Subject:
All Disciplines Arts & Humanities Biology & Life Sciences Business & Economics Chemistry & Materials Science Computer Science & Mathematics Engineering Environmental & Earth Sciences Medicine & Pharmacology Physical Sciences Public Health & Healthcare Social Sciences
Sort:
Hottest Latest Alphabetical (A-Z) Alphabetical (Z-A)
Type:
All Topic Review Biography
Topic Review
Importance of Sustainable Backup Power Systems
In an era of increasing environmental awareness and technological advancements, the demand for sustainable solutions extends to every facet of our lives. One critical area gaining attention is the need for reliable backup power systems that not only provide energy security but also align with sustainable practices. As the frequency of natural disasters, power outages, and grid instability increases, the importance of backup power has never been more apparent. However, traditional backup power sources, such as diesel generators, come with significant environmental and economic costs. This has led to a growing interest in sustainable backup power systems, which promise a greener, more reliable future.
  • 164
  • 31 Oct 2024
Topic Review
Recent Advances in Dielectric Properties-Based Soil Water Content Measurements
Dielectric properties are crucial in understanding the behavior of water within soil, particularly the soil water content (SWC), as they measure a material’s ability to store an electric charge and are influenced by water and other minerals in the soil. However, a comprehensive review paper is needed that synthesizes the latest developments in this field, identifies the key challenges and limitations, and outlines future research directions. In addition, various factors, such as soil salinity, temperature, texture, probing space, installation gap, density, clay content, sampling volume, and environmental factors, influence the measurement of the dielectric permittivity of the soil. Therefore, this review aims to address the research gap by critically analyzing the current state-of-the-art dielectric properties-based methods for SWC measurements. The motivation for this review is the increasing importance of precise SWC data for various applications such as agriculture, environmental monitoring, and hydrological studies. We examine time domain reflectometry (TDR), frequency domain reflectometry (FDR), ground-penetrating radar (GPR), remote sensing (RS), and capacitance, which are accurate and cost-effective, enabling real-time water resource management and soil health understanding through measuring the travel time of electromagnetic waves in soil and the reflection coefficient of these waves. SWC can be estimated using various approaches, such as TDR, FDR, GPR, and microwave-based techniques. These methods are made possible by increasing the dielectric permittivity and loss factor with SWC. The available dielectric properties are further synthesized based on mathematical models relating apparent permittivity to water content, providing an updated understanding of their development, applications, and monitoring. It also analyzes recent mathematical calibration models, applications, algorithms, challenges, and trends in dielectric permittivity methods for estimating SWC.
  • 310
  • 31 Oct 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Geomasking to Safeguard Geoprivacy in Geospatial Health Data
Geomasking is a set of techniques that introduces noise or intentional errors into geospatial data to minimize the risk of identifying exact location information related to individuals while preserving the utility of the data to a controlled extent. It protects the geoprivacy of the data contributor and mitigates potential harm from data breaches while promoting safer data sharing. The development of digital health technologies and the extensive use of individual geospatial data in health studies have raised concerns about geoprivacy. The individual tracking data and health information, if accessed by unauthorized parties, may lead to privacy invasions, criminal activities, and discrimination. These risks underscore the importance of robust protective measures in the collection, management, and sharing of sensitive data. Geomasking techniques have been developed to safeguard geoprivacy in geospatial health data, addressing the risks and challenges associated with data sharing. This entry paper discusses the importance of geoprivacy in geospatial health data and introduces various kinds of geomasking methods and their applications in balancing the protection of individual privacy with the need for data sharing to ensure scientific reproducibility, highlighting the urgent need for more effective geomasking techniques and their applications.
  • 166
  • 21 Oct 2024
Topic Review
Resilient Sustainable Built Environments
Achieving sustainability targets, requires quicker and more radical transformation of built environments. However, the onset of climate change also means that built environments are faced with unprecedented environmental hazards such as increasing temperatures, heatwaves, droughts, storms, and flooding. Sustainability and resilience objectives are often in conflict. Sustainability is concerned more efficient performance while resilience has a focus on reliability and robustness which often results in less efficient, equipment and systems. Achieving sustainable development and climate change targets will require built environment approaches that integrate both sustainability and resilience. This can be achieved through the concept of resilient sustainable built environments. 
  • 116
  • 08 Oct 2024
Topic Review
Energy Efficiency Policies for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
The importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from economic, social, and environmental point of view and the crucial role of energy efficiency (EE) are widely recognized. However, the development of effective policies and their analysis are still challenging topics, for which research is relatively scarce. The main reasons for this are the high heterogeneity of SMEs, their low energy impact compared with energy-intensive enterprises, the lack of quantitative information on the energy consumption of SMEs, and the low awareness of SMEs on energy topics. The structural paradigm change in the energy markets has underlined the importance of EE in SMEs. It is necessary to highligth the need for a good balance between economic and supportive mechanisms and the crucial role of energy audits. The analyzed contributions show that despite SMEs’ efforts to use existing EE policies, there are still important barriers to be addressed. Moreover, there is an important lack of quantitative analyses, which are necessary for the development a harmonized policy evaluation approach.
