ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: Pro Git (Second Edition) is your fully-updated guide to Git and its usage in the modern world. Git has come a long way since it was first developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. It has taken the open source world by storm since its inception in 2005, and this book teaches you how to use it like a pro. Effective and well-implemented version control is a necessity for successful web projects, whether large or small. With this book you’ll learn how to master the world of distributed version workflow, use the distributed features of Git to the full, and extend Git to meet your every need. Written by Git pros Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, Pro Git (Second Edition) builds on the hugely successful first edition, and is now fully updated for Git version 2.0, as well as including an indispensable chapter on GitHub. It’s the best book for all your Git needs

Description / Table of Contents: The InfoSec Handbook offers the reader an organized layout of information that is easily read and understood. Allowing beginners to enter the field and understand the key concepts and ideas, while still keeping the experienced readers updated on topics and concepts. It is intended mainly for beginners to the field of information security, written in a way that makes it easy for them to understand the detailed content of the book. The book offers a practical and simple view of the security practices while still offering somewhat technical and detailed information relating to security. It helps the reader build a strong foundation of information, allowing them to move forward from the book with a larger knowledge base. Security is a constantly growing concern that everyone must deal with. Whether it’s an average computer user or a highly skilled computer user, they are always confronted with different security risks. These risks range in danger and should always be dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of the dangers or how to prevent them and this is where most of the issues arise in information technology (IT). When computer users do not take security into account many issues can arise from that like system compromises or loss of data and information. This is an obvious issue that is present with all computer users. This book is intended to educate the average and experienced user of what kinds of different security practices and standards exist. It will also cover how to manage security software and updates in order to be as protected as possible from all of the threats that they face

Description / Table of Contents: For cloud users and providers alike, security is an everyday concern, yet there are very few books covering cloud security as a main subject. This book will help address this information gap from an Information Technology solution and usage-centric view of cloud infrastructure security. The book highlights the fundamental technology components necessary to build and enable trusted clouds. Here also is an explanation of the security and compliance challenges organizations face as they migrate mission-critical applications to the cloud, and how trusted clouds, that have their integrity rooted in hardware, can address these challenges. This book provides: Use cases and solution reference architectures to enable infrastructure integrity and the creation of trusted pools leveraging Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). Trusted geo-location management in the cloud, enabling workload and data location compliance and boundary control usages in the cloud. OpenStack-based reference architecture of tenant-controlled virtual machine and workload protection in the cloud. A reference design to enable secure hybrid clouds for a cloud bursting use case, providing infrastructure visibility and control to organizations. "A valuable guide to the next generation of cloud security and hardware based root of trust. More than an explanation of the what and how, is the explanation of why. And why you can’t afford to ignore it!" —Vince Lubsey, Vice President, Product Development, Virtustream Inc. " Raghu provides a valuable reference for the new 'inside out' approach, where trust in hardware, software, and privileged users is never assumed—but instead measured, attested, and limited according to least privilege principles." —John Skinner, Vice President, HyTrust Inc. "Traditional parameter based defenses are in sufficient in the cloud. Raghu's book addresses this problem head-on by highlighting unique usage models to enable trusted infrastructure in this open environment. A must read if you are exposed in cloud." —Nikhil Sharma, Sr. Director of Cloud Solutions, Office of CTO, EMC Corporation

Description / Table of Contents: Computer Vision Metrics provides an extensive survey and analysis of over 100 current and historical feature description and machine vision methods, with a detailed taxonomy for local, regional and global features. This book provides necessary background to develop intuition about why interest point detectors and feature descriptors actually work, how they are designed, with observations about tuning the methods for achieving robustness and invariance targets for specific applications. The survey is broader than it is deep, with over 540 references provided to dig deeper. The taxonomy includes search methods, spectra components, descriptor representation, shape, distance functions, accuracy, efficiency, robustness and invariance attributes, and more. Rather than providing ‘how-to’ source code examples and shortcuts, this book provides a counterpoint discussion to the many fine opencv community source code resources available for hands-on practitioners

Description / Table of Contents: Learn how to leverage the BlackBerry 10 Cascades framework to create rich native applications. Learn BlackBerry 10 App Development gives you a solid foundation for creating BlackBerry 10 apps efficiently. Along the way, you will learn how to use QML and JavaScript for designing your app’s UI, and C++/Qt for the application logic. No prior knowledge of C++ is assumed and the book covers the fundamental aspects of the language for writing BlackBerry 10 apps. Also a particular emphasis is put on how to create a visually enticing user experience with the Cascades framework, which is based on Qt and QML. Starting with the native SDK configuration and an overview of the Momentics IDE, the book is fast-paced and you will rapidly learn many of the best practices and techniques required for developing beautiful BlackBerry 10 apps. Learn BlackBerry 10 App Development is written for developers wishing to learn how to write apps for the new BlackBerry 10 OS and those interested in porting existing iOS and Android apps to BlackBerry 10 as native applications

Description / Table of Contents: For cloud users and providers alike, security is an everyday concern, yet there are very few books covering cloud security as a main subject. This book will help address this information gap from an Information Technology solution and usage-centric view of cloud infrastructure security. The book highlights the fundamental technology components necessary to build and enable trusted clouds. Here also is an explanation of the security and compliance challenges organizations face as they migrate mission-critical applications to the cloud, and how trusted clouds, that have their integrity rooted in hardware, can address these challenges. This book provides: Use cases and solution reference architectures to enable infrastructure integrity and the creation of trusted pools leveraging Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). Trusted geo-location management in the cloud, enabling workload and data location compliance and boundary control usages in the cloud. OpenStack-based reference architecture of tenant-controlled virtual machine and workload protection in the cloud. A reference design to enable secure hybrid clouds for a cloud bursting use case, providing infrastructure visibility and control to organizations. "A valuable guide to the next generation of cloud security and hardware based root of trust. More than an explanation of the what and how, is the explanation of why. And why you can’t afford to ignore it!" —Vince Lubsey, Vice President, Product Development, Virtustream Inc. " Raghu provides a valuable reference for the new 'inside out' approach, where trust in hardware, software, and privileged users is never assumed—but instead measured, attested, and limited according to least privilege principles." —John Skinner, Vice President, HyTrust Inc. "Traditional parameter based defenses are in sufficient in the cloud. Raghu's book addresses this problem head-on by highlighting unique usage models to enable trusted infrastructure in this open environment. A must read if you are exposed in cloud." —Nikhil Sharma, Sr. Director of Cloud Solutions, Office of CTO, EMC Corporation

Description / Table of Contents: Intel® Galileo and Intel® Galileo Gen 2: API Features and Arduino Projects for Linux Programmers provides detailed information about Intel® Galileo and Intel® Galileo Gen 2 boards for all software developers interested in Arduino and the Linux platform. The book covers the new Arduino APIs and is an introduction for developers on natively using Linux. Author Manoel Carlos Ramon is a member of the Intel Galileo development team; in this book he draws on his practical experience in working on the Galileo project as he shares the team’s findings, problems, fixes, workarounds, and techniques with the open source community. His areas of expertise are wide-ranging, including Linux-embedded kernel and device drivers, C/C++, Java, OpenGL, Assembler, Android NDK/SDK/ADK, and 2G/3G/4G modem integration. He has more than 17 years of experience in research and development of mobile devices and embedded circuits. His personal blog about programming is BytesThink (www.bytesthink.com)

