| 1. |
- Maranghino-Singer, B., et al.
(författare)
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An information system supporting cap and trade in organizations
- 2015
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Ingår i: ICT Innovations for Sustainability. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319092270 - 9783319092287 ; , s. 285-299
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a software system to create and implement internal markets in organizations that want to limit the CO2 emissions or the use of scarce resources by their employees. This system can be applied to domains such as business travel by distributing a limited number of permits for business travel-related CO2 emissions at the beginning of a period and then allowing the permits to be traded inside the organization. The system calculates the CO2 emissions caused byplanned trips and provides the market mechanisms to trade the permits. The approach can be generalized from emission permits to any scarce good that is assigned by the management to units or individual members of the organization, such as parking spaces. Both cases are described by way of detailed examples.
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| 2. |
- Siebenmann, C, et al.
(författare)
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Hemoglobin mass and intravascular volume kinetics during and after exposure to 3,454-m altitude
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of applied physiology. - : American Physiological Society. - 8750-7587 .- 1522-1601. ; 119:10, s. 1194-1201
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Siebenmann C, Cathomen A, Hug M, Keiser S, Lundby AK, Hilty MP, Goetze JP, Rasmussen P, Lundby C. Hemoglobin mass and intravascular volume kinetics during and after exposure to 3,454 m altitude. J Appl Physiol 119: 1194-1201, 2015. First published March 6, 2015; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01121.2014.-High altitude (HA) exposure facilitates a rapid contraction of plasma volume (PV) and a slower occurring expansion of hemoglobin mass (Hbmass). The kinetics of the Hbmass expansion has never been examined by multiple repeated measurements, and this was our primary study aim. The second aim was to investigate the mechanisms mediating the PV contraction. Nine healthy, normally trained sea-level (SL) residents (8 males, 1 female) sojourned for 28 days at 3,454 m. Hbmass was measured and PV was estimated by carbon monoxide rebreathing at SL, on every 4th day at HA, and 1 and 2 wk upon return to SL. Four weeks at HA increased Hbmass by 5.26% (range 2.5-11.1%; P < 0.001). The individual Hbmass increases commenced with up to 12 days of delay and reached a maximal rate of 4.04±1.02 g/day after 14.9±5.2 days. The probability for Hbmass to plateau increased steeply after 20-24 days. Upon return to SL Hbmass decayed by-2.46 ± 2.3 g/day, reaching values similar to baseline after 2 wk. PV, aldosterone concentration, and renin activity were reduced at HA (P < 0.001) while the total circulating protein mass remained unaffected. In summary, the Hbmass response to HA exposure followed a sigmoidal pattern with a delayed onset and a plateau after ∼3 wk. The decay rate of Hbmass upon descent to SL did not indicate major changes in the rate of erythrolysis. Moreover, our data support that PV contraction at HA is regulated by the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis and not by changes in oncotic pressure. © 2015 The American Physiological Society.
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| 3. |
- Ahmadi Achachlouei, Mohammad, 1981-
(författare)
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Exploring the Effects of ICT on Environmental Sustainability: From Life Cycle Assessment to Complex Systems Modeling
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The production and consumption of information and communication technology (ICT) products and services continue to grow worldwide. This trend is accompanied by a corresponding increase in electricity use by ICT, as well as direct environmental impacts of the technology. Yet a more complicated picture of ICT’s effects is emerging. Positive indirect effects on environmental sustainability can be seen in substitution and optimization (enabling effects), and negative indirect effects can be seen in additional demand due to efficiency improvements (rebound effects).A variety of methods can be employed to model and assess these direct and indirect effects of ICT on environmental sustainability. This doctoral thesis explores methods of modeling and assessing environmental effects of ICT, including electronic media. In a series of five studies, three methods were at times applied in case studies and at others analyzed theoretically. These methods include life cycle assessment (LCA) and complex systems modeling approaches, including System Dynamics (SD) and agent-based (AB) modeling.The first two studies employ the LCA approach in a case study of an ICT application, namely, the tablet edition of a Swedish design magazine. The use of tablets has skyrocketed in recent years, and this phenomenon has been little studied to date. Potential environmental impacts of the magazine’s tablet edition were assessed and compared with those of the print edition. The tablet edition’s emerging version (which is marked by a low number of readers and low reading time per copy) resulted in higher potential environmental impacts per reader than did the print edition. However, the mature tablet edition (with a higher number of readers and greater reading time per copy) yielded lower impacts per reader in half the ten impact categories assessed.While previous studies of electronic media have reported that the main life-cycle contributor to environmental impacts is the use phase (which includes operational electricity use as well as the manufacture of the electronic device), the present study did not support those