Pumped hydro - The most efficient large-scale storage system Pix Videos Production Company 2021-06-18 | Pumped hydro is the most efficient large-scale storage system, a technology that provides stability to the electrical system and can generate large amounts of clean energy with fast response time.Pumping stations are large batteries that store energy to use it when it is most needed. They have two reservoirs at different altitudes that allow water to be stored at times of lower demand and to take advantage of it to generate electricity at peak times.During off-peak hours, typically weekday and weekend nights, excess generation capacity is used to pump the water from the lower level reservoir to the upper one by means of a hydraulic pump, which carries it through a pipeline. The upper reservoir therefore acts as a giant battery to store the water, which will be converted into 100% clean electricity when necessary.When the water in the upper reservoir is used to generate electricity by the hydraulic turbine, it falls back to the lower reservoir and the process begins again.Pumped-storage hydropower plants are essential for the proper functioning of the electrical system and represent an integrated solution in the environment for energy storage.---Video made by Pix Videos for Iberdrola.
CCAM Safety Assurance Framework - SUNRISE project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-10-11 | The SUNRISE project is about safety assurance of Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) systems. This safety assurance is crucial for their successful adoption and deployment in society. CCAM systems must be reliable in every possible driving scenario. This requires a strong safety argumentation, which remains a significant challenge worldwide.Several initiatives have started to develop test- and assessment methods for CCAM systems, applying a scenario-based approach, and combining both physical and virtual testing. Although automotive stakeholders generally seem to agree on this overall approach, the current situation is leading to silo solutions. The lack of a common approach, therefore hampers the large-scale and safe introduction of CCAM systems in society.It is for these reasons that the SUNRISE project started. The SUNRISE project aims to establish a common safety assurance framework, interconnecting silos and making them collaborate in a harmonised way.
Innovative regenerative therapy solutions for bone regeneration - cmRNAbone Pix Videos Production Company 2024-08-02 | Bone diseases impact hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. It is often overlooked that bone is the second most transplanted biological material after blood and bone marrow. As older people stay more active, it is not unusual to see 70-year old skiers, the need for regenerative bone solutions is increasing. cmRNAbone is bringing innovative regenerative therapy solutions for bone regeneration. It's combining different fields like nanotechnology, 3D printing, cmRNA technology and calcium phosphates and putting them all together to come up with a custom patient specific scaffold for bone regeneration.With the cmRNAbone project, the main objective we have is to develop a translational technology where you could have a material delivery system which would provide cells with stimulatory molecules, which would then lead to new bone formation.Bone fractures normally heal quite well. But if you have a large bone defect, it cannot heal by itself, and you can end up with a non-union, which is when the bone doesn't bridge. We are trying to help the bone promote this regeneration by making a composite of uronic acids and calcium phosphate particles, combine it with chemically modified RNA from the cmRNAbone project, and then we hope that those components together induce bone regeneration which will bridge the gap of the bone.One of the key aspects of this project was figuring out how to make it clinically translatable. You need to come up with a system which could actually be used in a hospital, in a patient. For that it would need to be financially viable. How do you deliver these therapies? How do you make the cells work? How do you make the cells behave in the way you want them to behave? You need the material science aspects. So you need to have a delivery carrier system, a gel, which potentially could be 3D printed. How would you develop those 3D printing technologies? The cmRNAbone 3D bioprinters, developed specifically with clinical translation in mind, were developed by our consortium partner IDONIAL in Asturias, Spain. They are similar to other 3D printers, but for this printer, the cartridge, which looks similar to a syringe, is filled with the composite which has a base of uronic acid with calcium phosphate. The syringe has a plunger at the top, different needle sizes can be attached at the bottom. While the plunger is being pressed down, the material gets extruded. Meanwhile the platform underneath is moving in a specific path that we defined before. And that is how it creates the specific structure that we need. The printer also has a light source in order to cure the composite so that you can pick it up and put it in water or cell culture media and it stays stable.Of course, the program is a discovery program, based on developing novel technologies that may eventually be developed into a treatment for patients, so there is no expectation for immediate results. However, I think what is particularly exciting from a therapeutic point of view, is that these hydrogels are biologically functional. So, they contain the right stimuli to instruct the cells of the body to actually make vessels, bone and nerves in a coordinated way. This makes it particularly applicable because it can be shaped in any way you want, so aside from making bone for a traumatic injury, if you have a regenerative disease where the bone itself, like in osteoporosis, has less density, you can definitely imagine that this gel can provide the stimuli for regenerating more bone mass.This consortium was the first to really demonstrate the potential of this technology beyond vaccination. We know that chemically modified RNA is very potent for vaccination, we have seen that clearly during the COVID vaccination period. However, we are now able to demonstrate that chemically modified RNA has a potential for tissue regeneration as well. With cmRNAbone, we have been able to prove these molecules can induce regeneration of different tissues and different processes. It is very attractive that messenger RNA technologies can make regenerative therapies affordable where traditional gene therapy using vital delivery of plasmid DNAs is often cost prohibitive. We have seen products being removed from the market just because they are not affordable for the healthcare system and messenger RNA can be a complete game-changer for those situations. We can make this technology affordable, available for anyone in the healthcare system who needs it. It is efficient. It works, it has high tolerability.So now we're providing data to the scientific field, which really does show that a very small initial dose can have a long term sustained effect. And the nice thing about the whole concept is it doesn't need anything from the patient. The gel, the material, the coding sequence, the molecules: we can make all of it in the labs.So we truly think this is a technology that came to stay.
The importance of gut health and lifestyle changes to manage type 2 diabetes - IMMEDIATE project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-08-02 | Caleb just filled his cart with probiotic foods after seeing posts on the importance of gut health on social media. After struggling with his health for years, Caleb is eager to take control of his own well-being, but what he doesn’t know is that health is dependent on many different factors, not just food.The bacteria that live in our gut, also known as the gut microbiome, metabolises the food we eat and secretes molecules that can control how our immune system works. In addition to diet, the mechanism of health-to-disease transition is highly complex, involving many other environmental factors such as physical inactivity and work-related stress. Combined, these factors lead to an overactive immune system and chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation causes multi-organ damage and promotes diseases such as obesity, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and brain disorders.Therefore, improving gut health could lead to a decrease in chronic inflammation and slow down, or even stop, disease progression.To better understand the effects of gut health, we will collect and analyse omics data from 12,500 participants using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Additionally, IMMEDIATE will conduct a trial in which the influence of beneficial bacteria on 200 healthcare professionals experiencing elevated stress levels will be directly assessed.IMMEDIATE is developing a mobile app to give personalised lifestyle recommendations for each user, giving them information on how to better manage their physical and mental health.Our goal is to provide valuable data and insights into citizens’ well-being and health status, allowing policymakers, healthcare professionals and individuals such as Caleb, to make informed decisions about their health and how to better allocate limited resources.Visit our website and stay up to date on our latest discoveries on gut health.
Verify your green tech performance claim with ETV - LIFEproETV project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-08-02 | Hi, I am your ETV assistant. I will guide you through the Environmental Technology Verification process to make you and your technology ready for ETV.The ETV process consists of five steps: application, pre-verification, verification, reporting, and post-verification. The process is carried out by a verification body or 'VB'. Be prepared for frequent interaction throughout the process.Step 1 is the application. To apply, you need to contact the ‘VB’ accredited to perform ETV. Prepare a clear description of your technology, including its unique name, purpose, the matrix for which it is intended, and the scope and conditions of its use. Explain how it works, the problems it solves, and the benefits and innovation it offers compared to competitors. Also, propose an initial performance claim that you wish to verify. Next, describe the most significant positive differences in environmental added value between your technology and similar solutions. Indicate at which technology life stage they are most likely to occur. Provide supporting documents and data that showcase the stable performance of your technology and its market readiness. Remember, all your information is confidential.The ‘VB’ experts may seek further clarifications to ensure a thorough understanding of your technology before declaring its eligibility for ETV and advancing to step 2: pre-verification.In pre-verification, you and the ‘VB’ agree on the parameters to be verified in order to back up your performance claim. Your initial claim may need to be modified after a review of the application. The ‘VB’ then develops a specific verification protocol which outlines how the claimed performance will be verified. This document specifies the parameters to be tested, the testing methods, and the conditions to be ensured during the testing.Once the protocol is finalised and agreed upon, we move to step 3: verification. The ‘VB’ analyses the available test data on your technology's performance to determine if it works as intended. If you possess test data that aligns with the requirements outlined in the specific verification protocol, it can be utilised. Otherwise, you need to contact an independent test body to conduct the necessary testing.Step 4 is reporting. The VB assesses the test data and produces a verification report summarising the conducted process together with a statement of verification, presenting the verified performance of your technology. Both documents will be provided to you. The process concludes with step 5: post-verification. The ‘VB’ publishes your statement of verification for example on a dedicated web site, making it publicly available.ETV: Prove your green technology performs!
Changing the game in cancer diagnostics and personalized medicine - BIOCELLPHE project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-10 | Breast cancer metastasis occurs when circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, are released from the tumor, enter the blood stream and spread to other organs. Early identification and molecular characterization of CTCs can significantly improve diagnostics and personalized treatment strategies.Unfortunately, CTCs are rare and heterogeneous, making their identification and characterization challenging.In BioCellPHE we are developing a disruptive technology for the detection and characterization of CTCs from cancer patients at single cell level, aiming to improve early diagnosis of metastasis, and enabling personalized treatment of patients.BioCellPHE makes use of engineered bacteria that can bind to CTCs and report their presence by producing measurable signals that can be detected in a miniaturized lab-on-a-chip by nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.BioCellPHE captures CTCs from a blood sample and engineered bacteria bind to specific tumor biomarkers on the surface of CTCs. Then cells with bound bacteria are recovered, encapsulated inside microdroplets and trapped in a new device to be studied at single-cell level.Bound bacteria to the CTC produce different signals that can be simultaneously detected by nanotechnology sensors.The portable devices developed at BioCellPHE allow measurements at the single-cell level, accounting for cell heterogeneity, while enabling automation, miniaturization, and robustness. BIOCELLPHE technology will provide clear benefits in breast cancer diagnosis for personalized treatment, ultimately improving the life of cancer patients.BioCellPHE – changing the game in cancer diagnostics and personalized medicine.
