Prosumer collectives: a review

he authors would like to acknowledge the Smart Grid Forum for funding this research. They also acknowledge the aligned GREEN Grid research project, funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), with co-funding from Transpower and the Electricity Engineers’ Association. We also acknowledge our reviewers, John Hancock and Gerry Carrington.The widespread growth globally of micro-generation (particularly PV) means that consumers are interacting with electricity systems in new ways, becoming ‘energy prosumers’ – both producing and consuming energy. We define an energy prosumer as “a consumer of energy who also produces energy to provide for their needs, and who in the instance of their production exceeding their requirements, will sell, store or trade the surplus energy”. Growing prosumerism has the potential to create challenges for grid management, particularly if local generation becomes concentrated within a part of a lines network, which can particularly occur with the establishment of prosumer collectives. For this report we reviewed international and NZ articles and reports on this phenomenon, to understanding how and why consumers were adopting microgeneration, and ways in which prosumer collectives are emerging. In considering how people become prosumers, we found it useful to differentiate between ‘active prosumers’ whose decision to adopt microgeneration is self-directed and purposeful, and ‘passive prosumers’ whose entry is the result of external influences or the by-product of other decisions. The shift to becoming a prosumer creates many opportunities for people to become more actively engaged with the role of energy in their lives, which opens the door for collective engagement. We reviewed different forms of prosumer collectives in the UK, North America, Europe and Australasia. From these we identified that different models of prosumer collectives are emerging depending on whether the collective was initiated by a community or third party, and whether the microgeneration facility is on a focal site (e.g. a wind turbine cluster) or multiple sites (e.g. PV on many houses in a community). A further influence is the emergence of new business models and smart technologies that enable prosumers to manage energy production and consumption on a personal and collective level. Some businesses now offer peer-to-peer platforms that enable power-sharing within a microgrid, as well as supporting spatially dispersed collective engagement. For example, prosumers who have surplus power can sell or exchange it directly with others. We identified and named five models of collective prosumerism: multi-site community initiatives; focal-site community initiatives; multi-site third-party initiatives; focal-site third-party initiatives; and dispersed-site third-party initiatives. The common theme is that multiple non-traditional players are consciously engaging with each other in generating and sharing energy and/or the proceeds of energy generation. We identify a range of drivers, barriers and enablers to collective prosumerism. The decreasing cost of microgeneration and storage is a significant driver, along with aspirations for greater independence, control, sustainability and community cohesion. Both community and third-party developments are largely initiated by organisations that have not traditionally been part of the electricity industry. If the industry ignores or attempts to suppress this emerging interest by consumers in collective prosumerism, it may find itself becoming increasingly irrelevant in the lives of electricity users

AMPPD Project Update

Academic libraries and archives are dealing with increasing numbers of digital audio and video (AV) files, acquired through both digitization of analog collections and acquisition of born-digital AV resources. While the emergence of low-cost storage options and maturity of streaming platforms has made it easier to store and deliver AV, these collections often lack metadata needed in order to make them discoverable and usable by researchers and other users. Since late 2018, the Indiana University Libraries have been working with partners at the University of Texas at Austin, New York Public Library, and digital consultant AVP to develop an open source software platform, known as AMP (Audiovisual Metadata Platform), that leverages automated machine learning-based tools together with human expertise to build workflows to create and augment metadata for AV resources to improve discovery, rights determination, and use. We will present an update on progress of the AMP project and its successes and challenges to date, including a demonstration of the AMP system and discussion of issues in system design, workflows, and the use of open source and commercial cloud-based machine learning tools. We will also discuss results to date of testing the AMP system using collections from the Cook Music Library and University Archives at IU and from the New York Public Library. This work is generously supported by a grant to IU from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (AMPPD), Final Project Report

This report documents the experience and findings of the Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (AMPPD) project, which has worked to enable more efficient generation of metadata to support discovery and use of digitized and born-digital audio and moving image collections. The AMPPD project was carried out by partners Indiana University Libraries, AVP, University of Texas at Austin, and New York Public Library between 2018-2021

