Causal Modelling Based on Bayesian Networks for Preliminary Design of Buildings

Bayesian networks are a very general and powerful tool that can be used for a large number of problems involving uncertainty: reasoning, learning, planning and perception. They provide a language that supports efficient algorithms for the automatic construction of expert systems in several different contexts. The range of applications of Bayesian networks currently extends over almost all fields including engineering, biology and medicine, information and communication technologies and finance. This book is a collection of original contributions to the methodology and applications of Bayesian networks. It contains recent developments in the field and illustrates, on a sample of applications, the power of Bayesian networks in dealing the modeling of complex systems. Readers that are not familiar with this tool, but have some technical background, will find in this book all necessary theoretical and practical information on how to use and implement Bayesian networks in their own work. There is no doubt that this book constitutes a valuable resource for engineers, researchers, students and all those who are interested in discovering and experiencing the potential of this major tool of the century

Augmented Reality Application Supporting On-Site Secondary Building Assets Management

none5sinoneA. Corneli, B. Naticchia, A. Carbonari, F. Bosché, L. PrincipiCorneli, A.; Naticchia, B.; Carbonari, A.; Bosché, F.; Principi, L

Low level exposure to cadmium increases the risk of chronic kidney disease: analysis of the NHANES 1999-2006

BACKGROUND: Environmental factors have been associated with the outbreak of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We evaluated the association of Cadmium (Cd) exposure with the risk of CKD in U.S. adults who participated in the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). METHODS: 5426 subjects > or = 20 years were stratified for values of urinary and blood Cd and a multivariate logistic regression was performed to test the association between blood and urinary Cd, CKD and albuminuria (ALB) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index and smoking habits. RESULTS: Subjects with urinary Cd > 1 mcg/g and subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with ALB (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.23, 2.16; P = 0.001). Subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with both CKD (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.01, 2.17; P = 0.046) and ALB (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10, 1.82; P = 0.007). An interaction effect on ALB was found for high levels of urinary and blood Cd (P = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: Moderately high levels of urinary and blood Cd are associated with a higher proportion of CKD and ALB in the United States population

Design and first development of an automated real‐time safety management system for construction sites

This paper reports a feasibility study which addressed the development of a new, advanced system mainly devoted to automatic real‐time health and safety management on construction sites. The preliminary analyses and experiments described in this paper concern two of the most important functionalities which must be included in the system's final release. The first functionality consists in real‐time position‐tracking of workers involved on construction sites and the second ‐ in a software tool for the prevention of non‐authorized access to dangerous zones. This research step is part of a vaster, ongoing research project, addressing the development of a new generation of advanced construction management systems which allow real‐time monitoring and coordination of tasks, automatic health and safety management, on‐site delivery of technical information and the capture of "as‐built" documentation. This paper focuses mainly on the development of a reliable methodology for real‐time monitoring of the position of both workers and equipment in outdoor construction sites by applying Ultra Wide Band (UWB) based technologies. This positioning system was then interfaced with a software tool which performs virtual fencing of pre‐selected, dangerous areas. Guidelines for the design of the receivers' topology will be addressed and the results of measurements recorded on a typical medium‐sized block of flats, during different phases of the construction progress will be summed up. Finally, the preliminary experimental results obtained by the virtual fencing application tool will be presented and used to plan future research objectives. Santrauka Straipsnyje aptartos naujos automatinės darbo ir saugos valdymo sistemos statybos aikštelėje kūrimo galimybės. Aprašytos preliminarios analizės ir eksperimentai – du pagrindiniai veiksniai, kurie turi būti įtraukti į galutinį sistemos variantą. Pirmasis veiksnys susijęs su statybos aikštelės darbininkų padėties realiu laiku nustatymu. Kompiuterine programa ribojamas jų patekimas į pavojingas neleistinas zonas. Šie tyrimai yra didelio besitęsiančio projekto dalis. Projektas susijęs su naujos kartos statybos valdymo sistemos kūrimu. Sistema leis kontroliuoti statybos eigą realiu laiku, užtikrinti automatinį darbų saugos valdymą, techninės informacijos ir dokumentacijos gavimą. Straipsnyje pagrindinis dėmesys sukoncentruotas į patikimos metodikos kūrimą. Taikant šią metodiką ir ultraplačiajuosčio bevielio ryšio (angl. Ultra Wide Band (UWB)) technologiją, galima bus nustatyti darbininkų ir įrangos padėtį atvirose statybos aikštelėse realiu laiku. Ši nustatymo sistema per grafinę terpę yra sujungta su programine įranga, kuri sukuria virtualų aptvarą iš anksto nurodytoms pavojingoms zonoms. Pateiktos imtuvo topologijos projektavimo rekomendacijos. Įvertinti tipinių vidutinio dydžio butų blokų užfiksuotų matavimų rezultatai skirtingais statybos etapais. Pateikti preliminarūs eksperimentiniai rezultatai, gauti įvedus virtualaus aptvėrimo koncepciją. Šie rezultatai bus panaudoti planuojant būsimų tyrimų tikslus