There is no shortage of new energy technologies out there! - Energy Transition Norway project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-10 | Energy Transition Norway was established in 2018 to support the global oil and gas industry in its energy transition, aligning with the Norwegian government's aim of a 50% increase in non-oil-and-gas exports by 2030.We work with offshore wind, solar power, wave power, hydrogen, batteries, geothermal energy, P&A, carbon capture and storage. We also support sustainable development in the petroleum sector for energy security during the transition.Our member companies reflect this diverse focus. ETN is an ecosystem comprising numerous established companies, entrepreneurs, academia & research, authorities, and finance institutions.As a cluster, we foster collaboration through meetings, workshops, and conferences, leading to innovative industry projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create new business and more job opportunities.There is no shortage of new energy technologies and solutions out there. Our job is to identify those that reduce emissions and meet energy companies' needs, and to forward the best project ideas to our Technical Committee, where major energy producers on the Norwegian Continental Shelf come together quarterly to evaluate project proposals.Through this process, ETN gives entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to present their ideas to several end-users in a single setting, overcoming the challenge of reaching decision-makers.In addition, we reverse the process by letting energy companies present their challenges to a variety of entrepreneurs, rather than relying solely on the existing service portfolio of contracted suppliers. Once a project is endorsed as a cluster project, ETN actively supports the project team in securing financing through private and governmental funding and ensuring project progress. By bringing technology developers and energy companies together, we ensure that project initiatives harmonize with the strategic visions of the energy companies. Energy Transition Norway brings world-leading technologies and competence together to accelerate the energy transition.
AI-driven discovery of a whole new world of antibiotics - De La Fuente project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-09 | Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotic discovery has relied on painstaking trial and error experimentation.Today, antibiotic resistance is a global killer, and the current timeline for developing new antibiotics spans over a decade and costs billions.AI has revolutionized numerous aspects of society. Could it also accelerate antibiotic discovery?Researchers at the de la Fuente Lab have set a monumental mission: using AI to mine the world’s biological information as a treasure trove of novel antibiotics.Years ago, they embarked on this journey by mining the human proteome for the first time as a source of antibiotics. They then predicted they would find similar molecules across the tree of life and throughout evolution.This led to the breakthrough discovery of the first therapeutic molecules in extinct organisms. The team found new antibiotics in ancient humans, such as Neanderthals, launching the field of molecular de-extinction.Today, the team reports in Nature Biomedical Engineering the AI-driven discovery of a whole new world of antibiotics found by mining all extinct organisms known to science, the extinctome. Using a new AI model called APEX, antibiotic molecules were discovered in creatures from the past, including the woolly mammoth and the giant sloth.AI efforts by the researchers have dramatically accelerated antibiotic discovery, reducing the time and cost needed to discover preclinical antibiotic candidates, from years to hours. Here are some of the preclinical candidates already discovered by AI by De La Fuente and colleagues.The researchers’ dream is to create medicines that save lives. They believe AI will continue to revolutionize this emerging field and their hope is that the next penicillin is an antibiotic discovered by a computer.---Video of UPENN.
The impact of real-world data & randomised controlled trials on individuals with diabetes - REDDIE Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-04 | Mike was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 10. Since then, he has learned to manage his condition through careful monitoring of his devices and wearables; But, what would happen if Mike’s data could be used to help researchers understand and learn more about diabetes? What impact could his data have on other individuals living with diabetes?Randomised controlled trials are the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine. At the same time, the digitisation of real-world data from devices, and electronic health records provides opportunities to demonstrate efficacy and safety of innovative technologies including drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health. This data is particularly relevant to long-term conditions such as diabetes mellitus, where drugs, lifestyle interventions, and digital technologies often work together.Ready aims to combine real-world data and randomised controlled trials to improve efficacy, safety, and value for money of technologies to prevent and treat diabetes. In order to achieve this, REDDIE will recreate randomised controlled trials within the real-world databases by first defining a typical target parameter and then looking for all people exposed to the same intervention in four European real-world databases. Due to the large amount of real-world data available, results will be much faster and tested in a much bigger cohort than would ever be possible with randomised controlled trials.Ready aims to maximise Europe’s scientific expertise and know-how to benefit people with diabetes by developing standards, guidance, and conducting assessments of the efficacy to effectiveness gap, resulting in safer, more efficient, and cost-effective interventions while enhancing the utilisation of real-world data in diabetes for regulatory decision-making.
Solutions for recycling and manufacturing permanent magnets - MAGELLAN project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-03 | Permanent magnets containing rare earth elements, particularly Neodymium-based magnets, play a key role in the green transition.Their ideal magnetic properties enhance efficiency of key technology applications such as electric vehicle traction motors and wind turbines. But since Permanent Magnets are mainly produced outside Europe, there is a risk to security of supply in Europe. Therefore, a European permanent magnets supply chain is needed to support the energy transition.This is precisely the aim of the Horizon Europe project MAGELLAN which brings together partners from academia, research and industry.MAGELLAN will create a solution for recycling and manufacturing permanent magnets to be used in electric vehicle traction motors. The design of these motors will be optimised for efficient dismantling and increased use of magnets coming from recycled materials.MAGELLAN will design advanced magnet shapes and rotors for electric motors, and demonstrate the sustainability and business benefits of the solution.MAGELLAN will significantly increase the reuse of rare earth elements from End-of-Life magnets, therefore reducing the need for extensive mining operations. In addition, the manufacturing process of recycled magnets will generate up to 50% less CO2 emissions than the conventional magnet production route.Our solution will pave the way for a 2000 tonnes/year supply chain, about 10% of the 2040 forecasted European electric vehicle traction motors market.Join us on our journey to secure Europe’s rare earth elements supply, reshape the electric vehicle industry and boost the green transition.
Nature-Based Solutions for healthy future marine ecosystems - FutureMARES project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-03 | Climate change and human activities accelerate the loss of biodiversity in marine habitats. If this trend continues, it will soon cause severe losses of important ecosystem services and cultural benefits.To conserve and actively restore the health of marine ecosystems and their commercial and cultural benefits, FutureMARES advanced the knowledge and implementation of Nature-Based Solutions, or NBS. Our partners cooperated with regional stakeholders across and beyond Europe to provide science-based advice for climate change adaptation and mitigation using NBS.FutureMARES analyzed historic data to understand past trends in marine biodiversity. Field experiments indicate how different marine species react to climatic change. We developed different future scenarios of climate change and human responses, and used the latest modelling technology to generate maps of potential marine climate change hotspots and refugia. Based on this research, we created a novel Climate Risk Assessment tool for NBS planning. Additionally, our partners investigated the economic costs and benefits of implementing NBS in different regions.Our results show alarming trends for the future. Implementing NBS and including them in marine spatial planning is vital. They can reduce climate risks across all species and regions, with positive effects on ecosystem goods and services.Our innovative models, new indicators of ecosystem health and other NBS advancements build a strong foundation for planning Marine Protected Areas in 30% of Europe’s seas by 2030.FutureMARES provides science-based policy advice contributing to national, European and global reports and policies that safeguard and restore marine biodiversity.Our commitment is to healthy future marine ecosystems.To learn how to use our results and products, visit our website or contact us directly.
Revolutionizing road condition monitoring and vehicle connectivity - Architect project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-07-03 | Welcome to the world of autonomous vehicles, where safety is our top priority. In this complex realm, risk management is crucial in achieving the highest levels of safety.Autonomous vehicles are very complex systems, with modules that have been specifically designed for each process. These modules will handle connectivity, perception, propulsion and many more processes, while being designed to minimize the risk of failures and accidents.To ensure your safety, meticulous risk management and assessment processes are employed, minimizing residual risks - those that remain after all precautions have been taken.Imagine an autonomous vehicle equipped with sensors and cameras. These high-tech components, driven by artificial intelligence, continuously monitor the road conditions, from dry roads to wet or snow-covered surfaces,and even detect holes and cracks.This is the result of the ArchitectECA2030 project, a collaboration involving three Norwegian partners: SINTEF, NXTECH and TRACSENSE. They have teamed up with the mission of revolutionizing road condition monitoring and vehicle connectivity.One of the project's remarkable achievements is the Road Condition Detection through Vehicle-to-Everything Connectivity or RCD-V2X. This concept connects the autonomous vehicle to infrastructure and other vehicles. Using sensors and cameras, autonomous vehicles recognize road conditions in real time.Imagine a camera and sensor system identifying road conditions, a vibration sensor sensing bumps, and V2X communication seamlessly connecting autonomous vehicles to the world around it.In the world of autonomous vehicles, safety is non-negotiable. Through innovative projects like ArchitectECA2030, we're advancing technology to ensure your journeys are safer and more efficient than ever before.