Description / Table of Contents: The InfoSec Handbook offers the reader an organized layout of information that is easily read and understood. Allowing beginners to enter the field and understand the key concepts and ideas, while still keeping the experienced readers updated on topics and concepts. It is intended mainly for beginners to the field of information security, written in a way that makes it easy for them to understand the detailed content of the book. The book offers a practical and simple view of the security practices while still offering somewhat technical and detailed information relating to security. It helps the reader build a strong foundation of information, allowing them to move forward from the book with a larger knowledge base. Security is a constantly growing concern that everyone must deal with. Whether it’s an average computer user or a highly skilled computer user, they are always confronted with different security risks. These risks range in danger and should always be dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware of the dangers or how to prevent them and this is where most of the issues arise in information technology (IT). When computer users do not take security into account many issues can arise from that like system compromises or loss of data and information. This is an obvious issue that is present with all computer users. This book is intended to educate the average and experienced user of what kinds of different security practices and standards exist. It will also cover how to manage security software and updates in order to be as protected as possible from all of the threats that they face

Description / Table of Contents: Platform Embedded Security Technology Revealed is an in-depth introduction to Intel’s platform embedded solution: the security and management engine. The engine is shipped inside most Intel platforms for servers, personal computers, tablets, and smartphones. The engine realizes advanced security and management functionalities and protects applications’ secrets and users’ privacy in a secure, light-weight, and inexpensive way. Besides native built-in features, it allows third-party software vendors to develop applications that take advantage of the security infrastructures offered by the engine. Intel’s security and management engine is technologically unique and significant, but is largely unknown to many members of the tech communities who could potentially benefit from it. Platform Embedded Security Technology Revealed reveals technical details of the engine. The engine provides a new way for the computer security industry to resolve critical problems resulting from booming mobile technologies, such as increasing threats against confidentiality and privacy. This book describes how this advanced level of protection is made possible by the engine, how it can improve users’ security experience, and how third-party vendors can make use of it. It's written for computer security professionals and researchers; embedded system engineers; and software engineers and vendors who are interested in developing new security applications on top of Intel’s security and management engine. It’s also written for advanced users who are interested in understanding how the security features of Intel’s platforms work

Description / Table of Contents: Digital Video Concepts, Methods, and Metrics: Quality, Compression, Performance, and Power Trade-off Analysis is a concise reference for professionals in a wide range of applications and vocations. It focuses on giving the reader mastery over the concepts, methods and metrics of digital video coding, so that readers have sufficient understanding to choose and tune coding parameters for optimum results that would suit their particular needs for quality, compression, speed and power. The practical aspects are many: Uploading video to the Internet is only the beginning of a trend where a consumer controls video quality and speed by trading off various other factors. Open source and proprietary applications such as video e-mail, private party content generation, editing and archiving, and cloud asset management would give further control to the end-user. Digital video is frequently compressed and coded for easier storage and transmission. This process involves visual quality loss due to typical data compression techniques and requires use of high performance computing systems. A careful balance between the amount of compression, the visual quality loss and the coding speed is necessary to keep the total system cost down, while delivering a good user experience for various video applications. At the same time, power consumption optimizations are also essential to get the job done on inexpensive consumer platforms. Trade-offs can be made among these factors, and relevant considerations are particularly important in resource-constrained low power devices. To better understand the trade-offs this book discusses a comprehensive set of engineering principles, strategies, methods and metrics. It also exposes readers to approaches on how to differentiate and rank video coding solutions

Description / Table of Contents: Pro Git (Second Edition) is your fully-updated guide to Git and its usage in the modern world. Git has come a long way since it was first developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. It has taken the open source world by storm since its inception in 2005, and this book teaches you how to use it like a pro. Effective and well-implemented version control is a necessity for successful web projects, whether large or small. With this book you’ll learn how to master the world of distributed version workflow, use the distributed features of Git to the full, and extend Git to meet your every need. Written by Git pros Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, Pro Git (Second Edition) builds on the hugely successful first edition, and is now fully updated for Git version 2.0, as well as including an indispensable chapter on GitHub. It’s the best book for all your Git needs

Description / Table of Contents: The number of Android devices running on Intel processors has increased since Intel and Google announced, in late 2011, that they would be working together to optimize future versions of Android for Intel Atom processors. Today, Intel processors can be found in Android smartphones and tablets made by some of the top manufacturers of Android devices, such as Samsung, Lenovo, and Asus. The increase in Android devices featuring Intel processors has created a demand for Android applications optimized for Intel Architecture: Android Application Development for the Intel® Platform is the perfect introduction for software engineers and mobile app developers. Through well-designed app samples, code samples and case studies, the book teaches Android application development based on the Intel platform—including for smartphones, tablets, and embedded devices—covering performance tuning, debugging and optimization. This book is jointly developed for individual learning by Intel Software College and China Shanghai JiaoTong University

Description / Table of Contents: It's our thesis that privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution and that innovators who are emphasizing privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track. --The authors of The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto: Getting from Policy to Code to QA to Value is the first book of its kind, offering industry-proven solutions that go beyond mere theory and adding lucid perspectives on the challenges and opportunities raised with the emerging "personal" information economy. The authors, a uniquely skilled team of longtime industry experts, detail how you can build privacy into products, processes, applications, and systems. The book offers insight on translating the guiding light of OECD Privacy Guidelines, the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP) and Privacy by Design (PbD) into concrete concepts that organizations, software/hardware engineers, and system administrators/owners can understand and apply throughout the product or process life cycle—regardless of development methodology—from inception to retirement, including data deletion and destruction. In addition to providing practical methods to applying privacy engineering methodologies, the authors detail how to prepare and organize an enterprise or organization to support and manage products, process, systems, and applications that require personal information. The authors also address how to think about and assign value to the personal information assets being protected. Finally, the team of experts offers thoughts about the information revolution that has only just begun, and how we can live in a world of sensors and trillions of data points without losing our ethics or value(s)...and even have a little fun. The Privacy Engineer's Manifesto is designed to serve multiple stakeholders: Anyone who is involved in designing, developing, deploying and reviewing products, processes, applications, and systems that process personal information, including software/hardware engineers, technical program and product managers, support and sales engineers, system integrators, IT professionals, lawyers, and information privacy and security professionals. This book is a must-read for all practitioners in the personal information economy. Privacy will be an integral part of the next wave in the technology revolution; innovators who emphasize privacy as an integral part of the product life cycle are on the right track. Foreword by Dr. Eric Bonabeau, PhD, Chairman, Icosystem, Inc. & Dean of Computational Sciences, Minerva Schools at KGI

Description / Table of Contents: GUI Design for Android Apps is the perfect—and concise—introduction for mobile app developers and designers. Through easy-to-follow tutorials, code samples, and case studies, the book shows the must-know principles for user-interface design for Android apps running on the Intel platform, including smartphones, tablets and embedded devices. This book is jointly developed for individual learning by Intel Software College and China Shanghai JiaoTong University, and is excerpted from Android Application Development for the Intel® Platform

