Abstract
A cost-effective optical sensor for continuous in-situ monitoring of turbidity and suspended particulate matter concentration (SPM), with a production cost in raw materials less than 20 (sic), is presented for marine or fluvial applications. The sensor uses an infrared LED and three photodetectors with three different positions related to the light source-135 degrees, 90 degrees and 0 degrees-resulting in three different types of light detection: backscattering, nephelometry and transmitted light, respectively. This design allows monitoring in any type of environment, offering a wide dynamic range and accuracy for low and high turbidity or SPM values. An ultraviolet emitter-receiver pair is also used to differentiate organic and inorganic matter through the differences in absorption at different wavelengths. The optical transducers are built in a watertight structure with a radial configuration where a printed circuit board with the electronic signal coupling is assembled. An in-lab calibration of the sensor was made to establish a relation between suspended particulate matter (SPM) or the turbidity (NTU) to the photodetectors' electrical output value in Volts. Two di fferent sizes of seashore sand were used (180 mu m and 350 mu m) to evaluate the particle size susceptibility. The sensor was tested in a fluvial environment to evaluate SPM change during sediment transport caused by rain, and a real test of 22 days continuous in-situ monitoring was realized to evaluate its performance in a tidal area. The monitoring results were analysed, showing the SPM change during tidal cycles as well as the influence of the external light and biofouling problems.

Abstract
Raw materials are very important for the development of economies and also to assure quality of life. Due to our production and consumption patterns new challenges emerged. The consumption of raw materials is very high, what raises important issues such as the depletion of resources, instability of prices and markets, risk of rupture of supply and other environmental, economic and social impacts. The European Union as many other regions of the world are implementing some strategies to overcome this problem, being the most recent the circular economy package, which intends to maintain materials as long as possible in the economic cycle, avoiding the use of new resources. There is a list of critical raw materials for EU and in this work the methodology of pairwise comparison was applied to a set of those raw materials for determining the importance of each taking in consideration several factors, such import reliance, end of life, economic importance, etc. The main goal was to develop a method based on pairwise comparison in a case of European Union to define priorities for acting, enhancing the achievement of sustainable solutions. It was also performed a sensitivity analysis. It was possible to conclude that the top position for the majority of the several raw materials does not change with the weights. Tantalum, Tungsten, Baryte and Antimony are always in the top positions. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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Demand management is becoming an indispensable part of grid operation with its potential to aid supply/demand balancing, reduce peaks, mitigate congestions and improve voltage profiles in the grid. Effective deployments require a huge number of reliable participators who are aware of the flexibilities of their devices and who continuously seek to achieve savings and earnings. In such applications, smart meters can ease consumption behavior visibility, while building automation systems can enable the remote and automated control of flexible loads. Moreover, gamification techniques can be used to motivate and direct customers, evaluate their performance, and improve their awareness and knowledge in the long term. This study focuses on the design and field demonstration of a flexible device-oriented, smart meter and building automation system (BAS) compatible with a gamified load management (LM) platform for residential customers. The system is designed, based on exploratory surveys and systematic gamification approaches, to motivate the customers to reduce their peak period consumption and overall energy consumption through competing or collaborating with others, and improving upon their past performance. This paper presents the design, development and implementation stages, together with the result analysis of an eight month field demonstration in four houses with different user types in Istanbul, Turkey.