Associations between depressive symptoms and disease progression in older patients with chronic kidney disease: results of the EQUAL study

Background Depressive symptoms are associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with end-stage kidney disease; however, few small studies have examined this association in patients with earlier phases of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We studied associations between baseline depressive symptoms and clinical outcomes in older patients with advanced CKD and examined whether these associations differed depending on sex. Methods CKD patients (>= 65 years; estimated glomerular filtration rate <= 20 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) were included from a European multicentre prospective cohort between 2012 and 2019. Depressive symptoms were measured by the five-item Mental Health Inventory (cut-off <= 70; 0-100 scale). Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to study associations between depressive symptoms and time to dialysis initiation, all-cause mortality and these outcomes combined. A joint model was used to study the association between depressive symptoms and kidney function over time. Analyses were adjusted for potential baseline confounders. Results Overall kidney function decline in 1326 patients was -0.12 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/month. A total of 515 patients showed depressive symptoms. No significant association was found between depressive symptoms and kidney function over time (P = 0.08). Unlike women, men with depressive symptoms had an increased mortality rate compared with those without symptoms [adjusted hazard ratio 1.41 (95% confidence interval 1.03-1.93)]. Depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with a higher hazard of dialysis initiation, or with the combined outcome (i.e. dialysis initiation and all-cause mortality). Conclusions There was no significant association between depressive symptoms at baseline and decline in kidney function over time in older patients with advanced CKD. Depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with a higher mortality rate in men

Feasibility analysis of an active technology to improve acoustic comfort in buildings

In buildings, windows and glazed facades are often the preferred noise path for exterior disturbing noise towards the interior. Since passive means for improving sound transmission loss (STL) of glazed facades are very expensive and are effective only at high frequencies, an active controller that increases the STL in the low-frequency range is an attractive approach for reducing the noise level in buildings with glazed facades, guaranteeing the performance required by the 89/106/CEE European Directive, which made protection against noise a compulsory requirement for buildings. As buildings are often inserted in highly inhabited urban areas, near infrastructures and plants radiating high noise levels, the strategic importance of this task is increasing, together with the importance of acoustic comfort inside buildings. This paper concerns a feasibility study on the implementation of an active structural control system for glazed facades, in order to improve their STL at low frequencies. At present, applications for the reduction of noise level inside cars and planes are known. Relative to the use of active structural acoustic control (ASAC) systems, these systems are based on the reduction of structural vibrations through the use of actuators bonded on the vibrating surfaces, driven by an automated control system, whose task is minimizing those vibrations, and the radiated sound as a consequence. In this work, it is shown that actuators bonded on the vibrating surfaces, driven by an automated control system, are able to dramatically reduce those vibrations and, consequently, the radiated sound. The proposed technology is tested through experiments and numerical simulations, in order to compute the reduction of interior noise that could be pursued through the use of piezoelectric stack actuators

Tecnologie innovative a supporto della gestione della sicurezza nei cantieri

Decisions made during project planning strongly influence the level of safety which can be reached on site. However, some hazards are generated by the concurrence of several unpredictable risk factors. So the use of tracking systems might become decisive.In this paper we will present three example of advanced monitoring systems: one proactive safety management system to prevent overhead hazards; one infrastructureless real-time monitoring system to avoid hazardous interferences among the several teams operating on site; one real-time control system of fine particle concentration in construction sites. They all take advantage of the use of advanced technologies and implement some intelligent logics to evaluate the corresponding hazard level. ICT based technologies are shown to positively influence health and safety in construction site.Il conseguimento di elevati livelli di sicurezza in cantiere è infl uenzato dalle decisioni assunte in fase di programmazione. Permangono tuttavia i pericoli generati dalla concomitanza di fattori impredicibili, che possono essere mitigati dall’adozione di sistemi di monitoraggio automatico.Questo contributo presenterà tre sistemi: un sistema proattivo adatto a prevenire rischi di caduta di materiali dall’alto; un sistema di monitoraggio in tempo reale a bassa infrastrutturazione per segnalare interferenze pericolose tra le squadre; un sistema di controllo in tempo reale della concentrazione di particolato fi ne. Tutti questi sistemi adottano tecnologie avanzate e implementano logiche per valutare il livello di rischio contingente. Si mostra perciò come l’impiego di tecnologie ICT può supportare la gestione della sicurezza