Description / Table of Contents: Optimizing HPC Applications with Intel® Cluster Tools takes the reader on a tour of the fast-growing area of high performance computing and the optimization of hybrid programs. These programs typically combine distributed memory and shared memory programming models and use the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and OpenMP for multi-threading to achieve the ultimate goal of high performance at low power consumption on enterprise-class workstations and compute clusters. The book focuses on optimization for clusters consisting of the Intel® Xeon processor, but the optimization methodologies also apply to the Intel® Xeon Phi™ coprocessor and heterogeneous clusters mixing both architectures. Besides the tutorial and reference content, the authors address and refute many myths and misconceptions surrounding the topic. The text is augmented and enriched by descriptions of real-life situations

Description / Table of Contents: Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable, an ApressOpen title, describes the changing risk environment and why a fresh approach to information security is needed. Because almost every aspect of an enterprise is now dependent on technology, the focus of IT security must shift from locking down assets to enabling the business while managing and surviving risk. This compact book discusses business risk from a broader perspective, including privacy and regulatory considerations. It describes the increasing number of threats and vulnerabilities, but also offers strategies for developing solutions. These include discussions of how enterprises can take advantage of new and emerging technologies—such as social media and the huge proliferation of Internet-enabled devices—while minimizing risk. With ApressOpen, content is freely available through multiple online distribution channels and electronic formats with the goal of disseminating professionally edited and technically reviewed content to the worldwide community. Here are some of the responses from reviewers of this exceptional work: "Managing Risk and Information Security is a perceptive, balanced, and often thought-provoking exploration of evolving information risk and security challenges within a business context.  Harkins clearly connects the needed, but often-overlooked linkage and dialog between the business and technical worlds and offers actionable strategies.   The book contains eye-opening security insights that are easily understood, even by the curious layman." Fred Wettling, Bechtel Fellow, IS&T Ethics & Compliance Officer, Bechtel "As disruptive technology innovations and escalating cyber threats continue to create enormous information security challenges, Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable provides a much-needed perspective. This book compels information security professionals to think differently about concepts of risk management in order to be more effective. The specific and practical guidance offers a fast-track formula for developing information security strategies which are lock-step with business priorities." Laura Robinson, Principal, Robinson Insight Chair, Security for Business Innovation Council (SBIC) Program Director, Executive Security Action Forum (ESAF) "The mandate of the information security function is being completely rewritten. Unfortunately most heads of security haven’t picked up on the change, impeding their companies’ agility and ability to innovate. This book makes the case for why security needs to change, and shows how to get started. It will be regarded as marking the turning point in information security for years to come." Dr. Jeremy Bergsman, Practice Manager, CEB     "The world we are responsible to protect is changing dramatically and at an accelerating pace. Technology is pervasive in virtually every aspect of our lives. Clouds, virtualization and mobile are redefining computing – and they are just the beginning of what is to come. Your security perimeter is defined by wherever your information and people happen to be. We are attacked by professional adversaries who are better funded than we will ever be. We in the information security profession must change as dramatically as the environment we protect. We need new skills and new strategies to do our jobs effectively. We literally need to change the way we think.   Written by one of the best in the business, Managing Risk and Information Security challenges traditional security theory with clear examples of the need for change. It also provides expert advice on how to dramatically increase the success of your security strategy and methods – from dealing with the misperception of risk to how to become a Z-shaped CISO.   Managing Risk and Information Security is the ultimate treatise on how to deliver effective security to the world we live in for the next 10 years. It is absolute must reading for anyone in our profession – and should be on the desk of every CISO in the world."   Dave Cullinane, CISSP CEO Security Starfish, LLC "In this overview, Malcolm Harkins delivers an insightful survey of the trends, threats, and tactics shaping information risk and security. From regulatory compliance to psychology to the changing threat context, this work provides a compelling introduction to an important topic and trains helpful attention on the effects of changing technology and management practices." Dr. Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar Professor, Stanford Law School Co-Director, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University     "Malcolm Harkins gets it. In his new book Malcolm outlines the major forces changing the information security risk landscape from a big picture perspective, and then goes on to offer effective methods of managing that risk from a practitioner's viewpoint. The combination makes this book unique and a must read for anyone interested in IT risk." Dennis Devlin AVP, Information Security and Compliance, The George Washington University    "Managing Risk and Information Security is the first-to-read, must-read book on information security for C-Suite executives.  It is accessible, understandable and actionable. No sky-is-falling scare tactics, no techno-babble – just straight talk about a critically important subject. There is no better primer on the economics, ergonomics and psycho-behaviourals of security than this." Thornton May, Futurist, Executive Director & Dean, IT Leadership Academy     "Managing Risk and Information Security is a wake-up call for information security executives and a ray of light for business leaders.  It equips organizations with the knowledge required to transform their security programs from a "culture of no" to one focused on agility, value and competitiveness. Unlike other publications, Malcolm provides clear and immediately applicable solutions to optimally balance the frequently opposing needs of risk reduction and business growth. This book should be required reading for anyone currently serving in, or seeking to achieve, the role of Chief Information Security Officer." Jamil Farshchi, Senior Business Leader of Strategic Planning and Initiatives, VISA     "For too many years, business and security – either real or imagined – were at odds. In Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable, you get what you expect – real life practical ways to break logjams, have security actually enable business, and marries security architecture and business architecture. Why this book?  It's written by a practitioner, and not just any practitioner, one of the leading minds in Security today." John Stewart, Chief Security Officer, Cisco     "This book is an invaluable guide to help security professionals address risk in new ways in this alarmingly fast changing environment. Packed with examples which makes it a pleasure to read, the book captures practical ways a forward thinking CISO can turn information security into a competitive advantage for their business.    This book provides a new framework for managing risk in an entertaining and thought provoking way. This will change the way security professionals work with their business leaders, and help get products to market faster.   The 6 irrefutable laws of information security should be on a stone plaque on the desk of every security professional." Steven Proctor, VP, Audit & Risk Management, Flextronics

Description / Table of Contents: Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor Architecture and Tools: The Guide for Application Developers provides developers a comprehensive introduction and in-depth look at the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor architecture and the corresponding parallel data structure tools and algorithms used in the various technical computing applications for which it is suitable. It also examines the source code-level optimizations that can be performed to exploit the powerful features of the processor. Xeon Phi is at the heart of world’s fastest commercial supercomputer, which thanks to the massively parallel computing capabilities of Intel Xeon Phi processors coupled with Xeon Phi coprocessors attained 33.86 teraflops of benchmark performance in 2013. Extracting such stellar performance in real-world applications requires a sophisticated understanding of the complex interaction among hardware components, Xeon Phi cores, and the applications running on them. In this book, Rezaur Rahman, an Intel leader in the development of the Xeon Phi coprocessor and the optimization of its applications, presents and details all the features of Xeon Phi core design that are relevant to the practice of application developers, such as its vector units, hardware multithreading, cache hierarchy, and host-to-coprocessor communication channels. Building on this foundation, he shows developers how to solve real-world technical computing problems by selecting, deploying, and optimizing the available algorithms and data structure alternatives matching Xeon Phi’s hardware characteristics. From Rahman’s practical descriptions and extensive code examples, the reader will gain a working knowledge of the Xeon Phi vector instruction set and the Xeon Phi microarchitecture whereby cores execute 512-bit instruction streams in parallel

