Renewable energy in planning of sustainable urban units, is energy autarky possible in nZEB buildings?

Energy autarky is a concept commonly used in the context the of power off-grid or remote island systems. However, it has rarely reflected the idea of self-sufficiency of urban units, especially in cities with access to external technical infrastructures such as power and district heating networks. Energy autarky can also be considered auxiliary to nZEB calculation procedures, as an energy demand-supply balancing approach for calculating renewable energy shares. In fact, in Central and Eastern Europe for existing urban tissues buildings' self-sufficiency would be difficult to achieve due to a dominating role of space heating in energy demand shares. Proportions can, however, change in nZEB (nearly zero energy) buildings, with increasing importance and shares of electricity in the final energy consumption and a decreasing role of space heat. In this article a new approach to planning of energy (electricity) autarky at the level of an urban unit is presented, taking into account new nZEB standards at the same time. This is supposed to serve as a voice in the discourse on the formulation of future methodologies

Metabolic syndrome is associated with similar long-term prognosis in non-obese and obese patients. An analysis of 45 615 patients from the nationwide LIPIDOGRAM 2004-2015 cohort studies

Aims We aimed to evaluate the association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and long-term all-cause mortality. Methods The LIPIDOGRAM studies were carried out in the primary care in Poland in 2004, 2006 and 2015. MetS was diagnosed based on the National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP/ATP III) and Joint Interim Statement (JIS) criteria. The cohort was divided into four groups: non-obese patients without MetS, obese patients without MetS, non-obese patients with MetS and obese patients with MetS. Differences in all-cause mortality was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Results 45,615 participants were enrolled (mean age 56.3, standard deviation: 11.8 years; 61.7% female). MetS was diagnosed in 14,202 (31%) by NCEP/ATP III criteria, and 17,216 (37.7%) by JIS criteria. Follow-up was available for 44,620 (97.8%, median duration 15.3 years) patients. MetS was associated with increased mortality risk among the obese (hazard ratio, HR: 1.88 [95% CI, 1.79-1.99] and HR: 1.93 [95% CI 1.82-2.04], according to NCEP/ATP III and JIS criteria, respectively) and non-obese individuals (HR: 2.11 [95% CI 1.85-2.40] and 1.7 [95% CI, 1.56-1.85] according to NCEP/ATP III and JIS criteria respectively). Obese patients without MetS had a higher mortality risk than non-obese patients without MetS (HR: 1.16 [95% CI 1.10-1.23] and HR: 1.22 [95%CI 1.15-1.30], respectively in subgroups with NCEP/ATP III and JIS criteria applied). Conclusions MetS is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk in non-obese and obese patients. In patients without MetS obesity remains significantly associated with mortality. The concept of metabolically healthy obesity should be revised