A promising approach to Lithium recovery from waste sources - RELiEF project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-06-13 | In a world where e-mobility is on the rise, the demand for lithium has never been higher.But did you know that a staggering 27% of global lithium production still ends up as waste? Due to the impracticality of economically viable and eco-friendly recycling methods, these lithium remnants have long posed challenges for our planet.Enter the RELiEF project, a beacon of innovation and sustainability.With a clear goal to reduce the current 27% lithium waste by over 70%, RELiEF harnesses previously untapped secondary lithium sources, by treating waste material and achieving high-yield lithium recovery.The sources are both liquid and solid. From the liquid materials, wastewater from recycling industries and organics from the pharmaceutical world are taken. For solids, mine tailing and lithium alloy waste are used. The first step is a preliminary pre-treatment to remove hazardous components and ease the subsequent leaching of lithium, so that it liberates the lithium from the solid matrix. The lithium is thereafter recovered as a multielement solution.The extracted lithium from the purified solution is then turned into recycled lithium hydroxide, which serves two purposes: first, the validation of lithium hydroxide as a relithiation agent for an end-of-life LFP cathode material. And second, the production of Li metal, to be used as anode in next generation batteries.Our aim is to offer a comprehensive, promising and economically attractive approach to Lithium recovery from waste sources. RELiEF’s systematic process aiming at viability, holds the potential to combat the challenges of lithium waste while contributing to a more sustainable battery industry.Join us in supporting the RELiEF project, a step closer to a greener, more sustainable future for all.
The first direct observation of silent translocation events - Burden Lab Pix Videos Production Company 2024-06-11 | Researchers have long suspected certain molecules can pass through ion channels and nanopores without generating characteristic current signatures. But, detecting electrically silent transport has remained elusive.Investigators from the Chemistry Department at Wheaton College reported the first direct observation of silent translocation events.Assisted by microchip technology and electronics from Nanion and Ionera, investigators from the Burden lab used a specialized optical microscope to measure light and electrical patterns simultaneously, as fluorescent molecules moved through a nanopore.Repeated bursts of fluorescence from single molecules in a focused laser were observed in proportion to the translocation rate. However, when a voltage was applied across the membrane, corresponding electrical patterns were absent, confirming scientists’ beliefs.The Wheaton team also found that the silent translocation rate changes with voltage. A version of Arrhenius theory, which describes energy barriers inherent to many kinetic molecular processes, explains the result.Diffusion pushes molecules in the direction of the concentration gradient. With a positive potential below the membrane, electrophoretic and electroosmotic forces push in the same direction, making transport through the pore rapid.But as the applied voltage drops, so does the electrophoretic and electroosmotic forces. Thus, the silent translocation rate declines. At zero potential, electrophoretic and electroosmotic forces vanish completely. Diffusion alone pushes molecules with the correct orientation past the nanopore barrier.At the slightest negative potential below the membrane, the direction of electrophoretic and electroosmotic forces flips to oppose net diffusion. This creates a sudden drop in the translocation rate.At large negative potentials, translocation decreases exponentially, as electrophoretic and electroosmotic forces grow in opposition to diffusion. Diffusion can occasionally overcome, but the number of molecules with proper orientation and velocity to translocate grows vanishingly small. Using these trends with applied voltage, researchers determined the size of the Arrhenius energy barrier for silent translocation to be ~8kT.
Combining climate & marine ecosystem models to protect and ensure more sustainable oceans - TRIATLAS Pix Videos Production Company 2024-05-30 | The ocean covers approximately 70% of the Earth's surface making it one of the largest sources of food and economic income for many societies in the world. In the recent decades fishing efforts have been rising with a rising global population. With an estimated global population close to 10 billion by the year 2050, fish stocks cannot keep up with the rapid increase in population.This is why sustainable management of fishing becomes a necessity. Sustainable fishing means leaving enough fish in the ocean, respecting marine habitats and ensuring that people who depend on fishing can maintain their livelihoods.Marine ecosystems are complex food webs, ranging from microscopic organisms at the lowest trophic levels, all the way to the big fish and mammals at the top of the food chain. Nutrients form the basis of the food web, but nutrient availability depends on a range of factors such as currents, river outflow, water temperatures and available sunlight. Changes in climate and environmental conditions can profoundly affect marine ecosystems.In order to sustainably manage fisheries, it is crucial to understand how the ocean and the climate system are changing and how they affect marine ecosystems. The climate system changes on timescales of weeks, months, decades and beyond. Those changes can be triggered naturally or by humans. Climate scientists use complex mathematical computer models to understand and predict the evolution of the ocean, the atmosphere and the other components of the climate system. Modern climate models also include a biological component and can be used to predict the spatial distribution of microorganisms and nutrients that are the basis of the food web. Traditionally, climate and marine ecosystem models have been developed and used independently.It is necessary to combine these two models in order to improve the prediction of marine ecosystem models.Marine ecosystem models need to include climatic variables like ocean temperature, oceanic currents, oxygen and nutrient distributions.In this way, we expect to get a more realistic prediction of the marine ecosystems and the fish stocks. This knowledge is crucial to protect marine ecosystems and ensure more sustainable oceans for our planet and future generations.
New routes towards a circular business model for lithium-ion batteries - RHINOCEROS project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-04-24 | Meet John, an environmentalist and tech enthusiast who has been proudly driving his electric vehicle for over 12 years. But lately, he noticed the battery’s performance is decreasing.When initially bought, John could drive 300 km without recharging. Recently, with a fully charged battery, he can drive around 200 km. And his kilometres increased recently…Now John's first thought is obviously to replace the battery. But what will happen to the used one?That's a job RHINOCEROS project can explain better:RHINOCEROS, an EU-funded initiative, addresses the challenging issue of battery degradation and proposes new routes towards a circular business model for lithium-ion batteries.In a first stage, RHINOCEROS partners assess the state of used batteries. Sometimes decommissioned batteries still retain 75-80% capacity.These batteries find new life powering homes, reducing the need for new materials and fostering a circular economy.But there are batteries at their end-of-life that need to undergo innovative recycling processes, ensuring sustainability and less pollution.Testing ensures recycled material meets the standards for future batteries.Thanks to RHINOCEROS, John can continue his sustainable journey, now reassured his EV battery is handled responsibly.Follow us to find out more about our technologies.LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/rhinoceros-horizon-europeX: https://x.com/EuRhinoceros
Neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of post-COVID syndrome - NeuroCOV project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-03-11 | Marta is a woman in her thirties who has been experiencing fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and disturbed sleep patterns for months, posing a threat to the stability of her professional and personal life.After consulting with her doctor, a clear diagnosis and a therapy plan are still pending.It seems that Marta is one of many patients with post-COVID syndrome, a condition that has profoundly changed their lives since the infection.On the grounds of this, the European research project NeuroCOV dives deep into the neurological and neuropsychiatric complications in the aftermath of COVID-19.Marta's struggle aligns with the very challenges NeuroCOV aims to tackle.The project looks at a wide range of issues, from concentration problems and memory lapses to parkinsonism and brain scan alterations, which can affect COVID-19 patients, regardless of age or severity of the infection.The repercussions of what is now known as NeuroCOVID are vast, threatening our society and healthcare systems with unprecedented consequences. Integrated by an international consortium of ten institutions, NeuroCOV’s mission is not only to enhance the medical procedures dealing with NeuroCOVID but also to advance its monitoring and treatment, all while addressing the societal consequences of this major global problem.To this end, 5 studies are being carried out all over Europe in Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, using advanced biology and machine learning to analyse the data gathered from these studies to best interpret the information on a clinical and social scale.Marta's story becomes part of a bigger picture, one that involves the efforts of scientists, doctors, and society at large.Through multidisciplinary collaboration, NeuroCOV strives not only to provide Marta with a therapeutic perspective but also to empower her and others worldwide to return to their normal life.
Unveiling the basic mechanisms of puberty onset in Atlantic cod - EPICOD project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-03-11 | Atlantic cod is a prime species for Norwegian aquaculture and a key player in its diversification; however, several aspects of cod biology are still unknown, including the onset of puberty.Early sexual maturation can negatively impact both the environment and fish production, through gene contamination and deterioration of fillet quality and post-spawning mortality respectively.EPICOD is a timely initiative funded by the Research Council of Norway and Nord University that aims to unveil the basic mechanisms of puberty onset in Atlantic cod and how it is affected by light.To achieve this, our interdisciplinary team of experts will use state-of-the-art methodologies such as single-cell transcriptomics and epigenetics, genomics and metabolomics.For more information, please visit www.epicod.org.
Novel solutions for offshore wind farms - WILLOW project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-03-07 | Welcome to WILLOW European project.Renewable energy sources will have a higher and higher participation in the future European electricity mix. As electricity generation has to match demand on real time, this means that wind farms will have to deliver commanded output power following the needs of the grid operator, which implies down-regulating the wind farm, producing less power than is available.Today this is done either by shutting down a few turbines and letting others produce maximum power, or by down-regulating each turbine by the same amount. These strategies introduce additional dynamic stresses that may negatively affect the fatigue life of the wind turbine.The optimization of these decision-making schemes is extremely complex. Why? Because of the need to better understand and include many factors, such as component degradation, the particular complexity of grid integration, or specific offshore issues like corrosion or the additional loads from waves, tides and currents.WILLOW is going to work in three different areas to solve this challenge:1) Novel Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system combined with drone-based inspections focused on pitting corrosion, coating degradation and load damages.2) Data-driven prognosis tools by combining SCADA and SHM data for wind farm-wide corrosion and lifetime consumption.3) Decision-making support tools for wind farm operators for smart power dispatch in curtailed conditions and Operation & Maintenance scheduling.To develop these novel solutions, the consortium will work with real data from two offshore wind farms:-Norther offshore wind farm,-and Baltic 1. In addition, the consortium will have the opportunity to test the new coatings and monitoring solutions in two offshore test benches:-Blue Accelerator, the maritime innovation and development platform and test site. -and HarshLab, the largest floating test laboratory for offshore industry. WILLOW innovations expect to have the following impacts: -Reduction of 50% on the inspection costs.-Potential of 5+ additional years of operating life.-Expectation of reducing noise pollution by 4%.-Up to 10% reduction of LCOE, between 3.5 and 4.5 €/MWh.WILLOW has a consortium made up of benchmark institutions.See you at our next activities! Stay tuned in our social media.
