Non-technological barriers to the diffusion of energy-efficient HVAC&R solutions in the food retail sector

SuperSmart is an European Union (EU) project aiming at speeding up the uptake of energy-efficient re- frigeration, heating and cooling solutions for Europe\u2019s food retail sector, reducing its energy use, lowering its environmental footprint and increasing its economic benefits. The project pursues the removal of non- technological barriers to efficient heating & cooling in the European food retail sector and supports the introduction of a new EU Ecolabel for food retail stores. Non-technological barriers have been mapped and categorized by preliminary interviewing food re- tail sector stakeholders. While highlighting a general positive attitude towards energy efficiency of the sector stakeholders, the results of the survey reveal the need for specific actions focused on improving the knowledge level of technical staff, from the planning and design stage down to servicing and main- tenance. Raising awareness about available technology and financial support is also required. In general terms, barriers are always perceived as stronger when moving North to South, and West to East in Europe, thus emphasizing the need for homogenization of virtuous practices and attitudes throughout Europ

Impact of combination chemotherapy on toxicity in ovarian cancer: Systematic revision of literature and meta-analysis

The purpose of this statistical analysis is to demonstrate the real advantages in terms of cost-benefit of combination chemotherapy compared with single-agent chemotherapy. The trials, which are used in this meta-analysis, have been searched on PubMed database and they are phase II or randomized phase III studies with only chemotherapy regimens. In this meta-analysis were evaluated adverse effects with odds ratio (OR), which is expressed in 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Only 4 studies contained all the set selection criteria and they were selected. The data, which were obtained, were analyzed using MedCalc Application. The combination therapy was more strongly linked to certain adverse events than to chemotherapy with a single agent: thrombocytopenia, anemia, neutropenia and nausea. The data obtained for leukopenia, for vomiting and for stomatitis are not statistically significant, as well as those of antitumor activity. Obtained data allow us to state that the overall combination therapy is more closely related to adverse effects such as thrombocytopenia, anemia, neutropenia and nausea compared tosingle-agent chemotherapy

Monitoring Of a Commercial Refrigeration CO2 System And Comparison With Simulations

The demand for natural refrigerants is growing in commercial refrigeration systems. In the recent years, carbon dioxide has increased its market share in the field of commercial refrigeration and has proven to be a viable solution for the replacement of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) systems. This success is mainly due to the ongoing technological evolution of carbon dioxide refrigeration systems. In the present paper, a CO2 commercial refrigeration unit serving a supermarket located in Northern Italy is presented. The unit consists of a booster compressor rack with parallel compression, with ten compressors arranged to provide around 20 kW cooling capacity at low temperature and 90 kW cooling capacity at medium temperature. Four out of ten compressors, provided by Frascold®, are arranged in parallel. The installation, in addition to the cooling load, provides all the thermal functions in one unit: it integrates a heat exchanger for the air conditioning and the possibility of two stage heat recovery, for sanitary hot water production and for space heating. The refrigeration unit is equipped with pressure and temperature sensors, power consumption and load analysers for the compressors. A computer model has been developed to evaluate the acquired data of the system and to analyse the key parameters. The preliminary results from the monitoring of this unit are presented in this paper and used to calibrate the model of the system. Afterwards, simulations have been performed at variable operating conditions in a cold month to evaluate the performance of the unit. The results of the model have been compared to an independent set of monitoring data

Impact evaluation of biomass used in small combustion activities sector on air emissions: Analyses of emissions from Alpine, Adriatic-Ionian and Danube EU macro-regions by using the EDGAR emissions inventory

The emissions from small stationary combustion activities sector, in particular from the energy needs for residential buildings, have significant shares in total emissions of EU28. Therefore, measures to mitigate the emissions from this less regulated sector related to implementation checking are needed. In this study, we analysed the changes in fuel mix for this sector over 1990-2012 period, the emissions and their distribution over the areas covered by European Union Strategy for Alpine macro-region (EUSALP), European Union Strategy for Adriatic and Ionian macro-region (EUSAIR) and European Union Strategy for Danube macro-region (EUSDR). The emissions gridmaps of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), black carbon (BC) and benzo(a)pyren (BaP) are presented for the year 2010; in specific circumstances, these pollutants are known to produce negative effects on health. For this research, we used the data and information of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) versions v4.3.2 and v4.tox3. Accurate emissions estimates are important to evaluate the impacts of fuel combustion in small stationary combustion activities sector on air quality, human health and crops. Inventories of GHGs, air pollutants and toxic pollutants included in EDGAR are developed by using, as input, fuel consumption from IEA (2014) and emissions factors from scientific literature and official guidebooks such as EMEP/EEA (2013). Working together with emissions inventory experts from selected countries in these macro-regions, the effects of improvements of fuel consumption statistics, biomass in particular, on emissions in the latest years have been quantified by comparing EDGAR data with national data. Besides sectorial emissions estimation, the emissions distribution is also important in the inventory development process. In order to distribute emissions consistently for all countries included in Alpine, Adriatic-Ionian and Danube macro-regions, the EDGAR team upgraded the WEB-based gridding tool with a module for small stationary combustion activities. Emissions estimation and distribution are key elements in preparing a complete input for chemical transport models and further evaluate the impacts of these emissions on air quality, health and crops. This report aims to provide the policy makers and scientists insights on the representativeness and uncertainty of local emissions from the residential sector that play an important role on air quality. These datasets can be used as input for the atmospheric chemical transport models for air pollutants and can illustrate the importance of emission inventory uncertainties and discrepancies.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

