194 research outputs found
Realising Global Water Futures: a Summary of Progress in Delivering Solutions to Water Threats in an Era of Global Change
Canada First Research Excellence FundNon-Peer ReviewedOver the past six years the Global Water Futures program has produced a wide range of scientific findings and engagements with multiple types of potential users of the research. This briefing book provides a snapshot of some of the science advancements and user engagement that have taken place to date. Annual reports to the funding agency are the most up to date source of information: this compilation has been created from reports submitted by projects in 2022, representing both completed and current project work. The briefing book aims to provide quick access to information about GWF projects in a single place for GWFâs User Advisory Panel: we hope that knowing more about the research being produced will spark conversations about how to make the best use of the new knowledge in both policy and practice
University of Maine Undergraduate Catalog, 2022-2023
The University of Maine undergraduate catalog for the 2022-2023 academic year includes an introduction, the academic calendars, general information about the university, and sections on attending, facilities and centers, and colleges and academic programs including the Colleges of Business, Public Policy and Health, Education and Development, Engineering, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture
Applications of and Barriers to Prescribed Fire for Grassland Management in Saskatchewan
Fire can be a powerful tool for the management and conservation of remaining grasslands in the northern Great Plains. Extensive modification of northern prairies driven by persistent management ideologies have significantly altered the historic pattern of disturbances. Elevated risks associated with wildfire, further declines in grassland biodiversity, and growing threats to ecosystem goods and services are prevalent. The intersection of climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and adaptive governance requires a multifaceted, socioecological approach to confront current and impending challenges in the region. The intentional use of fire, as an Indigenous cultural practice and natural ecosystem process, has been shown to be an effective land management tool to meet numerous objectives but continues to be underutilized in southern Saskatchewan and elsewhere. The purpose of this research was to explore the risk management and ecological applications of prescribed fire with a focus on barriers to the effective use of fire. Specifically, I 1) use remote sensing of grassland vegetation at different scales to preemptively identify hazards associated with prairie fire and describe how prescribed burning could mitigate those hazards, 2) examine ungulate grazing selectively in response to prescribed burning and impacts to heterogeneity of prairie habitat for grassland management and conservation; and 3) conduct a comparative analysis of strategies for reintroducing prescribed fire in Saskatchewanâs prairie ecozone, and to identify barriers to interagency collaboration and expansion of the practice as a culturally significant endeavour and important economic, ecological, and community-building process.
Imagery from satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), combined within a simple, integrated model identified fire hazard metrics suitable for operational use in topographically variable, northern mixed prairie. Grazing intensity altered vegetation distribution and fuelbed heterogeneity. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and slope were predictors of burn patterns, offering those tasked with fire mitigation and suppression useful information for safe and effective planning, implementation, and analysis. Reintroduction of fire into a semi-arid, grazed grassland had heterogeneous effects on vegetation and temporarily altered spatiotemporal patterns of herbivory by bison and cattle. Multiscale observations from remote sensing platforms evaluated changes pre- and post-burning and demonstrated bison and cattle selectivity at a very fine spatial scale. Limited impacts to plant community composition, with year-to-year variation a dominant factor, suggested prudently managed northern mixed prairie was resilient to the fire-grazing interaction. Finally, comparative analysis of agency strategies for restoring fire in southern Saskatchewan acknowledged the importance of developing a community of practice within a multiscalar, collaborative effort. Current programs were limited by a range of social, informational, practical, and regulatory constraints. Established programs with significant investment in trained personnel and equipment accomplished the largest and most complex areas burned. Those with limited funding using a collaborative approach in a centralized location burned most frequently. A newly formed, coordinating agency provided structure and additional funding to support various organizations, beginning to close a gap between research and implementation to advance the practice in Canadian prairies. Greater integration with federal and provincial fire management organizations is required to emulate similar U.S. models. Increased understanding, coordination, and implementation of prescribed fire will build adaptive capacity and community resilience to confront rising threats locally and globally
A review of commercialisation mechanisms for carbon dioxide removal
The deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) needs to be scaled up to achieve net zero emission pledges. In this paper we survey the policy mechanisms currently in place globally to incentivise CDR, together with an estimate of what different mechanisms are paying per tonne of CDR, and how those costs are currently distributed. Incentive structures are grouped into three structures, market-based, public procurement, and fiscal mechanisms. We find the majority of mechanisms currently in operation are underresourced and pay too little to enable a portfolio of CDR that could support achievement of net zero. The majority of mechanisms are concentrated in market-based and fiscal structures, specifically carbon markets and subsidies. While not primarily motivated by CDR, mechanisms tend to support established afforestation and soil carbon sequestration methods. Mechanisms for geological CDR remain largely underdeveloped relative to the requirements of modelled net zero scenarios. Commercialisation pathways for CDR require suitable policies and markets throughout the projects development cycle. Discussion and investment in CDR has tended to focus on technology development. Our findings suggest that an equal or greater emphasis on policy innovation may be required if future requirements for CDR are to be met. This study can further support research and policy on the identification of incentive gaps and realistic potential for CDR globally
