Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is finally a common sense term. Nowadays almost everyone knows that using energy more efficiently saves money, reduces the emissions of greenhouse gasses and lowers dependence on imported fossil fuels. We are living in a fossil age at the peak of its strength. Competition for securing resources for fuelling economic development is increasing, price of fuels will increase while availability of would gradually decline. Small nations will be first to suffer if caught unprepared in the midst of the struggle for resources among the large players. Here it is where energy efficiency has a potential to lead toward the natural next step - transition away from imported fossil fuels! Someone said that the only thing more harmful then fossil fuel is fossilized thinking. It is our sincere hope that some of chapters in this book will influence you to take a fresh look at the transition to low carbon economy and the role that energy efficiency can play in that process

Household recovery and housing reconstruction after the 2003 Bam earthquake in Iran

La reconstruction de logements après désastre est un processus complexe qui joue un rôle crucial dans le rétablissement des ménages affectés. Dans les dernières décennies, les chercheurs ont examiné les programmes de rétablissement des ménages (à travers les concepts de la résilience, de la vulnérabilité, et du développement durable), et ils ont essayé de déterminer les variables à l’origine de leur succès et ou de leur échec. Cependant, plusieurs lacunes subsistent, notamment à propos du degré inégal de rétablissement parmi les différentes catégories de ménages, des compromis sur les objectifs du rétablissement, et de la collaboration insuffisante parmi les différentes parties prenantes. Cette étude vise à expliquer pourquoi et comment les projets de reconstruction ne réussissent pas à atteindre les objectifs de rétablissement. Elle cherche à révéler les principaux défis dans les initiatives visant à permettre aux ménages d’avoir un rétablissement équivalent et effectif durant les programmes de reconstruction. Cette recherche se base sur une étude de cas détaillée, longitudinale et qualitative, portant sur le programme de reconstruction après désastre conduit après le tremblement de terre qui a frappé la ville de Bam en Iran en 2003. Elle examine l’expérience de reconstruction à Bam à partir de quatre angles : les objectifs de rétablissement, la politique, la stratégie et l’implémentation. L’étude adopte une stratégie de résonnement déductif, à travers lequel une revue détaillée de la littérature a mené à la formulation de propositions théoriques basées sur les théories de la résilience et de la vulnérabilité et d’autres concepts additionnels en lien avec le logement, la planification urbaine et l’aménagement de projets. Ces propositions théoriques ont par la suite été empiriquement testées pour vérifier si les modèles prévus se produisent réellement. Les résultats de Bam ont ainsi été comparés aux modèles prévus, nous permettant de valider (mais aussi de nuancer) les propositions théoriques déduites. Les résultats mettent en évidence quatre défis usuellement rencontrés dans les programmes de reconstruction après désastres. Premièrement, les politiques de reconstruction omettent souvent de prendre en considération la diversité des ménages affectés, notamment par rapport à leur statut pré et post désastre. La conséquence de la « même politique pour tous » est que cette approche ne peut pas mener au rétablissement des familles affectées. Le rétablissement de plusieurs types de ménages exige la coexistence d’une multiplicité de mesures et de programmes leur permettant de choisir la solution qui correspond à leurs besoins, leurs conditions de vie et leurs attentes. Deuxièmement, l’intégration d’une politique générale du logement et de politiques spécifiques de reconstruction est nécessaire pour faire face aux vulnérabilités et assurer un rétablissement à long terme. Troisièmement, le défi d’inclure et d’impliquer toutes les parties prenantes dans une approche participative de prise de décision menace souvent la réalisation des objectifs de rétablissement. Finalement (et conséquemment du dernier point abordé), les programmes de reconstruction doivent prendre en considération les conflits entre les parties prenantes et la fragmentation institutionnelle, à partir des structures et des mécanismes d’une gouvernance appropriée. En définitive, ces résultats nous rappellent que les programmes de reconstruction sont des processus dynamiques et complexes selon lesquels le rétablissement des ménages affectés dépend de plusieurs variables telles que la condition pré et post désastre, la sensibilité des politiques par rapport aux besoins et aux désirs variés des familles, la participation active des ménages dans la prise de décisions, et la collaboration réussie entre toutes les parties prenantes. Décidément, une recherche plus approfondie est nécessaire pour explorer la relation de cause à effet entre les variables et ce processus complexe.Post-disaster housing reconstruction is a complex process that plays a crucial role in promoting affected households’ recovery. In the last few decades, researchers have examined housing recovery programs (through resilience, vulnerability, and sustainable development lenses), and made considerable endeavours to determine the variables behind their success or failure. However, several knowledge gaps about, for instance, unequal level of recovery among differently affected household categories, compromises on recovery objectives, and insufficient collaboration between stakeholders in housing reconstruction programs, still exist. This dissertation aims at explaining why and how housing reconstruction projects typically fail to fulfill recovery objectives. It seeks to reveal the main challenges in initiatives aimed at helping affected households to recover sustainably. This study is based on a detailed, longitudinal, qualitative case study of the housing reconstruction program conducted after the earthquake that struck the city of Bam, Iran, in 2003. It specifically examines Bam’s experience from four perspectives: recovery objectives, policy, strategy, and implementation. The study adopts a deductive reasoning strategy, in which detailed literature reviews led to the formulation of theoretical propositions based on the resilience and the vulnerability theories and additional concepts borrowed from the housing, urban planning, and project management fields. These theoretical propositions were later empirically tested to explore whether the expected patterns actually occurred. Findings from the case of Bam were thus matched with predicted patterns, allowing us to validate (but also to nuance) the theoretical propositions. Results highlight four main challenges typically faced in housing reconstruction programs. First, housing reconstruction policies often overlook the diversity of affected households, notably with regard to their pre-disaster status and post-disaster situation. As a consequence, the common one-policy-for-all approach cannot adequately lead to the recovery of affected families. The recovery of different household types requires the coexistence of a multiplicity of measures and programs to allow them to choose the solution that best fits their needs, conditions, and expectations. Second, the integration of general housing policy and specific reconstruction policies is necessary to both address vulnerabilities and ensure long-term recovery. Third, challenges in involving the diversity of stakeholders in participatory decision-making often threaten the fulfillment of recovery objectives. Finally (and as a consequence of the latter), housing reconstruction programs need to address stakeholder conflicts and institutional fragmentation through appropriate governance structures and mechanisms. These results remind us that housing reconstruction programs are complex, dynamic processes where affected households’ recovery depends on several variables such as their pre- and post-disaster conditions, recovery policy’s sensitivity to families’ varied needs and desires, households’ active participation in decision-making, and successful collaboration between stakeholders. Indeed, further research is still required to explore the cause and effect relationships between variables in this complex process

