The Urban Rail Development Handbook


Book Description

Cities across the globe are looking to develop affordable, environmentally friendly, and socially responsible transportation solutions that can meet the accessibility needs of expanding metropolitan populations and support future economic and urban development. When appropriately planned and properly implemented as part of a larger public transportation network, urban rail systems can provide rapid mobility and vital access to city centers from surrounding districts. High-performing urban rail services, when carefully approached as development projects, can help enhance quality of life by giving citizens access to employment opportunities, essential services, urban amenities, and neighboring communities. The purpose of this Handbook is to synthesize and disseminate knowledge to inform the planning, implementation, and operations of urban rail projects with a view towards: -- Emphasizing the need for early studies and project planning; -- Making projects more sustainable (economically, socially, and environmentally); -- Improving socioeconomic returns and access to opportunities for users; -- Maximizing the value of private participation, where appropriate; and -- Building capacity within project implementing and managing institutions This Handbook provides experiential advice to tackle the technical, institutional, and financial challenges faced by decision makers considering urban rail projects. It brings together the expertise of World Bank staff and the input of numerous specialists to synthesize international 'good practices' and recommendations that are independent of commercial, financial political, or other interests. The material presented is intended as an honest-broker guide to maximize the impact and manage the challenges of urban rail systems in cities in both developed and developing countries. Rather than identify a single approach, this Handbook acknowledges the complexities and context necessary when approaching an urban rail development by helping to prepare decision makers to ask the right questions, consider the key issues, perform the necessary studies, apply adequate tools, and learn from international good practice all at the right time in the project development process.




Making Choices about Hydrogen


Book Description

Since the mid-1990s, the emergence of a hydrogen economy and the speed with which it will arrive have been vigorously debated. As a disruptive technology, dominant designs for the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen have not yet been established. Neither have performance characteristics been achieved to compete with the existing combustion engine, though the efficiency and durability of hydrogen fuel cells are improving. This publication highlights the uncertainties involved in making choices about hydrogen and fuel cells in planning the development policies on national energy, environment and transport sector.--Publisher's description.




Intakes and Outfalls for Seawater Reverse-Osmosis Desalination Facilities


Book Description

The book assembles the latest research on new design techniques in water supplies using desalinated seawater. The authors examine the diverse issues related to the intakes and outfalls of these facilities. They clarify how and why these key components of the facilities impact the cost of operation and subsequently the cost of water supplied to the consumers. The book consists of contributed articles from a number of experts in the field who presented their findings at the "Desalination Intakes and Outfalls" workshop held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia in October, 2013. The book integrates coverage relevant to a wide variety of researchers and professionals in the general fields of environmental engineering and sustainable development.




Program Summary Report


Book Description




Capital as Power


Book Description

Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an ‘economic’ entity that they count in universal units of ‘utils’ or ‘abstract labour’, respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don’t exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most – the accumulation of capital. This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape – or creorder – their society. Written in simple language, accessible to lay readers and experts alike, the book develops a novel political economy. It takes the reader through the history, assumptions and limitations of mainstream economics and its associated theories of politics. It examines the evolution of Marxist thinking on accumulation and the state. And it articulates an innovative theory of ‘capital as power’ and a new history of the ‘capitalist mode of power’.




Applied Ethics in Animal Research


Book Description

This volume is a collection of chapters all contributed by individuals who have presented their ideas at conferences and who take moderate stands with the use of animals in research. Specifically the chapters bear of the issues of: notions of the moral standings of animals, history of the methods of argumentation, knowledge of the animal mind, nature and value of regulatory structures, how respect for animals can be converted from theory to action in the laboratory. The chapters have been tempered by open discussion with individuals with different opinions and not audiences of true believers. It is the hope of all, that careful consideration of the positions in these chapters will leave reader with a deepened understanding--not necessarily a hardened position.




Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps


Book Description

In a world of chaotic alignments, traditional logic with its strict boundaries of truth and falsity has not imbued itself with the capability of reflecting the reality. Despite various attempts to reorient logic, there has remained an essential need for an alternative system that could infuse into itself a representation of the real world. Out of this need arose the system of Neutrosophy (the philosophy of neutralities, introduced by FLORENTIN SMARANDACHE), and its connected logic Neutrosophic Logic, which is a further generalization of the theory of Fuzzy Logic. In this book we study the concepts of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) and their Neutrosophic analogue, the Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps (NCMs). Fuzzy Cognitive Maps are fuzzy structures that strongly resemble neural networks, and they have powerful and far-reaching consequences as a mathematical tool for modeling complex systems. Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps are generalizations of FCMs, and their unique feature is the ability to handle indeterminacy in relations between two concepts thereby bringing greater sensitivity into the results. Some of the varied applications of FCMs and NCMs which has been explained by us, in this book, include: modeling of supervisory systems; design of hybrid models for complex systems; mobile robots and in intimate technology such as office plants; analysis of business performance assessment; formalism debate and legal rules; creating metabolic and regulatory network models; traffic and transportation problems; medical diagnostics; simulation of strategic planning process in intelligent systems; specific language impairment; web-mining inference application; child labor problem; industrial relations: between employer and employee, maximizing production and profit; decision support in intelligent intrusion detection system; hyper-knowledge representation in strategy formation; female infanticide; depression in terminally ill patients and finally, in the theory of community mobilization and women empowerment relative to the AIDS epidemic.




Internationalization of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle


Book Description

The so-called nuclear renaissance has increased worldwide interest in nuclear power. This potential growth also has increased, in some quarters, concern that nonproliferation considerations are not being given sufficient attention. In particular, since introduction of many new power reactors will lead to requiring increased uranium enrichment services to provide the reactor fuel, the proliferation risk of adding enrichment facilities in countries that do not have them now led to proposals to provide the needed fuel without requiring indigenous enrichment facilities. Similar concerns exist for reprocessing facilities. Internationalization of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle summarizes key issues and analyses of the topic, offers some criteria for evaluating options, and makes findings and recommendations to help the United States, the Russian Federation, and the international community reduce proliferation and other risks, as nuclear power is used more widely. This book is intended for all those who are concerned about the need for assuring fuel for new reactors and at the same time limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. This audience includes the United States and Russia, other nations that currently supply nuclear material and technology, many other countries contemplating starting or growing nuclear power programs, and the international organizations that support the safe, secure functioning of the international nuclear fuel cycle, most prominently the International Atomic Energy Agency.




The Built Environment


Book Description

This book takes a sweeping view of the ways we build things, beginning at the scale of products and interiors, to that of regions and global systems. In doing so, it answers questions on how we effect and are affected by our environment and explores how components of what we make—from products, buildings, and cities—are interrelated, and why designers and planners must consider these connections.