Implementation of Sensors and Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Hazards Assessment in Urban, Agriculture and Forestry Systems
The implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), together with robotics, sensors, sensor networks, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine/deep learning modeling, has reached the forefront of research activities, moving towards the goal of increasing the efficiency in a multitude of applications and purposes related to environmental sciences. The development and deployment of AI tools requires specific considerations, approaches, and methodologies for their effective and accurate applications. This Special Issue focused on the applications of AI to environmental systems related to hazard assessment in urban, agriculture, and forestry areas
IoT and Sensor Networks in Industry and Society
The exponential progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the main elements that fueled the acceleration of the globalization pace. Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are some of the key players of the digital transformation that is affecting every aspect of human's daily life, from environmental monitoring to healthcare systems, from production processes to social interactions. In less than 20 years, people's everyday life has been revolutionized, and concepts such as Smart Home, Smart Grid and Smart City have become familiar also to non-technical users.
The integration of embedded systems, ubiquitous Internet access, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications have paved the way for paradigms such as IoT and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) to be also introduced in high-requirement environments such as those related to industrial processes, under the forms of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT or I2oT) and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). As a consequence, in 2011 the German High-Tech Strategy 2020 Action Plan for Germany first envisioned the concept of Industry 4.0, which is rapidly reshaping traditional industrial processes. The term refers to the promise to be the fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, the ïŹrst industrial revolution was triggered by water and steam power. Electricity and assembly lines enabled mass production in the second industrial revolution. In the third industrial revolution, the introduction of control automation and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) gave a boost to factory production. As opposed to the previous revolutions, Industry 4.0 takes advantage of Internet access, M2M communications, and deep learning not only to improve production efficiency but also to enable the so-called mass customization, i.e. the mass production of personalized products by means of modularized product design and ïŹexible processes.
Less than five years later, in January 2016, the Japanese 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan took a further step by introducing the concept of Super Smart Society or Society 5.0. According to this vision, in the upcoming future, scientific and technological innovation will guide our society into the next social revolution after the hunter-gatherer, agrarian, industrial, and information eras, which respectively represented the previous social revolutions. Society 5.0 is a human-centered society that fosters the simultaneous achievement of economic, environmental and social objectives, to ensure a high quality of life to all citizens. This information-enabled revolution aims to tackle todayâs major challenges such as an ageing population, social inequalities, depopulation and constraints related to energy and the environment. Accordingly, the citizens will be experiencing impressive transformations into every aspect of their daily lives.
This book offers an insight into the key technologies that are going to shape the future of industry and society. It is subdivided into five parts: the I Part presents a horizontal view of the main enabling technologies, whereas the II-V Parts offer a vertical perspective on four different environments.
The I Part, dedicated to IoT and Sensor Network architectures, encompasses three Chapters. In Chapter 1, Peruzzi and Pozzebon analyse the literature on the subject of energy harvesting solutions for IoT monitoring systems and architectures based on Low-Power Wireless Area Networks (LPWAN). The Chapter does not limit the discussion to Long Range Wise Area Network (LoRaWAN), SigFox and Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) communication protocols, but it also includes other relevant solutions such as DASH7 and Long Term Evolution MAchine Type Communication (LTE-M). In Chapter 2, Hussein et al. discuss the development of an Internet of Things message protocol that supports multi-topic messaging. The Chapter further presents the implementation of a platform, which integrates the proposed communication protocol, based on Real Time Operating System. In Chapter 3, Li et al. investigate the heterogeneous task scheduling problem for data-intensive scenarios, to reduce the global task execution time, and consequently reducing data centers' energy consumption. The proposed approach aims to maximize the efficiency by comparing the cost between remote task execution and data migration.
The II Part is dedicated to Industry 4.0, and includes two Chapters. In Chapter 4, Grecuccio et al. propose a solution to integrate IoT devices by leveraging a blockchain-enabled gateway based on Ethereum, so that they do not need to rely on centralized intermediaries and third-party services.
