Regional study on investment for transmission infrastructure in China based on the State Grid data

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Wendong; Wu, Xudong; Wu, Xiaofang; Xi, Qiangmin; Ji, Xi; Li, Guoping

2017-03-01

Transmission infrastructure is an integral component of safeguarding the stability of electricity delivery. However, existing studies of transmission infrastructure mostly rely on a simple review of the network, while the analysis of investments remains rudimentary. This study conducted the first regionally focused analysis of investments in transmission infrastructure in China to help optimize its structure and reduce investment costs. Using State Grid data, the investment costs, under various voltages, for transmission lines and transformer substations are calculated. By analyzing the regional profile of cumulative investment in transmission infrastructure, we assess correlations between investment, population, and economic development across the regions. The recent development of ultra-high-voltage transmission networks will provide policy-makers new options for policy development.

The UNESCO-IOC framework – establishing an international early warning infrastructure in the Indian Ocean region

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J. Lauterjung

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3, and the subsequent destructive tsunami which caused more than 225 000 fatalities in the region of the Indian Ocean, happened on 26 December 2004. Less than one month later, the United Nations (UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction took place in Kobe, Japan to commemorate the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The importance of preparedness and awareness on regional, national and community levels with respect to natural disasters was discussed during this meeting, and resulted in the approval of the Hyogo Declaration on Disaster Reduction. Based on this declaration the UN mandated the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC of UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization, taking note of its over 40 years of successful coordination of the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWC, to take on the international coordination of national early-warning efforts for the Indian Ocean and to guide the process of setting up a Regional Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean.

Examining the interlinkages between regional infrastructure disparities, economic growth, and poverty: A case of Indian states

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Chotia Varun

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the interlinkages between regional infrastructure disparities, economic growth, and poverty in the 21 major Indian States. An overall comprehensive index of infrastructure, the Composite Infrastructure Index (CII, is calculated for each Indian state using the Principal Component Analysis technique. In order to analyse the regional disparities between states in terms of infrastructure, they are ranked based on the calculated CII. We extend our analysis by evaluating the inter-relationship between the Composite Infrastructure Index, Per Capita Net State Domestic Product (PCNSDP, and poverty. The empirical analysis also proves that composite infrastructural growth and economic growth go hand in hand.

International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Elvina Santoso, Shelvy; Hardianto, Ekky

2017-11-01

Preface: International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering (ICASIE) 2017. The International Conference of Applied Science and Technology for Infrastructure Engineering (ICASIE) 2017 has been scheduled and successfully taken place at Swiss-Bell Inn Hotel, Surabaya, Indonesia, on August 5th 2017 organized by Department of Civil Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Vocation, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). This annual event aims to create synergies between government, private sectors; employers; practitioners; and academics. This conference has different theme each year and “MATERIAL FOR INFRASTUCTURE ENGINEERING” will be taken for this year’s main theme. In addition, we also provide a platform for various other sub-theme topic including but not limited to Geopolymer Concrete and Materials Technology, Structural Dynamics, Engineering, and Sustainability, Seismic Design and Control of Structural Vibrations, Innovative and Green Buildings, Project Management, Transportation and Highway Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Water Engineering and Resources Management, Surveying and Geospatial Engineering, Coastal Engineering, Geophysics, Energy, Electronic and Mechatronic, Industrial Process, and Data Mining. List of Organizers, Journal Editors, Steering Committee, International Scientific Committee, Chairman, Keynote Speakers are available in this pdf.

Efficient strategies for the integration of renewable energy into future energy infrastructures in Europe – An analysis based on transnational modeling and case studies for nine European regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boie, Inga; Fernandes, Camila; Frías, Pablo; Klobasa, Marian

2014-01-01

As a result of the current international climate change strategy, the European Commission has agreed on ambitious targets to reduce CO 2 emissions by more than 80% until 2050 as compared to 1990 levels and to increase the share of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency by 20% until 2020. Under this framework, renewable energy generation has increased considerably in the EU and it is expected to keep growing in the future years. This paper presents long-term strategies for transmission infrastructure development to integrate increasing amounts of renewable generation in the time horizon of 2030–2050. These are part of the outcomes of the SUSPLAN project, which focuses on four possible future renewable deployment scenarios in different European regions taking into account the corresponding infrastructure needs, especially electricity and gas grids, both on regional and transnational level. The main objective of the project is the development of guidelines for the integration of renewable energy into future energy infrastructures while taking account of national and regional characteristics. Therefore, the analysis is based on a two-track approach: A transnational modeling exercise (“top-down”) and in-depth case studies for nine representative European regions (“bottom-up”). - Highlights: • We present the main outcomes of the SUSPLAN EU project. • It assesses long-term energy infrastructure needs to integrate RES in Europe. • Regional and transnational analyses are performed for 4 RES scenarios until 2050. • Major barriers to the integration of RES into energy infrastructure are identified. • Efficient strategies to mitigate these barriers are proposed

Cooperative monitoring of regional security agreements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pregenzer, A.L.; Vannoni, M.; Biringer, K.L. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Nonproliferation and Arms Control Analysis Dept.

1996-11-01

This paper argues that cooperative monitoring plays a critical role in the implementation of regional security agreements and confidence building measures. A framework for developing cooperative monitoring options is proposed and several possibilities for relating bilateral and regional monitoring systems to international monitoring systems are discussed. Three bilateral or regional agreements are analyzed briefly to illustrate different possibilities. These examples illustrate that the relationship of regional or bilateral arms control or security agreements to international agreements depends on a number of factors: the overlap of provisions between regional and international agreements; the degree of interest in a regional agreement among the international community; efficiency in implementing the agreement; and numerous political considerations. Given the importance of regional security to the international community, regions should be encouraged to develop their own infrastructure for implementing regional arms control and other security agreements. A regional infrastructure need not preclude participation in an international regime. On the contrary, establishing regional institutions for arms control and nonproliferation could result in more proactive participation of regional parties in developing solutions for regional and international problems, thereby strengthening existing and future international regimes. Possible first steps for strengthening regional infrastructures are identified and potential technical requirements are discussed.

REGIONAL EFFECTS OF THE EU FUNDS ABSORPTION FOR EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN ROMANIA 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD

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Aida Catana

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The educational infrastructure was one of the priorities financed by European Regional Development Fund in Romania through Regional Operational Programme in 2007-2013 programming period. The regions for development in Romania needed financial support to improve the quality of local educational infrastructure but the administrative capacity to get EU funds wasn’t prepared to take advantage of the available opportunities. This paper shows that the level of local development in terms of institutional capacity and financial resources had influenced the amount of funds obtained by the local authorities. Even if the less developed regions had an important need for resources, the more developed regions succeeded to implement more projects for educational infrastructure.

5th Regional Study on Cadastre and Spatial Data Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivica Skender

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In the aftermath of the 5th Regional Conference on Cadastre and Spatial Data Infrastructure (Banja Luka and Laktaši, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 6–8, 2012, the Republic Authority for Geodetic and Property Affairs of the Republic of Srpska and the Federal Administration for Geodetic and Real Property Affairs published the 5th Regional Study on Cadastre and Spatial Data Infrastructure. The study was produced in the frame of the Project INSPIRATION – Spatial Data Infrastructure in the Western Balkans, which is being realized for the benefit and with cooperation of representatives of eight geodetic administrations in the region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia by consortium led by German company GFA of Hamburg, in cooperation with GDi GISDATA of Zagreb, experts from the Austrian Environmental Agency and German company con terra GmbH and financed from the European Union IPA funding programme for 2010.

Can internet infrastructure help reduce regional disparities? : evidence from Turkey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Celbis, M.G.; de Crombrugghe, D.P.I.

2014-01-01

This study presents novel evidence regarding the role of regional internet infrastructure in reducing regional per capita income disparities. We base our study on the assumptions that (1) the diffusion of information homogenizes regional economies through reducing the dissimilarities in institutions

Central Region Green Infrastructure

Data.gov (United States)

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — This Green Infrastructure data is comprised of 3 similar ecological corridor data layers ? Metro Conservation Corridors, green infrastructure analysis in counties...

Lessons learned: Infrastructure development and financial management for large, publicly funded, international trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, Gregg S; Carey, Cate; Grarup, Jesper; Hudson, Fleur; Sachi, Karen; Vjecha, Michael J; Gordin, Fred

2016-04-01

Randomized clinical trials are widely recognized as essential to address worldwide clinical and public health research questions. However, their size and duration can overwhelm available public and private resources. To remain competitive in international research settings, advocates and practitioners of clinical trials must implement practices that reduce their cost. We identify approaches and practices for large, publicly funded, international trials that reduce cost without compromising data integrity and recommend an approach to cost reporting that permits comparison of clinical trials. We describe the organizational and financial characteristics of The International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials, an infectious disease research network that conducts multiple, large, long-term, international trials, and examine challenges associated with simple and streamlined governance and an infrastructure and financial management model that is based on performance, transparency, and accountability. It is possible to reduce costs of participants' follow-up and not compromise clinical trial quality or integrity. The International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials network has successfully completed three large HIV trials using cost-efficient practices that have not adversely affected investigator enthusiasm, accrual rates, loss-to-follow-up, adherence to the protocol, and completion of data collection. This experience is relevant to the conduct of large, publicly funded trials in other disease areas, particularly trials dependent on international collaborations. New approaches, or creative adaption of traditional clinical trial infrastructure and financial management tools, can render large, international clinical trials more cost-efficient by emphasizing structural simplicity, minimal up-front costs, payments for performance, and uniform algorithms and fees-for-service, irrespective of location. However, challenges remain. They

Influence of transport infrastructure on the industrial development of the Russian regions

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Elizaveta Eduardovna Kolchinskaya

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Objective to build a model describing the relationship between the level of transport infrastructure development of the region and the level of industrial development in the region. Methods calculation of the integral indicators of a particular industry development regression analysis method of the production function constructing. For regression analysis the paper uses panel data models with random and fixed effects and the pooled panel data model. To check the quality of the regression model the Fisher and Student ttests were used. To test the model for heteroskedastic properties tests by Park Glazer GoldfeldQuandt and White were applied. Results models of linear and logarithmic specifications with random and fixed effects were built as well as pooled panel data models. Significant coefficients of transport infrastructure indicators were obtained in both cases only in the pooled panel data models. The model which considered the railway density index as one of the characteristics of the transport infrastructure of the region showed the negative coefficient of this variable. Scientific novelty for the first time on the basis of Russian regions statistics using regression models of panel data the dependence has been studied between the level of transport development in the region and the dynamics of industrial production in it. As the characteristic of transport infrastructure development the specially designed integral indicator was used i.e. the transport enterprises and communications functioning in the region summarizing several characteristics of enterprises in the industry. Practical value the obtained results can be used to predict effects of adopting decisions on improving the transport infrastructure in the Russian Federation regions. The results and conclusion can serve as a basis for further research on this topic and be applied in the characterization of the Russian economy. In addition the results can be used in the educational

Regional Charging Infrastructure for Plug-In Electric Vehicles: A Case Study of Massachusetts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wood, Eric [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Raghavan, Sesha [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Rames, Clement [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Eichman, Joshua [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Melaina, Marc [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-01-01

Given the complex issues associated with plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging and options in deploying charging infrastructure, there is interest in exploring scenarios of future charging infrastructure deployment to provide insight and guidance to national and regional stakeholders. The complexity and cost of PEV charging infrastructure pose challenges to decision makers, including individuals, communities, and companies considering infrastructure installations. The value of PEVs to consumers and fleet operators can be increased with well-planned and cost-effective deployment of charging infrastructure. This will increase the number of miles driven electrically and accelerate PEV market penetration, increasing the shared value of charging networks to an expanding consumer base. Given these complexities and challenges, the objective of the present study is to provide additional insight into the role of charging infrastructure in accelerating PEV market growth. To that end, existing studies on PEV infrastructure are summarized in a literature review. Next, an analysis of current markets is conducted with a focus on correlations between PEV adoption and public charging availability. A forward-looking case study is then conducted focused on supporting 300,000 PEVs by 2025 in Massachusetts. The report concludes with a discussion of potential methodology for estimating economic impacts of PEV infrastructure growth.

Building an International Student Market: Educational-Balanced Scorecard Solutions for Regional Australian Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Linda; Hamilton, John

2004-01-01

There is an international student market suitable for regional Australia, but each region is different. Hence, each region must determine, target and niche market to its best potential international student customer base. For international education there remains scant, relevant, data for regional Australia, hence complete regional approaches to…

Planning Green Infrastructure as a Source of Urban and Regional Resilience – Towards Institutional Challenges

OpenAIRE

Paulina SCHIAPPACASSE; Bernhard MÜLLER

2015-01-01

Green infrastructure programmes and strategies are regarded as planning opportunities to promote sustainable and resilient urban development. However, the discourse about green infrastructure policy and its effectiveness has pointed to the limited success in practical implementation. Since the green infrastructure has no planning status in its own right, it depends on being embedded in comprehensive urban and regional planning approaches if it is to have an impact on sustainable and resilient...

Spatial Data Envelopment Analysis Method for the Evaluation of Regional Infrastructure Disparities

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Birutė Galinienė

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose—to achieve a more detailed assessment of regional differences, exploring regional infrastructure and human capital usage efficiency and to display analysis capabilities of spatial data efficient frontier method.Design/methodology/approach—the data envelopment analysis (DEA is applied to find the efficient frontier, which extends the application of production function of the regions. This method of mathematical programming optimization allows assessing the effectiveness of the regional spatial aspects presented. In recent studies this method is applied for evaluating the European Union regional policy issues.Findings—the application of DEA reveals its feasibility for regional input and output studies to evaluate more detailed and more reasonable fund allocation between Lithuanian regions. This analysis shows that in the comparatively efficient Lithuanian regions, such as Vilnius and Klaipėda, “the bottleneck” of usage of transport infrastructure and regional specific human capital is reached. It is stated that decision-making units could enhance region attractiveness for private investors by improving indirect factors in these regions. For practical significance of the study the results are compared with German regional analysis, conducted by Schaffer and other researchers (2011.Practical implications—the practical value of this work is based on giving more accurate planning tools for fund allocation decisions in Lithuanian regions while planning infrastructure and human capital development. The regional indicators were analyzed for 2010.Research type—case study.

Cooperative monitoring of regional security agreements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pregenzer, A.L.; Vannoni, M.; Biringer, K.L.

1995-08-01

This paper argues that cooperative monitoring plays a critical role in the implementation of regional security agreements and confidence building measures. A framework for developing cooperative monitoring options is proposed and several possibilities for relating bilateral and regional monitoring systems to international monitoring systems are discussed. Three bilateral or regional agreements are analyzed briefly to illustrate different possibilities: (1) the demilitarization of the Sinai region between Israel and Egypt in the 1970s; (2) the 1991 quadripartite agreement for monitoring nuclear facilities among Brazil, Argentina, The Argentine-Brazilian Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials and the International Atomic Energy Agency; and (3) a bilateral Open Skies agreement between Hungary and Romania in 1991. These examples illustrate that the relationship of regional or bilateral arms control or security agreements to international agreements depends on a number of factors: the overlap of provisions between regional and international agreements; the degree of interest in a regional agreement among the international community; efficiency in implementing the agreement; and numerous political considerations.Given the importance of regional security to the international community, regions should be encouraged to develop their own infrastructure for implementing regional arms control and other security agreements. A regional infrastructure need not preclude participation in an international regime. On the contrary, establishing regional institutions for arms control and nonproliferation could result in more proactive participation of regional parties in developing solutions for regional and international problems, thereby strengthening existing and future international regimes. Possible first steps for strengthening regional infrastructures are identified and potential technical requirements are discussed.

Green Infrastructure as a tool to support spatial planning in European urban regions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lafortezza, Raffaele; Davies, Clive; Sanesi, Giovanni

2013-01-01

The last decades have seen a major shift in the planning and development of ecosystem and landscape management in Europe. First of all, in line with international developments, the life-support services of ecosystems have come to the fore through the application of the concept of ``ecosystem serv...... model has been informed by reference to examples drawn from across Europe. Finally, directions are provided for future research, and for developing and delivering GI in the emerging context of ecosystem services and human well-being.......The last decades have seen a major shift in the planning and development of ecosystem and landscape management in Europe. First of all, in line with international developments, the life-support services of ecosystems have come to the fore through the application of the concept of ``ecosystem...... as supportive of ecological processes whilst simultaneously contributing to better human health and well-being. Moreover, especially in urban regions, GI is being placed at the same level as other essential urban infrastructure. Recognising these developments the authors have devised an updated conceptual...

ROLE OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IN EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT OF SPATIAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGION

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Ekaterina C. Chimitdorzhieva

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The problems of spatial socio-economic development of the region are considered in this article. Special attention is given to transport infrastructure. The authors propose methodical instruments for evaluating the influence of transport infrastructure on spatial development of region based on research of theoretic-methodical aspects of economic growth theory, location of economic activity and development concepts of infrastructural provision.

Modern International Research Groups: Networks and Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Katehi, Linda

2009-05-01

In a globalized economy, education and research are becoming increasing international in content and context. Academic and research institutions worldwide try to internationalize their programs by setting formal or informal collaborations. An education that is enhanced by international experiences leads to mobility of the science and technology workforce. Existing academic cultures and research structures are at odds with efforts to internationalize education. For the past 20-30 years, the US has recognized the need to improve the abroad experience of our scientists and technologists: however progress has been slow. Despite a number of both federally and privately supported programs, efforts to scale up the numbers of participants have not been satisfactory. The exchange is imbalanced as more foreign scientists and researchers move to the US than the other way around. There are a number of issues that contribute to this imbalance but we could consider the US academic career system, as defined by its policies and practices, as a barrier to internationalizing the early career faculty experience. Strict curricula, pre-tenure policies and financial commitments discourage students, post doctoral fellows and pre-tenure faculty from taking international leaves to participate in research abroad experiences. Specifically, achieving an international experience requires funding that is not provided by the universities. Furthermore, intellectual property requirements and constraints in pre-tenure probationary periods may discourage students and faculty from collaborations with peers across the Atlantic or Pacific or across the American continent. Environments that support early career networking are not available. This presentation will discuss the increasing need for international collaborations and will explore the need for additional programs, more integration, better conditions and improved infrastructures that can encourage and support mobility of scientists. In addition

International Fashion Retailing from an Enterprise Architecture Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tambo, Torben

2011-01-01

International retailing of non-food fashion products, as chain stores impose a particular challenge within EA as the same general infrastructure networks, brands, data, business intelligence and applications should work in multiple, semi-compliant geographic regions. Generalised information syste...... international networks of chains encompassing marketing, supply chain, multi-channel concepts, payment systems and loyalty programs. Conclusively directions are set for a deepening of EA within retail....

LA PROTECTION DES INFRASTRUCTURES CRITIQUES – DEFIS ACTUELS

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Dan Fifoiu

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Considering that in the European Union's plan, it has not been identified a solution for surpassing the legal differences between states (derived from priorities and different interests, Romania continues the program of alignment towards increasing its own standards and interconnecting internal critical infrastructures with the European and regional ones. This process is a lasting one, fact revealed also by the distance, in terms of time, between the first approaches, at a European level, of the problems of critical infrastructures, at the implementation of Directive 114/2008 provisions. The steps taken by the authorities in Bucharest are intended to drive Romania towards a level of development compatible both with the integration in a single European space of critical infrastructures and the fulfillment of an important role in stating the future strategies of the European Union. Currently, Romania’s alignment to the European Union and international standards creates the optimum framework for developing and implementing some specific provisions which, at this time, are materialized as the steps of a single national plan for protecting critical infrastructures, on the way of being configured.

Developing Spatial Data Infrastructure in Croatia – Incorporating National and Regional Approach

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Željko Bačić

2010-12-01

part of the development of the regional and European spatial data infrastructure (ESDI. In this context, Croatia has recognized South-Eastern Europe as a region sharing many similarities, whether with regards to the historical legacy, development degree, current development directions, reform activities or the SDI development stage, although it should be pointed out that there are also differences. Given the above-mentioned similarities, Croatia has instigated the regional cooperation linked to the development of both national and regional SDI’s. Concrete achievements on this road are the establishment of the regional cooperation between cadastral organization, launching of the annual regional conference on the cadastre and preparation of the first regional SDI project entitled INSPIRATION – Spatial Data Infrastructure in the Western Balkans (Inspiration project. At the European level, the SGA is member of EuroGeographics, European organisation whose purpose is the improvement of the ESDI development, including topographic information, cadastre and land information. This paper describes the role and activities of the SGA in the SDI establishment at the national, regional and European level.

The Next Generation Information Infrastructure for International Trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henningsson, Stefan; Gal, Uri; Bjørn-Andersen, Niels

2011-01-01

that are in control of their business. Trusted traders are entitled to trade facilitations, faster border crossing, and fewer physical inspections. To enable the use of trusted traders, changes are required to the information infrastructure (II) of international trade. This article complements existing works on e......-Government interoperability by a theoretically driven approach with theoretical development of the II concept and how II can be modified as additional focus. Following the principles of IS design research, this paper presents a design proposition for the II of international trade. Using theories of II development and change......Regulators and actors in international trade are facing a difficult challenge of increasing control and security while at the same time lowering the administrative burden for traders. As a tentative response, the European Commission has introduced the concept of “trusted traders”: certified traders...

Spatial Impact of the Road Infrastructure Development in Romania. An Accessibility Approach

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TITUS MAN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper compares the spatial structure of accessibility in Romania before and after the implementation of some major national and/or European road infrastructure projects. This study suggests a new index for accessibility measurement by combining gravity-based models with Place Rank and adapting it to the Romanian system of settlements. Based on the GIS estimation of travel time, this index evaluates not only the geographical position of a specific community relative to the road network, but also the level of accessibility of rural and urban communities to the social services located in central places. The GIS-based maps indicate the existing disparities (between well-connected and isolated regions in terms of accessibility to the central places and the impact of new infrastructure projects on these disparities. The resulting maps can be used as efficient tools for transport planning and development at different scales (international, national, regional and local.

Electronic Data Safes as an Infrastructure for Transformational Government? A Case Study

OpenAIRE

Pfister, Joachim; Schwabe, Gerhard

2015-01-01

Part 3: Services, Processes and Infrastructure; International audience; This article introduces and explores the potential of an active electronic data safe (AEDS) serving as an infrastructure to achieve transformational government. An AEDS connects individuals and organizations from the private and the public sector to exchange information items related to business processes following the user-managed access paradigm. To realize the transformational government’s vision of user-centricity, fu...

Unidata: A geoscience e-infrastructure for International Data Sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Ramamurthy, Mohan

2017-04-01

The Internet and its myriad manifestations, including the World Wide Web, have amply demonstrated the compounding benefits of a global cyberinfrastructure and the power of networked communities as institutions and people exchange knowledge, ideas, and resources. The Unidata Program recognizes those benefits, and over the past several years it has developed a growing portfolio of international data distribution activities, conducted in close collaboration with academic, research and operational institutions on several continents, to advance earth system science education and research. The portfolio includes provision of data, tools, support and training as well as outreach activities that bring various stakeholders together to address important issues, all toward the goals of building a community with a shared vision. The overarching goals of Unidata's international data sharing activities include: • democratization of access-to and use-of data that describe the dynamic earth system by facilitating data access to a broad spectrum of observations and forecasts • building capacity and empowering geoscientists and educators worldwide by building encouraging local communities where data, tools, and best practices in education and research are shared • strengthening international science partnerships for exchanging knowledge and expertise • Supporting faculty and students at research and educational institutions in the use of Unidata systems building regional and global communities around specific geoscientific themes. In this presentation, I will present Unidata's ongoing data sharing activities in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Antarctica that are enabling linkages to existing and emergent e-infrastructures and operational networks, including recent advances to develop interoperable data systems, tools, and services that benefit the geosciences. Particular emphasis in the presentation will be made to describe the examples of the use of Unidata

Polio infrastructure strengthened disease outbreak preparedness and response in the WHO African Region.

Science.gov (United States)

Kouadio, Koffi; Okeibunor, Joseph; Nsubuga, Peter; Mihigo, Richard; Mkanda, Pascal

2016-10-10

The continuous deployments of polio resources, infrastructures and systems for responding to other disease outbreaks in many African countries has led to a number of lessons considered as best practice that need to be documented for strengthening preparedness and response activities in future outbreaks. We reviewed and documented the influence of polio best practices in outbreak preparedness and response in Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia. Data from relevant programmes of the WHO African Region were also analyzed to demonstrate clearly the relative contributions of PEI resources and infrastructure to effective disease outbreak preparedness and response. Polio resources including, human, financial, and logistic, tool and strategies have tremendously contributed to responding to diseases outbreaks across the African region. In Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia, many disease epidemics including Marburg Hemorrhagic fever, Dengue fever, Ebola Virus Diseases (EVD), Measles, Anthrax and Shigella have been controlled using existing polio Eradication Initiatives resources. Polio staffs are usually deployed in occasions to supports outbreak response activities (coordination, surveillance, contact tracing, case investigation, finance, data management, etc.). Polio logistics such vehicles, laboratories were also used in the response activities to other infectious diseases. Many polio tools including micro planning, dashboard, guidelines, SOPs on preparedness and response have also benefited to other epidemic-prone diseases. The Countries' preparedness and response plan to WPV importation as well as the Polio Emergency Operation Center models were successfully used to develop, strengthen and respond to many other diseases outbreak with the implication of partners and the strong leadership and ownership of governments. This review has important implications for WHO/AFRO initiative to strengthening and improving disease outbreak preparedness and responses in the African Region in respect

Structures and Infrastructures of International R&D Networks: A Capability Maturity Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Niang, Mohamed; Wæhrens, Brian Vejrum

Purpose: This paper explores the process towards globally distributing R&D activities with an emphasis on organizational maturity. It discusses emerging configurations by asking how the structure and infrastructure of international R&D networks evolve along with the move from a strong R&D center...... to dispersed development. Design/Methodology/Approach: This is a qualitative study of the process of distributing R&D. By comparing selected firms, the researchers identify a pattern of dispersion of R&D activities in three Danish firms. Findings and Discussion: Drawing from the case studies, the researchers...... present a capability maturity model. Furthermore, understanding the interaction between new structures and infrastructures of the dispersed networks is viewed as a key requirement for developing organizational capabilities and formulating adequate strategies that leverage dispersed R&D. Organizational...

Transport Infrastructure and Economic Growth: Spatial Effects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Artyom Gennadyevich Isaev

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The author specifies an empirical framework of neoclassical growth model in order to examine impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth in Russian regions during period of 2000-2013. Two different effects of infrastructure are considered. First, infrastructure is viewed as part of region’s own production function. Second, infrastructure generates spillover effect on adjacent regions’ economic performance which can be negative or positive. Results imply that road infrastructure has a positive influence on regional growth, but sign of railroad infrastructure coefficient depends on whether or not congestion effect is considered. Negative spillover effect is shown to exist in the case of road infrastructure. This apparently means that rapid road infrastructure development in some regions moves mobile factors of production away from adjacent regions retarding their economic development. The spillover effect of railroad infrastructure is significant and negative again only if congestion effect is considered. The results of estimation for the Far East and Baikal Regions separately demonstrate no significant effect of both types of infrastructure for economic performance and negative spillover effect of road infrastructure

The Efficiency of Development of the Social Infrastructure of Region with Orientation on its Priority

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Panasjuk Valentyna M.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article is aimed at researching the criteria for assessing the efficiency of development of social infrastructure of region with orientation on its priority. It has been determined that the main measures and instruments for substantiating the social infrastructure development priorities can include: targeting, targeted programming; operational regulation; strategic planning; rationing and budgeting; predictive modeling according to the scale of its potential on the basis of methodical assessments of efficiency of its development. It has been defined that the types of activity providing the population with production and social services have their own specificity and features, as well as corresponding methods for assessing their activity. Five groups of indicators were allocated, considering which it is recommended to carry out assessments of the types of activity providing the population with production and social services: structural, production, personnel, financial, investment-innovative. Given the small number of indicators of development of each type of infrastructure, as well as regional specificity and type of development of infrastructure industries, it is necessary to apply a regional-differentiated approach to the assessment of their provision with infrastructural facilities.

Research infrastructure, networks of science and regional development - the case of Oskarshamn

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Folke Valfrid Snickars

2017-10-01

Our results indicate that research infrastructures as the ones in Oskarshamn are powerful creators of international research networks. It is possible although somewhat difficult in view of scattered systems for data provision to assess their academic and societal impacts. Engineering research has its own networks of university-industry and industry-university interaction where value is cogenerated dynamically. In the study we have come some way towards empirically analyzing the networks of research cooperation between industry and university using methods of infrastructure theory and network analysis.

Assessment of socio-economic potential of regions for placement of the logistic infrastructure objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandr Nelevich Rakhmangulov

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, at the regional markets, there is a disproportion between the growing demand for transportation and logistics services and the availability of facilities needed for their implementation, which is because the high logistics costs and does not meet the strategic objectives of the country to create a common economic space. The article describes the system of market factors that have the most significant influence on the distribution of logistics facilities. Study and evaluation of potential changes in the region of logistics facility disposition are proposed to perform using simulation techniques and statistical data analysis. The article presents the engineered multivariate statistical models that control the kind and effect of correlation between socio-economic development factors of regions, as well as a simulation model, which allows to assess the dynamics of these factors and predict demand for logistics infrastructure facilities. The choice of region (subject dislocation of the logistics center is proposed to realize by the developed technique based on the calculation of the integrated index that takes into account differences in the level of socio-economic and infrastructural development of the regions. This technique in conjunction with a simulation model is applicable to a variety of administrative and territorial levels (region, city and allows to take into account both the current demand in the logistics infrastructure and demand dynamics. The technique given in the article can be used to assess the level of attractiveness of the Russian Federation in the development of public and private investment projects for the development of logistics infrastructure

Malaysia in international regional relationships

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamarulnizam Abdullah

2010-01-01

The changes in the international system saw the structure and survival issues that grip the country will also change. The main challenge to the nation is how to adapt these changes that running quite rapidly and outside the country's ability to cope alone. Issues and global structural changes also affect the international system of East Asia region that contains two important sub-Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Changes inherent in both these sub certainly affect the foreign policy and diplomacy, security and bilateral relations between Malaysia and other countries. Malaysia is not a global power capable of changing the international system. However, Malaysia is an important country in East Asia that has contributed to the prosperity of this region. The big question is how to adapt these changes into the Malaysia international regional policy and bilateral relations? What extent international issues affecting the regional survival of the country? What is the contribution to regional stability of Malaysia? This book explores the impact of selective regional issues to Malaysia, while also discussing the role and response to changes in regional Malaysia since the country gained independence. (author)

THE ROLE OF THE WORLD INSURANCE MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonina Sholoiko

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose is to define a role and significance of elements of the world insurance market infrastructure. Tasks of the study are the next: to consider the dynamics of development of the world insurance market from 2012 to 2016; to define groups of elements of the world insurance market infrastructure; to characterize elements of the world insurance market infrastructure. Methodology. These tasks are done because of using such methods as: grouping of elements of the world insurance market infrastructure; a collection of information about elements of the world insurance market infrastructure; generalization to define role and significance of elements of the world insurance market infrastructure. Results. World insurance premiums were increasing and decreasing from 2012 to 2016 and did not exceed 6.3% of Gross Domestic Product. Lots of factors influence global insurance premium volume as an indicator of the development of world insurance market. One of them is an activity of the elements of the world insurance market infrastructure. It is necessary to divide them into some groups: A International insurance associations (associations of organizations connected with insurance but members of such associations do not provide insurance services – International Association of Insurance Supervisors, International Association of Insurance Fraud Agencies, Global Federation of Insurance Associations, International Insurance Foundation; B International associations of insurers (includes associations of insurers and other organizations in a certain area of insurance – International Association of Deposit Insurers, International Union of Credit and Investment Insurers, International Association of Agricultural Production Insurers, International Group of P&I Clubs, International Union of Aerospace Insurers, International Union of Marine Insurance, International Association of Engineering Insurers; C International associations of insurance experts

Potential for sharing nuclear power infrastructure between countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-10-01

The introduction or expansion of a nuclear power programme in a country and its successful execution is largely dependent on the network of national infrastructure, covering a wide range of activities and capabilities. The infrastructure areas include legal framework, safety and environmental regulatory bodies, international agreements, physical facilities, finance, education, training, human resources and public information and acceptance. The wide extent of infrastructure needs require an investment that can be too large or onerous for the national economy. The burden of infrastructure can be reduced significantly if a country forms a sharing partnership with other countries. The sharing can be at regional or at multinational level. It can include physical facilities, common programmes and knowledge, which will reflect in economic benefits. The sharing can also contribute in a significant manner to harmonization of codes and standards in general and regulatory framework in particular. The opportunities and potential of sharing nuclear power infrastructure is determined by the objectives, strategy and scenario of the national nuclear power programme. A review of individual infrastructure items shows that there are several opportunities for sharing of nuclear power infrastructure between countries if they cooperate with each other. International cooperation and sharing of nuclear power infrastructure are not new. This publication provides criteria and guidance for analyzing and identifying the potential for sharing of nuclear power infrastructure during the stages of nuclear power project life cycle. The target users are decision makers, advisers and senior managers in utilities, industrial organizations, regulatory bodies and governmental organizations in countries adopting or extending nuclear power programmes. This publication was produced within the IAEA programme directed to increase the capability of Member States to plan and implement nuclear power

Landslide databases to compare regional repair and mitigation strategies of transportation infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Wohlers, Annika; Damm, Bodo

2017-04-01

Regional data of the Central German Uplands are extracted from the German landslide database in order to understand the complex interactions between landslide risks and public risk awareness considering transportation infrastructure. Most information within the database is gathered by means of archive studies from inventories of emergency agencies, state, press and web archives, company and department records as well as scientific and (geo)technical literature. The information includes land use practices, repair and mitigation measures with resultant costs of the German road network as well as railroad and waterway networks. It therefore contains valuable information of historical and current landslide impacts, elements at risk and provides an overview of spatiotemporal changes in social exposure and vulnerability to landslide hazards over the last 120 years. On a regional scale the recorded infrastructure damages, and consequential repair or mitigation measures were categorized and classified, according to relevant landslide types, processes and types of infrastructure. In a further step, the data of recent landslides are compared with historical and modern repair and mitigation measures and are correlated with socioeconomic concepts. As a result, it is possible to identify some complex interactions between landslide hazard, risk perception, and damage impact, including time lags and intensity thresholds. The data reveal distinct concepts of repairing respectively mitigating landslides on different types of transportation infrastructure, which are not exclusively linked to higher construction efforts (e.g. embankments on railroads and channels), but changing levels of economic losses and risk perception as well. In addition, a shift from low cost prevention measures such as the removal of loose rock and vegetation, rock blasting, and catch barriers towards expensive mitigation measures such as catch fences, soil anchoring and rock nailing over time can be noticed

Building an evaluation infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandrup, Morten; Østergaard, Kija Lin

Infrastructuring does not happen by itself; it must be supported. In this paper, we present a feedback mechanism implemented as a smartphone-based application, inspired by the concept of infrastructure probes, which supports the in situ elicitation of feedback. This is incorporated within an eval...

Putting price tags on international trade use of state infrastructure : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-03-01

As a major gateway to the entire U.S. for international trade both through seaports and land ports of entry, Texas pays the bills for the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure required to move the freight which benefits other parts of th...

Regulatory infrastructure for the control of radiation sources in the Africa region: Status, needs and programmes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skornik, K.

2001-01-01

In recent years, several African countries have taken steps towards creating or strengthening legal, administrative and technical mechanisms for the regulation and control of peaceful uses of nuclear technology, and towards improving the effectiveness and sustainability of radiation protection measures based on international standards. This stems from a growing awareness that a proper national infrastructure is a prerequisite for the implementation of safety standards to achieve and maintain the desired level of protection and safety, particularly in such sectors as public health and industry. Also, other issues of global and regional interest, such as the control of radiation sources, including the handling of hazardous waste, and response capabilities in the case of a radiological emergency, have contributed to a better perception of risks associated with deficiencies in or lack of adequate national radiation protection control mechanisms. Too often, however, this awareness has not been matched with adequate progress in the establishment of a regulatory framework for the control of radiation sources. This paper presents a summary of the current status of radiation protection infrastructure in all African Member States. On a background of still existing weaknesses and challenges, an overview of the Agency's response to assistance needs and programmes in this field is discussed. (author)

Trans-Regional Logistics in Carinthia: Perspectives and Vision on the Transport Infrastructure Development on the Business and Public Level

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Plasch

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Regional logistics development plans have become a key element for an effective – regional economy in Austria. Efforts to develop the region of Carinthia – which represents a substantial transport hub on the Baltic–Adriatic Axis – depend on targeted infrastructure investments combined with well-utilized and accessible modes of transport. As decisions on transport mode choice are made within companies, their involvement in planning processes is crucial. Therefore a more consistent approach to Carinthia’s logistics infrastructure developments is required. The view of regional businesses is considered a significant basis for further public and managerial decision making with regard to the importance of future logistics developments.

Container cargo simulation modeling for measuring impacts of infrastructure investment projects in Pearl River Delta

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jia-Qi; Shibasaki, Ryuichi; Li, Bo-Wei

2010-03-01

In the Pearl River Delta (PRD), there is severe competition between container ports, particularly those in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, for collecting international maritime container cargo. In addition, the second phase of the Nansha terminal in Guangzhou’s port and the first phase of the Da Chang Bay container terminal in Shenzhen opened last year. Under these circumstances, there is an increasing need to quantitatively measure the impact these infrastructure investments have on regional cargo flows. The analysis should include the effects of container terminal construction, berth deepening, and access road construction. The authors have been developing a model for international cargo simulation (MICS) which can simulate the movement of cargo. The volume of origin-destination (OD) container cargo in the East Asian region was used as an input, in order to evaluate the effects of international freight transportation policies. This paper focuses on the PRD area and, by incorporating a more detailed network, evaluates the impact of several infrastructure investment projects on freight movement.

Water Matters: Assessing the Impacts of Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in the U.S./Mexico Border Region

Science.gov (United States)

Hargrove, W. L.; Del Rio, M.; Korc, M.

2017-12-01

Using Health Impact Assessment methods, we determined: 1) the impact of water and sanitation infrastructure installed about 15 years ago in two Texas border communities; 2) the impact of failing septic tanks in a neighborhood where septic systems are more than 20 years old and failing; and 3) the impacts of hauled water as the main household water source in a colonia. We obtained a total of 147 household surveys related to water and sanitation in four communities. Households who had obtained water and sanitation infrastructure had less skin problems, neuropathy, gastrointestinal illness, and stomach infections compared to an earlier time when they relied on local domestic wells or hauled water and septic tanks. Hepatitis A incidence in El Paso County, TX dropped precipitously after the implementation of water and sanitation infrastructure. Hauling water contributed to mental stress and anxiety and was risky in terms of road safety. We also assessed the economic and community development impacts of water and sanitation infrastructure. Communities benefitted from higher property values, expanded health care services, more parks and recreation, more local businesses, and improved fire safety. We argue that though water and sanitation infrastructure is a significant contributor to addressing inequities in the border region, much remains to be done to achieve water justice in this challenging region.

Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Modeling: A Survey of U.S. and International Research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2006-08-01

The Nation’s health, wealth, and security rely on the production and distribution of certain goods and services. The array of physical assets, processes, and organizations across which these goods and services move are called "critical infrastructures".1 This statement is as true in the U.S. as in any country in the world. Recent world events such as the 9-11 terrorist attacks, London bombings, and gulf coast hurricanes have highlighted the importance of stable electric, gas and oil, water, transportation, banking and finance, and control and communication infrastructure systems. Be it through direct connectivity, policies and procedures, or geospatial proximity, most critical infrastructure systems interact. These interactions often create complex relationships, dependencies, and interdependencies that cross infrastructure boundaries. The modeling and analysis of interdependencies between critical infrastructure elements is a relatively new and very important field of study. The U.S. Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) has sponsored this survey to identify and describe this current area of research including the current activities in this field being conducted both in the U.S. and internationally. The main objective of this study is to develop a single source reference of critical infrastructure interdependency modeling tools (CIIMT) that could be applied to allow users to objectively assess the capabilities of CIIMT. This information will provide guidance for directing research and development to address the gaps in development. The results will inform researchers of the TSWG Infrastructure Protection Subgroup of research and development efforts and allow a more focused approach to addressing the needs of CIIMT end-user needs. This report first presents the field of infrastructure interdependency analysis, describes the survey methodology, and presents the leading research efforts in both a cumulative table and through individual datasheets. Data was

Infrastructure for Detector Research and Development towards the International Collider

CERN Document Server

Aguilar, J.; Fiutowski, T.; Idzik, M.; Kulis, Sz.; Przyborowski, D.; Swientek, K.; Bamberger, A.; Kohli, M.; Lupberger, M.; Renz, U.; Schumacher, M.; Zwerger, Andreas; Calderone, A.; Cussans, D.G.; Heath, H.F.; Mandry, S.; Page, R.F.; Velthuis, J.J.; Attie, D.; Calvet, D.; Colas, P.; Coppolani, X.; Degerli, Y.; Delagnes, E.; Gelin, M.; Giomataris, I.; Lutz, P.; Orsini, F.; Rialot, M.; Senee, F.; Wang, W.; Alozy, J.; Apostolakis, J.; Aspell, P.; Bergsma, F.; Campbell, M.; Formenti, F.; Santos, H.Franca; Garcia, E.Garcia; de Gaspari, M.; Giudice, P.A.; Grefe, Ch.; Grichine, V.; Hauschild, M.; Ivantchenko, V.; Kehrli, A.; Kloukinas, K.; Linssen, L.; Cudie, X.Llopart; Marchioro, A.; Musa, L.; Ribon, A.; Trampitsch, G.; Uzhinskiy, V.; Anduze, M.; Beyer, E.; Bonnemaison, A.; Boudry, V.; Brient, J.C.; Cauchois, A.; Clerc, C.; Cornat, R.; Frotin, M.; Gastaldi, F.; Jauffret, C.; Jeans, D.; Karar, A.; Mathieu, A.; de Freitas, P.Mora; Musat, G.; Rouge, A.; Ruan, M.; Vanel, J.C.; Videau, H.; Besson, A.; de Masi, G.Claus.R.; Doziere, G.; Dulinski, W.; Goffe, M.; Himmi, A.; Hu-Guo, Ch.; Morel, F.; Valin, I.; Winter, M.; Bonis, J.; Callier, S.; Cornebise, P.; Dulucq, F.; Giannelli, M.Faucci; Fleury, J.; Guilhem, G.; Martin-Chassard, G.; de la Taille, Ch.; Poschl, R.; Raux, L.; Seguin-Moreau, N.; Wicek, F.; Benyamna, M.; Bonnard, J.; Carloganu, C.; Fehr, F.; Gay, P.; Mannen, S.; Royer, L.; Charpy, A.; Da Silva, W.; David, J.; Dhellot, M.; Imbault, D.; Ghislain, P.; Kapusta, F.; Pham, T.Hung; Savoy-Navarro, A.; Sefri, R.; Dzahini, D.; Giraud, J.; Grondin, D.; Hostachy, J.Y.; Morin, L.; Bassignana, D.; Pellegrini, G.; Lozano, M.; Quirion, D.; Fernandez, M.; Jaramillo, R.; Munoz, F.J.; Vila, I.; Dolezal, Z.; Drasal, Z.; Kodys, P.; Kvasnicka, P.; Aplin, S.; Bachynska, O.; Behnke, T.; Behr, J.; Dehmelt, K.; Engels, J.; Gadow, K.; Gaede, F.; Garutti, E.; Gottlicher, P.; Gregor, I.M.; Haas, T.; Henschel, H.; Koetz, U.; Lange, W.; Libov, V.; Lohmann, W.; Lutz, B.; Mnich, J.; Muhl, C.; Ohlerich, M.; Potylitsina-Kube, N.; Prahl, V.; Reinecke, M.; Roloff, P.; Rosemann, Ch.; Rubinski, Igor; Schade, P.; Schuwalov, S.; Sefkow, F.; Terwort, M.; Volkenborn, R.; Kalliopuska, J.; Mehtaelae, P.; Orava, R.; van Remortel, N.; Cvach, J.; Janata, M.; Kvasnicka, J.; Marcisovsky, M.; Polak, I.; Sicho, P.; Smolik, J.; Vrba, V.; Zalesak, J.; Bergauer, T.; Dragicevic, M.; Friedl, M.; Haensel, S.; Irmler, C.; Kiesenhofer, W.; Krammer, M.; Valentan, M.; Piemontese, L.; Cotta-Ramusino, A.; Bulgheroni, A.; Jastrzab, M.; Caccia, M.; Re, V.; Ratti, L.; Traversi, G.; Dewulf, J.P.; Janssen, X.; De Lentdecker, G.; Yang, Y.; Bryngemark, L.; Christiansen, P.; Gross, P.; Jonsson, L.; Ljunggren, M.; Lundberg, B.; Mjornmark, U.; Oskarsson, A.; Richert, T.; Stenlund, E.; Osterman, L.; Rummel, S.; Richter, R.; Andricek, L.; Ninkovich, J.; Koffmane, Ch.; Moser, H.G.; Boisvert, V.; Green, B.; Green, M.G.; Misiejuk, A.; Wu, T.; Bilevych, Y.; Carballo, V.M.Blanco; Chefdeville, M.; de Nooij, L.; Fransen, M.; Hartjes, F.; van der Graaf, H.; Timmermans, J.; Abramowicz, H.; Ben-Hamu, Y.; Jikhleb, I.; Kananov, S.; Levy, A.; Levy, I.; Sadeh, I.; Schwartz, R.; Stern, A.; Goodrick, M.J.; Hommels, L.B.A.; Ward, R.Shaw.D.R.; Daniluk, W.; Kielar, E.; Kotula, J.; Moszczynski, A.; Oliwa, K.; Pawlik, B.; Wierba, W.; Zawiejski, L.; Bailey, D.S.; Kelly, M.; Eigen, G.; Brezina, Ch.; Desch, K.; Furletova, J.; Kaminski, J.; Killenberg, M.; Kockner, F.; Krautscheid, T.; Kruger, H.; Reuen, L.; Wienemann, P.; Zimmermann, R.; Zimmermann, S.; Bartsch, V.; Postranecky, M.; Warren, M.; Wing, M.; Corrin, E.; Haas, D.; Pohl, M.; Diener, R.; Fischer, P.; Peric, I.; Kaukher, A.; Schafer, O.; Schroder, H.; Wurth, R.; Zarnecki, A.F.

2012-01-01

The EUDET-project was launched to create an infrastructure for developing and testing new and advanced detector technologies to be used at a future linear collider. The aim was to make possible experimentation and analysis of data for institutes, which otherwise could not be realized due to lack of resources. The infrastructure comprised an analysis and software network, and instrumentation infrastructures for tracking detectors as well as for calorimetry.

