fuel transportation and storage, material recycling, manufacturing and management costs, engines and emission reduction. The book provides a very good overview of research and development activities focused on new technologies and approaches capable of meeting the challenges to sustainable mobility.

Chip-integrated power management solutions are a must for ultra-low power systems. This enables not only the optimization of innovative sensor applications. It is also essential for integration and miniaturization of energy harvesting supply strategies of portable and autonomous monitoring systems. The book particularly addresses interfaces for energy harvesting, which are the key element to connect micro transducers to energy storage elements. Main features of the book are: - A comprehensive technology and application review, basics on transducer mechanics, fundamental circuit and control design, prototyping and testing, up to sensor system supply and applications. - Novel interfacing concepts - including active rectifiers, MPPT methods for efficient tracking of DC as well as AC sources, and a fully-integrated charge pump for efficient maximum AC power tracking at sub-100W ultra-low power levels. The chips achieve one of widest presented operational voltage range in standard CMOS technology: 0.44V to over 4.1V. - Two special chapters on analog circuit design - it studies benefits and obstacles on implemented chip prototypes with three goals: ultra- low power, wide supply voltage range, and integration with standard technologies. Alternative design approaches are pursued using bulk-input transistor stages in forward-bias operation for amplifiers, modulators, and references. - Comprehensive Appendix - with additional fundamental analysis, design and scaling guidelines, circuit implementation tables and dimensions, schematics, source code listings, bill of material, etc. The discussed prototypes and given design guidelines are tested with real vibration transducer devices. The intended readership is graduate students in advanced courses, academics and lecturers, R&D engineers.

Have you ever wondered by how much CO2 emissions can be reduced by running cars electrically or with hydrogen as fuel? This Brief provides a quantitative answer to this question using the example of the combined road traffic in Spain. The authors calculate the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the production of hydrogen gas or the required electricity and installing and maintaining the necessary infrastructure. In this way, they can compare with the GHG emissions in the present situation of oil fueled cars. Using different scenarios, they obtain an assessment how much 'greener' the electric or hydrogen cars can get.The method described in this Brief is scalable and readily adaptable to other countries. It can thus be used for investigating sensible approaches and developing recommendations for a conversion. As expected, the results depend strongly on the production scenarios for hydrogen or electricity production. The wrong choice can even result in increased GHG emissions. A proper choice of the roadmap toward a more sustainable and greener future is of greatest importance - the results described in this Brief can serve as a valuable and useful guide on our way.

This book develops a modeling framework to analyze the problem of inventory management with alternative delivery times. The general context considered here is that a seller replenishes its inventory in fixed intervals and, between replenishments, allocates the limited inventory to satisfy customers who are both price and delivery-time sensitive. On the demand side, customers have heterogeneous delivery-time requirements and choose either spot or late delivery. This theoretical modeling captures the essence of real-world business practices such as the delivery time market segmentation strategy adopted by automobile dealerships in China and many other similar examples. The book focuses on the seller's optimal inventory replenishment and demand fulfillment policies, and our results provide managerial insights into the merits of flexible delivery-time options. Similar applications such as the group-buying mechanism are also examined. The main mathematical tool used in theoretical analysis is dynamic programming. This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of operations management and industrial engineering who are interested in understanding the rationale of flexible delivery times and designing successful applications.

This volume includes the proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Information Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITITS 2015) which was held in Xi'an on December 12-13, 2015. The conference provided a platform for all professionals and researchers from industry and academia to present and discuss recent advances in the field of Information Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems. The presented information technologies are connected to intelligent transportation systems including wireless communication, computational technologies, floating car data/floating cellular data, sensing technologies, and video vehicle detection. The articles focusing on intelligent transport systems vary in the technologies applied, from basic management systems to more application systems including topics such as emergency vehicle notification systems, automatic road enforcement, collision avoidance systems and some cooperative systems. The conference hosted 12 invited speakers and over 200 participants. Each paper was under double peer reviewed by at least 3 reviewers. This proceedings are sponsored by Shaanxi Computer Society and co-sponsored by Chang'an University, Xi'an University of Technology, Northwestern Poly-technical University, CAS, Shaanxi Sirui Industries Co., LTD.

This volume collects the research papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Sustainable Automotive Technologies (ICSAT), Gothenburg, 2014. The topical focus lies on latest advances in vehicle technology related to sustainable mobility. ICSAT is the core and state-of-the-art conference in the field of new technologies for transportation. Research contributions from the US, Australia, Europe and Asia illustrate the pivotal role of the conference. The book provides an excellent overview of R&D activities at OEMs as well as in leading universities and laboratories.