Bridging diagnosis, monitoring and treatment for brain healthcare - ALAMEDA project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-02-07 | Millions of Europeans face the daily challenge of living with brain diseases.Regular assessments are key to adapt treatments to evolving symptoms and patient needs, enhancing their quality of life and optimizing care and rehabilitation.The ALAMEDA project leverages digital tools and AI to revolutionize monitoring and treatment for brain disorders, focusing on Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke.A patient’s status is reviewed during their annual or six-monthly neurology consultation. However, reporting invisible symptoms, like fatigue or cognitive impairments, can be challenging for patients. Also, due to the long period of time between outpatient visits, patients often attach more importance to recent events meaning the burden of symptoms may be forgotten or under-estimated.ALAMEDA envisions a future where every heartbeat and step count. We collect and analyze patient-generated data, capturing changes in behaviors, sleep patterns, emotional wellbeing, motor and cognitive functions to deepen our understanding of brain disease progression.Shared decision-making is pivotal in ALAMEDA. We engage patients, families, and healthcare providers to hear every voice. Our local community groups in Greece, Italy, and Romania, comprise patients, clinicians, and caregivers, voicing the concerns of our end users. We delve into Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, and stroke care journeys, designing a data collection protocol that addresses specific needs and preferences. This results in a study design that combines continuous collection of patient-reported outcome measures and quarterly 1 to 2 week-long intense monitoring period.ALAMEDA’s architecture, from data collection to analytics, adheres to the highest standards of robustness, privacy, and security. Our AI Toolkit, a suite of advanced machine learning models and tools, decodes the dynamics and predictability of brain diseases. Our expert dashboard offers professionals insights for understanding disease progression and personalizing patient care. By emphasizing interpretability and explainability in our algorithms, we employ a human-in-the-loop approach to make our results sound, robust and clinically relevant.Our digital health innovation hub is a collaborative space open to the integration with 3rd party solutions, where researchers, clinicians and developers can access our toolkit, use our data sets and test our algorithms and tools.By bridging diagnosis, monitoring and treatment, ALAMEDA paves the way for redesigning brain healthcare. Visit alamedaproject.eu to be part of this journey.
Insights into the evolution and disease-causing mechanisms of fungi pathogens - EvolSexChrom project Pix Videos Production Company 2024-01-05 | Plants, like humans, are also susceptible to diseases which usually stem from bacteria or fungi growing and replicating by consuming the plant's resources. For instance, the chestnut trees in North America have faced a devastating threat known as the chestnut blight disease. It has nearly wiped out the entire population of chestnut trees across the continent. Crops also often get diseases, leading to substantial economic losses.In a fascinating twist, some pathogenic fungi don't kill their plant hosts but rather castrate them. One intriguing example is the anther-smut fungi. Normally, male plants of the white campion produce flowers bearing anthers full of yellow pollen while females receive this pollen, transported by insects, and then make seeds.Strikingly, both male and female plants parasitized by Microbotryum fungi produce anthers, full of dark fungal spores, that are transmitted to healthy plants by the pollinators.When diploid spores from these fungi land on a healthy plant, they germinate and produce haploid cells of two distinct mating types, through meiosis. These mating types then immediately fuse to form a dikaryotic hypha, which has two nuclei in each cell, which invades the plant. The future flowers of the parasitized plant will carry anthers filled with spores, continuing the cycle.Microbotryum fungi present a captivating ecological puzzle, with hundreds of distinct species, each targeting a specific plant species. Scientists are fervently working to unravel the mystery of their remarkable specialization.One hypothesis suggests that these fungi's specialization may have evolved in tandem with the formation and diversification of their host plant species. Such a scenario would lead to parallel genealogical trees, reflecting the interconnected evolutionary histories of the plants and the fungi.Contrary to expectations, scientific studies have revealed completely different genealogical histories of these fungal species compared to their plant hosts. The fungi's diversification was, therefore, not a result of gradual specialization alongside their host plants but rather a consequence of shifting from one existing plant species to another.Interestingly, although various fungal species can still engage in mating, the resulting hybrids display a notable drawback: they lack proficiency in parasitizing plants and fail to effectively undergo the meiosis process essential for producing the next infection cycle.The intricate co-evolutionary arms race between these fungi and their plant hosts has also led to the rapid evolution of the proteins that the fungi send as weapons to attack and penetrate the plants, which plays a pivotal role in maintaining the effectiveness of each parasite in the unique ecological niche of its particular host species.Studying these model pathogenic fungi provides crucial insights into the evolution and disease-causing mechanisms of pathogens in both wild plants and crops.
Its possible to rethink the shipyard! - FIBRE4YARDS project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-12-26 | FIBRE4YARDS Shipyard 4.0: enhancing the quality of shipbuilding while reducing costs and environmental impact!The FIBRE4YARDS project started its journey with a major challenge ahead: transforming the European ship manufacturing industry by defining a new 4.0 shipyard: collaborative, digitalised, automated, more efficient and environmentally friendly. After nearly three years of intense research work, the FIBRE4YARDS consortium is proud to present the three pillars on which this new shipyard is based: new technologies for automated ship construction, a digitalised shipyard and its digital twin, and new engineering tools for ship design that take new production technologies into account.FIBRE4YARDS' advanced automated production methods can be adopted by shipyards or used by shipyard suppliers to produce components for assembly in the shipyard. The latter approach minimises implementation costs and improves process efficiency and quality by allowing suppliers to specialise in specific manufacturing technologies.These new manufacturing technologies have recently been presented to the industry, which is following FIBRE4YARDS’ developments with great interest. These are:Pultrusion of curved composite profiles3D printing and Automatic Tape PlacementHot stamping of thermoplastic compositesAdaptive moulds to manufacture curved panelsFIBRE4YARDS has also developed a new design software that includes specific formulations for analysing vessels manufactured with the newly developed technologies. The software includes specific functions to evaluate, for example, connections or 3D printed materials. This software will make it possible to optimise the ship’s structure, reduce its weight and improve its efficiency. The introduction of all these new technologies in a shipyard must be done together with life cycle analyses of the processes and materials in order to minimise the environmental impact of shipbuilding and the resulting ship. The initial analyses carried out as part of the project have shown that material selection is of paramount importance in reducing environmental impact. FIBRE4YARDS has also produced guidelines to facilitate the use of the different technologies developed, and business plans for the resulting shipyard, which will benefit from a collaborative approach to shipbuilding, shorter production times and reduced maintenance requirements and costs.In FIBRE4YARDS, we have proven that it is possible to rethink the shipyard. If we digitise it, if we move from manual construction to automated processes, if we incorporate modular construction and, last but not least, if we incorporate and use numerical tools that can take all these processes into account, then, we will be able to build ships that are cheaper, that have higher quality and which environmental impact is reduced throughout its lifecycle. FIBRE4YARDS is here to help you. Are you ready to cast off?
Technological platform for making solid-state multi-qubit devices - MultiQubit project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-12-13 | Multi-qubit photonic devices are now under development in the group of @NikaAkopian at @dtuelectro7429. If successful, they can form a robust technological platform for the forthcoming quantum Internet.Learn the CONCEPT in this paper — arxiv.org/abs/2107.05960Learn about the PROJECT here — nikaakopian.org/multiqubitIf you thought that computers and the Internet influenced the world drastically, imagine a future where quantum computers and quantum internet are solving some of our society’s key challenges that seem to be impossible today: fast drug development, unbreakable information security, drastic energy saving, as well as 100% anonymous and secure elections are only a few examples.Quantum computers are already just around the corner. Yet, the most advanced quantum computers today exploit superconducting qubits, which, unfortunately, do not have a native photonic interface, so they cannot be interconnected over long distances.Luckily, the MultiQubit project is committed to creating a robust technological platform for making solid-state multi-qubit devices with a photonic interface that could later become a platform for a quantum network, facilitate truly 100% secure communications, and save us a lot in energy costs.Through their exploration and demonstration of a novel location qubit, based on crystal-phase quantum dots, the project will attain designable and scalable quantum systems grown with atomic precision, followed by a multi-qubit register with a photonic interface.These quantum registers will then be used in a prototype application of a quantum information network, or the quantum Internet, the likes of which has never been seen before!These new advancements along with the eventual creation of Quantum networks would trigger the transformation of countless industries.MultiQubit: laying down the foundation for the future of the quantum internet.
Groundbreaking idea to slow osteoarthritis progression - SINPAIN project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-12-11 | This is Louise, and she struggles to play with her kids.Louise is one of 500 million patients affected by osteoarthritis.Louise thought osteoarthritis was nothing but a “wear and tear” condition of the elderly, but now knows that it is a highly complex chronic disease of the entire joint that leads to increased pain and reduced mobility.Current treatments for osteoarthritis often do not work very well and result in expensive and invasive prosthesis surgery.This is why the multidisciplinary experts in the research project SINPAIN are working on developing a game-changing new treatment for osteoarthritis. Their groundbreaking idea is to use small interfering RNA molecules to target the cells that are responsible for the inflammation and pain in the knee affected by osteoarthritis. These molecules are embedded in a hyaluronic acid formulation and administered locally as an intra-articular injection.To ensure that the method is safe and effective, the researchers are using cartilage from osteoarthritis patients to comprehend the osteoarthritis environment and thus the origin of pain and inflammation. An artificial 3D model of an osteoarthritis joint will be re-created in a unique bioreactor. This approach will allow the researchers to select the best RNA therapies by testing them in a realistic environment.Health datasets on osteoarthritis are combined with specifically developed advanced machine-learning techniques to create a unique cartilage profile for each patient. Doctors can use this information to make better health decisions and provide personalised treatments.SINPAIN will help to improve our understanding of the complex disease mechanisms behind osteoarthritis. The novel SINPAIN technology will be instrumental in relieving pain, reducing inflammation, regenerating damaged cartilage, and ultimately, slowing disease progression for Louise and countless other patients.To learn more about our research, please visit our website: https://www.osteoarthritis-sinpain.eu and follow us on our social media.