Infrastructure development for ASEAN economic integration

OpenAIRE

Bhattacharyay, Biswa Nath

2009-01-01

With a population of 600 million, ASEAN is considered to be one of the most diverse regions in the world. It is also one of the world's fastest growing regions. ASEAN's aim is to evolve into an integrated economic community by 2015. Crucial to achieving this ambitious target is cooperation in infrastructure development for physical connectivity, particularly in cross-border infrastructure. This paper provides an overview of the quantity and quality of existing infrastructure in ASEAN member c...

Landscape Routes as an Infrastructural Core of Cultural Landscapes; Their Distinctive Role for The Character of Region

Science.gov (United States)

Kołodziej, Anna

2017-10-01

Roadside tree avenues are a distinctive element of the landscape of Warmia and Mazury, which is a testament to the history of the region from the Prussian time. Their emergence was imposed top-down and was dictated both by practical and aesthetic reasons. Today they are a problematic heritage in the view of current tendencies of infrastructural development of the country that favour highways and the opportunity to cover the distance between start and destination point as fast as possible. Nevertheless, the literature and conducted scientific studies indicate a change in perception of the in-car experience which underlines a pleasure of travel itself. The research also suggests the growing need for planning route on the basis of the attractiveness of its elements. The work also distinguishes the conditions that must occur for the scenic route be established and put under protection. Moreover, it presents different views of assessing the value of such a road and the cultural landscape in which it is inscribed. It also describes the impact of the individual elements of scenic route on well-being of a participant of road traffic and his perception of the space. This paper attempts to survey the existing trends and actions in development and protection of scenic roads in selected and to present the tree-lined roads of northern Poland on the background of the examples. This has been done on the basis of personal experience and observation, as well as the literature. There have been juxtaposed routes’ common elements and the elements distinctive to individual countries and regions. The results of the survey indicate that the scenic route, as a picture of the economic, historical, social and political situation of the place is an infrastructural core of cultural landscape. It constitutes the uniqueness of the region not only from the biological, but also cultural point of view. Then, apart from the obvious economic importance of scenic routes for the development of non

Biogas infrastructure from farm-scale to regional scale, line-pack storage in biogas grids

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hengeveld, Evert Jan

2016-01-01

Biogas infrastructure from farm-scale to regional scale, line-pack storage in biogas grids. The number of local and regional initiatives encouraging the production and use of regional produced energy grows. In these new developments biogas can play a role, as a producer of energy, but also in

Light and Ventilation Analysis for Infrastructure in an Urban Region - A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Awkash Kumar

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Pressure on infrastructure due to over population has deteriorated the indoor environment causing various health issues. It has also contributed to the sick building syndrome making huge monetary burden to economy. Public health department of the country has taken many actions to mitigate these issues however; design of the building was not taken into consideration. Optimum quantities of light and proper ventilation express the quality of indoor environment. Also, the use of natural light and ventilation is definitely an advantage with the raising concerns regarding the cost and environmental impact of energy use. Natural light and ventilation can reduce building construction and operation costs and reduce the energy consumption. Moreover it would also ensure safe, healthy and comfortable living conditions. Therefore, it is very important to assess indoor environment before implementing new construction or building. This provides theoretical guidelines and basic calculations for understanding a green infrastructures and the factors related to it. In this paper, a building has been studied in an urban city of India where the percentage area of light and ventilation were analyzed Analysis showed the percentage of light is thrice and ventilation is twice the prescribed limits by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC. It has been found that building under study fulfills the given criteria by IGBC. This analysis can be useful while constructing a new infrastructure to improve the standard of living as 90% time is spent indoors.

Current and future flood risk to railway infrastructure in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Bubeck, Philip; Kellermann, Patric; Alfieri, Lorenzo; Feyen, Luc; Dillenardt, Lisa; Thieken, Annegret H.

2017-04-01

Railway infrastructure plays an important role in the transportation of freight and passengers across the European Union. According to Eurostat, more than four billion passenger-kilometres were travelled on national and international railway lines of the EU28 in 2014. To further strengthen transport infrastructure in Europe, the European Commission will invest another € 24.05 billion in the transnational transport network until 2020 as part of its new transport infrastructure policy (TEN-T), including railway infrastructure. Floods pose a significant risk to infrastructure elements. Damage data of recent flood events in Europe show that infrastructure losses can make up a considerable share of overall losses. For example, damage to state and municipal infrastructure in the federal state of Saxony (Germany) accounted for nearly 60% of overall losses during the large-scale event in June 2013. Especially in mountainous areas with little usable space available, roads and railway lines often follow floodplains or are located along steep and unsteady slopes. In Austria, for instance, the flood of 2013 caused € 75 million of direct damage to railway infrastructure. Despite the importance of railway infrastructure and its exposure to flooding, assessments of potential damage and risk (i.e. probability * damage) are still in its infancy compared with other sectors, such as the residential or industrial sector. Infrastructure-specific assessments at the regional scale are largely lacking. Regional assessment of potential damage to railway infrastructure has been hampered by a lack of infrastructure-specific damage models and data availability. The few available regional approaches have used damage models that assess damage to various infrastructure elements (e.g. roads, railway, airports and harbours) using one aggregated damage function and cost estimate. Moreover, infrastructure elements are often considerably underrepresented in regional land cover data, such as

Contribution of International and Regional Networks in Developing and Maintaining Human Capacity Building for Nuclear Power Programmes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Osman, O. E.

2015-01-01

Capacity is defined as; the ability of individuals and organizations or organizational units to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Capacity building is an evidence-driven process of strengthening the abilities of individuals, organizations, and systems to perform core functions sustainably, and to continue to improve and develop over time. This article will explain the contributions of knowledge networks at the national, regional and international level in developing the existing capacity building and human resources for regulatory body in Sudan, to confront the future challenges regarding to nuclear power program- safety and security. The article will compare the advantages and effectiveness of these knowledge networks (IAEA, ANNuR, FNRBA) in capacity building and enhance the infrastructure of national regulatory body. And how these networks contribute to enable the regulatory bodies in Africa and Arab countries, to establish and strengthen their regulatory infrastructure for nuclear power programme consistent with international standards and recommendations. As well as the recommendations resulting and deduced from comparative study to promote the exchange of knowledge, experience and information among its members. (author)

Who gains? allocation of freight transport user benefits from international infrastructure projects in multicountry cost-benefit analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fosgerau, Mogens; Kristensen, Niels Buus

2005-01-01

A public decision by several countries on whether to cofinance an international infrastructure project is the subject of a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The CBA elements are broken out and analyzed for each country. The issue of freight user benefits is discussed, and results are derived from...

Guidelines for Preparing and Conducting an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2017-01-01

As of 1 July 2017, there were 447 operational nuclear power reactors in 30 countries and another 60 were under construction in 15 countries. Technically and financially, access to nuclear power is no longer limited to advanced economies. Many developing countries are interested in introducing or expanding nuclear energy programmes because they regard nuclear power as a stable and reliable source of baseload electricity, which, in addition, makes a significant contribution to climate change mitigation. While several operating countries are planning to expand current capacity, about 30 Member States, mostly developing countries, are considering embarking on a nuclear power programme, some are developing the necessary infrastructure, and some others are negotiating or building their first nuclear power plant. Building a nuclear power programme is a major undertaking with significant international implications and is based upon a commitment to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, in a safe, secure and sustainable manner. This commitment requires establishing a sustainable national infrastructure that provides governmental, legal, regulatory, managerial, technological, human resource, industrial and stakeholder support for the nuclear power programme throughout its life cycle. The demonstration of compliance with international legal instruments, internationally accepted nuclear safety standards, nuclear security guidelines and safeguards requirements is essential in establishing a responsible nuclear power programme. In response to growing demand by embarking countries for advice and assistance, the IAEA has developed an approach to assist Member States that are considering or planning their first nuclear power plant to understand the commitments and obligations associated with developing a nuclear power programme. States that already have nuclear power can also assess their preparedness for expansion. This approach is set out in the publication Milestones in the

DBAR: AN INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE PROGRAM FOR REGIONAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Guo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” initiatives (abbreviated to “Belt and Road” are a global breakthrough in international cooperation. The Belt and Road is a long-term, complicated, arduous systems engineering feat covering a wide geographical range and long-time periods, and crossing into many fields of study. Earth observation technologies have macro-level capabilities that enable rapid, accurate monitoring of Earth. Earth observation represents a new horizon for human beings to understand our planet with a new method for studying Earth’s environment. It will also provide scientific decision-making support for construction and sustainable development in the countries and regions along the Belt and Road. To this end, the “Digital Belt and Road” (DBAR initiative was launched to facilitate Earth observation and “Big Earth Data” in the Belt and Road region. DBAR has received support from more than 20 international organizations and countries along the Belt and Road. Intercontinental links are an important part of DBAR, allowing for accelerated scientific cooperation in Earth observation. DBAR is bringing new scientific collaboration opportunities for regional and global partners to promote the construction of Earth observation systems and data sharing, and researching the key issues of sustainable development through transnational, synergistic Earth observations.

Arid Green Infrastructure for Water Control and Conservation ...

Science.gov (United States)

Green infrastructure is an approach to managing wet weather flows using systems and practices that mimic natural processes. It is designed to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible and protect the quality of receiving waters. Although most green infrastructure practices were first developed in temperate climates, green infrastructure also can be a cost-effective approach to stormwater management and water conservation in arid and semi-arid regions, such as those found in the western and southwestern United States. Green infrastructure practices can be applied at the site, neighborhood and watershed scales. In addition to water management and conservation, implementing green infrastructure confers many social and economic benefits and can address issues of environmental justice. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) commissioned a literature review to identify the state-of-the science practices dealing with water control and conservation in arid and semi-arid regions, with emphasis on these regions in the United States. The search focused on stormwater control measures or practices that slow, capture, treat, infiltrate and/or store runoff at its source (i.e., green infrastructure). The material in Chapters 1 through 3 provides background to EPA’s current activities related to the application of green infrastructure practices in arid and semi-arid regions. An introduction to the topic of green infrastructure in arid and semi-arid regions i

ON PROBLEM OF REGIONAL WAREHOUSE AND TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE OPTIMIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Yu. Miretskiy

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article suggests an approach of solving the problem of warehouse and transport infrastructure optimization in a region. The task is to determine the optimal capacity and location of the support network of warehouses in the region, as well as power, composition and location of motor fleets. Optimization is carried out using mathematical models of a regional warehouse network and a network of motor fleets. These models are presented as mathematical programming problems with separable functions. The process of finding the optimal solution of problems is complicated due to high dimensionality, non-linearity of functions, and the fact that a part of variables are constrained to integer, and some variables can take values only from a discrete set. Given the mentioned above complications search for an exact solution was rejected. The article suggests an approximate approach to solving problems. This approach employs effective computational schemes for solving multidimensional optimization problems. We use the continuous relaxation of the original problem to obtain its approximate solution. An approximately optimal solution of continuous relaxation is taken as an approximate solution of the original problem. The suggested solution method implies linearization of the obtained continuous relaxation and use of the separable programming scheme and the scheme of branches and bounds. We describe the use of the simplex method for solving the linearized continuous relaxation of the original problem and the specific moments of the branches and bounds method implementation. The paper shows the finiteness of the algorithm and recommends how to accelerate process of finding a solution.

Guidance for the application of an assessment methodology for innovative nuclear energy systems. INPRO manual - Infrastructure. Vol. 3 of the final report of phase 1 of the International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-11-01

The International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) was initiated in the year 2000, based on a resolution of the IAEA General Conference (GC(44)/RES/21). The main objectives of INPRO are (1) to help to ensure that nuclear energy is available to contribute in fulfilling energy needs in the 21st century in a sustainable manner, (2) to bring together both technology holders and technology users to consider jointly the international and national actions required to achieve desired innovations in nuclear reactors and fuel cycles; and (3) to create a forum to involve all relevant stakeholders that will have an impact on, draw from, and complement the activities of existing institutions, as well as ongoing initiatives at the national and international level. The INPRO manual is comprised of an overview volume and eight additional volumes covering the areas of economics (Volume 2), infrastructure (Volume 3, outlined here), waste management (Volume 4), proliferation resistance (Volume 5), physical protection (Volume 6), environment (Volume 7), safety of reactors (Volume 8), and safety of nuclear fuel cycle facilities (Volume 9). Within INPRO, the term infrastructure can be defined as the collection of capabilities of institutions involved in a nuclear power program in a given country that are necessary for the successful deployment (or enlargement) and operation of an INS, including legal and institutional, industrial and economic, and socio-political features. Within INPRO, the definition of an INS includes activities and facilities (i.e. components) at both the front end of the fuel cycle (e.g., mining, enrichment, fuel fabrication) and the back end (e.g., reprocessing, storage, and repository) (Section 4.2.1 of Volume 1 of the INPRO manual. Consequently, within INPRO, such facilities are not considered to be a part of the INPRO area of infrastructure, albeit that they influence the size of the necessary infrastructure required in a given

Challenges and opportunities for the development of regional employment infrastructure for young people

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ol'ga Bentsionovna Frants

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the problem of youth employment, including nonaged minors, and some of the reasons forming these problems. The paper was written basing on the results of two research studies - (monitoring the state of the labour market for young people and analysis of the institutional environment for the development of the youth labour - conducted in 2010 by the order of the Ministry of Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy of Sverdlovsk region. On the basis of studying the youth employment problems, youth employment exchange functions as an element of social and economic infrastructure in the region, the content of legal enactments at different levels, some approaches to the formation of an optimal model of public administration processes for youth employment are suggested.

Protecting and securing the energy infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gillham, B. [Conoco Canada Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada)

2002-07-01

Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) includes protection against physical and cyber attacks as well as potential interruptions and vulnerabilities such as natural disasters and human error. CIP makes it possible to deal with the consequences of infrastructure failures that can have regional, national and international impacts. The energy sector is challenged because there has been an irreversible move to automated control systems and electronic transactions. In addition, due to mergers and joint ventures, the line between traditional oil, natural gas companies and power companies is not perfectly clear. Energy industries can no longer be seen in isolation of each other because they depend on other critical infrastructures. Industry should lead CIP programs through risk management assessments, develop and implement global information technology standards, and enhance response and recovery planning. The National Petroleum Council (NPC) will continue to develop the capabilities of the newly formed Information Sharing and Assessment Centre (ISAC). The sector will also continue to develop common vulnerability assessment goals. It was noted that response and recovery plans must include the cyber dimension, because there has been an increasing number of scans and probes from the Internet since the events of September 11, 2001. It was noted that physical incidents can often turn into cyber incidents and vice versa.

Regional Organisations and International Mediation: The ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Regional Organisations and International Mediation: The Effectiveness of Insider Mediators. ... During the last two decades of the twentieth century, the world witnessed an increasing number of regional conflict management efforts undertaken by regional inter-governmental organisations. There are therefore strong reasons ...

Internal curing as a new tool for infrastructural renewal : reducing repair congestion, increasing service life, and improving sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-04-01

Internal curing has recently been developed as a new concrete technology that has the potential to : dramatically extend the service life of concrete infrastructure elements like bridge decks. Internal curing : uses prewetted lightweight aggregate in...

The future Jules Horowitz material testing reactor: An opportunity for developing international collaborations on a major European irradiation infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parrat, D.; Bignan, G.; Maugard, B.; Gonnier, C.; Blandin, C.

2015-01-01

Development process of a fuel product or a nuclear material before using at an industrial scale in a power reactor ranges from characterization of the material itself under neutronic flux up to its qualification in accidental conditions. Irradiations in Material Testing Reactors (MTRs) are in practice the basis of the whole process, in complement of prediction capabilities gained by modelling. Dedicated experimental reactors play also an important complementary role for some specific integral tests (e.g. RIA tests). Irradiations of precursors in power reactors are often limited to products which present a slight design evolution compare to the standard product or are implemented for further tests when a statistical approach is useful for defining a safety criterion. However European MTR park status is characterized by ageing infrastructures, which could cause operational issues in coming years, either on technological or on safety point of views. Moreover some specific supplies related to the public demand could be strongly affected (e.g. radiopharmaceutical targets). To avoid a lack in irradiation capacity offer at European level, CEA launched the Jules Horowitz Material Testing Reactor (JHR) international program, in the frame of a Consortium gathering also EDF (FR), AREVA (FR), European Commission (EU), SCK.CEN (BE), VTT (FI), CIEMAT (SP), STUDSVIK (SE), UJV (CZ), NNL (UK), IAEC (IL), DAE (IN) and as associated partnership: JAEA (JP). Some institutions in this list are themselves the flagship of a national Consortium. Discussions for enlarging participation are on-going with other countries, as JHR Consortium is open to new member entrance until JHR completion. The Jules Horowitz Material Testing Reactor (JHR MTR) is under construction at CEA Cadarache in southern France and will be an important international User Facility for R&D in support to the nuclear industry, research centres, regulatory bodies and TSO, and academic institutions. It represents a unique

WDS/DSA Certification - International collaboration for a trustworthy research data infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Mokrane, Mustapha; Hugo, Wim; Harrison, Sandy

2016-04-01

Today's research is international, transdisciplinary, and data-enabled, which requires scrupulous data stewardship, full and open access to data, and efficient collaboration and coordination. New expectations on researchers based on policies from governments and funders to share data fully, openly, and in a timely manner present significant challenges but are also opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of research and its accountability to society. Researchers should be able to archive and disseminate data as required by many institutions or funders, and civil society to scrutinize datasets underlying public policies. Thus, the trustworthiness of data services must be verifiable. In addition, the need to integrate large and complex datasets across disciplines and domains with variable levels of maturity calls for greater coordination to achieve sufficient interoperability and sustainability. The World Data System (WDS) of the International Council for Science (ICSU) promotes long-term stewardship of, and universal and equitable access to, quality-assured scientific data and services across a range of disciplines in the natural and social sciences. WDS aims at coordinating and supporting trusted scientific data services for the provision, use, and preservation of relevant datasets to facilitate scientific research, in particular under the ICSU umbrella, while strengthening their links with the research community. WDS certifies its Members, holders and providers of data or data products, using internationally recognized standards. Certification of scientific data services is essential to ensure trustworthiness of the global research data infrastructure. It contributes to building a searchable, distributed, interoperable and sustainable research data infrastructure. Several certification standards have been developed over the last decade, such as the Network of Expertise in long-term Storage and Accessibility of Digital Resources in Germany (NESTOR) seal

The Development of the Regional Sea Port Infrastructure on the Basis of Dry Port

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandr Nelevich Rakhmangulov

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This article contributes to the solution of the relevant problem of the seaport infrastructure development for the purpose of increasing the cargo turnover in the regions of seaport location as well as to improve the quality of freight traffic on the basis of the creation of container hinterlands — dry ports. The options of dry ports as the potentially effective solution to increase the cargo turnover of existing seaports, improve the timeliness of freight transportation and overcome the environmental problems of the regions of seaport location are shown. This work analyzes the transport infrastructure of the region, the cargo turnover of major Russian sea and dry ports as well as the experience of creating dry ports in the Russian Federation and abroad. The authors propose the system of parameters for dry ports, which are recommended for the assessment of seaport infrastructure development scenarios on the stage of strategic planning. The authors have developed the approach of optimal values determination of the main parameters of dry ports by simulation modeling method. The features of construction and research of the simulation models of system “seaport — dry port” in programming software AnyLogic are considered. The results of modeling experiments with a developed simulation model are provided. This model is aimed to assess the maximum estimated capacity of the existing seaport in the conditions of the increasing irregularity of cargo traffic, and also to determine the optimum parameters of the constructed «dry port». The obtained dependencies as a result of modeling experiments prove the adequacy of the selected main parameters of dry ports for the effective evaluation of the scenarios of the strengthening of carrying and estimated capacity of existing seaports on the stage of strategic planning. The article shows that the methodology of this research can be used by the investors and public authorities as grounds for a decision on

Introduction to international radio regulations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Radicella, S M [Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy)

2003-12-15

These lecture notes contain an overview of basic problems of the International Radio Regulations. Access to the existing information infrastructure, and to that of the future Information Society, depends critically on radio, especially in poor, remote and sparsely populated regions with under-developed telecommunication infrastructure. How the spectrum of radio frequencies is regulated has profound impact on the society, its security, prosperity, and culture. The radio regulations represent a very important framework for an adequate use of radio and should be known by all of those working in the field.

Introduction to international radio regulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radicella, S.M.

2003-01-01

These lecture notes contain an overview of basic problems of the International Radio Regulations. Access to the existing information infrastructure, and to that of the future Information Society, depends critically on radio, especially in poor, remote and sparsely populated regions with under-developed telecommunication infrastructure. How the spectrum of radio frequencies is regulated has profound impact on the society, its security, prosperity, and culture. The radio regulations represent a very important framework for an adequate use of radio and should be known by all of those working in the field

LEGAL ASPECTS OF A MANAGEMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE PUBLIC INVESTMENTS IN REGIONS. DILEMMAS OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eryk Kosiński

2014-09-01

Full Text Available This article provides for an analysis of legal aspects of certain particular investment processes within technical infrastructure in the Polish regions (voivodeships, but in the counties and communes as well. Those mentioned investments are undertaken in the areas of roads, railroads, airports and telecommunication. The impact of the investments is crucial in terms of the socio-economic development of the modern state and society. All dilemmas in terms of the mentioned investments’ management are related to legal regulations imposed by the state. It is noteworthy that those special regulations are aimed at organising the investment process in an efficient and adequately speedy way. Those regulations provide for a broad legal environment of business within the infrastructure investments. All of those regulations are necessary in order to push the continuous progress of the Polish regions targeting at reacting the level of socio-economic development of the so-called western countries (old, early members of the EU.

Romania – an International Actor in the Context of the Extensive Region of the Black Sea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florin Iftode

2014-08-01

Full Text Available In the globalized world of the 21st century, the international relations are presented as a mandatory element for maintaining the balance of world power and peace. Although the international actors, such as states or international organizations, are trying to establish as many relationships as possible of various kinds (economic, political, military through diplomacy, all over the world, at macro level, the international actors should first achieve a harmony or a general state of good understanding at the micro level, i.e. in a certain geographic region to which they belong. Romania, as an actor of international relations, has as own purpose, and also imposed upon accession to the European Union, maintaining the diplomatic relations in the region of Central-Eastern Europe, both with its neighbors and with the states in the proximity of the Black Sea region. The article aims at outlining better the role that they have, in the geopolitical context, the countries from the extensive region of the Black Sea, in the consolidation of economic and political cooperation relationships, which would lead to stability in the region.

An Institutional Approach to Developing Research Data Management Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James A. J. Wilson

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This article outlines the work that the University of Oxford is undertaking to implement a coordinated data management infrastructure. The rationale for the approach being taken by Oxford is presented, with particular attention paid to the role of each service division. This is followed by a consideration of the relative advantages and disadvantages of institutional data repositories, as opposed to national or international data centres. The article then focuses on two ongoing JISC-funded projects, ‘Embedding Institutional Data Curation Services in Research’ (Eidcsr and ‘Supporting Data Management Infrastructure for the Humanities’ (Sudamih. Both projects are intra-institutional collaborations and involve working with researchers to develop particular aspects of infrastructure, including: University policy, systems for the preservation and documentation of research data, training and support, software tools for the visualisation of large images, and creating and sharing databases via the Web (Database as a Service.

Regional Social Infrastructure Management as the Instrument for Improving the Quality of Life in the Ural Federal District

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valentina Sergeyevna Antonyuk

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes the processes of the social sphere and the effective operation of social infrastructure in order to improve the quality of life of the population in the Russian regions. Particular attention is paid to the role of the organizational and managerial component affecting usage performance of infrastructure objects and including regulation of the institutions of social infrastructure, planning and software. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of management of social infrastructure through the conjugation of immediate results (the dynamics of indicators of social services and outcomes (parameters of the quality of life of the population. The hypothesis of the study was the violation of the principle of infra-systematicity in the infrastructural support of the improvement of the quality of life in the Russian regions, due to the lack of effectiveness of public administration. In the study, the following methodological approaches are used: structural, factoral, systematic and evolutionary approaches to justify the conception, develop methodology and determine the impact of changes in the parameters of social infrastructure availability for the provided services, shifts in indexes of quality of life. The paper proposes the quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of organizational management based on the diagnosis of the adequacy of the implementation of the principle of infra-systematicity in the functioning of social infrastructure on the basis of the elasticity coefficient. The proposed approach and the received analytical data on health, education, commerce, housing, culture and sport fields have allowed to range the regions of the Ural Federal District and highlight the areas of insufficient effectiveness of the organizational and management tool for improvement of life quality. The findings of the research may serve as a core for practical recommendations for executive bodies of administrative units of

Infrastructure Gap in South Asia: Inequality of Access to Infrastructure Services

OpenAIRE

Biller, Dan; Andrés, Luis; Herrera Dappe, Matías

2014-01-01

The South Asia region is home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line, coupled with a fast-growing population. The importance of access to basic infrastructure services on welfare and the quality of life is clear. Yet the South Asia region's rates of access to infrastructure (sanitation, electricity, telecom, and transport) are closer to those of Sub-Saharan Africa...

International Civil and Infrastructure Engineering Conference 2013

CERN Document Server

Yusoff, Marina; Ismail, Zulhabri; Amin, Norliyati; Fadzil, Mohd

2014-01-01

The special focus of this proceedings is to cover the areas of infrastructure engineering and sustainability management. The state-of-the art information in infrastructure and sustainable issues in engineering covers earthquake, bioremediation, synergistic management, timber engineering, flood management and intelligent transport systems. It provides precise information with regards to innovative research development in construction materials and structures in addition to a compilation of interdisciplinary finding combining nano-materials and engineering.

International Civil and Infrastructure Engineering Conference 2014

CERN Document Server

Yusoff, Marina; Alisibramulisi, Anizahyati; Amin, Norliyati; Ismail, Zulhabri

2015-01-01

The special focus of this proceedings is to cover the areas of infrastructure engineering and sustainability management. The state-of-the art information in infrastructure and sustainable issues in engineering covers earthquake, bioremediation, synergistic management, timber engineering, flood management and intelligent transport systems. It provides precise information with regards to innovative research development in construction materials and structures in addition to a compilation of interdisciplinary finding combining nano-materials and engineering.

MFC Communications Infrastructure Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Michael Cannon; Terry Barney; Gary Cook; George Danklefsen, Jr.; Paul Fairbourn; Susan Gihring; Lisa Stearns

2012-01-01

Unprecedented growth of required telecommunications services and telecommunications applications change the way the INL does business today. High speed connectivity compiled with a high demand for telephony and network services requires a robust communications infrastructure.   The current state of the MFC communication infrastructure limits growth opportunities of current and future communication infrastructure services. This limitation is largely due to equipment capacity issues, aging cabling infrastructure (external/internal fiber and copper cable) and inadequate space for telecommunication equipment. While some communication infrastructure improvements have been implemented over time projects, it has been completed without a clear overall plan and technology standard.   This document identifies critical deficiencies with the current state of the communication infrastructure in operation at the MFC facilities and provides an analysis to identify needs and deficiencies to be addressed in order to achieve target architectural standards as defined in STD-170. The intent of STD-170 is to provide a robust, flexible, long-term solution to make communications capabilities align with the INL mission and fit the various programmatic growth and expansion needs.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Large Infrastructure Project Plan with ANP

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HAN Chuan-feng; CHEN Jian-ye

2005-01-01

Analytic Network Process(ANP) was used in comprehensive evaluation of large infrastructure project plan. A model including social economy, ecological environment, and resources was established with ANP method. The evaluation pattern of hierarchy structure and comprehensive evaluation method for quantity and quality of large infrastructure project were put forward, which provides an effective way to evaluate the large infrastructure project plan. Quantitative analysis indicated that the internal dependence relation of hierarchy structure has influence on ranking results of plan. It is suggested that considering the internal relation can helps managers make effective decisions.

Infrastructure and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

OpenAIRE

Calderón, César; Servén, Luis

2008-01-01

An adequate supply of infrastructure services has long been viewed by both academics and policy makers as a key ingredient for economic development. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks consistently at the bottom of all developing regions in terms of infrastructure performance, and an increasing number of observers point to deficient infrastructure as a major obstacle for growth and poverty reduction ...

Universal neonatal hearing screening program in Shanghai, China: An inter-regional and international comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Xingang; Li, Xi; Zhang, Qi; Wan, Jin; Sun, Mei; Chang, Fengshui; Lü, Jun; Chen, Gang

2016-11-01

By comparing the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) program as implemented in Shanghai and other regions in China and countries around the world, this study makes an assessment of the Shanghai model and summarizes the experiences implementing the UNHS program, so as to provide a valuable reference for other countries or regions to carry out UNHS more effectively. Since Shanghai is one of the most developed regions in China, we also examined the relationship between economic development and the UNHS starting year and coverage rate. The study conducted a systematic review of published studies in Chinese and English on the program status of neonatal hearing screening to compare and analyze the implementation of the UNHS program in 20 cities or provinces in China and 24 regions or countries around the world. The literature search in Chinese was conducted in the three most authoritative publication databases, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), WANFANGDATA, and CQVIP (http://www.cqvip.com/). We searched all publications in those databases with the keywords "neonatal hearing screening" (in Chinese) between 2005 and 2014. English literature was searched using the same keywords (in English). The publication database included Medline and Web of Science, and the search time period was 2000-2014. Shanghai was one of the first regions in China to implement UNHS, and its coverage rate was among the top regions by international comparison. The starting time of the UNHS program had no relationship with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in the same year. Economic level serves as a threshold for carrying out UNHS but is not a linear contributor to the exact starting time of such a program. The screening coverage rate generally showed a rising trend with the increasing GDP per capita in China, but it had no relationship with the area's GDP per capita in selected regions and countries around the world. The system design of UNHS is the key factor

Risoe energy report 8. The intelligent energy system infrastructure for the future

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Hans; Soenderberg Petersen, L. (eds.)

2009-09-15

This report is volume 8 in a series started in 2002, and will take its point of reference in the need for the development of a highly flexible and intelligent energy system infrastructure which facilitates substantial higher amounts of renewable energy than today's energy systems. This intelligent and flexible infrastructure is a prerequisite in achieving the goals set up by IPCC in 2007 on CO{sub 2} reductions as well as ensuring the future security of energy supply in all regions of the world. The report presents a generic approach for future infrastructure issues on local, regional and global scale with focus on the energy system. The report is based on chapters and updates from Risoe Energy Report 1 - 7, as well as input from contributors to the DTU Climate Change Technology workshops and available international literature and reports. (author)

MONITORING MECHANISM FOR INVESTMENT DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS’ INFRASTRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Halyna Leshuk

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The subject of the research is the theoretical and methodological principles of the monitoring mechanism of investment development of regions’ infrastructure. The objectives of the research are the generalization of theoretical and methodological bases of monitoring mechanism of investment development of regions’ infrastructure, as well as analysis of the current trends of investment development of the infrastructure in the regions of Ukraine with the identification of positive and negative trends. Methodology. The article deals with theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of conceptual foundations of the mechanism of monitoring the investment development of the regions’ infrastructure with the help of general scientific methods of analysis: systematization and generalization, induction, and deduction. Results. It is proposed to interpret a monitor of the investment development of the regional infrastructure (IDRI as a systematic and complex measurement of the indicators of regional infrastructure development, the number of implemented investment projects, monitoring compliance with the developed strategic regional programs and concepts, which will ultimately help to effectively and efficiently regulate the detected deviations and passing the appropriate decisions. The IDRI monitoring mechanism should also provide a possibility of creating a system for collecting and analysing data concerning the assessment of infrastructure objects by the territorial community, which will allow potential investors to focus not only on analytical data on monitoring of regional authorities but also to take into account the public interest in a particular region. The general principles of the monitoring mechanism of investment development of the regions infrastructure are proposed in the following directions: complex and system monitoring and data collection concerning the development of the regions’ infrastructure, while the aggregate

An open, component-based information infrastructure for integrated health information networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsiknakis, Manolis; Katehakis, Dimitrios G; Orphanoudakis, Stelios C

2002-12-18

A fundamental requirement for achieving continuity of care is the seamless sharing of multimedia clinical information. Different technological approaches can be adopted for enabling the communication and sharing of health record segments. In the context of the emerging global information society, the creation of and access to the integrated electronic health record (I-EHR) of a citizen has been assigned high priority in many countries. This requirement is complementary to an overall requirement for the creation of a health information infrastructure (HII) to support the provision of a variety of health telematics and e-health services. In developing a regional or national HII, the components or building blocks that make up the overall information system ought to be defined and an appropriate component architecture specified. This paper discusses current international priorities and trends in developing the HII. It presents technological challenges and alternative approaches towards the creation of an I-EHR, being the aggregation of health data created during all interactions of an individual with the healthcare system. It also presents results from an ongoing Research and Development (R&D) effort towards the implementation of the HII in HYGEIAnet, the regional health information network of Crete, Greece, using a component-based software engineering approach. Critical design decisions and related trade-offs, involved in the process of component specification and development, are also discussed and the current state of development of an I-EHR service is presented. Finally, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and security issues, which are important for the deployment and use of any I-EHR service, are considered.

Organisation of safety research programmes and infrastructure for existing reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Micaelli, J.C.

2008-01-01

The author reviewed the main drivers of safety research, noting that challenging research is an excellent means to preserve know-how and professional skills. International efforts such the NEA-CSNI joint projects are an efficient means to support experimental infrastructure for safety research, while providing useful experimental results. Other initiatives, e.g. within the EU, aimed at developing networks of international expertise and infrastructure were also mentioned. (author)

Building an Economical and Sustainable Lunar Infrastructure to Enable Lunar Industrialization

Science.gov (United States)

Zuniga, Allison F.; Turner, Mark; Rasky, Daniel; Loucks, Mike; Carrico, John; Policastri, Daniel

2017-01-01

A new concept study was initiated to examine the architecture needed to gradually develop an economical, evolvable and sustainable lunar infrastructure using a public/private partnerships approach. This approach would establish partnership agreements between NASA and industry teams to develop a lunar infrastructure system that would be mutually beneficial. This approach would also require NASA and its industry partners to share costs in the development phase and then transfer operation of these infrastructure services back to its industry owners in the execution phase. These infrastructure services may include but are not limited to the following: lunar cargo transportation, power stations, communication towers and satellites, autonomous rover operations, landing pads and resource extraction operations. The public/private partnerships approach used in this study leveraged best practices from NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program which introduced an innovative and economical approach for partnering with industry to develop commercial cargo services to the International Space Station. This program was planned together with the ISS Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts which was responsible for initiating commercial cargo delivery services to the ISS for the first time. The public/private partnerships approach undertaken in the COTS program proved to be very successful in dramatically reducing development costs for these ISS cargo delivery services as well as substantially reducing operational costs. To continue on this successful path towards installing economical infrastructure services for LEO and beyond, this new study, named Lunar COTS (Commercial Operations and Transport Services), was conducted to examine extending the NASA COTS model to cis-lunar space and the lunar surface. The goals of the Lunar COTS concept are to: 1) develop and demonstrate affordable and commercial cis-lunar and surface capabilities, such as lunar cargo

Upgrading nuclear safety and security infrastructure in Yemen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bahran, M.Y.

2007-01-01

In 1999 the National Atomic Energy Commission of the Republic of Yemen was established with an emphasis on building Radiation Protection Infrastructure suitable for Yemen and in accordance with international standards. Since then, Yemen arguably has built one of the best such systems in the region if not in the world with respect to the country's needs. This system is going to be upgraded from Radiological Safety and Security system to a Nuclear Safety and Security system. This is to be done as a prerequisite to any further development in the Peaceful Applications of Nuclear Energy, particularly Nuclear Power and Desalination. (author)

3rd International Civil and Infrastructure Engineering Conference

CERN Document Server

Hamid, Nor; Arshad, Mohd; Arshad, Ahmad; Ridzuan, Ahmad; Awang, Haryati

2016-01-01

The special focus of these proceedings is on the areas of infrastructure engineering and sustainability management. They provide detailed information on innovative research developments in construction materials and structures, in addition to a compilation of interdisciplinary findings combining nano-materials and engineering. The coverage of cutting-edge infrastructure and sustainability issues in engineering includes earthquakes, bioremediation, synergistic management, timber engineering, flood management and intelligent transport systems.

Communication dated 16 July 2008 received from the Resident Representative of Japan to the Agency concerning an International Initiative on 3S-Based Nuclear Energy Infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

The Director General has received a communication dated 16 July 2008 from the Resident Representative of Japan attaching a document entitled 'International Initiative on 3S-based Nuclear Energy Infrastructure'. The communication, and as requested therein, its attachment, are circulated herewith for information

Digital Trade Infrastructures: A Framework for Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boriana Boriana

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In global supply chains, information about transactions resides in fragmented pockets within business and government systems. The lack of reliable, accurate and complete information makes it hard to detect risks (such as safety, security, compliance and commercial risks and at the same time makes international trade inefficient. The introduction of digital infrastructures that transcend organizational and system domains is driven by the prospect of reducing the fragmentation of information, thereby enabling improved security and efficiency in the trading process. This article develops a digital trade infrastructure framework through an empirically grounded analysis of four digital infrastructures in the trade domain, using the conceptual lens of digital infrastructure.

Infrastructure needs for waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takahashi, M.

2001-01-01

National infrastructures are needed to safely and economically manage radioactive wastes. Considerable experience has been accumulated in industrialized countries for predisposal management of radioactive wastes, and legal, regulatory and technical infrastructures are in place. Drawing on this experience, international organizations can assist in transferring this knowledge to developing countries to build their waste management infrastructures. Infrastructure needs for disposal of long lived radioactive waste are more complex, due to the long time scale that must be considered. Challenges and infrastructure needs, particularly for countries developing geologic repositories for disposal of high level wastes, are discussed in this paper. (author)

GLOBALIZATION & REGIONALIZATION IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramona Frunză

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The concept of globalization refers to the growing interdependence of countries, resulting from the increasing integration of trade, finance, investments, labor markets and ideas in one globalmarketplace. The most important elements of this process are the international trade and the cross-border investment flows. Economic globalization has increased the specialization of workers, while the companies compete in global markets. Even globalization has recently become a common topic in academic discourse, many economists focused, from the 1980s and 1990s, in addition to globalization, on regionalization - the growth of networks of interdependence within multinational regions of the world. The recent decades arecharacterized by the fact that the world trade grew faster than world output, which implies that an increasing share of world GDP crosses international borders. The trend is explained, mostly, by thesubstantially declining of the trade barriers during the same period, as a result of successive trade negotiation rounds under the auspices of the GATT/WTO, unilateral trade liberalization and regional tradeagreements. Even there are global connections between all the countries, the strongest political and economic integration is being created within a few specific regions of the world: Europe, North America and East Asia.

New infrastructures, new landscapes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Nifosì

2014-06-01

Full Text Available New infrastructures, new landscapes AbstractThe paper will discuss one recent Italian project that share a common background: the relevance of the existing maritime landscape as a non negotiable value. The studies will be discussed in details a feasibility study for the new port in Monfalcone. National infrastructural policies emphasize competitiveness and connection as a central issue incultural, economic and political development of communities . Based on networks and system development along passageways that make up the European infrastructural armor; the two are considered at the meantime as cause and effect of "territorialisation”. These two views are obviously mutually dependent. It's hard to think about a strong attractiveness out of the network, and to be part of the latter encourages competitiveness. Nonetheless this has proved to be conflictual when landscape values and the related attractiveness are considered.The presented case study project, is pursuing the ambition to promote a new approach in realizing large infrastructures; its double role is to improve connectivity and to generate lasting and positive impact on the local regions. It deal with issues of inter-modality and the construction of nodes and lines which connects Europe, and its markets.Reverting the usual approach which consider landscape project as as a way to mitigate or to compensate for the infrastructure, the goal is to succeed in realizing large infrastructural works by conceiving them as an occasion to reinterpret a region or, as extraordinary opportunities, to build new landscapes.The strategy proposed consists in achieving structural images based on the reinforcement of the environmental and historical-landscape systems. Starting from the reinterpretation of local maritime context and resources it is possible not just to preserve the attractiveness of a specific landscape but also to conceive infrastructure in a more efficient way. 

Optimally Reorganizing Navy Shore Infrastructure

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kerman, Mitchell

1997-01-01

...), but infrastructure reductions continue to lag force structure reductions. The United States Navy's recent initiatives to reduce its shore infrastructure costs include "regionalization", "outsourcing," and "homebasing...

MPEG-7-based description infrastructure for an audiovisual content analysis and retrieval system

Science.gov (United States)

Bailer, Werner; Schallauer, Peter; Hausenblas, Michael; Thallinger, Georg

2005-01-01

We present a case study of establishing a description infrastructure for an audiovisual content-analysis and retrieval system. The description infrastructure consists of an internal metadata model and access tool for using it. Based on an analysis of requirements, we have selected, out of a set of candidates, MPEG-7 as the basis of our metadata model. The openness and generality of MPEG-7 allow using it in broad range of applications, but increase complexity and hinder interoperability. Profiling has been proposed as a solution, with the focus on selecting and constraining description tools. Semantic constraints are currently only described in textual form. Conformance in terms of semantics can thus not be evaluated automatically and mappings between different profiles can only be defined manually. As a solution, we propose an approach to formalize the semantic constraints of an MPEG-7 profile using a formal vocabulary expressed in OWL, which allows automated processing of semantic constraints. We have defined the Detailed Audiovisual Profile as the profile to be used in our metadata model and we show how some of the semantic constraints of this profile can be formulated using ontologies. To work practically with the metadata model, we have implemented a MPEG-7 library and a client/server document access infrastructure.

Developing an infrastructure index : phase I.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

Over the past decade the American Society of Civil Engineers has used the Infrastructure Report : Card to raise awareness of infrastructure issues. Aging and deteriorating infrastructure has : recently been highlighted in the popular media. However, ...

Physical resources and infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Foeken, D.W.J.; Hoorweg, J.; Foeken, D.W.J.; Obudho, R.A.

2000-01-01

This chapter describes the main physical characteristics as well as the main physical and social infrastructure features of Kenya's coastal region. Physical resources include relief, soils, rainfall, agro-ecological zones and natural resources. Aspects of the physical infrastructure discussed are

A framework to predict the impacts of shale gas infrastructures on the forest fragmentation of an agroforest region.

Science.gov (United States)

Racicot, Alexandre; Babin-Roussel, Véronique; Dauphinais, Jean-François; Joly, Jean-Sébastien; Noël, Pascal; Lavoie, Claude

2014-05-01

We propose a framework to facilitate the evaluation of the impacts of shale gas infrastructures (well pads, roads, and pipelines) on land cover features, especially with regards to forest fragmentation. We used a geographic information system and realistic development scenarios largely inspired by the PA (United States) experience, but adapted to a region of QC (Canada) with an already fragmented forest cover and a high gas potential. The scenario with the greatest impact results from development limited by regulatory constraints only, with no access to private roads for connecting well pads to the public road network. The scenario with the lowest impact additionally integrates ecological constraints (deer yards, maple woodlots, and wetlands). Overall the differences between these two scenarios are relatively minor, with shale gas industry, we show that it is possible, within a reasonable time frame, to produce a robust assessment of the impacts of shale gas extraction. The framework we propose could easily be applied to other contexts or jurisdictions.

Transport infrastructure costs in low-carbon pathways

OpenAIRE

Ó BROIN , Eoin; Guivarch , Céline

2016-01-01

International audience; The rate and manner in which transport infrastructure (e.g. roads, railway tracks, airports) is deployed, will play an important role in determining energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and the economic impact of the transport sector. This paper describes an exercise where the costs of infrastructure deployment for the transport sector have been incorporated into the IMACLIM-R Global E3 IAM. In addition to adding these costs, the modelling of the criteria for the de...

Landscape in Green Infrastructures & Interscalar Planning

OpenAIRE

Galan, Juanjo

2015-01-01

The transversal and interdisciplinary quality of landscape makes it an essential and useful element in regional and local planning. On the other hand, Green Infrastructures provide an exceptional tool to put in relation different planning scales and offer new possibilities and functions for the design and management of open spaces. The Strategic Plan for the Calderona Mountain Range (Valencia province, Spain) shows how these two concepts: Landscape and Green Infrastructure can work hand in...

Coexistence and conflict: IWRM and large-scale water infrastructure development in Piura, Peru

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan Mills-Novoa

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Despite the emphasis of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM on 'soft' demand-side management, large-scale water infrastructure is increasingly being constructed in basins managed under an IWRM framework. While there has been substantial research on IWRM, few scholars have unpacked how IWRM and large-scale water infrastructure development coexist and conflict. Piura, Peru is an important site for understanding how IWRM and capital-intensive, concrete-heavy water infrastructure development articulate in practice. After 70 years of proposals and planning, the Regional Government of Piura began construction of the mega-irrigation project, Proyecto Especial de Irrigación e Hidroeléctrico del Alto Piura (PEIHAP in 2013. PEIHAP, which will irrigate an additional 19,000 hectares (ha, is being realised in the wake of major reforms in the ChiraPiura River Basin, a pilot basin for the IWRM-inspired 2009 Water Resources Law. We first map the historical trajectory of PEIHAP as it mirrors the shifting political priorities of the Peruvian state. We then draw on interviews with the newly formed River Basin Council, regional government, PEIHAP, and civil society actors to understand why and how these differing water management paradigms coexist. We find that while the 2009 Water Resources Law labels large-scale irrigation infrastructure as an 'exceptional measure', this development continues to eclipse IWRM provisions of the new law. This uneasy coexistence reflects the parallel desires of the state to imbue water policy reform with international credibility via IWRM while also furthering economic development goals via largescale water infrastructure. While the participatory mechanisms and expertise of IWRM-inspired river basin councils have not been brought to bear on the approval and construction of PEIHAP, these institutions will play a crucial role in managing the myriad resource and social conflicts that are likely to result.

Creating an agricultural world order: regional plant protection problems and international phytopathology, 1878-1939.

Science.gov (United States)

Castonguay, Stéphane

2010-01-01

Beginning in 1878 with the International Phylloxera Convention of Berne, international conventions have sought to relieve national agricultural industries from two specific burdens. First, by defining phytosanitary practices to be enforced by national plant protection services, these conventions attempted to prevent the introduction of plant diseases and pests into national territories from which they were previously absent. Second, by standardizing these practices - especially through the design of a unique certificate of inspection - the conventions attempted to eliminate barriers such as quarantines affection international agricultural trade. The succession of phytopathological conventions seemed to epitomize the coalescence of an international community against agricultural pests. What actually coalesced was bio-geopolitics wherein plant pathologists and economic entomologists from North America and the British Empire questioned the so-called internationality of the environmental and economic specificities of continental European agriculture, embodied in "international" conventions. Although an international phenomenon, the dissemination of agricultural pests provided opportunities for cooperation on a strictly regional albeit transnational basis that pitted bio-geopolitical spaces against each other. This article retraces the formation of these spaces by analyzing the deliberations of committees and congresses that gathered to define an international agricultural order based on the means to prevent the spread of plant diseases and pests.