findings in all scenarios studied in this thesis. Rather, this study found that the number of readers played an important role in determining which life-cycle phase had the greatest impacts. For the emerging version, with few readers, content production was the leading driver of environmental impacts. For the mature version, with a higher number of readers, electronic storage and distribution were the major contributors to environmental impacts. Only when there were many readers but low overall use of the tablet device was the use phase the main contributor to environmental impacts of the tablet edition of the magazine.The third study goes beyond direct effects at product- and service-level LCAs, revisiting an SD simulation study originally conducted in 2002 to model indirect environmental effects of ICT in 15 European countries for the period 2000-2020. In the current study, three scenarios of the 2002 study were validated in light of new empirical data from the period 2000–2012. A new scenario was developed to revisit the quantitative and qualitative results of the original study. The results showed, inter alia, that ICT has a stimulating influence on total passenger transport, for it makes it more cost- and time-efficient (rebound effects).The modeling mechanism used to represent this rebound effect is further investigated in the fourth study, which discusses the feedback loops used to model two types of rebound effects in passenger transport (direct economic rebound and time rebound). Finally, the role of systems thinking and modeling in conceptualizing and communicating the dynamics of rebound effects is examined.The aim of the fifth study was to explore the power of systems modeling and simulation to represent nonlinearities of the complex and dynamic systems examined elsewhere in this thesis. That study reviews previous studies that have compared the SD and AB approaches and models, summarizing their purpose, methodology, and results, based on certain criteria for choosing between SD and AB approaches. The transformation procedure used to develop an AB model for purposes of comparison with an SD model is also explored.In conclusion, first-order or direct environmental effects of ICT production, use, and disposal can be assessed employing an LCA method. This method can also be used to assess second-order or enabling effects by comparing ICT applications with conventional alternatives. However, the assessment of enabling effects can benefit from systems modeling methods, which are able to formally describe the drivers of change, as well as the dynamics of complex social, technical, and environmental systems associated with ICT applications. Such systems methods can also be used to model third-order or rebound effects of efficiency improvements by ICT.
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| 4. |
- Ahmadi Achachlouei, Mohammad, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling the Effects of ICT on Environmental Sustainability : Revisiting a System Dynamics Model Developed for the European Commission
- 2015
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Ingår i: ICT Innovations for Sustainability. - Switzerland : Springer Publishing Company. - 9783319092270 - 9783319092287 ; , s. 449-474
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter revisits a System Dynamics model developed in 2002 with the aim of exploring the future impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on environmental sustainability in the EU, which then consisted of 15 countries. The time horizon of the study was 20 years (2000–2020). We analyze the results in light of empirical data that is now available for 2000–2012. None of the three scenarios that were developed by experts to specify the external factors needed to run the model were realistic from today’s point of view. If the model is re-run with more realistic input data for the first half of the simulation period, however, the main results regarding the impact of ICT remain qualitatively the same; they seem to be relatively robust implications of the causal system structure, as it is represented in the model. Overall, the impacts of ICT for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental burdens for 2020 tend to be slightly stronger if the simulation is based on the empirical data now available.
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| 5. |
- Ahmadi Achachlouei, Mohammad, et al.
(författare)
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Using Systems Thinking and System Dynamics Modeling to Understand Rebound Effects
- 2016
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Ingår i: Advances And New Trends In Environmental And Energy Informatics. - Cham, Switzerland : Springer Publishing Company. - 9783319234557 - 9783319234540 ; , s. 237-255
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Processes leading to an increase of demand for a resource as a consequence of increasing the efficiency of using this resource in production or consumption are known as (direct) rebound effects. Rebound effects at micro and macro levels tend to offset the reduction in resource consumption enabled by progress in efficiency. Systems thinking and modeling instruments such as causal loop diagrams and System Dynamics can be used to conceptualize the structure of this complex phenomenon and also to communicate model-based insights. In passenger transport, the rebound effect can be invoked by increased cost efficiency (direct economic rebound) and/or increase in speed (time rebound). In this paper we review and compare two existing models on passenger transport—including a model on the role of information and communication technology—with regard to the feedback loops used to conceptualize rebound effects.
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| 6. |
- Coroama, Vlad C, et al.
(författare)
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Dematerialization Through Electronic Media?