Reliable, third-party verified information on green tech performance claims - LIFEproETV project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-11-29 | In a world where sustainability is paramount, technology buyers find themselves at a crossroads. The challenge: selecting the perfect green technology to revolutionize their operations. Beyond cost considerations, they must grapple with technology intricacies, operational compatibility, legal compliance, and the actual impact on their environmental goals.The market teems with green innovations, each one promising a remedy to an environmental challenge. However, discerning the true game-changers can be a daunting task.With the purpose of basing the purchase decision on facts, both public and private buyers may request independent proofs of technology performance to understand the innovation and judge whether its application will really result in a substantial improvement of their environmental performance as claimed by manufacturers.To get such proof, buyers may ask for ETV. Environmental Technology Verification scheme (ETV) provides reliable, third-party verified information on green tech performance claims, especially those which fall outside the established certification or standardization frameworks. ETV operates on a globally recognized, ISO-standardized process, ensuring credibility. The outcome? An ETV Statement, a gold standard document detailing the technology's performance parameters, values, and the conditions under which they are achieved. For technology buyers, these statements are the roadmap to understanding innovation's potential and getting a technology that ticks their boxes.Private buyers can utilize ETV Statements as a benchmarking tool, tailoring technology options to their unique needs.Public procurement authorities may use ETV Statements to evaluate technology compliance with the technical and sustainability criteria defined in the tender, leveling the playing field for green innovations against established solutions.Companies navigating Environmental, Social, and Governance frameworks or seeking financial support for green projects can leverage ETV Statements to prove not only sustainability but also alignment with the EU Green Taxonomy's technical screening criteria.For technology buyers with bold green innovation goals, ETV becomes a strategic ally. It can be integrated into innovation procurement, weeding out underperforming options and ensuring top performers meet contract-specific targets.In a world brimming with green possibilities, ETV is your trusted compass, guiding technology buyers toward a sustainable future.
Disruptive technology based on piezo-electric MEMS actuators to make a laser - RaMSoM project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-11-20 | The marvelous landscape of the Alps is filled with artificial objects, railways, pipelines, dams.Sometimes these objects lead to catastrophes like the megatsunami above the Vajont Dam in Italy. Distributed fiber optic sensing can monitor variations in temperature and vibrations along the optical fiber length to prevent such events.Another application is frequency modulated continuous wave light distance and velocity ranging, so-called FMCW or 4D LIDAR, which is an enabling technology for self-driving cars.All these applications require ultra-low noise lasers with precision control of laser frequency and low cost.When it comes to the development of laser sources, low noise lasers with this performance are usually expensive and bulky.RaMSoM and DEEPLIGHT bring a disruptive technology based on piezo-electric MEMS actuators integrated with silicon nitride photonic circuits and semiconductor laser diodes to make a laser. We’ve developed a laser with high output power, phase noise of a fiber laser and fast and precise frequency control. Our lasers will be available at wavelengths from 0.4 to 2.5 micron for fiber sensing applications, FMCW LiDAR, atom and molecular physics, quantum metrology, and spectroscopy.
Safe-by-design solutions for nanomaterials and nano-enabled end-user products - SAbyNA project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-11-20 | Currently, more than 10 thousands of products with hundreds of different applications in the global market are made with nanomaterials.Despite the advantageous outcomes of nanotechnology in several industrial sectors, the widespread use of nanomaterials has raised concerns regarding their safety among research and industry communities. Therefore, a case-by-case approach is necessary to identify and address the potential impacts on human and environmental health.The SAbyNA platform integrates all currently available resources, such as methods, models, frameworks, data and tools, in order to provide safe-by-design solutions for nanomaterials and nano-enabled products to the end-user.Safe-by-design solutions will be proposed based on the physico-chemical properties of each nanomaterial, such as the modification of its surface chemistry, and by providing safer solutions to minimize worker, consumer and environmental exposure.Our goal is to reduce the nanomaterial or nano-enabled product hazard and improve the safety of nano-processes, while maintaining competitive performance and cost efficiency.The SAbyNA guidance platform is set to become a global reference for companies interested in increasing the protection of human health and the environment while benefiting from the groundbreaking advances in nanotechnology.Subscribe to our newsletter to learn how to use nanomaterials safely for your workers, your community and the environment!
Unlocking the secrets of the brain through quantum dots and gold particles - NanoNeuro project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-21 | The number of neurons in our brain is comparable to the innumerable stars seen on a clear, dark night, and the connections between these neurons are approximately 3 times the connections made on the internet globally. But what do we really know about these almost infinite interconnections in our brain? And will we, one day, have the capability of repairing errors that keep our brain from working optimally, as observed in brain pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s, stroke and Parkinson's?Nowadays, we have a few tools that are used to study our brain, but they are still at very low resolution! Brain imaging, for instance, allows us to see clouds of cerebral activity, but not the individual neurons. How can we understand or even try to cure brain pathologies if we are not able to see the inner workings of our brain? This is exactly what NanoNeuro wants to achieve: live ultra-high resolution imaging of individual neurons to provide access to neurons that need repairing. NanoNeuro aims to design two types of very small nanoparticles: ones known as quantum dots, already used in QLED TVs, but applied here to track down neural activity. The others are plasmonic gold particles, commonly used in COVID-19 antigen tests, that could behave as magnifying lenses to activate neurons by heating them with light.If everything goes according to plan, the result would be a safe, completely harmless, novel technology that will enable us to see the inner workings of the brain and activate targeted neurons using light. This technology could also be used in the clinic to help repair brain damage or strengthen weakened neuronal connections.NanoNeuro - building technology to unlock the secrets of one of the biggest mysteries in science; the human brain.
AI to prevent crib injuries and help diagnose neurodevelopmental disabilities early - NSF career Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-18 | The Augmented Cognition Lab at Northeastern University is looking for a few parents of infants under 1 to join our National Science Foundation-funded study to harness the power of AI to protect infants and toddlers from crib injuries and help diagnose neurodevelopmental disabilities early.By using our provided baby monitor to capture video from a few nights of sleep and a few hours of playtime you can help us advance this important field.Participants will be compensated.
Pickering emulsions to make new food products that are safe and healthy - PICKFOOD project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-08 | Mayonnaise, salad dressing, margarine, and even ice cream are examples of foods that need special ingredients to mix oil and water together. One way to do this is by using food surfactants.Surfactants are small molecules that have properties to interact with both oil and water. However, the most effective surfactants are often made through chemical processes, even if the raw materials originally come from natural sources. PICKFOOD was created to find an alternative to food surfactants using tiny solid particles called pickering particles. We will develop pickering particles from natural food grade ingredients which are effective without the need for chemical processing. Our goal is to understand how these particles can be used in food production. We develop pickering emulsions to make new food products that are safe and healthy.Follow our journey striving to contribute to a brighter and more sustainable future for everyone.
Breakthrough architecture for next generation 6G networks - MARSAL project @MarsalProject Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-08 | MARSAL introduces a breakthrough architecture for next generation 6G networks, based on the cell-free concept and a virtual elastic infrastructure. We will be testing MARSAL’s capabilities across two different use cases.First, we will focus on cell-free networking in dense and ultra-dense hotspot areas.During high-popularity events, both indoors and outdoors, a large number of users tend to stream high volumes of content from multiple handheld devices, thus creating a heavy burden to the network infrastructure both in the uplink and in the downlink direction.In our first use case, MARSAL’s cell-free concept will be evaluated to test its support capabilities in outdoor events using the spectators' handheld devices, and MARSAL’s distributed cell-free in a serial fronthaul topology to deliver high-definition video traffic efficiently in indoor events.Our focus will also be on cognitive assistance and its security and privacy implications in 6G networks.From the conception of smartphones, tourists can search for almost any kind of information on the Internet while sightseeing. This experience can be highly improved by providing the user with overlaid information of potential interest in a proactive way. However, the high computational load and massive data sets required for scene analysis and activity recognition has made on-device execution infeasible so far.In the second use case, users will be equipped with untethered augmented reality glasses and would endure an enhanced strolling experience using MARSAL’s architecture by showing overlaid information relevant to their surroundings and enabling virtual artifacts manipulation by taking advantage of MARSAL’s elastic edge infrastructure and cognitive assistance capabilities in time sensitive activities. Moreover, secure information sharing and proactive threat detection to guarantee data security using MARSAL’s solutions will be delivered. Through the testing and studying of these use cases we will push the boundaries of wireless innovation and pave the way for transformative advancements in communication networks.
How does finance flows in our economy - GEOFIN project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-08 | Financialisation is a process in which finance is getting more important in the economy and society. With financialisation, it is important to understand how finance flows in the economy.One way of doing this is to see the economy as a collection of ‘financial chains’, linking key actors and markets: households, firms, commercial banks and states, real estate markets and financial markets. Financial markets in turn comprise of a number of financial actors: investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, etc., and sometimes these act as 'shadow banks', operating outside normal banking regulations. Last, but not least, there is a central bank. First, what are financial chains? They are, both, financial channels, through which value is being transferred, and social relations of power.A simple example of a financial chain is the relationship between a debtor, and a creditor.Imagine you borrow money from the bank. You then pay this loan back over time and with interest. In the end, with interest rate being higher than inflation rate, you transfer more money to the bank than you received originally.In this case, the value flows from the household to the bank - over time and across space as actors are based in different places.There is a power dynamic involved here: the more power the creditor has over the debtor, the more value it can extract.This, applied to the entire economy, makes up a complex network of financial chains. An issue affecting any of these chains can lead to a financial crisis. This is when central banks usually step in and come to the rescue.
