UK Research Information Shared Service (UKRISS) Final Report, July 2014

The reporting of research information is a complex and expensive activity for research organisations (ROs). There is little alignment between funders of the reporting requests made to institutions and requests made to individual researchers about their research outputs and outcomes. This inevitably results in duplication and increased costs across the sector, whilst limiting the potential sharing and reuse of the information. The UK Research Information Shared Service (UKRISS) project conducted a feasibility and scoping study for the reporting of research information at a national level based on CERIF (Common European Research Information Format), with the objective of increasing efficiency, productivity and quality across the sector. The aim was to define and prototype solutions which are compelling, easy to use, have a low entry barrier, and support innovative information sharing and benchmarking. CERIF has emerged as the preferred format for expressing research information across Europe. To date, CERIF has been piloted for specific applications, but not as a format for reporting requirements across all UK ROs. The final report presents the work carried out by the UKRISS project, including requirements gathering, modelling and prototyping, as well as recommendation for sustainability. UKRISS was divided into two phases. Phase 1, mapping the reporting landscape, ran from March 2012 to December 2012. Phase 2, exploring delivery of potential solutions, began in February 2013 and ended in December 2013

Materials characterisation and software tools as key enablers in Industry 5.0 and wider acceptance of new methods and products

Recently, the NMBP-35 Horizon 2020 projects -NanoMECommons, CHARISMA, and Easi-stress -organised a collaborative workshop to increase awareness of their contributions to the industry "commons" in terms of characterisation and digital transformation. They have established interoperability standards for knowledge management in characterisation and introduced new solutions for materials testing, aided by the standardisation of faster and more accurate assessment methods. The lessons learned from these projects and the discussions during the joint workshop emphasised the impact of recent developments and emerging needs in the field of characterisation. Specifically, the focus was on enhancing data quality through harmonisation and stand-ardisation, as well as making advanced technologies and instruments accessible to a broader community with the goal of fostering increased trust in new products and a more skilled society. Experts also highlighted how characterisation and the corresponding experimental data can drive future innovation agendas towards tech-nological breakthroughs. The focus of the discussion revolved around the characterisation and standardisation processes, along with the collection of modelling and characterisation tools, as well as protocols for data ex-change. The broader context of materials characterisation and modelling within the materials community was explored, drawing insights from the Materials 2030 Roadmap and the experiences gained from NMBP-35 pro-jects. This whitepaper has the objective of addressing common challenges encountered by the materials com-munity, illuminating emerging trends and evolving techniques, and presenting the industry's perspective on emerging requirements and past success stories. It accomplishes this by providing specific examples and high-lighting how these experiences can create fresh opportunities and strategies for newcomers entering the market. These advancements are anticipated to facilitate a more efficient transition from Industry 4.0 to 5.0 during the industrial revolution

Analysis of the Use of Different Standards for Estimation of Energy Efficiency Measures in the Building Sector

An energy performance study of a building using the Montenegrin and European Standard on Energy Building Performance and the RETScreen software to compare the results from analysis for a one chosen hospital building is presented. In this study, the appropriate mathematical model of calculation is performed for the purpose of the analysis, using Excel software and algorithm which has been proposed by the above mentioned standard (the monthly method). The inspection of the current conditions of hospital building in Prizren, Kosovo is done and energy efficiency measures are proposed for improving the conditions of stay. All data are collected and gained through the inspection, and calculations are performed for existing and proposed condition of the building. The obtained results for both models are compared and show that most of the energy indicators have small differences in percentage among each other. There is a difference in carbon dioxide emission reduction between two models, due to the fact that calculations with the European standard resulted in the need of higher energy for cooling after the energy efficiency measures (14.75 MWh), and considering that the source of energy for cooling is electricity, in terms of the Carbon dioxide equivalent emission, this means 21.21 t CO2 eq., more to be emitted after the energy efficiency measures

Integrated participatory modelling of irrigated agriculture: the case study of the reorganisation of a water management system in Italy

