Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Clean energy and environment: combating climate change by Hong Kong researchers and professionals

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Mitigating Health and Environmental Risks From E-Waste Dismantling via Plasma Arc Gasification WtE and Sustainable Materials Management Modeling

Informal E-waste recycling is an epidemiological and environmental crisis of unprecedented scale and complexity in human history. The expanding demand for electronics and the growing human population is putting indeterminable strain upon the Earth’s resources and ecosystems. The demand and scarcity of rare earths, heavy metals, embedded glass and plastics, compounded by the sheer volume of untrackable flows of E-waste, present both opportunity and crises to the poorest marginalized communities, who employ basic and dangerous dismantling means to extract small quantities of valuable metals for subsistence-level resale. Local ecosystems and vulnerable populations suffer toxicological burdens from this work, the extent of which have yet to be determined. Researchers suggest the data indicates the answer is there is risk to human health, with pregnant women and children suffering the highest chronic damage from multi-channel exposures to chemical compounds. This study examined the possibility of adapting Taiwan’s Smart Materials Management system to China’s biggest E-waste dismantling regions, in order to control the flow of printed circuit boards away from illegal enterprises, towards licensed processors with proper protective gear and efficient machinery. China’s reliance upon fossil fuels for electricity generation exacerbates greenhouse gas emissions. Once control of E-waste flows can be established, using plasma arc gasification to process the waste into energy becomes more attractive to traditional project financing. This study focused upon the first stage of major dismantling emissions, mechanical shredding, comparing China to the rest of the world, and found a LCA single score of 3. However this analysis was based upon Swiss data over 10 years old, and technical details about the machinery were not available. The waste-to-energy technology focused upon was AlterNRG’s plasma arc gasification torches, which have potential for decreasing the E-waste dumps prevalent in China, and thus decreasing human health risks

A robust methodology for prediction of trust and reputation values

In this paper, we present the FC direct trust value-based decision making methodology, for making direct trust value based decisions regarding interactions in (a) a given context and during the current time slot, and (b) a given context and at a future time slot. The direct trust value-based decision making methodology models the context specific nature of trust and the dynamic nature of trust to make direct trust value-based decisions regarding interactions. Additionally in this paper, we present the FC reputation-based trust decision making methodology, for making reputation-based trust decisions regard ing interactions, if direct trust value-based decisions cannot be made. The FC reputationbased trust decision making methodology can make reputationbased trust decisions regarding interactions in (a) a given context and during the current time slot, and (b) a given context and at a future time slot

21st Annual Fulbright Symposium - Harmony and Dissonance in International Law

Conference proceedings from The 21st Annual Fulbright Symposium on International Legal Problems

21st Annual Fulbright Symposium - Harmony and Dissonance in International Law

Conference proceedings from The 21st Annual Fulbright Symposium on International Legal Problems

Using cooperation to improve the experience of web services consumers

Web Services (WS) are one of the most promising approaches for building loosely coupled systems. However, due to the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of the WS environment, ensuring good QoS is still non-trivial. While WS tend to scale better than tightly coupled systems, they introduce a larger communication overhead and are more susceptible to server/resource latency. Traditionally this problem has been addressed by relying on negotiated Service Level Agreement to ensure the required QoS, or the development of elaborate compensation handlers to minimize the impact of undesirable latency. This research focuses on the use of cooperation between consumers and providers as an effective means of optimizing resource utilization and consumer experiences. It introduces a novel cooperative approach to implement the cooperation between consumers and providers

Global Production Networks in East Asia's Electronics Industry and Upgrading Perspectives in Malaysia

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