Books on the topic 'Alternating current network'

Chapter 6 examines global human rights governance architecture as it currently stands putting forward a networked model of global human rights governance as an alternative. The first section of this chapter examines the ‘five-gap problem’ in the UN human rights system which can have serious practical implications at the local, national, regional, and international levels. The second section explores a networked model of governance as a practical response strategy to narrow the gaps while enhancing the integration of the international human rights ‘system’. This chapter also probes the practical benefits of adopting an ‘International Human Rights Action Plan’ (IHRAP) as a basic requisite for integrated and effective co-operation and co-ordination among various human rights related actors in a global-wide network.

Written by an industry pioneer who has hands-on experience in the brave new world of peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding, this book serves as a resource for investors and entrepreneurs alike and investigates how these alternative mechanisms will increase the financial and operational capacity of borrowers, lenders, buyers, and sellers in the private markets. More than 60 governments across the globe have established financial inclusion as a policy priority and are vying for access to and use of financial services by households and firms to boost economic growth. A thought leader on securities-based crowdfunding, author Kim Wales explores how women and the millennial generation, the world's largest groups of people, can influence "crowd" direct investment, economic freedom, and economic growth. The book provides building blocks to instruct investors and entrepreneurs about how to leverage social networks and supplies tools to help retail investors—"the crowd"—to understand the language, risks, and rewards of this type of investment. Providing an indispensable resource for investors and entrepreneurs, Peer-to-Peer Lending and Equity Crowdfunding summarizes past theory as well as current schools of thought related to capital formation and economic growth, explains why creating a secondary market for private placement offerings is essential to stimulating market liquidity, and documents how public-private partnerships using digital finance will enhance financial inclusion and positively impact investing. The book not only describes how crowdfunding works but also explains investment approaches, secondary markets, governance and compliance, transparency, and risk models that are necessary for investors to make informed decisions.

Framework- In the context of the need for the production of knowledge in low- and middle-income countries, as well as in high-income countries with their socially vulnerable populations and the concomitant, minimal availability of funding for international research, university researchers should innovate. Goal- Discuss critical methodological issues in the process of designing and implementing international online survey research. This is done in the context of responding to the need for innovation in data collection tools to expand their responsiveness to the international field and the participants’ characteristics. Chapter organization- The chapter is organized with the presentation of online international research, first presenting insights for an alternative and innovative design, then formulating questions to remotely collect international data, renewing a dialogue setting, and exploring issues of recruitment, attrition and participation. It also reports successful experiences of the internationalization of research, intellectual partnerships and shared successes in the process of creating, exchanging and translating knowledge in the context of global health and the democratization of knowledge. The experiences are related to qualitative inspired research implemented in the continental sphere (Africa, South and North America, and Europe) with the creation of survey questionnaires for an exploration of narratives, experiences, and decisions. Final consideration- The mobilization of researchers’ social and professional networks, in addition to the constant reformulation of intellectual partnerships in research, are today the most common strategies to face the current challenges in academia. Innovation for methodological advances in audacious design for unpredictable fieldwork may require the revisiting of epistemological grounds. Emerging issues in this type of research, such as “research fatigue”, should be considered.

This book seeks to understand why, despite almost two decades of strong law enforcement and security force pressure since the October 2002 Bali terror attacks, terrorist networks in Southeast Asia motivated by violent extremist interpretations of Islam remain resilient and dangerous. Arguing that focusing on the physical threat posed by terrorism has failed to address the totality of the problem, the book—through detailed case studies of four Southeast Asian extremists—encourages a shift away from the threat groups themselves, to a focus on the wider ideological ecosystems of closely interlocking persons, places, and platforms that sustain such groups and their acolytes. Challenging controversial notions that Islam per se is a “religion of violence,” the book argues that the theological-ideological amalgam of what has been called “Salafabism” is the more useful lens for recognizing closed-minded extremist currents in Islam. It argues that supposedly nonviolent, soft Salafabist Islamists do not actually counter, but complement and potentially sustain, violent hard Salafabist, Salafi Jihadis—because both constituencies share a common extremist ideological DNA. That said, the book carefully distinguishes between relatively open-minded Salafabist radicals—whom governments and civil societies can co-opt and embrace—and the system-subverting, closed-minded Salafabist extremists of the aforementioned soft and hard varieties, who should rightly attract policy concern. The book concludes by outlining a comprehensive strategy for promoting theologically sound yet culturally authentic alternative narratives to Salafabist extremism—thereby defending the complex, richly textured tapestry of the moderate Islam Nusantara of Southeast Asia.