Did you know that microorganisms are all around us? HealthFerm project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-10-01 | Did you know that microorganisms are all around us?In fact, there are more than 1 billion different species on Earth!Microorganisms have been used for millennia in food production. During the making of fermented foods, microbes grow and convert food components into vitamins, acids, ethanol and aromas. You might be surprised that up to 40% of our diet consists of fermented foods, often without us knowing.In the HealthFerm project, we want to use this ancient preservation technique to develop new tasty foods that are better for our health and our planet.How can we make this happen?First, HealthFerm wants to transition from animal-based to plant-based foods. By using food crops such as wheat, oat, faba bean and yellow pea, we are making a more sustainable choice for our planet.We believe fermentation could increase the nutritional value and functionality of these plant-based raw materials.Now, this is where the microorganisms come into play. Citizens from all over Europe will send us their fermented foods. Researchers will study the different microbial species in them to select those with the most promising properties.Next, fermentation technology will be used to harness the full potential of the food crops from a techno-functional and health perspective.The resulting food products will be evaluated in five intervention studies with citizens across Europe to evaluate their human health benefits.To ensure consumers will like these healthy fermented foods, tasty meals will be created. Consumer behaviour will be investigated and monitored all over Europe.We are convinced that these delicious fermented foods will make our daily diet healthier and more sustainable.
1 in 3 seniors die from Alzheimers or another dementia! Ai-Ling Lins project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-09-18 | Nowadays, one in three seniors die from Alzheimer's or another dementia. Decades before the clinical symptoms become apparent, individuals who are at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease have shown reduced brain blood flow and metabolism, and altered gut microbiome composition.These changes lead to increased inflammation and the accumulation of amyloid-beta and tau tangles. Therefore, early detection of the changes in the brain and gut, and using interventions to restore the deficits would be critical to mitigate the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.Our research mission is to achieve the goal by integrating pharmacological and nutritional interventions, measurements using magnetic resonance imaging, gut microbiome analyses, transcriptomics, proteomics, and artificial intelligence for the early detection, prediction and prevention. This, in addition to our successful studies in animal models, we are hoping to conduct preventive clinical trials in the future as all these interventions and research methods are readily to be used in humans. It is our hope that through the research efforts of others and ours, Alzheimer's disease will ultimately be prevented.
Bringing safety to anchoring - AnchorGuardian Pix Videos Production Company 2023-09-10 | AnchorGuardian is bringing safety to anchoring.The solution, consisting of the anchor module, boat module & user interface, communicate seamlessly and in real time with one another.Whilst laying the anchor, depth, sediment type and force at anchor are displayed.During the laying procedure, the user interface simultaneously reflects movements of the boat, anchor and anchor chain.Once the anchor settles on the seabed, the captain will receive a continuous stream of intelligence around the anchor and the anchor chain.Based upon all the sensor data collected, AnchorGuardian predicts the anchor hold.When circumstances change and movement of the anchor is detected, an alarm is triggered.When ready to leave, a pop-up indicates when the captain is free to maneuver.Once the anchor is stowed, it is ready for charging.Anchoring should be safe for sailor, ship and sea. That is why AnchorGuardian brings all the intelligence you need while anchoring, when you need it.
Range anxiety when driving your electric car? HIDDEN project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-09-10 | This is Nicole.She is acutely aware that transport is the biggest source of carbon emissions in Europe, so she decided to buy an electric car.Up until now, it has proven very convenient, but today she is driving for the first time to a friend’s house who lives up north, and is realising she might not make it to the next electric charger.Her range anxiety sets in as she is afraid of being stranded.The HIDDEN project aims at reducing range anxiety by developing Li-metal batteries with 50% higher energy density that is equipped with a self-healing mechanism that also extends the lifetime of the battery by 50%.The materials and their processes for functional battery layers are targeted to be scalable and industry compatible. To achieve these goals, HIDDEN develops novel self-healing thermotropic liquid crystalline electrolytes and piezoelectric separator technologies to prevent dendrite growth.The consortium applies multiscale modelling for electrolyte design to speed up the development of new materials.Dendrite growth is monitored with algorithms, and the self-healing mechanism is triggered at an appropriate time by increasing the cell temperature. The HIDDEN project will increase the quality, reliability and lifetime of Li-metal batteries, paving the way for electrification of transportation. With this technology, Nicole could easily have a stress-free drive to the next electric charger.Quite a game changer!
Why do we urgently need battery packs with faster charging and extended lifetime? HELIOS project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-08-27 | There is an obvious need for smarter and greener mobility in our society, where an uptake of electric vehicles can make the significant step but, why do we urgently need lighter & more compact battery packs with faster charging and extended lifetime? Imagine driving hundreds of kilometers to a customer meeting. You make a stop and recharge your EV in less than 10 minutes.Imagine driving a larger EV in rural areas, going up and down the hills. Here, you need a more compact and lighter battery pack to allow for more range and better power performance in specific driving modes without fearing your battery running out.Imagine you want to sell your EV or hand it over to your child after some years of use. With an expected battery lifetime of over 300,000 km, you have the guarantee that even an older EV has value and is valid for second hand market and will be much better for green transport than a used combustion car.To accelerate the mass market take-up of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids it will be necessary to increase the energy and power density of battery packs in terms of weight and volume to improve driving range and decrease overall weight and enable the move towards green and sustainable transport.And even after its 1st life in the electric car, with the Helios battery modules recovered you still can use them as stationary electricity storage, for example feed-in your PV.And Helios battery modules will also be easier to recycle and recover the value materials to be reused to support our environment.Helios has an innovative solution with its hybrid modular battery pack: Using High energy cells in one type of modules, we can provide more range and with High power cells in the other series of modules we can significantly reduce the charging time - that’s the Helios hybrid pack using a combination of bothWith our Helios solutions we can customize battery packs optimized for different driving styles so that the customer can chose between sporty, family, urban, commuter, sales rep, etc.We are now in the phase of simulation of performance, manufacturing and specific testing of our real prototypes. The achievements of HELIOS will be shown and validated in 2024 in two demonstrators: a small city EV and a full-size E-Bus. The Helios project partners represent a unique team of experts in their different fields to ensure an holistic approach and best quality development of the Helios hybrid solutions.There are 18 partners from 8 countries working closely together in our project.Using the expertise of this team of partners in all these technologies and elements involved, we will create an innovative, smart and reliable Helios battery pack to meet the drivers demands.
Surprising discovery in the evolution of sex chromosomes! EvolSexChrom project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-08-12 | In mammals, being male or female is dictated by our sex chromosomes. Females have two copies of the X chromosome while males bear an X chromosome and a Y chromosome.The Y chromosome is very small and highly different from the X chromosome. Initially, a long time ago, the X and Y chromosomes were very similar, but they have become more and more different over time, and this has puzzled scientists for years. It has long been thought that this was due to differences between males and females. There are indeed many traits which differ between males and females, such as a lion’s mane, a deer’s antlers or males often being larger.Scientists have therefore formulated the hypothesis that genes with versions that are beneficial only in males could be selected for being linked to the gene determining the male sex on the Y chromosome. Such linkage can occur through chromosomal inversions, so that only male lions develop a mane for example. Inversions indeed prevent recombination, that is, genetic mixing, between the X and Y chromosomes.With time, if multiple genes become progressively linked to the sex-determining gene on the Y chromosome through successive inversions, the X and Y chromosomes will become more and more differentiated.However, no definitive evidence has been found in favor of this hypothesis: indeed, genes controlling male beneficial traits are often NOT on the Y chromosome, being instead hormonally regulated. Furthermore, fungi can also have a pair of differentiated chromosomes that control mating compatibility.Yet, while only plus and minus cells can mate in fungi, they are not associated to male or female functions. The cells of these different mating types, plus and minus, look just identical. Therefore, another mechanism must be able to drive differences between sex chromosomes, that can also apply to fungi.A recent theory shows that this may be driven by deleterious mutations, that is, non-optimal versions of genes that are present at low frequencies in populations, producing non-functional proteins. A deleterious mutation can be sheltered if the homologous chromosome in the same individual codes for a functional protein.Sometimes, chromosomal inversions occur, and they block recombination, that is, they prevent the reshuffling of genetic information with the other homologous chromosome. Half of such inversions carry fewer deleterious mutations than average in the population, thus conferring a survival advantage. Therefore, there will be more and more individuals carrying the inversion generation after generation.However, when it becomes frequent, such an inversion will often be present on the two homologous chromosomes in the same individual. The non-functional gene will not be sheltered anymore by a functional gene. Such individuals with two deleterious copies and no functional one will die young and this will stop the increase in frequency of the chromosomal inversion.Except if, by chance, the inversion with few deleterious mutations also captures the male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. In this case, the inversion will never be in two copies in the same individual because males have a single Y chromosome. The inversion will thus always have intact gene copies sheltering it, the ones on the X chromosome. Such an inversion will therefore always be beneficial, and will reach fixation on the Y chromosome. If this occurs multiple times, several overlapping inversions will fix on the Y chromosome, preventing genetic mixing with the X chromosome, and they will thereby become more and more different.Following recombination suppression, further deleterious mutations will accumulate, which could select for restoring recombination. However, multiple overlapping inversions may accumulate even more rapidly on non-recombining chromosomes, which likely prevent restoring recombination, even if it has become advantageous.This hypothesis is able to explain that differentiated sex chromosomes also occur in fungi, and not only in animals or plants. Several pieces of evidence further support this hypothesis. Indeed, this mechanism can only work in species with two copies of each chromosome.And precisely, the fungi with differentiated mating-type chromosomes are those that carry two copies of each chromosome in most of their cells, while the fungi with a single copy of each chromosome for most of their lifetime, in which deleterious mutations cannot therefore be sheltered, do not show differentiated mating-type chromosomes.The evolution of sex chromosomes may, thus, surprisingly, not be due to differences between males and females, but a consequence of the presence of deleterious mutations in genomes.
