Follow the Grass: a Smart Material Interactive Pervasive Display

Smart materials offer new possibilities for creating engaging and interesting forms of interaction and ways of displaying information in a material way. In this paper we describe Follow the Grass, a concept of an interactive pervasive display for public spaces. The display will be built up out of a number of blades of grass that are actuated in eight directions using nitinol muscle wires (i.e. a shape-memory alloy). A Microsoft Kinect-based tracking system is employed to detect users’ presence. Follow the Grass can be used for entertainment purposes by displaying animations through movement of the grass, as well as for indoor way-finding and ambient persuasive guidance.We present a number of scenarios with varying scales of interaction, and different applications, followed by a description of the initial hardware design of a single blade of grass and its actuated root. We will give a description of the tracking system, and how it tracks users and is capable of identifying individuals. Finally we will provide suggestions for the further development

Digital Platforms for Renewable Energy Communities Projects: An Overview

The European Union energy policy agenda of achieving the transition to carbon neutrality has been established by an important legislative package called "Clean Energy for all Europeans". A novel approach introduced was to put the citizen at the center of the energy transition. On one side, by powering his freedom of action and, on the other side, by asking him an exceptional engagement in energy consumption reduction activities and in participating in the investments for new distributed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) power plants. The Renewable Energy Communities (REC) is the policy framework used to implement this strategy introduced by the Renewable Energy Directive Recast (RED II). In particular, RECs promote citizen’s active role by encouraging energy consumption reduction and energy demand flexibility while reducing the Not In My Bachyard (NIMBY) effect towards RES. Each member state is transposing the RED II directive, adapting it to national legislation and energy transition strategy. Pioneers countries like Italy have already started the experimentation of this framework and developing the first pilot projects. The citizens’ interest and their will to participate in REC projects indicate the need for supporting tools guiding them along all the project development stages: “design”, “creation”, and “operation”. This work presents three categories of supporting digital tools and platforms required to develop REC projects: Commercial, EU Founded and Freeware. We analyzed 30 tools, evaluating the services provided in each of the different stages of REC project implementation

Senescence or ageing in wallflower petals?

Senescence is the final event in the life of many plant tissues. It is concerned with remobilisation of metabolites from the senescing organ and is distinct from other forms of cell death. It is a highly regulated process involving structural, biochemical and molecular changes. Gene expression is tightly regulated, with many genes down regulated and others induced. Conversely, ageing is a passive degradation. Petals and leaves are good model organs for developmental studies, as petal development is irreversible and tightly controlled, and leaves are an extensively studied senescent system. Similarities between these organs allow direct comparison of late developmental events to establish whether petals senesce, as leaves do, or age however, important differences in function lead to the hypothesis that petal deterioration and leaf senescence are distinct. Wallflowers were chosen as they are closely related to Arabidopsis and Brassica spp., have large petals, and are commercially relevant ornamental plants. Changes in wallflower morphology and physiology were examined over development. A high degree of gene homology was shown between wallflowers and Arabidopsis by northern blotting. 1632 genes upregulated in old wallflower tissues were cloned using subtractive selective hybridisation and a microarray of these genes, along with 91 Arabidopsis senescence associated genes, was constructed. Probing the microarray with RNA from different leaf and petal developmental stages identified 298 common genes significantly upregulated during both leaf senescence and late petal development, and expression patterns were compared between the two tissues. The expression patterns of selected genes were confirmed by RT-PCR. Late development in petals was shown to be an active process, and was tentatively concluded to be senescence due to upregulation of genes involved with nutrient remobilisation and the strong upregulation of the SAG 12 gene---a molecular marker for leaf senescence that is not upregulated during other forms of death in leaves.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Green synthetic fuels: Renewable routes for the conversion of non-fossil feedstocks into gaseous fuels and their end uses

Innovative renewable routes are potentially able to sustain the transition to a decarbonized energy economy. Green synthetic fuels, including hydrogen and natural gas, are considered viable alternatives to fossil fuels. Indeed, they play a fundamental role in those sectors that are di cult to electrify (e.g., road mobility or high-heat industrial processes), are capable of mitigating problems related to flexibility and instantaneous balance of the electric grid, are suitable for large-size and long-term storage and can be transported through the gas network. This article is an overview of the overall supply chain, including production, transport, storage and end uses. Available fuel conversion technologies use renewable energy for the catalytic conversion of non-fossil feedstocks into hydrogen and syngas. We will show how relevant technologies involve thermochemical, electrochemical and photochemical processes. The syngas quality can be improved by catalytic CO and CO2 methanation reactions for the generation of synthetic natural gas. Finally, the produced gaseous fuels could follow several pathways for transport and lead to different final uses. Therefore, storage alternatives and gas interchangeability requirements for the safe injection of green fuels in the natural gas network and fuel cells are outlined. Nevertheless, the effects of gas quality on combustion emissions and safety are considered

EXPO-AGRI: Smart Automatic Greenhouse Control

Predicting and controlling plant behavior in con- trolled environments is a growing requirement in precision agri- culture. In this context sensor networks and artificial intelligence methods represent key aspects for optimizing the processes of data acquisition, mathematical modeling and decision making. In this paper we present a general architecture for automatic greenhouse control. In particular, we focus on a preliminary model for predicting the risk of new infections of downy mildew of basil (Peronospora belbahrii) on sweet basil. The architecture has three main elements of innovation: new kinds of sensors are used to extract information about the state of the plants, model predictors are generated from this information by non-trivial processing methods, and informative predictors are automatically selected using regularization techniques

Techno-economic comparison of buildings acting as Single-Self Consumers or as energy community through multiple economic scenarios

The European Union has set ambitious targets to move towards a society with high penetration of renewable energy sources. In the forthcoming energy transition, Energy Communities (EC), i.e., legal entities where different actors, including citizens, cooperate in energy generation, storage and management, will play a crucial role. The present work simulates the energy flows and assesses the potential economic benefits of a cluster of buildings acting collectively as an energy community – a specific case study is set in northern Italy by comparing the EC performance with a configuration where customers act as Single Self-Consumers (SSCs). Pending the transposition of EU Directives to binding national laws, due by 2021, different supporting tariffs (economic scenarios) have been simulated in order to determine which scheme will support more effectively the integration of Energy Communities in the national energy market. Results show that ECs (i.e., customers acting collectively as energy prosumers) are able to accelerate the diffusion of building-integrated renewable energy sources (RES), resulting in higher overall self-consumption rates than SSCs. Self-consumed electricity generates savings on the energy bill of EC, and we calculated positive economic performance indicators for all the analysed economic scenarios. The sensitivity analysis carried out on system and transport charges of the electricity bill shows their remarkable impact on the economics making the EC less attractive for investors and citizens without proper supporting schemes

Selected microbial strains suppress <em>Phytophthora cryptogena</em> in gerbera crops produced in open and closed soilless systems

Several micro-organisms (Fusarium spp., Trichoderma spp., Oomycetes and bacteria) were isolated from the rhizosphere of gerbera plants grown in an open soilless system. Their capacity to suppress root rot caused by Phytophthora cryptogea was evaluated in 2000–2001 in three independent trials in open soilless systems. Different strains reduced disease incidence and/or increased flower production. The most effective strains (three of Fusarium and three of Trichoderma) were also tested in a closed soilless system in combination with slow sand filtration, in order to determine whether these two techniques together would be more effective in reducing P. cryptogea root rot. The results showed that slow sand filtration with antagonistic micro-organisms operated synergistically to significantly reduce disease incidence