Description / Table of Contents: This book is a must have resource guide for anyone who wants to ...  implement TXT within their environments.  I wish we had this guide when our engineering teams were implementing TXT on our solution platforms!   John McAuley,EMC Corporation "This book details innovative technology that provides significant benefit to both the cloud consumer and the cloud provider when working to meet the ever increasing requirements of trust and control in the cloud."   Alex Rodriguez,  Expedient Data Centers "This book is an invaluable reference for understanding enhanced server security, and how to deploy and leverage computing environment trust to reduce supply chain risk."   Pete Nicoletti. Virtustream Inc. Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) is a new security technology that started appearing on Intel server platforms in 2010. This book explains Intel Trusted Execution Technology for Servers, its purpose, application, advantages, and limitations. This book guides the server administrator / datacenter manager in enabling the technology as well as establishing a launch control policy that he can use to customize the server’s boot process to fit the datacenter’s requirements. This book explains how the OS (typically a Virtual Machine Monitor or Hypervisor) and supporting software can build on the secure facilities afforded by Intel TXT to provide additional security features and functions. It provides examples how the datacenter can create and use trusted pools. With a foreword from Albert Caballero, the CTO at Trapezoid

Description / Table of Contents: The book is great! It's clear and easy to read, with loads of examples that showed my students what to do. -- Larry Snyder, Emeritus Professor, University of Washington, Department of Computer Science and Engineering "Having the TouchDevelop book available made our events so much easier. Students could figure things out for themselves with help from the book." -- Jennifer Marsman, Microsoft Principal Developer Evangelist Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are set to become the main computers that virtually all people will own and carry with them at all times. And yet,mobile devices are not yet used for all computing tasks. A project at Microsoft Research was created to answer a simple question: "It is possible to create interesting apps directly on a smartphone or tablet, without using a separate PC or a keyboard?" The result is TouchDevelop, a programming environment that runs on all modern mobile devices such as Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and also on PCs and Macs. This book walks you through all of the screens of the TouchDevelop app, and it points out similarities and differences of the TouchDevelop language compared to other programming languages. For users, the book can serve as a handyreference next to the phone. The book systematically addresses all programming language constructs, starting from the very basic constructs such as variables and loops. The book also explores many of the phone sensors and data sources which make creating apps for mobile devices so rewarding. If you are new to programming with TouchDevelop, or if you have not yet worked on touchscreen devices, we suggest that you read the book starting from Chapter 1. If you are already familiar with the basic paradigm of the TouchDevelop programming environment, then feel free to jump ahead to the later chapters that address particular topic areas. This book is written from the perspective of a person developing their code using a web browser. The TouchDevelop Web App runs in many modern browsers on many different devices including smartphones and tablets, Macs, PC. All screenshots and navigation instructions refer to the TouchDevelop Web App running in a browser. For Windows Phone, there is a dedicated TouchDevelop app in the Windows Phone Store which gives access to many more sensors and data sources. Starting with the TouchDevelop app v3.0 for Windows Phone 8, the phone app will share the same look and navigation structure and all features of the Web App

Description / Table of Contents: Android on x86: an Introduction to Optimizing for Intel® Architecture serves two main purposes. First, it makes the case for adapting your applications onto Intel’s x86 architecture, including discussions of the business potential, the changing landscape of the Android marketplace, and the unique challenges and opportunities that arise from x86 devices. The fundamental idea is that extending your applications to support x86 or creating new ones is not difficult, but it is imperative to know all of the technicalities. This book is dedicated to providing you with an awareness of these nuances and an understanding of how to tackle them. Second, and most importantly, this book provides a one-stop detailed resource for best practices and procedures associated with the installation issues, hardware optimization issues, software requirements, programming tasks, and performance optimizations that emerge when developers consider the x86 Android devices. Optimization discussions dive into native code, hardware acceleration, and advanced profiling of multimedia applications. The authors have collected this information so that you can use the book as a guide for the specific requirements of each application project. This book is not dedicated solely to code; instead it is filled with the information you need in order to take advantage of x86 architecture. It will guide you through installing the Android SDK for Intel Architecture, help you understand the differences and similarities between processor architectures available in Android devices, teach you to create and port applications, debug existing x86 applications, offer solutions for NDK and C++ optimizations, and introduce the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager. This book provides the most useful information to help you get the job done quickly while utilizing best practices

Description / Table of Contents: Written for the IT professional and business owner, this book provides the business and technical insight necessary to migrate your business to the cloud using Microsoft Office 365. This is a practical look at cloud migration and the use of different technologies to support that migration. Numerous examples of cloud migration with technical migration details are included. Cloud technology is a tremendous opportunity for an organization to reduce IT costs, and to improve productivity with increased access, simpler administration and improved services. Those businesses that embrace the advantages of the cloud will receive huge rewards in productivity and lower total cost of ownership over those businesses that choose to ignore it. The challenge for those charged with implementing Microsoft Office 365 is to leverage these advantages with the minimal disruption of their organization. This book provides practical help in moving your business to the Cloud and covers the planning, migration and the follow on management of the Office 365 Cloud services

Description / Table of Contents: Sensor Technologies: Healthcare, Wellness and Environmental Applications explores the key aspects of sensor technologies, covering wired, wireless, and discrete sensors for the specific application domains of healthcare, wellness and environmental sensing.  It discusses the social, regulatory, and design considerations specific to these domains. The book provides an application-based approach using real-world examples to illustrate the application of sensor technologies in a practical and experiential manner. The book  guides the reader from the formulation of the research question, through the design and validation process, to the deployment and management phase of sensor applications.  The processes and examples used in the book are primarily based on research carried out by Intel or joint academic research programs. "Sensor Technologies: Healthcare, Wellness and Environmental Applications provides an extensive overview of sensing technologies and their applications in healthcare, wellness, and environmental monitoring. From sensor hardware to system applications and case studies, this book gives readers an in-depth understanding of the technologies and how they can be applied. I would highly recommend it to students or researchers who are interested in wireless sensing technologies and the associated applications." Dr. Benny Lo Lecturer, The Hamlyn Centre, Imperial College of London     "This timely addition to the literature on sensors covers the broad complexity of sensing, sensor types, and the vast range of existing and emerging applications in a very clearly written and accessible manner.  It is particularly good at capturing the exciting possibilities that will occur as sensor networks merge with cloud-based ‘big data’ analytics to provide a host of new applications that will impact directly on the individual in ways we cannot fully predict at present.  It really brings this home through the use of carefully chosen case studies that bring the overwhelming concept of 'big data' down to the personal level of individual life and health."   Dermot Diamond Director, National Centre for Sensor Research, Principal Investigator, CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, Dublin City University                                                                      "Sensor Technologies: Healthcare, Wellness and Environmental Applications takes the reader on an end-to-end journey of sensor technologies, covering the fundamentals from an engineering perspective, introducing how the data gleaned can be both processed and visualized, in addition to offering exemplar case studies in a number of application domains.  It is a must-read for those studying any undergraduate course that involves sensor technologies.  It also provides a thorough foundation for those involved in the research and development of applied sensor systems.  I highly recommend it to any engineer who wishes to broaden their knowledge in this area!" Chris Nugent Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ulster  