  • 73
  • 25 Sep 2024
Topic Review
Recent Advances in Predictability and Prediction Using PDE-Based, AI-Powered, and Idealized Generalized Lorenz Models
In recent years, substantial progress has been achieved in the domain of atmospheric predictability and forecasting, harnessing both traditional partial differential equation (PDE)-based methods and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Drawing on our recent comprehensive review of predictability studies, this investigation explores the potential for extending the two-week predictability limit initially proposed in the 1960s. While PDE-physics-based systems have consistently provided valuable insights, the emergence of AI-powered models, particularly those employing deep learning and transformer-based architectures, has paved the way for extending prediction horizons. These AI models have demonstrated performance that is comparable to, or even surpasses, traditional methods in short-term forecasts (3-14 days) and hold significant promise for addressing the challenges of subseasonal prediction. The synergy of AI and traditional approaches also underscores the potential for cost-effective, long-range weather predictions, with reports indicating promising predictions beyond 30 days. Furthermore, the development of generalized Lorenz models, incorporating time-varying parameters, has deepened our understanding of the coexistence of chaotic and regular behaviors with distinct predictability, challenging the conventional perception of weather systems as purely chaotic. This dual nature introduces fresh perspectives on long-term predictability and regional dependencies, such as seasonal variations and blocking patterns. In addition to reviewing recent advancements, this study proposes future research directions aimed at enhancing predictive accuracy and further exploring the limits of predictability in the realms of both weather and climate modeling.
  • 285
  • 03 Sep 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Biological Pollution of Indoor Air, Its Assessment and Control Methods
The aim of the entry was to write a substantial contribution that analyses and compares the biological pollution of indoor air, the possibilities of its assessment and the control methods. In addition, the aim of our entry was to review journals covering both commercial and residential buildings. By analysing the above topics from the existing articles, one can have the impression that air pollution is one of the most important problems that need to be solved in the modern world. Adequate air quality is important for maintaining human health, affects the health of ecosystems, including animals, and determines crop production. With the development of civilisation, the quality of air in the atmosphere and indoors is constantly deteriorating. Indoor air pollution can be divided into physical (e.g., noise, inadequate lighting, ionising radiation), chemical (e.g., tobacco smoke, household products) and microbiological (bacteria, viruses, fungi and products of their metabolism) factors. Each of these factors can have a negative impact on a person’s health or cause premature death. The entry deals with indoor air pollution, focussing on biological pollutants. It compares different methods available and describes the method of sampling to analyse indoor air pollution and ways to reduce it.
  • 548
  • 27 Aug 2024
Topic Review
Probabilistic Time Geographic Modeling
The possibility of moving objects accessing different types of points of interest (POI) at specific time is not always the same, so quantitative time geography research needs to consider the actual POI semantic information, including POI attributes and time information.
  • 449
  • 21 Aug 2024
Topic Review
Layers of Paint for the Exterior
The number of layers needed can also depend on the quality and type of paint used. High-quality exterior paints often require fewer coats to achieve full coverage and durability. Acrylic paints, for example, are known for their excellent adhesion and weather resistance, often resulting in a smoother finish with fewer layers.
  • 166
  • 31 Jul 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Revisiting Lorenz’s Error Growth Models: Insights and Applications
This entry examines Lorenz’s error growth models with quadratic and cubic hypotheses, highlighting their mathematical connections to the non-dissipative Lorenz 1963 model. The quadratic error growth model is the logistic ordinary differential equation (ODE) with a quadratic nonlinear term, while the cubic model is derived by replacing the quadratic term with a cubic one. A variable transformation shows that the cubic model can be converted to the same form as the logistic ODE. The relationship between the continuous logistic ODE and its discrete version, the logistic map, illustrates chaotic behaviors, demonstrating computational chaos with large time steps. A variant of the logistic ODE is proposed to show how finite predictability horizons can be determined, emphasizing the continuous dependence on initial conditions (CDIC) related to stable and unstable asymptotic values. This review also presents the mathematical relationship between the logistic ODE and the non-dissipative Lorenz 1963 model.
  • 890
  • 15 Jul 2024
  • Page
  • of
  • 271
Featured Entry Collections
>>

Featured Books

>>
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences
Encyclopedia of COVID-19
Encyclopedia of Fungi
Encyclopedia of Digital Society, Industry 5.0 and Smart City
ScholarVision Creations
Feedback