R134a Flow Boiling Heat transfer on an Electrically Heated Carbon/Carbon Surface

With the increase of heat flux densities following the Moore’s law, electronic cooling challenge is focused on the high heat flux to be dissipated by the operating fluid and more and more efficient heat spreaders, dissipators, and compact heat exchangers are in great demand for various applications. Considering the device efficiency, the boiling heat transfer ensures very high heat transfer coefficients, which can even be improved via specific surface treatments that have been shown to be very effective. In particular, several authors, experimentally demonstrated the interesting enhancement capabilities of microparticles coatings on the Critical Heat Flux. Furthermore, the recent work on nanoscale domain has led to new concepts for surface modification. In the last decade, nano-structured materials (i.e. nanowires coatings, nanoporous layers, Carbon Nano Tube arrays, etc.) have been proved to enhance the boiling heat transfer. Unfortunately, almost all of this kind of surface treatments fail when scaled up to industrial implementation because of the relatively high costs and complex operations involved. Furthermore, compactness and lightness of cooling systems are becoming even more challenging design constraints leading the research efforts towards new light and efficient materials. In this scenario, the Carbon/Carbon material appears to be a viable option for future thermal management devices because it exploits interesting properties having a low density and a high thermal conductivity; moreover, it is already used in many industrial applications where it is shaped in various forms even complex. This paper presents the experimental measurements carried out during flow boiling heat transfer of R134a on a Carbon/Carbon surface. The test section with the Carbon/Carbon sample, is electrically heated from the bottom and it is instrumented with 18 wall thermocouples to monitor the temperature distribution at an imposed heat fluxes of 50 kW m-2, and refrigerant mass flow rates from 50 to 200 kg m-2 s-1, at constant saturation temperature of 30 °C. The sample is tested in a new experimental facility built at the Nano Heat Transfer Lab of the Department of Management and Engineering of the University of Padova especially designed to study the flow boiling heat transfer process on innovative materials and enhanced micro- and nano-structured surfaces.

Effect Of The Refrigerant Charge On The System Performance And Mass Distribution In Air-To-Water Heat Pumps

Recent regulations in the matter of climate change and environmental protection are pushing to reduce the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The overall environmental impact of a refrigeration system can be reduced by optimizing and possibly minimizing the amount of refrigerant charge in the system. Even in the case of natural and low-GWP synthetic refrigerants, due to the well-known problems with toxicity and flammability, it is required to minimize the amount of refrigerant charged into the system to reduce the associated risks. The charge minimization process requires to know the refrigerant distribution to identify and redesign the critical components in terms of charge retention. This paper analyses numerically the influence of the refrigerant charge on the system performance and on the mass distribution in an air-to-water reversible heat pump working with R32. A mathematical model has been developed to simulate the unit during the cooling mode operation. The model uses the finite volume method to predict the refrigerant charge within the heat exchangers; the amount of refrigerant dissolved in the compressor oil is also accounted for. The results show that most of the charge is stored into the condenser and highlight the existence of an optimum charge that maximizes the system COP. The same model allows to compare various refrigerants in terms of direct and indirect impact on the greenhouse effect

Instructions for use and declarations of method in Aristotelian vernacular translations of Renaissance (s)

This article analyzes the rhetorical structure of the title pages of vernacular Aristotelian texts produced and published in Italy during the sixteenth century. The essay is the first part of a larger study focused on para-textual elements such as frontispieces and dedicatory epistles, which often contained specific instructions regarding the proper use of these books, as well as statements about the methods employed by the authors in their treatment of the philosophical material.Nel contributo è analizzato l’impianto dei frontespizi della letteratura aristotelica in volgare prodotta e stampata in Italia nel XVI secolo. Si tratta della prima parte di un saggio vòlto ad esaminare quegli elementi paratestuali, come frontespizi e dediche, che spesso contengono in sé istruzioni per un uso corretto del volume e dichiarazioni sul metodo seguito dall’autore nel trattamento del materiale filosofico di partenza.This article analyzes the rhetorical structure of the title pages of vernacular Aristotelian texts produced and published in Italy during the sixteenth century. The essay is the first part of a larger study focused on paratextual elements such as frontispieces and dedicatory epistles, which often contained specific instructions regarding the proper use of these books, as well as statements about the methods employed by the authors in their treatment of the philosophical material

Il Matritensis RAH 9/2170 e gli altri testimoni primari dell’Economico di Senofonte

The paper describes the ten primary witnesses of the text of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus and undertakes the study of their relationships. The affinity between the Madrid codex RAH 9/2170 and the Laur. plut. 55.21 is evident: both were copied in northern Italy from the lost codex belonging to Guarino Veronese. Equally clear is the affinity between the codices Guelf. 71.19 and Vat. Reg. gr. 96; for these two manuscripts the hypothesis of a Peloponnesian origin is raised here. Since the remaining six primary witnesses are certainly Constantinopolitans, it seems possible to distinguish a stirps Italica, a stirps Peloponnesiaca and a stirps Constantinopolitana. All ten witnesses descend from a medieval archetype