Cool Roof Impact on Building Energy Need: The Role of Thermal Insulation with Varying Climate Conditions

Cool roof effectiveness in improving building thermal-energy performance is affected by different variables. In particular, roof insulation level and climate conditions are key parameters influencing cool roofs benefits and whole building energy performance. This work aims at assessing the role of cool roof in the optimum roof configuration, i.e., combination of solar reflectance capability and thermal insulation level, in terms of building energy performance in different climate conditions worldwide. To this aim, coupled dynamic thermal-energy simulation and optimization analysis is carried out. In detail, multi-dimensional optimization of combined building roof thermal insulation and solar reflectance is developed to minimize building annual energy consumption for heating-cooling. Results highlight how a high reflectance roof minimizes annual energy need for a small standard office building in the majority of considered climates. Moreover, building energy performance is more sensitive to roof solar reflectance than thermal insulation level, except for the coldest conditions. Therefore, for the selected building, the optimum roof typology presents high solar reflectance capability (0.8) and no/low insulation level (0.00-0.03 m), except for extremely hot or cold climate zones. Accordingly, this research shows how the classic approach of super-insulated buildings should be reframed for the office case toward truly environmentally friendly buildings.The work was partially funded by the Spanish government (RTI2018-093849-B-C31). This work was partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme. Dr. Alvaro de Gracia has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 712949 (TECNIOspring PLUS) and from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia. This publication has emanated from research supported (in part) by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the SFI Strategic Partnership Programme Grant Number SFI/15/SPP/E3125

Greenery System for Cooling Down Outdoor Spaces: Results of an Experimental Study

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) and nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognized as strategies to address urban sustainability challenges. These solutions are attracting key scientific and marketing attention thanks to their capability to improve indoor and outdoor thermal comfort and environmental quality of spaces. In urban areas, where most of the population worldwide lives, indoor-outdoor environmental quality is compromised by local and temporary overheating phenomena, air pollution concentration, and impervious surfaces minimizing urban space resilience to climate change related hazards. In this view, the proposed study concerns the analysis of a greenery system for enhancing outdoor thermal conditions and local warming mitigation for pedestrians for the continental Mediterranean climate. The system has the purpose of designing an outdoor 'alive' shading system to be applied in open public spaces, with producing physical and societal benefits. The experimental results showed that the implementation of the greenery, characterized by lower surface temperatures and evapotranspiration compared to a simple pergola system, allows the reduction of outdoor air temperature under the shading system and, thus, higher relative humidity in summer. Specifically, the hygrothermal cooling and the additional shading thanks to the presence of greenery provide local air temperature reduction up to 5 C at pedestrian level.Funding: This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31 - MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). The authors from University of Perugia thank Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia for supporting the investigation about biomaterials within the project SOS CITTÁ 2018.0499.026. Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme

Bio-inspired outdoor systems for enhancing citizens thermal comfort in public spaces by learning from nature

In the last decades a variety of high-energy efficient solutions for building envelopes were developed and tested for enhancing indoor thermal comfort and improving indoor environmental quality of private spaces by learning from nature. To this aim, adaptive solutions, conceived thanks to green and bio inspiration, were designed and constructed in various climate conditions and for a variety of building uses. Given the huge population flow toward urban areas, well-being conditions in the public spaces of such dense built environment are being compromised, also due to anthropogenic actions responsible for massive environmental pollution, local overheating, urban heat island, etc. Moreover, this process is exacerbated by temporary phenomena such as heat waves. Therefore, outdoor spaces are becoming increasingly less comfortable and even dangerous for citizens, especially if they are affected by general energy poverty, with no chance for active systems management for air conditioning, or health vulnerability. In this view, this study concerns the first concept for the development of a simple and adaptive nature-inspired solution for outdoor thermal comfort enhancement and local overheating mitigation for pedestrians. The system will be evaluated in terms of the cradle-to-cradle approach and the initial performance assessment is carried out via thermal-energy dynamic simulation. The final purpose will be to design outdoor “alive” shading system to be applied in open public spaces, with evident physical and social benefits

