Complexity aided design: The FuturICT technological innovation paradigm

"In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies-even our dreams ....What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel? How will we use its surges of sensation? For several years-maybe for a decade-there will be no central nervous system to manage this vast signaling network. Certainly there will be no central intelligence...some qualities of self-awareness will emerge once the Net is sensually enhanced. Sensuality is only one force pushing the Net toward intelligence”. These statements are quoted by an interview by Cherry Murray, Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Physics. It is interesting to outline the timeliness and highly predicting power of these statements. In particular, we would like to point to the relevance of the question "What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel?” to the work we are going to discuss in this paper. There are many additional compelling questions, as for example: "How can the electronic earth's skin be made more resilient?”; "How can the earth's electronic skin be improved to better satisfy the need of our society?”;"What can the science of complex systems contribute to this endeavour?” Graphical abstrac

Small Solar Panels Can Drastically Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Radio Access Networks

The limited power requirements of new generations of base stations (BSs) make the use of renewable energy sources, solar in particular, extremely attractive for mobile network operators. Exploiting solar energy implies a reduction of the network operation cost as well as of the carbon footprint of radio access networks, but previous research works indicate that the area of the solar panels that are necessary to power a standard macro BS is large, so large to make the solar panel deployment problematic, especially within urban areas. In this paper we use a modeling approach based on Markov reward processes to investigate the possibility of combining small area solar panels with a connection to the power grid to run a macro BS. By so doing, it is possible to increase the amount of renewable energy used to run a radio access network, while also reducing the cost incurred by the network operator to power its base stations. We assume that energy is drawn from the power grid only when needed to keep the BS operational, or during the night, that corresponds to the period with lowest electricity price. This has advantages in terms of both cost and carbon footprint. We show that solar panels of the order of 1-2 kW peak, i.e., with a surface of about 5-10 m2, combined with limited capacity energy storage (of the order of 10-15 kWh, corresponding to about 3-5 car batteries), and a smart energy management policy, can lead to an effective exploitation of renewable energy

On the Use of Small Solar Panels and Small Batteries to Reduce the RAN Carbon Footprint

The limited power requirements of new generations of base stations make the use of renewable energy sources, solar in particular, extremely attractive for mobile network operators. Exploiting solar energy implies a reduction of the network operation cost as well as of the carbon footprint of radio access networks. However, previous research works indicate that the area of the solar panels that are necessary to power a standard macro base station (BS) is large, making the solar panel deployment problematic, especially within urban areas.In this paper we use a modeling approach based on Markov reward processes to investigate the possibility of combining a connection to the power grid with small area solar panels and small batteries to run a macro base station. By so doing, it is possible to exploit a significant fraction of renewable energy to run a radio access network, while also reducing the cost incurred by the network operator to power its base stations. We assume that energy is drawn from the power grid only when needed to keep the BS operational, or during the night, which corresponds to the period with lowest electricity price. The proposed energy management policies have advantages in terms of both cost and carbon footprint. Our results show that solar panels of the order of 1-2 kW peak, i.e., with a surface of about 5-10 m2, combined with limited capacity energy storage (of the order of 1-5 kWh, corresponding to about 1-2 car batteries) and a smart energy management policy, can lead to an effective exploitation of renewable energy

Metal release under anaerobic conditions of urban soils of four European cities

Urban soil contamination may represent an environmental threat in view of their proximity to humans. The ecological homogenization of urban areas has been postulated, and as the sources of pollution are the same in most European cities, it is possible that soil contamination is another factor of convergence. The current climate change with consequent increase of extreme rain events may affect the mobility of potentially toxic elements (PTE) thus increasing the risks. If the soil is submerged, Eh decreases and causes the solubilization of Fe and Mn oxides, which are important carriers of PTE. We compared the release of Cu, Pb, and Zn from 48 soils of four cities (namely Glasgow, Ljubljana, Sevilla, and Torino) when submerged for up to 30 days. A decrease of the redox potential was observed in all soils after a few days and an increase of Mn and then Fe in solution. Cu, Pb, and Zn were consequently released to the solution according to the general soil contamination. Despite the marked differences in soil properties, the reaction to anaerobiosis appeared to be similar in all samples indicating that waterlogging of urban soil contaminated with PTE may pose a serious environmental risk and substantiating the hypothesis of ecological convergence

The emerging energy web

There is a general need of elaborating energy-effective solutions for managing our increasingly dense interconnected world. The problem should be tackled in multiple dimensions -technology, society, economics, law, regulations, and politics- at different temporal and spatial scales. Holistic approaches will enable technological solutions to be supported by socio-economic motivations, adequate incentive regulation to foster investment in green infrastructures coherently integrated with adequate energy provisioning schemes. In this article, an attempt is made to describe such multidisciplinary challenges with a coherent set of solutions to be identified to significantly impact the way our interconnected energy world is designed and operated. Graphical abstrac

Milk Products in Bread Making

The topic was the usage of milk in bread making. Initial investigations in bread making using milk were aimed at learning how to prepare milk best suited for bread making and finding the proper quantities for optimum results. The convenience, economy, and uniformity of dry milk solids greatly increased their usage by bakers. These advantages have been further augmented by research and experimentation by the dry milk producers, which have resulted in a product which would appreciably improve bread quality. Milk may be altered both in physical and chemical properties by heating. The article goes on to give more information on milk usage in baking