Pilot Implementations as an Approach to Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manikas, Maria Ie; Torkilsheyggi, Arnvør Martinsdóttir á

In this paper we introduce pilot implementation, a supplement to information systems development, as an approach to study and design work infrastructures. We report from two pilot implementations in the Danish healthcare, which showed signs of grappling with aligning the past, present...... and the future while using a pilot system in real use situations and with real users. Based on our initial findings we believe that pilot implementations can address some of the challenges of studying infrastructures, because they make the infrastructure visible and because they can integrate the long......-term with the short-term aspects. The paper is based on work-in-progress and the purpose is not as much to make conclusions as to spark discussion about whether pilot implementations could offer a way to study and design work infrastructures during information system development....

STUDY ON PROJECTS CONTRACTED BY ROP - AXIS 2 PRIORITY - IMPROVING REGIONAL TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOCAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ceausescu Aurelian Ionut

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This axis priority is to increase the main purpose of accessibility regions, the population mobility, goods and services to stimulate sustainable economic. Investment in transport infrastructure to facilitate mobility of people and goods, reducing the costs of transport of goods and passengers, improving access to the regional markets, increase the efficiency of economic activities, energy saving and time, creating conditions for expanding trade and implicitly productive investment. Developing transport networks will facilitate the cooperation interregional and will contribute significantly to increase competitiveness of enterprises/firms and the labour mobility, and, therefore, a development faster to Romania on the whole, but also of each region. The development of urban transport network will take into account the existing structure of public transportation to ensure where possible, improve the infrastructure of roads, which will contribute to use in a more efficient way of public transportation. Rehabilitation and upgrading urban streets, and construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of roads to his belt (the status of county Road will contribute to urban improve traffic, cut on the time of transport, road and face elimination in their localities crossing safely.

Using a CRIS for e-Infrastructure: e-Infrastructure for Scholarly Publications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E Dijk

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Scholarly publications are a major part of the research infrastructure. One way to make output available is to store the publications in Open Access Repositories (OAR. A Current Research Information System (CRIS that conforms to the standard CERIF (Common European Research Information Format could be a key component in the e-infrastructure. A CRIS provides the structure and makes it possible to interoperate the CRIS metadata at every stage of the research cycle. The international DRIVER projects are creating a European repository infrastructure. Knowledge Exchange has launched a project to develop a metadata exchange format for publications between CRIS and OAR systems.

Internationalization of infrastructure companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frederico Araujo Turolla

2009-03-01

Full Text Available The decision of infrastructure firms to go international is not a simple one. Differently from firms from most of the sectors, investment requires large amounts of capital, there are significant transaction costs and also involves issues that are specific to the destiny country. In spite of the risks, several infrastructure groups have been investing abroad and have widened the foreign part in the share of the receipts. The study herein proposed is a refinement of the established theory of international business, with support from the industrial organization theory, namely on infrastructure economics. The methodology is theoretical empirical since it starts from two existing theories. Hypotheses relate the degree of internationalization (GI to a set of determinants of internationalization. As of conclusions, with the exception of the economies of density and scale, which did not show as relevant, all other variables behaved as expected.

The politics of inter-regionalism: relations between international regional organizations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vleuten, J.M. van der; Ribeiro Hoffman, A.; Reinalda, B.

2013-01-01

As the development of relations between international regional organizations, inter-regionalism denotes a relatively recent phenomenon. Largely due to systemic bipolarity, inter-regional relations remained limited to 'dialogue partnerships' between the European Community (EC) and other regional

Comparative study of Malaysian and Philippine regulatory infrastructures on radiation and nuclear safety with international standards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cayabo, Lynette B.

2013-06-01

This study presents the results of the critical reviews, analysis, and comparison of the regulatory infrastructures for radiation and nuclear safety of Malaysis and the Philippines usi ng the IAEA safety requirements, GSR Part 1, G overnment, Legal and Regulatory Framework for Safety'' as the main basis and in part, the GSR Part 3, R adiation Protection and Safety of Radiation Sources: International Basic Safety Standards . The scope of the comparison includes the elements of the relevant legislations, the regulatory system and processes including the core functions of the regulatory body (authorization, review and assessment, inspection and enforcement, development of regulations and guides); and the staffing and training of regulatory body. The respective availabe data of the Malaysian and Philippine regulatory infrastructures and current practices were gathered and analyzed. Recommendations to fill the gaps and strengthen the existing regulatory infrastructure of each country was given using as bases relevant IAEA safety guides. Based on the analysis made, the main findings are: the legislations of both countries do not contain al the elements of teh national policy and strategy for safety as well as those of teh framework for safety in GR Part I. Among the provision that need to be included in the legislations are: emergency planning and response; decommissioning of facilities safe management of radioactive wastes and spent fuel; competence for safety; and technical sevices. Provisions on coordination of different authorities with safety responsibilities within the regulatory framework for safety as well as liaison with advisory bodies and support organizations need to be enhanced. The Philippines needs to establish an independent regulatory body, ie. separate from organizations charged with promotion of nuclear technologies and responsible for facilitiesand activities. Graded approach on the system of notification and authorization by registration and

Planning Minimum Interurban Fast Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles: Methodology and Application to Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Colmenar-Santos

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The goal of the research is to assess the minimum requirement of fast charging infrastructure to allow country-wide interurban electric vehicle (EV mobility. Charging times comparable to fueling times in conventional internal combustion vehicles are nowadays feasible, given the current availability of fast charging technologies. The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of the planning method and the investment requirements for the necessary infrastructure, including the definition of the Maximum Distance between Fast Charge (MDFC and the Basic Highway Charging Infrastructure (BHCI concepts. According to the calculations, distance between stations will be region-dependent, influenced primarily by weather conditions. The study considers that the initial investment should be sufficient to promote the EV adoption, proposing an initial state-financed public infrastructure and, once the adoption rate for EVs increases, additional infrastructure will be likely developed through private investment. The Spanish network of state highways is used as a case study to demonstrate the methodology and calculate the investment required. Further, the results are discussed and quantitatively compared to other incentives and policies supporting EV technology adoption in the light-vehicle sector.

Wine routes as an element of the regional development of borderline regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Drozg

1993-12-01

Full Text Available The article examines the role of winw routes in promoting the development of wine-growing regions. It focuses both on the criteria for tracing wine routes (landscape value of a region, distribution of tourist supply settlements and events, natural and cultural monuments, existing road netivorks and transport accessibility, supplemenlary activities along the wine routes and on the impact that wine exert on the landscape/region (an increased income of individual households, better infrastructure equipment, recuttivation ol desert land lots, decreasing depopulalion and development of supplementary activities. The wine route through the Svečinske gorice region is presented as an example of countryside regulation.

Recovery Act-SmartGrid regional demonstration transmission and distribution (T&D) Infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hedges, Edward T. [Kansas City Power & Light Company, Kansas City, MO (United States)

2015-01-31

This document represents the Final Technical Report for the Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L) Green Impact Zone SmartGrid Demonstration Project (SGDP). The KCP&L project is partially funded by Department of Energy (DOE) Regional Smart Grid Demonstration Project cooperative agreement DE-OE0000221 in the Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure application area. This Final Technical Report summarizes the KCP&L SGDP as of April 30, 2015 and includes summaries of the project design, implementation, operations, and analysis performed as of that date.

The Transnational State and the Infrastructure Push

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ougaard, Morten

2018-01-01

In 2010, the G20, in cooperation with major international organisations, launched a comprehensive effort – here labelled the infrastructure push – to promote infrastructure investments around the world. Using selected transnationalised elements from historical materialism, this is explained as a ....... In this cooperation, the international organisations have a relatively autonomous role in line with a historical materialist understanding of state apparatuses....

The Transnational State and the Infrastructure Push

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ougaard, Morten

In 2010 the G20 in cooperation with major international organizations launched a comprehensive effort - here labelled the infrastructure push – to promote infrastructure investments around the world. Using selected transnationalised elements from historical materialism, this is explained as a tra....... In this cooperation, the international organizations have a relatively autonomous role in line with a historical materialist understanding of state apparatuses....

Playing with Complexity. Management and organisation of large infrastructure projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.J.C.M. Hertogh (Marcel); E. Westerveld (Edward)

2010-01-01

textabstractInternationally there is a huge desire to increase mobility by constructing new infrastructure. The European Union has an investment program of approximately € 600 billion up to 2020. At the same time we notice that while ambitions are high, the requirements put on new infrastructure

The EUDET research infrastructure for detector R and D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gregor, Ingrid-Maria

2010-01-01

EUDET is an initiative supported by the European Union to improve infrastructures for detector R and D, in particular for the International Linear Collider (ILC). The project is focused on providing support for larger scale prototype experiments as well as on facilitating collaborative efforts. It encompasses developments for vertex detectors, gaseous and silicon tracking, and highly granular electromagnetic and hadron calorimeters. In total 32 European institutes participate in the project. Twenty-seven other institutes in Europe and abroad are associated members and linked to the progress and later exploitation of the infrastructures. EUDET is closely linked to the international R and D collaborations for a future ILC detector. The R and D infrastructure program is described and some results of the R and D efforts are presented.

Infrastructure development to support the hydrocarbon industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mack, T.

1993-01-01

Tengiz and Jubail represent areas in which the exploitation of oil and gas resources have, and are, providing enormous opportunities for regional development. Each has required a vision of the future and an understanding that infrastructure input is very broadly defined. Tengiz and Jubail are extreme examples. There are probably no cases in the Americas that will exactly mirror these. But opportunities for oil and gas development here may share some of these projects characteristics - extraction from remote areas, challenging transportatoin needs, and perhaps most importantly, opportunities for related industrial and economic development. Just as Jubail's master plan was part of a larger Saudi vision, oil and gas infrastructure planning can support Latin and North American countries individual visions of their nation's future. Where regional economic integration and interaction is increasing, there are even greater opportunities for good infrastructure planning. In some cases, such economic integration will provide the key which will unlock oil and gas development. Once these keys are provided - be it through the intangible innovations of creative project finance or tangible links through roadways, pipeline and rail - the opening will provide real chances to develop the infrastructure of the entire region

CONCEPTS, MODELS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MARINE SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE IN GERMANY (MDI-DE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Rüh

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In Germany currently the development of a marine data infrastructure takes place with the aim of merging information concerning the fields coastal engineering, hydrography and surveying, protection of the marine environment, maritime conservation, regional planning and coastal research. This undertaking is embedded in a series of regulations and developments on many administrative levels from which specifications and courses of action derive. To set up a conceptual framework for the marine data infrastructure (MDI-DE scientists at the Professorship for Geodesy and Geoinformatics at Rostock University are building a reference model, evaluating meta-information systems and developing models to support common workflows in marine applications. The reference model for the marine spatial data infrastructure of Germany (MDI-DE is the guideline for all developments inside this infrastructure. Because the undertaking is embedded in a series of regulations and developments this paper illustrates an approach on modelling a scenario for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD using the Unified Modelling Language (UML. Evaluating how other countries built their marine spatial infrastructures is of main importance, to learn where obstacles are and errors are likely to occur. To be able to look at other initiatives from a neutral point of view it is necessary to construct a framework for evaluation of marine spatial data infrastructures. Spatial data infrastructure assessment approaches were used as bases and were expanded to meet the requirements of the marine domain. As an international case-study this paper will look at Canada's Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MGDI, COINAtlantic and GeoPortal.

Concepts, Models and Implementation of the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure in Germany Mdi-De

Science.gov (United States)

Rüh, C.; Bill, R.

2012-07-01

In Germany currently the development of a marine data infrastructure takes place with the aim of merging information concerning the fields coastal engineering, hydrography and surveying, protection of the marine environment, maritime conservation, regional planning and coastal research. This undertaking is embedded in a series of regulations and developments on many administrative levels from which specifications and courses of action derive. To set up a conceptual framework for the marine data infrastructure (MDI-DE) scientists at the Professorship for Geodesy and Geoinformatics at Rostock University are building a reference model, evaluating meta-information systems and developing models to support common workflows in marine applications. The reference model for the marine spatial data infrastructure of Germany (MDI-DE) is the guideline for all developments inside this infrastructure. Because the undertaking is embedded in a series of regulations and developments this paper illustrates an approach on modelling a scenario for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). Evaluating how other countries built their marine spatial infrastructures is of main importance, to learn where obstacles are and errors are likely to occur. To be able to look at other initiatives from a neutral point of view it is necessary to construct a framework for evaluation of marine spatial data infrastructures. Spatial data infrastructure assessment approaches were used as bases and were expanded to meet the requirements of the marine domain. As an international case-study this paper will look at Canada's Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MGDI), COINAtlantic and GeoPortal.

STATISTICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE COMPLEX ON ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE REGION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nina A. Malinovskaya

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problem of assessing the impact of infrastructure investment on the economic situation of the region. It is suggested that economic and social effects of, as well as instant and deferred. Using regression analysis allowed us to estimate the nature of different types of effects that affect the economic system of the region.

Spatial Spillover Effects of Transport Infrastructure in Chinese New Silk Road Economic Belt

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jian Li

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Based on the inner-effect mechanism of transport infrastructure and regional economic growth, this paper builds a specialized spatial weight matrix by utilizing the panel data from 31 provinces in New Silk Road Economic Belt (NSREB and other areas from 2005 to 2014, and combines with the spatial panel model to analyze the spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure. According to the analysis, the transport infrastructure plays an obvious lead role in regional economy growth alongside the NSREB, and the economic growth invigorates common development in surrounding regions. In addition, differences were observed among the different transport infrastructure with regard to their influences on regional economic development, as the highway transport affects regional economic growth to a larger degree than railway transport.

CIMS: A FRAMEWORK FOR INFRASTRUCTURE INTERDEPENDENCY MODELING AND ANALYSIS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donald D. Dudenhoeffer; May R. Permann; Milos Manic

2006-12-01

Today’s society relies greatly upon an array of complex national and international infrastructure networks such as transportation, utilities, telecommunication, and even financial networks. While modeling and simulation tools have provided insight into the behavior of individual infrastructure networks, a far less understood area is that of the interrelationships among multiple infrastructure networks including the potential cascading effects that may result due to these interdependencies. This paper first describes infrastructure interdependencies as well as presenting a formalization of interdependency types. Next the paper describes a modeling and simulation framework called CIMS© and the work that is being conducted at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to model and simulate infrastructure interdependencies and the complex behaviors that can result.

Green Infrastructure and Ecological Corridors: A Regional Study Concerning Sardinia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ignazio Cannas

2018-04-01

Full Text Available We propose a methodological approach to identify a multifunctional green infrastructure (GI on the basis of four values (conservation value, natural value, recreation value and anthropic heritage that represent many functions (biodiversity conservation, supply of ecosystem services, recreation, identity building performed by the landscape. By taking the Italian region of Sardinia as a case study, we argue that the methodology can support the making of landscape plans as understood in the European Landscape Convention. Moreover, we propose and implement a methodology to identify ecological corridors (ECs connecting Natura 2000 sites (N2Ss, based on the prioritization of functional land patches related to their suitability to ecosystem services delivery, paying particular attention to biodiversity maintenance and enhancement, and taking Sardinia as spatial regional context. The methodology consists of two steps: (i identifying the most suitable patches to be included in ECs on the basis of their connectivity, that is, on their negative attitude towards contributing to landscape fragmentation; (ii assessing, through a discrete-choice-model, the suitability of these ECs to be included in a regional GI, starting from the territorial taxonomy based on biodiversity characteristics related to N2Ss, habitat suitability, and recreational and landscape potentials.

Working towards a European Geological Data Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

van der Krogt, Rob; Hughes, Richard; Pedersen, Mikael; Serrano, Jean-Jacques; Lee, Kathryn A.; Tulstrup, Jørgen; Robida, François

2013-04-01

The increasing importance of geological information for policy, regulation and business needs at European and international level has been recognized by the European Parliament and the European Commission, who have called for the development of a common European geological knowledge base. The societal relevance of geoscience data/information is clear from many current issues such as shale gas exploration (including environmental impacts), the availability of critical mineral resources in a global economy, management and security with regard to geohazards (seismic, droughts, floods, ground stability), quality of (ground-)water and soil and societal responses to the impacts of climate change. The EGDI-Scope project responds to this, aiming to prepare an implementation plan for a pan-European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI), under the umbrella of the FP7 e- Infrastructures program. It is envisaged that the EGDI will build on geological datasets and models currently held by the European Geological Surveys at national and regional levels, and will also provide a platform for datasets generated by the large number of relevant past, ongoing and future European projects which have geological components. With European policy makers and decision makers from (international) industry as the main target groups (followed by research communities and the general public) stakeholder involvement is imperative to the successful realization and continuity of the EGDI. With these ambitions in mind, the presentation will focus on the following issues, also based on the first results and experiences of the EGDI-Scope project that started mid-2012: • The organization of stakeholder input and commitment connected to relevant 'use cases' within different thematic domains; a number of stakeholder representatives is currently involved, but the project is open to more extensive participation; • A large number of European projects relevant for data delivery to EGDI has been reviewed

VADMC: The Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Le Sidaner Pierre

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC; http://www.vamdc.eu is a European-Union-funded collaboration between several groups involved in the generation, evaluation, and use of atomic and molecular data. VAMDC aims at building a secure, documented, flexible and interoperable e-Science environment-based interface to existing atomic and molecular databases. The global infrastructure of this project uses technologies derived from the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA. The infrastructure, as well as the first database prototypes will be described.

Identification of critical locations across multiple infrastructures for terrorist actions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patterson, S.A.; Apostolakis, G.E.

2007-01-01

This paper presents a possible approach to ranking geographic regions that can influence multiple infrastructures. Once ranked, decision makers can determine whether these regions are critical locations based on their susceptibility to terrorist acts. We identify these locations by calculating a value for a geographic region that represents the combined values to the decision makers of all the infrastructures crossing through that region. These values, as well as the size of the geographic region, are conditional on an assumed destructive threat of a given size. In our case study, the threat is assumed to be minor, e.g., a bomb that can affect objects within 7 m of it. This approach first requires an assessment of the users of the system. During this assessment, each user is assigned a performance index (PI) based on the disutility of the loss of each infrastructure's resource via multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). A Monte Carlo network analysis is then performed to develop importance measures (IM) for the elements of each infrastructure for their ability to service each user. We combine the IMs with the user PIs to a value that we call valued worth (VW) for each infrastructure's elements independently. Then we use spatial analysis techniques within a geographic information system (GIS) to combine the VWs of each infrastructure's elements in a geographic area, conditional on the threat, into a total value we call geographic valued worth (GVW). The GVW is displayed graphically in the GIS system in a color scheme that shows the numerical ranking of these geographic areas. The map and rankings are then submitted to the decision makers to better allocate anti-terrorism resources. A case study of this methodology is performed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus. The results of the study show how the methodology can bring attention to areas that are important when several infrastructures are considered, but may be ignored when infrastructures

Permafrost Hazards and Linear Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Stanilovskaya, Julia; Sergeev, Dmitry

2014-05-01

The international experience of linear infrastructure planning, construction and exploitation in permafrost zone is being directly tied to the permafrost hazard assessment. That procedure should also consider the factors of climate impact and infrastructure protection. The current global climate change hotspots are currently polar and mountain areas. Temperature rise, precipitation and land ice conditions change, early springs occur more often. The big linear infrastructure objects cross the territories with different permafrost conditions which are sensitive to the changes in air temperature, hydrology, and snow accumulation which are connected to climatic dynamics. One of the most extensive linear structures built on permafrost worldwide are Trans Alaskan Pipeline (USA), Alaska Highway (Canada), Qinghai-Xizang Railway (China) and Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline (Russia). Those are currently being influenced by the regional climate change and permafrost impact which may act differently from place to place. Thermokarst is deemed to be the most dangerous process for linear engineering structures. Its formation and development depend on the linear structure type: road or pipeline, elevated or buried one. Zonal climate and geocryological conditions are also of the determining importance here. All the projects are of the different age and some of them were implemented under different climatic conditions. The effects of permafrost thawing have been recorded every year since then. The exploration and transportation companies from different countries maintain the linear infrastructure from permafrost degradation in different ways. The highways in Alaska are in a good condition due to governmental expenses on annual reconstructions. The Chara-China Railroad in Russia is under non-standard condition due to intensive permafrost response. Standards for engineering and construction should be reviewed and updated to account for permafrost hazards caused by the

Development of a lunar infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Burke, J. D.

1988-01-01

The problem of building an infrastructure on the moon is discussed, assuming that earth-to-moon and moon-to-earth transport will be available. The sequence of events which would occur in the process of building an infrastructure is examined. The human needs which must be met on a lunar base are discussed, including minimal life support, quality of life, and growth stages. The technology available to meet these needs is reviewed and further research in fields related to a lunar base, such as the study of the moon's polar regions and the limits of lunar agriculture, is recommended.

Dust devil dynamics in the internal vortex region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Onishchenko, O G; Pokhotelov, O A; Horton, W

2015-01-01

A hydrodynamic model for dust devil dynamics in the internal vortex region is analyzed. It is shown that the results concerning the growing plumes investigated by Onishchenko et al (2014) for the short time domain can be applied to the study of vortex motion in the internal region for longer times. It is demonstrated that these convective plumes in an atmosphere with weak, large-scale toroidal motion inhomogeneity in the vertical direction can be a subject for further exponential growth over time. (invited comment)

Cloud Infrastructure Security

OpenAIRE

Velev , Dimiter; Zlateva , Plamena

2010-01-01

Part 4: Security for Clouds; International audience; Cloud computing can help companies accomplish more by eliminating the physical bonds between an IT infrastructure and its users. Users can purchase services from a cloud environment that could allow them to save money and focus on their core business. At the same time certain concerns have emerged as potential barriers to rapid adoption of cloud services such as security, privacy and reliability. Usually the information security professiona...

The Global Communication Infrastructure of the International Monitoring System

Science.gov (United States)

Lastowka, L.; Gray, A.; Anichenko, A.

2007-05-01

The Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI) employs 6 satellites in various frequency bands distributed around the globe. Communications with the PTS (Provisional Technical Secretariat) in Vienna, Austria are achieved through VSAT technologies, international leased data circuits and Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections over the Internet. To date, 210 independent VSAT circuits have been connected to Vienna as well as special circuits connecting to the Antarctic and to independent sub-networks. Data volumes from all technologies currently reach 8 Gigabytes per day. The first level of support and a 24/7 help desk remains with the GCI contractor, but performance is monitored actively by the PTS/GCI operations team. GCI operations are being progressively introduced into the PTS operations centre. An Operations centre fully integrated with the GCI segment of the IMS network will ensure a more focused response to incidents and will maximize the availability of the IMS network. Existing trouble tickets systems are being merged to ensure the commission manages GCI incidents in the context of the IMS as a whole. A focus on a single source of data for GCI network performance has enabled reporting systems to be developed which allow for improved and automated reports. The contracted availability for each individual virtual circuit is 99.5% and this performance is regularly reviewed on a monthly basis

Developing Sustainable Urban Water-Energy Infrastructures: Applying a Multi-Sectoral Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems (SEIS) Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Ramaswami, A.

2016-12-01

Urban infrastructure - broadly defined to include the systems that provide water, energy, food, shelter, transportation-communication, sanitation and green/public spaces in cities - have tremendous impact on the environment and on human well-being (Ramaswami et al., 2016; Ramaswami et al., 2012). Aggregated globally, these sectors contribute 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 96% of global water withdrawals. Urban infrastructure contributions to such impacts are beginning to dominate. Cities are therefore becoming the action arena for infrastructure transformations that can achieve high levels of service delivery while reducing environmental impacts and enhancing human well-being. Achieving sustainable urban infrastructure transitions requires: information about the engineered infrastructure, and its interaction with the natural (ecological-environmental) and the social sub-systems In this paper, we apply a multi-sector, multi-scalar Social-Ecological-Infrastructural Systems framework that describes the interactions among biophysical engineered infrastructures, the natural environment and the social system in a systems-approach to inform urban infrastructure transformations. We apply the SEIS framework to inform water and energy sector transformations in cities to achieve environmental and human health benefits realized at multiple scales - local, regional and global. Local scales address pollution, health, wellbeing and inequity within the city; regional scales address regional pollution, scarcity, as well as supply risks in the water-energy sectors; global impacts include greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts. Different actors shape infrastructure transitions including households, businesses, and policy actors. We describe the development of novel cross-sectoral strategies at the water-energy nexus in cities, focusing on water, waste and energy sectors, in a case study of Delhi, India. Ramaswami, A.; Russell, A.G.; Culligan, P.J.; Sharma, K

COOPEUS - connecting research infrastructures in environmental sciences

Science.gov (United States)

Koop-Jakobsen, Ketil; Waldmann, Christoph; Huber, Robert

2015-04-01

The COOPEUS project was initiated in 2012 bringing together 10 research infrastructures (RIs) in environmental sciences from the EU and US in order to improve the discovery, access, and use of environmental information and data across scientific disciplines and across geographical borders. The COOPEUS mission is to facilitate readily accessible research infrastructure data to advance our understanding of Earth systems through an international community-driven effort, by: Bringing together both user communities and top-down directives to address evolving societal and scientific needs; Removing technical, scientific, cultural and geopolitical barriers for data use; and Coordinating the flow, integrity and preservation of information. A survey of data availability was conducted among the COOPEUS research infrastructures for the purpose of discovering impediments for open international and cross-disciplinary sharing of environmental data. The survey showed that the majority of data offered by the COOPEUS research infrastructures is available via the internet (>90%), but the accessibility to these data differ significantly among research infrastructures; only 45% offer open access on their data, whereas the remaining infrastructures offer restricted access e.g. do not release raw data or sensible data, demand user registration or require permission prior to release of data. These rules and regulations are often installed as a form of standard practice, whereas formal data policies are lacking in 40% of the infrastructures, primarily in the EU. In order to improve this situation COOPEUS has installed a common data-sharing policy, which is agreed upon by all the COOPEUS research infrastructures. To investigate the existing opportunities for improving interoperability among environmental research infrastructures, COOPEUS explored the opportunities with the GEOSS common infrastructure (GCI) by holding a hands-on workshop. Through exercises directly registering resources

The potential water buffering capacity of urban green infrastructure in an arid environment

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Z.; Yang, J.

2017-12-01

Urban green infrastructure offers arid cities an attractive means of mitigation/adaptation to environmental challenges of elevated thermal stress, but imposes the requirement of outdoor irrigation that aggravates the stress of water resource management. Future development of cities is inevitably constrained by the limited availability of water resources, under challenges of emergent climate change and continuous population growth. This study used the Weather Research and Forecasting model with urban dynamics to assess the potential water buffering capacity of urban green infrastructure in arid environments and its implications for sustainable urban planning. The Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona, United States, is adopted as a testbed with two hypothetical cases, viz. the water-saving and the fully-greening scenarios investigated. Modifications of the existing green infrastructure and irrigation practices are found to significantly influence the thermal environment of Phoenix. In addition, water saving by xeriscaping (0.77 ± 0.05 × 10^8 m^3) allows the region to support 19.8% of the annual water consumption by the projected 2.62 million population growth by 2050, at a cost of an increase in urban ambient temperature of about 1 o^C.

The Influence of State Policies on Critical Infrastructure Resilience: An Approach for Analyzing Transportation and Capital Investment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wall, Thomas [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Trail, Jessica [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Gevondyan, Erna [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Phillips, Julia [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Ford, Janet [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Marks, James [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2017-09-01

During times of crisis, communities and regions rely heavily on critical infrastructure systems to support their emergency management response and recovery activities. Therefore, the resilience of critical infrastructure systems to crises is a pivotal factor to a community’s overall resilience. Critical infrastructure resilience can be influenced by many factors, including State policies – which are not always uniform in their structure or application across the United States – were identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an area of particular interest with respect to their the influence on the resilience of critical infrastructure systems. This study focuses on developing an analytical methodology to assess links between policy and resilience, and applies that methodology to critical infrastructure in the Transportation Systems Sector. Specifically, this study seeks to identify potentially influential linkages between State transportation capital funding policies and the resilience of bridges located on roadways that are under the management of public agencies. This study yielded notable methodological outcomes, including the general capability of the analytical methodology to yield – in the case of some States – significant results connecting State policies with critical infrastructure resilience, with the suggestion that further refinement of the methodology may be beneficial.

International cooperation workshop. Regional workshop for CTBTO international cooperation: Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-08-01

Pursuant to the 1999 programme of work, and following the International Cooperation Workshop held in Vienna, Austria, in 1998, the Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO (Prep Com) held a regional Workshop for CTBTO International Cooperation in Cairo. The purpose of the workshop was to identify how and by what means the Africa region can promote international cooperation in CTBT verification related technologies, and how the region can benefit from and contribute to Prep Com activity. PTS staff briefed the 40 participants from 22 African States who attended the Workshop on general aspects, including costs, of the establishment and operation of the CTBT verification system, including its four monitoring technologies. Participants were informed on opportunities for local institutions in the establishment of monitoring stations and on possible support for national and regional data centres. National experts presented their research and development activities and reviewed existing experiences on bi/multi-lateral cooperation. The main points of the discussion focused on the need to engage governments to advance signature/ratification, and further training opportunities for African states

Innovative infrastructure of scientific-industrial cluster

OpenAIRE

SHEBEKO KONSTANTIN K

2016-01-01

Based on the analysis of problems of creation and functioning of innovation infrastructure in Belarus conclusions on the lack of its effectiveness are made. Main focus is given to the analysis of the practice of innovation infrastructure functioning, created on the basis of Polessky State University as a research university in order to perform technological modernization of the economy and the dissemination of effective business practices in Pripyat Polesye region in the form of scientific an...

Resilience framework for critical infrastructures: An empirical study in a nuclear plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Labaka, Leire; Hernantes, Josune; Sarriegi, Jose M.

2015-01-01

The safety and proper functioning of Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are essential for ensuring the welfare of society, which puts the issue of improving their resilience level at the forefront of the field of crisis management. Most of the resilience-building principles defined in the literature do not cover all the dimensions that make up resilience and most of them only focus within the boundaries of the CI, neglecting the role of the external agents that also have an influence on enhancing resilience. Furthermore, most of the principles that are present in the literature are theoretical and difficult to implement in practice. In light of this situation, the aim of this research is to present a holistic resilience framework for critical infrastructures in order to improve their resilience level by taking into account internal and external agents and covering all the resilience dimensions. Furthermore, this framework has been defined in close collaboration with the general management of CIs to facilitate its implementation in practice. Finally, in order to illustrate the value added of this framework it was implemented in a nuclear plant. - Highlights: • Resilience protects against foreseen and unpredicted events. • There are two types of resilience: internal resilience and external resilience. • Sixteen policies and thirty sub-policies assist on building resilience. • Power nuclear plant focused on risk management approach rather than resilience. • The plant’s event driven risk management was enhanced with an all hazard approach

Regional infrastructure and firm investment. Theory and empirical evidence for Italy

OpenAIRE

Aiello, Francesco; Iona, Alfonsina; Leonida, Leone

2009-01-01

We model the channels through which public expenditure on infrastructure influences firm value and shapes its investment decisions via both adjustment costs and marginal profitability of capital. We test these hypotheses by using a large panel of Italian firms. Empirical results show that infrastructure interacts with revenues and costs in shaping firm's profitability of capital and influences its adjustment costs. Finally we find that infrastructure expenditure contributes to reduce the econ...

Architecture of the local spatial data infrastructure for regional climate change research

Science.gov (United States)

Titov, Alexander; Gordov, Evgeny

2013-04-01

Georeferenced datasets (meteorological databases, modeling and reanalysis results, etc.) are actively used in modeling and analysis of climate change for various spatial and temporal scales. Due to inherent heterogeneity of environmental datasets as well as their size which might constitute up to tens terabytes for a single dataset studies in the area of climate and environmental change require a special software support based on SDI approach. A dedicated architecture of the local spatial data infrastructure aiming at regional climate change analysis using modern web mapping technologies is presented. Geoportal is a key element of any SDI, allowing searching of geoinformation resources (datasets and services) using metadata catalogs, producing geospatial data selections by their parameters (data access functionality) as well as managing services and applications of cartographical visualization. It should be noted that due to objective reasons such as big dataset volume, complexity of data models used, syntactic and semantic differences of various datasets, the development of environmental geodata access, processing and visualization services turns out to be quite a complex task. Those circumstances were taken into account while developing architecture of the local spatial data infrastructure as a universal framework providing geodata services. So that, the architecture presented includes: 1. Effective in terms of search, access, retrieval and subsequent statistical processing, model of storing big sets of regional georeferenced data, allowing in particular to store frequently used values (like monthly and annual climate change indices, etc.), thus providing different temporal views of the datasets 2. General architecture of the corresponding software components handling geospatial datasets within the storage model 3. Metadata catalog describing in detail using ISO 19115 and CF-convention standards datasets used in climate researches as a basic element of the

U.S. and Texas international trade and transportation.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-01

This report, funded by the Southwest Region University Transportation Center, examines various : aspects of international trade, transportation, and foreign practices implemented facilitate and fund : transport-related infrastructure. The report is c...

Development and Exploration of a Regional Stormwater BMP Performance Database to Parameterize an Integrated Decision Support Tool (i-DST)

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, C.; Li, Y.; Lopez, E.; Hogue, T. S.

2017-12-01

Decision support tools that quantitatively estimate the cost and performance of infrastructure alternatives are valuable for urban planners. Such a tool is needed to aid in planning stormwater projects to meet diverse goals such as the regulation of stormwater runoff and its pollutants, minimization of economic costs, and maximization of environmental and social benefits in the communities served by the infrastructure. This work gives a brief overview of an integrated decision support tool, called i-DST, that is currently being developed to serve this need. This presentation focuses on the development of a default database for the i-DST that parameterizes water quality treatment efficiency of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) by region. Parameterizing the i-DST by region will allow the tool to perform accurate simulations in all parts of the United States. A national dataset of BMP performance is analyzed to determine which of a series of candidate regionalizations explains the most variance in the national dataset. The data used in the regionalization analysis comes from the International Stormwater BMP Database and data gleaned from an ongoing systematic review of peer-reviewed and gray literature. In addition to identifying a regionalization scheme for water quality performance parameters in the i-DST, our review process will also provide example methods and protocols for systematic reviews in the field of Earth Science.

E-Infrastructure and Data Management for Global Change Research

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, M. L.; Gurney, R. J.; Cesar, R.; Cossu, R.; Gemeinholzer, B.; Koike, T.; Mokrane, M.; Peters, D.; Nativi, S.; Samors, R.; Treloar, A.; Vilotte, J. P.; Visbeck, M.; Waldmann, H. C.

2014-12-01

The Belmont Forum, a coalition of science funding agencies from 15 countries, is supporting an 18-month effort to assess the state of international of e-infrastructures and data management so that global change data and information can be more easily and efficiently exchanged internationally and across domains. Ultimately, this project aims to address the Belmont "Challenge" to deliver knowledge needed for action to avoid and adapt to detrimental environmental change, including extreme hazardous events. This effort emerged from conclusions by the Belmont Forum that transformative approaches and innovative technologies are needed for heterogeneous data/information to be integrated and made interoperable for researchers in disparate fields, and for myriad uses across international, institutional, disciplinary, spatial and temporal boundaries. The project will deliver a Community Strategy and Implementation Plan to prioritize international funding opportunities and long-term policy recommendations on how the Belmont Forum can implement a more coordinated, holistic, and sustainable approach to funding and supporting global change research. The Plan is expected to serve as the foundation of future Belmont Forum funding calls for proposals in support of research science goals as well as to establish long term e-infrastructure. More than 120 scientists, technologists, legal experts, social scientists, and other experts are participating in six Work Packages to develop the Plan by spring, 2015, under the broad rubrics of Architecture/Interoperability and Governance: Data Integration for Multidisciplinary Research; Improved Interface between Computation & Data Infrastructures; Harmonization of Global Data Infrastructure; Data Sharing; Open Data; and Capacity Building. Recommendations could lead to a more coordinated approach to policies, procedures and funding mechanisms to support e-infrastructures in a more sustainable way.

National and Global Infrastructure of the Arctic Zone of the APR: New Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boris Khananovich Krasnopolskiy

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article addresses issues of formation of the national and global infrastructure in the Arctic and its Asia-Pacific zone in the context of the new challenges in the development of the region, associated mainly with the political and military deterioration of relations between Russia and the United States. The study also characterizes international experience in the area of infrastructure researches and presents strategic documents of both countries in the sphere of the study and development of the Arctic and its territories. The author concludes that research organizations need to overcome their passivity to strengthen cooperation between these structures from both sides, which is absolutely essential for the development of a global scientific and other kinds of infrastructure and for the further successful, rational and effective exploitation of the Arctic areas

Architectural Design for a Mars Communications and Navigation Orbital Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Ceasrone R. J.; Hastrup, R. C.; Bell, D. J.; Roncoli, R. B.; Nelson, K.

1999-01-01

The planet Mars has become the focus of an intensive series of missions that span decades of time, a wide array of international agencies and an evolution from robotics to humans. The number of missions to Mars at any one time, and over a period of time, is unprecedented in the annals of space exploration. To meet the operational needs of this exploratory fleet will require the implementation of new architectural concepts for communications and navigation. To this end, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has begun to define and develop a Mars communications and navigation orbital infrastructure. This architecture will make extensive use of assets at Mars, as well as use of traditional Earth-based assets, such as the Deep Space Network, DSN. Indeed, the total system can be thought of as an extension of DSN nodes and services to the Mars in-situ region. The concept has been likened to the beginnings of an interplanetary Internet that will bring the exploration of Mars right into our living rooms. The paper will begin with a high-level overview of the concept for the Mars communications and navigation infrastructure. Next, the mission requirements will be presented. These will include the relatively near-term needs of robotic landers, rovers, ascent vehicles, balloons, airplanes, and possibly orbiting, arriving and departing spacecraft. Requirements envisioned for the human exploration of Mars will also be described. The important Mars orbit design trades on telecommunications and navigation capabilities will be summarized, and the baseline infrastructure will be described. A roadmap of NASA's plan to evolve this infrastructure over time will be shown. Finally, launch considerations and delivery to Mars will be briefly treated.

People at risk - nexus critical infrastructure and society

Science.gov (United States)

Heiser, Micha; Thaler, Thomas; Fuchs, Sven

2016-04-01

Strategic infrastructure networks include the highly complex and interconnected systems that are so vital to a city or state that any sudden disruption can result in debilitating impacts on human life, the economy and the society as a whole. Recently, various studies have applied complex network-based models to study the performance and vulnerability of infrastructure systems under various types of attacks and hazards - a major part of them is, particularly after the 9/11 incident, related to terrorism attacks. Here, vulnerability is generally defined as the performance drop of an infrastructure system under a given disruptive event. The performance can be measured by different metrics, which correspond to various levels of resilience. In this paper, we will address vulnerability and exposure of critical infrastructure in the Eastern Alps. The Federal State Tyrol is an international transport route and an essential component of the north-south transport connectivity in Europe. Any interruption of the transport flow leads to incommensurable consequences in terms of indirect losses, since the system does not feature redundant elements at comparable economic efficiency. Natural hazard processes such as floods, debris flows, rock falls and avalanches, endanger this infrastructure line, such as large flood events in 2005 or 2012, rock falls 2014, which had strong impacts to the critical infrastructure, such as disruption of the railway lines (in 2005 and 2012), highways and motorways (in 2014). The aim of this paper is to present how critical infrastructures as well as communities and societies are vulnerable and can be resilient against natural hazard risks and the relative cascading effects to different compartments (industrial, infrastructural, societal, institutional, cultural, etc.), which is the dominant by the type of hazard (avalanches, torrential flooding, debris flow, rock falls). Specific themes will be addressed in various case studies to allow cross

Measuring Financial Performance in Infrastructure: An Application to Europe and Central Asia

OpenAIRE

Ebinger, Jane O.

2006-01-01

Unintentional implicit subsidies (hidden costs) to public utilities can be considered an illegitimate claim on public resources. This paper examines the role and sources of hidden costs in the energy and water sectors in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It reviews available data and introduces a model-the Hidden Costs Calculator-that can be used to quantify the burden on governments of infrastructure policy and implementation decisions. This simple-to-apply model provides insight int...

An experience of knowledge co-production for setting up landslide risk management processes in a critical infrastructure: the case of Campania Region (Southern Italy)

Science.gov (United States)

Rianna, Guido; Roca Collell, Marta; Uzielli, Marco; Van Ruiten, Kees; Mercogliano, Paola; Ciervo, Fabio; Reder, Alfredo

2017-04-01

In Campania Region (Southern Italy), expected increases in heavy rainfall events under the effect of climate changes and demographic pressure could entail a growth of occurrence of weather induced landslides and associated damages. Indeed, already in recent years, pyroclastic covers mantling the slopes of a large part of the Region have been affected by numerous events often causing victims and damages to infrastructures serving the urban centers. Due to the strategic relevance of the area, landslide events affecting volcanic layers in Campania Region are one of the five case studies investigated in the FP7 European Project INTACT about the impacts of extreme weather on critical infrastructure. The main aim of INTACT project is to increase the resilience of critical infrastructures (CI) facing extreme weather events improving the awareness of stakeholders and asset managers about such phenomena and their potential variations due to Climate Changes and providing tools to support risk management strategies. A WIKI has been designed as a remote support for all stages of the risk process through brief theoretical explanations (in Wiki style) about tools and methods proposed and reports on the findings and hints returned by case studies investigations. In order to have a product tailored to the needs and background of CI owners, managers and policy makers, an intense effort of knowledge co-production between researchers and stakeholders have been carried out in different case studies through questionnaires, meetings, workshops and/or 1-to-1 interviews. This work presents the different tools and approaches adopted to facilitate the exchange with stakeholders in the Campanian case study such as the "Storytelling approach", aiming to stress the need for a comprehensive and overall approach to the issue between the different disaster management phases (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) and actors; the CIRCLE approach developed by Deltares, partner in INTACT

Methodologies and applications for critical infrastructure protection: State-of-the-art

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yusta, Jose M.; Correa, Gabriel J.; Lacal-Arantegui, Roberto

2011-01-01

This work provides an update of the state-of-the-art on energy security relating to critical infrastructure protection. For this purpose, this survey is based upon the conceptual view of OECD countries, and specifically in accordance with EU Directive 114/08/EC on the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures, and on the 2009 US National Infrastructure Protection Plan. The review discusses the different definitions of energy security, critical infrastructure and key resources, and shows some of the experie'nces in countries considered as international reference on the subject, including some information-sharing issues. In addition, the paper carries out a complete review of current methodologies, software applications and modelling techniques around critical infrastructure protection in accordance with their functionality in a risk management framework. The study of threats and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure systems shows two important trends in methodologies and modelling. A first trend relates to the identification of methods, techniques, tools and diagrams to describe the current state of infrastructure. The other trend accomplishes a dynamic behaviour of the infrastructure systems by means of simulation techniques including systems dynamics, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-agent systems, etc. - Highlights: → We examine critical infrastructure protection experiences, systems and applications. → Some international experiences are reviewed, including EU EPCIP Plan and the US NIPP programme. → We discuss current methodologies and applications on critical infrastructure protection, with emphasis in electric networks.

Priority areas for the formation of innovation infrastructure of the Southern Federal District

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. S. Shiro

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article analyzes the main trends and particular conditions existing innovation infrastructure in the regions of the Southern Federal District, promotes the commercialization of scientific and educational activities of the sector. It was found that the formation of an effective innovation infrastructure of the region depends on its specificity. In this regard, for the formulation of effective formulas for the construction of the innovation sector of regional economies need to analyze the existing institutions and identify the main points of growth of individual regions. However, in regions concentrated in one federal district it is possible to identify common trends. So the author of the study based on the analysis of these trends come to the conclusion that for all regions is the general low level of development of financial institutions that promote innovation, as well as the weak link between the scientific and educational sphere and the real economy. Summing up the results of the analysis of formation of regional infrastructure, we can conclude that it is currently in the Southern Federal District, Volgograd Region in particular observed the completion of the institutional and infrastructural conditions for the development of innovation. Meanwhile, the existing elements of the innovation infrastructure in the regions characterized by fragmentation and a lack of integration ties, ensuring the implementation of the life cycle of innovation. Particularly acute is the problem of the development of infrastructure of venture financing in science and technology, providing an effective mechanism for technology transfer. To the list of priorities should include the creation of a system of information support of innovation. In order to develop recommendations to strengthen the orientation of research capacity to the needs of the regional economy is necessary to analyze the efficiency of the sector generating knowledge in terms of the

AQUAGRID: The subsurface hydrology Grid service of the Sardinian regional Grid infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lecca, G.; Murgia, F.; Maggi, P.; Perias, A.

2007-01-01

AQUAGRID is the subsurface hydrology service of the Sardinian regional Grid infrastructure, designed to deliver complex environmental applications via a user-friendly Web portal. The service is oriented towards the needs of water professionals providing them a flexible and powerful tool to solve water resources management problems and aid decision between different remediation options for contaminated soil and groundwater. In this paper, the AQUAGRID application concept and the enabling technologies are illustrated. The heart of the service is the CODESA-3D hydrogeological model to simulate complex and large groundwater flow and contaminant transport problems. The relevant experience gained from the porting of the CODESA-3D application on the EGEE infrastructure, via the GILDA test bed (https://gilda.ct.infn.it), has contributed to the service prototype. AQUAGRID is built on top of compute-Grid technologies by means of the EnginFrame Grid portal. The portal enables the interaction with the underlying Grid infrastructure and manages the computational requirements of the whole application system. Data management, distribution and visualization mechanisms are based on the tools provided by the DatacroSSing Decision Support System (http://datacrossing.crs4.it). The DSS, built on top of the SRB data-Grid middleware, is based on Web-GIS and relational database technologies. The resulting production environment allows the end-user to visualize and interact with the results of the performed analyses, using graphs, annotated maps and 3D objects. Such a set of graphical widgets increases enormously the number of AQUAGRID potential users because it does not require any specific expertise of the physical model and technological background to be understood. (Author)

On the Enterprise Modelling of an Educational Information Infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michiels, E.F.; Widya, I.A.; Volman, C.J.A.M.; Pokraev, S.; de Diana, I.P.F.