Did you know that there are microscopic superheroes around us? Carlos Gollers project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-08-03 | Did you know that there are microscopic superheroes around us? Perhaps you haven’t seen them, but there are microbes with impressive abilities all around.I bet you’ve never thought about the potential abilities of the microbes living in your kitchen sink drain.In the fall of 2013, we examined kitchen sink drains as part of a course and found an intriguing microbe: Delftia acidovorans.This microbe was first identified in contaminated soils in Delft, Netherlands. Delftia has been found in numerous environments and can thrive in habitats containing high concentrations of often toxic metals, such as copper and cobalt.How does Delftia do this?Well, Delftia acidovorans produces a small protein that allows it to avoid toxicity from gold by precipitating it out of solution.How can we discover the superpowers of these microbes? Using high-throughput approaches and automation, researchers can investigate the abilities of microbes.Automation does not have to use complex robots or production facilities: portable sequencers, microfluidics devices, and compact liquid handlers allow us to sequence communities of microbes.Prepare samples without tedious or repetitive tasks and test numerous conditions simultaneously.Now the question is: how can these microbial superpowers help us?For starters, Delftia acidovorans can be used to recover gold from discarded electronics, helping us address one of our biggest concerns worldwide: e-waste.The improvement of high-throughput methods for studying these extraordinary microorganisms, could identify new ways to dispose of and recycle electronics to protect the environment and ensure a better future.Isn’t it incredible to think we could hold the key to a greener future in our kitchen sinks?
Cut drastically the time implementing enrichment pipelines in Big Data and AI - enRichMyData project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-08-03 | High-quality, rich, meaningful data is crucial to successfully implementing Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics solutions.Discovering, understanding, cleaning, transforming, and integrating data from a variety of sources are key data enrichment steps for the production of valuable datasets.Alice is a data scientist and AI engineer. Her job involves identifying and extracting relevant information from large datasets and enriching them with external data sources to build better AI models. Alice finds it challenging to accomplish her tasks with the current tools available, as the process is time-consuming, manual, and error-prone, especially when data sources have little or no structure. She encounters uncertainties in discoverability, quality and interoperability of data and feels frustrated, wasting most of her time in data engineering activities instead of focusing on her analytical modelling objective.She is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the data enrichment process.The EU funded project enRichMyData goes beyond existing approaches by developing a toolbox as an interoperable collection of tools and infrastructure services that support the full lifecycle of data enrichment pipelines, featuring:- A data discovery by browsing or full-text search, a secure data access system, novel data manipulation and cleaning, semantic enrichment of structured and semi-structured data, a structured data extraction from multi-lingual unstructured text and for classifying documents;- Infrastructure services to enable the creation of linking services, practical and scalable execution of custom data enrichment pipelines, editing and reusing entire data enrichment pipelines, streaming datasets in the pipelines, and calculating the environmental impact of their deployments.enRichMyData’s toolbox is shifting the approach of building rich, high-quality, and FAIR-compliant datasets to feed downstream Big Data analytics and AI applications. The enRichMyData toolbox lowers the technological entry barriers by supporting the definition of highly scalable and replicable data enrichment pipelines through a collection of innovative tools and infrastructure services. The toolbox makes the data enrichment process accessible to a broader set of stakeholders by reducing the required expertise and enhancing the tool support through intuitive user interface.Our toolbox is being applied to six diverse business cases to demonstrate its practical applicability and benefits. These pilots focused on digital marketing, manufacturing, predictive maintenance, public procurement, innovation ecosystems, and mineral processing. 80% of the effort Alice is dedicated to ensuring data is fit for purpose. With enRichMyData’s toolbox, the time and effort Alice spends defining, implementing and operating enrichment pipelines to improve Big Data Analytics and AI applications will be cut drastically. enRichMyData: empowering AI-driven business products and services.
Monitoring early signs of developmental disorders with AI - Sarah Ostadabbas project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-07-06 | AI and machine learning are vital for monitoring early signs of developmental disorders by analyzing extensive data, detecting patterns that signal potential issues, and facilitating prompt interventions and support for affected individuals.Did you know in the US only around one-third of children under 5 receive recommended developmental screenings?This severely affects the lifelong outcomes for infants at risk for neurodevelopmental delays, including autism spectrum disorder, congenital torticollis, and cerebral palsy.New efforts to assist with earlier diagnosis are being developed at Northeastern University, where Prof. Sarah Ostadabbas and her team are developing computer vision algorithms to learn the representations of infant motor functions from home videos while infants are naturally interacting with their environments.This research extends the state-of-the-art by providing interpretable, verifiable, and privacy-preserving early screening infant motor quality measures using videos captured unobtrusively. The algorithms’ inherent modularity and extensibility allow it to be updated as new research emerges without costly retraining of the core AI models.
How do we solve the huge challenge of recycling mixed materials? REPOL project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-07-06 | Polymers are one of the most versatile materials used in a wide range of products we encounter daily.From fridges to cars, clothes to food, and even packaging, polymers are present in almost everything around us and have contributed to numerous technological advancements. However, the increasing production of plastics has become a cause for concern because of its contribution to environmental problems.According to Plastics Facts 2021, in 2020 alone, 6.9 million tonnes of plastics were sent to landfills globally.In addition to their versatility, strength, and stability, polymers are low-cost materials produced and easily transformed into various articles. Moreover, they can be used multiple times. We can achieve significant environmental and economic benefits by using well-established technologies for large-scale plastic waste treatment through mechanical recycling. However, the challenge lies in recycling mixed materials. This is where the REPOL EID project comes in.We are working on strategies to explore the molecular characteristics of virgin and recycled materials that are often mixed and propose ways to improve their final properties. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we aim to understand crystallization and mechanical performance.In particular, we focus on the crystallization behavior of the main types of polyolefins, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, and their respective blends for both virgin and recycled materials, as well as how to make them more “compatible” with different additives.By understanding the characteristics and behavior of virgin and recycled polymers and related additives, we can formulate new polymer blends with specific applications that may also possess a lower environmental impact. At the same time, we are making significant contributions to the current knowledge in mechanical recycling.Visit our website and follow us on social media to learn more.
Improving health and life through nutritional recommendations - NUTRISHIELD - Dr Alices story Pix Videos Production Company 2023-07-05 | Alice is a nutritionist who examines diabetes and treats obesity in children.Anna, a 13 years old girl, is one of her patients. After examining Anna and collecting all her health data, Dr. Alice will improve Anna’s health and life by providing nutritional recommendations using a dashboard created by the EU funded Horizon 2020 project NUTRISHIELD.This dashboard is a single point of access for all the patient’s medical info and a convenient tool to provide personalized nutritional advice.The dietary suggestions provided by Dr. Alice will be transferred automatically from the dashboard to Anna and her parents through the NUTRISHIELD App.While at the hospital, Anna completes a questionnaire regarding her food habits and lifestyle choices. Dr. Alice uses the dashboard to record all the answers along with Anna’s weight and height, and the results of her blood, urine and feces analyses. Once all results are available in the NUTRISHIELD Dashboard, Dr. Alice will process the data to provide recommendations to Anna. By pressing the “i" button, the dietary recommendation algorithm is executed. These results include the number of portions Anna should consume from each food category, and they can be found in the report section generated after each visit.She can both provide input on the suggested daily food portions, and monitor Anna’s progress, while providing explanations or adaptations if needed.The advanced machine learning algorithm processes the important information from Anna, like the analysis of her microbiome and metabolomics, in order to provide personalized advice.Also, Anna is asked to reply to specific questions to monitor her adherence to the dietary plan. By using the NUTRISHIELD app, Anna reports what she ate each day, as well as her daily habits. All this information is available to her doctor for processing and adjusting, if needed. During Anna's next visit, Dr. Alice will record new medical and questionnaire data in the dashboard, further improving and personalizing her recommendations. Within 4 and a half years, NUTRISHIELD reached its goal integrating all the required elements such as laboratory techniques, methodologies, ICT devices & applications, algorithms and other components into one platform as a new tool for fact-based personalized nutrition.
Small or large we deliver all! Its all about DELIVERY - Kumar Lab Pix Videos Production Company 2023-06-06 | Many drugs must overcome biological barriers and find their way to diseased tissues to be therapeutically effective.This can be achieved by encapsulating drugs into biodegradable nanoparticle ‘transporters’ decorated with molecules called ‘ligands’ that bind to specific receptors on the cell surface.However, the body’s own ligands can out-compete those on the transporters if they are not designed for efficient receptor binding.We have used a natural ligand called gambogic acid that avoids competition from the body’s own ligand called transferrin when binding to the target ‘CD71’ cell surface transferrin receptor. Crucially, we discovered that the gambogic acid ligands need to be spaced at regular intervals and densities across the nanoparticle surface to maximize transport. This was only possible with our chemically engineered nanoparticle transporters. The therapeutic potential of our technology has been demonstrated in models of disease. For example, systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease that can cause swollen lymph nodes and is currently treated with systemic disease modifying agents. By targeting our transporters to the lymph nodes after their absorption from the gut, we increased the bioavailability of cyclosporin four-to-eighteen-fold, potentially improving its therapeutic efficacy. We have shown similar data for cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury model, for which there is no FDA-approved treatment. Encapsulating a potential drug called urolithin A into our gambogic acid-decorated nanoparticles enhanced its peroral uptake seven-fold, reducing mortality by almost two-thirds.Our customizable drug-transporters clearly overcome biological barriers such as the small intestine. We intend to use this breakthrough technology to minimize drug attrition rates in the pharmaceutical industry or offer a route to repurposing existing drugs for diseases that currently lack effective treatments.