The paper presents an application of the new version of the 'Decision Support for Irrigated agriculture' DSIrr designed to integrate water and agricultural policy analysis and to support participatory decision process. The tool is a scenario manager for bio-economic farm models considering climatic, agronomic, hydraulic, socio-economic and environmental aspects. The paper offers some insight on the decomposition approach adopted to integrate economic analysis at different scales by illustrating a case study conducted in Italy to support an ex ante evaluation of a water management system reorganisation. Reduce water consumption is a strategic objective which pricing policy cannot address given technical constraints. The replacement of the existing low-efficiency irrigation system could be the solution, but the recover of cost creates an affordability problem. Results suggest that a dual network, integrating agricultural and rural urban sectors, represents a real challenge for the Irrigation Board since this option meets the environmental goal and pass the economic sustainability test.Water, Agriculture, Economic analysis, Modelling and tools, Participatory process, Agricultural and Food Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Assessing BIM Adoption towards Reliability in QS Cost Estimates

BIM technology has been evolving around the world in recent years. As in Malaysia, the country has initiated BIM in its current Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) 2016-2020. One of the CITP agenda is to encourage BIM usage to assist the construction players in improving their current practices towards better productivity, hence better sustainability within the construction industry. In quantity surveying field, the technology potentially helps the Quantity Surveyors to accelerate the process of taking-off building quantities, subsequently establishing more reliable and sustainable cost estimates. Although BIM is claimed to upgrade the conventional methods of the measurement tasks, there are still some limitations of BIM innovation, with previous studies lacking explanation in identifying those issues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using BIM to aid Malaysian Quantity Surveyors primarily in cost estimating towards composing sustainability elements in the construction industry. To achieve this, a series of focus group discussions were conducted amongst BIM and non-BIM users. Through content analysis, it resulted that the capabilities of estimators in occupying BIM is critical to accomplish the sustainable benefits of the technology. It engages skills in both technology usage and traditional methods of measurement to achieve holistic knowledge of building construction. Thus, it enhances the performance of the estimators to likely generate reliability and sustainability in their cost estimates. This study contributes towards better understanding of cost estimating incorporating BIM and sustainability settings in quantity surveying practice

Potential control of forest diseases by solutions of chitosan oligomers, propolis and nanosilver

Producción CientíficaThere is a growing necessity to replace chemical agents with ecofriendly materials, arising from the impact on the environment and/or human health, which calls for the design of new broad-spectrum fungicides. In this work, chitosan oligomers (COs), propolis (Ps) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) mixtures in solution were assessed to control the growth of different phytopathogenic fungi and oomycetes in vitro. Binary solutions of COs-Ps and COs-AgNPs evinced the highest antifungal effect against Fusarium circinatum and Diplodia pinea fungi, respectively, with a ca. 80% reduction in their mycelial growth. The COs solution by itself also proved to be greatly effective against Gremmeniella abietina, Cryphonectria parasitica and Heterobasidion annosum fungi, causing a reduction of 78%, 86% and 93% in their growth rate, respectively. Likewise, COs also attained a 100% growth inhibition on the oomycete Phytophthora cambivora. On the other hand, Ps inhibited totally the growth of Phytophthora ×alni and Phytophthora plurivora. The application of AgNPs reduced the mycelial growth of F. circinatum and D. pinea. However, the AgNPs in some binary and ternary mixtures had a counter-productive effect on the anti-fungal/oomycete activity. In spite of the fact that the anti-fungal/oomycete activity of the different treatments showed a dependence on the particular type of microorganism, these solutions based on natural compounds can be deemed as a promising tool for control of tree diseases.European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Action FP1406 PINESTRENGTH)Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (project AGL2015-69370-R