2000-01-01

In this report, we present the outcomes of exercising a design trajectory in respect of the modelling of an educational information infrastructure. The infrastructure aims to support the organisation of teaching and learning activities, independently of any particular didactic policy. The design

Green infrastructure development at European Union's eastern border: Effects of road infrastructure and forest habitat loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Angelstam, Per; Khaulyak, Olha; Yamelynets, Taras; Mozgeris, Gintautas; Naumov, Vladimir; Chmielewski, Tadeusz J; Elbakidze, Marine; Manton, Michael; Prots, Bohdan; Valasiuk, Sviataslau

2017-05-15

The functionality of forest patches and networks as green infrastructure may be affected negatively both by expanding road networks and forestry intensification. We assessed the effects of (1) the current and planned road infrastructure, and (2) forest loss and gain, on the remaining large forest landscape massifs as green infrastructure at the EU's eastern border region in post-socialistic transition. First, habitat patch and network functionality in 1996-98 was assessed using habitat suitability index modelling. Second, we made expert interviews about road development with planners in 10 administrative regions in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Third, forest loss and gain inside the forest massifs, and gain outside them during the period 2001-14 were measured. This EU cross-border region hosts four remaining forest massifs as regional green infrastructure hotspots. While Poland's road network is developing fast in terms of new freeways, city bypasses and upgrades of road quality, in Belarus and Ukraine the focus is on maintenance of existing roads, and no new corridors. We conclude that economic support from the EU, and thus rapid development of roads in Poland, is likely to reduce the permeability for wildlife of the urban and agricultural matrix around existing forest massifs. However, the four identified forest massifs themselves, forming the forest landscape green infrastructure at the EU's east border, were little affected by road development plans. In contrast, forest loss inside massifs was high, especially in Ukraine. Only in Poland forest loss was balanced by gain. Forest gain outside forest massifs was low. To conclude, pro-active and collaborative spatial planning across different sectors and countries is needed to secure functional forest green infrastructure as base for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Linear infrastructure impacts on landscape hydrology.

Science.gov (United States)

Raiter, Keren G; Prober, Suzanne M; Possingham, Hugh P; Westcott, Fiona; Hobbs, Richard J

2018-01-15

The extent of roads and other forms of linear infrastructure is burgeoning worldwide, but their impacts are inadequately understood and thus poorly mitigated. Previous studies have identified many potential impacts, including alterations to the hydrological functions and soil processes upon which ecosystems depend. However, these impacts have seldom been quantified at a regional level, particularly in arid and semi-arid systems where the gap in knowledge is the greatest, and impacts potentially the most severe. To explore the effects of extensive track, road, and rail networks on surface hydrology at a regional level we assessed over 1000 km of linear infrastructure, including approx. 300 locations where ephemeral streams crossed linear infrastructure, in the largely intact landscapes of Australia's Great Western Woodlands. We found a high level of association between linear infrastructure and altered surface hydrology, with erosion and pooling 5 and 6 times as likely to occur on-road than off-road on average (1.06 erosional and 0.69 pooling features km -1 on vehicle tracks, compared with 0.22 and 0.12 km -1 , off-road, respectively). Erosion severity was greater in the presence of tracks, and 98% of crossings of ephemeral streamlines showed some evidence of impact on water movement (flow impedance (62%); diversion of flows (73%); flow concentration (76%); and/or channel initiation (31%)). Infrastructure type, pastoral land use, culvert presence, soil clay content and erodibility, mean annual rainfall, rainfall erosivity, topography and bare soil cover influenced the frequency and severity of these impacts. We conclude that linear infrastructure frequently affects ephemeral stream flows and intercepts natural overland and near-surface flows, artificially changing site-scale moisture regimes, with some parts of the landscape becoming abnormally wet and other parts becoming water-starved. In addition, linear infrastructure frequently triggers or exacerbates erosion

The regional impacts of climate change: an assessment of vulnerability

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Zinyowera, Marufu C; Moss, Richard H; Watson, R. T

1998-01-01

.... The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability reviews state-of-the-art information on potential impacts of climate change for ecological systems, water supply, food production, coastal infrastructure, human health...

Community Needs Assessment and Portal Prototype Development for an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI): A Contribution to an IPY Data Cyberinfrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Wiggins, H. V.; Warnick, W. K.; Hempel, L. C.; Henk, J.; Sorensen, M.; Tweedie, C. E.; Gaylord, A.; Behr, S.

2006-12-01

As the creation and use of geospatial data in research, management, logistics, and education applications has proliferated, there is now a tremendous potential for advancing the IPY initiative through a variety of cyberinfrastructure applications, including Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and related technologies. SDIs provide a necessary and common framework of standards, securities, policies, procedures, and technology to support the effective acquisition, coordination, dissemination and use of geospatial data by multiple and distributed stakeholder and user groups. Despite the numerous research activities in the Arctic, there is no established SDI and, because of this lack of a coordinated infrastructure, there is inefficiency, duplication of effort, and reduced data quality and search ability of arctic geospatial data. The urgency for establishing this framework is significant considering the myriad of data that is likely to be collected in celebration of the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007-2008 and the current international momentum for an improved and integrated circumarctic terrestrial-marine-atmospheric environmental observatories network. The key objective of this project is to lay the foundation for full implementation of an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) through two related activities: (1) an assessment - via interviews, questionnaires, a workshop, and other means - of community needs, readiness, and resources, and (2) the development of a prototype web mapping portal to demonstrate the purpose and function on an arctic geospatial one-stop portal technology and to solicit community input on design and function. The results of this project will be compiled into a comprehensive report guiding the research community and funding agencies in the design and implementation of an ASDI to contribute to a robust IPY data cyberinfrastructure.

An integrated infrastructure in support of software development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antonelli, S; Bencivenni, M; De Girolamo, D; Giacomini, F; Longo, S; Manzali, M; Veraldi, R; Zani, S

2014-01-01

This paper describes the design and the current state of implementation of an infrastructure made available to software developers within the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) to support and facilitate their daily activity. The infrastructure integrates several tools, each providing a well-identified function: project management, version control system, continuous integration, dynamic provisioning of virtual machines, efficiency improvement, knowledge base. When applicable, access to the services is based on the INFN-wide Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure. The system is being installed and progressively made available to INFN users belonging to tens of sites and laboratories and will represent a solid foundation for the software development efforts of the many experiments and projects that see the involvement of the Institute. The infrastructure will be beneficial especially for small- and medium-size collaborations, which often cannot afford the resources, in particular in terms of know-how, needed to set up such services.

Infrastructuring for Quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bossen, Claus; Danholt, Peter; Ubbesen, Morten Bonde

2015-01-01

Reimbursement and budgeting constitutes a central infrastructural element in most secondary healthcare sectors. In Denmark, Diagnose-Related Groups (DRG) function as the core element for budgeting and encouraging increase in activity and effectivity. However, DRG is known to potentially have...... indicators for quality in treatment to guide and govern their performance, in order to investigate whether this may generate a new performance measurement infrastructure that will improve quality of healthcare. The project is entitled: “New governance in the patient’s perspective”....... adverse effects by encouraging hospitals to maximize reimbursement at the expense of patients. To counter this, one Danish region has initiated an experiment involving nine hospital departments whose normal budgeting and reimbursement based on DRG is put on hold. Instead, they have been asked to develop...

Assessing the full costs of water, liquid waste, energy and solid waste infrastructure in the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pollard, D.

2001-01-01

This document presents a newly drafted growth strategy developed by the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) in British Columbia. It guides the sustainable growth, change and development of the region for the next 25 years and deals with air pollution, water quality, traffic congestion, affordable housing, employment, energy use, parks and green space. In particular, this case study develops a method to apply full cost accounting (FCA) to a growth strategy. FCA is the most appropriate way to approach a sustainable strategy because it considers economic, social and environmental issues. The study also includes the development of a software tool consisting of an ACCESS database and an ARCVIEW GIS file for compiling and analyzing detailed infrastructure profiles which can be used to assess the full costs of different growth scenarios. The following four issue categories of environmental and economic indicators of FVRD performance were addressed: solid waste, water and wastewater, energy, and infrastructure costs. Each issue category was then used to establish a set of 5 performance indicators that can be measured and assessed over time. These included solid waste, water consumption, wastewater, energy consumption and air emissions. The database and methodology developed for this project is suitable for other regions. The software can be viewed by contacting the Sheltair Group Resource Consultants Inc. in Vancouver

Genetic Algorithms for Agent-Based Infrastructure Interdependency Modeling and Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

May Permann

2007-03-01

Today’s society relies greatly upon an array of complex national and international infrastructure networks such as transportation, electric power, telecommunication, and financial networks. This paper describes initial research combining agent-based infrastructure modeling software and genetic algorithms (GAs) to help optimize infrastructure protection and restoration decisions. This research proposes to apply GAs to the problem of infrastructure modeling and analysis in order to determine the optimum assets to restore or protect from attack or other disaster. This research is just commencing and therefore the focus of this paper is the integration of a GA optimization method with a simulation through the simulation’s agents.

The Logic and Issues of International Regional Tax Integration

OpenAIRE

Kudryashova, Ekaterina

2016-01-01

The article is devoted to the issues of international regional tax integration. The international economic integration has two mainstreams: global and regional economic integration. The global tax integration is concerned only with double taxation matters while the regional tax integration aims at procuring of four fundamental freedoms of common market and goes far beyond the elimination of double taxation. The legal solution for both global and regional international tax integration can not ...

Intern Perceptions of Dialect and Regionalism

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hara, Hunter

2005-01-01

Interns at The University of Tampa investigate how perceptions of dialect and regionalism may impact the learning environment and more precisely, the learner. Regionalism is defined as a belief that one's region of origin is a primary determinant of the quality of one's standards of living, social forms, customary beliefs, levels of…

Development of an international matrix-solver prediction system on a French-Japanese international grid computing environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yoshio; Kushida, Noriyuki; Tatekawa, Takayuki; Teshima, Naoya; Caniou, Yves; Guivarch, Ronan; Dayde, Michel; Ramet, Pierre

2010-01-01

The 'Research and Development of International Matrix-Solver Prediction System (REDIMPS)' project aimed at improving the TLSE sparse linear algebra expert website by establishing an international grid computing environment between Japan and France. To help users in identifying the best solver or sparse linear algebra tool for their problems, we have developed an interoperable environment between French and Japanese grid infrastructures (respectively managed by DIET and AEGIS). Two main issues were considered. The first issue is how to submit a job from DIET to AEGIS. The second issue is how to bridge the difference of security between DIET and AEGIS. To overcome these issues, we developed APIs to communicate between different grid infrastructures by improving the client API of AEGIS. By developing a server deamon program (SeD) of DIET which behaves like an AEGIS user, DIET can call functions in AEGIS: authentication, file transfer, job submission, and so on. To intensify the security, we also developed functionalities to authenticate DIET sites and DIET users in order to access AEGIS computing resources. By this study, the set of software and computers available within TLSE to find an appropriate solver is enlarged over France (DIET) and Japan (AEGIS). (author)

Strategic Spatial Planning's Role in Legitimizing Investments in Transport Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Kristian

This paper discusses to what extent spatial visions might play an important role in not only supporting, but also legitimizing the need for investments in transport infrastructures. Drawing on discussion of an ‘infrastructure turn’ in strategic spatial planning (Dodson 2009), this paper explores...... how the recently proposed vision of a Loop City for the Danish/Swedish Øresund Region has played an important role in legitimizing and building political support for a light railway connecting the outer suburbs of Copenhagen. It is not unusual for large investments in new transport infrastructures...

New Global Financial Order and Promotion of Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB: Opportunities and Challenges for Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jacob Olufemi Fatile

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to examine the effect of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB on infrastructural development in developing countries with specific reference to Africa. The paper argues that availability of infrastructure has become one of the major problems in the process of economic development generally in the Global South. Given the need for hugecapital infrastructure in the region and thepresence of the financing gap in infrastructure financing, China initiated the establishment of the AIIB, therefore, heralding a new chapter in the international finance system. The study uses the “New Model Development Finance” lens to discuss Global Governance of Finance with a historical overview of GlobalFinancial Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF and World Bank that have been in existence for close to seven decades. It identifies the majorchallenges which emerging economies have with existing international financial institutions as well as some opportunities and challenges for African countries. It observes that the establishment of AIIB is a major diplomatic victory for China and a foreign policy fiasco for the United States. It argues further that the new bank is a parallel project to the existing international financial institutions and may accidentally lead to a reform of the Bretton Woods system. The paper recommends among others that AIIB should find a way to work hand-in-hand with other existing Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs since cooperation with such development agencies can engender positive image and goodwill for the new bank. It concludes that the establishment and development of AIIB need support from all over the world because AIIB is designed to provide financing methods for infrastructure in developing countries across the globe including African nations.

Understanding the infrastructure of European Research Infrastructures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindstrøm, Maria Duclos; Kropp, Kristoffer

2017-01-01

European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC) are a new form of legal and financial framework for the establishment and operation of research infrastructures in Europe. Despite their scope, ambition, and novelty, the topic has received limited scholarly attention. This article analyses one ER....... It is also a promising theoretical framework for addressing the relationship between the ERIC construct and the large diversity of European Research Infrastructures.......European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC) are a new form of legal and financial framework for the establishment and operation of research infrastructures in Europe. Despite their scope, ambition, and novelty, the topic has received limited scholarly attention. This article analyses one ERIC...... became an ERIC using the Bowker and Star’s sociology of infrastructures. We conclude that focusing on ERICs as a European standard for organising and funding research collaboration gives new insights into the problems of membership, durability, and standardisation faced by research infrastructures...

Water Resources Sustainability in Northwest Mexico: Analysis of Regional Infrastructure Plans under Historical and Climate Change Scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Che, D.; Robles-Morua, A.; Mayer, A. S.; Vivoni, E. R.

2012-12-01

The arid state of Sonora, Mexico, has embarked on a large water infrastructure project to provide additional water supply and improved sanitation to the growing capital of Hermosillo. The main component of the Sonora SI project involves an interbasin transfer from rural to urban water users that has generated conflicts over water among different social sectors. Through interactions with regional stakeholders from agricultural and water management agencies, we ascertained the need for a long-term assessment of the water resources of one of the system components, the Sonora River Basin (SRB). A semi-distributed, daily watershed model that includes current and proposed reservoir infrastructure was applied to the SRB. This simulation framework allowed us to explore alternative scenarios of water supply from the SRB to Hermosillo under historical (1980-2010) and future (2031-2040) periods that include the impact of climate change. We compared three precipitation forcing scenarios for the historical period: (1) a network of ground observations from Mexican water agencies; (2) gridded fields from the North America Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) at 12 km resolution; and (3) gridded fields from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at 10 km resolution. These were compared to daily historical observations at two stream gauging stations and two reservoirs to generate confidence in the simulation tools. We then tested the impact of climate change through the use of the A2 emissions scenario and HadCM3 boundary forcing on the WRF simulations of a future period. Our analysis is focused on the combined impact of existing and proposed reservoir infrastructure at two new sites on the water supply management in the SRB under historical and future climate conditions. We also explore the impact of climate variability and change on the bimodal precipitation pattern from winter frontal storms and the summertime North American monsoon and its consequences on water

Application of Resource Portfolio Concept in Nuclear Regulatory Infrastructure Support

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Y. E.; Ha, J. T.; Chang, H. S.; Kam, S. C.; Ryu, Y. H.

2010-01-01

As the new entrants in the global nuclear construction market are increasing and the establishment of an effective and sustainable regulatory infrastructure becomes more important, they have requested international assistance from the international nuclear communities with mature nuclear regulatory programmes. It needs to optimize the use of limited resources from regulatory organization providing support to regulatory infrastructure of new comers. This paper suggests the resource portfolio concept like a GE/Mckinsey Matrix used in business management and tries to apply it to the current needs considered in the regulatory support program in Korea as the case study

An approach for modelling interdependent infrastructures in the context of vulnerability analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Jonas; Hassel, Henrik

2010-01-01

Technical infrastructures of the society are becoming more and more interconnected and interdependent, i.e. the function of an infrastructure influences the function of other infrastructures. Disturbances in one infrastructure therefore often traverse to other dependent infrastructures and possibly even back to the infrastructure where the failure originated. It is becoming increasingly important to take these interdependencies into account when assessing the vulnerability of technical infrastructures. In the present paper, an approach for modelling interdependent technical infrastructures is proposed. The modelling approach considers structural properties, as employed in graph theory, as well as functional properties to increase its fidelity and usefulness. By modelling a fictional electrified railway network that consists of five systems and interdependencies between the systems, it is shown how the model can be employed in a vulnerability analysis. The model aims to capture both functional and geographic interdependencies. It is concluded that the proposed modelling approach is promising and suitable in the context of vulnerability analyses of interdependent systems.

Indonesian infrastructure development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Djojohadikusumo, H.S.

1991-01-01

It is with the achievement of a competitive advantage as a motivating factor that the Indonesian coal industry is engaged in infrastructure development including both small regionally trade-based terminals and high capacity capesize bulk terminals to support large scale coal exports. The unique characteristics of Indonesian coal quality, low production costs and the optimization of transport economics in accordance with vessel size provides great incentives for the European and U.S. market. This paper reports on the infrastructure development, Indonesian coal resources, and coal exports

Financing and Managing Infrastructure in Africa

OpenAIRE

Mthuli Ncube

2010-01-01

This paper discusses various ways of financing infrastructure under public private partnership (PPP) arrangements in Africa. The paper presents the standard literature on the relationship between infrastructure investment and economic growth, highlighting the contradictory findings in the literature. Stylised facts about the state of infrastructure in Africa, compared with other regions such as Asia and Latin America, are also presented. Examples of how PPPs structures work are discussed incl...

Changes in behavioural responses to infrastructure affect local and regional connectivity – a simulation study on pond breeding amphibians

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pontoppidan, Maj-Britt; Nachman, Gøsta Støger

2013-01-01

An extensive and expanding infrastructural network destroys and fragments natural habitat and has detrimental effect on abundance and population viability of many amphibian species. Roads function as barriers in the landscape. They separate local populations from each other or prevent access...... to necessary resources. Therefore, road density and traffic intensity in a region may have severe impact on regional as well as local connectivity. Amphibians may be able to detect and avoid unsuitable habitat. Individuals’ ability to avoid roads can reduce road mortality but at the same time road...... avoidance behaviour, can increase the barrier effect of the road and reduce connectivity. We use an individual based model to explore how changes in road mortality and road avoidance behaviour affect local and regional connectivity in a population of Moor frogs (Rana arvalis). The results indicate that road...

Transactional approach in assessment of operational performance of companies in transport infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dubrovsky, V.; Yaroshevich, N.; Kuzmin, E.

2016-07-01

Offer an alternative method to assess operational performance of companies in transport infrastructure of a region by making a comparison between transaction costs. The method is supposed to be a cross-functional and possibly applied to an analysis of economic entities of a different order (country, region, sector, companies) while evaluating “viscosity” / complexity of the outside and the inside. The paper includes an analysis of various methodological approaches to assess a development level of the transport infrastructure in a region. Within the author's approach and for purposed of the research, an index of transaction capacity or the transactionalness index is proposed, which determines a level of transaction costs calculated against the cost of production and revenue. The approach is piloted using the region-wise consolidated financial data of companies involved in the Russian transport infrastructure for 2005/2013. The proposed alternative way to measure corporate operating efficiency has proved its academic consistency. A specific comparison between the transaction costs using the transactionalness index allows first to identify companies or regions/sectors, where there is excess complexity of economical communication in bargaining. Secondly, the index does not only point out indirectly to a degree of development in the institutional environment, but also the infrastructure (the transport one in the example given). Third, the transactionalness level may say of uncertainty and risks. As an addition to theoretical and methodological aspects of transaction costs, the authors justify an approach to their size estimation, as well as their differentiation dividing them into two groups: those of a natural type and a background type. In a course of their discussion, the authors have concluded that there are such transaction costs in place, which are standard in a manner of speaking. There is a discussion whether it is scientifically reasonable to use an

An interoperable research data infrastructure to support climate service development

Science.gov (United States)

De Filippis, Tiziana; Rocchi, Leandro; Rapisardi, Elena

2018-02-01

Accessibility, availability, re-use and re-distribution of scientific data are prerequisites to build climate services across Europe. From this perspective the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), aiming at contributing to the sharing and integration of research data, has developed a research data infrastructure to support the scientific activities conducted in several national and international research projects. The proposed architecture uses open-source tools to ensure sustainability in the development and deployment of Web applications with geographic features and data analysis functionalities. The spatial data infrastructure components are organized in typical client-server architecture and interact from the data provider download data process to representation of the results to end users. The availability of structured raw data as customized information paves the way for building climate service purveyors to support adaptation, mitigation and risk management at different scales.This work is a bottom-up collaborative initiative between different IBIMET-CNR research units (e.g. geomatics and information and communication technology - ICT; agricultural sustainability; international cooperation in least developed countries - LDCs) that embrace the same approach for sharing and re-use of research data and informatics solutions based on co-design, co-development and co-evaluation among different actors to support the production and application of climate services. During the development phase of Web applications, different users (internal and external) were involved in the whole process so as to better define user needs and suggest the implementation of specific custom functionalities. Indeed, the services are addressed to researchers, academics, public institutions and agencies - practitioners who can access data and findings from recent research in the field of applied meteorology and climatology.

[Internal migration trends and regional dynamics].

Science.gov (United States)

Trabelsi, M

1992-01-01

This study concerns aspects of regional development in Tunisia. It specifically considers how economic factors affect income differentials among regions, and ways in which these in turn influence trends in internal migration. The effect of these trends on urbanization is also explored.

Regional, national and international security requirements for the transport of nuclear cargo by sea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Booker, P.A.; Barnwell, I.

2004-01-01

Since the beginning of the nuclear age in the 1940's, the world has focused on the immense possibilities of nuclear power with both its destructive and productive capabilities. The civil nuclear industry in the UK, as in most nuclear weapons states, grew from the military facilities built in the post war years under the political climate of the Cold War. In the early years of the industry, civil and defence nuclear facilities were inextricably linked both in public perceptions and the regulatory infrastructure under which they operated. The nuclear arms race and the spread of communism overshadowed people's perceptions of there being two separate uses of nuclear material. This was a double edged sword which initially allowed the industry to develop largely unhindered by public concerns but latterly meant the industry could not break away from its roots and to many is still perceived as a dangerous and destructive force. Regulatory frameworks governing all aspects of the industry have developed both nationally and internationally driven by valid public concerns, political agendas and an international consensus that the unregulated use of nuclear material has catastrophic possibilities on an international scale. With the internationalisation of the civil nuclear industry and the costs associated with developing facilities to fully support each stage of the fuel cycle, from enrichment, fuel manufacturing, reprocessing and waste remediation, it became inevitable that a transport infrastructure would develop to make best use of the facilities. Regulations, both national and international are implicit in ensuring the security of nuclear material in transit. Due to the physical size of many of the irradiated fuel packages and implications of the changes to transport safety regulations, international transports of nuclear material, other than within mainland Europe, is predominantly carried out by sea

Regional, national and international security requirements for the transport of nuclear cargo by sea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Booker, P.A.; Barnwell, I. [Marine Operations, BNFL International Transport and British Nuclear Group Security (United Kingdom)

2004-07-01

Since the beginning of the nuclear age in the 1940's, the world has focused on the immense possibilities of nuclear power with both its destructive and productive capabilities. The civil nuclear industry in the UK, as in most nuclear weapons states, grew from the military facilities built in the post war years under the political climate of the Cold War. In the early years of the industry, civil and defence nuclear facilities were inextricably linked both in public perceptions and the regulatory infrastructure under which they operated. The nuclear arms race and the spread of communism overshadowed people's perceptions of there being two separate uses of nuclear material. This was a double edged sword which initially allowed the industry to develop largely unhindered by public concerns but latterly meant the industry could not break away from its roots and to many is still perceived as a dangerous and destructive force. Regulatory frameworks governing all aspects of the industry have developed both nationally and internationally driven by valid public concerns, political agendas and an international consensus that the unregulated use of nuclear material has catastrophic possibilities on an international scale. With the internationalisation of the civil nuclear industry and the costs associated with developing facilities to fully support each stage of the fuel cycle, from enrichment, fuel manufacturing, reprocessing and waste remediation, it became inevitable that a transport infrastructure would develop to make best use of the facilities. Regulations, both national and international are implicit in ensuring the security of nuclear material in transit. Due to the physical size of many of the irradiated fuel packages and implications of the changes to transport safety regulations, international transports of nuclear material, other than within mainland Europe, is predominantly carried out by sea.

Settlement characteristics of major infrastructures in Shanghai

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Jiao

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Critical infrastructures in Shanghai have undergone uneven settlement since their operation, which plays an important role in affecting the security of Shanghai. This paper, taking rail transportation as example, investigates settlement characteristics and influencing factors of this linear engineering, based on long-term settlement monitoring data. Results show that rail settlement is related to geological conditions, regional ground subsidence, surrounding construction activities and structural differences in the rail systems. In order to effectively decrease the impact of regional ground subsidence, a monitoring and early-warning mechanism for critical infrastructure is established by the administrative department and engineering operators, including monitoring network construction, settlement monitoring, information sharing, settlement warning, and so on.

Recommendations for the Technical Infrastructure for Standardized International Rights Statements

OpenAIRE

Charles, Valentine; Cowles, Esmé; Estlund, Karen; Isaac, Antoine; Johnson, Tom; Matienzo, Mark A.; Peiffer, Patrick; Urban, Richard J.; Zeinstra, Maarten

2015-01-01

This white paper is the product of a joint Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)-Europeana working group organized to develop minimum rights statement metadata standards for organizations that contribute to DPLA and Europeana. This white paper deals specifically with the technical infrastructure of a common namespace (rightsstatements.org) that hosts the rights statements to be used by (at minimum) the DPLA and Europeana. These recommendations for a common technical infrastructure for righ...

Building infrastructure for new nuclear power programmes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Starz, A.; Aoki, M.

2010-01-01

In recent years, more than sixty countries have indicated that they are considering or launching nuclear power programmes. It has been more than a decade since a country commissioned its first nuclear power plant. In meantime, the global nuclear community has faced greater concerns about safety, security and non-proliferation, resulting in increased international obligations and a greater expectation for transparency and openness regarding nuclear power programmes. Many of these 'nuclear newcomers' are turning to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to understand the implications of the nuclear power option and to receive advice about how to proceed with implementing a national programme. In response to growing demand for assistance, the IAEA developed a comprehensive, phased approach to establishing the infrastructure necessary to support a national nuclear power programme. This 'Milestones' approach is described in Nuclear Energy Series Guide NG-G-3.1 'Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power' (2007). From establishing the national position and legal framework to nuclear safety, security and safeguards, the Milestones covers 19 issues that need to be addressed. This approach also places special emphasis on the need for involvement of the Government, utility, industry, academic, and other stakeholders in a national decision-making process. The IAEA is also helping 'newcomers' to better understand its Safety Standards, which were written from the perspective of operating nuclear power programmes. A new safety guide is in development which provides a Road-map to the safety standards and identifies the standards that are relevant for each phase consistent with the Milestones. Several countries in the Europe region are working with the IAEA to understand the issues associated with a nuclear power programme in preparation for making a knowledgeable commitment. The starting points and approaches vary widely: some are European

Onsite and Electric Backup Capabilities at Critical Infrastructure Facilities in the United States

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Phillips, Julia A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Wallace, Kelly E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Kudo, Terence Y. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Eto, Joseph H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2016-04-01

The following analysis, conducted by Argonne National Laboratory’s (Argonne’s) Risk and Infrastructure Science Center (RISC), details an analysis of electric power backup of national critical infrastructure as captured through the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Enhanced Critical Infrastructure Program (ECIP) Initiative. Between January 1, 2011, and September 2014, 3,174 ECIP facility surveys have been conducted. This study focused first on backup capabilities by infrastructure type and then expanded to infrastructure type by census region.

Romanian contribution to research infrastructure database for EPOS

Science.gov (United States)

Ionescu, Constantin; Craiu, Andreea; Tataru, Dragos; Balan, Stefan; Muntean, Alexandra; Nastase, Eduard; Oaie, Gheorghe; Asimopolos, Laurentiu; Panaiotu, Cristian

2014-05-01

European Plate Observation System - EPOS is a long-term plan to facilitate integrated use of data, models and facilities from mainly distributed existing, but also new, research infrastructures for solid Earth Science. In EPOS Preparatory Phase were integrated the national Research Infrastructures at pan European level in order to create the EPOS distributed research infrastructures, structure in which, at the present time, Romania participates by means of the earth science research infrastructures of the national interest declared on the National Roadmap. The mission of EPOS is to build an efficient and comprehensive multidisciplinary research platform for solid Earth Sciences in Europe and to allow the scientific community to study the same phenomena from different points of view, in different time periods and spatial scales (laboratory and field experiments). At national scale, research and monitoring infrastructures have gathered a vast amount of geological and geophysical data, which have been used by research networks to underpin our understanding of the Earth. EPOS promotes the creation of comprehensive national and regional consortia, as well as the organization of collective actions. To serve the EPOS goals, in Romania a group of National Research Institutes, together with their infrastructures, gathered in an EPOS National Consortium, as follows: 1. National Institute for Earth Physics - Seismic, strong motion, GPS and Geomagnetic network and Experimental Laboratory; 2. National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology - Marine Research infrastructure and Euxinus integrated regional Black Sea observation and early-warning system; 3. Geological Institute of Romania - Surlari National Geomagnetic Observatory and National lithoteque (the latter as part of the National Museum of Geology) 4. University of Bucharest - Paleomagnetic Laboratory After national dissemination of EPOS initiative other Research Institutes and companies from the potential

Urban Green Infrastructure: German Experience

OpenAIRE

Diana Olegovna Dushkova; Sergey Nikolaevich Kirillov

2016-01-01

The paper presents a concept of urban green infrastructure and analyzes the features of its implementation in the urban development programmes of German cities. We analyzed the most shared articles devoted to the urban green infrastructure to see different approaches to definition of this term. It is based on materials of field research in the cities of Berlin and Leipzig in 2014-2015, international and national scientific publications. During the process of preparing the paper, consultations...

Building the energy infrastructure in Atlantic Canada

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Curry, T. [Atlantica Centre for Energy, Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada)]. E-mail: tim.curry@atlanticaenergy.org

2007-07-01

This paper discusses the energy infrastructure in Atlantic Canada. The energy development is poised to help transform the economy of New Brunswick. Planning for energy projects and supporting infrastructure are under way and regional opportunities are emerging.

Building the energy infrastructure in Atlantic Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Curry, T.

2007-01-01

This paper discusses the energy infrastructure in Atlantic Canada. The energy development is poised to help transform the economy of New Brunswick. Planning for energy projects and supporting infrastructure are under way and regional opportunities are emerging

Utilizing an integrated infrastructure for outcomes research: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dixon, Brian E; Whipple, Elizabeth C; Lajiness, John M; Murray, Michael D

2016-03-01

To explore the ability of an integrated health information infrastructure to support outcomes research. A systematic review of articles published from 1983 to 2012 by Regenstrief Institute investigators using data from an integrated electronic health record infrastructure involving multiple provider organisations was performed. Articles were independently assessed and classified by study design, disease and other metadata including bibliometrics. A total of 190 articles were identified. Diseases included cognitive, (16) cardiovascular, (16) infectious, (15) chronic illness (14) and cancer (12). Publications grew steadily (26 in the first decade vs. 100 in the last) as did the number of investigators (from 15 in 1983 to 62 in 2012). The proportion of articles involving non-Regenstrief authors also expanded from 54% in the first decade to 72% in the last decade. During this period, the infrastructure grew from a single health system into a health information exchange network covering more than 6 million patients. Analysis of journal and article metrics reveals high impact for clinical trials and comparative effectiveness research studies that utilised data available in the integrated infrastructure. Integrated information infrastructures support growth in high quality observational studies and diverse collaboration consistent with the goals for the learning health system. More recent publications demonstrate growing external collaborations facilitated by greater access to the infrastructure and improved opportunities to study broader disease and health outcomes. Integrated information infrastructures can stimulate learning from electronic data captured during routine clinical care but require time and collaboration to reach full potential. © 2015 Health Libraries Group.

Maintaining knowledge, training and infrastructure for research and development in nuclear safety - INSAG-16. A report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

The purpose of this report is to emphasize the importance of maintaining capabilities for nuclear research and education, especially with regard to safety aspects, so that nuclear safety may be maintained in IAEA Member States, and to alert Member States to the potential for significant harm if the infrastructure for research, development and education is not maintained. If the infrastructure for nuclear safety is not maintained, there will be a steady decrease in expertise, and thus in capability to respond to new challenges. The lead time in developing replacement educational opportunities is very long, because most institutions will require an indication of the number of enthusiastic potential students before investing in new infrastructure, and potential students may look elsewhere in the absence of an exciting analytical and experimental programme and a growing career field. Once lost, it would require massive inputs of resources from many IAEA Member States to attempt to re-establish the infrastructure, as was done to establish it when nuclear technology was new. The result could be a downward spiral in which expertise is lost, influence of the technical community on the decision making process is diminished, and complacency, fed by diminished technical capability, begins to exert a strong effect. In view of the above, INSAG has the following recommendations: In order to maintain and further enhance the safety of nuclear facilities and to protect workers and the public and the environment from radiological consequences, the infrastructure for safety research (experimental facilities, highly competent staff and modern analytical tools) must be maintained and supported by the responsible governmental organizations as well as by the operating organizations and manufacturers. This support should include international networking and co-operation, including joint funding of centres of excellence that have facilities and equipment for use in nuclear research

A Comprehensive Assessment Model for Critical Infrastructure Protection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Häyhtiö Markus

2017-12-01

Full Text Available International business demands seamless service and IT-infrastructure throughout the entire supply chain. However, dependencies between different parts of this vulnerable ecosystem form a fragile web. Assessment of the financial effects of any abnormalities in any part of the network is demanded in order to protect this network in a financially viable way. Contractual environment between the actors in a supply chain, different business domains and functions requires a management model, which enables a network wide protection for critical infrastructure. In this paper authors introduce such a model. It can be used to assess financial differences between centralized and decentralized protection of critical infrastructure. As an end result of this assessment business resilience to unknown threats can be improved across the entire supply chain.

An interoperable research data infrastructure to support climate service development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. De Filippis

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Accessibility, availability, re-use and re-distribution of scientific data are prerequisites to build climate services across Europe. From this perspective the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR, aiming at contributing to the sharing and integration of research data, has developed a research data infrastructure to support the scientific activities conducted in several national and international research projects. The proposed architecture uses open-source tools to ensure sustainability in the development and deployment of Web applications with geographic features and data analysis functionalities. The spatial data infrastructure components are organized in typical client–server architecture and interact from the data provider download data process to representation of the results to end users. The availability of structured raw data as customized information paves the way for building climate service purveyors to support adaptation, mitigation and risk management at different scales.This work is a bottom-up collaborative initiative between different IBIMET-CNR research units (e.g. geomatics and information and communication technology – ICT; agricultural sustainability; international cooperation in least developed countries – LDCs that embrace the same approach for sharing and re-use of research data and informatics solutions based on co-design, co-development and co-evaluation among different actors to support the production and application of climate services. During the development phase of Web applications, different users (internal and external were involved in the whole process so as to better define user needs and suggest the implementation of specific custom functionalities. Indeed, the services are addressed to researchers, academics, public institutions and agencies – practitioners who can access data and findings from recent research in the field of applied meteorology and climatology.

Infrastructure: A technology battlefield in the 21st century

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Drucker, H.

1997-12-31

A major part of technological advancement has involved the development of complex infrastructure systems, including electric power generation, transmission, and distribution networks; oil and gas pipeline systems; highway and rail networks; and telecommunication networks. Dependence on these infrastructure systems renders them attractive targets for conflict in the twenty-first century. Hostile governments, domestic and international terrorists, criminals, and mentally distressed individuals will inevitably find some part of the infrastructure an easy target for theft, for making political statements, for disruption of strategic activities, or for making a nuisance. The current situation regarding the vulnerability of the infrastructure can be summarized in three major points: (1) our dependence on technology has made our infrastructure more important and vital to our everyday lives, this in turn, makes us much more vulnerable to disruption in any infrastructure system; (2) technologies available for attacking infrastructure systems have changed substantially and have become much easier to obtain and use, easy accessibility to information on how to disrupt or destroy various infrastructure components means that almost anyone can be involved in this destructive process; (3) technologies for defending infrastructure systems and preventing damage have not kept pace with the capability for destroying such systems. A brief review of these points will illustrate the significance of infrastructure and the growing dangers to its various elements.

Transport infrastructure development in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bouraima Mouhamed Bayane

2017-05-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the historical configuration process of transportation systems in China and examines the relationship between economic development and transport system at three different levels. The current status of transport infrastructure system development in China is summarized at national and regional level. The investment trends for transport infrastructure in China are also depicted. The keys issues relating to government initiatives are presented.

Infrastructures for natural gas : The challenges of internationalization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Correlje, A.F.; De Jong, J.

2009-01-01

The European natural gas infrastructure is facing the challenge of adapting itself to an increasingly international pattern of supply and demand, while the coordination of transactions is getting more and more complex. New patterns of trade are evolving, reflecting the consequences of the gradual

Coordinated Border Management Through Digital Trade Infrastructures and Trans-National Government Cooperation : The FloraHolland Case

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rukanova, B.D.; Huiden, Roel; Tan, Y.

2017-01-01

Digital infrastructures (DI) that support information exchange related to international trade processes (here referred to as Digital Trade Infrastructures (DTI)) have been seen as an instrument to help address the trade facilitation and security challenges. Data pipelines can be seen as an example

The clean development mechanism (CDM) an international perspective and implications for the LAC region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-08-01

This paper addresses activity a) an analysis of international CDM experiences and its potential contribution to the LAC region. The paper begins with a section describing the basic principles of the CDM and retrieves the lessons learned from the first two years of the CDM operation. This is followed by a more detailed review in section 2 of the on-going baseline and monitoring methodology approval process. In section 3, the development value of the CDM is explored. Section 4 describes the current CDM markets, while section 5 reviews the response of host countries to the CDM outside the LAC region. Section 6 describes the various capacity building programs established by Annex 1 countries to support the CDM. In each of the first 6 sections, implications for the LAC region are identified. Section 7 brings these conclusions together into a concise summary. (The author)

Stakeholder involvement in building and maintaining national and international radiation safety infrastructures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimomura, K.

2004-01-01

Society's expectations with regard to policy towards risky technologies have changed significantly over the past 50 years, and perhaps most dramatically, over the past decade. Arrangements for the development and implementation of such policy may well fit with traditional theories from the disciplines of law, political science and engineering regarding democratic legitimacy, the delegation of power and the role of the expert. They may, however, no longer fit with a policy environment that is considerably more complex than those theories allow. The stakes are high for the radiation protection community as it seeks to recognize and accommodate these changed and changing expectations.For many years, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and its Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has an active work programme on details and implications of stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision making processes. The series of workshops in Villigen, Switzerland (in 1998 and 2002) and related follow-up work, offer assistance to the international radiological protection community on how to better integrate radiological protection into modern society. The lessons that have been learned in this area carry implications on national policy and on the governmental infrastructures necessary to carry it out

The importance of establishing an international network of tissue banks and regional tissue processing centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Morales Pedraza, Jorge

2014-03-01

During the past four decades, many tissue banks have been established across the world with the aim of supplying sterilized tissues for clinical use and research purposes. Between 1972 and 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency supported the establishment of more than sixty of these tissue banks in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Eastern Europe; promoted the use of the ionizing radiation technique for the sterilization of the processed tissues; and encouraged cooperation between the established tissue banks during the implementation of its program on radiation and tissue banking at national, regional and international levels. Taking into account that several of the established tissue banks have gained a rich experience in the procurement, processing, sterilization, storage, and medical use of sterilized tissues, it is time now to strengthen further international and regional cooperation among interested tissue banks located in different countries. The purpose of this cooperation is to share the experience gained by these banks in the procurement, processing, sterilization, storage, and used of different types of tissues in certain medical treatments and research activities. This could be done through the establishment of a network of tissue banks and a limited number of regional tissue processing centers in different regions of the world.

The content and features of transport servicing of region economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. P. Paristova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Development of a transport complex of the region and transport servicing becomes more and more urgent every year and exerts the increasing impact on development of the region in general. In article basic provisions of transport servicing of economy of the region are determined. On the basis of a research of approaches to determination of transport servicing the author's understanding of this process is provided. The system of transport servicing of the region is considered as set of elements of transport infrastructure through which interaction the needs for cargo transfer and passengers in the region are satisfied. It is the open system having the isolated internal environment and interacting with the external environment. At the same time the internal environment consists of elements between which communication is much stronger, than with the elements constituting the external environment. In market conditions the urgent problem of uncertainty of the external environment influences in turn a condition and development of system of transport servicing of the region, changing external and internal conditions of its functioning. The characteristic of system of transport servicing of the region is provided. Methods of regulation of transport servicing are determined. Features of transport servicing of economy of the region are marked out: need of updating of a property, plant and equipment on transport and development of transport infrastructure; insufficient development of strategic planning of transport as single complex within transport system and in a general context of development of productive forces; the low investment and innovative activity in a motor transportation industry caused by reducing internal and foreign investments, decrease in financing from the government budget. The research of a condition of standard legal support of development of a transport complex in the Voronezh region is conducted, the analysis of the strategic and

A Socio-Ecological Approach to GIS Least-Cost Modelling for Regional Mining Infrastructure Planning: A Case Study from South-East Sulawesi, Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex M. Lechner

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Regional planning approaches to mining infrastructure aim to reduce the conflict associated with mining operations and existing land uses, such as urban areas and biodiversity conservation, as well as the cumulative impacts that occur offsite. In this paper, we describe a method for conducting Geographical Information System (GIS least-cost path and least-cost corridor analysis for linear mining infrastructure, such as roads. Least-cost path analysis identifies the optimal pathways between two locations as a function of the cost of traveling through different land use/cover types. In a case study from South-East Sulawesi, Indonesia, we identify potential linear networks for road infrastructure connecting mines, smelters, and ports. The method used interview data from government officials to characterise their orientation (perceived importance and positive/negative attitude toward the social and environmental factors associated with mining infrastructure. A cost-surface was constructed by integrating spatial layers representing the social and environmental factors to identify areas that should be avoided and areas that were compatible with linear infrastructure using the least-cost path analysis. We compared infrastructure scenario outputs from local and national government officials by the degree of spatial overlap and found broad spatial agreement for infrastructure corridors. We conclude by discussing this approach in relation to the wider social-ecological and mine planning literature and how quantitative approaches can reduce the conflict associated with infrastructure planning.

Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development Program: Korean Education Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Sung Yeol; Hwang, Il Soon; Kim, Si Hwan

2009-01-01

Many countries have decided nuclear power for next energy resources as one of the long-term energy supply options. IAEA projected nuclear power expansion up to 2030 reaching between 447 GWe and 691 GWe compared to 370 GWe and 2660 TWh at the end of 2006. Both low and high projection is accompanied with new nuclear power plant constructions respectively 178 and 357, about 11 units per year, and most new construction is in North America, the Far East, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. During the last forty years, thirty three countries have established commercial nuclear power programs but only some of them have developed comprehensive and large scale peaceful nuclear power infrastructure. Although various cooperation and guidance program of nuclear power infrastructure, developing appropriate environment and infrastructure of nuclear power plant is still challenging problems for developing countries launching nuclear power program. With increasing the demand of safety and safeguard from international society, creating appropriate infrastructure becomes essential requirements in national nuclear power program. In the viewpoint of developing countries, without sufficient explanation and proper guidance, infrastructure could be seen only as another barrier in its nuclear power program. The importance of infrastructure development would be obscured by ostensible business and infrastructure program can result in increasing entering barriers to peaceful nuclear power application field without benefits to developing countries and international community. To avoid this situation by providing enough explanation and realistic case example and cooperate with the countries wanting to establish comprehensive nuclear power infrastructure in the peaceful applications, we are creating the education program of infrastructure development with basic guidelines of the IAEA infrastructure series and Korean experiences from least developed country to advanced country

Concerning problems of petroleum refining facilities. ; Promote international lateral work sharing, and strengthening of infrastructures in petroleum industry. Sekiyu seisei setsubi mondai ni tsuite. ; Kokusei suihei bungyo no suishin to sekiyu sangyo no kiban kyoka wo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1991-06-05

This paper discusses how to promote international lateral work sharing and how to strengthen infrastructures in the petroleum industry, as a problem prevailing over the petroleum refining facilities in Japan. Excess distillation facilities have been applied with the disposition policy. However, in view of the supply and demand situation in petroleum products for medium to long term span in the world with the pan-Pacific region as the main concern, that applicable to Japan, and that experienced during the Persian Gulf crisis, the excess facility disposition policy was revised, particularly on white kerosene, of which supply and demand tightness is concerned about, so that production capacities may be increased as required. Japan, a large presence in the international economics, is required to work more positively on petroleum refining facilities located in the oil producing countries and intermediate locations to promote the international lateral work sharing. On the one hand, in order to strengthen the infrastructures in the Japanese petroleum industry, it is necessary to promote rationalization and use at higher efficiency of the oil supply system, and convergence of the the petroleum industry, including joint investments for projects exceeding capabilities of individual enterprises. 3 tabs.

An assessment of the Pacific Regional Cancer Coalition: outcomes and implications of a regional coalition internal and external assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sy, Angela U; Heckert, Karen A; Buenconsejo-Lum, Lee; Hedson, Johnny; Tamang, Suresh; Palafox, Neal

2011-11-01

The Pacific Regional Cancer Coalition (PRCC) provides regional leadership in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) to implement the Regional Comprehensive Control Plan: 2007-2012, and to evaluate its coalition and partnerships. The Pacific Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities (CEED), aims to reduce cancer disparities and conducts evaluation activities relevant to cancer prevention and control in the USAPI. The PRCC Self (internal) and Partner (external) Assessments were conducted to assess coalition functioning, regional and national partnerships, sustainability, and the role of regionalism for integrating all chronic disease prevention and control in the Pacific. Self-administered questionnaires and key informant telephone interviews with PRCC members (N=20), and representatives from regional and national partner organizations were administered (N=26). Validated multi item measures using 5-point scales on coalition and partnership characteristics were used. Chronbach's alphas and averages for the measures were computed. Internal coalition measures: satisfaction (4.2, SD=0.48) communication (4.0, SD=0.56), respect (4.0, SD=0.60) were rated more highly than external partnership measures: resource sharing (3.5, SD=0.74), regionalism (3.9, SD=0.47), use of findings (3.9, SD=0.50). The PRCC specifically identified its level of "collaboration" with external partners including Pacific CEED. External partners identified its partnership with the PRCC in the "coalition" stage. PRCC members and external partners are satisfied with their partnerships. All groups should continue to focus on building collaboration with partners to reflect a truly regional approach to sustain the commitment, the coalitions and the programming to reduce cancer in the USAPI. PRCC and partners should also work together to integrate all chronic disease prevention and control efforts in the Pacific.