Description / Table of Contents: Apress is proud to announce that Rethinking the Internet of Things was a 2014 Jolt Award Finalist, the highest honor for a programming book. And the amazing part is that there is no code in the book. Over the next decade, most devices connected to the Internet will not be used by people in the familiar way that personal computers, tablets and smart phones are. Billions of interconnected devices will be monitoring the environment, transportation systems, factories, farms, forests, utilities, soil and weather conditions, oceans and resources. Many of these sensors and actuators will be networked into autonomous sets, with much of the information being exchanged machine-to-machine directly and without human involvement. Machine-to-machine communications are typically terse. Most sensors and actuators will report or act upon small pieces of information - "chirps". Burdening these devices with current network protocol stacks is inefficient, unnecessary and unduly increases their cost of ownership. This must change. The architecture of the Internet of Things must evolve now by incorporating simpler protocols toward at the edges of the network, or remain forever inefficient. Rethinking the Internet of Things describes reasons why we must rethink current approaches to the Internet of Things. Appropriate architectures that will coexist with existing networking protocols are described in detail. An architecture comprised of integrator functions, propagator nodes, and end devices, along with their interactions, is explored

Description / Table of Contents: Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable, an ApressOpen title, describes the changing risk environment and why a fresh approach to information security is needed. Because almost every aspect of an enterprise is now dependent on technology, the focus of IT security must shift from locking down assets to enabling the business while managing and surviving risk. This compact book discusses business risk from a broader perspective, including privacy and regulatory considerations. It describes the increasing number of threats and vulnerabilities, but also offers strategies for developing solutions. These include discussions of how enterprises can take advantage of new and emerging technologies—such as social media and the huge proliferation of Internet-enabled devices—while minimizing risk. With ApressOpen, content is freely available through multiple online distribution channels and electronic formats with the goal of disseminating professionally edited and technically reviewed content to the worldwide community. Here are some of the responses from reviewers of this exceptional work: "Managing Risk and Information Security is a perceptive, balanced, and often thought-provoking exploration of evolving information risk and security challenges within a business context.  Harkins clearly connects the needed, but often-overlooked linkage and dialog between the business and technical worlds and offers actionable strategies.   The book contains eye-opening security insights that are easily understood, even by the curious layman." Fred Wettling, Bechtel Fellow, IS&T Ethics & Compliance Officer, Bechtel "As disruptive technology innovations and escalating cyber threats continue to create enormous information security challenges, Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable provides a much-needed perspective. This book compels information security professionals to think differently about concepts of risk management in order to be more effective. The specific and practical guidance offers a fast-track formula for developing information security strategies which are lock-step with business priorities." Laura Robinson, Principal, Robinson Insight Chair, Security for Business Innovation Council (SBIC) Program Director, Executive Security Action Forum (ESAF) "The mandate of the information security function is being completely rewritten. Unfortunately most heads of security haven’t picked up on the change, impeding their companies’ agility and ability to innovate. This book makes the case for why security needs to change, and shows how to get started. It will be regarded as marking the turning point in information security for years to come." Dr. Jeremy Bergsman, Practice Manager, CEB     "The world we are responsible to protect is changing dramatically and at an accelerating pace. Technology is pervasive in virtually every aspect of our lives. Clouds, virtualization and mobile are redefining computing – and they are just the beginning of what is to come. Your security perimeter is defined by wherever your information and people happen to be. We are attacked by professional adversaries who are better funded than we will ever be. We in the information security profession must change as dramatically as the environment we protect. We need new skills and new strategies to do our jobs effectively. We literally need to change the way we think.   Written by one of the best in the business, Managing Risk and Information Security challenges traditional security theory with clear examples of the need for change. It also provides expert advice on how to dramatically increase the success of your security strategy and methods – from dealing with the misperception of risk to how to become a Z-shaped CISO.   Managing Risk and Information Security is the ultimate treatise on how to deliver effective security to the world we live in for the next 10 years. It is absolute must reading for anyone in our profession – and should be on the desk of every CISO in the world."   Dave Cullinane, CISSP CEO Security Starfish, LLC "In this overview, Malcolm Harkins delivers an insightful survey of the trends, threats, and tactics shaping information risk and security. From regulatory compliance to psychology to the changing threat context, this work provides a compelling introduction to an important topic and trains helpful attention on the effects of changing technology and management practices." Dr. Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar Professor, Stanford Law School Co-Director, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University     "Malcolm Harkins gets it. In his new book Malcolm outlines the major forces changing the information security risk landscape from a big picture perspective, and then goes on to offer effective methods of managing that risk from a practitioner's viewpoint. The combination makes this book unique and a must read for anyone interested in IT risk." Dennis Devlin AVP, Information Security and Compliance, The George Washington University    "Managing Risk and Information Security is the first-to-read, must-read book on information security for C-Suite executives.  It is accessible, understandable and actionable. No sky-is-falling scare tactics, no techno-babble – just straight talk about a critically important subject. There is no better primer on the economics, ergonomics and psycho-behaviourals of security than this." Thornton May, Futurist, Executive Director & Dean, IT Leadership Academy     "Managing Risk and Information Security is a wake-up call for information security executives and a ray of light for business leaders.  It equips organizations with the knowledge required to transform their security programs from a "culture of no" to one focused on agility, value and competitiveness. Unlike other publications, Malcolm provides clear and immediately applicable solutions to optimally balance the frequently opposing needs of risk reduction and business growth. This book should be required reading for anyone currently serving in, or seeking to achieve, the role of Chief Information Security Officer." Jamil Farshchi, Senior Business Leader of Strategic Planning and Initiatives, VISA     "For too many years, business and security – either real or imagined – were at odds. In Managing Risk and Information Security: Protect to Enable, you get what you expect – real life practical ways to break logjams, have security actually enable business, and marries security architecture and business architecture. Why this book?  It's written by a practitioner, and not just any practitioner, one of the leading minds in Security today." John Stewart, Chief Security Officer, Cisco     "This book is an invaluable guide to help security professionals address risk in new ways in this alarmingly fast changing environment. Packed with examples which makes it a pleasure to read, the book captures practical ways a forward thinking CISO can turn information security into a competitive advantage for their business.    This book provides a new framework for managing risk in an entertaining and thought provoking way. This will change the way security professionals work with their business leaders, and help get products to market faster.   The 6 irrefutable laws of information security should be on a stone plaque on the desk of every security professional." Steven Proctor, VP, Audit & Risk Management, Flextronics

Description / Table of Contents: The continuing rapid growth and development of China’s cities brings many complex challenges. Tasked with supporting strong economic development that provides jobs and a good quality of life for its growing number of residents, China’s cities also must ensure sustainable development in line with national efforts to transition to a less carbon-intensive economy, as outlined in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China summarizes, through the specific lens of low-carbon development, the lessons of the World Bank’s activities related to sustainable urban development in China. The various chapters present overall approaches and achievements in low-carbon city developments and highlight specific experiences across all urban sectors, including energy, transport, solid waste, water, and waste water. The book also explores cities’ role in climate adaptation and opportunities presented by carbon finance and other global mechanisms to finance low-carbon city development. The World Bank project data and experience combined with the national and international experience presented in this edited book deliver both a broad picture and actionable steps for China’s urban development. The chapters argue that China’s cities not only need to, but also have an opportunity and the ability to integrate sustainable low-carbon development in their urban development. Low-carbon efforts align closely with the sustainable urbanization agenda and the book points to multiple benefits, such as improved air quality and urban livability, that can be derived from implementing this urgent agenda. The intended audience of this edited book is government officials of municipalities, cities, and townships in China who will be defining policies and programs to achieve the targets of economic growth and carbon emission reductions emerging from the 12th Five-Year Plan. The lessons presented may also be of interest to other countries and development partners supporting low-carbon urban programs.

