scholarly journals Testing Platforms as Drivers for Positive-Energy Living Laboratories

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 5621
Author(s):  
Silvia Soutullo ◽  
Laura Aelenei ◽  
Per Sieverts Nielsen ◽  
Jose Antonio Ferrer ◽  
Helder Gonçalves

The development of city-driven urban laboratories was considered a priority by the European Commission through Action 3.2 of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan. In this context, positive-energy districts laboratories could take the role of urban drivers toward innovation and sustainability in cities. These urban labs can provide real-life facilities with innovative co-creation processes and, at the same time, provide testing, experimenting, and prototyping of innovative technologies. In this scope, the authors of this work want to share the very first results of an empirical study using the testing facilities provided by the members of the Joint Program on Smart Cities of the European Energy Research Alliance as positive-energy districts laboratories. Six climatic regions are studied as boundary conditions, covering temperate and continental climates. Four scales of action are analyzed: Building, campus, urban, and virtual, with building and campus scales being the most frequent. Most of these laboratories focus on energy applications followed by networks, storage systems, and energy loads characterization. Many of these laboratories are regulated by ICT technologies but few of them consider social aspects, lighting, waste, and water systems. A SWOT analysis is performed to highlight the critical points of the testing facilities in order to replicate optimized configurations under other conditions. This statistical study provides guidelines on integration, localization, functionality, and technology modularity aspects. The use of these guidelines will ensure optimal replications, as well as identify possibilities and opportunities to share testing facilities of/between the positive-energy district laboratories.

Author(s):  
Andrea Boeri ◽  
Saveria Olga Murielle Boulanger ◽  
Giulia Turci ◽  
Serena Pagliula

The Green Deal places at the centre of its policies the need to act in order to achieve climate neutrality goals by 2050. In this context, the role of cities and, in particular, of already existing buildings is relevant. Although they are responsible for 40% of energy consumption, only 1% are involved in major restructuring processes. In the context of smart city strategies and to improve their performances, Europe proposes various approaches such as Positive Energy Districts and Industry 4.0. This paper analyses case studies and innovative European projects with the aim of identifying the most relevant strategic actions. Eventually, it presents a real case in the city of Bologna as a basepoint for the reflection proposed.


Author(s):  
Luisella Balbis

: Starting from the early 2000s, the concept of Smart City emerged as a new paradigm for urban development, driven by the exponential progress in communication and information technology as well as by the needs of a constant growing population. The Smart City context requires flexible infrastructures and processes, capable of reacting proactively depending on the situation. In this paper, we seek to explore the role of model-based predictive control (MPC) in the development of Smart Cities. The applications of MPC in different scenarios proves that this optimal control strategy is well suited for the dynamic environment in which it operates. Nevertheless, the literature review reveals that real life implementation of MPC as a control strategy within urban setting is still limited and further work is needed to facilitate its adoption in a wider context.


Author(s):  
Mehmet Vahit Eren ◽  
Erdinç Tutar ◽  
Filiz Tutar ◽  
Çisil Erkan

In order to avoid social inequality of opportunity and improvement of local economies have become government policies in Turkey, as it is in other countries around the world. Incentives, regional development agencies, techno parks and also local entrepreneurs play crucial role in the improvement process of local economies. The increasing rivalry and globalization concept necessitate entrepreneurs to take more risks, to reach innovations to seize opportunities in optimum level. Entrepreneurship is a motor vessel in financial growth and in development, and entrepreneurship is also the source of innovation and creativity. In this regard, the more entrepreneurship develops in a country, the higher level of welfare possesses the chance to advance. The purpose of this report, in which it has been aimed to reveal vital role of entrepreneurship in the progress of local economies, is emphasizing the status of entrepreneurship that transformed Gaziantep’s socio-economic level of development into its present position. Thus with this aim a SWOT analysis, in terms of Gaziantep’s economic entrepreneurship has been carried out. Positive contributions of Gaziantep’s immensely developed industry, facilitation of local innovative entrepreneurs’ involvement in various local economic sectors and in accordance channeling immigration into deployment in local economy have been observed in this study. Significantly it has been observed that plenitude of “opportunist entrepreneurship” or in other words “the entrepreneurs with strategic growth plans” in this region contributed local economy positively.


Solar Energy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 258-274
Author(s):  
C. Zomer ◽  
I. Custódio ◽  
S. Goulart ◽  
S. Mantelli ◽  
G. Martins ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S356) ◽  
pp. 170-170
Author(s):  
Jari Kotilainen

AbstractWe present first results from our study of the host galaxies and environments of quasars in Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA), a multiwavelength photometric and spectroscopic survey for ∼300,000 galaxies over ∼300 deg2, to a limiting magnitude of r ∼ 20 mag. We use a GAIA-selected sample of ∼350 quasars at z < 0.3 in GAMA. For all the quasars, we determine all surrounding GAMA galaxies and measure their star formation (SF) rate and SF history, and the host galaxy morphology and group membership of the quasars. As a comparison sample of inactive galaxies, we use 1000 subsets of galaxies in GAMA, matched in redshift and galaxy stellar mass to the quasars. We find that quasar activity does not depend on the large-scale environment (cluster/group/void), although quasars tend to prefer satellite location in their environment. Compared to inactive galaxies, quasars are preferentially hosted in bulge-dominated galaxies and have higher SF rates, both overall and averaged over the last 10 and 100 Myr. Quasars also have shorter median SF timescales, shorter median time since the last SF burst, and higher metallicity than inactive galaxies. We discuss these results in terms of triggering mechanisms of the quasar activity and the role of quasars in galaxy evolution.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Vasso Apostolopoulos ◽  
Joanna Bojarska ◽  
Tsun-Thai Chai ◽  
Sherif Elnagdy ◽  
Krzysztof Kaczmarek ◽  
...  

Peptides are fragments of proteins that carry out biological functions. They act as signaling entities via all domains of life and interfere with protein-protein interactions, which are indispensable in bio-processes. Short peptides include fundamental molecular information for a prelude to the symphony of life. They have aroused considerable interest due to their unique features and great promise in innovative bio-therapies. This work focusing on the current state-of-the-art short peptide-based therapeutical developments is the first global review written by researchers from all continents, as a celebration of 100 years of peptide therapeutics since the commencement of insulin therapy in the 1920s. Peptide “drugs” initially played only the role of hormone analogs to balance disorders. Nowadays, they achieve numerous biomedical tasks, can cross membranes, or reach intracellular targets. The role of peptides in bio-processes can hardly be mimicked by other chemical substances. The article is divided into independent sections, which are related to either the progress in short peptide-based theranostics or the problems posing challenge to bio-medicine. In particular, the SWOT analysis of short peptides, their relevance in therapies of diverse diseases, improvements in (bio)synthesis platforms, advanced nano-supramolecular technologies, aptamers, altered peptide ligands and in silico methodologies to overcome peptide limitations, modern smart bio-functional materials, vaccines, and drug/gene-targeted delivery systems are discussed.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (14) ◽  
pp. 1679
Author(s):  
Jacopo Giacomelli ◽  
Luca Passalacqua

The CreditRisk+ model is one of the industry standards for the valuation of default risk in credit loans portfolios. The calibration of CreditRisk+ requires, inter alia, the specification of the parameters describing the structure of dependence among default events. This work addresses the calibration of these parameters. In particular, we study the dependence of the calibration procedure on the sampling period of the default rate time series, that might be different from the time horizon onto which the model is used for forecasting, as it is often the case in real life applications. The case of autocorrelated time series and the role of the statistical error as a function of the time series period are also discussed. The findings of the proposed calibration technique are illustrated with the support of an application to real data.


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