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Prosumer collectives: a review

he authors would like to acknowledge the Smart Grid Forum for funding this research. They also acknowledge the aligned GREEN Grid research project, funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), with co-funding from Transpower and the Electricity Engineers’ Association. We also acknowledge our reviewers, John Hancock and Gerry Carrington.The widespread growth globally of micro-generation (particularly PV) means that consumers are interacting with electricity systems in new ways, becoming ‘energy prosumers’ – both producing and consuming energy. We define an energy prosumer as “a consumer of energy who also produces energy to provide for their needs, and who in the instance of their production exceeding their requirements, will sell, store or trade the surplus energy”. Growing prosumerism has the potential to create challenges for grid management, particularly if local generation becomes concentrated within a part of a lines network, which can particularly occur with the establishment of prosumer collectives. For this report we reviewed international and NZ articles and reports on this phenomenon, to understanding how and why consumers were adopting microgeneration, and ways in which prosumer collectives are emerging. In considering how people become prosumers, we found it useful to differentiate between ‘active prosumers’ whose decision to adopt microgeneration is self-directed and purposeful, and ‘passive prosumers’ whose entry is the result of external influences or the by-product of other decisions. The shift to becoming a prosumer creates many opportunities for people to become more actively engaged with the role of energy in their lives, which opens the door for collective engagement. We reviewed different forms of prosumer collectives in the UK, North America, Europe and Australasia. From these we identified that different models of prosumer collectives are emerging depending on whether the collective was initiated by a community or third party, and whether the microgeneration facility is on a focal site (e.g. a wind turbine cluster) or multiple sites (e.g. PV on many houses in a community). A further influence is the emergence of new business models and smart technologies that enable prosumers to manage energy production and consumption on a personal and collective level. Some businesses now offer peer-to-peer platforms that enable power-sharing within a microgrid, as well as supporting spatially dispersed collective engagement. For example, prosumers who have surplus power can sell or exchange it directly with others. We identified and named five models of collective prosumerism: multi-site community initiatives; focal-site community initiatives; multi-site third-party initiatives; focal-site third-party initiatives; and dispersed-site third-party initiatives. The common theme is that multiple non-traditional players are consciously engaging with each other in generating and sharing energy and/or the proceeds of energy generation. We identify a range of drivers, barriers and enablers to collective prosumerism. The decreasing cost of microgeneration and storage is a significant driver, along with aspirations for greater independence, control, sustainability and community cohesion. Both community and third-party developments are largely initiated by organisations that have not traditionally been part of the electricity industry. If the industry ignores or attempts to suppress this emerging interest by consumers in collective prosumerism, it may find itself becoming increasingly irrelevant in the lives of electricity users

Oligodendrocyte Fate after Spinal Cord Injury

Oligodendrocytes (OLs) are particularly susceptible to the toxicity of the acute lesion environment after spinal cord injury (SCI). They undergo both necrosis and apoptosis acutely, with apoptosis continuing at chronic time points. Loss of OLs causes demyelination and impairs axon function and survival. In parallel, a rapid and protracted OL progenitor cell proliferative response occurs, especially at the lesion borders. Proliferating and migrating OL progenitor cells differentiate into myelinating OLs, which remyelinate demyelinated axons starting at 2 weeks post-injury. The progression of OL lineage cells into mature OLs in the adult after injury recapitulates development to some degree, owing to the plethora of factors within the injury milieu. Although robust, this endogenous oligogenic response is insufficient against OL loss and demyelination. First, in this review we analyze the major spatial–temporal mechanisms of OL loss, replacement, and myelination, with the purpose of highlighting potential areas of intervention after SCI. We then discuss studies on OL protection and replacement. Growth factors have been used both to boost the endogenous progenitor response, and in conjunction with progenitor transplantation to facilitate survival and OL fate. Considerable progress has been made with embryonic stem cell-derived cells and adult neural progenitor cells. For therapies targeting oligogenesis to be successful, endogenous responses and the effects of the acute and chronic lesion environment on OL lineage cells must be understood in detail, and in relation, the optimal therapeutic window for such strategies must also be determined