This book discusses the role electricity plays in sustaining and improving the quality of life. The author elucidates the numerous approaches to estimating value, including electricity’s contribution toward the U.S. Gross Domestic Product; its role in medicine, and its ability to power communications. Traditional measures such the cost of outages, the impact of storms, the cost of restoring power systems after storms, the Value of Lost Load (VOLL), consumer Willingness to Pay (WTP) to avoid outages, and consumer surveys are covered extensively. In addition, the book speculates on life without electricity and how society may have evolved without it.

A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.

The increasing demand of processing a higher number of applications and related data on computing platforms has resulted in reliance on multi-/many-core chips as they facilitate parallel processing. However, there is a desire for these platforms to be energy-efficient and reliable, and they need to perform secure computations for the interest of the whole community. This book provides perspectives on the aforementioned aspects from leading researchers in terms of state-of-the-art contributions and upcoming trends.

Philosophy studies all reality, all things, and all beings. Philosophy, in general, raises questions everything real. Yet, it always asks about one of the aspects of reality, which becomes our focus of exploration. Philosophy, however, is always “philosophy of” something special, like philosophy of man, philosophy of value, philosophy of nature, and others. This book is concerned with values. It is about philosophy of value, or axiology. What is value? The human life always relates to values. What we hope for as well as what we believe in mostly connect with our values, although we also face physical matters in life. Do we truly pursue the abstract things in life? How do we know we have values? Are values forever related to the good and the sacred? What about the bad, the evil, and the ugly? This book explores the world of values through various axiological standpoints, debates, the problems of values in human life, factual and evaluative judgments, the structure of human values, issues of values in culture, and close personal relationships. This book, finally, motivates us to identify, discover or rediscover our core values by formulating personal axiological perspectives.

Exploring Values Through Multimedia, Literature and Literacy Events was written by teachers and educational researchers for classrooms and schools interested in developing learning communities that develop critical and compassionate future citizens. Through the use of specific multimedia, literature and literacy events, this book presents numerous ways for classroom teachers and schools to promote respectful, responsible, caring, and sharing students in a democratic society. Beginning with Plato’s message that we cannot let the formation of good citizens to chance, Exploring Values Through Multimedia, Literature and Literacy Events takes the reader through a brief history of character education and moral development and a summary of multimedia’s impact on our lives. The chapters that follow are devoted to teacher tested classroom and school programs, activities, and resources for the understanding of diverse human perspectives. Included in several chapters are the unique ways classes might analyze how and why information is presented in the media. Due to the constant media bombardment on our lives, the goal if this volume is to support our students as they discern the meanings of truth and justice.

This is a thought-provoking analysis of social power comprehensive enough to satisfy the advanced reader without overwhelming those newer to the field. Self-advocates and advisers will appreciate the application of power dynamics to situations that clearly portray the obstacles faced by those trying to obtain real homes and jobs in the community. The power analysis of a young woman's life experiences and results from a national survey of self-advocacy advisors further reveal constraints in power relations and suggest action steps. Members and Advisors of People First self-advocacy chapters participated in the research at all stages. The appendix contains hundreds of gripping verbatim responses from self-advocacy advisors in the field that illustrate power issues familiar to everyone in the disability field. People with developmental disabilities and their friends will recognise the struggle, and those not already familiar with social power theory will find it to be a new tool that lays bare the framework underlying many of their deepest frustrations.

An Exploration into China's Economic Development and Electricity Demand by the Year 2050, is an exploratory study of national and regional economic development, energy demand and electricity demand in China by the year of 2050. China's economy grows rapidly and it is now the second largest economy in the world. In 2010, GDP reached 40 trillion Yuan and electricity consumption was second only to the United States, reaching 4.19 trillion kWh. Many people follow future (long-term) trends of Chinese economic development and demand for electricity closely and are especially interested in how development will look in 2030 and 2050. Based on the ILE4, this book examines the main features of China's economic development and electricity consumption since the economic reform of the 1980's. It includes an analysis of the intrinsic connection between electricity demand and economic growth and the changing trends of the adjustment of economic structure, regional layout optimization and development of the energy intensive industry, as well as how these factors impact China's demand for electricity. In addition, the book considers the next 20 years of China's economic development and growing demand for electricity based on the detailed simulations conducted by ILE4 in regional economic development and electricity consumption in 2030 as well as the prospective of China's electricity consumption and economic growth in the year 2050. - Allows readers China's economy from reform and opening up to 2050, including the national GDP, economy structure and economy of all the provinces and municipalities - Examines China's economic development and electricity consumption since the economic reform of the 1980's - Considers consumption of the next 20 years and demand by the year of 2050 based on simulations conducted by ILE4