The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Agriculture Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.
The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Industrial Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.
A fresh look at the world’s water crises, and the existing and emerging solutions that can be used to solve them It is not your imagination: water crises are more frequent. Our twentieth-century systems for providing the water that grows food, sustains cities, and supports healthy ecosystems are failing to meet the demands of growing population and the challenges brought on by climate change. But the grim news reports—of empty reservoirs, withering crops, failing ecosystems—need not be cause for despair, argues award-winning author David Sedlak. Communities on the front lines of previous water crises have pioneered approaches that are ready to be applied elsewhere. Some have resolved shortages by enhancing water-use efficiency, and others have used moments of crisis to resolve historic disagreements over water rights. Still others have employed treatment technologies that unlock vast quantities of untapped water resources. Sedlak identifies the challenges that society faces, including ineffective policies and outdated infrastructure, and the myriad of tools at our disposal—from emerging technologies in desalination to innovations for recycling wastewater and capturing more of the water that falls on fields and cities. He offers an informed and hopeful approach for rethinking our assumptions about the way that water is managed. With this knowledge we can create a future with clean, abundant, and affordable water for all.
This book provides glimpses into contemporary research in information systems & technology, learning, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and security and how it applies to the real world, but the ideas presented also span the domains of telehealth, computer vision, the role and use of mobile devices, brain–computer interfaces, virtual reality, language and image processing and big data analytics and applications. Great research arises from asking pertinent research questions. This book reveals some of the authors’ “beautiful questions” and how they develop the subsequent “what if” and “how” questions, offering readers food for thought and whetting their appetite for further research by the same authors.
This open access book explores the concept of Industry 4.0, which presents a considerable challenge for the production and service sectors. While digitization initiatives are usually integrated into the central corporate strategy of larger companies, smaller firms often have problems putting Industry 4.0 paradigms into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possess neither the human nor financial resources to systematically investigate the potential and risks of introducing Industry 4.0. Addressing this obstacle, the international team of authors focuses on the development of smart manufacturing concepts, logistics solutions and managerial models specifically for SMEs. Aiming to provide methodological frameworks and pilot solutions for SMEs during their digital transformation, this innovative and timely book will be of great use to scholars researching technology management, digitization and small business, as well as practitioners within manufacturing companies.
The second issue in 2020 of the quarterly published JEMI explores enterprise development and innovation. The behavioral determinants of the economic ventures indicated by the authors is a continually developing trend of research in economic sciences. Contemporary enterprises are increasingly investing their resources in obtaining information on factors that stimulate employee behavior in order to increase efficiency or develop innovation. Behavioral approach is also used in seeking answers to questions about the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) posed by entities responsible for supporting the SME sector. In economic sciences, behavioral approaches result from an interdisciplinary view on the behavior of people participating in economic life. The behaviors of entrepreneurs, managers, other participants in an organization, clients, and entities supporting economic activities are an essential subject of research interest. The presented articles show the research perspectives that contribute to the development of a behavioral stream in economic sciences. The first article proposes a triangulation of theoretical foundations for behavioral research in economic sciences. Dominika Korzeniowska and Łukasz Sułkowski reviewed the scientific literature and analyzed 37 articles and 21 monographs selected from scientific databases. As a result of their research, the authors concluded that by adopting different research perspectives in behavioral economics, rather than just a cognitive one, it is possible to enrich both theoretical and empirical foundations in scientific research. Discovering human economic behavior can be done using methods and techniques appropriate to research, e.g. in behavioral or evolutionary trends. The authors conduct their analysis in relation to three paradigms: cognitive, behavioral and evolutionary, and then come to the conclusion that these approaches should not be treated as competitive but complementary knowledge of economic behavior. For example, the evolutionary approach in psychology makes it easier to explain the genetics of certain automatic response patterns that have developed during evolution. Its usefulness is expressed in the possibilities of creating an image of the human economic mind or economic society. In turn, the use of behavioral approaches, according to the authors, allows finding ways to eliminate the effects of mental traps appearing in the processes