Description / Table of Contents: Urban flooding is a significant challenge which today increasingly confronts the residents of the expanding cities and towns of developing countries, as well as policymakers and national, regional and local government officials. The Global Handbook presents the state-of-the art in urban flood risk management in a thorough and user-friendly way. It serves as a primer in integrated urban flood risk management for technical specialists, decision-makers and other concerned stakeholders in the private and community sectors. It covers the causes, probability and impacts of floods; the measures that can be used to manage flood risk, balancing structural and non-structural solutions in an integrated fashion; and the means by which these measures can be financed and implemented, and their progress monitored and evaluated. The Handbook provides an operational guide on how most effectively to manage the risk of floods in rapidly urbanizing settings – and within the context of a changing climate.

Description / Table of Contents: Urban flooding is a significant challenge which today increasingly confronts the residents of the expanding cities and towns of developing countries, as well as policymakers and national, regional and local government officials. The Global Handbook presents the state-of-the art in urban flood risk management in a thorough and user-friendly way. It serves as a primer in integrated urban flood risk management for technical specialists, decision-makers and other concerned stakeholders in the private and community sectors. It covers the causes, probability and impacts of floods; the measures that can be used to manage flood risk, balancing structural and non-structural solutions in an integrated fashion; and the means by which these measures can be financed and implemented, and their progress monitored and evaluated.The Handbook provides an operational guide on how most effectively to manage the risk of floods in rapidly urbanizing settings – and within the context of a changing climate.

Description / Table of Contents: The continuing rapid growth and development of China’s cities brings many complex challenges. Tasked with supporting strong economic development that provides jobs and a good quality of life for its growing number of residents, China’s cities also must ensure sustainable development in line with national efforts to transition to a less carbon-intensive economy, as outlined in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China summarizes, through the specific lens of low-carbon development, the lessons of the World Bank’s activities related to sustainable urban development in China. The various chapters present overall approaches and achievements in low-carbon city developments and highlight specific experiences across all urban sectors, including energy, transport, solid waste, water, and waste water. The book also explores cities’ role in climate adaptation and opportunities presented by carbon finance and other global mechanisms to finance low-carbon city development. The World Bank project data and experience combined with the national and international experience presented in this edited book deliver both a broad picture and actionable steps for China’s urban development. The chapters argue that China’s cities not only need to, but also have an opportunity and the ability to integrate sustainable low-carbon development in their urban development. Low-carbon efforts align closely with the sustainable urbanization agenda and the book points to multiple benefits, such as improved air quality and urban livability, that can be derived from implementing this urgent agenda. The intended audience of this edited book is government officials of municipalities, cities, and townships in China who will be defining policies and programs to achieve the targets of economic growth and carbon emission reductions emerging from the 12th Five-Year Plan. The lessons presented may also be of interest to other countries and development partners supporting low-carbon urban programs.

Description / Table of Contents: This study on Poland is part of the World Bank's series of low-carbon growth studies. It poses the question of how Poland, an EU member state, an industrialized 'Annex I' country for the purposes of international climate discussions,1 and an OECD member, can transition to a low emissions economy as successfully as it underwent transition to a market economy in the early 1990s. With a broad consensus that global coordinated action is needed to prevent dangerous climate change estimated to cost about 1 percent of global GDP) and with EU policies on climate change already in place, Poland faces immediate policy challenges. Could the country commit to more ambitious overall greenhouse gas mitigation targets for the longer term - to 2030 and beyond? What technological options are available, and how expensive are they compared with existing technologies? Would there be high costs in lost growth and employment? Over a shorter horizon, to 2020, what are the implications for Poland of implementing EU policies on climate change? The report addresses these questions while advancing the approach of the Bank's low carbon studies by integrating 'bottom-up' engineering analysis with 'top-down' economy-wide modeling.

Description / Table of Contents: This Study explores arguments about the impact of climate change on human rights, examining the international legal frameworks governing human rights and climate change and identifying the relevant synergies and tensions between them. It considers arguments about (i) the human rights impacts of climate change at a macro level and how these impacts are spread disparately across countries; (ii) how climate change impacts human rights enjoyment within states and the equity and discrimination dimensions of those disparate impacts; and (iii) the role of international legal frameworks and mechanisms, including human rights instruments, particularly in the context of supporting developing countries’ adaptation efforts. The Study surveys the interface of human rights and climate change from the perspective of public international law. It builds upon the work that has been carried out on this interface by reviewing the legal issues it raises and complementing existing analyses by providing a comprehensive legal overview of the area and a focus on obligations upon States and other actors connected with climate change. The objective has therefore been to contribute to the global debate on climate change and human rights by offering a review of the legal dimensions of this interface as well as a survey of the sources of public international law potentially relevant to climate change and human rights in order to facilitate an understanding of what is meant, in legal terms, by 'human rights impacts of climate change' and help identify ways in which international law can respond to this interaction. This is a complex and dynamically evolving legal and policy landscape and this study aims to capture its most salient features insofar as they appear at present.

Description / Table of Contents: While the energy sector is a primary target of efforts to arrest and reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and lower the carbon footprint of development, it is also expected to be increasingly affected by unavoidable climate consequences from the damage already induced in the biosphere. Energy services and resources, as well as seasonal demand, will be increasingly affected by changing trends, increasing variability, greater extremes and large inter-annual variations in climate parameters in some regions. All evidence suggests that adaptation is not an optional add-on but an essential reckoning on par with other business risks. Existing energy infrastructure, new infrastructure and future planning need to consider emerging climate conditions and impacts on design, construction, operation, and maintenance. Integrated risk-based planning processes will be critical to address the climate change impacts and harmonize actions within and across sectors. Also, awareness, knowledge, and capacity impede mainstreaming of climate adaptation into the energy sector. However, the formal knowledge base is still nascent—information needs are complex and to a certain extent regionally and sector specific. This report provides an up-to-date compendium of what is known about weather variability and projected climate trends and their impacts on energy service provision and demand. It discusses emerging practices and tools for managing these impacts and integrating climate considerations into planning processes and operational practices in an environment of uncertainty. It focuses on energy sector adaptation, rather than mitigation which is not discussed in this report. This report draws largely on available scientific and peer-reviewed literature in the public domain and takes the perspective of the developing world to the extent possible.

