The blockchain is a technology which accumulates and compiles data into a chain of multiple blocks. Many blockchain researchers are adopting it in multiple areas. However, there are still lacks ...bibliometric reports exhibiting the exploration of an in-depth research pattern in blockchain. This paper aims to address that gap by analyzing the widespread of blockchain research activities conducted thus far. This study analyzed the Scopus database by using bibliometric analysis in a pool of more than 1000 articles that were published between 2013 and 2018. In particular, this paper discusses various aspects of blockchain research conducted by researchers globally. This study also focuses on the utilization of blockchain and its consensus algorithms. This bibliometric analysis discovered the following: (1) Blockchain able to solve security issues in internet of things (IoT) and would be an increasing trend in the future; (2) Researchers begin to adopt blockchain in healthcare area; (3) The most active country in blockchain publication is United States, followed by China and Germany; (4) Switzerland and Singapore are two small size countries that published few publications, however receives many citations. (5) Research collaborations between countries increased the research publications except for Canada, India, and Brazil. (6) Keyword analysis revealed that researchers are adopting blockchain to solve problems in multiple categories of the data research area (data privacy, digital storage, the security of data, big data, and distributed database). This study also highlighted the utilization and consensus of the algorithm in blockchain research.
IEA EBC Annex 67 Energy Flexible Buildings Jensen, Søren Østergaard; Marszal-Pomianowska, Anna; Lollini, Roberto ...
Energy and buildings,
11/2017, Letnik:
155
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The increasing global energy demand, the foreseen reduction of available fossil fuels and the increasing evidence off global warming during the last decades have generated a high interest in ...renewable energy sources. However, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, have an intrinsic variability that can seriously affect the stability of the energy system if they account for a high percentage of the total generation.
The Energy Flexibility of buildings is commonly suggested as part of the solution to alleviate some of the upcoming challenges in the future demand-respond energy systems (electrical, district heating and gas grids). Buildings can supply flexibility services in different ways, e.g. utilization of thermal mass, adjustability of HVAC system use (e.g. heating/cooling/ventilation), charging of electric vehicles, and shifting of plug-loads. However, there is currently no overview or insight into how much Energy Flexibility different building may be able to offer to the future energy systems in the sense of avoiding excess energy production, increase the stability of the energy networks, minimize congestion problems, enhance the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the future energy networks. Therefore, there is a need for increasing knowledge on and demonstration of the Energy Flexibility buildings can provide to energy networks. At the same time, there is a need for identifying critical aspects and possible solutions to manage this Energy Flexibility, while maintaining the comfort of the occupants and minimizing the use of non-renewable energy.
In this context, the IEA (International Energy Agency) EBC (Energy in Buildings and Communities program) Annex 67: “Energy Flexible Buildings” was started in 2015. The article presents the background and the work plan of IEA EBC Annex 67 as well as already obtained results.
Annex 67 is a corporation between participants from 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and UK.
•Effectiveness of six numerical methods is evaluated to determine wind power density.•More appropriate method for computing the daily wind power density is estimated.•Four windy stations located in ...the south part of Alberta, Canada namely is investigated.•The more appropriate parameters estimation method was not identical among all examined stations.
In this study, the effectiveness of six numerical methods is evaluated to determine the shape (k) and scale (c) parameters of Weibull distribution function for the purpose of calculating the wind power density. The selected methods are graphical method (GP), empirical method of Justus (EMJ), empirical method of Lysen (EML), energy pattern factor method (EPF), maximum likelihood method (ML) and modified maximum likelihood method (MML). The purpose of this study is to identify the more appropriate method for computing the wind power density in four stations distributed in Alberta province of Canada namely Edmonton City Center Awos, Grande Prairie A, Lethbridge A and Waterton Park Gate. To provide a complete analysis, the evaluations are performed on both daily and monthly scales. The results indicate that the precision of computed wind power density values change when different parameters estimation methods are used to determine the k and c parameters. Four methods of EMJ, EML, EPF and ML present very favorable efficiency while the GP method shows weak ability for all stations. However, it is found that the more effective method is not similar among stations owing to the difference in the wind characteristics.