Collaborative Access Control For Critical Infrastructures

Science.gov (United States)

Baina, Amine; El Kalam, Anas Abou; Deswarte, Yves; Kaaniche, Mohamed

A critical infrastructure (CI) can fail with various degrees of severity due to physical and logical vulnerabilities. Since many interdependencies exist between CIs, failures can have dramatic consequences on the entire infrastructure. This paper focuses on threats that affect information and communication systems that constitute the critical information infrastructure (CII). A new collaborative access control framework called PolyOrBAC is proposed to address security problems that are specific to CIIs. The framework offers each organization participating in a CII the ability to collaborate with other organizations while maintaining control of its resources and internal security policy. The approach is demonstrated on a practical scenario involving the electrical power grid.

Telomere maintenance through recruitment of internal genomic regions.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Beomseok; Kim, Chuna; Hills, Mark; Sung, Sanghyun; Kim, Hyesook; Kim, Eunkyeong; Lim, Daisy S; Oh, Hyun-Seok; Choi, Rachael Mi Jung; Chun, Jongsik; Shim, Jaegal; Lee, Junho

2015-09-18

Cells surviving crisis are often tumorigenic and their telomeres are commonly maintained through the reactivation of telomerase. However, surviving cells occasionally activate a recombination-based mechanism called alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). Here we establish stably maintained survivors in telomerase-deleted Caenorhabditis elegans that escape from sterility by activating ALT. ALT survivors trans-duplicate an internal genomic region, which is already cis-duplicated to chromosome ends, across the telomeres of all chromosomes. These 'Template for ALT' (TALT) regions consist of a block of genomic DNA flanked by telomere-like sequences, and are different between two genetic background. We establish a model that an ancestral duplication of a donor TALT region to a proximal telomere region forms a genomic reservoir ready to be incorporated into telomeres on ALT activation.

Enterprise Modelling for an Educational Information Infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Widya, I.A.; Michiels, E.F.; Volman, C.J.A.M.; Pokraev, S.; de Diana, I.P.F.; Filipe, J.; Sharp, B.; Miranda, P.

2001-01-01

This paper reports the modelling exercise of an educational information infrastructure that aims to support the organisation of teaching and learning activities suitable for a wide range of didactic policies. The modelling trajectory focuses on capturing invariant structures of relations between

BALTEX—an interdisciplinary research network for the Baltic Sea region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reckermann, Marcus; Langner, Joakim; Arheimer, Berit; Markus Meier, H E; Omstedt, Anders; Von Storch, Hans; Hünicke, Birgit; Keevallik, Sirje; Schneider, Bernd

2011-01-01

BALTEX is an environmental research network dealing with the Earth system of the entire Baltic Sea drainage basin. Important elements include the water and energy cycle, climate variability and change, water management and extreme events, and related impacts on biogeochemical cycles. BALTEX was founded in 1993 as a GEWEX continental-scale experiment and is currently in its second 10 yr phase. Phase I (1993–2002) was primarily dedicated to hydrological, meteorological and oceanographic processes in the Baltic Sea drainage basin, hence mostly dealt with the physical aspects of the system. Scientific focus was on the hydrological cycle and the exchange of energy between the atmosphere, the Baltic Sea and the surface of its catchment. The BALTEX study area was hydrologically defined as the Baltic Sea drainage basin. The second 10 yr phase of BALTEX (Phase II: 2003–12) has strengthened regional climate research, water management issues, biogeochemical cycles and overarching efforts to reach out to stakeholders and decision makers, as well as to foster communication and education. Achievements of BALTEX Phase II have been the establishment of an assessment report of regional climate change and its impacts on the Baltic Sea basin (from hydrological to biological and socio-economic), the further development of regional physical climate models and the integration of biogeochemical and ecosystem models. BALTEX features a strong infrastructure, with an international secretariat and a publication series, and organizes various workshops and conferences. This article gives an overview of the BALTEX programme, with an emphasis on Phase II, with some examples from BALTEX-related research.

Helix Nebula: Enabling federation of existing data infrastructures and data services to an overarching cross-domain e-infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Lengert, Wolfgang; Farres, Jordi; Lanari, Riccardo; Casu, Francesco; Manunta, Michele; Lassalle-Balier, Gerard

2014-05-01

Helix Nebula has established a growing public private partnership of more than 30 commercial cloud providers, SMEs, and publicly funded research organisations and e-infrastructures. The Helix Nebula strategy is to establish a federated cloud service across Europe. Three high-profile flagships, sponsored by CERN (high energy physics), EMBL (life sciences) and ESA/DLR/CNES/CNR (earth science), have been deployed and extensively tested within this federated environment. The commitments behind these initial flagships have created a critical mass that attracts suppliers and users to the initiative, to work together towards an "Information as a Service" market place. Significant progress in implementing the following 4 programmatic goals (as outlined in the strategic Plan Ref.1) has been achieved: × Goal #1 Establish a Cloud Computing Infrastructure for the European Research Area (ERA) serving as a platform for innovation and evolution of the overall infrastructure. × Goal #2 Identify and adopt suitable policies for trust, security and privacy on a European-level can be provided by the European Cloud Computing framework and infrastructure. × Goal #3 Create a light-weight governance structure for the future European Cloud Computing Infrastructure that involves all the stakeholders and can evolve over time as the infrastructure, services and user-base grows. × Goal #4 Define a funding scheme involving the three stake-holder groups (service suppliers, users, EC and national funding agencies) into a Public-Private-Partnership model to implement a Cloud Computing Infrastructure that delivers a sustainable business environment adhering to European level policies. Now in 2014 a first version of this generic cross-domain e-infrastructure is ready to go into operations building on federation of European industry and contributors (data, tools, knowledge, ...). This presentation describes how Helix Nebula is being used in the domain of earth science focusing on geohazards. The

Infrastructure Requirements for an Expanded Fuel Ethanol Industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reynolds, Robert E. [Downstream Alternatives, Inc., South Bend, IN (United States)

2002-01-15

This report provides technical information specifically related to ethanol transportation, distribution, and marketing issues. This report required analysis of the infrastructure requirements for an expanded ethanol industry.

The Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII) Four Years On

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finch, Robert J.; Mohagheghi, Amir H.; Solodov, Alexander; Beeley, Philip A.; Boyle, David R.

2014-01-01

Introduction: What is GNEII? • Regionally based Institution → human resource capability → Future decision makers → managers & regulators. • Education & Development → Nuclear energy infrastructure → Integrated safeguards, safety, and security (3S) → Nuclear power fundamentals. • Strategic effort → Coordinated partnership → Responsible national nuclear energy program → Regional context. Why GNEII? • Build indigenous human resources → Education, Research, Technical capacity → Integrated 3S Systems Approach - coupled with - Nuclear Energy Infrastructure. • GNEII Addresses a Need → Increased nuclear power demand → Regional Nuclear Infrastructure → GNEII is a sustainable mechanism for developing a responsible nuclear energy program

Evaluation of the status of national nuclear infrastructure development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

addition, the approach can be used for the implementation of external evaluations (international peer review) with the participation of the IAEA and independent external experts. Such reviews, where a Member State wishes to invite others to carry out an evaluation, will help determine the degree of progress in developing and implementing national nuclear infrastructure areas for which IAEA assistance is requested. The IAEA can, upon request, assist in implementing holistic reviews of infrastructure preparedness at different stages in the development of national nuclear programmes. In particular, 'milestone 2' as defined in the Milestones publication, is a key stage at which the Member State needs to demonstrate that it is 'ready to invite bids for the first nuclear power plant'. Through the use of this report's comprehensive self-assessment, this stage is the point in time at which the Member State is encouraged to present its readiness for the construction of the first nuclear power plant to a wider audience. This review will help the Member State enhance national and international confidence in the country's ability to embark upon a nuclear power programme, including among potential nuclear power plant suppliers

The Earth System Grid Federation : an Open Infrastructure for Access to Distributed Geospatial Data

Science.gov (United States)

Cinquini, Luca; Crichton, Daniel; Mattmann, Chris; Harney, John; Shipman, Galen; Wang, Feiyi; Ananthakrishnan, Rachana; Miller, Neill; Denvil, Sebastian; Morgan, Mark;

Research Note on the Energy Infrastructure Attack Database (EIAD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Giroux

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The January 2013 attack on the In Amenas natural gas facility drew international attention. However this attack is part of a portrait of energy infrastructure targeting by non-state actors that spans the globe. Data drawn from the Energy Infrastructure Attack Database (EIAD shows that in the last decade there were, on average, nearly 400 annual attacks carried out by armed non-state actors on energy infrastructure worldwide, a figure that was well under 200 prior to 1999. This data reveals a global picture whereby violent non-state actors target energy infrastructures to air grievances, communicate to governments, impact state economic interests, or capture revenue in the form of hijacking, kidnapping ransoms, theft. And, for politically motivated groups, such as those engaged in insurgencies, attacking industry assets garners media coverage serving as a facilitator for international attention. This research note will introduce EIAD and position its utility within various research areas where the targeting of energy infrastructure, or more broadly energy infrastructure vulnerability, has been addressed, either directly or indirectly. We also provide a snapshot of the initial analysis of the data between 1980-2011, noting specific temporal and spatial trends, and then conclude with a brief discussion on the contribution of EIAD, highlighting future research trajectories. 

An Infrastructure for a Traffic Warning System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brønsted, Jeppe; Hansen, Klaus Marius; Kristensen, Lars Michael

2005-01-01

The LIWAS Trafc Warning System aims at providingearly warning to vehicles about road conditions, such aswhether the road is slippery. The LIWAS system is currentlybeing developed and consists of two main parts:sensors for determining the state of the road and a communicationinfrastructure...... supporting inter-vehicle communication.This paper presents our results on requirementsidentication, design, and prototyping of the infrastructure.The infrastructure combines communication via mobilephones with communication based on the principles ofad-hoc networking, and it supports units in being...... updatedduring operation. The presented prototypes and associatedexperimental results demonstrate the main functionalitiesof the communication infrastructure, and have led to theinitial deployment of LIWAS units....

Scaling up local energy infrastructure; An agent-based model of the emergence of district heating networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Busch, Jonathan; Roelich, Katy; Bale, Catherine S.E.; Knoeri, Christof

2017-01-01

The potential contribution of local energy infrastructure – such as heat networks – to the transition to a low carbon economy is increasingly recognised in international, national and municipal policy. Creating the policy environment to foster the scaling up of local energy infrastructure is, however, still challenging; despite national policy action and local authority interest the growth of heat networks in UK cities remains slow. Techno-economic energy system models commonly used to inform policy are not designed to address institutional and governance barriers. We present an agent-based model of heat network development in UK cities in which policy interventions aimed at the institutional and governance barriers faced by diverse actors can be explored. Three types of project instigators are included – municipal, commercial and community – which have distinct decision heuristics and capabilities and follow a multi-stage development process. Scenarios of policy interventions developed in a companion modelling approach indicate that the effect of interventions differs between actors depending on their capabilities. Successful interventions account for the specific motivations and capabilities of different actors, provide a portfolio of support along the development process and recognise the important strategic role of local authorities in supporting low carbon energy infrastructure. - Highlights: • Energy policy should account for diverse actor motivations and capabilities. • Project development is a multi-stage process, not a one-off event. • Participatory agent-based modelling can inform policy that accounts for complexity. • Policy should take a portfolio approach to providing support. • Local authorities have an important strategic role in local infrastructure.

The Relationship between Corporate Governance Approach and Internal Audit in Tourism Sector: An Application in Marmaris Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Çağrı Köroğlu

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Tourism sector is one of the important sectors in Turkey. Corporate governance is an important tool to increase the efficiency of tourism sector. An effective i nternal audit helps to improve the effectiveness of corporate governance in tourism sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and the internal audit at four -star and five-star hotels in Marmaris. First, corporate governance and internal control concepts have been discussed within the scope of the literature. Next, in the application part, for the purpose of our study, four-star and five-star hotels were selected in Marmaris region. A survey was conducted on the hotel managers. The data set is analyzed by using SPSS. The results show significant relationship between internal control and corporate governance. In addition, hotel managements recognize the importance of the both the basic principles of corporate governance and internal audit activities.

Assessing large-scale wildlife responses to human infrastructure development.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Aurora; Jaeger, Jochen A G; Alonso, Juan Carlos

2016-07-26

Habitat loss and deterioration represent the main threats to wildlife species, and are closely linked to the expansion of roads and human settlements. Unfortunately, large-scale effects of these structures remain generally overlooked. Here, we analyzed the European transportation infrastructure network and found that 50% of the continent is within 1.5 km of transportation infrastructure. We present a method for assessing the impacts from infrastructure on wildlife, based on functional response curves describing density reductions in birds and mammals (e.g., road-effect zones), and apply it to Spain as a case study. The imprint of infrastructure extends over most of the country (55.5% in the case of birds and 97.9% for mammals), with moderate declines predicted for birds (22.6% of individuals) and severe declines predicted for mammals (46.6%). Despite certain limitations, we suggest the approach proposed is widely applicable to the evaluation of effects of planned infrastructure developments under multiple scenarios, and propose an internationally coordinated strategy to update and improve it in the future.

From regional airport to international flight destination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Gunvor Riber; Lassen, Claus

2017-01-01

in the northern part of Denmark, but in the past decade the airport has experienced growth in the number of international arrivals. This paper explores who these international travellers are and why they fly to Northern Denmark. Both Aalborg Airport and Northern Denmark in general has an interest in increasing...... the number of international arrivals, and in the effort to attract more visitors, a better understanding of this group of travellers is necessary. This paper explains that a significant number of the foreign arrivals come to Northern Denmark to visit friends and relatives, and that the geographical reach...... of the airport is larger than expected. This finding challenges the current approach to regional development associated with the airport and this paper suggests two new focus points for the further strategic route development in Aalborg Airport: awareness of the geographical reach of the airport...

PRACE - The European HPC Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Stadelmeyer, Peter

2014-05-01

The mission of PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe) is to enable high impact scientific discovery and engineering research and development across all disciplines to enhance European competitiveness for the benefit of society. PRACE seeks to realize this mission by offering world class computing and data management resources and services through a peer review process. This talk gives a general overview about PRACE and the PRACE research infrastructure (RI). PRACE is established as an international not-for-profit association and the PRACE RI is a pan-European supercomputing infrastructure which offers access to computing and data management resources at partner sites distributed throughout Europe. Besides a short summary about the organization, history, and activities of PRACE, it is explained how scientists and researchers from academia and industry from around the world can access PRACE systems and which education and training activities are offered by PRACE. The overview also contains a selection of PRACE contributions to societal challenges and ongoing activities. Examples of the latter are beside others petascaling, application benchmark suite, best practice guides for efficient use of key architectures, application enabling / scaling, new programming models, and industrial applications. The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels. The PRACE Research Infrastructure provides a persistent world-class high performance computing service for scientists and researchers from academia and industry in Europe. The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 4 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements RI-261557, RI-283493 and RI

IAEA Reviews Niger’s Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2018-01-01

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has concluded an eight-day mission to Niger to review its infrastructure development for a nuclear power programme. The Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) was carried out at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Niger. Niger, whose economic development is hampered by a lack of consistent electricity supply, is considering a potential role for nuclear power in its energy mix. A country of about 21 million people in Western Africa, Niger is currently ranked as the world’s fourth largest producer of uranium ore. The INIR team observed a strong Government commitment to developing the infrastructure for a nuclear power programme. The Government has established a Strategic Orientation Committee for the Nuclear Power Programme chaired by the Prime Minister, and a National Technical Committee for the Nuclear Power Programme chaired by the President of the Nigerien High Authority for Atomic Energy (HANEA). Those two committees form the Nuclear Energy Programme Implementing Organization (NEPIO). Niger has already completed or initiated several studies related to nuclear infrastructure development, and prepared a comprehensive report summarizing the results.

Energy-Efficient Cooperative Techniques for Infrastructure-to-Vehicle Communications

OpenAIRE

Nguyen , Tuan-Duc; Berder , Olivier; Sentieys , Olivier

2011-01-01

International audience; In wireless distributed networks, cooperative relay and cooperative Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) techniques can be used to exploit the spatial and temporal diversity gain in order to increase the performance or reduce the transmission energy consumption. The energy efficiency of cooperative MIMO and relay techniques is then very useful for the Infrastructure to Vehicle (I2V) and Infrastructure to Infrastructure (I2I) communications in Intelligent Transport Systems (I...

Radiation safety infrastructure in developing countries: a proactive approach for integrated and continuous improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mrabit, Khammar

2008-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (the Agency) is authorized, by its statute, to establish or adopt safety standards for the protection of health and minimization of danger to life and property, and to provide for their application to its own operations as well as to operations under its control or supervision. The Agency has been assisting, since the mid 1960 's, its Member States through mainly its Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) to improve their national radiation safety infrastructures. However up to the early nineties, assistance was specific and mostly ad hoc and did not systematically utilize an integrated and harmonized approach to achieving effective and sustainable national radiation safety infrastructures in Member States. An unprecedented and integrated international cooperative effort was launched by the Agency in 1994 to establish and/or upgrade the national radiation safety infrastructure in more than 90 countries within the framework of its TCP through the so-called Model project on upgrading radiation protection infrastructure. In this project proactive co-operation with Member States was used in striving towards achieving an effective and sustainable radiation safety infrastructure, compatible with the International basic safety standards for protection against ionizing radiation and for the safety of radiation sources (the BSS) and related standards. Extension to include compatibility with the guidance of the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources occurred towards the end of the Model Project in December 2004, and with the more recent ensuing follow up projects that started in 2005. The Model Project started with 5 countries in 1994 and finished with 91 countries in 2004. Up to the end of 2007 more than one hundred Member States had been participating in follow up projects covering six themes - namely: legislative and regulatory infrastructure; occupational radiation protection; radiation protection in

A comprehensive typology for mainstreaming urban green infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Robert; Zanders, Julie; Lieberknecht, Katherine; Fassman-Beck, Elizabeth

2014-11-01

During a National Science Foundation (US) funded "International Greening of Cities Workshop" in Auckland, New Zealand, participants agreed an effective urban green infrastructure (GI) typology should identify cities' present stage of GI development and map next steps to mainstream GI as a component of urban infrastructure. Our review reveals current GI typologies do not systematically identify such opportunities. We address this knowledge gap by developing a new typology incorporating political, economic, and ecological forces shaping GI implementation. Applying this information allows symmetrical, place-based exploration of the social and ecological elements driving a city's GI systems. We use this information to distinguish current levels of GI development and clarify intervention opportunities to advance GI into the mainstream of metropolitan infrastructure. We employ three case studies (San Antonio, Texas; Auckland, New Zealand; and New York, New York) to test and refine our typology.

Maintaining knowledge, training and infrastructure for research and development in nuclear safety. INSAG-16. A report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group (Russian Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

The purpose of this report is to emphasize the importance of maintaining capabilities for nuclear research and education, especially with regard to safety aspects, so that nuclear safety may be maintained in IAEA Member States, and to alert Member States to the potential for significant harm if the infrastructure for research, development and education is not maintained. If the infrastructure for nuclear safety is not maintained, there will be a steady decrease in expertise, and thus in capability to respond to new challenges. The lead time in developing replacement educational opportunities is very long, because most institutions will require an indication of the number of enthusiastic potential students before investing in new infrastructure, and potential students may look elsewhere in the absence of an exciting analytical and experimental programme and a growing career field. Once lost, it would require massive inputs of resources from many IAEA Member States to attempt to re-establish the infrastructure, as was done to establish it when nuclear technology was new. The result could be a downward spiral in which expertise is lost, influence of the technical community on the decision making process is diminished, and complacency, fed by diminished technical capability, begins to exert a strong effect. In view of the above, INSAG has the following recommendations: In order to maintain and further enhance the safety of nuclear facilities and to protect workers and the public and the environment from radiological consequences, the infrastructure for safety research (experimental facilities, highly competent staff and modern analytical tools) must be maintained and supported by the responsible governmental organizations as well as by the operating organizations and manufacturers. This support should include international networking and co-operation, including joint funding of centres of excellence that have facilities and equipment for use in nuclear research

Geographically Based Hydrogen Consumer Demand and Infrastructure Analysis: Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Melendez, M.; Milbrandt, A.

2006-10-01

In FY 2004 and 2005, NREL developed a proposed minimal infrastructure to support nationwide deployment of hydrogen vehicles by offering infrastructure scenarios that facilitated interstate travel. This report identifies key metropolitan areas and regions on which to focus infrastructure efforts during the early hydrogen transition.

Internal migration and regional differences of population aging: An empirical study of 287 cities in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Rong; Xu, Ping; Li, Fen; Song, Peipei

2018-04-02

In addition to birth and death, migration is also an important factor that determines the level of population aging in different regions, especially under the current context of low fertility and low mortality in China. Drawing upon data from the fifth and sixth national population census of 287 prefecture-level cities in China, this study explored the spatial patterns of population aging and its trends from 2000 to 2010 in China. We further examined how the large-scale internal migration was related to the spatial differences and the changes of aging by using multivariate quantitative models. Findings showed that the percentage of elder cities (i.e. proportion of individuals aged 65 and above to total population is higher than 7%) increased from 50% to 90% in the total 287 cities within the decade. We also found that regional imbalances of population aging have changed since 2000 in China. The gap of aging level between East zone and the other three zones (i.e. West, Central, and North-east) has considerably narrowed down. In 2000, Eastern region had the greatest number (65) of and the largest proportion (74.7%) of elder cities among all four regions. By 2010, the proportion (87.4%) of elder cities in the eastern region was slightly lower than Central (91.4%), Western (88.2%) and North-east sectors (91.2%). Results from multivariate quantitative models showed that the regional differences of population aging appear to be affected much more by the large-scale internal migration with clear age selectivity and orientation preference than by the impact of fertility and mortality. Population aging is expected to continue in China, which will in turn exacerbate regional imbalances. Policies and implications are discussed to face the challenges that the divergent aging population may present in China.

A business model for the establishment of the European grid infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Candiello, A; Cresti, D; Ferrari, T; Mazzucato, M; Perini, L

2010-01-01

An international grid has been built in Europe during the past years in the framework of various EC-funded projects to support the growth of e-Science. After several years of work spent to increase the scale of the infrastructure, to expand the user community and improve the availability of the services delivered, effort is now concentrating on the creation of a new organizational model, capable of fulfilling the vision of a sustainable European grid infrastructure. The European Grid Initiative (EGI) is the proposed framework to seamlessly link at a global level the European national grid e-Infrastructures operated by the National Grid Initiatives and European International Research Organizations, and based on a European Unified Middleware Distribution, which will be the result of a joint effort of various European grid Middleware Consortia. This paper describes the requirements that EGI addresses, the actors contributing to its foundation, the offering and the organizational structure that constitute the EGI business model.

Enabling fast charging - Infrastructure and economic considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Burnham, Andrew; Dufek, Eric J.; Stephens, Thomas; Francfort, James; Michelbacher, Christopher; Carlson, Richard B.; Zhang, Jiucai; Vijayagopal, Ram; Dias, Fernando; Mohanpurkar, Manish; Scoffield, Don; Hardy, Keith; Shirk, Matthew; Hovsapian, Rob; Ahmed, Shabbir; Bloom, Ira; Jansen, Andrew N.; Keyser, Matthew; Kreuzer, Cory; Markel, Anthony; Meintz, Andrew; Pesaran, Ahmad; Tanim, Tanvir R.

2017-11-01

The ability to charge battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on a time scale that is on par with the time to fuel an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) would remove a significant barrier to the adoption of BEVs. However, for viability, fast charging at this time scale needs to also occur at a price that is acceptable to consumers. Therefore, the cost drivers for both BEV owners and charging station providers are analyzed. In addition, key infrastructure considerations are examined, including grid stability and delivery of power, the design of fast charging stations and the design and use of electric vehicle service equipment. Each of these aspects have technical barriers that need to be addressed, and are directly linked to economic impacts to use and implementation. This discussion focuses on both the economic and infrastructure issues which exist and need to be addressed for the effective implementation of fast charging at 400 kW and above. In so doing, it has been found that there is a distinct need to effectively manage the intermittent, high power demand of fast charging, strategically plan infrastructure corridors, and to further understand the cost of operation of charging infrastructure and BEVs.

Integrating sea floor observatory data: the EMSO data infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Huber, Robert; Azzarone, Adriano; Carval, Thierry; Doumaz, Fawzi; Giovanetti, Gabriele; Marinaro, Giuditta; Rolin, Jean-Francois; Beranzoli, Laura; Waldmann, Christoph

2013-04-01

The European research infrastructure EMSO is a European network of fixed-point, deep-seafloor and water column observatories deployed in key sites of the European Continental margin and Arctic. It aims to provide the technological and scientific framework for the investigation of the environmental processes related to the interaction between the geosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere and for a sustainable management by long-term monitoring also with real-time data transmission. Since 2006, EMSO is on the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) roadmap and has entered its construction phase in 2012. Within this framework, EMSO is contributing to large infrastructure integration projects such as ENVRI and COOPEUS. The EMSO infrastructure is geographically distributed in key sites of European waters, spanning from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. It is presently consisting of thirteen sites which have been identified by the scientific community according to their importance respect to Marine Ecosystems, Climate Changes and Marine GeoHazards. The data infrastructure for EMSO is being designed as a distributed system. Presently, EMSO data collected during experiments at each EMSO site are locally stored and organized in catalogues or relational databases run by the responsible regional EMSO nodes. Three major institutions and their data centers are currently offering access to EMSO data: PANGAEA, INGV and IFREMER. In continuation of the IT activities which have been performed during EMSOs twin project ESONET, EMSO is now implementing the ESONET data architecture within an operational EMSO data infrastructure. EMSO aims to be compliant with relevant marine initiatives such as MyOceans, EUROSITES, EuroARGO, SEADATANET and EMODNET as well as to meet the requirements of international and interdisciplinary projects such as COOPEUS and ENVRI, EUDAT and iCORDI. A major focus is therefore set on standardization and

The design and implementation of an infrastructure for multimedia digital libraries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Vries, A.P.; Eberman, B.; Kovalcin, D.E.

We develop an infrastructure for managing, indexing and serving multimedia content in digital libraries. This infrastructure follows the model of the web, and thereby is distributed in nature. We discuss the design of the Librarian, the component that manages meta data about the content. The

The Evolving Genetics of Green Infrastructure Implementation (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Ballestero, T. P.; Watts, A. W.; Houle, J. J.; Puls, T. A.

2013-12-01

Urbanization radically alters hydrology, with impacts from very local to regional scales. Green Infrastructure techniques use natural processes to restore hydrologic function, and provide multiple companion benefits such as energy savings, increased green space, improved ecosystems, etc. Although science can clearly demonstrate the benefits and cost saving associated with Green Infrastructure (see for example Forging The Link http://www.unh.edu/unhsc/forgingthelink ), many community decision makers continue to be reluctant to incorporate these more effective methods into standard planning practices. In spite of the wealth of evidence, communities are very slow to codify and adopt the practices, commonly waiting for regulatory or legal directives to force them down the path. Barriers to implementation include misconceptions of performance, reliability and cost, often fed by a local ';expert' who is trusted member of the community. For Green Infrastructure to be effective, implementation must become a standard practice, rather than an innovation; the methods and concepts must be integrated into planning DNA. Fundamentally, successful green infrastructure implementation comes down to changing behavior, perceptions, and priorities, and fostering trust in the science. We will present: data on the cost and effectiveness of using Green Infrastructure to restore damaged urban hydrology, incorporating methods into urban planning tools, and an ongoing science collaborative project engaging stakeholders directly in the development and optimization of Green Infrastructure tools.

China national space remote sensing infrastructure and its application

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ming

2016-07-01

Space Infrastructure is a space system that provides communication, navigation and remote sensing service for broad users. China National Space Remote Sensing Infrastructure includes remote sensing satellites, ground system and related systems. According to the principle of multiple-function on one satellite, multiple satellites in one constellation and collaboration between constellations, series of land observation, ocean observation and atmosphere observation satellites have been suggested to have high, middle and low resolution and fly on different orbits and with different means of payloads to achieve a high ability for global synthetically observation. With such an infrastructure, we can carry out the research on climate change, geophysics global surveying and mapping, water resources management, safety and emergency management, and so on. I This paper gives a detailed introduction about the planning of this infrastructure and its application in different area, especially the international cooperation potential in the so called One Belt and One Road space information corridor.

Global Land Transport Infrastructure Requirements

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2013-06-01

Over the next four decades, global passenger and freight travel is expected to double over 2010 levels. In order to accommodate this growth, it is expected that the world will need to add nearly 25 million paved road lane-kilometres and 335 000 rail track kilometres. In addition, it is expected that between 45 000 square kilometres and 77 000 square kilometres of new parking spaces will be added to accommodate vehicle stock growth. These land transport infrastructure additions, when combined with operations, maintenance and repairs, are expected to cost as much as USD 45 trillion by 2050. This publication reports on the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) analysis of infrastructure requirements to support projected road and rail travel through 2050, using the IEA Mobility Model. It considers land transport infrastructure additions to support travel growth to 2050. It also considers potential savings if countries pursue “avoid and shift” policies: in this scenario, cumulative global land transport infrastructure spending could decrease as much as USD 20 trillion by 2050 over baseline projections.

Towards a Spatial Data Infrastructure in Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vlado Cetl

2003-09-01

Full Text Available The term Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI is not new and has already been present in the world for quite a long time. President Clinton's Executive Order 12906 from April 1994 played a crucial role and was an initiative in establishing National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI. This Order induced briskly the building of NSDI and also of all additional counterparts in the USA and around the whole world. Besides NSDI, various other initiatives at regional (EUROGI, PCGIAP, … and global level (GSDI were also launched.In this paper, an overview of different initiatives and efforts in establishing SDI in Croatia will be presented. State bodies such as the Government and State Geodetic Administration have the main role in it in collaboration with public and commercial sector and also with academic community. As the main factor in creating a future SDI, State Geodetic Administration has launched several initiatives the goal of which is the installation of new technologies, equipment and procedures in map production and the establishment of digital topographic and cadastre databases. The arrangement and modernization of spatial records and the establishment of NSDI make the key factors for sustainable physical planning and land development at local and national level.In the next few years Croatia must solve numerous duties to arrange spatial records. These duties must be solved very conscientiously and in a reasonable period of time. It is very important for Croatian prosperity and for the fulfilment of the conditions set in the process of entering European and international integrations.

Designing a concept for an IT-infrastructure for an integrated research and treatment center.

Science.gov (United States)

Stäubert, Sebastian; Winter, Alfred; Speer, Ronald; Löffler, Markus

2010-01-01

Healthcare and medical research in Germany are heading to more interconnected systems. New initiatives are funded by the German government to encourage the development of Integrated Research and Treatment Centers (IFB). Within an IFB new organizational structures and infrastructures for interdisciplinary, translational and trans-sectoral working relationship between existing rigid separated sectors are intended and needed. This paper describes how an IT-infrastructure of an IFB could look like, what major challenges have to be solved and what methods can be used to plan such a complex IT-infrastructure in the field of healthcare. By means of project management, system analyses, process models, 3LGM2-models and resource plans an appropriate concept with different views is created. This concept supports the information management in its enterprise architecture planning activities and implies a first step of implementing a connected healthcare and medical research platform.

Enabling intercontinental e-infrastructures – a case for Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Prnjat, O

2015-05-01

Full Text Available CHAIN-REDS, an EU co-funded project, focuses on promoting and supporting technological and scientific collaboration across different e-Infrastructures established and operated in various continents. The project implemented a Regional Operations...

European dimension of the implementation of the IAEA TC model project 'Upgrading radiation protection infrastructure'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sabol, J.

2001-01-01

A comprehensive evaluation carried out by the IAEA during the period 1984-1995 showed that eleven countries in Europe -- Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, The Former Yugoslav Republic (TFYR) of Macedonia -- did not have a satisfactory system for radiation protection and the safety of radiation sources in accordance with the recommended international requirements. During the past four years, these countries have been participating in a Model Project aimed at upgrading radiation protection infrastructure in the Europe region with special emphasis on the establishment of an effective legal framework for adequate regulatory control of radiation sources and facilities. This paper analyses the results accomplished in the implementation of this project. It presents the main objectives, based on the present achievements for a follow-up programme to be carried out in participating and also in some other Member States with insufficient national infrastructures for assuring adequate safety in nuclear and radiation technologies. (author)

An Overview of Research Infrastructures in Europe - and Recommendations to LIBER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norbert Lossau

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Research infrastructures (RI include major scientific equipment, scientific collections, archives, structured information and ICT-based infrastructures and services3. They support top-level research and can be organized at the national and regional level, at EU Member State, European and global level. RIs have become a topic of interest and priority for funders, political bodies, and (increasingly institutional decision makers. In Europe the European Commission is a funder of RIs, complementing funding done by EU Member States at the national level. Over the last ten years hundreds of RI-projects have been planned and some received funding for design, extension and improvement of operations and services to scientific communities. The ESFRI4 roadmap for research infrastructures represents a financial volume of approx. 20 billion EUR for ten years to construct 44 RIs. From the perspective of realizing the objectives set for RI, 2012 is an essential milestone, as the discussion of the HORIZON 2020 programmes at the European level will take place as well as consultations with member states. The following overview is by no means complete. It focuses on some RIs majorly influenced by the production and management of scientific information and which have relevance for the European political and funding agenda. RI projects include a variety of typologies, ranging from hard, single-site facilities to distributed, soft facilities relying on networks. Typically they have emerged from discipline-specific or cross-disciplinary requirements. RIs produce, process or manage big and small but heterogeneous volumes of information. They are the so-called ‘scientific data factories’ of the 21st century. They comprise various types of information resources such as publications, digitized collections, learning objects and research data. Key issues on today’s agenda for RIs are their uptake by researchers, and their viability, sustainability and interoperability

Multilevel Control System of Regional Power Consumption: Analysis of Infrastructure Elements Interconnections, Efficiency Evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Nikolaevna Myznikova

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Fundamental strategic programs in the spheres of power and economics adopted at various levels of management, are not always capable to solve the problem of power efficiency. The changes of systemic connections of economy and power elements are one of the basic problems of management at the regional level. The development of market relations has caused the growth of uncertainty factors at all levels of power consumption management. An insufficient estimation of system infrastructural interrelations and an individualization of organizational-economic relations of economic subjects and their localization, have generated the intersystem conflictness in distribution of power resources and have aggravated the problem of estimating power consumption efficiency at a systemic level. The restriction of application of the traditional management methods based on the principles of technological efficiency of the processes of energy manufacture and consumption, is connected with the information ruptures caused by the growth of factors of uncertainty and inconsistency of efficiency criteria. Application of modern methods of power consumption forecasting has a number of essential restrictions. At the present stage the management of power consumption in multilevel systems is aimed at realisation of system integrity and economic coordination of manufacture elements, transfer and consumption at regional level and demands working out of the new effective management methods based on the analysis of system interrelations. Allocation of system interrelations depends on features of development of electropower sector, active and passive elements of the structure of consumption, power balance. The analysis and estimation of interrelations of power and economic sphere allow to improve methodology of management of power consumption at the regional level in the conditions of uncertainty.

FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS OF EFFICIENCY PRODUCTION INFRASTRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anzor H. Jankaziev

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article presents the methodological andmethodical bases of research and development institutes forming effi ciency production infrastructure. Focuses on the organizationalside of the issue as the comparative characteristics. It is proposed allocation of integraland differential approach to assessing the investment attractiveness of the industrial infrastructure of the enterprise. Consideredsectoral, regional, national and internationallevels of development of industrial infrastructure.

Development tools for risk implementation of entrepreneurship infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rustam Ilkamovich Malikov

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In the present article, we consider the organizational, economic and institutional aspects of the implementation of infrastructure projects in the Russian Federation. The main objective of the work is to try to organize the parameters of the national economy on the criteria of quality and availability of infrastructure for domestic business. According to the authors, an effective solution to the problem of modernization of infrastructure businesses in the regions may be the result of interaction between the state, the public and businesses to achieve the consolidation of their joint efforts. However, inadequate institutional and legal framework for the interaction of the institutions of government and business can be a significant barrier to the implementation of infrastructure projects to ensure economic activities of businesses. For this reason it is necessary to increase the loyalty and mutual benefit relationship of relevant government agencies and commercial organizations to develop the infrastructure of the complex in the context of meeting the mutual expectations of the parties at all stages of interaction. With the use of fuzzy set theory researchers presented a risk assessment model for infrastructure projects. The use of the model will allow for the participation of the rationale business structure in the formation of infrastructure resources to meet emerging potential benefits in the prevailing levels of risk.

78 FR 57619 - Secretarial Infrastructure Business Development Mission to Mexico November 18-23, 2013

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-19

..., 2013, regarding the Secretarial Infrastructure Business Development Mission to Mexico November 18-23... and Applications section of the Notice of the Secretarial Infrastructure Business Development Mission... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration Secretarial Infrastructure Business...

Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pero, Herve, E-mail: Herve.Pero@ec.europa.e [' Research Infrastructures' Unit, DG Research, European Commission, Brussels (Belgium)

2011-01-21

Research Infrastructures act as 'knowledge industries' for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of 'regional partner facilities', with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pero, Herve

2011-01-01

Research Infrastructures act as 'knowledge industries' for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of 'regional partner facilities', with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

Research infrastructures of pan-European interest: The EU and Global issues

Science.gov (United States)

Pero, Hervé

2011-01-01

Research Infrastructures act as “knowledge industries” for the society and as a source of attraction for world scientists. At European level, the long-term objective is to support an efficient and world-class eco-system of Research Infrastructures, encompassing not only the large single-site facilities but also distributed research infrastructures, based on a network of “regional partner facilities”, with strong links with world-class universities and centres of excellence. The EC support activities help to promote the development of this fabric of research infrastructures of the highest quality and performance in Europe. Since 2002 ESFRI is also aimed at supporting a coherent approach to policy-making on research infrastructures. The European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures is ESFRI's most significant achievement to date, and KM3Net is one of its identified projects. The current Community support to the Preparatory Phase of this project aims at solving mainly governance, financial, organisational and legal issues. How should KM3Net help contributing to an efficient Research Infrastructure eco-system? This is the question to which the KM3Net stakeholders need to be able to answer very soon!

Prioritising transport infrastructure projects: towards a multi-criterion ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Kirstam

multi-criterion analysis (MCA), partial equilibrium analysis, project appraisal ... In the case of transport infrastructure projects, though, this is no mean ... vehicle ownership and mileage-based depreciation (an improved road network and/ .... urban, rural or regional development initiatives – they typically include one or more.

Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection in Canada

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

department for the Energy sector, has been pro- active and innovative in enhancing protection for national critical energy infrastructure (NCI). While...prospérité (PSP), mais des relations transfrontalières plus informelles entre les propriétaires/opérateurs et leurs associations industrielles ...create innovative solutions for CIP. 9. International Cooperation: participate in international CIP initiatives and to strengthen information-sharing

Internal and external dynamics of regional cooperation in Central Asia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirzokhid Rakhimov

2010-07-01

Challenges of the 21-century require a broader partnership and cooperation. Future prospects of multilateral regional and international cooperation in Central Asia will depend on correlations of national, regional and global interests. It is necessary first of all strong dialogs between Central Asian republics itself. Central Asian geopolitical, economic and security challenges are connected and solution could come jointly. Future regional cooperation, strong international partnership would promote more stability, economic reforms and democratization to region and beyond.

Migration of international students and mobilizing skills in the MENA Region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nour, S.

2014-01-01

This paper uses both the descriptive and comparative approaches to provide an overview of migration of international students from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and mobilizing skills in the MENA Region. We fill the gap in the MENA literature and present a more comprehensive and

Encouraging an ecological evolution of data infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Parsons, M. A.

2015-12-01

Infrastructure is often thought of as a complex physical construct usually designed to transport information or things (e.g. electricity, water, cars, money, sound, data…). The Research Data Alliance (RDA) takes a more holistic view and considers infrastructure as a complex body of relationships between people, machines, and organisations. This paper will describe how this more ecological perspective leads RDA to define and govern an agile virtual organization. We seek to harness the power of the volunteer, through an open problem solving approach that focusses on the problems of our individual members and their organisations. We focus on implementing solutions that make data sharing work better without defining a priori what is necessary. We do not judge the fitness of a solution, per se, but instead assess how broadly the solution is adopted, recognizing that adoption is often the social challenge of technical problem. We seek to encourage a bottoms up approach with light guidance on principles from the top. The goal is to develop community solutions that solve real problems today yet are adaptive to changing technologies and needs.

Climate Change and Regulation in International and Regional Level, Especially the Built Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Putnoki Zsuzsanna

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article starts with a brief insight into the history of climate change, with a scope on the international and legal aspects of ever-changing regulations. The regional level is in the article is The European Union, as the only regional economic integration organization under the Kyoto Protocol. It deals with the United Nation’s international agreements like UNFCCC its Kyoto’s Protocol and the Post-Kyoto era. It also analyses the EU’s system in the climate change law with correspondence the international rules. Comparison between international and regional legislation in the climate change is used as a tool of analysis. Finally an insight is given into a special field in the climate change, the build environment, reflecting on the related United Nation’s recommendation and the EU’s regulation.

Green stormwater infrastructure eco-planning and development on the regional scale: a case study of Shanghai Lingang New City, East China

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Haishun; Chen, Liang; Zhao, Bing; Zhang, Qiuzhuo; Cai, Yongli

2016-06-01

Urban underlying surface has been greatly changed with rapid urbanization, considered to be one of the major causes for the destruction of urban natural hydrological processes. This has imposed a huge challenge for stormwater management in cities. There has been a shift from gray water management to green stormwater management thinking. The green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is regarded as an effective and cost-efficient stormwater management eco-landscape approach. China's GSI practice and the development of its theoretical framework are still in the initial stage. This paper presents an innovative framework for stormwater management, integrating green stormwater infrastructure and landscape security patterns on a regional scale based on an urban master plan. The core concept of green stormwater infrastructure eco-planning is to form an interconnected GSI network (i.e., stormwater management landscape security pattern) which consists of the location, portion, size, layout, and structure of GSI so as to efficiently safeguard natural hydrological processes. Shanghai Lingang New City, a satellite new town of Shanghai, China was selected as a case study for GSI studies. Simulation analyses of hydrological processes were carried out to identify the critical significant landscape nodes in the highpriority watersheds for stormwater management. GSI should be planned and implemented in these identified landscape nodes. The comprehensive stormwater management landscape security pattern of Shanghai Lingang New City is designed with consideration of flood control, stormwater control, runoff reduction, water quality protection, and rainwater utilization objectives which could provide guidelines for smart growth and sustainable development of this city.

The Skogaryd Research Catchment - an infrastructure to integrate terrestrial and aquatic greenhouse gas fluxes

Science.gov (United States)

Klemedtsson, Leif; Weslien, Per; Bastviken, David; Natchimuthu, Sivakiruthika; Wallin, Marcus

2015-04-01

The Skogaryd Research Catchment (SRC; 58°23'N, 12°09'E, hemiboreal) is part of the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES, www.fieldsites.se). SITES is a national coordinated infrastructure for terrestrial and limnological field research, consisting of nine research stations covering the different landscapes and climatic regions in Sweden. The SITES initiative is a long-term effort founded by the Swedish Research Council and the station owners. Researchers regardless of affiliation are welcome use the stations including the infrastructure in their research and perform experiments (after approval) or outsource tasks which are managed by the stations. Data collected in both background monitoring programs and previous and ongoing projects at the stations are also intended to support past, present and future research. Ecological, biogeochemical, and environmental research often focus on a specific ecosystem or have strict habitat boundaries. However, the growing awareness of systems interactions, feedbacks and large scale consequences calls for approaches that integrate across ecosystems and habitats to consider whole catchments, landscapes and regions. Thus there is an urgent need for long-term field sites that support integrative and cross-habitat-boundary research. Our aim at SRC is to develop methodologies to quantify GHG balances at the landscape scale in forested regions that include land-atmosphere, land-water, and water-atmosphere exchange of CO2, CH4 and N2O. Another aim is to promote investigations to elucidate the undelaying regulation of the biogeochemical processes. The SRC harbor several main habitats including mires, forests at different growth stages, lakes, and streams. The fluxes of greenhouse gases (GHG) are measured to a large extent according to ICOS protocol for the Eddy Covariance (EC) methodology for CO2, H2O, and CH4, as well as axillary data for habitats where such protocols exist. For aquatic habitats lacking such protocols

Epilepsy informatics and an ontology-driven infrastructure for large database research and patient care in epilepsy

Science.gov (United States)

Sahoo, Satya S.; Zhang, Guo-Qiang; Lhatoo, Samden D.

2013-01-01

Summary The epilepsy community increasingly recognizes the need for a modern classification system that can also be easily integrated with effective informatics tools. The 2010 reports by the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) identified informatics as a critical resource to improve quality of patient care, drive clinical research, and reduce the cost of health services. An effective informatics infrastructure for epilepsy, which is underpinned by a formal knowledge model or ontology, can leverage an ever increasing amount of multimodal data to improve (1) clinical decision support, (2) access to information for patients and their families, (3) easier data sharing, and (4) accelerate secondary use of clinical data. Modeling the recommendations of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classification system in the form of an epilepsy domain ontology is essential for consistent use of terminology in a variety of applications, including electronic health records systems and clinical applications. In this review, we discuss the data management issues in epilepsy and explore the benefits of an ontology-driven informatics infrastructure and its role in adoption of a “data-driven” paradigm in epilepsy research. PMID:23647220

An Atmosphere-based Method for Detection and Quantification of Methane Emisions from Natural Gas Infrastructure in an Urban Environment

Science.gov (United States)

McKain, K.; Down, A.; Raciti, S. M.; Budney, J.; Hutyra, L.; Floerchinger, C. R.; Herndon, S. C.; Nehrkorn, T.; Zahniser, M. S.; Sargent, M. R.; Jackson, R. B.; Phillips, N. G.; Wofsy, S. C.

2015-12-01

Methane emissions from the natural gas supply-chain are highly uncertain and can vary widely among components and processes. We present an atmosphere-based method for detecting and quantifying the area and time-averaged surface flux of methane from natural gas infrastructure, and its application to the case-study of Boston, Massachusetts. Continuous measurements of atmospheric methane at a network of stations, inside and outside the city, are used to quantify the atmospheric methane gradient due to emissions from the urban area. Simultaneous observations of atmospheric ethane, and data on the ethane and methane content of the pipeline gas flowing through the region, are used to trace the atmospheric methane enhancement to the natural gas source. An atmospheric transport model is used to quantitatively relate the observed methane enhancement to a surface flux from the whole urban region. We find that methane emissions from natural gas in the urban region over one year was equal to 2.7 ± 0.6 % of the natural gas delivered to the region. Our findings for Boston suggest natural-gas-consuming regions, generally, may be larger sources of methane to the atmosphere than is current estimated and represent areas of significant resource loss.

