The engineering life cycle for complex systems design and development, where partners are dispersed in different locations, requires the set-up of adequate and controlled processes involving many different disciplines. The “design integration” and the final “system physical/functional integration and qualification” imply a high degree of cross-interaction among the partners. The - place technical information systems supporting the life cycle activities are specialized with respect to the needs of each actor in the process chain and are highly heterogeneous between them. To globally innovate in-place processes, specialists must be able to work as a unique team, in a virtual enterprise model. To this aim, it is necessary to make interoperable the different technical information systems and to define co-operative engineering processes, which take into account “distributed roles”, “shared activities”, and “distributed process controls”. In this frame an innovative study, aimed at addressing this process with the goal of identifying proper solutions – in terms of design, implementation, and deployment – has been carried out with the support of the European Community and the participation of major industrial companies and research centers.

The modern complicated project environment has encouraged management and computer scientists to explore for solution approaches and support systems that could aid project managers in handling project challenges throughout all project phases (project planning, scheduling, monitoring and controlling). Project management software have become one of the crucial points in the attempts tominimize cost, effort and time, and to maximize the advantages of project management methods that are required to use scientific solutions in all project phases.This book presents a series of practices, processes and techniques that could aid project managers and project teams to manage projects' information in a systematic way in order to achieve better project outcomes. This book includes an overview on project management information systems; project management environment; managing project information (project information cycle); managingproject management information systems; and project management software and its role in the project success.

This full-color textbook will help students and professionals understand the space environment and its impacts on spacecraft design, engineering, and performance. While the primary emphasis of the book is the Earth's environment and its effects on spacecraft, it also addresses the extraterrestrial environment and the effects of radiation on humans in space. The book begins with an introduction to the history of spacecraft failures, risk management reliability and quality assurance techniques, and parts reliability. It goes on to provide an overview of the structure of the Sun: the structure, origin, and models of the geomagnetic field; gravitational field of the Earth; Earth's magnetosphere and radiation environment; neutral environment including fundamentals of the kinetic theory of gasses; variation of pressure with altitude and hypoxia of humans; electromagnetic propagation; the effect of atomic oxygen of materials; plasma surrounding the Earth; transport and effects of photon

This inspiring book presents the true stories of 12 people from across North America who have done great things for the environment. Heroes include a teenage girl who figured out how to remove an industrial pollutant from the Ohio River, a Mexican superstar wrestler who works to protect turtles and whales, and a teenage boy from Rhode Island who helped his community and his state develop effective e-waste recycling programs. Plenty of photographs and illustrations bring each compelling story vividly to life.

Audio/Video (AV) systems and Information Technology (IT) have collided. IT is being leveraged to create compelling networked media and file-based workflows. Video Systems in an IT Environment has helped thousands of professionals in broadcast, post and other media disciplines to understand the key aspects the AV/IT "tapeless convergence. World-renowned educator and speaker Al Kovalick adds his conversational and witty style to this text making the book an enjoyable learning experience. Now in its second edition, this book includes: basics of networked media, storage systems for AV, MXF and other file formats, Web services and SOA, software platforms, 14 methods for high availability design, element management, security, AV technology, transition issues, real-world case studies and much more. Each chapter weaves together IT and AV techniques providing the reader with actionable information on the issues, best practices, processes and principles of seamless AV/IT systems integration.

The breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it reentered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, reminded the public--and NASA--of the grave risks posed to spacecraft by everything from insulating foam to space debris. Here, Alan Tribble presents a singular, up-to-date account of a wide range of less conspicuous but no less consequential environmental effects that can damage or cause poor performance of orbiting spacecraft. Conveying a wealth of insight into the nature of the space environment and how spacecraft interact with it, he covers design modifications aimed at eliminating or reducing such environmental effects as solar absorptance increases caused by self-contamination, materials erosion by atomic oxygen, electrical discharges due to spacecraft charging, degradation of electrical circuits by radiation, and bombardment by micrometeorites. This book is unique in that it bridges the gap between studies of the space environment as performed by space physicists and spacecraft design engineering as practiced by aerospace engineers.

This book aims to provide the latest research findings, innovative research results, methods, and development techniques from both theoretical and practical perspectives related to the emerging areas of information networking and their applications. The networks and information systems of today are evolving rapidly. There are new trends and applications in information networking such as wireless sensor networks, ad hoc networks, peer-to-peer systems, vehicular networks, opportunistic networks, grid and cloud computing, pervasive and ubiquitous computing, multimedia systems, security, multi-agent systems, high-speed networks, and web-based systems. These kinds of networks need to manage the increasing number of users, provide support for different services, guarantee the QoS, and optimize the network resources. For these networks, there are many research issues and challenges that should be considered and find solutions.