As it is better explained in the paper, where the performance is evaluated in a food-chain traceability application, this solution is particularly beneficial in Industry 4.0 domains. Chapter 5, by De Fazio et al., addresses the issue of safety in workplaces by presenting a smart garment that integrates several low-power sensors to monitor environmental and biophysical parameters. This enables the detection of dangerous situations, so as to prevent or at least reduce the consequences of workers accidents.
The III Part is made of two Chapters based on the topic of Smart Buildings. In Chapter 6, PetroÈanu et al. review the literature about recent developments in the smart building sector, related to the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning models of sensory data. The Chapter poses particular attention on enhanced sensing, energy efficiency, and optimal building management. In Chapter 7, Oh examines how much the education of prosumers about their energy consumption habits affects power consumption reduction and encourages energy conservation, sustainable living, and behavioral change, in residential environments. In this Chapter, energy consumption monitoring is made possible thanks to the use of smart plugs.
Smart Transport is the subject of the IV Part, including three Chapters. In Chapter 8, Roveri et al. propose an approach that leverages the small world theory to control swarms of vehicles connected through Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication protocols. Indeed, considering a queue dominated by short-range car-following dynamics, the Chapter demonstrates that safety and security are increased by the introduction of a few selected random long-range communications. In Chapter 9, Nitti et al. present a real time system to observe and analyze public transport passengers' mobility by tracking them throughout their journey on public transport vehicles. The system is based on the detection of the active Wi-Fi interfaces, through the analysis of Wi-Fi probe requests. In Chapter 10, Miler et al. discuss the development of a tool for the analysis and comparison of efficiency indicated by the integrated IT systems in the operational activities undertaken by Road Transport Enterprises (RTEs). The authors of this Chapter further provide a holistic evaluation of efficiency of telematics systems in RTE operational management.
The book ends with the two Chapters of the V Part on Smart Environmental Monitoring. In Chapter 11, He et al. propose a Sea Surface Temperature Prediction (SSTP) model based on time-series similarity measure, multiple pattern learning and parameter optimization. In this strategy, the optimal parameters are determined by means of an improved Particle Swarm Optimization method. In Chapter 12, Tsipis et al. present a low-cost, WSN-based IoT system that seamlessly embeds a three-layered cloud/fog computing architecture, suitable for facilitating smart agricultural applications, especially those related to wildfire monitoring.
We wish to thank all the authors that contributed to this book for their efforts. We express our gratitude to all reviewers for the volunteering support and precious feedback during the review process. We hope that this book provides valuable information and spurs meaningful discussion among researchers, engineers, businesspeople, and other experts about the role of new technologies into industry and society
Fire performance of residential shipping containers designed with a shaft wall system
seven story building made of shipping containers is planned to be built in Barcelona, Spain. This study
mainly aimed to evaluate the fire performance of one of these residential shipping containers whose walls
and ceiling will have a shaft wall system installed.
The default assembly consisted of three fire resistant gypsum boards for vertical panels and a mineral wool
layer within the framing system. This work aimed to assess if system variants (e.g. less gypsum boards, no
mineral wool layer) could still be adequate considering fire resistance purposes.
To determine if steel temperatures would attain a predetermined temperature of 300-350ÂșC (a temperature
value above which mechanical properties of steel start to change significantly) the temperature evolution
within the shaft wall system and the corrugated steel profile of the container was analysed under different
fire conditions.
Diamonds simulator (v. 2020; Buildsoft) was used to perform the heat transfer analysis from the inside
surface of the container (where the fire source was present) and within the shaft wall and the corrugated
profile. To do so gas temperatures near the walls and the ceiling were required, so these temperatures were
obtained from two sources: (1) The standard fire curve ISO834; (2) CFD simulations performed using the
Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). Post-flashover fire scenarios were modelled in FDS taking into account
the type of fuel present in residential buildings according to international standards.
The results obtained indicate that temperatures lower than 350ÂșC were attained on the ribbed steel sheet
under all the tested heat exposure conditions. When changing the assembly by removing the mineral wool
layer, fire resistance was found to still be adequate. Therefore, under the tested conditions, the structural
response of the containers would comply with fire protection standards, even in the case where insulation
was reduced.Postprint (published version
Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends and Applications
This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue entitled âMulti-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends, and Applicationsâ that was published in Applied Sciences. This Special Issue collected seventeen high-quality papers that discuss the main challenges of multi-robot systems, present the trends to address these issues, and report various relevant applications. Some of the topics addressed by these papers are robot swarms, mission planning, robot teaming, machine learning, immersive technologies, search and rescue, and social robotics
2022-2023 Course Catalog
An annual catalog of courses and course descriptions offered at the University of Montana.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/coursecatalogs_asc/1117/thumbnail.jp
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