Description / Table of Contents: Climate change is beginning to have effects on climate, weather and resource availability in ways that need to be anticipated when planning for the future. In particular, changes in rainfall patterns and temperature may impact the intensity or schedule of water availability. Also the retreat of tropical glaciers, the drying of unique Andean wetland ecosystems, as well as increased weather variability and weather extremes will affect water regulation. These changes have the potential to impact the energy and other sectors, such as agriculture, and could have broader economic effects. Anticipating the impacts of climate change is a new frontier. There are few examples of predictions of the impact of climate change on resource availability and even fewer examples of the applications of such predictions to planning for sustainable economic development. However, having access to an effective methodology would allow planners and policy makers to better plan for adaptation measures to address the consequences of climate change on the power and water sectors. This report presents a summary of the efforts to develop methodological tools for the assessment of climate impacts on surface hydrology in the Peruvian Andes. It is targeted to decision makers in Peru and in other countries to give them guidance on how to choose available and suitable tools and make an assessment of climate impacts on water regulation.

Description / Table of Contents: This book provides the latest knowledge and practice in responding to the challenge of climate change in cities. Case studies focus on topics such as New Orleans in the context of a fragile environment, a framework to include poverty in the cities and climate change discussion, and measuring the impact of GHG emissions.

Description / Table of Contents: This report synthesizes knowledge about the effects of natural hazards on human welfare, particularly in its economic aspects. It is a remarkable combination of case studies, data on many scales, and the application of economic principles to the problems posed by earthquakes, abnormal weather, and the like. It provides a deep understanding of the relative roles of the market, government intervention, and social institutions in determining and improving both the prevention and the response to hazardous occurrences. The report looks at disasters primarily through an economic lens. Economists emphasize self-interest to explain how people choose the amount of prevention, insurance, and coping. But lenses can distort as well as sharpen images, so the report also draws from other disciplines: psychology to examine how people may misperceive risks, political science to understand voting patterns, and nutrition science to see how stunting in children after a disaster impairs cognitive abilities and productivity as adults much later. Peering into the future, the report shows that growing cities will increase exposure to hazards, but that vulnerability will not rise if cities are better managed. The intensities and frequencies of hazards in the coming decades will change with the climate, and the report examines this complicated and contentious subject, acknowledging all the limitations of data and science.

Description / Table of Contents: The global financial crisis of 2008–09 did not just change the global economic order. It also changed the way we think about that order. Principles and practices that were once accepted wisdom are now in doubt or discredited. New, fundamental questions opened. And the search for answers has barely begun. For the developing world, that conceptual uncertainty is particularly uncomfortable—through a mix of good policies and good luck, they had begun to achieve real progress. Will all that now be derailed? What does the new horizon bring to them? Can they find new policy ideas that will turn the shock of the crisis into a final run toward "developed" status? How does the future look when seen from various geographic regions? Those are the kind of questions that we asked, in the summer of 2010, to some 40 development professionals working at the World Bank. This book is an unfiltered collection of their views. As seasoned practitioners in the leading development institution, they have a unique perspective from which to visualize, we would dare say "to sense", what may be coming. Some of them look at the big picture of the role that the developing world is about to play, and how it will play it. Others walk us through the conceptual links around specific issues that will affect that world—say, the likely evolution of macro-financial regulation. And others take us to continents and countries, teach us about their realities, and tell us how things will differ in the coming years. Put together, they paint a picture of reasoned optimism.

Description / Table of Contents: Climate change is arguably the most profound challenge facing the international community in the 21st century. It is as much a challenge for poverty reduction, growth, and development as it is a global environmental issue. Climate change could undermine or reverse progress in reducing poverty and attaining the Millennium Development Goals, thereby unraveling many of the development gains of recent decades. It already threatens the livelihoods, health, and well-being of millions of people worldwide, particularly the poorest, most vulnerable groups. This book focuses attention on these previously neglected and poorly understood social dimensions of climate change. It highlights equity and vulnerability as central organizing themes and illustrates the multiple ways that pro-poor climate policy and action should be integrated into existing approaches to poverty reduction and development—from the local to the global levels. This integration is needed both in terms of pro-poor approaches to climate change adaptation and in terms of better managing the social risks and potential benefits associated with measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Description / Table of Contents: Global warming and changes in climate will have severe and lasting impacts on national efforts to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development. Some of the world s poorest countries and communities are the most vulnerable and are already suffering the consequences. Yet often these countries are rich in natural capital, ecosystems, and biodiversity that can contribute to solutions as they can to climate change. Biodiversity is the foundation and mainstay of agriculture, forests, and fisheries. Biological resources provide the raw materials for livelihoods, agriculture, medicines, trade, tourism, and industry. Forests, grasslands, freshwater, and marine and other natural ecosystems provide a range of services, often not recognized in national economic accounts but vital to human welfare: regulating water flows and water quality, flood control, pollination, decontamination, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, and nutrient and hydrological cycling. Current efforts to address climate change focus mainly on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly through cleaner energy strategies, and on attempting to reduce vulnerability of the communities at risk by improving infrastructure to meet new energy and water needs. This book book sets out a compelling argument for including ecosystem-based approaches to mitigation and adaptation as a third essential pillar in national strategies to address climate change. Such ecosystem-based strategies can offer cost-effective, proven and sustainable solutions contributing to, and complementing, other national and regional adaptation strategies.

Description / Table of Contents: How much is a cleaner environment worth? For policy makers, that question goes largely unanswered. It's not that the environment is seen as unimportant. It's simply much easier to compare the costs and benefits of tangible projects such as airports and electrical grids, than it is to weigh the merits of a landfill cleanup. Over the past decades, the World Bank has undertaken a systematic effort to put a monetary value on environmental degradation, which results sparked policy changes. This book brings together the best case studies of the Cost of Environmental Degradation undertaken in the Middle East and North Africa region and summarizes the major policy impacts at the national and regional levels. The case studies evaluate in monetary terms the annual damages caused by economic activities to natural resources and environment – water, forests, agricultural land, air quality, waste and coastal zone – and reflects the estimates as percentages of the countries’ gross domestic product. It then captures the estimated values in a holistic picture and illuminates their concrete implications on policy, investments, and institutions for the selected countries and for the region as a whole. In addition to being a multi-nation effort, the book stands out by applying updated methods and techniques to estimate natural resource damages both in times of peace and of conflict. This is particularly relevant for the Middle East and North Africa, a region located at the crossroads of different cultures, continents, and religions. This book is primarily targeted at policy makers at the regional, national and local levels and to decision makers in government agencies, NGOs, and natural resource development institutions. It is suitable for use in training courses of decision makers working in environment, forests and water related fields. The book should also be of interest to advanced undergraduates, master’s level students and undergraduates.

