The deterioration of water quality and unavailability of drinkable water are pressing challenges worldwide. The removal of toxic organic and inorganic pollutants from water is vital for a clean environment, as a response to water scarcity. Adsorption-based water technologies are among the most widely used because of their high efficiency and low cost, without relying on a complex infrastructure. In recent years, carbon nanomaterials (CNMs), such as graphene and derivatives, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, nanoporous carbon, fullerenes, graphitic carbon nitride, and nanodiamonds have been extensively exploited as adsorbents due to their extraordinary surface properties, ease of modification, large surface area, controlled structural varieties, high chemical stability, porosity, low density, ease of regeneration, and reusability. This book provides a thorough overview of the state of the art in carbon nanomaterials as they are used for adsorption applications in water purifications, as well as addressing their toxicological challenges. This volume primarily explores the fundamentals of adsorption, its mechanical aspects, synthesis and properties of CNMs, and adsorption performances of CNMs and their nanocomposites with organic and inorganic materials. Structural engineering and activation processes produce materials with enhanced adsorptive properties and separation efficiencies. Furthermore, the formation of CNMs with 2D and 3D macro-and microstructures and high porosities is a potential approach to improve adsorption performances and extend CNM use at the industrial level. The book also addresses important issues regarding these adsorbents that potentially affect future research and industrial applications of carbon-based nanoadsorbents in water security.

Cell phone apps share location information; software companies store user data in the cloud; biometric scanners read fingerprints; employees of some businesses have microchips implanted in their hands. In each of these instances we trade a share of privacy or an aspect of identity for greater convenience or improved security. What Robert M. Pallitto asks in Bargaining with the Machine is whether we are truly making such bargains freely - whether, in fact, such a transaction can be conducted freely or advisedly in our ever more technologically sophisticated world. Pallitto uses the social theory of bargaining to look at the daily compromises we make with technology. Specifically, he explores whether resisting these 'bargains' is still possible when the technologies in question are backed by persuasive, even coercive, corporate and state power. Who, he asks, is proposing the bargain? What is the balance of bargaining power? What is surrendered and what is gained? And are the perceived and the actual gains and losses the same - that is, what is hidden? At the center of Pallitto's work is the paradox of bargaining in a world of limited agency. Assurances that we are in control are abundant whether we are consumers, voters, or party to the social contract. But when purchasing goods from a technological behemoth like Amazon, or when choosing a candidate whose image is crafted and shaped by campaign strategists and media outlets, how truly free, let alone informed, are our choices? The tension between claims of agency and awareness of its limits is the site where we experience our social lives - and nowhere is this tension more pronounced than in the surveillance society. This book offers a cogent analysis of how that complex, contested, and even paradoxical experience arises as well as an unusually clear and troubling view of the consequential compromises we may be making.

As technology advances, it is imperative to stay current in the newest developments made within the engineering industry and within material sciences. Trends in manufacturing such as 3D printing, casting, welding, surface modification, computer numerical control (CNC), non-traditional, Industry 4.0 ergonomics, and hybrid machining methods must be closely examined to utilize these important resources for the betterment of society. Advanced Manufacturing Techniques for Engineering and Engineered Materials provides a unified and complete overview about the recent and emerging trends, developments, and associated technology with scope for the commercialization of techniques specific to manufacturing materials. This book also reviews the various machining methods for difficult-to-cut materials and novel materials including matrix composites. Covering topics such as agro-waste, conventional machining, and material performance, this book is an essential resource for researchers, engineers, technologists, students and professors of higher education, industry workers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and academicians.

When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity. By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt's conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers - Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt's argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring example, Roholt develops the classification of musical instruments as focal things, contending that musical performance can be fruitfully understood as a focal practice. Through this exploration of what generates meaning in life, Roholt makes us rethink the place we allow smartphones to occupy in the everyday. But he remains cautiously optimistic. This thoughtful, needed interrogation of smartphones shows how we can establish a positive role for technologies within our lives.