Bright, point X-ray source based on a commercial portable 40 ps Nd:YAG laser system

We present some experimental results on X-ray spectra obtained from plasmas produced using a compact Nd:YAG laser system. The beam was focused on different targets (Cu, Al, Ge,…) and both high resolution and low resolution X-ray spectra were recorded

Optimization of coupled building roof solar reflectance and thermal insulation level for annual energy saving under different climate zones

The aim of this work is to assess building energy performance optimization potential of cool roof solutions in different climate conditions worldwide through dynamic thermal-energy simulation and optimization analysis. Moreover, given the dependence of roof performance on insulation level, the influence of roof insulation variation on optimum roof solar reflectance is evaluated. Therefore, the multi-dimensional optimization of combined building roof solar reflectance capability and thermal insulation level is carried out to minimize annual energy consumption for air-conditioning of standard ASHRAE building model for small offices, in each considered climate zone. Findings of this research highlight how the classic approach of super-insulated buildings for energy saving needs to be reframed for the office case, by integrating other passive solutions for truly environmentally friendly and comfortable buildings.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°657466 (INPATH-TES). The work is partially funded by the Spanish government (ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R (MINECO/FEDER) and ENE2015-64117-C5-3-R (MINECO/FEDER)). The authors from the University of Lleida would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2014 SGR 123). Anna Laura Pisello’s acknowledgments are due to the UNESCO Chair “Water Resources Management and Culture”, for supporting her research. Alvaro de Gracia would like to thank Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2014-19940

Increased cancer risk in patients undergoing dialysis: a population-based cohort study in North-Eastern Italy

