Deploy Energy-efficient Technologies in the Restoration of a Traditional Building in the Historical Center of Catania (Italy)☆

Abstract The policy about energy efficiency of buildings, including minimum energy requirements and energy performance certificate (EPC), have to be also applied to existing buildings in the case of energy retrofit. In this paper, the possible strategies that can be used to reduce the energy needs of traditional massive buildings, that are widespread in the old town of the Mediterranean cities, have been investigated. To this aim, this study evaluates the energy consumption of a massive building placed in Catania city, called "La Casa del Portuale", which was recently refurbished with the aim to host two local administrative centers. The energy needs of this building was evaluated through computer simulation both in the heating and cooling period, on a yearly basis. The activities research were developed analyzing different refurbishment solutions suitable to improve the thermal performance of most traditional buildings without adversely affecting their fabric and character. Therefore, the feasibility comparison has been performed between the examined refurbishment solutions. The results of the proposed research, considering the diffusion of this typology of buildings, could be assumed as reference to a significant portion of the traditional real estate

Age-related influence of hypothyroidism on caveolins and nitric oxide modulation

Introduction: Hypothyroidism and age impact on cardiac and renal nitricoxide (NO) production. Caveolins, which are negativemodulators of NO synthase (NOS) activity, are affected byboth factors. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate caveolin (CAV) participationin the modulation of renal and cardiac NOS activityin adult hypothyroid animals. Methods: Euthyroid and hypothyroid [methimazole 0.02% (v/v) in thedrinking water during 28 days] male Sprague-Dawley ratswere used. Animals were sacrificed to remove the heart andkidneys. Results: Right atrial NOS activity decreased with age and hypothyroidism.Caveolin-1 expression increased with age andhypothyroidism. Conversely, left ventricular NOS activityincreased with aging and hypothyroidism and the expressionof both CAV isoforms decreased in adult and hypothyroidgroups. In the renal medulla, hypothyroidism reducedNOS activity in young and raised it in adult animals andCAV-1 expression decreased with age and in hypothyroidyoung animals. Caveolin-3 protein levels decreased in adulthypothyroid animals. Conclusions: Hypothyroidism impacts on NOS activity and on that ofits modulators, caveolins, in the cardiovascular and renalsystems. Hypothyroidism enhances the effects of aging inboth systems.Fil: Detomaso, Florencia M.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Braga, Paula. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, Lourdes. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Arreche, Noelia Daniela. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Sarati, Lorena Ivonne. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; ArgentinaFil: Balaszczuk, Ana María. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica; ArgentinaFil: Fellet, Andrea L.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Metabolismo del Fármaco; Argentin

Deep generative modeling for single-cell transcriptomics.

Single-cell transcriptome measurements can reveal unexplored biological diversity, but they suffer from technical noise and bias that must be modeled to account for the resulting uncertainty in downstream analyses. Here we introduce single-cell variational inference (scVI), a ready-to-use scalable framework for the probabilistic representation and analysis of gene expression in single cells ( https://github.com/YosefLab/scVI ). scVI uses stochastic optimization and deep neural networks to aggregate information across similar cells and genes and to approximate the distributions that underlie observed expression values, while accounting for batch effects and limited sensitivity. We used scVI for a range of fundamental analysis tasks including batch correction, visualization, clustering, and differential expression, and achieved high accuracy for each task

The critical role of the operating conditions on the Fenton oxidation of 2-chlorophenol: assessment of PCDD/Fs formation

This work assesses the influence of the operating conditions H2O2dose (20 or 100% of the stoichiometric amount), temperature (20 or 70◦C), and the presence of chloride in the oxidation medium in the formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) during Fenton treatment of aqueous samples of 2-chlorophenol, 2-CP, one of the strongest precursor of PCDD/Fs. After 4 h of oxidation in the experiments carried out with 20% H2O2chlorinated phenoxyphenols and biphenyls, which are intermediates in PCDD/Fs formation, as well as PCDD/Fs were observed, resulting in concentrations11 times higher than in the untreated sample. Additionally, when NaCl was also present in the reaction medium, PCDD/Fs were formed at higher extent, with a total concentration 74.4 times higher than in the untreated 2-CP solution. Results depicted a preferential formation of PCDFs over PCDDs, with dominance of lower chlorinated PCDD/Fs (tetra and penta-PCDD/Fs). Besides, the formation of the most toxic PCDD/Fs congeners (2,3,7,8-PCDD/Fs) was not favored under the operating conditions used in this work.Financial support from the projects CTQ2011-25262, CTQ2008-05545 and CTQ2008-00690 (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad – MINECO (SPAIN) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional – FEDER) is gratefully acknowledged

Pyrite-induced hydroxyl radical formation and its effect on nucleic acids

BACKGROUND: Pyrite, the most abundant metal sulphide on Earth, is known to spontaneously form hydrogen peroxide when exposed to water. In this study the hypothesis that pyrite-induced hydrogen peroxide is transformed to hydroxyl radicals is tested. RESULTS: Using a combination of electron spin resonance (ESR) spin-trapping techniques and scavenging reactions involving nucleic acids, the formation of hydroxyl radicals in pyrite/aqueous suspensions is demonstrated. The addition of EDTA to pyrite slurries inhibits the hydrogen peroxide-to-hydroxyl radical conversion, but does not inhibit the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Given the stability of EDTA chelation with both ferrous and ferric iron, this suggests that the addition of the EDTA prevents the transformation by chelation of dissolved iron species. CONCLUSION: While the exact mechanism or mechanisms of the hydrogen peroxide-to-hydroxyl radical conversion cannot be resolved on the basis of the experiments reported in this study, it is clear that the pyrite surface promotes the reaction. The formation of hydroxyl radicals is significant because they react nearly instantaneously with most organic molecules. This suggests that the presence of pyrite in natural, engineered, or physiological aqueous systems may induce the transformation of a wide range of organic molecules. This finding has implications for the role pyrite may play in aquatic environments and raises the question whether inhalation of pyrite dust contributes to the development of lung diseases