Improving collaboration between ecosystem service communities and the IPBES science-policy platform

The end of the first working program of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provided an opportunity to draw lessons from its work. This perspective paper captures insights from ecosystem services (ES) researchers and practitioners, largely drawing from the Europeancontext (referred to herein as ‘ES community’), on this key science–policy interface. We synthesize reflections from a workshop on how (i) IPBES can engage the ES community; (ii) the ES community can engage with IPBES; and (iii) individual scientists can contribute. We note that IPBES constitutes a great advancement towards multidisciplinarity and inclusivity in ES research and practice. Key reflections for IPBES are that funding and visibility at ES research events could be improved, the contribution and selection processes could be more transparent, and communication with experts improved. Key reflections for the ES community include a need to improvepolicy-relevance by integrating more social scientists, researchers from developing countries, early-career scientists and policy-makers. Key reflections directed towards individual scientists include contributing (pro)actively to science–policy inter-face initiatives such as IPBES and increasing transdisciplinary research. These reflections intend to contribute to the awareness of challenges and opportunities for institutions, groups and individuals working on E

Dynamic heat and mass transfer model of an electric oven for energy analysis

In this paper, a new heat and mass transfer model for an electric oven and the load placed inside is presented. The developed model is based on a linear lumped parameter structure that differentiates the main components of the appliance and the load, therefore reproducing the thermal dynamics of several elements of the system including the heaters or the interior of the product. Besides, an expression to estimate the water evaporation rate of the thermal load has been developed and integrated in the model so that heat and mass transfer phenomena are made interdependent. Simulations and experiments have been carried out for different cooking methods, and the subsequent energy results, including energy and power time-dependent distributions, are presented. The very low computational needs of the model make it ideal for optimization processes involving a high number of simulations. This feature, together with the energy information also provided by the model, will permit the design of new ovens and control algorithms that may outperform the present ones in terms of energy efficiency

Human-computer interaction based on hand gestures using RGB-D sensors

In this paper we present a new method for hand gesture recognition based on an RGB-D sensor. The proposed approach takes advantage of depth information to cope with the most common problems of traditional video-based hand segmentation methods: cluttered backgrounds and occlusions. The algorithm also uses colour and semantic information to accurately identify any number of hands present in the image. Ten different static hand gestures are recognised, including all different combinations of spread fingers. Additionally, movements of an open hand are followed and 6 dynamic gestures are identified. The main advantage of our approach is the freedom of the user’s hands to be at any position of the image without the need of wearing any specific clothing or additional devices. Besides, the whole method can be executed without any initial training or calibration. Experiments carried out with different users and in different environments prove the accuracy and robustness of the method which, additionally, can be run in real-time

Reproducibility of Pop-Ins in Laboratory Testing ofWelded Joints

The pop-in phenomenon, quite common in fracture mechanics tests of welded joints, corresponds to a brittle crack initiation grown from a local brittle zone (LBZ) that is arrested in reaching the higher toughness material that surrounds this LBZ. A methodology to obtain a high percentage of pop-in occurrence in laboratory testing is necessary to study the pop-in significance. Such a method is introduced in this work and includes the consumable combination and welding procedures for the SMAW welding process to generate artificial LBZ. In order to find out the influence of the loading state upon the pop-in phenomenon, laboratory CTOD tests were performed using two specimen configurations: some single edge-notched specimens were loaded on a three-point bending (SE(B)) fixture while others were tested in tensile load (SE(T)). A higher frequency of pop-in occurrence was observed in the SE(B) geometry

Outcome-based Approach in Teaching Digital Systems Design for Undergraduate Computer and Electronics Engineering Programs

The adoption by the Philippine Educational system of the K to 12 program, which puts an additional 2 years in the secondary education of high school students, prompted Higher Educational Institutions particularly offering engineering programs to rewrite the curriculum. With the new curriculum for all engineering programs already at the public consultation stage, the contents of the teaching materials must be adjusted to comply with the Outcome Based Education (OBE). In this work, an outcome-based laboratory manual for teaching digital systems design has been developed, and the approaches used in its adoption are described. Key features of the manual are the tutorials section which introduces VHDL and FPGA as the hardware modeling and implementation tools, and then followed by machine problems which are small projects that can be designed and implemented a team of students up to 5 members. The machine problems after implementation can be reused to develop the term project which has a higher level of complexity. Three ways of administering the course using the laboratory manual in three consecutive academic years are presented. Based on the experience, it is surmised that approach requiring students to devise their own experiments from solving machine problems while integrating the results of the tutorial to the theoretical framework section of the experiment document provided the balance between tutorial-based learning and output-based learning

A Cascadable Microcontroller-based Data Acquisition Module for Environmental Data Monitoring with RF and GSM Communication Links for Data Relay

High air and water quality is crucial to life. Maintaining it to ensure a sustainable environment for future generations require constant measurement and monitoring of pertinent environmental parameters to detect degradation. Gathering these data require physical presence in the locality where such measurements are to be made, posing a physical danger to the individual carrying out such task. Technology that performs measurements of environmental data and can transmit these data over radio frequency (RF) communication links are in existence but are hampered by limited range. Data can only be transmitted from the place data is gathered to a location where data can be stored and processed. Moreover, the range is further limited by adverse weather condition such as heavy rains. In this study, a cascadable data acquisition module for gathering environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and pressure is developed. The RF link is designed to relay information from a data acquisition node to another node until it reaches an end node that is under Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) service coverage. The end node transmits the data collected by all the nodes in the link to a base station via SMS. The link is composed of three data acquisition nodes and the base station which comprises a laptop computer equipped with a GSM modem. Each node is equipped with Radio Frequency transceivers to relay data gathered from one node to the next node. The end node is equipped with a GSM modem so that data can be sent to the base station in text message format via SMS. Results indicated that under normal conditions, the distance between nodes can reach up to 1200 meters but can shorten down to 600 meters under heavy rain conditions

Permanent-magnet atom chips for the study of long, thin atom clouds

Atom-chip technology can be used to confine atoms tightly using permanently magnetised videotape along with external magnetic fields. The one-dimensional (1D) gas regime can be realised and studied by trapping the atoms in high-aspect-ratio traps in which the radial motion of the system is confined to zero-point oscillation