open116noBACKGROUND: In southern Europe, the risk of cancer in patients with end-stage kidney disease receiving dialysis has not been well quantified. The aim of this study was to assess the overall pattern of risk for de novo malignancies (DNMs) among dialysis patients in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, north-eastern Italy. METHODS: A population-based cohort study among 3407 dialysis patients was conducted through a record linkage between local healthcare databases and the cancer registry (1998-2013). Person-years (PYs) were calculated from 30 days after the date of first dialysis to the date of DNM diagnosis, kidney transplant, death, last follow-up or December 31, 2013, whichever came first. The risk of DNM, as compared to the general population, was estimated using standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: During 10,798 PYs, 357 DNMs were diagnosed in 330 dialysis patients. A higher than expected risk of 1.3-fold was found for all DNMs combined (95% CI: 1.15-1.43). The risk was particularly high in younger dialysis patients (SIR = 1.88, 95% CI: 1.42-2.45 for age 40-59 years), and it decreased with age. Moreover, significantly increased DNM risks emerged during the first 3 years since dialysis initiation, especially within the first year (SIR = 8.52, 95% CI: 6.89-10.41). Elevated excess risks were observed for kidney (SIR = 3.18; 95% CI: 2.06-4.69), skin non-melanoma (SIR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.46-2.22), oral cavity (SIR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.36-4.00), and Kaposi's sarcoma (SIR = 10.29, 95% CI: 1.25-37.16). CONCLUSIONS: The elevated risk for DNM herein documented suggest the need to implement a targeted approach to cancer prevention and control in dialysis patients.openTaborelli, Martina; Toffolutti, Federica; Del Zotto, Stefania; Clagnan, Elena; Furian, Lucrezia; Piselli, Pierluca; Citterio, Franco; Zanier, Loris; Boscutti, Giuliano; Serraino, Diego for the Italian Transplant & Cancer Cohort Study; Sarah Shalaby, Raffaella Petrara, Patrizia Burra, Giacomo Zanus, Stefano Zanini,Paolo Rigotti; Maria Rendina, AlfredoDi Leo, Francesco Paolo Schena, Giuseppe Grandaliano, Marco Fiorentino, Augusto Lauro, Antonio Daniele Pinna, PaoloDi Gioia, Sara Pellegrini, Chiara Zanfi, Maria Piera Scolari, Sergio Stefoni, PaolaTodeschini, Laura Panicali, Chiara Valentini, Umberto Baccarani, Andrea Risaliti, Gian Luigi Adani, Dario Lorenzin, Giuseppe Maria Ettorre, Giovanni Vennarecci,Marco Colasanti, Manuela Coco, Fabrizio Ettorre, Roberto Santoro, LuciaMiglioresi, Francesco Nudo, Massimo Rossi,Gianluca Mennini, Luca Toti, GiuseppeTisone, Annachiara Casella, Laura Fazzolari, Daniele Sforza, Giuseppe Iaria,Carlo Gazia, Chiara Belardi, ClaudiaCimaglia, Alessandro Agresta, Gianpiero D’Offizi, Ubaldo Visco Comandini,Raffaella Lionetti, Marzia Montalbano, Chiara Taibi, Giovanni Fantola, Fausto Zamboni, Gian Benedetto Piredda,Maria Benigna Michittu, Maria Gavina Murgia, Bruno Onano, Lucia Fratino, Luigino Dal Maso, Paolo De Paoli, Diana Verdirosi,Emanuela Vaccher, Francesco Pisani, Antonio Famulari, Federica Delreno, Samuele Iesari, LindaDe Luca, Maurizio Iaria, Enzo Capocasale,Elena Cremaschi, Silvio Sandrini, Francesca Valerio,Valentina Mazzucotelli, Nicola Bossini, Gisella Setti, Massimiliano Veroux, Pierfrancesco Veroux, Giuseppe Giuffrida,Alessia Giaquinta, Domenico Zerbo, GhilBusnach, Laura Di Leo, Maria Luisa Perrino, Marialuisa Querques, ValerianaColombo, Maria Chiara Sghirlanzoni , Piergiorgio Messa, Antonio Leoni , Laura Galatioto, Salvatore Gruttadauria, Vito Sparacino, FlaviaCaputo, Barbara Buscemi ,Franco Cit-terio, Gionata Spagnoletti, Maria Paola Salerno, Evaldo Favi Giuseppe Paolo Segoloni, Luigi Biancone, AntonioLavacca, Maria Cristina Maresca, CarmeloCascone, Bice Virgilio, Donato Donati, Fiorella Dossi, Andrea Fontanella, Andrea Ambrosini, Marco Di CiccoTaborelli, Martina; Toffolutti, Federica; Del Zotto, Stefania; Clagnan, Elena; Furian, Lucrezia; Piselli, Pierluca; Citterio, Franco; Zanier, Loris; Boscutti, Giuliano; Serraino, Diego for the Italian Transplant & Cancer Cohort Study; Shalaby, Sarah; Petrara, MARIA RAFFAELLA; Burra, Patrizia; Zanus, Giacomo; Zanini, Stefano; Rigotti, Paolo; Maria, Rendina; Alfredodi, Leo; Francesco Paolo Schena, ; Giuseppe, Grandaliano; Marco, Fiorentino; Augusto, Lauro; Antonio Daniele Pinna, ; Paolodi, Gioia; Sara, Pellegrini; Chiara, Zanfi; Maria Piera Scolari, ; Sergio, Stefoni; Paolatodeschini, ; Laura, Panicali; Chiara, Valentini; Umberto, Baccarani; Andrea, Risaliti; Gian Luigi Adani, ; Dario, Lorenzin; Giuseppe Maria Ettorre, ; Giovanni, Vennarecci; Marco, Colasanti; Manuela, Coco; Fabrizio, Ettorre; Roberto, Santoro; Luciamiglioresi, ; Francesco, Nudo; Massimo, Rossi; Gianluca, Mennini; Luca, Toti; Giuseppetisone, ; Annachiara, Casella; Laura, Fazzolari; Daniele, Sforza; Giuseppe, Iaria; Carlo, Gazia; Chiara, Belardi; Claudiacimaglia, ; Alessandro, Agresta; Gianpiero, D’Offizi; Ubaldo Visco Comandini, ; Raffaella, Lionetti; Marzia, Montalbano; Chiara, Taibi; Giovanni, Fantola; Fausto, Zamboni; Gian Benedetto Piredda, ; Maria Benigna Michittu, ; Maria Gavina Murgia, ; Bruno, Onano; Lucia, Fratino; Luigino Dal Maso, ; Paolo De Paoli, ; Diana, Verdirosi; Emanuela, Vaccher; Francesco, Pisani; Antonio, Famulari; Federica, Delreno; Samuele, Iesari; Lindade, Luca; Maurizio, Iaria; Enzo, Capocasale; Elena, Cremaschi; Silvio, Sandrini; Francesca, Valerio; Valentina, Mazzucotelli; Nicola, Bossini; Gisella, Setti; Massimiliano, Veroux; Pierfrancesco, Veroux; Giuseppe, Giuffrida; Alessia, Giaquinta; Domenico, Zerbo; Ghilbusnach, ; Laura Di Leo, ; Maria Luisa Perrino, ; Marialuisa, Querques; Valerianacolombo, ; Maria Chiara Sghirlanzoni, ; Piergiorgio, Messa; Antonio, Leoni; Laura, Galatioto; Salvatore, Gruttadauria; Vito, Sparacino; Flaviacaputo, ; Barbara, Buscemi; Franco, Cit-terio; Gionata, Spagnoletti; Maria Paola Salerno, ; Evaldo Favi Giuseppe Paolo Segoloni, ; Luigi, Biancone; Antoniolavacca, ; Maria Cristina Maresca, ; Carmelocascone, ; Bice, Virgilio; Donato, Donati; Fiorella, Dossi; Andrea, Fontanella; Andrea, Ambrosini; Marco Di Cicco