Methodological aspects in cross-national research

Die Beiträge diese Heftes gehen zumeist auf mehrere Tagungen des Research Committee 33 (Logik und Methodologie) der International Sociological Association zurück. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Fragen der Messung sowie die Vergleichbarkeit, Reliabilität und Validität in der international vergleichenden empirischen Forschung. Die Beiträge sind vier Themengruppen zugeordnet. Im ersten Teil geht es um Design und Implementation kulturvergleichender Studien (Instrumentarium, Question Appraisal System, EU-Projekte, Fragebogenverstehen, Interpretation der Ergebnisse). Der zweite Teil ist verschiedenen Aspekten der "Äquivalenz"-Problematik gewidmet, vor allem in Bezug auf das International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) und den European Social Survey (ESS). Im dritten Teil wird die Harmonisierung soziodemographischer Information in unterschiedlichen Untersuchungen behandelt (amtliche Statistik, ESS, ISSP). Im abschließenden vierten Teil werden sozioökonomische Variablen in international vergleichender Perspektive diskutiert (Einkommen, Bildung, Beruf, Ethnizität, Religion). (ICE)"Cross-national and cross-cultural survey research has been growing apace for several decades and interest in how best to do them has possibly never been greater. At the International Sociological Association Research Committee 33 (Logic and Methodology) several sessions were dedicated to cross-cultural cross-national survey methodology and the vast majority of the papers in this volume were presented at that conference. Researchers involved in comparative research have always been worried about measurement issues, comparability, reliability and validity of their data. But the design and execution of comparative studies has changed markedly since the early cross-national projects of the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies." (excerpt). Contents: Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Janet A. Harkness: Methodological aspects in cross-national research: foreword (5-10). I. Designing and implementing cross-cultural surveys - Johnny Blair, Linda Piccinino: The development and testing of instruments for cross-cultural and multi-cultural surveys (13-30); Elizabeth Dean Rachel Caspar, Georgina McAvinchey, Leticia Reed, Rosanna Quiroz: Developing a low-cost technique for parallel cross-cultural instrument development: the Question Appraisal System (QAS-04) (31-46); Felizitas Sagebiel: Using a mixed international comparable methodological approach in a European Commission project on gender and engineering (47-64); Timothy P. Johnson, Young Ik Cho, Allyson Holbrook, Diane O'Rourke, Richard Warnecke, Noel Chávez: Cultural variability in the effects of question design features on respondent comprehension (65-78); Kristen Miller, Gordon Willis, Connie Eason, Lisa Moses, Beth Canfield: Interpreting the results of cross-cultural cognitive interviews: a mixed-method approach (79-92). II. Different issues of comparability or "equivalence" - Michael Braun, Janet A. Harkness: Text and context: challenges to comparability in survey questions (95-108); Nina Rother: Measuring attitudes towards immigration across countries with the ESS: potential problems of equivalence (109-126); Vlasta Zucha: The level of equivalence in the ISSP 1999 and its implications on further analysis (127-146). III. Harmonising socio-demographic information in different types of surveys - Thomas Körner, Iris Meyer: Harmonising socio-demographic information in household surveys of official statistics: experiences from the Federal Statistical Office Germany (149-162); Kirstine Kolsrud, Knut Kalgraff Skjak: Harmonising background variables in the European Social Survey (163-182); Evi Scholz: Harmonisation of survey data in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (183-200). IV. Socio-economic variables in cross-national perspective - Uwe Warner, Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik: Measuring income in comparative social survey research (203-222); Jürgen H.P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Uwe Warner: How to measure education in cross-national comparison: Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik/Warner-Matrix of Education as a new instrument (223-240); Harry B.G. Ganzeboom: On the cost of being crude: a comparison of detailed and coarse occupational coding in the ISSP 1987 data (241-258); Paul S. Lambert: Ethnicity and the comparative analysis of contemporary survey data (259-278); Christof Wolf: Measuring religious affiliation and religiosity in Europe (279-294)

Balancing Externalities and Industrial Costs in Air Quality Planning

When adopting regional plans aimed at improving air quality, environmental authorities are often faced with the relevant costs that the adoption of abatement measures implies. On the other hand, scientific literature has well documented damages due to air pollution impact on human health and ecosystems. This paper proposes a tool that allows balancing these two viewpoints by defining the efficient set of measures in a multi-objective perspective. Despite both external (health related) and internal (industrial/emission abatement related) costs can be measured in the same unit, namely money, it appears unacceptable to add them together as in a cost-benefit analysis, since they pertain to quite different social groups. The tool proposed in this paper can thus be seen as a support to actual decision makers and allows them to compare in a ponderable way the pros and cons of any abatement policy. This contrasts what normally happens when air quality health impacts are simply defined as the satisfaction of a constraint at few specific points in space (coincident with the presence of measurement gauges). Indeed, both population and ecosystems are distributed in a non-uniform way on a territory and thus sparse point measurements of pollutant concentrations or other related air quality indicators may be only loosely related with the real impacts of air quality. An application of the tool to a European region (Lombardy, Italy) is presented with particular reference to PM10 and Ozone pollution problems. These are particularly difficult to cope with, since these pollutants are mainly formed in the atmosphere (secondary pollutants) and thus their concentration depends on chemical physical processes involving in different way on one side the emission of precursors and, on the other, the local meteorological conditions.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Convergence of the Latest Standards Addressing Safety and Security for Information Technology

International audienceSafety and Security have always been considered separately in most industrial process. Actually, there is a growing consensus that for many applications, Safety as well as Security demands have to be observed in a coherent manner. Risk analysis to counter malicious attacks can be also reused with appropriate modification for unplanned system failure