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This paper develops an energy management platform for intelligent buildings using a SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition). This SCADA system integrates different types of information coming from the several technologies present in modern buildings (control of ventilation, temperature, illumination, etc.). The developed control strategy implements an hierarchical cascade controller where inner loops are performed by local PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), and the outer loop is managed by a centralized SCADA system, which interacts with the entire local PLC network. In this paper a predictive controller is implemented above the centralized SCADA platform. Tests applied to the control of temperature and luminosity in huge-area rooms are presented. The developed predictive controller optimizes the satisfaction of user explicit preferences coming from several distributed user-interfaces, subjected to the overall constraints of energy waste minimization. In order to run the predictive controller with the SCADA platform a communication channel was developed to allow communication between the SCADA system and the Matlab application where the predictive controller runs.

The hoard from Coles de Samuel is one of the largest Cu-based metal collections from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) (13th–8th centuries BC) ever found in Central Portugal, consisting of 18 artefacts which typologically display a strong regional identity. In the present study, an integrated multi-analytical approach combining Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis, Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) has been used to characterise the artefacts both from a chemical and microstructural point of view with the aim to unravel their elemental composition and technological features., Results show that all artefacts are made of binary bronze (Cu-Sn) alloys, with a Sn content in the range of 8.7 ± 0.9 and 13.0 ± 1.0 wt%, with minor elements (Pb, As and Fe) never exceeding 1.1 wt% in total. The microstructure of the vast majority of the metal objects (13 out of 18) shows the presence of equiaxial α-copper grains with annealing twins and slip bands suggesting that, in the manufacturing process, they were subjected to forging plus annealing cycles. The remains of the objects present an as-cast microstructure constituted by dendritic structures, suggesting that metals did not suffer any thermo-mechanical operation after being removed from the mould. Pb, Ag and Au-rich globules together with Cu–S and unalloyed Cu-inclusions have been observed as well, resulting from impurities from ores., The typological characterisation of these metals and their archaeometallurgical data are consistent with an indigenous LBA Iberian metallurgical production supporting the hypothesis of a regional/local production and use of the artefacts from Coles de Samuel., This work has been financed by national funds by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology under the UID project UID/HIS/00057/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007702), COMPETE, FEDER, Portugal2020 and by the project “IMAGOS” – Innovative Methodologies in Archaeology, Archaeometry and Geophysics – Optimizing Strategies X LARES – Laboratorial Archaeometric and Archaeological Research – Engaging Sciences, operation no. ALENT-07-0224-FEDER-001761 funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the INALENTEJO – Specific Regulation Support System Entities System National Science and Technology. Carlo Bottaini thanks Marianna Sautariello and Lorenzo Bottaini for the support during the preparation of this paper. Rui Bordalo also acknowledges FCT for the grant SFRH/BPD/85259/2012