Education as eHealth Infrastructure: Considerations in Advancing a National Agenda for eHealth

Science.gov (United States)

Hilberts, Sonya; Gray, Kathleen

2014-01-01

This paper explores the role of education as infrastructure in large-scale ehealth strategies--in theory, in international practice and in one national case study. Education is often invisible in the documentation of ehealth infrastructure. Nevertheless a review of international practice shows that there is significant educational investment made…

Groningen Seaports : An Examination of Public Rail Infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Droogendijk, Gert

2010-01-01

This report examines the value of the public rail infrastructure of Groningen Seaports, the port authority of Delfzijl and Eemshaven. There is substantial strategic value of public rail infrastructure due to the public good character, the mission of Groningen Seaports, the image of full port

Infrastructure Joint Venture Projects in Malaysia: A Preliminary Study

Science.gov (United States)

Romeli, Norsyakilah; Muhamad Halil, Faridah; Ismail, Faridah; Sufian Hasim, Muhammad

2018-03-01

As many developed country practise, the function of the infrastructure is to connect the each region of Malaysia holistically and infrastructure is an investment network projects such as transportation water and sewerage, power, communication and irrigations system. Hence, a billions allocations of government income reserved for the sake of the infrastructure development. Towards a successful infrastructure development, a joint venture approach has been promotes by 2016 in one of the government thrust in Construction Industry Transformation Plan which encourage the internationalisation among contractors. However, there is depletion in information on the actual practise of the infrastructure joint venture projects in Malaysia. Therefore, this study attempt to explore the real application of the joint venture in Malaysian infrastructure projects. Using the questionnaire survey, a set of survey question distributed to the targeted respondents. The survey contained three section which the sections are respondent details, organizations background and project capital in infrastructure joint venture project. The results recorded and analyse using SPSS software. The contractors stated that they have implemented the joint venture practice with mostly the client with the usual construction period of the infrastructure project are more than 5 years. Other than that, the study indicates that there are problems in the joint venture project in the perspective of the project capital and the railway infrastructure should be given a highlights in future study due to its high significant in term of cost and technical issues.

Infrastructure Joint Venture Projects in Malaysia: A Preliminary Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romeli Norsyakilah

2018-01-01

Full Text Available As many developed country practise, the function of the infrastructure is to connect the each region of Malaysia holistically and infrastructure is an investment network projects such as transportation water and sewerage, power, communication and irrigations system. Hence, a billions allocations of government income reserved for the sake of the infrastructure development. Towards a successful infrastructure development, a joint venture approach has been promotes by 2016 in one of the government thrust in Construction Industry Transformation Plan which encourage the internationalisation among contractors. However, there is depletion in information on the actual practise of the infrastructure joint venture projects in Malaysia. Therefore, this study attempt to explore the real application of the joint venture in Malaysian infrastructure projects. Using the questionnaire survey, a set of survey question distributed to the targeted respondents. The survey contained three section which the sections are respondent details, organizations background and project capital in infrastructure joint venture project. The results recorded and analyse using SPSS software. The contractors stated that they have implemented the joint venture practice with mostly the client with the usual construction period of the infrastructure project are more than 5 years. Other than that, the study indicates that there are problems in the joint venture project in the perspective of the project capital and the railway infrastructure should be given a highlights in future study due to its high significant in term of cost and technical issues.

Lowering Entry Barriers for Multidisciplinary Cyber(e)-Infrastructures

Science.gov (United States)

Nativi, S.

2012-04-01

Multidisciplinarity is more and more important to study the Earth System and address Global Changes. To achieve that, multidisciplinary cyber(e)-infrastructures are an important instrument. In the last years, several European, US and international initiatives have been started to carry out multidisciplinary infrastructures, including: the Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE), the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the Data Observation Network for Earth (DataOne), and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The majority of these initiatives are developing service-based digital infrastructures asking scientific Communities (i.e. disciplinary Users and data Producers) to implement a set of standards for information interoperability. For scientific Communities, this has represented an entry barrier which has proved to be high, in several cases. In fact, both data Producers and Users do not seem to be willing to invest precious resources to become expert on interoperability solutions -on the contrary, they are focused on developing disciplinary and thematic capacities. Therefore, an important research topic is lowering entry barriers for joining multidisciplinary cyber(e)-Infrastructures. This presentation will introduce a new approach to achieve multidisciplinary interoperability underpinning multidisciplinary infrastructures and lowering the present entry barriers for both Users and data Producers. This is called the Brokering approach: it extends the service-based paradigm by introducing a new a Brokering layer or cloud which is in charge of managing all the interoperability complexity (e.g. data discovery, access, and use) thus easing Users' and Producers' burden. This approach was successfully experimented in the framework of several European FP7 Projects and in GEOSS.

Hydrogen infrastructure development in The Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smit, R.; Weeda, M.; De Groot, A.

2007-08-01

Increasingly people think of how a hydrogen energy supply system would look like, and how to build and end up at such a system. This paper presents the work on modelling and simulation of current ideas among Dutch hydrogen stakeholders for a transition towards the widespread use of a hydrogen energy. Based mainly on economic considerations, the ideas about a transition seem viable. It appears that following the introduction of hydrogen in niche applications, the use of locally produced hydrogen from natural gas in stationary and mobile applications can yield an economic advantage when compared to the conventional system, and can thus generate a demand for hydrogen. The demand for hydrogen can develop to such an extent that the construction of a large-scale hydrogen pipeline infrastructure for the transport and distribution of hydrogen produced in large-scale production facilities becomes economically viable. In 2050, the economic viability of a large-scale hydrogen pipeline infrastructure spreads over 20-25 of the 40 regions in which The Netherlands is divided for modelling purposes. Investments in hydrogen pipelines for a fully developed hydrogen infrastructure are estimated to be in the range of 12,000-20,000 million euros

A comparative survey of the condition of tourism infrastructure in Iranian provinces using VIKOR and TOPSIS

OpenAIRE

Moslem Bagheri; Payam Shojaei; Maryam Tayebi Khorami

2018-01-01

Tourism infrastructure development in different regions of the world does not follow a symmetrically equal pattern. Because of the importance of infrastructure in the tourism development, the present research is an attempt to examine the hard elements of tourism infrastructure in different provinces of Iran, using the indicators proposed by Pearce and Wu (2015) [Pearce, P. L. & Wu, M. Y. (2015). Soft infrastructure at tourism sites: identifying key issues for Asian tourism from case studies. ...

Regional competitiveness: The case of Western China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vuković Darko

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper explains the concept of regional competitiveness and the factors that influence on it. A large number of various authors explain this concept, based on its different aspects, including: productivity, mikroaspekts (firm, quality of human capital, innovation, technology, infrastructure, social capital, etc.. Taking into account complex nature of regional competitiveness, it is difficult to determine a standard definition of this term. The second part of this paper refers to the case of western China. Substantial disparity in regional development is a reality in every geographically large country, and the causes of the disparity are numerous and complex. Regional inequality has been an important issue in China. This paper generally summarized China's Western regions geography, government policies and development situation. The authors put forward some practical strategies on how to help the western regions create a favorable environment to attract national and international investment.

The impact of natural hazard on critical infrastructure systems: definition of an ontology

Science.gov (United States)

Dimauro, Carmelo; Bouchon, Sara; Frattini, Paolo; Giusto, Claudia

2013-04-01

According to the Council of the European Union Directive (2008), 'critical infrastructure' means an asset, system or part thereof which is essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions, health, safety, security, economic or social well-being of people, and the disruption or destruction of which would have a significant impact as a result of the failure to maintain those functions. Critical infrastructure networks are exposed to natural events, such as floods, storms, landslides, earthquakes, etc. Recent natural disasters show that socio-economic consequences can be very much aggravated by the impact on these infrastructures. Though, there is still a lack of a recognized approach or methodology to assess the vulnerability of critical infrastructure assets against natural threats. The difficulty to define such an approach is increased by the need to consider a very high number of natural events, which differ in nature, magnitude and probability, as well as the need to assess the vulnerability of a high variety of infrastructure assets (e.g. bridges, roads, tunnels, pipelines, etc.) To meet this challenge, the objective of the THREVI2 EU-CIPS project is to create a database linking the relationships between natural hazards and critical infrastructure assets. The query of the database will allow the end-users (critical infrastructure protection authorities and operators) to identify the relevant scenarios according to the own priorities and criteria. The database builds on an ontology optimized for the assessment of the impact of threats on critical infrastructures. The ontology aims at capturing the existing knowledge on natural hazards, critical infrastructures assets and their related vulnerabilities. Natural phenomena that can threaten critical infrastructures are classified as "events", and organized in a genetic-oriented hierarchy. The main attributes associated to each event are the probability, the magnitude and the "modus". The modus refers to the

Anticipatory ethics for a future Internet: analyzing values during the design of an Internet infrastructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Shilton, Katie

2015-02-01

The technical details of Internet architecture affect social debates about privacy and autonomy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and the basic performance and reliability of Internet services. This paper explores one method for practicing anticipatory ethics in order to understand how a new infrastructure for the Internet might impact these social debates. This paper systematically examines values expressed by an Internet architecture engineering team-the Named Data Networking project-based on data gathered from publications and internal documents. Networking engineers making technical choices also weigh non-technical values when working on Internet infrastructure. Analysis of the team's documents reveals both values invoked in response to technical constraints and possibilities, such as efficiency and dynamism, as well as values, including privacy, security and anonymity, which stem from a concern for personal liberties. More peripheral communitarian values espoused by the engineers include democratization and trust. The paper considers the contextual and social origins of these values, and then uses them as a method of practicing anticipatory ethics: considering the impact such priorities may have on a future Internet.

Enabling fast charging – Infrastructure and economic considerations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burnham, Andrew; Dufek, Eric J.; Stephens, Thomas; Francfort, James; Michelbacher, Christopher

2017-01-01

The ability to charge battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on a time scale that is on par with the time to fuel an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) would remove a significant barrier to the adoption of BEVs. However, for viability, fast charging at this time scale needs to also occur at a price that is acceptable to consumers. Therefore, the cost drivers for both BEV owners and charging station providers are analyzed. In addition, key infrastructure considerations are examined, including grid stability and delivery of power, the design of fast charging stations and the design and use of electric vehicle service equipment. Each of these aspects have technical barriers that need to be addressed, and are directly linked to economic impacts to use and implementation. Here, this discussion focuses on both the economic and infrastructure issues which exist and need to be addressed for the effective implementation of fast charging up to 350 kW. In doing so, it has been found that there is a distinct need to effectively manage the intermittent, high power demand of fast charging, strategically plan infrastructure corridors, and to further understand the cost of operation of charging infrastructure and BEVs.

Internal variability in a regional climate model over West Africa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vanvyve, Emilie; Ypersele, Jean-Pascal van [Universite catholique de Louvain, Institut d' astronomie et de geophysique Georges Lemaitre, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Hall, Nicholas [Laboratoire d' Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiales/Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales, Toulouse Cedex 9 (France); Messager, Christophe [University of Leeds, Institute for Atmospheric Science, Environment, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds (United Kingdom); Leroux, Stephanie [Universite Joseph Fourier, Laboratoire d' etude des Transferts en Hydrologie et Environnement, BP53, Grenoble Cedex 9 (France)

2008-02-15

Sensitivity studies with regional climate models are often performed on the basis of a few simulations for which the difference is analysed and the statistical significance is often taken for granted. In this study we present some simple measures of the confidence limits for these types of experiments by analysing the internal variability of a regional climate model run over West Africa. Two 1-year long simulations, differing only in their initial conditions, are compared. The difference between the two runs gives a measure of the internal variability of the model and an indication of which timescales are reliable for analysis. The results are analysed for a range of timescales and spatial scales, and quantitative measures of the confidence limits for regional model simulations are diagnosed for a selection of study areas for rainfall, low level temperature and wind. As the averaging period or spatial scale is increased, the signal due to internal variability gets smaller and confidence in the simulations increases. This occurs more rapidly for variations in precipitation, which appear essentially random, than for dynamical variables, which show some organisation on larger scales. (orig.)

INIR: Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review Missions. Guidance on Preparing and Conducting INIR Missions (Rev. 1)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-04-01

The IAEA's Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) missions are designed to assist Member States, at their request, in evaluating the status of their national infrastructure for the introduction of a nuclear power programme. Each INIR mission is coordinated and led by the IAEA and conducted by a team of international experts drawn from Member States who have experience in different aspects of developing and deploying nuclear infrastructure. The IAEA publication Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power (IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NG-G-3.1) contains a description of 19 infrastructure issues to be considered during the different stages of development of a nuclear power programme. The starting point for an INIR mission is a self-evaluation performed by the Member State against these infrastructure issues. Following the self-evaluation, the INIR mission reviews the status of the national nuclear infrastructure, identifies existing gaps in specific infrastructure-related areas and proposes recommendations to fill these gaps. The INIR mission provides Member State representatives with an opportunity to have in depth discussions with international experts about experiences and best practices in different countries. In developing its recommendations, the INIR team takes into account the comments made by the relevant national organizations. Implementation of any of the team's recommendations is at the discretion of the Member State requesting the mission. The results of the INIR mission are expected to help the Member State to develop an action plan to fill any gaps, which in turn will help the development of the national nuclear infrastructure. The IAEA stands ready to assist, as requested and appropriate, in the different steps of this action plan. This guidance publication is directed to assist in preparing and conducting the INIR missions. It was developed under the coordination of the IAEA Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure

International symposium on Biomedical Data Infrastructure (BDI 2013)

CERN Document Server

Dhillon, Sarinder; Advances in biomedical infrastructure 2013

2013-01-01

Current Biomedical Databases are independently administered in geographically distinct locations, lending them almost ideally to adoption of intelligent data management approaches. This book focuses on research issues, problems and opportunities in Biomedical Data Infrastructure identifying new issues and directions for future research in Biomedical Data and Information Retrieval, Semantics in Biomedicine, and Biomedical Data Modeling and Analysis. The book will be a useful guide for researchers, practitioners, and graduate-level students interested in learning state-of-the-art development in biomedical data management.

MANAGEMENT OF THE INTERNAL LABOR MARKET (BASING ON CASES OF THE SVERDLOVSK REGION CITY-FORMING ENTERPRISES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.V. Orekhova

2008-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an estimation procedure of regional labor market influence on sustainability of internal labor market institutions. The paper refines the categories of regional and internal labor market. Internal labor market institutions have been classified and evaluated regarding the level of their sustainability (basing on cases of the Sverdlovsk region city-forming enterprises. As a result the model of labor expenses evaluation is elaborated for enterprises concerned.

IRIS guidelines. 2014 ed. Integrated Review of Infrastructure for Safety (IRIS) for self-assessment when establishing the safety infrastructure for a nuclear power programme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-01-01

The IAEA safety standards reflect an international consensus on what constitutes a high level of safety for protecting people and the environment, and therefore represent what all Member States should achieve, whilst recognizing the ultimate responsibility of each State to ensure safety when implementing a nuclear power programme. IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSG-16, entitled Establishing the Safety Infrastructure for a Nuclear Power Programme was published in order to provide recommendations, presented in the form of sequential actions, on meeting safety requirements progressively during the initial three phases of the development of safety, as described in INSAG-22, Nuclear Safety Infrastructure for a National Nuclear Power Programme Supported by the IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles. To that end, the 200 safety related actions, which are proposed by SSG-16, constitute a roadmap to establish a foundation for promoting a high level of safety over the entire lifetime of the nuclear power plant. These actions reflect international consensus on good practice in order to achieve full implementation of IAEA safety standards. The IAEA has developed a methodology and tool, the Integrated Review of Infrastructure for Safety (IRIS), to assist States in undertaking self-assessment with respect to SSG-16 recommendations when establishing the safety infrastructure for a nuclear power programme, and to develop an action plan for improvement. The IRIS methodology and the associated tool are fully compatible with the IAEA safety standards and are also used, when appropriate, in the preparation of review missions, such as the Integrated Regulatory Review Service and advisory missions. The present guidelines describe the IRIS methodology for self-assessment against SSG-16 recommendations. Through IRIS implementation, every organization concerned with nuclear safety may gain proper awareness and engage in a continuous progressive process to develop the effective national

Towards programmable and scalable IoT infrastructures for smart cities

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Corici, A

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Smart Cities applications and infrastructures are actively being developed and rolled out. However, maintenance complexity is significant, often limiting deployments to small regions or small cities. To support gradual or spontaneous infrastructure...

Collaborative Development of e-Infrastructures and Data Management Practices for Global Change Research

Science.gov (United States)

Samors, R. J.; Allison, M. L.

2016-12-01

An e-infrastructure that supports data-intensive, multidisciplinary research is being organized under the auspices of the Belmont Forum consortium of national science funding agencies to accelerate the pace of science to address 21st century global change research challenges. The pace and breadth of change in information management across the data lifecycle means that no one country or institution can unilaterally provide the leadership and resources required to use data and information effectively, or needed to support a coordinated, global e-infrastructure. The five action themes adopted by the Belmont Forum: 1. Adopt and make enforceable Data Principles that establish a global, interoperable e-infrastructure. 2. Foster communication, collaboration and coordination between the wider research community and Belmont Forum and its projects through an e-Infrastructure Coordination, Communication, & Collaboration Office. 3. Promote effective data planning and stewardship in all Belmont Forum agency-funded research with a goal to make it enforceable. 4. Determine international and community best practice to inform Belmont Forum research e-infrastructure policy through identification and analysis of cross-disciplinary research case studies. 5. Support the development of a cross-disciplinary training curriculum to expand human capacity in technology and data-intensive analysis methods. The Belmont Forum is ideally poised to play a vital and transformative leadership role in establishing a sustained human and technical international data e-infrastructure to support global change research. In 2016, members of the 23-nation Belmont Forum began a collaborative implementation phase. Four multi-national teams are undertaking Action Themes based on the recommendations above. Tasks include mapping the landscape, identifying and documenting existing data management plans, and scheduling a series of workshops that analyse trans-disciplinary applications of existing Belmont Forum

Warehouse site selection in an international environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastjan ŠKERLIČ

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The changed conditions in the automotive industry as the market and the production are moving from west to east, both at global and at European level, require constant adjustment from Slovenian companies. The companies strive to remain close to their customers and suppliers, as only by maintaining a high quality and streamlined supply chain, their existence within the demanding automotive industry is guaranteed in the long term. Choosing the right location for a warehouse in an international environment is therefore one of the most important strategic decisions that takes into account a number of interrelated factors such as transport networks, transport infrastructure, trade flows and the total cost. This paper aims to explore the important aspects of selecting a location for a warehouse and to identify potential international strategic locations, which could have a significant impact on the future operations of Slovenian companies in the global automotive industry.

Threat Assessment of Potential Terrorist Attacks to the Transport Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel Nowacki

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The paper presents threat assessment of potential terrorist attacks to the transport infrastructure. The range of transportation infrastructure has spread and includes railway, inland waterways, road, maritime, air, intermodal transport infrastructure and intelligent transport systems (ITS. ITS service is the provision of an ITS application through a well-defined organisational and operational framework with the aim of contributing to the user safety, efficiency, comfort and/or to facilitate or support transport and travel operations. Terrorism means acts of violence committed by groups that view themselves as victimized by some notable historical wrong. Although these groups have no formal connection with governments, they usually have the financial and moral backing of sympathetic governments. Typically, they stage unexpected attacks on civilian targets, including transport infrastructure, with the aim of sowing fear and confusion. Based on the analyses, transportation infrastructure is potentially threatened with terrorism attacks, especially road and rail infrastructure (about 23 %, and to a smaller degree the maritime and air transport infrastructure (about 2 %. There were 90,3% of incidents involve land transport (74,5% – vehicles, 9,5% – buses, 6,3% - rail covered the 41-year period 1967-2007 in the USA. Legal steps to fight terrorism have been taken on the international level, furthermore, some institutions have been established for this purpose.

Basic infrastructure for a nuclear power project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-06-01

There are several stages in the process of introducing nuclear power in a country. These include development of nuclear policies and regulations, feasibility studies, public consultations, technology evaluation, requests for proposals and evaluations, contracts and financing, supply, construction, commissioning, operation and finally decommissioning. This publication addresses the 'basic' infrastructure needs, which are adequate until the issue of the construction license. It is obvious that a fully developed nuclear infrastructure will be required for the further implementation stages of a nuclear power reactor. The officials and experts in each country will undertake the transition from a basic infrastructure to a fully developed infrastructure that covers the stages of construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning. The publication is directed to provide guidance for assessing the basic infrastructure necessary for: - A host country to consider when engaging in the implementation of nuclear power, and - A supplier country to consider when assessing whether the recipient country is in an acceptable condition to begin the implementation of a nuclear power project. The target users are decision makers, advisers and senior managers in the governmental organizations, utilities, industrial organizations and regulatory bodies in the countries adopting nuclear power programmes or exporting supplies for these programmes. The governmental organizations that may find this publication useful include: Ministries of Economy, Energy, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Mining, Internal Affairs, Academic Institutions, Nuclear Energy Agencies and Environmental Agencies. This publication was produced within the IAEA programme directed to increase the capability of Member States to plan and implement nuclear power programmes and to establish and enhance national nuclear infrastructure. This publication should be used in conjunction with the IAEA Safety Standards Series and other

Critical Infrastructure Protection: Maintenance is National Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kris Hemme

2015-10-01

Full Text Available U.S. critical infrastructure protection (CIP necessitates both the provision of security from internal and external threats and the repair of physically damaged critical infrastructure which may disrupt services. For years, the U.S. infrastructure has been deteriorating, triggering enough damage and loss of life to give cause for major concern. CIP is typically only addressed after a major disaster or catastrophe due to the extreme scrutiny that follows these events. In fact, CIP has been addressed repeatedly since Presidential Decision Directive Sixty-Three (PDD Sixty-Three signed by President Bill Clinton on May Twenty-Second, 1998.[1] This directive highlighted critical infrastructure as “a growing potential vulnerability” and recognized that the United States has to view the U.S. national infrastructure from a security perspective due to its importance to national and economic security. CIP must be addressed in a preventive, rather than reactive, manner.[2] As such, there are sixteen critical infrastructure sectors, each with its own protection plan and unique natural and man-made threats, deteriorations, and risks. A disaster or attack on any one of these critical infrastructures could cause serious damage to national security and possibly lead to the collapse of the entire infrastructure. [1] The White House, Presidential Decision Directive/NSC–63 (Washington D.C.: The White House, May 22, 1998: 1–18, available at: http://www.epa.gov/watersecurity/tools/trainingcd/Guidance/pdd-63.pdf. [2] Ibid, 1.

ABOUT GENERAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACCOMMODATION SYSTEM IN ROMANIAN BALNEOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ILIE ROTARIU

2013-12-01

Full Text Available A strong infrastructure is a precondition for the development of balneology. On this base new tourism might build the modern services that supply the experiences. The key factor is the labor force: an EU project about labor force in Romania and Bulgaria in balneology allow us to present the preliminary findings focusing on general infrastructure and accommodation which allow the development of the balneology as well as the additional conditions as the existence of a social pact, easy access facilities etc. Our paper gives more details about the accommodation facilities in Romania insisting about the results of the transition and privatization of the former socialist facilities and the transformation of the property into private ones and the consequences of this. It also present the capability of new developed accommodation units built after 1990 and how they might compete in an international competition. The findings force us to conclude that the actual facilities do not allow the balneology resorts to compete in the international competition and might fill only a poor and low demanding tourists

Challenges and opportunities in the design and construction of a GIS-based emission inventory infrastructure for the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Science.gov (United States)

Fagbeja, Mofoluso A; Hill, Jennifer L; Chatterton, Tim J; Longhurst, James W S; Akpokodje, Joseph E; Agbaje, Ganiy I; Halilu, Shaba A

2017-03-01

Environmental monitoring in middle- and low-income countries is hampered by many factors which include enactment and enforcement of legislations; deficiencies in environmental data reporting and documentation; inconsistent, incomplete and unverifiable data; a lack of access to data; and technical expertise. This paper describes the processes undertaken and the major challenges encountered in the construction of the first Niger Delta Emission Inventory (NDEI) for criteria air pollutants and CO 2 released from the anthropogenic activities in the region. This study focused on using publicly available government and research data. The NDEI has been designed to provide a Geographic Information System-based component of an air quality and carbon management framework. The NDEI infrastructure was designed and constructed at 1-, 10- and 20-km grid resolutions for point, line and area sources using industry standard processes and emission factors derived from activities similar to those in the Niger Delta. Due to inadequate, incomplete, potentially inaccurate and unavailable data, the infrastructure was populated with data based on a series of best possible assumptions for key emission sources. This produces outputs with variable levels of certainty, which also highlights the critical challenges in the estimation of emissions from a developing country. However, the infrastructure is functional and has the ability to produce spatially resolved emission estimates.

Regional Economic Development Strategy Based Agro-Industries in Key Region Kandangan South of Kalimantan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dewi Siska

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Agroindustry has become the main pillar in South Kalimantan development, it can be found in RPJPD 2005-2025. Kandangan mainstay region as one of three leading regions in South Kalimantan which potentially improved to push economy growth through agriculture based industry activity (agroindustry. The concept of agroindustry a side is expected to drive economic growth as well as to realize the equitable distribution of income. This research aims to: (1 identify to economic development of the region in Kandangan mainstay regions, (2 identify the main commodity, (3 identify means of supporting agroindustry, and (4 formulating development strategies based agroindustry region. Entropy analysis shows the development of the economy sufficiently developed in Kandangan mainstay region dominated by the agricultural sector, namely food crops subsector. LQ an SSA analysis shows corn and rice crops become competitive commodities. There are only few of supporting infrastructure agroindustry activities. Strategy formulation in the research is the improvement of infrastructure or infrastructure that can facilitate inter regional connectivity in the region mainstay Kandangan and the government as the leading actor agroindustry development.

STATE OF WATER SUPPLY INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE SUBCARPATHIAN CITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna PIETRUCHA-URBANIK

Full Text Available The characteristics of equipping the Subcarpathian province cities with water supply infrastructure was made on the basis of data collected from the Provincial Office, Statistical Office, reports submitted by water companies regarding the functioning of water supply infrastructure and literature data. The indicators characterizing water supply infrastructure were determined for the years 1995-2014. In the paper the indicators of equipping cities with water supply systems were presented. Also water consumption and changes in the length of the water supply network in the cities of the Subcarpathian Province were examined. The analysis shows that the water consumption for the years 1995-2014 decreased by almost 6 m3∙year-1 per capita. The reason for such situation was the increasing price of water and the ecological awareness of the inhabitants of the Subcarpathian region. In the last year of the analysis the water supply system in urban areas of the Subcarpathian province was used by 95% of the population and, for comparison, in rural areas by 77% of the population. In the paper also changes in prices for water in the Subcarpathian region were shown, on the basis of data from the water tariffs in individual water companies. The important element of urban development is the technical infrastructure which reduces the investment costs. The determined indicators of equipping cities with water supply systems show an upward trend in the development of technical infrastructure. Based on the operational data from the water companies the failure rates in selected water supply networks were determined.

Recovery from chemical, biological, and radiological incidents. Critical infrastructure and economic impact considerations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Franco, David Oliver [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Yang, Lynn I. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Hammer, Ann E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

2012-06-01

To restore regional lifeline services and economic activity as quickly as possible after a chemical, biological or radiological incident, emergency planners and managers will need to prioritize critical infrastructure across many sectors for restoration. In parallel, state and local governments will need to identify and implement measures to promote reoccupation and economy recovery in the region. This document provides guidance on predisaster planning for two of the National Disaster Recovery Framework Recovery Support Functions: Infrastructure Systems and Economic Recovery. It identifies key considerations for infrastructure restoration, outlines a process for prioritizing critical infrastructure for restoration, and identifies critical considerations for promoting regional economic recovery following a widearea disaster. Its goal is to equip members of the emergency preparedness community to systematically prioritize critical infrastructure for restoration, and to develop effective economic recovery plans in preparation for a widearea CBR disaster.

FOREWORD: Structural Health Monitoring and Intelligent Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Zhishen; Fujino, Yozo

2005-06-01

This special issue collects together 19 papers that were originally presented at the First International Conference on Structural Health Monitoring and Intelligent Infrastructure (SHMII-1'2003), held in Tokyo, Japan, on 13-15 November 2003. This conference was organized by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) with partial financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, Japan. Many related organizations supported the conference. A total of 16 keynote papers including six state-of-the-art reports from different counties, six invited papers and 154 contributed papers were presented at the conference. The conference was attended by a diverse group of about 300 people from a variety of disciplines in academia, industry and government from all over the world. Structural health monitoring (SHM) and intelligent materials, structures and systems have been the subject of intense research and development in the last two decades and, in recent years, an increasing range of applications in infrastructure have been discovered both for existing structures and for new constructions. SHMII-1'2003 addressed progress in the development of building, transportation, marine, underground and energy-generating structures, and other civilian infrastructures that are periodically, continuously and/or actively monitored where there is a need to optimize their performance. In order to focus the current needs on SHM and intelligent technologies, the conference theme was set as 'Structures/Infrastructures Sustainability'. We are pleased to have the privilege to edit this special issue on SHM and intelligent infrastructure based on SHMII-1'2003. We invited some of the presenters to submit a revised/extended version of their paper that was included in the SHMII-1'2003 proceedings for possible publication in the special issue. Each paper included in this special issue was edited with the same

Application of GIS in exploring spatial dimensions of Efficiency in Competitiveness of Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmat, Shahid; Sen, Joy

2017-04-01

Infrastructure is an important component in building competitiveness of a region. Present global scenario of economic slowdown that is led by slump in demand of goods and services and decreasing capacity of government institutions in investing public infrastructure. Strategy of augmenting competitiveness of a region can be built around improving efficient distribution of public infrastructure in the region. This efficiency in the distribution of infrastructure will reduce the burden of government institution and improve the relative output of the region in relative lesser investment. A rigorous literature study followed by an expert opinion survey (RIDIT scores) reveals that Railway, Road, ICTs and Electricity infrastructure is very crucial for better competitiveness of a region. Discussion with Experts in ICTs, Railways and Electricity sectors were conducted to find the issues, hurdles and possible solution for the development of these sectors. In an underdeveloped country like India, there is a large constrain of financial resources, for investment in infrastructure sector. Judicious planning for allocation of resources for infrastructure provisions becomes very important for efficient and sustainable development. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the mathematical programming optimization tool that measure technical efficiency of the multiple-input and/or multiple-output case by constructing a relative technical efficiency score. This paper tries to utilize DEA to identify the efficiency at which present level of selected components of Infrastructure (Railway, Road, ICTs and Electricity) is utilized in order to build competitiveness of the region. This paper tries to identify a spatial pattern of efficiency of Infrastructure with the help of spatial auto-correlation and Hot-spot analysis in Arc GIS. This analysis leads to policy implications for efficient allocation of financial resources for the provision of infrastructure in the region and building a

Progress In Developing An In-Pile Acoustically Telemetered Sensor Infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, James A.; Garrett, Steven L.; Heibel, Michael D.; Agarwal, Vivek; Heidrich, Brenden J.

2016-09-01

A salient grand challenge for a number of Department of Energy programs such as Fuels Cycle Research and Development ( includes Accident Tolerant Fuel research and the Transient Reactor Test Facility Restart experiments), Light Water Sustainability, and Advanced Reactor Technologies is to enhance our fundamental understanding of fuel and materials behavior under irradiation. Robust and accurate in-pile measurements will be instrumental to develop and validate a computationally predictive multi-scale understanding of nuclear fuel and materials. This sensing technology will enable the linking of fundamental micro-structural evolution mechanisms to the macroscopic degradation of fuels and materials. The in situ sensors and measurement systems will monitor local environmental parameters as well as characterize microstructure evolution during irradiation. One of the major road blocks in developing practical robust, and cost effective in-pile sensor systems, are instrument leads. If a wireless telemetry infrastructure can be developed for in-pile use, in-core measurements would become more attractive and effective. Thus to be successful in accomplishing effective in-pile sensing and microstructure characterization an interdisciplinary measurement infrastructure needs to be developed in parallel with key sensing technology. For the discussion in this research, infrastructure is defined as systems, technology, techniques, and algorithms that may be necessary in the delivery of beneficial and robust data from in-pile devices. The architecture of a system’s infrastructure determines how well it operates and how flexible it is to meet future requirements. The limiting path for the effective deployment of the salient sensing technology will not be the sensors themselves but the infrastructure that is necessary to communicate data from in-pile to the outside world in a non-intrusive and reliable manner. This article gives a high level overview of a promising telemetry

Business Benefits from the Virtualization of an ICT Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan Pogarcic

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Virtualization is a technique that may be encountered in all parts of an ICT infrastructure. The benefits of virtualization for an infrastructure are recognized by a growing number of companies. In this way, virtualization creates prerequisites for the further improvement of the entire information system. Another reason is the growing awareness of environmental issues at the global level, which has become a large external sponsor of this technology. While virtualization technology has been known about for several decades, its hay day is yet to come. In the following years many jobs will be create because of it, from the user desktop and notebook computers, to the server in all businesses. This article examines the impact of virtualization in business enterprises, with emphasis on infrastructure costs and improved business functions. It points to the large savings that can occur even in medium‐sized enterprises. Claims are verifiable quantitative indicators, particularly in the procurement of equipment. It also demonstrates the benefits of virtualization while performing everyday tasks that take place within the IT department. We discuss the correlation of increased flexibility and convenience, and agile response to market demands, while reducing capital and operating costs, and increasing the competitiveness of companies in the market.

Infrastructure data in the Internet: network statements and infrastructure register; Infrastrukturdaten im INTERNET: Schienennetz-Benutzungsbedingungen und Infrastrukturregister

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schmitt, A.; Kuntze, P [DB Netz AG, Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Hoefler, A. [Fichtner Consulting und IT AG, Stuttgart (Germany)

2007-09-15

Faced with European Community directives on the liberalization of railway traffic and their transposition into national legal requirements, DB Netz AG, the German infrastructure manager, considers that it has no alternative to using the Internet to publish numerous items of information as regards its railway network and infrastructure facilities. The company took the decision to seek synergies in combining these requirements with achieving internal benefits and so it chose a modern technical architecture that is going to be able to keep pace with the growing demands as regards data complexity, range of functions and number of users. The architecture that first came into being for publishing network statements now also forms the basis for DB Netz' infrastructure register and, in parallel with that, for around twenty intranet solutions, used by more than 5000 users. (orig.)

Contractual Efficiency of PPP Infrastructure Projects: An Incomplete Contract Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Shi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study analyses the contractual efficiency of public-private partnership (PPP infrastructure projects, with a focus on two financial aspects: the nonrecourse principal and incompleteness of debt contracts. The nonrecourse principal releases the sponsoring companies from the debt contract when the special purpose vehicle (SPV established by the sponsoring companies falls into default. Consequently, all obligations under the debt contract are limited to the liability of the SPV following its default. Because the debt contract is incomplete, a renegotiation of an additional loan between the bank and the SPV might occur to enable project continuation or liquidation, which in turn influences the SPV’s ex ante strategies (moral hazard. Considering these two financial features of PPP infrastructure projects, this study develops an incomplete contract model to investigate how the renegotiation triggers ex ante moral hazard and ex post inefficient liquidation. We derive equilibrium strategies under service fees endogenously determined via bidding and examine the effect of equilibrium strategies on contractual efficiency. Finally, we propose an optimal combination of a performance guarantee, the government’s termination right, and a service fee to improve the contractual efficiency of PPP infrastructure projects.

Supporting context-aware mobile applications : an infrastructure approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Sinderen, Marten J.; van Halteren, Aart; Wegdam, M.; Meeuwissen, H.B.; Eertink, E.H.; Eertink, E.H.

Mobile phones and PDAs are converging into mobile lifestyle devices that offer a wide range of applications to end users. Many of these applications will have the ability to adapt themselves to the user’s situation, commonly referred to as context awareness. We argue that an infrastructure is needed

Managing an Open Access, Multi-Institutional, International Digital Library: The Digital Library of the Caribbean

Science.gov (United States)

Wooldridge, Brooke; Taylor, Laurie; Sullivan, Mark

2009-01-01

Developing an Open Access, multi-institutional, multilingual, international digital library requires robust technological and institutional infrastructures that support both the needs of individual institutions alongside the needs of the growing partnership and ensure continuous communication and development of the shared vision for the digital…

Risk assessment framework on time impact: Infrastructure projects in soft soil during construction stage

Science.gov (United States)

Low, W. W.; Wong, K. S.; Lee, J. L.

2018-04-01

With the growth of economy and population, there is an increase in infrastructure construction projects. As such, it is unavoidable to have construction projects on soft soil. Without proper risk management plan, construction projects are vulnerable to different types of risks which will have negative impact on project’s time, cost and quality. Literature review showed that little or none of the research is focused on the risk assessment on the infrastructure project in soft soil. Hence, the aim of this research is to propose a risk assessment framework in infrastructure projects in soft soil during the construction stage. This research was focused on the impact of risks on project time and internal risk factors. The research method was Analytical Hierarchy Process and the sample population was experienced industry experts who have experience in infrastructure projects. Analysis was completed and result showed that for internal factors, the five most significant risks on time element are lack of special equipment, potential contractual disputes and claims, shortage of skilled workers, delay/lack of materials supply, and insolvency of contractor/sub-contractor. Results indicated that resources risk factor play a critical role on project time frame in infrastructure projects in soft soil during the construction stage.

A GIS-based assessment of coal-based hydrogen infrastructure deployment in the state of Ohio

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, Nils; Yang, Christopher; Ogden, Joan

2008-01-01

Hydrogen infrastructure costs will vary by region as geographic characteristics and feedstocks differ. This paper proposes a method for optimizing regional hydrogen infrastructure deployment by combining detailed spatial data in a geographic information system (GIS) with a technoeconomic model of hydrogen infrastructure components. The method is applied to a case study in Ohio in which coal-based hydrogen infrastructure with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is modeled for two distribution modes at several steady-state hydrogen vehicle market penetration levels. The paper identifies the optimal infrastructure design at each market penetration as well as the costs, CO 2 emissions, and energy use associated with each infrastructure pathway. The results indicate that aggregating infrastructure at the regional-scale yields lower levelized costs of hydrogen than at the city-level at a given market penetration level, and centralized production with pipeline distribution is the favored pathway even at low market penetration. Based upon the hydrogen infrastructure designs evaluated in this paper, coal-based hydrogen production with CCS can significantly reduce transportation-related CO 2 emissions at a relatively low infrastructure cost and levelized fuel cost. (author)

Analyzing water/wastewater infrastructure interdependencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gillette, J. L.; Fisher, R. E.; Peerenboom, J. P.; Whitfield, R. G.

2002-01-01

This paper describes four general categories of infrastructure interdependencies (physical, cyber, geographic, and logical) as they apply to the water/wastewater infrastructure, and provides an overview of one of the analytic approaches and tools used by Argonne National Laboratory to evaluate interdependencies. Also discussed are the dimensions of infrastructure interdependency that create spatial, temporal, and system representation complexities that make analyzing the water/wastewater infrastructure particularly challenging. An analytical model developed to incorporate the impacts of interdependencies on infrastructure repair times is briefly addressed

Urban Green Infrastructure: German Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Olegovna Dushkova

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a concept of urban green infrastructure and analyzes the features of its implementation in the urban development programmes of German cities. We analyzed the most shared articles devoted to the urban green infrastructure to see different approaches to definition of this term. It is based on materials of field research in the cities of Berlin and Leipzig in 2014-2015, international and national scientific publications. During the process of preparing the paper, consultations have been held with experts from scientific institutions and Administrations of Berlin and Leipzig as well as local experts from environmental organizations of both cities. Using the German cities of Berlin and Leipzig as examples, this paper identifies how the concept can be implemented in the program of urban development. It presents the main elements of green city model, which include mitigation of negative anthropogenic impact on the environment under the framework of urban sustainable development. Essential part of it is a complex ecological policy as a major necessary tool for the implementation of the green urban infrastructure concept. This ecological policy should embody not only some ecological measurements, but also a greening of all urban infrastructure elements as well as implementation of sustainable living with a greater awareness of the resources, which are used in everyday life, and development of environmental thinking among urban citizens. Urban green infrastructure is a unity of four main components: green building, green transportation, eco-friendly waste management, green transport routes and ecological corridors. Experience in the development of urban green infrastructure in Germany can be useful to improve the environmental situation in Russian cities.

Strategic Policy Competition with Public Infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nahuis, R.; Tang, P.J.G.

2004-01-01

Governments try to attract firms and jobs by investing in international infrastructure. We analyse this type of strategic policy competition in a three-country model of monopolistic competition. What governments compete for, is to obtain a so called ‘hub’ position. A hub is a relatively well

Assessing needs and assets for building a regional network infrastructure to reduce cancer related health disparities.

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Kristen J; Lima, Diana S; Meade, Cathy D; Muñoz-Antonia, Teresita; Scarinci, Isabel; McGuire, Allison; Gwede, Clement K; Pledger, W Jack; Partridge, Edward; Lipscomb, Joseph; Matthews, Roland; Matta, Jaime; Flores, Idhaliz; Weiner, Roy; Turner, Timothy; Miele, Lucio; Wiese, Thomas E; Fouad, Mona; Moreno, Carlos S; Lacey, Michelle; Christie, Debra W; Price-Haywood, Eboni G; Quinn, Gwendolyn P; Coppola, Domenico; Sodeke, Stephen O; Green, B Lee; Lichtveld, Maureen Y

2014-06-01

Significant cancer health disparities exist in the United States and Puerto Rico. While numerous initiatives have been implemented to reduce cancer disparities, regional coordination of these efforts between institutions is often limited. To address cancer health disparities nation-wide, a series of regional transdisciplinary networks through the Geographic Management Program (GMaP) and the Minority Biospecimen/Biobanking Geographic Management Program (BMaP) were established in six regions across the country. This paper describes the development of the Region 3 GMaP/BMaP network composed of over 100 investigators from nine institutions in five Southeastern states and Puerto Rico to develop a state-of-the-art network for cancer health disparities research and training. We describe a series of partnership activities that led to the formation of the infrastructure for this network, recount the participatory processes utilized to develop and implement a needs and assets assessment and implementation plan, and describe our approach to data collection. Completion, by all nine institutions, of the needs and assets assessment resulted in several beneficial outcomes for Region 3 GMaP/BMaP. This network entails ongoing commitment from the institutions and institutional leaders, continuous participatory and engagement activities, and effective coordination and communication centered on team science goals. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing Needs and Assets for Building a Regional Network Infrastructure to Reduce Cancer Related Health Disparities

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Kristen J.; Lima, Diana S.; Meade, Cathy D.; Muñoz-Antonia, Teresita; Scarinci, Isabel; McGuire, Allison; Gwede, Clement K.; Pledger, W. Jack; Partridge, Edward; Lipscomb, Joseph; Matthews, Roland; Matta, Jaime; Flores, Idhaliz; Weiner, Roy; Turner, Timothy; Miele, Lucio; Wiese, Thomas E.; Fouad, Mona; Moreno, Carlos S.; Lacey, Michelle; Christie, Debra W.; Price-Haywood, Eboni G.; Quinn, Gwendolyn P.; Coppola, Domenico; Sodeke, Stephen O.; Green, B. Lee; Lichtveld, Maureen Y.

2015-01-01

Significant cancer health disparities exist in the United States and Puerto Rico. While numerous initiatives have been implemented to reduce cancer disparities, regional coordination of these efforts between institutions is often limited. To address cancer health disparities nationwide, a series of regional transdisciplinary networks through the Geographic Management Program (GMaP) and the Minority Biospecimen/Biobanking Geographic Management Program (BMaP) were established in six regions across the country. This paper describes the development of the Region 3 GMaP/BMaP network composed of over 100 investigators from nine institutions in five Southeastern states and Puerto Rico to develop a state-of-the-art network for cancer health disparities research and training. We describe a series of partnership activities that led to the formation of the infrastructure for this network, recount the participatory processes utilized to develop and implement a needs and assets assessment and implementation plan, and describe our approach to data collection. Completion, by all nine institutions, of the needs and assets assessment resulted in several beneficial outcomes for Region 3 GMaP/BMaP. This network entails ongoing commitment from the institutions and institutional leaders, continuous participatory and engagement activities, and effective coordination and communication centered on team science goals. PMID:24486917

Enhancing regional security agreements through cooperative monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pregenzer, A.L.

1995-05-01

This paper proposes that strengthening regional capabilities for formulating and implementing arms control and confidence-building measures is a tangible method of enhancing regional security. It discusses the importance of developing a regional infrastructure for arms control and confidence building and elucidates the role of technology in facilitating regional arms control and confidence-building agreements. In addition, it identifies numerous applications for regional cooperative monitoring in the areas of arms control, resource management, international commerce and disaster response. The Cooperative Monitoring Center at Sandia National Laboratories, whose aim is to help individual countries and regions acquire the tools they need to develop their own solutions to regional problems, is discussed briefly. The paper ends with recommendations for establishing regional cooperative monitoring centers

Quantifying the conservation gains from shared access to linear infrastructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Runge, Claire A; Tulloch, Ayesha I T; Gordon, Ascelin; Rhodes, Jonathan R

2017-12-01

The proliferation of linear infrastructure such as roads and railways is a major global driver of cumulative biodiversity loss. One strategy for reducing habitat loss associated with development is to encourage linear infrastructure providers and users to share infrastructure networks. We quantified the reductions in biodiversity impact and capital costs under linear infrastructure sharing of a range of potential mine to port transportation links for 47 mine locations operated by 28 separate companies in the Upper Spencer Gulf Region of South Australia. We mapped transport links based on least-cost pathways for different levels of linear-infrastructure sharing and used expert-elicited impacts of linear infrastructure to estimate the consequences for biodiversity. Capital costs were calculated based on estimates of construction costs, compensation payments, and transaction costs. We evaluated proposed mine-port links by comparing biodiversity impacts and capital costs across 3 scenarios: an independent scenario, where no infrastructure is shared; a restricted-access scenario, where the largest mining companies share infrastructure but exclude smaller mining companies from sharing; and a shared scenario where all mining companies share linear infrastructure. Fully shared development of linear infrastructure reduced overall biodiversity impacts by 76% and reduced capital costs by 64% compared with the independent scenario. However, there was considerable variation among companies. Our restricted-access scenario showed only modest biodiversity benefits relative to the independent scenario, indicating that reductions are likely to be limited if the dominant mining companies restrict access to infrastructure, which often occurs without policies that promote sharing of infrastructure. Our research helps illuminate the circumstances under which infrastructure sharing can minimize the biodiversity impacts of development. © 2017 The Authors. Conservation Biology published

Healthcare information technology infrastructures in Turkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Dogac, A; Yuksel, M; Ertürkmen, G L; Kabak, Y; Namli, T; Yıldız, M H; Ay, Y; Ceyhan, B; Hülür, U; Oztürk, H; Atbakan, E

2014-05-22

The objective of this paper is to describe some of the major healthcare information technology (IT) infrastructures in Turkey, namely, Sağlık-Net (Turkish for "Health-Net"), the Centralized Hospital Appointment System, the Basic Health Statistics Module, the Core Resources Management System, and the e-prescription system of the Social Security Institution. International collaboration projects that are integrated with Sağlık-Net are also briefly summarized. The authors provide a survey of the some of the major healthcare IT infrastructures in Turkey. Sağlık-Net has two main components: the National Health Information System (NHIS) and the Family Medicine Information System (FMIS). The NHIS is a nation-wide infrastructure for sharing patients' Electronic Health Records (EHRs). So far, EHRs of 78.9 million people have been created in the NHIS. Similarly, family medicine is operational in the whole country via FMIS. Centralized Hospital Appointment System enables the citizens to easily make appointments in healthcare providers. Basic Health Statistics Module is used for collecting information about the health status, risks and indicators across the country. Core Resources Management System speeds up the flow of information between the headquarters and Provincial Health Directorates. The e-prescription system is linked with Sağlık-Net and seamlessly integrated with the healthcare provider information systems. Finally, Turkey is involved in several international projects for experience sharing and disseminating national developments. With the introduction of the "Health Transformation Program" in 2003, a number of successful healthcare IT infrastructures have been developed in Turkey. Currently, work is going on to enhance and further improve their functionality.