The new world of work has created unprecedented challenges for human resource practitioners. This book prompts exciting conversations on the question of: "What is the role of job evaluation". ..._x000D__x000D_With the developing concepts of blended work, work from anywhere and contingent workers, job evaluation systems will need some careful thought. One size and approach may not suit all situations and suggestions are offered on how to deal with these differing situations._x000D__x000D_The next domino after job evaluation is often remuneration, because pay scales are attached to the grades. Equal pay for work of equal value is probably one of the biggest focus points globally and clarity is offered in this book. The vertical pay gap and horizontal pay gap sometimes stem from the remuneration philosophy around pay scale design. This book clarifies how to do job evaluation in a changing world, how to develop pay scales and how to achieve equal pay for work of equal value._x000D_ _x000D_Contents include:_x000D_ _x000D_* What is Job Evaluation?_x000D_* Job Evaluation in the new world of work_x000D_* The Rise of the Contingent Workforce_x000D_* How to carry out the Paterson job evaluation_x000D_* The impact of job evaluation on salary structures_x000D_* Equal pay for work of equal value_x000D_* Measuring income inequality - a holistic approach_x000D_* The psychological impact of the new way of job evaluation.
Ice-jam floods (IJFs) are important hydrological and hydraulic events in the northern hemisphere that are of major concern for citizens, authorities, insurance companies and government agencies. In ...recent years, there have been advances in assessing and quantifying climate change impacts on river ice processes, however, an understanding of climate change and regulation impacts on the timing and magnitude of IJFs remains limited. This study presents a global overview of IJF case studies and discusses IJF risks in North America, one of the most IJF prone regions according to literature. Then an assessment of shifts in the timing and magnitude of IJFs in Canada is presented analyzing flow data from 1107 hydrometric stations across Canada for the period from 1903 to 2015. The analyses show clear signals of climate change and regulation impacts in the timing and magnitude of IJFs, particularly in small basins.
Water contamination by ammonium (NH4+) can present considerable risks to natural ecosystems. This work evaluates the potential application of biochar, produced from the pyrolysis of digested sludge, ...to remove ammonium from water. Anaerobic digester sludge was collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Alberta, Canada, and individual biochars were produced at 50 °C temperature increments between 350 °C and 550 °C. The chemical characteristics of the resulting biochars were determined using elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET surface area analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Our findings demonstrate that the biochar yield decreased with increasing pyrolysis temperature, and biochar produced at 450 °C (BC450) had the highest ammonium removal capacity due to its higher surface area and functional group density. The Langmuir isotherm best described the observed ammonium removal capacity by the biochars, indicating that monolayer chemical adsorption may be the dominating mechanism. Biochar ammonium removal capacity was 1.2 mg NH4N per gram of biochar in municipal wastewater, which is lower than that observed in parallel experiments using a synthetic ammonium solution (1.4 mg NH4+-N/g biochar). This phenomenon is likely due to competition between ammonia and other containments for sorption to biochar surface sites. Our results demonstrate for the first time ever that biochar produced from digester sludge is a promising adsorbent for ammonium removal from municipal wastewater.
•A techno-economic study of renewable energy systems for off-grid power supply and hydrogen production was carried out.•Nine different renewable energy systems including battery and hydrogen ...technologies were examined.•Analysed how the sizing of a system component varied in different locations.
The primary goal of this study is to determine the minimum cost of energy (COE) for five different global locations – Squamish, Canada; Los Angeles and Golden, USA; and Brisbane and Adelaide, Australia – based on renewable energy systems. We do this by investigating power generation and hydrogen production via renewable energy resources (mainly solar and wind) to produce synthetic fuels by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere. Nine different renewable energy systems are considered based on photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines (WT) and combinations thereof, including battery banks and hydrogen technologies. We used the Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER Pro) microgrid software to simulate the optimum size of system components and to identify the cost-effective configurations based on particular locations. When considering minimum COE, the results show that integration of PV, WT, a battery bank, an electrolyser and a hydrogen tank are at 0.50 $/kWh at Golden, Colorado, USA. We also found that without a battery bank, the minimum COE is 0.78 $/kWh at the same location. In this case, the cost increase is due to the capital cost of system components, mainly the hydrogen technologies. The results of this study suggest that hydrogen has economic benefits over batteries for long-term energy storage in off-grid energy systems.
Pink blood Janoff, Douglas Victor
Pink blood,
c2005, 20050509, 2005, 2014, 2005-01-01, 20050101
eBook
Despite Canada's reputation as a beacon for equality in the international struggle for gay rights, homophobia and homophobic violence remain major problems in the country. Since 1990, hundreds of ...gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people have been assaulted or murdered in Canada, but so far there has been little mention of the phenomenon in Canadian criminology textbooks or other publications.