The challenges to which contemporary building design needs to respond grow steadily. They originate from the influence of changing environmental conditions on buildings, as well as from the need to reduce the impact of buildings on the environment. The increasing complexity requires the continual revision of design principles and their harmonisation with current scientific findings, technological development, and environmental, social, and economic factors. It is precisely these issues that form the backbone of the thematic book, Sustainable and Resilient Building Design: Approaches, Methods, and Tools. The purpose of this book is to present ongoing research from the universities involved in the project Creating the Network of Knowledge Labs for Sustainable and Resilient Environments (KLABS). The book starts with the exploration of the origin, development, and the state-of-the-art notions of environmental design and resource efficiency. Subsequently, climate change complexity and dynamics are studied, and the design strategy for climate-proof buildings is articulated. The investigation into the resilience of buildings is further deepened by examining a case study of fire protection. The book then investigates interrelations between sustainable and resilient building design, compares their key postulates and objectives, and searches for the possibilities of their integration into an outreaching approach. The fifth article in the book deals with potentials and constraints in relation to the assessment of the sustainability (and resilience) of buildings. It critically analyses different existing building certification models, their development paths, systems, and processes, and compares them with the general objectives of building ratings. The subsequent paper outlines the basis and the meaning of the risk and its management system, and provides an overview of different visual, auxiliary, and statistical risk assessment methods and tools. Following the studies of the meanings of sustainable and resilient buildings, the book focuses on the aspects of building components and materials. Here, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method for quantifying the environmental impact of building products is introduced and analysed in detail, followed by a comprehensive comparative overview of the LCA-based software and databases that enable both individual assessment and the comparison of different design alternatives. The impact of climate and pollution on the resilience of building materials is analysed using the examples of stone, wood, concrete, and ceramic materials. Accordingly, the contribution of traditional and alternative building materials to the reduction of negative environmental impact is discussed and depicted through different examples. The book subsequently addresses existing building stock, in which environmental, social, and economic benefits of building refurbishment are outlined by different case studies. Further on, a method for the upgrade of existing buildings, described as ‘integrated rehabilitation’, is deliberated and supported by best practice examples of exoskeleton architectural prosthesis. The final paper reflects on the principles of regenerative design, reveals the significance of biological entities, and recognises the need to assign to buildings and their elements a more advanced role towards natural systems in human environments.

The turn of the 20th and 21st centuries has been a very dynamic period of change in Poland and around the world; also a period of change in thinking about the economy and agriculture. The present work is a study of the decline, divestments and development of agriculture in the areas of fragmented farming structure. The reflections presented herein, upon the processes of the remodelling of agrarian structures, of divestments in farming, and disagrarisation, are mostly anchored in the achievements of the theory of spatial economy (land management), and the microeconomic theories of choice, including the theory of an agricultural holding (farm) and land rent theories. The work focuses on the economic issues of remodelling the agrarian structure, but due to the nature of the issues discussed herein, specifically in relation to family-owned farms, the social and environmental aspects also needed to be taken into account – in response to the need for a heterogeneous approach, which is increasingly stressed in economic sciences today. The main objective of the research was to diagnose and assess the scale and scope of the mechanisms and processes that inform the decline and growth of agricultural holdings in the areas with fragmented farming structure. The study covered the area comprising four regions (provinces) of south-eastern Poland, which – according to the FADN nomenclature – form the macro region of Małopolska and Pogórze. The study of subject literature has been enriched with an analysis of available statistics; data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN); information obtained from the Department of Programming and Reporting at the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture; and author’s own research conducted among farm owners. The information thus obtained made it possible to: • Determine the theoretical premises for the spatial diversity of agriculture, and the role of small farms in the shaping of agrarian structure. • Adapt the concept of “divestment” for the description and analysis of the phenomena occurring in agriculture. • Indicate the role and importance of the processes of divestment and disagrarisation in the restructuring of agriculture. • Assess the natural, social and economic determinants of the process of restructuring agriculture in areas with fragmented farming structure. • Assess selected aspects of economic efficiency of agriculture in areas with fragmented farming structure, with the focus on small and micro farms. • Carry out an ex ante evaluation of the impact of agricultural policy instruments on the process of restructuring of agriculture in the macro region of Małopolska and Pogórze. • Identify the indicators of decline and fall, and barriers to the liquidation of farms. • Assess the relationship between the level of socio-economic development, the structure of farming, and the quality of agricultural production space in a given territorial unit, versus the intensity of the economic and production disagrarisation processes in agricultural holdings. • Propose targeted solutions conducive to the improvement of the farming structure in areas with a high framentation of agriculture. Observation of the processes occurring in agriculture, and the scientific theories created on the basis thereof, have shown that even the smallest farms have a chance to continue in existence, provided that we are able to positively verify their adaptation to the changing conditions in the environment. Carrying out farming activity is a prerequisite for implementing the economic, social and environmental functions associated with family farms. At the same time, based on the analyses performed, we need to assume that the advanced processes of the production and economic disagrarisation of agricultural holdings are to a greater extent determined by the anatomical features of agriculture, and by the natural conditions, than by the level of socio-economic development of the given territorial unit. In the current economic climate, the remodelling of the agrarian structure is only possible with the active participation of the institutions responsible for the creation of economic growth and agricultural policy development. It is extremely important from the point of view of environmental protection, and the viability of rural areas, to support small farms engaged in agricultural activities, and to introduce such instruments that will enable the replacement of an economic collapse with divestments, carried out in a planned manner, and allowing for thus released agricultural resources to find alternative application in units with a higher development potential. The area of theoretical research requiring further exploration includes the issues such as transactional costs of the liquidation of agricultural holdings, and the assessment of the economic effectiveness of conducting divestments.