Description / Table of Contents: Governments often pursue a variety of economic, social and political objectives through their allocation policies that go beyond the maximization of the net present value of the economic rent. The optimal allocation policy depends on a range of country specific and exogenous factors. Despite the variety of factors influencing optimal design, most countries use similar solutions. In particular, when auctions or administrative procedures are used, most governments opt for simple simultaneous multi-object sealed-bid rounds. While this may appear to be paradoxical, there is a practical explanation. It is true that more complex bidding forms might increase rent capture at bidding. However, the potential marginal gain is often limited, owing to most E&P projects’ high level of uncertainty and risk. In addition market mechanisms, such as joint bidding and secondary markets, and the fiscal regime are widely used in the petroleum sector to correct inefficiency at the time of allocation.

Description / Table of Contents: Energy is intrinsic to urban settlements, embedded in the built environment, and directly used to power socio-economic activity, transport and communications, and enable the provision of municipal services. In response to the crucial role of urban energy efficiency for environmentally sustainable and inclusive development processes, ESMAP’s Energy Efficient Cities Initiative (EECI) was launched in October 2008 to facilitate the implementation of practical energy solutions that meet the development priorities of cities, and simultaneously build their climate resilience. Chapter 1 begins with a contextual background on the inter-related associations between energy, socio-economic progress and urbanization. This edited volume compiles seven topical papers presented at the two EECI sponsored sessions during the World Bank’s fifth Urban Research Symposium, held at Marseille, France, June 28-30, 2009. Chapters 2–8 comprise the papers presented at these sessions: i) tools and assessment approaches on energy efficient urban development, and ii) good practices that promote low carbon sectoral interventions. The analytical tools and policy insights offered in this volume extend from integrated assessments of new cities to the impacts of socio-economic, climate and demographic changes on existing cities. Sector-specific interventions are discussed in the context of tools to ‘green’ buildings in Australia, the transformation to efficient lighting systems in the Philippines, and Demand Responsive Transport Systems in France. In addition, the documentation and benchmarking of a variety of low-carbon and carbon neutral good practices provides a range of practical insights on plausible energy efficient interventions in urban sectors. Thus the chapters in this publication comprise significant contributions to the ESMAP objective of mainstreaming and leveraging knowledge and initiatives on urban energy efficiency. Following from them, the last chapter 9 provides a contextual overview of ESMAP’s programmatic priorities to support energy efficient urban growth, to be effected through EECI.

Description / Table of Contents: This study from the Independent Evaluation Group draws lessons for development and climate change mitigation from the World Bank Group’s far-reaching portfolio of projects in energy, forestry, transport, coal power, and technology transfer. Reviewing what has worked, what hasn’t, and why, the evaluation’s key findings include: Energy efficiency can offer countries direct economic returns that dwarf those of most other development projects, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Tropical forest protected areas, on average, significantly reduce tropical deforestation, preserving carbon and biodiversity. Deforestation rates are lower in areas that allowed sustainable use by local populations than in strictly protected areas. Deforestation rates were lowest of all in indigenous forest areas. For renewable energy projects, long-duration loans have been important in making projects financially viable.. But at prevailing carbon prices, carbon offset sales had little impact on most renewable energy projects’ rate of returns, and did not address investors’ need for up-front capital. Technology transfer – broadly understood to include diffusion of technical and financial innovations related to low-carbon development – has worked well when the logic of piloting and demonstration is well thought out, and when grants are used to mitigate the risk of pioneering efforts.

Description / Table of Contents: Governments and civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean should be well informed about the potential costs and benefits of combating climate change, their policy options over the next decades, and the global context for these policy decisions. At the same time, the global community needs to be better informed about the unique perspective of the Latin American and Caribbean region: problems the region will face, its potential contributions toward combating global warming, and how to maximize this potential while continuing to maintain growth and reduce poverty. This book, a companion volume to Low Carbon, High Growth: Latin American Responses to Climate Change, seeks to help fill both these needs.

Description / Table of Contents: There is an increasing consensus in the scientific community that climate change is a real and present threat. Despite the large uncertainty on the timing, magnitude and even the direction of some of the physical and economic effects of this phenomenon, it is widely accepted that these effects will be regionally differentiated and that developing countries and lower income populations will tend to suffer the most. In this context, it is critical that Latin American and Caribbean countries develop their own strategies for adapting to the various impacts of climate change and for contributing to global efforts aimed at mitigation.\'Low Carbon, High Growth\' contributes to these efforts by addressing a number of questions related to the causes and consequences of climate change in Latin America. What are the likely impacts of climate change in the region? Which countries and regions will be most affected? What can governments do to tackle the challenges associated with adapting to climate change? What role can Latin America and the Caribbean play in the area of climate change mitigation? How can the international community best help the region respond? While the study does not attempt to provide definitive answers to these questions, its goal is to contribute new information and analysis to help inform the public policy debate on this important issue.

Description / Table of Contents: The Eco2 Cities approach is a point of departure for cities that would like to reap the many benefits of ecological and economic sustainability. It provides an analytical and operational framework that offers strategic guidance to cities on sustainable and integrated urban development. At the same time case studies are used throughout the book to provide a matter-of-fact and ground-level perspective. The Eco2 framework is flexible and easily customized to the context of each country or city. Based on the particular circumstances and the development priorities of a city - the application of the framework can contribute to the development of a unique action plan or roadmap in each case. This action plan can be triggered through catalyst projects.To support this framework, the book also begins to introduce some powerful and practical methods and tools that can further enable sustainable and integrated city planning and decision making. These include 1) operational and process methods that can strengthen collaborative decision making and cross-sector synergies in a city; 2) analytical methods ranging from diagnostics, simulation, design and scenario-generation; and 3) accounting and benchmarking methods which can help clarify, define and measure what it means to truly invest in sustainability and resilience.As additional reference reading, the book also features a series of case studies from best practice cities around the world, each demonstrating a very different dimension of the Eco2 approach. It also features a series of infrastructure sector notes (on spatial development, transport, energy, water and waste management), each of which explore sector specific issues as they pertain to urban development, and the many opportunities for coordination and integration across sectors.

Description / Table of Contents: The Berlin Workshop Series 2010 presents selected papers from meetings held September 28-30, 2008, at the eleventh annual forum co-hosted by InWEnt and the World Bank in preparation for the Bank's annual World Development Report. At the 2008 meetings, key researchers and policy makers from Europe, the United States, and developing countries met to explore the problems that climate governance poses for development, which are later examined in depth in the World Development Report 2010. This volume presents papers from the Berlin workshop sessions on climate governance and development, covering climate change as a development priority; policies and technologies for energy and development; natural resource governance for adaptation, mitigation, and development; non-state actors and climate governance; financing adaptation and mitigation in an unequal world; and changing institutions of governance for climate change.

Description / Table of Contents: Disaster impacts are increasing in severity. Annual direct losses for weather-related events have increased from $3.9 million in the 1950s to $63 million in the 1990s. Moreover, a number of ongoing trends have the potential to cause even more severe and broader disaster impacts than ever before. These include increased environmental degradation, the impacts of climate change, population growth in cities, and globalization. In developing countries, disasters can cause major setbacks to economic and social development, inflict massive casualties, and cause the diversion of funds from development to emergency relief and recovery. By applying innovative approaches to disaster risk reduction and by empowering people through effective disaster reduction strategies, communities and government will be more resilient when disaster strikes and better able to protect their lives, homes, livelihoods and assets.