Seamless Communication for Crises Management

SECRICOM is proposed as a collaborative research project aiming at development of a reference security platform for EU crisis management operations with two essential ambitions: (A) Solve or mitigate problems of contemporary crisis communication infrastructures (Tetra, GSM, Citizen Band, IP) such as poor interoperability of specialized communication means, vulnerability against tapping and misuse, lack of possibilities to recover from failures, inability to use alternative data carrier and high deployment and operational costs. (B) Add new smart functions to existing services which will make the communication more effective and helpful for users. Smart functions will be provided by distributed IT systems based on an agents’ infrastructure. Achieving these two project ambitions will allow creating a pervasive and trusted communication infrastructure fulfilling requirements of crisis management users and ready for immediate application

ICTERI 2020: ІКТ в освіті, дослідженнях та промислових застосуваннях. Інтеграція, гармонізація та передача знань 2020: Матеріали 16-ї Міжнародної конференції. Том II: Семінари. Харків, Україна, 06-10 жовтня 2020 р.

This volume represents the proceedings of the Workshops co-located with the 16th International Conference on ICT in Education, Research, and Industrial Applications, held in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in October 2020. It comprises 101 contributed papers that were carefully peer-reviewed and selected from 233 submissions for the five workshops: RMSEBT, TheRMIT, ITER, 3L-Person, CoSinE, MROL. The volume is structured in six parts, each presenting the contributions for a particular workshop. The topical scope of the volume is aligned with the thematic tracks of ICTERI 2020: (I) Advances in ICT Research; (II) Information Systems: Technology and Applications; (III) Academia/Industry ICT Cooperation; and (IV) ICT in Education.Цей збірник представляє матеріали семінарів, які були проведені в рамках 16-ї Міжнародної конференції з ІКТ в освіті, наукових дослідженнях та промислових застосуваннях, що відбулася в Харкові, Україна, у жовтні 2020 року. Він містить 101 доповідь, які були ретельно рецензовані та відібрані з 233 заявок на участь у п'яти воркшопах: RMSEBT, TheRMIT, ITER, 3L-Person, CoSinE, MROL. Збірник складається з шести частин, кожна з яких представляє матеріали для певного семінару. Тематична спрямованість збірника узгоджена з тематичними напрямками ICTERI 2020: (I) Досягнення в галузі досліджень ІКТ; (II) Інформаційні системи: Технології і застосування; (ІІІ) Співпраця в галузі ІКТ між академічними і промисловими колами; і (IV) ІКТ в освіті

Assuming Data Integrity and Empirical Evidence to The Contrary

Background: Not all respondents to surveys apply their minds or understand the posed questions, and as such provide answers which lack coherence, and this threatens the integrity of the research. Casual inspection and limited research of the 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), included in the dataset of the World Values Survey (WVS), suggested that random responses may be common. Objective: To specify the percentage of cases in the BRI-10 which include incoherent or contradictory responses and to test the extent to which the removal of these cases will improve the quality of the dataset. Method: The WVS data on the BFI-10, measuring the Big Five Personality (B5P), in South Africa (N=3 531), was used. Incoherent or contradictory responses were removed. Then the cases from the cleaned-up dataset were analysed for their theoretical validity. Results: Only 1 612 (45.7%) cases were identified as not including incoherent or contradictory responses. The cleaned-up data did not mirror the B5P- structure, as was envisaged. The test for common method bias was negative. Conclusion: In most cases the responses were incoherent. Cleaning up the data did not improve the psychometric properties of the BFI-10. This raises concerns about the quality of the WVS data, the BFI-10, and the universality of B5P-theory. Given these results, it would be unwise to use the BFI-10 in South Africa. Researchers are alerted to do a proper assessment of the psychometric properties of instruments before they use it, particularly in a cross-cultural setting