This book highlights the cutting-edge research on energy management within smart grids with significant deployment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV). These vehicles not only can be a significant electrical power consumer during Grid to Vehicle (G2V) charging mode, they can also be smartly utilized as a controlled source of electrical power when they are used in Vehicle to Grid (V2G) operating mode. Electricity Price, Time of Use Tariffs, Quality of Service, Social Welfare as well as electrical parameters of the network are all different criteria considered by the researchers when developing energy management techniques for PEVs. Risk averse stochastic energy hub management, maximizing profits in ancillary service markets, power market bidding strategies for fleets of PEVs, energy management of PEVs in the presence of renewable energy in distribution lines or microgrids and loss minimization in distribution networks based on smart coordination approaches using real time energy prices are some of the attractive and novel topics explored in this book. It will be an excellent reference for graduate students, researchers and industry professionals who are interested in getting a snapshot view of today's latest research on applying various smart energy management strategies for smart grids with high penetration of PEVs.

This book presents different aspects of renewable energy integration, from the latest developments in renewable energy technologies to the currently growing smart grids. The importance of different renewable energy sources is discussed, in order to identify the advantages and challenges for each technology. The rules of connecting the renewable energy sources have also been covered along with practical examples. Since solar and wind energy are the most popular forms of renewable energy sources, this book provides the challenges of integrating these renewable generators along with some innovative solutions. As the complexity of power system operation has been raised due to the renewable energy integration, this book also includes some analysis to investigate the characteristics of power systems in a smarter way. This book is intended for those working in the area of renewable energy integration in distribution networks.

This book on road traffic congestion in cities and suburbs describes congestion problems and shows how they can be relieved. The first part (Chapters 1 - 3) shows how congestion reflects transportation technologies and settlement patterns. The second part (Chapters 4 - 13) describes the causes, characteristics, and consequences of congestion. The third part (Chapters 14 - 23) presents various relief strategies - including supply adaptation and demand mitigation - for nonrecurring and recurring congestion. The last part (Chapter 24) gives general guidelines for congestion relief and provides a general outlook for the future. The book will be useful for a wide audience - including students, practitioners and researchers in a variety of professional endeavors: traffic engineers, transportation planners, public transport specialists, city planners, public administrators, and private enterprises that depend on transportation for their activities.

This book deals in a basic and systematic manner with the fundamentals of random function theory and looks at some aspects related to arrival, vehicle headway and operational speed processes at the same time. The work serves as a useful practical and educational tool and aims at providing stimulus and motivation to investigate issues of such a strong applicative interest. It has a clearly discursive and concise structure, in which numerical examples are given to clarify the applications of the suggested theoretical model. Some statistical characterizations are fully developed in order to illustrate the peculiarities of specific modeling approaches; finally, there is a useful bibliography for in-depth thematic analysis.

This book covers the recent research advancements in the area of charging strategies that can be employed to accommodate the anticipated high deployment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) in smart grids. Recent literature has focused on various potential issues of uncoordinated charging of PEVs and methods of overcoming such challenges. After an introduction to charging coordination paradigms of PEVs, this book will present various ways the coordinated control can be accomplished. These innovative approaches include hierarchical coordinated control, model predictive control, optimal control strategies to minimize load variance, smart PEV load management based on load forecasting, integrating renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic arrays to supplement grid power, using wireless communication networks to coordinate the charging load of a smart grid and using market price of electricity and customers payment to coordinate the charging load. Hence, this book proposes many new strategies proposed recently by the researchers around the world to address the issues related to coordination of charging load of PEVs in a future smart grid.

This thesis describes a new approach to the construction of solar cells. Following nature's example, this approach has the goal to find a biomimetic self-assembling dye, whose aggregates can mimic the natural light-harvesting system of special photosynthetic active bacteria. The thesis investigates methods to control the self-assembly such that suitable dye aggregates are formed with high internal order and size-confinement. The dye aggregates can be implemented into a new type of solar cells, designed to combine the advantages of hybrid solar cells and solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ss-DSSCs): dye aggregate solar cells (DASCs). This book describes the construction and first tests of a prototype for DASCs on the basis of the investigated dye aggregates. The described approach has the advantage that it will enable to build up a light-harvesting system fully synthetically in large scale in order to realize low-cost, light-weight and environmentally friendly solar cells - a worthwhile goal towards the exploitation of clean energy from sunlight.

