Abstract

Abstract
The European Union (EU) has been promoting an integrated approach to climate protection and energy policy, through a set of key objectives for 2020, 2030 and 2050, linking Europe’s green agenda with its need for energy security and competitiveness. This paper aims to evaluate the environmental efficiency of European Countries from 2010 to 2015 towards 2020 targets, through a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The DEA model assesses the ability of each country in minimizing current resources while maximizing the gross domestic product (GDP) and minimizing undesirable outputs, such as GhG emissions. The DEA model is based on Directional Distance Function (DDF), imposing weak disposability for the undesirable output (UO). Results obtained show that globally, in the period under analysis, the EU has increased its environmental efficiency which is consistent with the analysis of the indicators of the 2020 climate and energy package. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Abstract
Currently smartphones are used extensively by students. Thus, their proper use within teaching/learning activities is a reality which needs to be addressed. How teachers and students without advanced programming skills can develop their own mobile devices applications? An attempt to answer this question is presented in control engineering teaching and learning activities. It will be shown that the MIT App Inventor 2 provides an excellent tool to develop simple applications for Android based mobile devices. Examples of applications designed both by lecturers and students using the MIT App Inventor 2 are described, outlining different uses and features. A case study of using applications to support teaching/learning of PLC programming is presented.

Abstract
Electrical, heating and cooling energy demands of the end users are increasing day by day. For the sake of using fewer fossil fuels, decreasing the energy costs and gas emissions as well as increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the traditional energy systems, multi-energy systems (MESs) have begun to be used. In this study, a MES structure which also includes renewable-based generation units as suppliers together with combined heating and power (CHP) and heat pumps (HPs) is presented. The proposed MES structure is modelled as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem with the objective of minimizing total gas and electricity costs in daily operation. Furthermore, electric vehicles (EVs) as a new type of electrical load with inherently different characteristics are evaluated considering different end-user types as residential and commercial together with the capability of offering operational flexibility. In order to tackle with the intermittent structure of the renewable energy sources, a scenario oriented stochastic programming concept is taken into account by addressing real radiation, temperature, and wind data. Moreover, actual time-of-use (TOU) tariffs for electricity prices along with the real gas prices are evaluated. The simulation results of the devised model are given for different case studies and the effectiveness of the system is demonstrated via a comparative study. As a result, it is found that the operational costs are decreased nearly 5.49% by integrating only photovoltaic (PV) production according to the case which has no additional sources. Also, a substantial reduction of 13.45% is achieved by considering both PV and wind generation. Moreover, the flexibility is increased with taking EVs into account on the demand side and this leads to a cost reduction of 8.81% even if EVs are integrated to the system as an extra load.

Abstract

Abstract
Multi-agent Dynamic Epistemic Logic, as a suitable modal logic to reason about knowledge evolving systems, has emerged in a number of contexts and scenarios. The agents knowledge in this logic is simply characterised by valuations of propositions. This paper discusses the adoption of other richer structures to make these representations, as graphs, algebras or even epistemic models. This method of building epistemic logics over richer structures is called "Epistemisation". On this view a parametric method to build such Epistemic Logics with Public Announcements is introduced. Moreover, a parametric notion of bisimulation is presented, and the modal invariance of the proposed logics, with respect to this relation, are proved. Some interesting application horizons opened with this construction are stated.