Risk of cancer in persons with AIDS in Italy, 1985–1998

Risk of cancer in persons with AID

No Efficacy of the Combination of Lopinavir/Ritonavir Plus Hydroxychloroquine Versus Standard of Care in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: A Non-Randomized Comparison

Objectives: No specific treatment has been approved for COVID-19. Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been used with poor results, and a trial showed advantages of combined antiviral therapy vs. single antivirals. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the combination of antivirals (LPV/r and HCQ) or their single use in COVID-19 hospitalized patients vs. standard of care (SoC). Methods: Patients ≥18 years with SARS-CoV-2 infection, defined as positive RT-PCR from nasal/oropharyngeal (NP/OP) swab or positive serology, admitted at L. Spallanzani Institute (Italy) were included. Primary endpoint: time to invasive ventilation/death. Secondary endpoint: time to two consecutive negative SARS-CoV-2 PCRs in NP/OP swabs. In order to control for measured confounders, a marginal Cox regression model with inverse probability weights was used. Results: A total of 590 patients were included in the analysis: 36.3% female, 64 years (IQR 51-76), and 91% with pneumonia. Cumulative probability of invasive ventilation/death at 14 days was 21.2% (95% CI 17.6, 24.7), without difference between SOC, LPV/r, hydroxychloroquine, HCQ + LPV/r, and SoC. The risk of invasive ventilation/death in the groups appeared to vary by baseline ratio of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen (PaO2/FiO2). Overall cumulative probability of confirmed negative nasopharyngeal swabs at 14 days was 44.4% (95% CI 38.9, 49.9), without difference between groups. Conclusion: In this retrospective analysis, we found no difference in the rate of invasive ventilation/death or viral shedding by different strategies, as in randomized trials performed to date. Moreover, even the combination HCQ + LPV/r did not show advantages vs. SoC