This book addresses the practical issues for commercialization of current and future electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/PHEVs). The volume focuses on power electronics and motor drives based solutions for both current as well as future EV/PHEV technologies. Propulsion system requirements and motor sizing for EVs is also discussed, along with practical system sizing examples. PHEV power system architectures are discussed in detail. Key EV battery technologies are explained as well as corresponding battery management issues are summarized. Advanced power electronic converter topologies for current and future charging infrastructures will also be discussed in detail. EV/PHEV interface with renewable energy is discussed in detail, with practical examples.

This book offers a complete introduction for novices to understand key concepts of biocatalysis and how to produce in-house enzymes that can be used for low-cost biofuels production. The authors discuss the challenges involved in the commercialization of the biofuel industry, given the expense of commercial enzymes used for lignocellulose conversion. They describe the limitations in the process, such as complexity of lignocellulose structure, different microbial communities' actions and interactions for degrading the recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic materials, hydrolysis mechanism and potential for bio refinery. Readers will gain understanding of the key concepts of microbial catalysis of lignocellulosic biomass, process complexities and selection of microbes for catalysis or genetic engineering to improve the production of bioethanol or biofuel

This volume includes the proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Information Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITITS 2015) which was held in Xi'an on December 12-13, 2015. The conference provided a platform for all professionals and researchers from industry and academia to present and discuss recent advances in the field of Information Technology and Intelligent Transportation Systems. The presented information technologies are connected to intelligent transportation systems including wireless communication, computational technologies, floating car data/floating cellular data, sensing technologies, and video vehicle detection. The articles focusing on intelligent transport systems vary in the technologies applied, from basic management systems to more application systems including topics such as emergency vehicle notification systems, automatic road enforcement, collision avoidance systems and some cooperative systems. The conference hosted 12 invited speakers and over 200 participants. Each paper was under double peer reviewed by at least 3 reviewers. This proceedings are sponsored by Shaanxi Computer Society and co-sponsored by Chang'an University, Xi'an University of Technology, Northwestern Poly-technical University, CAS, Shaanxi Sirui Industries Co., LTD.

The authors present a new formal framework for finding the long-run competitive market equilibrium through short-run equilibria by exploiting the operating policies and plant valuations. This "short-run approach" develops ideas of Boiteux and Koopmans. Applied to the peak-load pricing of electricity generated by thermal, hydro and pumped-storage plants, it gives a sound and practical method of valuing the fixed assets-in this case, the river flows and the geological sites suitable for reservoirs. Its main mathematical basis is the producer's short-run profit maximization programme and its dual; their solutions have relatively simple forms that can greatly ease the fixed-point problem of solving for the general equilibrium. Since the optimal values (profit and cost functions) are usually nondifferentiable-this is so when there are joint costs of production such as capacity constraints-nonsmooth calculus is employed to resolve long-standing discrepancies between textbook theory and industrial reality by giving subdifferential extensions of basic results of microeconomics, including the Wong-Viner Envelope Theorem.

This book will cover the most recent progress on the use of low-cost nanomaterials and development of low-cost/large scale processing techniques for greener and more efficient energy related applications, including but not limited to solar cells, energy storage, fuel cells, hydrogen generation, biofuels, etc. Leading researchers will be invited to author chapters in the field with their expertise. Each chapter will provide general introduction to a specific topic, current status of research and development, research challenges and outlook for future direction of research. This book aims to benefit a broad readership, from undergraduate/graduate students to researchers working on renewable energy.

The volume includes selected and reviewed papers from the 3rd Conference on Ignition Systems for Gasoline Engines in Berlin in November 2016. Experts from industry and universities discuss in their papers the challenges to ignition systems in providing reliable, precise ignition in the light of a wide spread in mixture quality, high exhaust gas recirculation rates and high cylinder pressures. Classic spark plug ignition as well as alternative ignition systems are assessed, the ignition system being one of the key technologies to further optimizing the gasoline engine.

The book aims at empowering readers with a clear understanding of multi-stage mechanism, different microactuators' performances, their limitations to control system performance and problems encountered in control system design and techniques for solving these problems and dealing with these limitations. This book is designed for academic researchers and engineering practitioners in systems and control, especially those engaged in the area of control in mechanical systems with microactuators and multi-stage actuations. Provides specific applications of multi-stage mechanical actuation systems Discusses issues and solutions in control system design for multi-stage mechanical actuation systems Discusses various types of microactuators and their control methods in multi-stage mechanism Includes real-world examples for demonstrating underlying concepts and design techniques Explores what a multi-stage mechanical systems is, for what purpose the multi-stage system is applied, how it works and how to control it for high performance