A catalyst to create new automotive business models and economic opportunities - 5GMETA project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-31 | The 5GMETA Platform acts as a broker between data producers, vehicles or roadside infrastructure and data consumers, and third-parties’ applications and services. This means that data producers can publish data without knowing which data consumers will use them. Therefore, they do not need to be directly connected.Nevertheless, this is not to be confused with a data lake. The 5GMETA platform provides live data delivery. For scalability purposes, 5GMETA platform users receive data from the dataflows they subscribed to in a continuous manner, with no storage service within the platform. However, the 5GMETA platform is not a simple publish-subscribe broker. It includes functions for data management, data monetization and cybersecurity, as well as data access mechanisms. 5G, Cloud and Multi-access Edge Computing are the key enabling technologies for this vehicle data monetization platform. Through the targeting of Original Equipment Manufacturers, Small and Medium Enterprises and high-tech start-ups, the 5GMETA project will function as a catalyst to create new automotive business models and economic opportunities, based on the expanded availability of data.
Making vehicle and road infrastructure data accessible to third parties - 5GMETA project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-31 | In recent years, the automotive ecosystem has experienced enormous changes attributable to worldwide trends such as digitalisation, electrification, automation and sustainability.The green and digital transition requires finding new paradigms in order to create different kinds of revenue streams. Several studies confirm that car-related revenues will decline in the long run, and that data-driven services will compensate for this decline after 2050. It is expected that over the next decade, the annual incremental value from car data monetization will reach between 250 and 400 billion euros. How to face this challenge? 5GMETA is building the right tool! The goal of the 5GMETA project is to develop a platform that makes vehicle and road infrastructure data accessible to third parties.Data owners directly monetise vehicle and road infrastructure data, while third parties monetise their own services and applications. These apps and services need large quantities of data to become valuable. Find out how the Platform will revolutionise the automotive ecosystem by exploiting data flows in our next video.
Embedded electronics are everywhere! Sustainatronics project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-31 | You may not be aware, but lightweight and embedded electronics are everywhere in our society, they are all around us.Humidity sensors in the construction industry, sensors in non-wovens, smart clothing in sports, various sensors in packaging, and touch and temperature sensors in the transport industry.The enabling technology behind all of these achievements is the printing of electronics.Printing is not only greener and more resource efficient when compared to traditional PCB technology, since it produces less waste and can be manufactured with a strong reduction of hazardous substances, but it also allows for the integration of electronic functionalities directly onto thin, flexible, stretchable, and even washable, cheap materials such as plastic foils, glass, composites, and even textiles!At Sustainatronics, we provide business and technical consulting as well as access to the leading experts and most advanced printed electronic facilities in Europe.Sustainatronics can aid you in gauging the economic and sustainability impacts of implementation of printed electronics and, if necessary, assist with financial and funding services for small and medium sized companies that may not have the necessary capital for these investments.With Sustainatronics you will gain access, not only to industry expertise and market leading equipment, which allows companies of all sizes to rapidly go from an idea to a fast scale up, but also to gain access to materials development and production infrastructure, 2D and 3D printing lines, as well as testing and characterization infrastructure.To find out more about how printed electronics are revolutionising industries or to get in contact with one of our managers, please visit our website and begin your journey into the revolutionary space of printed electronics.
Integrating research groups specialised in energy modelling - RedMENTES project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-23 | The COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine have impacted our current climate emergency and our transition towards a low-carbon economy.Both these events have accelerated political decisions in order to face the necessary structural changes that will reshape the economy in the European Union in the upcoming decades.The foundation of these decisions is based on redoubling the commitment to energy transition and decarbonization, focusing the European model on greater resilience in the three spheres of sustainability: economy, society and environment.In addition to the climate and energy actions that guide the economy towards a low-carbon path, efforts focused on improving issues related to employment, health, and equality in the European and international context have also been included.We must ensure that the most appropriate structural measures are implemented. Therefore, good use of modelling tools in the energy-social-economic-environmental sphere is essential to address the complex challenges we face.The scientific community must be able to evaluate disparate and changing scenarios, incorporating the uncertainties associated with such a changing context into all analytical models.With this in mind, Red Mentes is born, integrating 9 Spanish multidisciplinary research groups specialised in energy modelling from different perspectives.The main objectives of this network are aimed at seeking synergies and complementarities among the groups, identifying and aligning research priorities in line with society's challenges and goals, creating a reference group to support decision-makers and all agents involved, encouraging the creation of new modelling capacities to increase the questions our models can address and disseminating key science-based results.The Red Mentes project puts together a set of modelling tools for the betterment of society that allows us to analyse and propose solutions to the challenges and strategic decisions that will reshape the foundations of a resilient and sustainable energy and economic European system.Moreover, the multidisciplinary nature of the network and the group, shared learning allows us to offer those tools to guide society and the economy towards socially and economically fairer, low-carbon models which are more respectful of the planet's limits.
How can we achieve more sustainable vineyards and winemaking? VitiGEOSS project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-15 | The European Union is the largest wine-producing region in the world with over 165 million hectoliters produced annually. Climate change, provoking a higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, threatens crops all around the world.On the other hand, more than 20% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from agricultural activities. This demonstrates why today, sustainable agriculture is more important than ever.The European funded project 'VITIGEOSS' contributes to the increase of sustainability in the wine industry by offering a platform for optimizing day-to-day field management.Based on the integration of Earth Observations, combining satellite data and sensors in the field, the VitiGEOSS platform offers services providing advanced weather, and sub-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts, crop status indicators, phenological monitoring, disease warnings, crop water demand requirements and a tool for managing business operations and sustainability assessment. VitiGEOSS aims to deliver a reliable decision support system to winemakers for smart vineyard management, supporting sustainable grapevine cultivation at an economic, environmental and local level.The platform, being co-developed and tested in vineyards of three European wine producers, boosts vineyard sustainability and eases the industry adaptation to climate change.VITIGEOSS, striving for more sustainable vineyards and winemaking.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 869565.
Get ready for the human-robot interaction of everyday life - ECURES project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-07 | Robots have been increasingly leaving laboratories. Especially social robots are soon to become part of our everyday life. But what does it mean in practice?In the field of Human-Robot Interaction, or HRI, in order to design and develop social robots that best serve people, we typically look at interactions between humans and robots. Most of them take place in the laboratory or otherwise highly controlled settings.At the same time, more and more studies have been conducted in the real-life environments.This implies a change in focus and moving away from studying human-robot ‘interaction’ towards ‘experience’.We propose to bring such a shift even further and investigate human lived experiences and meanings they have for the communities involved with social robots in a given socio-cultural and physical space.The emphasis on the communities is a key since this is how we live our everyday lives and where social robots will bring the most. In this sense, the shift in HRI is not only towards addressing lived experiences or everyday environments but a human ‘social life’ as a whole.What theories and methods should be used to address human lived experiences with social robots? What counts as communities and how do we define ‘the everyday’? This is the task that yet needs to be accomplished in the HRI field.In any case, the transition has already started. Get ready for the HRI of everyday life. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 895785
Your playground for validating your 5G media applications - 5GMEDIAHUB project Pix Videos Production Company 2023-05-04 | James is an app programmer who has been developing new apps for virtual reality consoles, but unfortunately, these apps do not work optimally on 4G or 5G non-standalone networks, due to their high latency and relatively low bandwidth.James knows that these issues could be solved by having the app operate on a 5G standalone network with edge computing and slicing capabilities, which will become commercially available in the near future.Unfortunately, James is not part of a large enterprise, nor does he have the capital to purchase a private 5G deployment or get in touch directly with a telecommunications company to test these advanced capabilities.Luckily, James came across the project 5GMediaHUB which offers 3rd party media providers the opportunity to test their services in an experimentation facility that includes two 5G testbeds with state-of-the-art capabilities, one in Barcelona and one in Oslo.This facility offers easy-to-use experimentation tools, accessible via a web-based portal, also supporting service creation within minutes!Moreover, 5GMediaHUB offers a selection of media-related network apps, such as VR streaming and content distribution services. Network Apps is a new concept that refers to reusable functions, ready to be integrated in vertical applications, thus significantly reducing their time to market.5GMediaHUB is currently validating the experimentation facility through realistic use cases with the goal of ensuring that it provides an efficient and effective means of developing, deploying, testing and monitoring the performance of innovative media applications.The use cases also demonstrate how the stringent requirements of these applications in terms of low latencies and high data rates can be met via 5G technologies.5GMEDIAHUB will not just help James, but will work towards getting the most value from 5G technology for media companies everywhere in Europe.5G will make next-generation, high-viewership, high-bandwidth services possible. Home entertainment will be transformed through ultra-high-resolution movie and immersive gaming experiences. All powered through the latest, cutting-edge 5G technologies.And players in the media industry such as James can rapidly innovate and test their applications through the 5G testbeds.In this way, not only will James know the state of his app on an advanced 5G network, but telecom operators will know how well their networks are suited for media applications as well.5GMediaHUB: Your playground for validating your 5G media applications.Web: https://www.5gmediahub.eu/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/5gmediahub-projectTwitter: twitter.com/5gmediahubYouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCE3a8deZTPNoDjxvtNQ5pUw
