Contributing to the European Language Grid as a provider

The ELG platform enables producers of language resources and language technology tools and services to upload, describe, share, and distribute their services and products as well as to describe their companies, academic organisations and projects. This chapter presents the functionalities offered through web-based user interfaces for describing LT resources or related entities with metadata and for managing their publication. It gives a detailed description of the options that providers of LT tools can exploit to integrate them into ELG as ready-to-deploy services and the tools that ELG offers in their support during the preparation, upload and integration phases. The tools and packaging recommendations for resources to be uploaded in ELG are also presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion of functionalities offered to providers by ELG and other related platforms

Indirect structural health monitoring (iSHM) of transport infrastructure in the digital age

Workshop reportCopyright © Joint Research Centre (European Commission). The existing European motorway infrastructure network is prone to ageing and subject to natural events (e.g. climate change) and hazards (e.g. earthquakes), necessitating immediate actions for its maintenance and safety. Within this context, the structural health monitoring (SHM) framework allows a quantitative assessment of the structural integrity, serviceability and performance, facilitating better-informed decisions for the management of the existing infrastructure. The European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) established the exploratory research project MITICA (Monitoring Transport Infrastructures with Connected and Automated vehicles) to investigate the opportunity to use novel methods for infrastructure motoring, aiming at the efficient maintenance of the European aging road infrastructure. This report summarizes the discussion and the outcomes of a workshop held at the JRC in Ispra (Italy) on June 6-7 2022, as part of the MITICA project. Considering the EU priority “A Europe fit for the digital age”, the workshop was dedicated to SHM and its application to civil infrastructure, focusing on innovative indirect structural health monitoring (iSHM) approaches that rely on the vehicle-bridge interaction and the deployment of sensor-equipped vehicles for the monitoring of the existing bridge infrastructure. The report aims to become a reference document in the area of iSHM using passing vehicles, for both scholars and policy makers

Low-dose phase contrast mammography with conventional x-ray sources

Purpose: To provide an x-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) method working with conventional sources that could be readily translated into clinical practice. XPCI shows potential in synchrotron studies but attempts at translating it for use with conventional sources are subject to limitations in terms of field of view, stability, exposure time, and possibly most importantly, delivered dose. Methods: Following the adaptation of our “edge-illumination” XPCI technique for use with conventional x-ray sources through the use of x-ray masks, the authors have further modified the design of such masks to allow further reducing the dose delivered to the sample without affecting the phase sensitivity of the method. Results: The authors have built a prototype based on the new mask design and used it to image ex vivo breast tissue samples containing malignant lesions. The authors compared images acquired with this prototype to those obtained with a conventional system. The authors demonstrate and quantify image improvements, especially in terms of microcalcification detection. On calcifications detected also by the conventional system, the authors measure contrast increases from five to nine fold; calcifications and other features were also detected which are completely invisible in the conventional image. Dose measurements confirmed that the above enhancements were achieved while delivering doses compatible with clinical practice. Conclusions: The authors obtained phase-related image enhancements in mammography by means of a system built with components available off-the-shelf that operates under exposure time and dose conditions compatible with clinical practice. This opens the way to a straightforward translation of phase enhanced imaging methods into clinical practice

The impact of COVID-19 on the management of European protected areas and policy implications

The COVID-19 pandemic led to many European countries imposing lockdown measures and limiting people’s movement during spring 2020. During the summer 2020, these strict lockdown measures were gradually lifted while in autumn 2020, local restrictions started to be re-introduced as a second wave emerged. After initial restrictions on visitors accessing many Nature Protected Areas (PAs) in Europe, management authorities have had to introduce measures so that all users can safely visit these protected landscapes. In this paper, we examine the challenges that emerged due to COVID-19 for PAs and their deeper causes. By considering the impact on and response of 14 popular European National and Nature Parks, we propose tentative longer-term solutions going beyond the current short-term measures that have been implemented. The most important challenges identified in our study were overcrowding, a new profile of visitors, problematic behavior, and conflicts between different user groups. A number of new measures have been introduced to tackle these challenges including information campaigns, traffic management, and establishing one-way systems on trail paths. However, measures to safeguard public health are often in conflict with other PA management measures aiming to minimize disturbance of wildlife and ecosystems. We highlight three areas in which management of PAs can learn from the experience of this pandemic: managing visitor numbers in order to avoid overcrowding through careful spatial planning, introducing educational campaigns, particularly targeting a new profile of visitors, and promoting sustainable tourism models, which do not rely on large visitor numbers.European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research programme (Project FIDELIO, grant agreement no. 802605)

Real time control of public transit

The objective of this Thesis is the improvement in speed and regularity of transit systems, using real-time control strategies, in particular, vehicle holding and conditional transit priority. This objective is attained by taking into account the inherent uncertainty of transit operation, due to the random travel times and passenger arrivals at stops. A simulation model of a single transit route is presented, with explicit representation of traffic lights. Priority at intersections is assumed to be given only by green extension actuated by local sensors, with upstream stop location, while the vehicle holding strategies are based also on the availability of real time information at stops, by means of a prevision for the future arrivals. The results are evaluated and compared using suitably defined performance indicators. In a parallel study, some relations between transit assignment and operation models and between transit operation and dwell time models are highlighted by identifying some features of the transit headway distributions and comparing the results obtained, in carrying out a sensitivity analysis of the operation model, if different dwell time models are utilized

Development of a piezoelectric energy harvesting sensor: From concept to reality

This study focuses on the development and integrated design over a 24-month period of a high efficiency Energy Harvesting (EH) temperature sensor, based on piezoelectric materials, with applications for the sustainability of smart buildings, structures and infrastructures. The EH sensor, harvests the airflow inside Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, using a piezoelectric component and an appropriate customizable aerodynamic fin that takes advantage of specific air flow effects, and is implemented for optimizing the energy consumption in buildings. The project is divided in several work-packages (some running in parallel) that cover different aspects of the device development. Some of them focus on engineering aspects (starting from the numerical modeling, then prototyping, and concluding with experimental testing). Other aspects focus on the sensor promotion (including the development of a business plan, the intellectual property rights, the final design and the go-to-market actions). Considering the multidisciplinary character of the project (involving knowledge from fields such as wind engineering, electrical engineering, industrial design, entrepreneurship), this study tries to provide an insight on the complex design issues that arise when such complex, sometimes conflicting and overlapping aspects have to be managed within strict deadlines. In doing so, the most important design and development aspects are critically presented

Robustness assessment of a steel truss bridge

This study focuses on the robustness assessment of a steel truss bridge. In the first part, a brief overview of several robustness indexes found in literature is provided, together with the principal approaches on the topics of structural robustness, collapse resistance and progressive collapse. In the second part, the extensively studied I-35W Minneapolis steel truss bridge is used as a case study for the application of a consequence-based robustness assessment. In particular, focus is given on the influence that the loss of primary elements has on the structural load bearing capacity. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers

Blast resistance assessment of a reinforced precast concrete wall under uncertainty

Aim of this paper is to compute both the fragility curves of a typical precast concrete claddingwall subjected to blast loads, and the failure probability of the cladding wall, considering a detonation of explosives placed on an automotive vehicle.To this aim, and taking into account corroborated literature, non-linear dynamic analyses are carried out by the widely adopted equivalent non-linear SDOF method. The fragility curves and the failure probability of the precast concrete cladding wall are computed using Monte Carlo simulations. © 2013 Taylor & Francis Group, London