• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• 1. No poverty close
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Effective access control techniques are in demand, as electronically assisted healthcare services require the patient’s sensitive health records. In emergency situations, where the patient’s well-being is jeopardized, different healthcare actors associated with emergency cases should be granted permission to access Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of patients. The research objective of our study is to develop machine learning techniques based on patients’ time sequential health metrics and integrate them with an Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) mechanism. We propose an ABAC mechanism that can yield access to sensitive EHRs systems by applying prognostic context handlers where contextual information, is used to identify emergency conditions and permit access to medical records. Specifically, we use patients’ recent health history to predict the health metrics for the next two hours by leveraging Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) Neural Networks (NNs). These predicted health metrics values are evaluated by our personalized fuzzy context handlers, to predict the criticality of patients’ status. The developed access control method provides secure access for emergency clinicians to sensitive information and simultaneously safeguards the patient’s well-being. Integrating this predictive mechanism with personalized context handlers proved to be a robust tool to enhance the performance of the access control mechanism to modern EHRs System.

This dataset contains the underlying data for the following publication: Li, R., Perdana, S., Vielle, M. (2021), Potential integration of Chinese and European emissions trading market: welfare distribution analysis, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 26:22 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09960-7.

This is a repository of global and regional human population data collected from: the databases of scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth Assessment Report, Special Report on 1.5 C; Fifth Assessment Report), multi-national databases of population projections (World Bank, International Database, United Nation population projections), and other very long-term population projections (Resources for the Future). More specifically, it contains: - in `other_pop_data` folder files from World Bank, the International Database from the US Census, and from IHME - in the `SSP` folder, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, as in the version 2.0 downloaded from IIASA and as in the version 3.0 downloaded from IIASA workspace - in the `UN` folder, the demographic projections from UN - `IAMstat.xlsx`, an overview file of the metadata accompanying the scenarios present in the IPCC databases - `RFF.csv`, an overview file containing the population projections obtained by Resources For the Future '- the remaining `.csv` files with names `AR6#`, `AR5#`, `IAMC15#` contain the IPCC scenarios assessed by the IPCC for preparing the IPCC assessment reports. They can be downloaded from AR5, SR 1.5, and AR6 This data in intended to be downloaded for use together with the package downloadable here. The dataset was used as a supporting material for the paper "Underestimating demographic uncertainties in the synthesis process of the IPCC" accepted on npj Climate Action (DOI : 10.1038/s44168-024-00152-y).

Climate change is worsening the number, frequency and duration of natural hazards across the globe, making disaster risk reduction and resilience building among the most pressing challenges ahead. According to UN-Habitat, informal settlements are where the impacts of climate change are the most acute in urban areas and strengthening resilience in these neighbourhoods represents a very complex yet urgent challenge. Today, urban areas are home to 56 per cent of the world’s population and this figure is projected to increase to 60 per cent by 2030 and 68 per cent by 2050, with 90 per cent of the growth by 2050 expected to occur in less developed economies. In these countries, population growth and displacement (including climate-driven migrations) will lead to rapid and unplanned urbanisation forcing a growing number of people into informal settlements. Currently, one billion people live in informal settlements, mostly in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and this figure is expected to grow to 3 billion in 2050. Horizon 2020 MSCA-RISE, Grant Agreement #873119

The report “Effects of Air Temperature Modified by Vulnerability Factors” was prepared as a milestone by researchers in the EU Project EXHAUSTION*. This report summarises the evidence on the interactive effects of high air temperature and various vulnerability factors, including the environmental, socio-economic, and individual behavioral factors on heart- and lung-related deaths and diseases (cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity) across Europe. The study was conducted at the city, small-area (e.g., municipalities), and individual level. The findings show a greater vulnerability to heat for people living in urban areas with dense population, high air pollution levels, low coverage of green spaces, as well as areas with low Gross Domestic Product. Moreover, people with chronic pre-existing diseases and the elderly were found to be at greater risk. The findings highlight the urgent need to improve the urban environment as well as the health status and living conditions in European cities to contrast the impacts of heat and future climate change. This report alerts stakeholders and policymakers that targeted climate change adaptation measures need to be considered to protect vulnerable population and thereby increase European resilience to climate change.

100 Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are to be created in Europe by 2025, with a stated goal of urban decarbonization. These are highly energy efficient residential urban areas, powered entirely through renewables. PED creation is to be guided by principles of quality of life, sustainability, and inclusiveness (specifically focusing on affordability and energy poverty prevention). Although there is research into the decarbonization aspects of PEDs, there has been little focus on the guiding principles, and their potential to reduce energy vulnerability. Using energy vulnerability factors and an energy justice framework, this article examines how the topic of energy vulnerability mitigation is perceived by professional PED stakeholders. Stakeholders from multiple countries were interviewed in order to determine how and to what extent they approached the topic of inclusivity and energy vulnerability. The contribution of this paper to academic research is in helping to frame energy vulnerability in European smart city urban areas, focusing on the perceptions of key stakeholders. This contributes to research on the identification and evaluation of innovations such as PEDs which offer a potential model for an inclusive transition. Furthermore, this article offers a contribution for policymakers, informing PED replication policies with a focus on the synergistic aims of decarbonization and energy vulnerability mitigation.

Electric mobility is beginning to enter East African cities. This paper aims to investigate what policy-level solutions and stakeholder constellations are established in the context of electric mobility (e-mobility) in Dar es Salaam, Kigali, Kisumu and Nairobi and in which ways they attempt to tackle the implementation of electric mobility solutions. The study employs two key methods including content analysis of policy and programmatic documents and interviews based on a purposive sampling approach with stakeholders involved in mobility transitions. The study findings point out that in spite of the growing number of policies (specifically in Rwanda and Kenya) and on-the-ground developments, a set of financial and technical barriers persists. These include high upfront investment costs in vehicles and infrastructure, as well as perceived lack of competitiveness with fossil fuel vehicles that constrain the uptake of e-mobility initiatives. The study further indicates that transport operators and their representative associations are less recognized as major players in the transition, far behind new e-mobility players (start-ups) and public authorities. This study concludes by identifying current gaps that need to be tackled by policymakers and stakeholders in order to implement inclusive electric mobility in East African cities, considering modalities that include transport providers and address their financial constraints.