of making economic decisions and other problem situations. The authors in their research refer to three research trends, but ultimately encourage the search for other theories and concepts in the study of human economic behavior and their impact on business ventures. The next article presents field studies carried out in West Sumatra. The authors use psychoeconomic factors lying on the side of entrepreneurs to study failures in their business operations. An essential aspect of the research is the identification and analysis of opportunistic behavior and its impact on the success or failure of operations. Hafiz Rahman, Eri Besra, and Nurhayati conducted quantitative research using multiple and partial regression analysis on a sample of 1541 young entrepreneurs from the West Sumatra province in Indonesia, who had experienced failures in their earlier enterprises. It was found that psycho-economic factors, together with the opportunistic behavior of individuals, more or less, caused the entrepreneurial failure. The obtained research results also formed the basis for the claim that opportunistic behavior can be seen as both a source of business success and failure. The authors believe that the research should be of interest to the Indonesian government, as it suggests that the creation of entrepreneurial resilience takes place in a process that also considers the failures of undertaken enterprises. Young entrepreneurs usually draw conclusions from the mistakes they made, which is why it is postulated to support them even in situations of failure, e.g. through entrepreneurship capacity building programs. In addition to economic and business knowledge, it is necessary to build mental resilience, develop maturity, logically consider the choice of alternatives, improve decision-making processes, and deal with social pressure. The subject of interest of the author of the third article is organizational behaviors that affect high performance. Przemysław Zbierowski presented the results of his research, conducted on a sample of 406 enterprises, using the computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) technique. Based on the collected research material, the author analyzed the impact of high-performance organizational features on actual organizational performance, and the indirect impact on organizational citizenship and entrepreneurship-oriented behavior. As the author notes, his research contributes to the scientific debate in at least three ways. Firstly, it confirms that the features of high performance have a strong impact on the actual performance of the enterprise, which is not surprising but verifies the hypothesis. Secondly, it indicates entrepreneurial orientation as a partial mediator in this relationship. Finally, he discovers the very strong impact that high-performance features have on the organization's civic behavior. The article also has practical implications. The obtained research results form the basis for developing organizational citizenship and entrepreneurship orientation through the skillful use of high-performance factors. Behavioral research trends in economic sciences also include the research presented in the fourth article regarding employee behavior and their development stimulated by managerial coaching. Ghulam Abid, Saira Ahmed, Tehmina Fiaz Qazi, and Komal Sarwar filled the research gap in the field of sustainable employee development in the organization. The research conducted by them is pioneering. The authors relate to the context of work and individual differences in promoting a thriving workplace. The intervention mechanism of self-efficacy and prosocial motivation in the relationship between managerial coaching and thriving at work was explored using a sequential mediation approach. Data were analyzed using Hayes' Process Model 6 based on 1,000 bootstrap resampling with an actual sample of 221 respondents. The obtained results confirm that managerial coaching increases employee self-efficacy. The goal of coaching is to increase the employee's sense of self-efficacy in connection with a particular activity so that he or she can perform his or her tasks effectively and efficiently. Efficiency among employees directly activates positive moods that help engage employees and trigger prosocial behavior. This study contributes to the detection of awareness related to the links between prosocial motivation and employee development and provides an additional, comprehensive analysis of the procedure for obtaining the positive effects of managerial coaching. Another group of articles relates to the behavioral aspects of developing innovation in enterprises in relation to employees, as well as the implementation of innovation by customers. Determinants of innovation in enterprises have become the subject of the research interests of Izabella Steinerowska-Streb and Grzegorz Głód. The authors presented the results of their research, which was conducted on a sample of 353 Polish family businesses. In the course of the conducted research, it was possible to determine whether family businesses that introduced the creative ideas of their employees were more innovative than others. The company's innovativeness can be expressed in the product, process, marketing, or organizational area. The authors also examined the relationship between the innovation of family businesses and their involvement in activities that stimulate creative thinking, build trust in the workplace, stimulate employee development, and support team integration. The study revealed that family businesses that are aware of the importance of creative employees, and that bring their employees' creative ideas into business practice, are more innovative than other family businesses. In addition, it was found that an increase in company innovation exists when the company supports employee development. Interesting behavioral aspects are presented in the research on employee resistance to implementing technological innovations. Çiğdem Sıcakyüz and Oya Hacire Yüregir conducted a study of medical personnel at a public hospital in Adana, Turkey, to investigate the reasons for employee resistance to implementing an IT system. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was expanded to include factors such as affective commitment, gender, and age. Based on the data collected from 291 surveys, a regression analysis was conducted, which led to the formulation of conclusions regarding the usefulness of information technology, its ease of use, and affective commitment. It was examined whether demographic factors such as age, gender, position, and tenure are associated with resistance to implemented technological innovations. The results of this study confirm earlier models of technology acceptance. The practical implications of the study relate to the need to increase employee participation in making decisions about the change process. The examined resistance of employees to technological innovations should also be treated as an essential voice in the discussion of problems related to managing change in the organization. In the article presented by Neema Mori and Rosallia Mlambiti, attention was focused on the acceptance of product innovation by customers. The research was carried out in Tanzania using the example of mobile banking services. To examine the impact of demographic factors on the adoption of innovative mobile banking services, Rogers' Diffusion Innovation Theory (DIT) was applied to 416 clients of a leading bank in Tanzania. Regression results showed a positive and significant relationship between income level and education on the one hand, and the adoption of mobile banking on the other. Practical implications refer to the recommendations to develop promotional practices and awareness campaigns and capture customer demographic profiles to encourage them to use mobile banking. The study showed the importance of using the situational theory to adopt innovative technologies in banking services in Tanzania. The authors indicate that this approach to research issues, broadens the understanding of the importance of demographic factors, especially in relation to the Sub-Saharan African region, and also contributes to a better understanding of mobile banking from the point of view of the bank's customers in Tanzania. The last article covers a bibliometric analysis of published research results in the field of business innovation, its financing, and policy framework. The analysis was based on the resources of the Web of Science Core Collection using Vosviewer for the period 1990–2019. The researched publications were divided according to the research area, and then the research gaps were identified. In total, 437 articles were found that went through various stages of selection. 32 publications were analyzed in detail, and the study presents citations received by each of these selected publications and their summaries. Thematically grouped summaries show the areas that the researchers paid more or less attention to. The conducted research allowed the authors to state that the countries involved in a higher level of innovation had a higher level of publication. Few studies on this topic have been developed in emerging economies such as Africa and Asia, excluding China and Taiwan. A similar situation was noted for countries in the Middle East. Most of the research comes from the United States and European countries. The article also refers to aspects such as the time horizon of research, approach, and research methods. The results of the presented research allow readers to get acquainted with the current state of publications on the subject of financing innovation and policy in this field. The editors express the hope that the articles presented will contribute to the development of knowledge on behavioral aspects of the functioning of enterprises and the development of innovation. The authors' extension of the research perspective with behavioral determinants, strengthens our belief in the legitimacy of supporting this research trend in JEMI. We thank all the researchers and authors for enriching their studies, broadening the perspective of resolving complex management problems, and developing innovation in organizations dispersed in geographical, economic, and cultural terms. We hope all readers will find this second issue of JEMI in 2020 both interesting and informative.
This book presents part of the proceedings of the Manufacturing and Materials track of the iM3F 2020 conference held in Malaysia. This collection of articles deliberates on the key challenges and trends related to manufacturing as well as materials engineering and technology in setting the stage for the world in embracing the fourth industrial revolution. It presents recent findings with regards to manufacturing and materials that are pertinent towards the realizations and ultimately the embodiment of Industry 4.0, with contributions from both industry and academia.
This book acts as a compilation of papers presented in the Human Engineering Symposium (HUMENS 2021). The symposium theme, “Human-centered Technology for A Better Tomorrow,” covers the following research topics: ergonomics, biomechanics, sports technology, medical device and instrumentation, artificial intelligence / machine learning, industrial design, rehabilitation, additive manufacturing, modelling and bio-simulation, and signal processing. Fifty-nine articles published in this book are divided into four parts, namely Part 1—Artificial Intelligence and Biosimulation, Part 2—Biomechanics, Safety and Sports, Part 3—Design and Instrumentation, and Part 4—Ergonomics.