- 2015
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Ingår i: ICT Innovations for Sustainability. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319092287 ; , s. 405-421
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- While the traditional roles of the computer as a machine for scientific calculations, text editing, and graphic design are still significant, computers are increasingly perceived as means of accessing information and interacting with other people – i.e., as electronic media. The aim of this chapter is to analyze digital electronic media and their effects on environmental sustainability. Two fields of application are addressed: electronic media that may replace or augment traditional print media such as newspapers or magazines, and videoconferencing as a potential substitute for traveling to a face-to-face meeting or conference. In both cases, the environmental costs of the electronic media are compared to those of their conventional counterparts. The examples show that electronic media can represent an energy-efficient alternative to traditional activities such as long-distance travel. But they can also be added on top of existing activities instead of replacing them. In such cases, a net increase in the environmental impact results. The availability of small, energy-efficient devices being used as electronic media does not guarantee dematerialization. The overall resource use and emissions throughout the life cycle of the media product systems and, more importantly, at the macro level of total global production and consumption need to be considered. To achieve the dematerialization potential of new electronic media solutions, their efficiency needs to be combined with sufficiency; thus additional measures are necessary to turn the dematerialization potential of electronic media into environmental relief.
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| 7. |
- Coroama, V. C., et al.
(författare)
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The energy intensity of the internet : Home and access networks
- 2015
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Ingår i: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 2194-5357 .- 2194-5365. ; 310, s. 137-155
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Estimates of the energy intensity of the Internet diverge by several orders of magnitude. We present existing assessments and identify diverging definitions of the system boundary as the main reason for this large spread. The decision of whether or not to include end devices influences the result by 1–2 orders of magnitude. If end devices are excluded, customer premises equipment (CPE) and access networks have a dominant influence. Of less influence is the consideration of cooling equipment and other overhead, redundancy equipment, and the amplifiers in the optical fibers. We argue against the inclusion of end devices when assessing the energy intensity of the Internet, but in favor of including CPE, access networks, redundancy equipment, cooling and other overhead as well as optical fibers. We further show that the intensities of the metro and core network are best modeled as energy per data, while the intensity of CPE and access networks are best modeled as energy per time (i.e., power), making overall assessments challenging. The chapter concludes with a formula for the energy intensity of CPE and access networks. The formula is presented both in generic form as well as with concrete estimates of the average case to be used in quick assessments by practitioners. The next chapter develops a similar formula for the core and edge networks. Taken together, the two chapters provide an assessment method of the Internet’s energy intensity that takes into account different modeling paradigms for different parts of the network.
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| 8. |
- Guldner, Achim, et al.
(författare)
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Energy Consumption and Hardware Utilization of Standard Software : Methods and Measurements for Software Sustainability
- 2018
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Ingår i: FROM SCIENCE TO SOCIETY. - Cham : SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG. - 9783319656878 - 9783319656861 ; , s. 251-261
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICT) results in substantial amounts of energy consumption and thus, CO2-emissions. Since software induces the energy consumption of hardware, some reliable procedures and tests for measuring software are necessary. We present such a method and prove our measurement concept by applying it to two software product groups: word processors and content management systems. Even though the two groups are very different in terms of their requirements, we were successful in the creation of a measurement environment that supports the production of reliable, verifiable results, allowing the comparison of the energy consumption induced by software systems with similar functionality. The method shows viable results for desktop and client-server systems, paving the way for further setups like e.g. mobile and embedded devices.
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| 9. |
- Hilty, Lorenz M.
(författare)
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Ethical Issues in Ubiquitous Computing : Three Technology Assessment Studies Revisited
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ubiquitous Computing in the Workplace. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319134512 - 9783319134529 ; , s. 45-60
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper discusses ethical issues in ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing from the perspective of the general discourse on ethics in computing, which started in the 1970s, two decades before the “ubicomp” vision emerged. The IFIP “Human Choice and Computers” (HCC) conferences are used as points of reference for the general computing ethics discourse, and three technology assessment projects related to the ubicomp vision serve as a (nonrepresentative) sample of documents from the discussion of ethical issues in a ubicomp world. Revisiting these studies from the general computing ethics point of view shows that the basic issues have persisted, but ubicomp has added new aspects that were not anticipated in the earlier discourse.
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| 10. |
- Hilty, Lorenz M., et al.
(författare)
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ICT for sustainability : An emerging research field
- 2015
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Ingår i: ICT Innovations for Sustainability. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319092270 ; , s. 3-36
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This introductory chapter provides definitions of sustainability, sustainable development, decoupling, and related terms; gives an overview of existing interdisciplinary research fields related to ICT for Sustainability, including Environmental Informatics, Computational Sustainability, Sustainable HCI, and Green ICT; introduces a conceptual framework to structure the effects of ICT on sustainability; and provides an overview of this book.
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