The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds

Science.gov (United States)

The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds (ISGC) 2012 will be held at Academia Sinica in Taipei from 26 February to 2 March 2012, with co-located events and workshops. The conference is hosted by the Academia Sinica Grid Computing Centre (ASGC). 2012 is the decennium anniversary of the ISGC which over the last decade has tracked the convergence, collaboration and innovation of individual researchers across the Asia Pacific region to a coherent community. With the continuous support and dedication from the delegates, ISGC has provided the primary international distributed computing platform where distinguished researchers and collaboration partners from around the world share their knowledge and experiences. The last decade has seen the wide-scale emergence of e-Infrastructure as a critical asset for the modern e-Scientist. The emergence of large-scale research infrastructures and instruments that has produced a torrent of electronic data is forcing a generational change in the scientific process and the mechanisms used to analyse the resulting data deluge. No longer can the processing of these vast amounts of data and production of relevant scientific results be undertaken by a single scientist. Virtual Research Communities that span organisations around the world, through an integrated digital infrastructure that connects the trust and administrative domains of multiple resource providers, have become critical in supporting these analyses. Topics covered in ISGC 2012 include: High Energy Physics, Biomedicine & Life Sciences, Earth Science, Environmental Changes and Natural Disaster Mitigation, Humanities & Social Sciences, Operations & Management, Middleware & Interoperability, Security and Networking, Infrastructure Clouds & Virtualisation, Business Models & Sustainability, Data Management, Distributed Volunteer & Desktop Grid Computing, High Throughput Computing, and High Performance, Manycore & GPU Computing.

CHINA'S INTERNATIONAL TOURISM UNDER ECONOMIC TRANSITION: NATIONAL TRENDS AND REGIONAL DISPARITIES

OpenAIRE

Liang, Chyi-Lyi (Kathleen); Guo, Rong; Wang, Qingbin

2003-01-01

China's Tourism industry, especially international tourism, has expanded rapidly since its market-oriented economic reform started in 1978. There has been limited information regarding the trends and regional disparities. This paper examines the national trends of China's international tourism since 1982 and analyzes the changes in regional disparities since 1995. While the trend analysis suggests that China's international tourism is likely to keep growing at a significant rate, the analysis...

Mobility Challenges in the Region of Northern Jutland, Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vestergaard, Maria Quvang Lund; Laursen, Lea Louise Holst; Jensen, Ole B.

distance between home and work and the possibility for job changes is declining. In this paper we would argue that as opposed to many traditional regional geography approaches or tourism studies this analysis put focus on the challenges to a peripheral region from the vantage point of an explicit mobilites...... perspective. Thus in accordance with the mobilities perspective (Urry 2002, Lassen, Jensen 2003, Cresswell 2010) we see that what may be thought of as issues of lack of tourism infrastructures also relate in a very detailed manner to the internal mobilities potentials of the residents in the region. But more...... interestingly, the “regional mobility assemblage” is wedded to social practices and everyday life ways of being mobile in the region. In order to understand and ultimately face the challenges facing this region one therefore needs to understand the culture of mobilities as a profound regional feature leading...

The Impact of International Tourism on the Economic Development and the Image of an Individual Country

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yevtushenko Viktoriia А.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to study the dynamics of economic indicators of international tourism, the main problems, trends and prospects of the industry development in the world market and an individual country, the role of the country’s image and its impact of on the creation of a competitive tourist product. There considered the dynamics of statistical indicators of the international tourism structure, in particular the tourist flow, contribution to the world GDP and employment, and national economies. The analysis of the status of the tourist industry of Ukraine in the context of the main economic indicators and hotel infrastructure is conducted using the example of Kharkov region. The role of the image and its influence on the competitiveness of the national tourist product is revealed. On the basis of correlation analysis, forecast models for a number of indicators are created. The present trends in the development of the tourist industry of Ukraine are identified and recommendations on improving its competitiveness are given.

Legislation and regulatory infrastructure for the safety of radioactive waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoegberg, L.

2000-01-01

The essential generic characteristics of a national legislative and regulatory system for the safety of radioactive waste management are defined and discussed. The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management as well as other relevant international legal instruments and guidelines are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the following characteristics of a national legislative and regulatory system: (i) definition of responsibilities, (ii) financing of future costs, (iii) nuclear and radiation safety requirements, (iv) siting and licensing procedures, (v) regulatory functions, and (vi) international co-operation. It is concluded that there exists an internationally endorsed basis for establishing effective national legislation and regulatory infrastructures for the safety of radioactive waste management. It is underlined that the continuing internationalization of the nuclear industry stresses the need for national legislation and regulatory infrastructure to be based on such internationally endorsed principles and standards. It is pointed out that regulators are accountable to the public and have to gain public trust by being active in the public arena, demonstrating their competence and integrity. Finally, prescriptive and goal-oriented international safety regimes are briefly discussed in the light of experience so far gained with the Convention on Nuclear Safety. (author)

SIRGAS: the core geodetic infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, L.; Brunini, C.; Drewes, H.; Mackern, V.; da Silva, A.

2013-05-01

Studying, understanding, and modelling geophysical phenomena, such as global change and geodynamics, require geodetic reference frames with (1) an order of accuracy higher than the magnitude of the effects we want to study, (2) consistency and reliability worldwide (the same accuracy everywhere), and (3) a long-term stability (the same order of accuracy at any time). The definition, realisation, maintenance, and wide-utilisation of the International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) are oriented to guarantee a globally unified geometric reference frame with reliability at the mm-level, i.e. the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The densification of the global ITRF in Latin America and The Caribbean is given by SIRGAS (Sistema de Referencia Geocéntrico para Las Américas), primary objective of which is to provide the most precise coordinates in the region. Therefore, SIRGAS is the backbone for all regional projects based on the generation, use, and analysis of geo-referenced data at national as well as at international level. Besides providing the reference for a wide range of scientific applications such as the monitoring of Earth's crust deformations, vertical movements, sea level variations, atmospheric studies, etc., SIRGAS is also the platform for practical applications such as engineering projects, digital administration of geographical data, geospatial data infrastructures, etc. According to this, the present contribution describes the main features of SIRGAS, giving special care to those challenges faced to continue providing the best possible, long-term stable and high-precise reference frame for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Land Administration and Spatial Data Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Parker, John R.; Enemark, Stig

2005-01-01

of developing land policies that effectively and efficiently incorporate appropriate spatial data infrastructures, including an understanding of the value of integrating the land administration/cadastre/land registration function with the topographic mapping function. This paper presents an overview...... of “The Development of Land Information Policies in the Americas”. FIG was tasked with taking the lead role in planning and arranging the Special Forum. The objective of this inter-regional forum was to establish an awareness of the economic and social value for decision makers, of the importance...

On the Enterprise Modelling of an Educational Information Infrastructure

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Widya, I.A.; Volman, C.J.A.M.; Pokraev, S.; de Diana, I.P.F.; Michiels, E.F.; Filipe, Joaquim; Sharp, Bernadette; Miranda, Paula

2002-01-01

This paper reports the modelling exercise of an educational information infrastructure that aims to support the organisation of teaching and learning activities suitable for a wide range of didactic policies. The modelling trajectory focuses on capturing invariant structures of relations between

Government of Canada position paper on a national strategy for critical infrastructure protection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-11-01

The Government of Canada's position on the development of a comprehensive national approach to critical infrastructure protection (CIP) was presented along with a policy framework for developing a national cyber security strategy and a review of the Emergency Preparedness Act. Canada's national critical infrastructure (NCI) is defined as physical and information technology facilities, networks, services and assets, which if destroyed, would have a serious impact on health, safety, security and economics. The CIP strategy includes an NCI assurance program for various sectors of the economy, including the energy, transportation, finance, health care, food, communications, water, safety and manufacturing sectors. It also includes CIP for the government sector. This report described the key elements of an NCI protection strategy. These include guiding principles, risk management, information sharing, inventory of critical infrastructure assets, threats and warnings, critical infrastructure interdependencies, governance mechanisms, research and development, and international cooperation. refs., tabs., figs.

The Impact of Organizational Structure on Internal and External Integration: An empirical, cross-regional assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xenophon Koufteros

2014-06-01

Full Text Available We examine the effects of organizational structure on cross-functional integration, supplier integration, and customer integration and assess whether such effects vary by geographical region. Specifically, we investigate the impact of centralization, formalization, and complexity on both internal (cross-functional and external (supplier, customer integration. Relationships are examined across Western and East Asian environments using data collected from 238 manufacturing plants in eight countries. We find that structural features have differing impacts on cross-functional, supplier, and customer integration, and these effects vary across geographical regions.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE EUROPEAN FUNDED PROJECTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian-Ion Ceptureanu

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Absorption of European funds is on top of Romania’s public agenda for the last years although the first programming period has ended and the necessary lessons were learned so far. To have a high degree of absorption of funds provided by the EU must be of quality projects and their implementation to be successful. Through this work we aimed to investigate the success factors of infrastructure projects with European funding in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia and Kosovo, and identify critical success factors of these projects through a research surveying the teams of consultants and support personnel from the countries in an international consulting company. The research results are therefore constitute the empirical evidence of what constitutes critical success factors of infrastructure projects financed by the European Union and can be used as a starting point for scientific studies of the management of European projects or other actions that investigates measures that can be taken to improve the success rate of projects implemented in the area mentioned above.One of the contributions of this paper is to identify the critical success factors of success factors present in literature. With more so as they are critical success factors of infrastructure projects with European funding still required field studies and analysis performed in the present context. In addition, the critical factors were operationalized in a conceptual framework. Moreover, this framework includes leadership style of project manager as critical success factor has been identified in the research as the most important in the context in which it was conducted. As such, this paper demonstrates, with the necessary limitations, the importance of management style of project managers in the context of specific European funded infrastructure projects. And this is happening even though there are sophisticated project management tools availabe and relevant knowledge exists

An infrastructure for ontology-based information systems in biomedicine: RICORDO case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wimalaratne, Sarala M; Grenon, Pierre; Hoehndorf, Robert; Gkoutos, Georgios V; de Bono, Bernard

2012-02-01

The article presents an infrastructure for supporting the semantic interoperability of biomedical resources based on the management (storing and inference-based querying) of their ontology-based annotations. This infrastructure consists of: (i) a repository to store and query ontology-based annotations; (ii) a knowledge base server with an inference engine to support the storage of and reasoning over ontologies used in the annotation of resources; (iii) a set of applications and services allowing interaction with the integrated repository and knowledge base. The infrastructure is being prototyped and developed and evaluated by the RICORDO project in support of the knowledge management of biomedical resources, including physiology and pharmacology models and associated clinical data. The RICORDO toolkit and its source code are freely available from http://ricordo.eu/relevant-resources. sarala@ebi.ac.uk.

The EGEE user support infrastructure

CERN Document Server

Antoni, T; Mills, A

2007-01-01

User support in a grid environment is a challenging task due to the distributed nature of the grid. The variety of users and VOs adds further to the challenge. One can find support requests by grid beginners, users with specific applications, site administrators, or grid monitoring operators. With the GGUS infrastructure, EGEE provides a portal where users can find support in their daily use of the grid. The current use of the system has shown that the goal has been achieved with success. The grid user support model in EGEE can be captioned ‘regional support with central coordination’. Users can submit a support request to the central GGUS service, or to their Regional Operations' Centre (ROC) or to their Virtual Organisation helpdesks. Within GGUS there are appropriate support groups for all support requests. The ROCs and VOs and the other project wide groups such as middleware groups (JRA), network groups (NA), service groups (SA) and other grid infrastructures (OSG, NorduGrid, etc.) are connected via a...

Development of a Geographical Information System for the monitoring of the health infrastructure in rural areas in Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jürgen Schweikart

2008-12-01

planning infrastructure is open. Also, the funding of an IT group comprised of members from national and international institutions is another step to gaining local acceptance for the system.

Conclusions: First steps have been taken to introduce the Health-GIS as a pilot project in the Mbeya Region. It has proved to be useful in order to collect the essential attributes of the HFs. Further development of the GIS will have to be taken into account simplicity of use. Hence this requires that the GIS needs to be integrated into the planning process.

A Messaging Infrastructure for WLCG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casey, James; Cons, Lionel; Lapka, Wojciech; Paladin, Massimo; Skaburskas, Konstantin

2011-01-01

During the EGEE-III project operational tools such as SAM, Nagios, Gridview, the regional Dashboard and GGUS moved to a communication architecture based on ActiveMQ, an open-source enterprise messaging solution. LHC experiments, in particular ATLAS, developed prototypes of systems using the same messaging infrastructure, validating the system for their use-cases. In this paper we describe the WLCG messaging use cases and outline an improved messaging architecture based on the experience gained during the EGEE-III period. We show how this provides a solid basis for many applications, including the grid middleware, to improve their resilience and reliability.

Green Infrastructure Siting and Cost Effectiveness Analysis

Data.gov (United States)

Allegheny County / City of Pittsburgh / Western PA Regional Data Center — Parcel scale green infrastructure siting and cost effectiveness analysis. You can find more details at the project's website.

Participation of financial institutions in project financing of infrastructure projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benković Slađana

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Infrastructure investing makes up a significant part of the financial institutions portfolio, and contributes to creating long-term assets cash flows. In addition, infrastructure assets are relatively inelastic in demand and price, and as such the asset has a good performance during the economic downturn. Properly structured infrastructure investments contribute to the diversification of the portfolio, due to the lack of correlation with the yield on bonds, stocks and real estate, and offer good protection against inflation. Applying the concept of project financing involves the application of the most advanced financial techniques and products that are able to ensure only credible international financial institutions and companies. Paper attempts to indicate the presence of financial institutions in project financing of infrastructure, as well as the benefits of this concept in expected to finance infrastructure in Serbia.

MUNICIPAL BONDS AS THE FINANCING STRATEGY FOR URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE : CASE STUDY OF JAKARTA MRT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eko Nur Surachman

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The construction of Jakarta MRT Phase I has been carried out by using funds from foreign debt. Meanwhile, Jakarta MRT Phase II or other local infrastructure projects are still waiting for new funding scheme. One alternative is municipal bonds. This study investigate the possibilities of using municipal bonds to finance urban infrastructure project with the case study of Jakarta MRTPhase I. The analyzed use three perspectives including financial aspect, legal aspect, and Jakarta financial capacity aspect. financial analysis using discounted cash flow (DCF, net present value (NPV and internal rate of return (IRR.Secondly, study literature is used in the legal analysis by exploring specific regulations regarding the municipal bonds. Finally, the Jakarta Regional Budget and Jakarta Budget Audit Report is examined to get insight and depth information regarding its financial capacity. The result is municipal bonds are feasible as the source of financing Jakarta MRT Project.

Scalable Multi-group Key Management for Advanced Metering Infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Benmalek , Mourad; Challal , Yacine; Bouabdallah , Abdelmadjid

2015-01-01

International audience; Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is composed of systems and networks to incorporate changes for modernizing the electricity grid, reduce peak loads, and meet energy efficiency targets. AMI is a privileged target for security attacks with potentially great damage against infrastructures and privacy. For this reason, Key Management has been identified as one of the most challenging topics in AMI development. In this paper, we propose a new Scalable multi-group key ...

Connectivity and Resilience: A Multidimensional Analysis of Infrastructure Impacts in the Southwestern Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Perz, Stephen G.; Shenkin, Alexander; Barnes, Grenville; Cabrera, Liliana; Carvalho, Lucas A.; Castillo, Jorge

2012-01-01

Infrastructure is a worldwide policy priority for national development via regional integration into the global economy. However, economic, ecological and social research draws contrasting conclusions about the consequences of infrastructure. We present a synthetic approach to the study of infrastructure, focusing on a multidimensional treatment…

ECDS - a Swedish Research Infrastructure for the Open Sharing of Environment and Climate Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T Klein

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Environment Climate Data Sweden (ECDS is a new Swedish research infrastructure, furthering the reuse of scientific data in the domains of environment and climate. ECDS consists of a technical infrastructure and a service organization, supporting the management, exchange, and re-use of scientific data. The technical components of ECDS include a portal and an underlying data catalogue with information on datasets. The datasets are described using a metadata profile compliant with international standards. The datasets accessible through ECDS can be hosted by universities, institutes, or research groups or at the new Swedish federated data storage facility Swestore of the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC.

Infectious disease morbidity in the US region bordering Mexico, 1990-1998.

Science.gov (United States)

Doyle, T J; Bryan, R T

2000-11-01

The United States and Mexico share an international boundary approximately 3000 km long. This border separates 2 nations with great differences in health status. The objective of this study was to assess morbidity due to infectious diseases in the US region bordering Mexico. The incidence between 1990 and 1998 of 22 nationally notifiable infectious diseases was compared between border and nonborder regions. Disease rates, reflected as rate ratios, were higher in the border region for botulism, brucellosis, diphtheria, hepatitis A, measles, mumps, rabies, rubella, salmonellosis, and shigellosis than in either of 2 nonborder comparison regions. These data indicate that incidence rates for a variety of infectious diseases of public health importance are significantly higher in the United States along the Mexican border than in nonborder regions. These results suggest that an inadequate public health infrastructure may contribute to excess morbidity due to infectious diseases in the border region.

Regional cooperation in RWM in the AO countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ya-anant, N.; Thiangtrongjit, S.

2011-01-01

Regional cooperation in radioactive waste management (RWM) in the Asian and Oceanic countries has been successfully developing for more than 20 y. At present, the Asian and Oceanic countries recognise that there are several projects under the regional cooperation, such as the Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia (FNCA), the Asian Nuclear Safety Network (ANSN) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regional projects. The FNCA on Radiation Safety and RWM is an effective mechanism for enhancing socio-economic development through active regional partnership in the peaceful and safe utilisation of nuclear technology. The ANSN Topical Group on RWM is established for exchanging, pooling, and sharing knowledge in the field of nuclear safety. For IAEA regional cooperation on RWM, such as IAEA-regional project RAS/3/009 Strengthening Infrastructure of RWM can provide and support Asian and Oceanic countries for national work plan, fellowships and scientific visits as well as expert services. (authors)

India’s Look/Act East Policy and the Northeast Region: A Critical Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Professor Hiranya K Nath

2017-11-01

Full Text Available India’s Look East Policy (LEP signifies a strategic shift in its international political, economic, and military relationships. Regional integration of its Northeast Region (NER with the countries in East, Southeast and South Asia may potentially generate economic dividends to the region. However, there are formidable challenges in realizing the potentials. The proposed infrastructure projects, if completed with no further delay, will go a long way in improving connectivity with the neighbouring countries. However, improving connectivity within the region and with the rest of the country is also very important. Further, it would require a comprehensive long-term plan with well-defined projects for developing industries and services including education, health and tourism. Building infrastructure, ensuring socio-political stability and ecological balance, and improving the quality of institutions would be a major part of this plan.

Service software engineering for innovative infrastructure for global financial services

OpenAIRE

MAAD , Soha; MCCARTHY , James B.; GARBAYA , Samir; Beynon , Meurig; Nagarajan , Rajagopal

2010-01-01

International audience; The recent financial crisis motivates our re-thinking of the engineering principles for service software and infrastructures intended to create business value in vital sectors. Existing monolithic, inwarddirected, cost insensitive and highly regulated technical and organizational infrastructures for financial services make it difficult for the domain to benefit from opportunities offered by new computing models such as cloud computing, software as a service, hardware a...

The quest for the oil and gas infrastructure protection in central Asia : time bombs and policy options

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bi, J. [Carleton Univ., Ottawa, ON (Canada). Norman Paterson School of International Affairs

2006-03-15

The growing economies of China and India have increased global anxieties over dwindling fossil fuel resources. Regional countries in central Asia have advocated for more extensive strategic partnerships within the oil and gas industry as insurance against the pressures of more powerful nations. However, non-traditional threats such as terrorism raise serious questions about critical oil and gas infrastructure protection in central Asia. This paper assessed the vulnerability and threats inherent in protecting the critical oil and gas infrastructure of Central Asia, with a specific focus on Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the region of Xinjiang in China. An-depth analysis of the development strategies, terrorist threats, and water issues confronted by Central Asian powers was conducted to demonstrate their vulnerability. The analysis was then used to consider options available for managing oil and gas infrastructure in the regions. It was observed that different perceptions and technological difficulties have made cooperation on critical oil and gas infrastructure protection less important than national sovereignty and domestic stability. It was concluded that a low-key approach to homeland security and oil and gas infrastructure may be the best strategy for Central Asia and China. 44 refs.

Towards an adaptation action plan : climate change and health in the Toronto-Niagara region : summary for policy makers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiotti, Q.; Morton, I.; Maarouf, A.

2002-10-01

The current science regarding climate change and its potential health effects was assessed in an effort to provide information to decision-makers dealing with health infrastructure in the Toronto-Niagara region. This report also presents an assessment of how the health care system can adapt to handle the increased demand for services resulting from the projected negative human health effects of climate change. The first part of the report presents some background information on climate change and health issues and demonstrates how the current health care infrastructure cannot deal effectively with the full range of health effects that may occur in heavily populated areas such as the Toronto-Niagara region. The second part of the report summarizes the scientific knowledge about the expected impacts of climate change and associated health effects, such as heat stress, extreme weather events, poor air quality, vector-borne diseases, food and water-borne diseases, and increased exposure to ultra-violet radiation. It was noted that children and the elderly are most vulnerable. The final part of the report outlines an adaptation action plan to improve the health care infrastructure through public education and communication, surveillance and monitoring, ecosystem intervention, infrastructure development, technical engineering, and medical intervention. 100 refs., 1 fig

Security infrastructure for dynamically provisioned cloud infrastructure services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Demchenko, Y.; Ngo, C.; de Laat, C.; Lopez, D.R.; Morales, A.; García-Espín, J.A.; Pearson, S.; Yee, G.

2013-01-01

This chapter discusses conceptual issues, basic requirements and practical suggestions for designing dynamically configured security infrastructure provisioned on demand as part of the cloud-based infrastructure. This chapter describes general use cases for provisioning cloud infrastructure services

Developing a modelling for the spatial data infrastructure

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Hjelmager, J

2005-07-01

Full Text Available The Commission on Spatial Data Standards of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) is working on defining spatial models and technical characteristics of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). To date, this work has been restricted...

Robust Water Supply Infrastructure Development Pathways: What, When and Where Matters the Most? (INVITED)

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, Patrick; Zeff, Harrison; Characklis, Gregory

2017-04-01

Water supply adaptation frameworks that seek robustness must adaptively trigger actions that are contextually appropriate to emerging system observations and avoid long term high regret lock-ins. As an example, emerging water scarcity concerns in southeastern United States are associated with several deeply uncertain factors, including rapid population growth, limited coordination across adjacent municipalities and the increasing risks for sustained regional droughts. Managing these uncertainties will require that regional water utilities identify regionally coordinated, scarcity-mitigating infrastructure development pathways that trigger time appropriate actions. Mistakes can lead to water shortages, overbuilt stranded assets and possibly financial failures. This presentation uses the Research Triangle area of North Carolina to illustrate the key concerns and challenges that emerged when helping Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill develop their long term water supply infrastructure pathways through 2060. This example shows how the region's water utilities' long term infrastructure pathways are strongly shaped by their short term conservation policies (i.e., reacting to evolving demands) and their ability to consider regional water transfers (i.e., reacting to supply imbalances). Cooperatively developed, shared investments across the four municipalities expand their capacity to use short term transfers to better manage severe droughts with fewer investments in irreversible infrastructure options. Cooperative pathways are also important for avoiding regional robustness conflicts, where one party benefits strongly at the expense of one or more the others. A significant innovation of this work is the exploitation of weekly and annual dynamic risk-of-failure action triggers that exploit evolving feedbacks between co-evolving human demands and regional supplies. These dynamic action triggers provide high levels of adaptivity, tailor actions to their specific context

Differences in the size-internal velocity relation of galactic and extragalactic HII regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Odell, C.R.

1990-01-01

The nature of the size-internal velocity relation in extragalactic HII regions is examined in order to improve their use as distance determinants. The relation between the linear size and the internal velocity was compared for HII regions in the Galaxy and in external galaxies. Data for the former are from the researcher's own studies at high spatial resolution, while the latter have been the subject of spectroscopy that includes almost the entire objects. The Galactic HII regions are corrected to values of the internal velocity that would be observed if they were at extragalactic distances. A very different size-internal velocity relation was found for the two types of objects in the sense that the extragalactic objects are some ten times larger at the same internal velocity. This is interpreted to mean that the extragalactic HII regions are actually complexes of small HII regions comparable in size to their Galactic counterparts

HCP, grid and data infrastructures for astrophysics: an integrated view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pasian, F.

2009-01-01

Also in the case of astrophysics, the capability of performing Big Science requires the availability of large Hcp facilities. But computational resources alone are far from being enough for the community: as a matter of fact, the whole set of e-infrastructures (network, computing nodes, data repositories, applications) need to work in an inter operable way. This implies the development of common (or at least compatible) user interfaces to computing resources, transparent access to observations and numerical simulations through the Virtual Observatory, integrated data processing pipelines, data mining and semantic web applications. Achieving this inter operability goal is a must to build a real Knowledge Infrastructure in the astrophysical domain.

E-Infrastructure Concertation Meeting

CERN Multimedia

Katarina Anthony

2010-01-01

The 8th e-Infrastructure Concertation Meeting was held in the Globe from 4 to 5 November to discuss the development of Europe’s distributed computing and storage resources.   Project leaders attend the E-Concertation Meeting at the Globe on 5 November 2010. © Corentin Chevalier E-Infrastructures have become an indispensable tool for scientific research, linking researchers to virtually unlimited e-resources like the grid. The recent e-Infrastructure Concertation Meeting brought together e-Science project leaders to discuss the development of this tool in the European context. The meeting was part of an ongoing initiative to develop a world-class e-infrastructure resource that would establish European leadership in e-Science. The e-Infrastructure Concertation Meeting was organised by the Commission Services (EC) with the support of e-ScienceTalk. “The Concertation meeting at CERN has been a great opportunity for e-ScienceTalk to meet many of the 38 new proje...

The Black Sea one decade after the Bucharest Convention an overview of the international activities in the Black Sea region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goektepe, G.

2002-01-01

The catastrophic degradation of the Black Sea in a period of four decade has been the major concern of the Black Sea countries and international communities since Bucharest Convention signed in 1992. The Black Sea Region has became a challenging international arena for political scientific and socio-economic activities. Intensive international programmes and establishment of governmental and Non Governmental Organizational structures of the 1990s including Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Black Sea Environmental Programme(BSEP), Environmental Programme for the Danube River Basin, Marine Environmental Assessment of the Black Sea Region Technical Cooperation Programme by the IAEA and establishment of the Black Sea Commission Permanent Secretariat are some of the major international efforts of the past decade that emphasizes the multi-nationality and large dimension of the Black Sea environmental management issues. The environmental degradation of the Black Sea is briefly reviewed based on the BSEP reports and data available for land based pollution sources. The environmental risk of marine vessel accidents are indicated and environmental safety concern is emphasized under the current conditions of intense energy transportation projects in the Black Sea and Caspian regions. The international policy actions, co-operation issues and scientific programmes of the past decade are overviewed with emphasis on the international achievements. Concluding remarks include the vital importance of continuation of the international commitments and sharing the political, scientific and socio-economic responsibility on the transboundary environmental pollution, rehabilitation and the safety issues of the Black Sea

Development and problems of radioactive waste management infrastructure in Estonia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Putnik, H.; Realo, E.

2001-01-01

Estonia is one of a few countries where the establishment of radiation protection and radioactive waste management infrastructure started only recently, soon after regaining independence in the beginning of 1990's. Both legislative and regulatory infrastructure had to be built from scratch, in parallel with the beginning of urgent activities and practices to manage waste streams inherited from the past. Despite significant deficiency of local expertise and specialists in the field, the main objectives of the establishment were set up: to enforce national legislation basing on contemporary international principles, criteria, requirements and to implement structures and procedures for an efficient regulation of radiation safety issues, including practices involving radioactive waste management and decommissioning

Establishing the Safety Infrastructure for NPP in Mongolia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enkhbat, Norov; Lee, Y. E.

2013-01-01

The survey results and analyses were used to establish the basis for developing nuclear safety infrastructure in Mongolia. Power Energy effective reform or introduction of nuclear reactors should be implemented in coming future to avoid this critical situation faces us. The most participant suggested that Mongolia may cooperate in the field of nuclear safety and infrastructure development with the Republic of Korea. Nuclear Energy Agency of the government of Mongolia has organized Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development (NUPID) training in cooperating with Seoul National University and other organizations in 2008, 2010 and 2012. There is a need to improve the nuclear energy law of Mongolia. Total energy supply of Mongolia is 5124.08 MWt as of 2012. 92.4% of total energy supply produces with coal, 0.56% with liquid fuel, and 0.01% with renewable energy sources, remained 6% imports from Russia. Mongolia operates seven Thermal Centralized Systems (TCS) with total capacity of 802 MWt, which provides dual; electricity and thermal power. Energy demand in Mongolia is expected to increase, due to the dramatically expanding mining industry. It is absolutely impossible to supply such rapid growth having operated old technology and inefficient production which exists currently in Mongolia. Therefor Mongolian government is interested in utilizing nuclear energy and approved Nuclear Energy Law in 2009. National Development Strategy (2008-2021) stated as that the peaceful exploitation of the nuclear energy will be an important factor for the sustainable development of Magnolia. Action Plan of the Government for 2008-2012 stated as that ...conduct a comprehensive research for use of nuclear energy, develop technical and economic feasibility study and improve radiation control and safety. International community has developed appropriate approaches in the form of IAEA safety standards, which has a positive experience of regulation and safety. These approaches contribute to the

Establishing the Safety Infrastructure for NPP in Mongolia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Enkhbat, Norov [Korea Advanced Institue of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Y. E. [Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

The survey results and analyses were used to establish the basis for developing nuclear safety infrastructure in Mongolia. Power Energy effective reform or introduction of nuclear reactors should be implemented in coming future to avoid this critical situation faces us. The most participant suggested that Mongolia may cooperate in the field of nuclear safety and infrastructure development with the Republic of Korea. Nuclear Energy Agency of the government of Mongolia has organized Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development (NUPID) training in cooperating with Seoul National University and other organizations in 2008, 2010 and 2012. There is a need to improve the nuclear energy law of Mongolia. Total energy supply of Mongolia is 5124.08 MWt as of 2012. 92.4% of total energy supply produces with coal, 0.56% with liquid fuel, and 0.01% with renewable energy sources, remained 6% imports from Russia. Mongolia operates seven Thermal Centralized Systems (TCS) with total capacity of 802 MWt, which provides dual; electricity and thermal power. Energy demand in Mongolia is expected to increase, due to the dramatically expanding mining industry. It is absolutely impossible to supply such rapid growth having operated old technology and inefficient production which exists currently in Mongolia. Therefor Mongolian government is interested in utilizing nuclear energy and approved Nuclear Energy Law in 2009. National Development Strategy (2008-2021) stated as that the peaceful exploitation of the nuclear energy will be an important factor for the sustainable development of Magnolia. Action Plan of the Government for 2008-2012 stated as that ...conduct a comprehensive research for use of nuclear energy, develop technical and economic feasibility study and improve radiation control and safety. International community has developed appropriate approaches in the form of IAEA safety standards, which has a positive experience of regulation and safety. These approaches contribute to the

A Local Region of Interest Imaging Method for Electrical Impedance Tomography with Internal Electrodes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyeuknam Kwon

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT is a very attractive functional imaging method despite the low sensitivity and resolution. The use of internal electrodes with the conventional reconstruction algorithms was not enough to enhance image resolution and accuracy in the region of interest (ROI. We propose a local ROI imaging method with internal electrodes developed from careful analysis of the sensitivity matrix that is designed to reduce the sensitivity of the voxels outside the local region and optimize the sensitivity of the voxel inside the local region. We perform numerical simulations and physical measurements to demonstrate the localized EIT imaging method. In preliminary results with multiple objects we show the benefits of using an internal electrode and the improved resolution due to the local ROI image reconstruction method. The sensitivity is further increased by allowing the surface electrodes to be unevenly spaced with a higher density of surface electrodes near the ROI. Also, we analyse how much the image quality is improved using several performance parameters for comparison. While these have not yet been studied in depth, it convincingly shows an improvement in local sensitivity in images obtained with an internal electrode in comparison to a standard reconstruction method.

CLIMB (the Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics): an online resource for the medical microbiology community.

Science.gov (United States)

Connor, Thomas R; Loman, Nicholas J; Thompson, Simon; Smith, Andy; Southgate, Joel; Poplawski, Radoslaw; Bull, Matthew J; Richardson, Emily; Ismail, Matthew; Thompson, Simon Elwood-; Kitchen, Christine; Guest, Martyn; Bakke, Marius; Sheppard, Samuel K; Pallen, Mark J

2016-09-01

The increasing availability and decreasing cost of high-throughput sequencing has transformed academic medical microbiology, delivering an explosion in available genomes while also driving advances in bioinformatics. However, many microbiologists are unable to exploit the resulting large genomics datasets because they do not have access to relevant computational resources and to an appropriate bioinformatics infrastructure. Here, we present the Cloud Infrastructure for Microbial Bioinformatics (CLIMB) facility, a shared computing infrastructure that has been designed from the ground up to provide an environment where microbiologists can share and reuse methods and data.

Pakistan’s Earthquake and Tsunami Hazards Potential Impact on Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GEORGE PARARAS-CARAYANNIS

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Interaction of the Indian, Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates has resulted in the formation of major active fault systems in South Asia. Compression along the tectonic boundaries results in thrust or reverse type of faulting and zones of crustal deformation characterized by high seismic activity and continuing Orogenesis. The more intense seismic activity occurs near regions of thrust faulting which is developing at the Himalayan foothills. In northern Pakistan, the Hindu Kush Mountains converge with the Karakoram Range to form a part of the Himalayan mountain system. Northern, western as well as southern Pakistan, Kashmir and northern India and Afghanistan are along such zones of high seismic activity. In Pakistan, most of the earthquakes occur in the north and western regions along the boundary of the Indian tectonic plate with the Iranian and Afghan micro-plates. The active zone extends from the Makran region in the southwest to the Hazara-Kashmir syntaxial bend in the north. Southwest Pakistan is vulnerable to both earthquake and tsunami hazards. In 2005, earthquakes devastated northern Pakistan and Kashmir and severely affected the cities of Muzaffarabad, Islamadad and Rawalpindi, causing severe destruction to the infrastructure of the northern region. A major earthquake along an extensive transform fault system in 1935 destroyed the city Quetta and the adjoining region. A major earthquake along the northern Arabian sea in 1945 generated a very destructive tsunami along the coasts of Baluchistan and Sindh Provinces. The region near Karachi is vulnerable as it is located near four major faults where destructive earthquakes and tsunamis have occurred in the past. Given Pakistan’s vulnerability and extensive infrastructure development in recent years, the present study reviews briefly the earthquake and tsunami risk factors and assesses the impact that such disasters can have on the country’s critical infrastructure - which includes

Building up the radiation protection infrastructure in Estonia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lust, Merle; Muru, Karin

2008-01-01

This paper will provide a timeline overview of the of radiation protection infrastructure following the 1999 declaration of independence. In Estonia, an independent competent authority was inaugurated in 1996 and the first Radiation Act was approved by Parliament the following year, in 1997. This paper will address several important factors and the means which promoted development. International cooperation was and remains an essential factor worthy of discussion. For example participation in International Atomic Energy Agency technical co-operation programme and co-operation with neighbouring countries greatly facilitated greatly the development. Political choices and the long term goal of accession to the European Union had great importance to the process also. Today, the Republic of Estonia is member of European Union and has built up a well functioning radiation protection system according the international standards and requirements. This paper is intended to share the experience and to facilitate the learning process. (author)

Benefits to Minnesotans of communications infrastructure public-private partnership

Science.gov (United States)

1997-06-01

This paper presents a summary of the benefits of a communications infrastructure public-private partnership between the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the team of International Communications Systems (ICS) and Stone & Webster.

Arid Green Infrastructure for Water Control and Conservation State of the Science and Research Needs for Arid/Semi-Arid Regions

Science.gov (United States)

Green infrastructure is an approach to managing wet weather flows using systems and practices that mimic natural processes. It is designed to manage stormwater as close to its source as possible and protect the quality of receiving waters. Although most green infrastructure pract...

Toward cleaner, quieter skies: An international debate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aylesworth, H. Jr.

1997-12-31

The paper summarizes infrastructure and technology changes in the aerospace industry aimed at reducing fuel consumption and nitrous oxide emissions. Growth of total air traffic is predicted over the next 20 years; however, emissions are predicted to grow less rapidly due to increased fuel efficiency and operational productivity. Engine technology leading to fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and noise reduction is described. Regulations pertinent to these issues are outlined, and international efforts in these areas are also briefly described. 4 figs.

A knowledge infrastructure for occupational safety and health.

Science.gov (United States)

van Dijk, Frank J H; Verbeek, Jos H; Hoving, Jan L; Hulshof, Carel T J

2010-12-01

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals should use scientific evidence to support their decisions in policy and practice. Although examples from practice show that progress has been made in evidence-based decision making, there is a challenge to improve and extend the facilities that support knowledge translation in practice. A knowledge infrastructure that supports OSH practice should include scientific research, systematic reviews, practice guidelines, and other tools for professionals such as well accessible virtual libraries and databases providing knowledge, quality tools, and good learning materials. A good infrastructure connects facilities with each other and with practice. Training and education is needed for OSH professionals in the use of evidence to improve effectiveness and efficiency. New initiatives show that occupational health can profit from intensified international collaboration to establish a good functioning knowledge infrastructure.

Research Data Management - Building Service Infrastructure and Capacity

KAUST Repository

Baessa, Mohamed A.

2018-03-07

Research libraries support the missions of their institutions by facilitating the flow of scholarly information to and from the institutions’ researchers. As research in many disciplines becomes more data and software intensive, libraries are finding that services and infrastructure developed to preserve and provide access to textual documents are insufficient to meet their institutions’ needs. In response, libraries around the world have begun assessing the data management needs of their researchers, and expanding their capacity to meet the needs that they find. This discussion panel will discuss approaches to building research data management services and infrastructure in academic libraries. Panelists will discuss international efforts to support research data management, while highlighting the different models that universities have adopted to provide a mix of services and infrastructure tailored to their local needs.

Public Participation Procedure in Integrated Transport and Green Infrastructure Planning

Science.gov (United States)

Finka, Maroš; Ondrejička, Vladimír; Jamečný, Ľubomír; Husár, Milan

2017-10-01

The dialogue among the decision makers and stakeholders is a crucial part of any decision-making processes, particularly in case of integrated transportation planning and planning of green infrastructure where a multitude of actors is present. Although the theory of public participation is well-developed after several decades of research, there is still a lack of practical guidelines due to the specificity of public participation challenges. The paper presents a model of public participation for integrated transport and green infrastructure planning for international project TRANSGREEN covering the area of five European countries - Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Romania. The challenge of the project is to coordinate the efforts of public actors and NGOs in international environment in oftentimes precarious projects of transport infrastructure building and developing of green infrastructure. The project aims at developing and environmentally-friendly and safe international transport network. The proposed public participation procedure consists of five main steps - spread of information (passive), collection of information (consultation), intermediate discussion, engagement and partnership (empowerment). The initial spread of information is a process of communicating with the stakeholders, informing and educating them and it is based on their willingness to be informed. The methods used in this stage are public displays, newsletters or press releases. The second step of consultation is based on transacting the opinions of stakeholders to the decision makers. Pools, surveys, public hearings or written responses are examples of the multitude of ways to achieve this objective and the main principle of openness of stakeholders. The third step is intermediate discussion where all sides of are invited to a dialogue using the tools such as public meetings, workshops or urban walks. The fourth step is an engagement based on humble negotiation, arbitration and

Science in the city region: establishing Liverpool’s life science ecology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dane Anderton

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on the development of soft and hard infrastructures to support a life science ecology in a peripheral European city region. Liverpool City Region has received almost £1.7bn in capital investment through the EU Cohesion Policy to redevelop the city region and reinvigorate its economy towards knowledge based industries. The analysis of the city regions life science ecology highlights the uneven development of hard and soft infrastructures. Due to the diversity of firms within the region it has proven difficult to establish soft infrastructure related to scientific knowledge. The outcome has led to soft infrastructures being more business support orientated rather than scientific knowledge based, reducing inter-firm connections on a product or service basis. The evidence shows that not all types of soft infrastructure emerge as an outcome of investment. Hence, policy makers need to provide a clearer narrative on their investments, focusing on fewer core competencies rather than breadth of activities.

Modeling Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure to Support Passenger Vehicles †

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matteo Muratori

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The year 2014 marked hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs first becoming commercially available in California, where significant investments are being made to promote the adoption of alternative transportation fuels. A refueling infrastructure network that guarantees adequate coverage and expands in line with vehicle sales is required for FCEVs to be successfully adopted by private customers. In this paper, we provide an overview of modelling methodologies used to project hydrogen refueling infrastructure requirements to support FCEV adoption, and we describe, in detail, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s scenario evaluation and regionalization analysis (SERA model. As an example, we use SERA to explore two alternative scenarios of FCEV adoption: one in which FCEV deployment is limited to California and several major cities in the United States; and one in which FCEVs reach widespread adoption, becoming a major option as passenger vehicles across the entire country. Such scenarios can provide guidance and insights for efforts required to deploy the infrastructure supporting transition toward different levels of hydrogen use as a transportation fuel for passenger vehicles in the United States.

Regional Community and International Relations: the Volgograd Region Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danakari Richard A.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the complex and controversial problems of the new regional communities’ formation and the impact of the interethnic relations sphere on them. The author notes that the processes of interaction between representatives of different cultures and civilizations, ethnic groups and religions have become increasingly controversial and tense in the context of continuous social dynamics. Similarly to the Russian society as a whole, regional communities are in a state of transitivity. They get transformed, they acquire new qualities such as multicasting and heterogeneity, multi-ethnicity and multi-confessionalism, fragmentarity and multiculturality. This fact increases the risks and uncertainties, problematizes future prospects. National non-governmental organizations are increasingly positioning themselves as civil society institutions at the present stage of social development at the regional level. They perform a difficult dual task: on the one hand, they ensure the preservation and development of history, native language, culture, ethnic traditions, and on the other hand, they work on the integration, on the common identity and the Russian nation formation. On the territory of the Volgograd region, largely due to the active cooperation of regional authorities and local authorities with national public associations, international and inter-confessional relations are stable. The basis of such activity is respect for history, native language, culture, tradition, religion, national dignity of all people in the region, regardless of their belonging to a certain ethnic group or religion. Over two decades of accumulated considerable experience of joint inter-ethnic dialogue and cooperation, provided tolerance and peace, harmony and mutual understanding between people of different ethnicities and religions in the country.

The Impact of Transport on International Trade Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavlović Duško

2016-09-01

Full Text Available International trade implies transport of specific quantity of goods to (frequently large distances, the success of which depends on the safety and speed of delivery. These are greatly conditioned by the quality of means of transport and infrastructure. This is why international trade development is affected by transport, and the development of means of transport and infrastructure is, to a great extent, influenced by demand for international delivery of various commodities. This paper looks at the interdependence of international trade and transport, showing how transport played a very significant role in international trade development in the past as it does today, commensurate to the role of international trade in the development of carriers and transport infrastructure.

Developing compressed natural gas as an automotive fuel in Nigeria: Lessons from international markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogunlowo, Olufemi O.; Bristow, Abigail L.; Sohail, M.

2015-01-01

The Nigerian government proposed the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an automotive fuel in 1997 as part of the initiatives to harness natural gas (NG) resources but progress has been slow. This paper examines the natural gas vehicle (NGV) implementation approaches and outcomes in seven countries with diverse experiences in order to gain an understanding of the barriers to the NGV market development in Nigeria. The analysis employs hermeneutic principles to secondary data derived from academic literature, published reports from a variety of international agencies, grey literature, and text from online sources and identifies eight success factors for NGV market development namely: strategic intent, legal backing, learning and adaptation, assignment of responsibilities, financial incentives, NG pricing, consumer confidence, and NG infrastructure. The paper concludes that the principal impediment to NGV market development in Nigeria is the uncoordinated implementation approach and that greater government involvement is required in setting strategic goals, developing the legal and regulatory frameworks, setting of clear standards for vehicles and refuelling stations as well as assigning responsibilities to specific agencies. Short-term low cost policy interventions identified include widening the existing NG and gasoline price gap and offering limited support for refuelling and retrofitting facilities. - Highlights: • We examined the NGV policies and implementation strategies in selected countries. • The use of legislative mandates help deepen NGV penetration. • Aligning stakeholder interest is critical to NGV adoption. • Making national interest a priority ahead of regional infrastructure is a critical success factor. • Government support drives participation

Nuclear Safeguards Infrastructure Required for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dr. Mark Schanfein; Philip Casey Durst

2012-07-01

The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) is a Very High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (VHTR) to be constructed near Idaho Falls, Idaho The NGNP is intrinsically safer than current reactors and is planned for startup ca. 2021 Safety is more prominent in the minds of the Public and Governing Officials following the nuclear reactor meltdown accidents in Fukushima, Japan The authors propose that the NGNP should be designed with International (IAEA) Safeguards in mind to support export to Non-Nuclear-Weapons States There are two variants of the NGNP design; one using integral Prismatic-shaped fuel assemblies in a fixed core; and one using recirculating fuel balls (or Pebbles) The following presents the infrastructure required to safeguard the NGNP This infrastructure is required to safeguard the Prismatic and Pebble-fueled NGNP (and other HTGR/VHTR) The infrastructure is based on current Safeguards Requirements and Practices implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for similar reactors The authors of this presentation have worked for decades in the area of International Nuclear Safeguards and are recognized experts in this field Presentation for INMM conference in July 2012.

