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.

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.