Pink Bloodis the first book to analyze homophobic violence on a national scale. Douglas Victor Janoff uses social theory, legal analysis, descriptive case studies, and interviews with victims, activists, and police officers from thirty cities to convey the shattering impact this violence has had on queer Canadians and on the communities they inhabit. Janoff critically examines the concept of homophobia, the 'homosexual panic defence,' the ignorance and brutality of some Canadian police officers, and hate crime legislation and policies that, despite good intentions, are often powerless to counteract this complex and troubling social problem.
Drawing from a wide range of scholarship—law, criminology, sociology, psychology, philosophy and social work—Pink Bloodis an important addition to the literature on queer life in Canada from a respected researcher and community activist.
Current anthropogenic climate change is the result of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere, which records the aggregation of billions of individual decisions. Here we consider a broad range ...of individual lifestyle choices and calculate their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries, based on 148 scenarios from 39 sources. We recommend four widely applicable high-impact (i.e. low emissions) actions with the potential to contribute to systemic change and substantially reduce annual personal emissions: having one fewer child (an average for developed countries of 58.6 tonnes CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) emission reductions per year), living car-free (2.4 tCO2e saved per year), avoiding airplane travel (1.6 tCO2e saved per roundtrip transatlantic flight) and eating a plant-based diet (0.8 tCO2e saved per year). These actions have much greater potential to reduce emissions than commonly promoted strategies like comprehensive recycling (four times less effective than a plant-based diet) or changing household lightbulbs (eight times less). Though adolescents poised to establish lifelong patterns are an important target group for promoting high-impact actions, we find that ten high school science textbooks from Canada largely fail to mention these actions (they account for 4% of their recommended actions), instead focusing on incremental changes with much smaller potential emissions reductions. Government resources on climate change from the EU, USA, Canada, and Australia also focus recommendations on lower-impact actions. We conclude that there are opportunities to improve existing educational and communication structures to promote the most effective emission-reduction strategies and close this mitigation gap.
Mapping and monitoring land cover and land cover change remains a top priority for land managers. Uniquely, remote sensing offers the capacity to acquire information in a systematic (spatially, ...temporally, and categorically) and synoptic fashion that is appealing from monitoring and reporting perspectives. The opening of the Landsat archive and new processing and analysis opportunities enable the characterization of large areas and the generation of dynamic, transparent, systematic, repeatable, and spatially exhaustive information products. Best Available Pixel (BAP) approaches enable the production of periodic image composites free of haze, clouds, or shadows over large areas. In this paper we demonstrate an integrated protocol to produce spatially exhaustive annual BAP image composites that are seasonally constrained and free of atmospheric perturbations. These annual BAP composites for the years inclusive of 1998 to 2010 provide for generation of a suite of change metrics for the period 2000 to 2010 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data. The study area is the >375,000km2 forested area of Saskatchewan, Canada. We evaluate the robustness of the protocol by comparing in-filled (or proxy) values with a true reference set for surface reflectance. An initial change detection pass is used to aid in the allocation of proxy values (for missing and anomalous values) and to allocate change events to the correct year, with a second pass to characterize key change points and related time series trends (e.g., change year, post-change slopes, among others). In so doing, a multi-temporal data cube (via a series of annual proxy composites) and a set of change metrics are generated. Approximately 35% of the pixels in our study area required proxy values, either as a result of missing data or our noise detection approach. Overall, our results indicate strong agreement between the assigned proxy values and the reference data (R=0.71–0.91, RMSE=0.008–0.025). Agreement was stronger for pixel series with no change events (R=0.73–0.92, RMSE=0.007–0.024), relative to pixel series with change events (R=0.63–0.87, RMSE=0.010–0.029). The generated change metrics, derived via temporal and spatial analysis of the annual BAP composites, were an important precursor to the generation of valid proxy values, and – importantly – provide valuable information for the further assessment and understanding of land cover and land cover change. Our results indicate that the demonstrated protocol provides a reliable approach to generate proxy image composites containing no data gaps, along with a suite of informative change metrics that provide a comprehensive characterization of land cover changes (including disturbance and recovery) allowing for an improved understanding of landscape dynamics. The protocol is efficient and may be applied over large areas to support regional and national mapping and monitoring activities.
•We present an approach to produce annual proxy image composites with Landsat series.•Composites cover large areas and are free clouds and shadows with no data gaps.•Change metrics are generated and integrated with large area annual composites.•The protocol supports regional and national level mapping of land cover and changes.
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