INFRASTRUCTURE

CERN Document Server

A.Gaddi

2011-01-01

Between the end of March to June 2011, there has been no detector downtime during proton fills due to CMS Infrastructures failures. This exceptional performance is a clear sign of the high quality work done by the CMS Infrastructures unit and its supporting teams. Powering infrastructure At the end of March, the EN/EL group observed a problem with the CMS 48 V system. The problem was a lack of isolation between the negative (return) terminal and earth. Although at that moment we were not seeing any loss of functionality, in the long term it would have led to severe disruption to the CMS power system. The 48 V system is critical to the operation of CMS: in addition to feeding the anti-panic lights, essential for the safety of the underground areas, it powers all the PLCs (Twidos) that control AC power to the racks and front-end electronics of CMS. A failure of the 48 V system would bring down the whole detector and lead to evacuation of the cavern. EN/EL technicians have made an accurate search of the fault, ...

Disaster management and mitigation: the telecommunications infrastructure.

Science.gov (United States)

Patricelli, Frédéric; Beakley, James E; Carnevale, Angelo; Tarabochia, Marcello; von Lubitz, Dag K J E

2009-03-01

Among the most typical consequences of disasters is the near or complete collapse of terrestrial telecommunications infrastructures (especially the distribution network--the 'last mile') and their concomitant unavailability to the rescuers and the higher echelons of mitigation teams. Even when such damage does not take place, the communications overload/congestion resulting from significantly elevated traffic generated by affected residents can be highly disturbing. The paper proposes innovative remedies to the telecommunications difficulties in disaster struck regions. The offered solutions are network-centric operations-cap able, and can be employed in management of disasters of any magnitude (local to national or international). Their implementation provide ground rescue teams (such as law enforcement, firemen, healthcare personnel, civilian authorities) with tactical connectivity among themselves, and, through the Next Generation Network backbone, ensure the essential bidirectional free flow of information and distribution of Actionable Knowledge among ground units, command/control centres, and civilian and military agencies participating in the rescue effort.

The Role of Institutional Environment in International Trade. The Case of Spanish Regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Márquez-Ramos

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We move beyond the nation-state as the unit of analysis and use subnational spatial variation to study the effect of the institutional environment on international trade. Additionally, we address the heterogeneous effect of trade agreements on different regions within a country. Employing a gravity model approach, we use a region-to-country dataset to estimate the determinants of Spanish regional exports and we apply quantile regressions for panel data. We find that better institutional quality of trade agreements leads to an increase in both the intensive and the extensive margins of trade. The institutional quality of trade agreements exerts a differential effect on regional exports at different locations within a country, although differences across Spanish regions seem to be larger for the intensive margin than for the extensive margin. We do, however, find a common trend: for the relatively more important exporting regions, the institutional quality of TAs is less relevant for trade margins. Therefore, our results posit that subnational spatial variation should be added to the analysis of the determinants of international trade flows.

INFRASTRUCTURE ACTIVATION OF INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINIAN AGRARIAN SECTOR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svitlana Syrtseva

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is a justification of roles and identifying areas of improving the functioning of innovation infrastructure that will boost innovation in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. Methodology. The methodical basis of the study consists of general scientific cognition methods of economic phenomena and processes. Realization of the work tasks required such methods: theoretical generalization method – during study of scientific papers, legislative and regulatory acts; abstract logical method – to summarize theoretical and methodological provisions, as well as define the research goal; system approach method – identifying areas for improving the functioning of the innovation infrastructure of Ukrainian agrarian sector. Results. Found that in modern development conditions, a network of innovative structures that would provide infrastructure support for innovation development in the agricultural sector should be represented by such institutions as: agricultural innovation clusters, science parks, business incubators, venture funds, advisory services. Taking into account the international experience of the main institutions of infrastructural maintenance of innovative development, suggested areas of improvement and optimization of their formation and functioning to ensure innovation in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. Proved that the formation of agricultural innovation regional clusters should be represented by the following stages: a preliminary analysis and identifying promising areas and productions; selection of the cluster members; the strategic planning stage; setting goals and objectives; work scheduling of the cluster members in order to implement strategies; control over the execution of the approved programs and projects. Taking into account the global model of organization of advisory services, determined that the development of agricultural advisory system should be implemented through extension services

Regulation of gas infrastructure expansion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Joode, J.

2012-01-01

The topic of this dissertation is the regulation of gas infrastructure expansion in the European Union (EU). While the gas market has been liberalised, the gas infrastructure has largely remained in the regulated domain. However, not necessarily all gas infrastructure facilities - such as gas storage facilities, LNG import terminals and certain gas transmission pipelines - need to be regulated, as there may be scope for competition. In practice, the choice of regulation of gas infrastructure expansion varies among different types of gas infrastructure facilities and across EU Member States. Based on a review of economic literature and on a series of in-depth case studies, this study explains these differences in choices of regulation from differences in policy objectives, differences in local circumstances and differences in the intrinsic characteristics of the infrastructure projects. An important conclusion is that there is potential for a larger role for competition in gas infrastructure expansion.

Strategic establishment of an International Pharmacology Specialty Laboratory in a resource-limited setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Mtisi, Takudzwa J; Maponga, Charles; Monera-Penduka, Tsitsi G; Mudzviti, Tinashe; Chagwena, Dexter; Makita-Chingombe, Faithful; DiFranchesco, Robin; Morse, Gene D

2018-01-01

A growing number of drug development studies that include pharmacokinetic evaluations are conducted in regions lacking a specialised pharmacology laboratory. This necessitated the development of an International Pharmacology Specialty Laboratory (IPSL) in Zimbabwe. The aim of this article is to describe the development of an IPSL in Zimbabwe. The IPSL was developed collaboratively by the University of Zimbabwe and the University at Buffalo Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences. Key stages included infrastructure development, establishment of quality management systems and collaborative mentorship in clinical pharmacology study design and chromatographic assay development and validation. Two high performance liquid chromatography instruments were donated by an instrument manufacturer and a contract research organisation. Laboratory space was acquired through association with the Zimbabwe national drug regulatory authority. Operational policies, standard operating procedures and a document control system were established. Scientists and technicians were trained in aspects relevant to IPSL operations. A high-performance liquid chromatography method for nevirapine was developed with the guidance of the Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance programme and approved by the assay method review programme. The University of Zimbabwe IPSL is engaged with the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division of AIDS research networks and is poised to begin drug assays and pharmacokinetic analyses. An IPSL has been successfully established in a resource-limited setting through the efforts of an external partnership providing technical guidance and motivated internal faculty and staff. Strategic partnerships were beneficial in navigating challenges leading to laboratory development and training new investigators. The IPSL is now engaged in clinical pharmacology research.

Cloud Infrastructure & Applications - CloudIA

Science.gov (United States)

Sulistio, Anthony; Reich, Christoph; Doelitzscher, Frank

The idea behind Cloud Computing is to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Services and Software-as-a-Service over the Internet on an easy pay-per-use business model. To harness the potentials of Cloud Computing for e-Learning and research purposes, and to small- and medium-sized enterprises, the Hochschule Furtwangen University establishes a new project, called Cloud Infrastructure & Applications (CloudIA). The CloudIA project is a market-oriented cloud infrastructure that leverages different virtualization technologies, by supporting Service-Level Agreements for various service offerings. This paper describes the CloudIA project in details and mentions our early experiences in building a private cloud using an existing infrastructure.

IAEA Launches Expert Advisory Service for Research Reactor Infrastructure, First Mission to Nigeria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2018-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has launched a new peer review service to assist Member States in the development of infrastructure for nuclear research reactors, expanding the range of its expert advisory missions. The first Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review for Research Reactors (INIR-RR) was conducted this week in Nigeria at the invitation of the Government, which is planning to build the country’s second research reactor. Research reactors are used for research, development, education and training. They play a vital role across several fields, producing radioisotopes used in research, medicine, industry and agriculture. Operation of a research reactor requires a national infrastructure — including a legal and regulatory framework — to ensure that national and international obligations are met during planning, design, construction, operation and decommissioning.

IBEX: an open infrastructure software platform to facilitate collaborative work in radiomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lifei; Fried, David V; Fave, Xenia J; Hunter, Luke A; Yang, Jinzhong; Court, Laurence E

2015-03-01

Radiomics, which is the high-throughput extraction and analysis of quantitative image features, has been shown to have considerable potential to quantify the tumor phenotype. However, at present, a lack of software infrastructure has impeded the development of radiomics and its applications. Therefore, the authors developed the imaging biomarker explorer (IBEX), an open infrastructure software platform that flexibly supports common radiomics workflow tasks such as multimodality image data import and review, development of feature extraction algorithms, model validation, and consistent data sharing among multiple institutions. The IBEX software package was developed using the MATLAB and c/c++ programming languages. The software architecture deploys the modern model-view-controller, unit testing, and function handle programming concepts to isolate each quantitative imaging analysis task, to validate if their relevant data and algorithms are fit for use, and to plug in new modules. On one hand, IBEX is self-contained and ready to use: it has implemented common data importers, common image filters, and common feature extraction algorithms. On the other hand, IBEX provides an integrated development environment on top of MATLAB and c/c++, so users are not limited to its built-in functions. In the IBEX developer studio, users can plug in, debug, and test new algorithms, extending IBEX's functionality. IBEX also supports quality assurance for data and feature algorithms: image data, regions of interest, and feature algorithm-related data can be reviewed, validated, and/or modified. More importantly, two key elements in collaborative workflows, the consistency of data sharing and the reproducibility of calculation result, are embedded in the IBEX workflow: image data, feature algorithms, and model validation including newly developed ones from different users can be easily and consistently shared so that results can be more easily reproduced between institutions

Future standard and fast charging infrastructure planning: An analysis of electric vehicle charging behaviour

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morrissey, Patrick; Weldon, Peter; O’Mahony, Margaret

2016-01-01

There has been a concentrated effort by European countries to increase the share of electric vehicles (EVs) and an important factor in the rollout of the associated infrastructure is an understanding of the charging behaviours of existing EV users in terms of location of charging, the quantity of energy they require, charge duration, and their preferred mode of charging. Data were available on the usage of charging infrastructure for the entire island of Ireland since the rollout of infrastructure began. This study provides an extensive analysis of this charge event data for public charging infrastructure, including data from fast charging infrastructure, and additionally a limited quantity of household data. For the household data available, it was found that EV users prefer to carry out the majority of their charging at home in the evening during the period of highest demand on the electrical grid indicating that incentivisation may be required to shift charging away from this peak grid demand period. Car park locations were the most popular location for public charging amongst EV users, and fast chargers recorded the highest usage frequencies, indicating that public fast charging infrastructure is most likely to become commercially viable in the short- to medium-term. - Highlights: • Electric vehicle users prefer to charge at home in the evening at peak demand times. • Incentivisation will be necessary to encourage home charging at other times. • Fast charging most likely to become commercially viable in short to medium term. • Priority should be given to strategic network location of fast chargers. • Of public charge point locations, car park locations were favoured by EV users.

The NWRA Classification Infrastructure: description and extension to the Discriminant Analysis Flare Forecasting System (DAFFS)

Science.gov (United States)

Leka, K. D.; Barnes, Graham; Wagner, Eric

2018-04-01

A classification infrastructure built upon Discriminant Analysis (DA) has been developed at NorthWest Research Associates for examining the statistical differences between samples of two known populations. Originating to examine the physical differences between flare-quiet and flare-imminent solar active regions, we describe herein some details of the infrastructure including: parametrization of large datasets, schemes for handling "null" and "bad" data in multi-parameter analysis, application of non-parametric multi-dimensional DA, an extension through Bayes' theorem to probabilistic classification, and methods invoked for evaluating classifier success. The classifier infrastructure is applicable to a wide range of scientific questions in solar physics. We demonstrate its application to the question of distinguishing flare-imminent from flare-quiet solar active regions, updating results from the original publications that were based on different data and much smaller sample sizes. Finally, as a demonstration of "Research to Operations" efforts in the space-weather forecasting context, we present the Discriminant Analysis Flare Forecasting System (DAFFS), a near-real-time operationally-running solar flare forecasting tool that was developed from the research-directed infrastructure.

Security infrastructure for on-demand provisioned Cloud infrastructure services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Demchenko, Y.; Ngo, C.; de Laat, C.; Wlodarczyk, T.W.; Rong, C.; Ziegler, W.

2011-01-01

Providing consistent security services in on-demand provisioned Cloud infrastructure services is of primary importance due to multi-tenant and potentially multi-provider nature of Clouds Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment. Cloud security infrastructure should address two aspects of the

Informatic infrastructure for Climatological and Oceanographic data based on THREDDS technology in a Grid environment

Science.gov (United States)

Tronconi, C.; Forneris, V.; Santoleri, R.

2009-04-01

CNR-ISAC-GOS is responsible for the Mediterranean Sea satellite operational system in the framework of MOON Patnership. This Observing System acquires satellite data and produces Near Real Time, Delayed Time and Re-analysis of Ocean Colour and Sea Surface Temperature products covering the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and regional basins. In the framework of several projects (MERSEA, PRIMI, Adricosm Star, SeaDataNet, MyOcean, ECOOP), GOS is producing Climatological/Satellite datasets based on optimal interpolation and specific Regional algorithm for chlorophyll, updated in Near Real Time and in Delayed mode. GOS has built • an informatic infrastructure data repository and delivery based on THREDDS technology The datasets are generated in NETCDF format, compliant with both the CF convention and the international satellite-oceanographic specification, as prescribed by GHRSST (for SST). All data produced, are made available to the users through a THREDDS server catalog. • A LAS has been installed in order to exploit the potential of NETCDF data and the OPENDAP URL. It provides flexible access to geo-referenced scientific data • a Grid Environment based on Globus Technologies (GT4) connecting more than one Institute; in particular exploiting CNR and ESA clusters makes possible to reprocess 12 years of Chlorophyll data in less than one month.(estimated processing time on a single core PC: 9months). In the poster we will give an overview of: • the features of the THREDDS catalogs, pointing out the powerful characteristics of this new middleware that has replaced the "old" OPENDAP Server; • the importance of adopting a common format (as NETCDF) for data exchange; • the tools (e.g. LAS) connected with THREDDS and NETCDF format use. • the Grid infrastructure on ISAC We will present also specific basin-scale High Resolution products and Ultra High Resolution regional/coastal products available on these catalogs.

Mesoscale carbon sequestration site screening and CCS infrastructure analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Keating, Gordon N; Middleton, Richard S; Stauffer, Philip H; Viswanathan, Hari S; Letellier, Bruce C; Pasqualini, Donatella; Pawar, Rajesh J; Wolfsberg, Andrew V

2011-01-01

We explore carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) at the meso-scale, a level of study between regional carbon accounting and highly detailed reservoir models for individual sites. We develop an approach to CO(2) sequestration site screening for industries or energy development policies that involves identification of appropriate sequestration basin, analysis of geologic formations, definition of surface sites, design of infrastructure, and analysis of CO(2) transport and storage costs. Our case study involves carbon management for potential oil shale development in the Piceance-Uinta Basin, CO and UT. This study uses new capabilities of the CO(2)-PENS model for site screening, including reservoir capacity, injectivity, and cost calculations for simple reservoirs at multiple sites. We couple this with a model of optimized source-sink-network infrastructure (SimCCS) to design pipeline networks and minimize CCS cost for a given industry or region. The CLEAR(uff) dynamical assessment model calculates the CO(2) source term for various oil production levels. Nine sites in a 13,300 km(2) area have the capacity to store 6.5 GtCO(2), corresponding to shale-oil production of 1.3 Mbbl/day for 50 years (about 1/4 of U.S. crude oil production). Our results highlight the complex, nonlinear relationship between the spatial deployment of CCS infrastructure and the oil-shale production rate.

Contemporary forms of international movement of capital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanja Šovran

2016-11-01

Full Text Available International movement of capital is one of the most important forms of international economic cooperation and achievement of strategic goals of enterprises. It leads to international diversification of business activities, strengthening of competitive advantage, changes in economic structures, employment rates and economic stability of participating countries. The present research addresses the contemporary forms of international movement of capital, with an emphasis on the public-private partnerships and concessions. The creation of different forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs in Serbia gained in importance in the early ‘90s of the 20th century. PPP implies joint activities within the framework of which the public and private sector pool resources, especially financial capital and expertise in order to meet the public needs of local, regional or national significance for adequate resource allocation. This type of partnership between the public and private sector has become an effective way towards a more rational use of limited resources and development of business entities from different sectors. The partnership of the public and private sector is particularly important in the construction and maintenance of transportation and other infrastructure facilities. Concessions represent a special form of public-private partnerships.

DIESIS : An Interoperable European Federated Simulation Network for Critical Infrastructures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rome, E.; Bologna, S.; Gelenbe, E.; Luiijf, H.A.M.; Masucci, V.

2009-01-01

Critical Infrastructures (CI) that are vital for a society and an economy, such as telecommunication systems, energy supply systems, transport systems and others, are getting more and more complex. Dependencies emerge in various ways, due to the use of information and communication technologies,

Applying the Msharpp Method in Risk Assessment for the Water Supply Critical Infrastructure Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Badea Dorel

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The paper highlights a manner to assess risks for an important sector of critical infrastructure, that of water supply, frequently regulated in international legal systems. We took into consideration the fact that risk is a problem related to the processes of decision making under conditions of uncertainty in most cases, so that by this approach we bring to the attention of critical infrastructure managers, drawing on their experience, a simple method that can be considered in a preliminary stage of risk assessment specific to water supply.

Costs, benefits, and international financing related to the water sector in the Danube and Black Sea region in the perspective of WFD implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paleari, S.

2006-01-01

Further to constitute a challenge far many EU15 countries, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) is going to represent the main reference for the process of approximation of water legislation of accession countries, as well as water policy and legislation of many third countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In this work we focus on expected investment costs, estimated benefits, and external financing programmes for water policies and WFD implementation in an extensive geographical area, the Black Sea region, which includes the Danube Basin (that is the second largest European water basin after the Volga Basin) and covers industrial and agricultural areas of 22 countries. As we are primarily interested in the economic aspects of water policies and the WFD implementation in the above geographical area, we will develop a joint analysis of: (a) the available estimates on the size of investments in the water sector required to approximate the provisions and/or (depending on single countries) the principles of WFD; (b) the available estimates on the expected benefits from implementing EU water legislation and the WFD; (c) the flows of international assistance and financial resources available during the next few years for investing in water-sector infrastructures and management in the countries of the Black Sea region. The approximation of EU water legislation and the implementation of the WFD will entail huge investment costs by accession countries during the next decades and water is expected be the most significant area of investment within the environmental sector in the majority of these countries. The attempts to estimate economic and environmental benefits indicate that the same process of compliance with EU legislation and the WFD will produce significant benefits for the economy and the environment of these countries. During the last part of the I990s, however, the trends of actual expenses in environmental and water infrastructures in the countries of

Failure to adapt infrastructure: is legal liability lurking for infrastructure stakeholders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gherbaz, S.

2009-01-01

'Full text:' Very little attention has been paid to potential legal liability for failing to adapt infrastructure to climate change-related risk. Amendments to laws, building codes and standards to take into account the potential impact of climate change on infrastructure assets are still at least some time away. Notwithstanding that amendments are still some time away, there is a real risk to infrastructure stakeholders for failing to adapt. The legal framework in Canada currently permits a court, in the right circumstances, to find certain infrastructure stakeholders legally liable for personal injury and property damage suffered by third parties as a result of climate change effects. This presentation will focus on legal liability of owners (governmental and private sector), engineers, architects and contractors for failing to adapt infrastructure assets to climate change risk. It will answer commonly asked questions such as: Can I avoid liability by complying with existing laws, codes and standards? Do engineers and architects have a duty to warn owners that existing laws, codes and standards do not, in certain circumstances, adequately take into account the impact of climate change-related risks on an infrastructure asset? And do professional liability insurance policies commonly maintained by architects, engineers and other design professionals provide coverage for a design professional's failure to take into account climate change-related risks?. (author)

THE INFLUENCE OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS ON THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONS IN UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inna Arakelova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In terms of the issues aggravation concerning internally displaced persons and the disproportions in the social and economic development of regions as a result of the antiterrorist operation in Ukraine, an analysis of social and economic transformations in regional development under the migration processes influence and the search for their overcoming mechanisms becomes relevant. The purpose of the article is to analyse the impact of internally displaced persons flows on the social and economic development of regions in order to improve the regional development mechanisms in Ukraine. The research methodology includes a set of scientific research methods that provide a systematic approach to investigating the impact of internally displaced persons on the social and economic development of Ukrainian regions, theoretical approaches to state regulation of internal migration flows in conditions of decentralization of power and reform of public administration in the country. In the course of investigations, the following methods are used: statistical analysis and synthesis while determining the indicators of the IDPs burden on the regional social and economic systems of Ukraine; analysis while studying the main problems of internally displaced persons and their directions; logical synthesis and synthesis while drawing conclusions. The information base for the study consists of the legislative acts of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, statistical and reporting information of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, development of the UN Agency for Refugees, the UN ReliefWeb Specialized Service for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Inter-Agency Standing Committee, PROMAN, NGO “Labor and Health Social Initiatives”, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, research results of domestic and foreign scientists. Results. The article deals with the issues of effective reforming of regional development

Energy Transmission and Infrastructure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mathison, Jane

2012-12-31

The objective of Energy Transmission and Infrastructure Northern Ohio (OH) was to lay the conceptual and analytical foundation for an energy economy in northern Ohio that will: • improve the efficiency with which energy is used in the residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and transportation sectors for Oberlin, Ohio as a district-wide model for Congressional District OH-09; • identify the potential to deploy wind and solar technologies and the most effective configuration for the regional energy system (i.e., the ratio of distributed or centralized power generation); • analyze the potential within the district to utilize farm wastes to produce biofuels; • enhance long-term energy security by identifying ways to deploy local resources and building Ohio-based enterprises; • identify the policy, regulatory, and financial barriers impeding development of a new energy system; and • improve energy infrastructure within Congressional District OH-09. This objective of laying the foundation for a renewable energy system in Ohio was achieved through four primary areas of activity: 1. district-wide energy infrastructure assessments and alternative-energy transmission studies; 2. energy infrastructure improvement projects undertaken by American Municipal Power (AMP) affiliates in the northern Ohio communities of Elmore, Oak Harbor, and Wellington; 3. Oberlin, OH-area energy assessment initiatives; and 4. a district-wide conference held in September 2011 to disseminate year-one findings. The grant supported 17 research studies by leading energy, policy, and financial specialists, including studies on: current energy use in the district and the Oberlin area; regional potential for energy generation from renewable sources such as solar power, wind, and farm-waste; energy and transportation strategies for transitioning the City of Oberlin entirely to renewable resources and considering pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transportation as well as drivers

The Current State of Rural Neurosurgical Practice: An International Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Upadhyayula, Pavan S; Yue, John K; Yang, Jason; Birk, Harjus S; Ciacci, Joseph D

2018-01-01

Rural and low-resource areas have diminished capacity to care for neurosurgical patients due to lack of infrastructure, healthcare investment, and training programs. This review summarizes the range of rural neurosurgical procedures, novel mechanisms for delivering care, rapid training programs, and outcome differences across international rural neurosurgical practice. A comprehensive literature search was performed for English language manuscripts with keywords "rural" and "neurosurgery" using the National Library of Medicine PubMed database (01/1971-06/2017). Twenty-four articles focusing on rural non-neurosurgical practice were included. Time to care and/or surgery and shortage of trained personnel remain the strongest risk factors for mortality and poor outcome. Telemedicine consults to regional centers with neurosurgery housestaff have potential for increased timeliness of diagnosis/triage, improved time to surgery, and reductions in unnecessary transfers in remote areas. Mobile neurosurgery teams have been deployed with success in nations with large transport distances precluding initial transfers. Common neurosurgical procedures involve trauma mechanisms; accordingly, training programs for nonneurosurgery medical personnel on basic assessment and operative techniques have been successful in resource-deficient settings where neurosurgeons are unavailable. Protracted transport times, lack of resources/training, and difficulty retaining specialists are barriers to successful outcomes. Advances in telemedicine, mobile neurosurgery, and training programs for urgent operative techniques have been implemented efficaciously. Development of guidelines for paired partnerships between rural centers and academic hospitals, supplying surplus technology to rural areas, and rapid training of qualified local surgical personnel can create sustainable feed-forward programs for trainees and infrastructural solutions to address challenges in rural neurosurgery.

THE STUDY OF THE FORECASTING PROCESS INFRASTRUCTURAL SUPPORT BUSINESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. V. Sibirskaia

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Summary. When forecasting the necessary infrastructural support entrepreneurship predict rational distribution of the potential and expected results based on capacity development component of infrastructural maintenance, efficient use of resources, expertise and development of regional economies, the rationalization of administrative decisions, etc. According to the authors, the process of predicting business infrastructure software includes the following steps: analysis of the existing infrastructure support business to the top of the forecast period, the structure of resources, identifying disparities, their causes, identifying positive trends in the analysis and the results of research; research component of infrastructural support entrepreneurship, assesses complex system of social relations, institutions, structures and objects made findings and conclusions of the study; identification of areas of strategic change and the possibility of eliminating weaknesses and imbalances, identifying prospects for the development of entrepreneurship; identifying a set of factors and conditions affecting each component of infrastructure software, calculated the degree of influence of each of them and the total effect of all factors; adjustment indicators infrastructure forecasts. Research of views of category says a method of strategic planning and forecasting that methods of strategic planning are considered separately from forecasting methods. In a combination methods of strategic planning and forecasting, in relation to infrastructure ensuring business activity aren't given in literature. Nevertheless, authors consider that this category should be defined for the characteristic of the intrinsic and substantial nature of strategic planning and forecasting of infrastructure ensuring business activity.processing.

Making Energy Infrastructure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schick, Lea; Winthereik, Brit Ross

2016-01-01

in a pragmatic present and in an unprecedented future; between being tied to the specific site of the competition and belonging to no place in particular; and not least between being predominantly an art project and primarily an infrastructure project. Remarkable differences between cosmopolitics and smooth...... politics appear here, especially compared to the literature analysing the roles played by art and design when imagining new ways of living with energy. Oscillation between smooth politics and cosmopolitics may provide a generative way forward for actors wishing to engage in the infrastructuring...

Road infrastructure, spatial spillover and county economic growth

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Zhenhua; Luo, Shuang

2017-09-01

This paper analyzes the spatial spillover effect of road infrastructure on the economic growth of poverty-stricken counties, based on the spatial Durbin model, by using the panel data of 37 poor counties in Hunan province from 2006 to 2015. The results showed that there is a significant spatial dependence of economic growth in Poor Counties. Road infrastructure has a positive impact on economic growth, and the results will be overestimated without considering spatial factors. Considering the spatial factors, the road infrastructure will promote the economic growth of the surrounding areas through the spillover effect, but the spillover effect is restricted by the distance factor. Capital investment is the biggest factor of economic growth in poor counties, followed by urbanization, labor force and regional openness.

RCA - a regional approach to radiation protection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffith, R.; Easey, J.

1996-01-01

The Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA) for Asia and Oceania is the oldest of four International Atomic Energy Agency Member State regional programs. Organized in 1972, 17 countries are now members of RCA - Australia, Bangladesh, Peoples Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Viet Nam. A number of projects related to the application of a wide range of nuclear technologies are conducted through RCA. The program is established by national coordinators for each project area, in consultation with IAEA technical officers. Most of the funding comes directly from RCA regional donor countries, with about one third supplied through the IAEA Technical Cooperation program. In 1986, following the Chernobyl accident, national coordinators and the IAEA staff recognized the value of establishing an RCA project aimed at strengthening regional radiation protection programs. The potential importance of RCA involvement in radiation protection is underscored by the fact that its member states comprise more than half of the world's population. The regional approach to addressing radiation protection issues allows member states to take advantage of regional resources to solve common regional problems. RCA provides the opportunity for specialists who may have few professional colleagues in their country to develop valuable contacts with regional radiation protection experts. In a very real way, specialists can network with their neighbours, often establishing bilateral programs outside of the RCA auspices. The current five year RCA Project to strengthen radiation protection infrastructure, with the IAEA designation - RAS/9/006, will be completed at the end of 1997. The project was developed to address five mayor areas of activity: Off-site emergency response; individual monitoring, internal and external; characterization of the physical, anatomical, physiological

Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) Missions: The First Six Years

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-12-01

IAEA Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) missions are designed to assist Member States in evaluating the status of their national infrastructure for the introduction of a nuclear power programme. INIR missions are conducted upon request from the Member State. Each INIR mission is coordinated and led by the IAEA and conducted by a team of IAEA staff and international experts drawn from Member States which have experience in different aspects of developing and deploying nuclear infrastructure. INIR missions cover the 19 infrastructure issues described in Milestones in the Development of a National Infrastructure for Nuclear Power, IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NG-G-3.1, published in 2007 and revised in 2015, and the assessment is based on an analysis of a self-evaluation report prepared by the Member State, a review of the documents it provides and interviews with its key officials. Phase 1 INIR missions evaluate the status of the infrastructure to achieve Milestone 1 (Ready to make a knowledgeable commitment to a nuclear power programme). Phase 2 INIR missions evaluate the status of the infrastructure to achieve Milestone 2 (Ready to invite bids/negotiate a contract for the first nuclear power plant). From 2009 to 2014, 14 IAEA INIR missions and follow-ups were conducted in States embarking on a nuclear power programme and one State expanding its programme. During this time, considerable experience was gained by the IAEA on the conduct of INIR missions, and this feedback has been used to continually improve the overall INIR methodology. The INIR methodology has thus evolved and is far more comprehensive today than in 2009. Despite the limited number of INIR missions conducted, some common findings were identified in Member States embarking on nuclear power programmes. This publication summarizes the results of the missions and highlights the most significant areas in which recommendations were made

Internal Migration Determinants: Evidence from Northern Region of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-05-01

May 1, 2016 ... University for Development Studies, Department of Mathematics, Navrongo, UER ... Keywords: Internal Migration, Determinants, Migrant, Northern Region, Network. Introduction ... origin's income on rural-urban migration (Beals et al., 1976), but a positive effect of a ..... 3 In the case of economic migrants.

Infrastructure development assistance modeling for nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, J. H.; Hwang, K.; Park, K. M.; Kim, S. W.; Lee, S. M.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model, a general frame to be utilized in assisting newcomer countries to start a nuclear power program. A nuclear power plant project involves technical complexity and high level of investment with long duration. Considering newcomers are mostly developing countries that lack the national infrastructure, key infrastructure issues may constitute the principal constraints to the development of a nuclear power program. In this regard, it is important to provide guidance and support to set up an appropriate infrastructure when we help them with the first launch of nuclear power plant project. To date, as a sole nuclear power generation company, KHNP has been invited many times to mentor or assist newcomer countries for their successful start of a nuclear power program since Republic of Korea is an exemplary case of a developing country which began nuclear power program from scratch and became a major world nuclear energy country in a short period of time. Through hosting events organized to aid newcomer countries' initiation of nuclear power projects, difficulties have been recognized. Each event had different contents according to circumstances because they were held as an unstructured and one-off thing. By developing a general model, we can give more adequate and effective aid in an efficient way. In this paper, we created a model to identify necessary infrastructures at the right stage, which was mainly based on a case of Korea. Taking into account the assistance we received from foreign companies and our own efforts for technological self-reliance, we have developed a general time table and specified activities required to do at each stage. From a donor's perspective, we explored various ways to help nuclear infrastructure development including technical support programs, training courses, and participating in IAEA technical cooperation programs on a regular basis. If we further develop the model, the next task would be to

Infrastructure development assistance modeling for nuclear power plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, J. H.; Hwang, K.; Park, K. M.; Kim, S. W.; Lee, S. M. [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., LTD, 23, 106 gil, Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam-gu, 153-791 (Korea, Republic of)

2012-07-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model, a general frame to be utilized in assisting newcomer countries to start a nuclear power program. A nuclear power plant project involves technical complexity and high level of investment with long duration. Considering newcomers are mostly developing countries that lack the national infrastructure, key infrastructure issues may constitute the principal constraints to the development of a nuclear power program. In this regard, it is important to provide guidance and support to set up an appropriate infrastructure when we help them with the first launch of nuclear power plant project. To date, as a sole nuclear power generation company, KHNP has been invited many times to mentor or assist newcomer countries for their successful start of a nuclear power program since Republic of Korea is an exemplary case of a developing country which began nuclear power program from scratch and became a major world nuclear energy country in a short period of time. Through hosting events organized to aid newcomer countries' initiation of nuclear power projects, difficulties have been recognized. Each event had different contents according to circumstances because they were held as an unstructured and one-off thing. By developing a general model, we can give more adequate and effective aid in an efficient way. In this paper, we created a model to identify necessary infrastructures at the right stage, which was mainly based on a case of Korea. Taking into account the assistance we received from foreign companies and our own efforts for technological self-reliance, we have developed a general time table and specified activities required to do at each stage. From a donor's perspective, we explored various ways to help nuclear infrastructure development including technical support programs, training courses, and participating in IAEA technical cooperation programs on a regular basis. If we further develop the model, the next task

Regional dimensions of international scientific and technical cooperation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tetiana Chernytska

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The article has examined a phenomenon of international scientific and technical cooperation within individual regions, conditions and factors of its formation. It has been analyzed the evolution, basic essential features, models and trends of development of local innovation alliances, their participation in international scientific and technical cooperation. It has been proposed the priorities of formation of a quality mechanism to improve this form of cooperation in Ukraine and establishment of prerequisites for its expansion with European organizational structures that operate in innovation field (technology parks, technology clusters, innovation centers, etc..

Ship space to database: emerging infrastructures for studies of the deep subseafloor biosphere

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter T. Darch

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background An increasing array of scientific fields face a “data deluge.” However, in many fields data are scarce, with implications for their epistemic status and ability to command funding. Consequently, they often attempt to develop infrastructure for data production, management, curation, and circulation. A component of a knowledge infrastructure may serve one or more scientific domains. Further, a single domain may rely upon multiple infrastructures simultaneously. Studying how domains negotiate building and accessing scarce infrastructural resources that they share with other domains will shed light on how knowledge infrastructures shape science. Methods We conducted an eighteen-month, qualitative study of scientists studying the deep subseafloor biosphere, focusing on the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP and its successor, the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP2. Our methods comprised ethnographic observation, including eight months embedded in a laboratory, interviews (n = 49, and document analysis. Results Deep subseafloor biosphere research is an emergent domain. We identified two reasons for the domain’s concern with data scarcity: limited ability to pursue their research objectives, and the epistemic status of their research. Domain researchers adopted complementary strategies to acquire more data. One was to establish C-DEBI as an infrastructure solely for their domain. The second was to use C-DEBI as a means to gain greater access to, and reconfigure, IODP/IODP2 to their advantage. IODP/IODP2 functions as infrastructure for multiple scientific domains, which creates competition for resources. C-DEBI is building its own data management infrastructure, both to acquire more data from IODP and to make better use of data, once acquired. Discussion Two themes emerge. One is data scarcity, which can be understood only in relation to a domain�

Online Infrastructure in Supply Chain for Hardware Shops

OpenAIRE

Sørensen , Karl ,

2014-01-01

Part 4: Private Services; International audience; This article describes how the Scandinavian network communication system DATEX was used to build an online infrastructure in a retail chain of privately owned hardware shops and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) centers. The solution gave the staff in the shops the possibility to use EDP as early as in 1983. The Internet did not exist at the time. EDP was not part of the daily work in the shop and was for most employees something unknown that took place at...

Intercomparison of measurements of personal dose equivalent Hp(10) in photon fields in the West Asia Region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

In accordance with its statutory function, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been assisting its Member States in establishing and upgrading their radiation protection infrastructures, including activities in occupation radiation protection. Individual external dosimetry services for photon radiation have been under establishment or upgrading with support through the Technical Cooperation Model Projects RAW/9/006, Upgrading Radiation Protection Infrastructure (concluded in 2000), and RAW/9/008, Development of Technical Capabilities for Sustainable Radiation and Waste Safety Infrastructure (2001-2004), in all the participating countries in the West Asia Region. Two regional training courses were organized by the IAEA, in Germany in 1998, on Design, Implementation and Management of Individual Monitoring Services (IMS), and in the Syrian Arabic Republic in 2001, on Assessment of Occupational Exposure due to External Sources, under the above stated projects. However, no performance testing has yet been carried out and no regional intercomparisons have been established before in this region. Only two Member States from the region (the Syrian Arab Republic and Lebanon) participated in the interregional Intercomparison for Individual Monitoring of Radiological Measurements for Purposes of Monitoring Personal Dose Equivalent Hp(10) in 1999

Bike Infrastructures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silva, Victor; Harder, Henrik; Jensen, Ole B.

Bike Infrastructures aims to identify bicycle infrastructure typologies and design elements that can help promote cycling significantly. It is structured as a case study based research where three cycling infrastructures with distinct typologies were analyzed and compared. The three cases......, the findings of this research project can also support bike friendly design and planning, and cyclist advocacy....

“Hello, HELLO! Anyone there? - on the need to assess the tsunami risk to global submarine telecommunications infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Dominey-Howes, D.; Goff, J. R.

2009-12-01

National economies are increasingly dependent on the global telecommunications system - and in particular, its submarine cable infrastructure. Submarine cable traffic represents about 30% of global GDP so the cost of losing, or even simply slowing, communications traffic is high. Many natural hazards are capable of damaging and destroying this infrastructure but tsunamis are the most significant threat, particularly in waters >1000 m deep. Submarine cables and their shore-based infrastructure (the anchor points), are at risk from direct and indirect tsunami-related effects. During the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in India and Indonesia, cables were broken (direct effect) as the tsunami eroded supporting sediments, and were further damaged by floating/submerged objects and intense nearshore currents. Shore-based infrastructure was also directly damaged in India, Indonesia, and the Maldives. The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake generated a submarine landslide and tsunami off Newfoundland which broke 12 submarine telegraph cables. In 2006, an earthquake in Taiwan generated submarine landslides and a tsunami. These landslides caused one of the largest disruptions of modern telecommunications history when nine cables in the Strait of Luzon were broken disabling vital connections between SE Asia and the rest of the world. Although electronic traffic in and out of Australia was slowed, it did not cease because >70% of our traffic is routed via cables that pass through Hawaii. This is extremely significant because Hawaii is an internationally recognised bottleneck or “choke point” in the global telecommunications network. The fact that Hawaii is a choke point is important because it is regularly affected by numerous large magnitude natural hazards. Any damage to the submarine telecommunications infrastructure routed through Hawaii could result in significant impacts on the electronic flow of data and voice traffic, negatively affecting dependent economies such as Australia

78 FR 39712 - Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security Trade Mission to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-02

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Security Trade Mission to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Clarification and Amendment AGENCY... cyber-security firms and trade organizations which have not already submitted an application are...

Internal, external and location factors influencing cofiring of biomass with coal in the U.S. northern region

Science.gov (United States)

Francisco X. Aguilar; Michael E. Goerndt; Nianfu Song; Stephen R. Shifley

2012-01-01

The use of biomass as a source of energy has been identified as a viable option to diminish reliance on fossil fuels. We parameterized the effect of selected internal (e.g. coal-fire presence), external (e.g. price and renewable energy mandates) and location (e.g. biomass availability, infrastructure) variables on the likelihood of using biomass in cofiring with coal...

802.11 Wireless Infrastructure To Enhance Medical Response to Disasters

Science.gov (United States)

Arisoylu, Mustafa; Mishra, Rajesh; Rao, Ramesh; Lenert, Leslie A.

2005-01-01

802.11 (WiFi) is a well established network communications protocol that has wide applicability in civil infrastructure. This paper describes research that explores the design of 802.11 networks enhanced to support data communications in disaster environments. The focus of these efforts is to create network infrastructure to support operations by Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) units and Federally-sponsored regional teams that respond to mass casualty events caused by a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological weapons or by a hazardous materials spill. In this paper, we describe an advanced WiFi-based network architecture designed to meet the needs of MMRS operations. This architecture combines a Wireless Distribution Systems for peer-to-peer multihop connectivity between access points with flexible and shared access to multiple cellular backhauls for robust connectivity to the Internet. The architecture offers a high bandwidth data communications infrastructure that can penetrate into buildings and structures while also supporting commercial off-the-shelf end-user equipment such as PDAs. It is self-configuring and is self-healing in the event of a loss of a portion of the infrastructure. Testing of prototype units is ongoing. PMID:16778990

Elements for a Geopolitics of Infrastructure Megaprojects in Latin America and Colombia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabio Vladimir Sánchez Calderón

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a critical approach to projects and initiatives of supranational physical connection through infrastructure improvement for transport and energy, regarding specifically their socio-spatial implications at the national and local levels. With this purpose, we examined how infrastructure projects in Colombia are linked to two sub-continental initiatives that seek to build a physical platform for the region: the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP for Central America (including Colombia, and the Initiative for Regional Integration of South America (IIRSA.

How regional non-proliferation arrangements complement international verification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carlson, J.

1999-01-01

This presentation focuses on international verification in the form of IAEA Safeguards, and discusses the relationship between IAEA safeguards and the relevant regional arrangements, both the existing and the future. For most States the political commitment against acquisition of nuclear weapons has been carefully reached and strongly held. Their observance of treaty commitments does not depend on the deterrent effect of verification activities. Safeguards serve to assist States who recognise it is in their own interest to demonstrate their compliance to others. Thus safeguards are a vital confidence building measure in their own right, as well as being a major complement to the broader range of international confidence building measures. Safeguards can both complement other confidence building measures and in turn be complemented by them. Within consideration of how it could work it is useful to consider briefly current developments of IAEA safeguards, i.e. existing regional arrangements and nuclear weapon free zones

Communications infrastructure requirements for telemedicine/telehealth in the context of planning for and responding to natural disasters: Considering the need for shared regional networks

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, John Carver

1991-01-01

During the course of recent years the frequency and magnitude of major disasters - of natural, technological, or ecological origin - have made the world community dramatically aware of the immense losses of human life and economic resources that are caused regularly by such calamities. Particularly hard hit are developing countries, for whom the magnitude of disasters frequently outstrips the ability of the society to cope with them. In many cases this situation can be prevented, and the recent trend in disaster management has been to emphasize the importance of preparedness and mitigation as a means of prevention. In cases of disaster, a system is needed to respond to relief requirements, particularly the delivery of medical care. There is no generic telecommunications infrastructure appropriate for the variety of applications in medical care and disaster management. The need to integrate telemedicine/telehealth into shared regional disaster management telecommunications networks is discussed. Focus is on the development of infrastructure designed to serve the needs of disaster prone regions of the developing world.

Crisis in LAC : Infrastructure Investment, Employment and the Expectations of Stimulus

OpenAIRE

Schwartz, Jordan; Andres, Luis; Dragoiu, Georgeta

2009-01-01

Infrastructure investment is a central part of the stimulus plans of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region as it confronts the growing financial crisis. This paper estimates the potential effects on direct, indirect, and induced employment for different types of infrastructure projects with LAC-specific variables. The analysis finds that the direct and indirect short-term employ...

Critical infrastructure system security and resiliency

CERN Document Server

Biringer, Betty; Warren, Drake

2013-01-01

Security protections for critical infrastructure nodes are intended to minimize the risks resulting from an initiating event, whether it is an intentional malevolent act or a natural hazard. With an emphasis on protecting an infrastructure's ability to perform its mission or function, Critical Infrastructure System Security and Resiliency presents a practical methodology for developing an effective protection system that can either prevent undesired events or mitigate the consequences of such events.Developed at Sandia National Labs, the authors' analytical approach and

Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Database Description and User’s Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heidrich, Brenden [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2015-11-01

In 2014, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology Innovation initiated the Nuclear Energy (NE)–Infrastructure Management Project by tasking the Nuclear Science User Facilities, formerly the Advanced Test Reactor National Scientific User Facility, to create a searchable and interactive database of all pertinent NE-supported and -related infrastructure. This database, known as the Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Database (NEID), is used for analyses to establish needs, redundancies, efficiencies, distributions, etc., to best understand the utility of NE’s infrastructure and inform the content of infrastructure calls. The Nuclear Science User Facilities developed the database by utilizing data and policy direction from a variety of reports from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Research Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and various other federal and civilian resources. The NEID currently contains data on 802 research and development instruments housed in 377 facilities at 84 institutions in the United States and abroad. The effort to maintain and expand the database is ongoing. Detailed information on many facilities must be gathered from associated institutions and added to complete the database. The data must be validated and kept current to capture facility and instrumentation status as well as to cover new acquisitions and retirements. This document provides a short tutorial on the navigation of the NEID web portal at NSUF-Infrastructure.INL.gov.

Water Quality Changes during Rapid Urbanization in the Shenzhen River Catchment: An Integrated View of Socio-Economic and Infrastructure Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hua-peng Qin

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Surface water quality deterioration is a serious problem in many rapidly urbanizing catchments in developing countries. There is currently a lack of studies that quantify water quality variation (deterioration or otherwise due to both socio-economic and infrastructure development in a catchment. This paper investigates the causes of water quality changes over the rapid urbanization period of 1985–2009 in the Shenzhen River catchment, China and examines the changes in relation to infrastructure development and socio-economic policies. The results indicate that the water quality deteriorated rapidly during the earlier urbanization stages before gradually improving over recent years, and that rapid increases in domestic discharge were the major causes of water quality deterioration. Although construction of additional wastewater infrastructure can significantly improve water quality, it was unable to dispose all of the wastewater in the catchment. However, it was found that socio-economic measures can significantly improve water quality by decreasing pollutant load per gross regional production (GRP or increasing labor productivity. Our findings suggest that sustainable development during urbanization is possible, provided that: (1 the wastewater infrastructure should be constructed timely and revitalized regularly in line with urbanization, and wastewater treatment facilities should be upgraded to improve their nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies; (2 administrative regulation policies, economic incentives and financial policies should be implemented to encourage industries to prevent or reduce the pollution at the source; (3 the environmental awareness and education level of local population should be increased; (4 planners from various sectors should consult each other and adapt an integrated planning approach for socio-economic and wastewater infrastructure development.

Scaling of an information system in a public healthcare market--infrastructuring from the vendor's perspective.

Science.gov (United States)