Energy and Water Monitoring for a Large Social Housing Intervention in Northern Italy

In recent years, the awareness of the problem of the performance gap and rebound effect extends the interest in assessing the real operation of buildings, in assessing how buildings match users' needs once they are occupied, and in understanding how occupants' behavior affects the actual building performance. The paper discusses the case study and presents the results of a monitoring campaign of 2 years of occupancy of a large social housing intervention recently built near Milan, for a total of 152 flats. Data about the thermal energy consumption for heating and cooling, the domestic hot and cold water use, and the occupants' intervention on controlling devices are assessed and presented. The case study is representative of the actual design and construction of high-performing multi-family buildings in Italy. All the buildings are class A rated, very highly insulated, and ventilated with centralized mechanical ventilation systems with thermodynamic heat recovery. Centralized water-to-water heat pumps supply hot and refrigerated water for heating and cooling and domestic hot water as well. A building monitoring system is installed, able to track energy and water consumption, factors influencing the energy consumption not related to the building characteristics (weather data, operational setting) as well as the overall building performance data. The results show unexpected high energy and water consumption and moreover a large variability of the energy and water consumption pattern among the dwellings and between the years due to the significant influence of the occupants' behavior and habits

A Simulation-Based Optimization Method for the Integrative Design of the Building Envelope

AbstractAn effective design of green buildings requires a process of optimization to meet all the sustainability goals through an integrative design approach. The research focuses on the development of a replicable methodology for the optimization of the building features that affects specifically the energy demand and indoor comfort conditions.Optimal design solutions are found following two steps: minimization of the total energy demand for heating, cooling and lighting coupling TRNSYS®, a dynamic simulation software, and GenOpt®, a Generic optimization program; a post-processing analysis considering thermal and visual comfort aspects. This optimization methodology was conducted on a school classroom case-study

Caspase-3-like activity and proteasome degradation in grapevine suspension cell cultures undergoing silver-induced programmed cell death

Toxic metal contamination is one of the major environmental concerns of the recent decade, due to the large application of metals in industrial, healthcare and commercial products, even in the form of nanostructures and nanomaterials. Nevertheless, the effects of silver (Ag+) on plants have not yet thoroughly elucidated. Therefore, suspension cell cultures of grapevine were used as a model for investigating silver toxicity. To do this, oxidative stress and programmed cell death (PCD), evaluated as reactive oxygen species production, caspase-3-like activity and ubiquitin-proteasome system, were investigated. As a result, the highest concentration (10 \u3bcM) of Ag+ caused a rapid (within 24 h) induction of PCD (approx. 80%), accompanied by generation of reactive oxygen species and activation of caspase-3-like activity. In the presence of specific inhibitor of this enzyme, a partial recovery of cell viability and a strong inhibition of caspase- 3-like activity was observed. In addition, silver-induced PCD was accompanied either by increase of poly-ubiquitin conjugated proteins and degradation of subunit PBA1 of the proteasome 20S core, similarly to what found for metal-induced neurotoxicity in animals. The present study shows that silver could induce PCD in grapevine suspension cell cultures, mediated by caspase-3-like activity and oxidative stress. These effects were associated to accumulation of poly-ubiquitin conjugated proteins, suggesting the impairment of ubiquitin-proteasome complex, confirmed by the decrease of the PBA1 subunit. These findings indicate that animal and plant cells could share a common pathway in response to toxic metal, which involves PCD and disassembling of proteasome complex

Current and future precipitation in the Karakoram-Himalaya and the role of western weather patterns

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 B

Testimonio y documentación en ficciones de Malvinas

Resumen La guerra de Malvinas es un hito en nuestra historia contemporánea: fue el único conflicto bélico del siglo XX en el que Argentina participó y quizás el que resulta más controvertido a la hora de construir un relato sobre el pasado. Abordar el relato Malvinas supone considerar disputas sociales, recuerdos y olvidos deliberados, narrativas y actos de alto poder simbólico. El punto de partida de nuestro trabajo es la relación entre memoria e identidad. Para abordar esa relación, nos centramos en el análisis del libro testimonial de Edgardo Esteban, Iluminados por el fuego (1993), y en la novela Trasfondo de Patricia Ratto (2012)

Building monitoring system in a large social housing intervention in Northern Italy

Within the framework of the well-known problem of the performance gap, the paper demonstrates how a building monitoring system is able to provide feedback data instrumental to address the ongoing management issues of multi-family buildings in social housing: the need to have a good understanding of what works and what does not in building operation, the need of bills controlling and allocation of individual costs between the occupants, the facility and energy management requirements including the understanding of occupant’s behavior. It adopts a case study approach, discussing the case of a large environmentally friendly social housing intervention consisting in 323 flats, in which a building monitoring system was installed

Can agriculture be eco-friendly? Plant extracts as grapevine defense inducers

Secondary metabolites confer a first set of defenses against pathogens and herbivore attack. The use of plant extracts (PE), enriched in these compounds, could represent an additional practice in environment friendly grapevine pest management. During biotic stress, the induction of different pathogenesis-related (PR) gene-expression, such as chitinase, often occurs. In the present work, four different plant extracts were tested for their modulation of chitinase activity in either grapevine suspension cell cultures (GSC) and plants

Influence of envelope design in the optimization of the operational energy costs of a multi-family building

The international efforts for improving energy efficiency in buildings and reducing their environmental impact also constitute a challenge for working against the risk of energy poverty. The work aims to test a methodology for optimizing the operational costs of the different flats of a multi-family building for social housing. The method combines the use of TRNSYS building energy simulation program with GenOpt Generic Optimization program in a so-called simulation-based optimization method. A typical floor of a real case study building was modeled and the energy costs for heating and cooling due to the variation of design variables related to the building envelope was studied. The optimization led to reduce the total operational costs of the flats by the range 17%-23%. The different share of heating, cooling, ventilation and DHW in the total operational costs was studied and resulted differences in energy rating and costs between flats were analyzed

Influence of envelope design in the optimization of the energy performance of a multi-family building

In Europe, the recast of the Directive on the Energy Performance of Building and the consequent Zero Energy Buildings objective that has to be reached for all new buildings by 2020, lead designers to re-think building design as a complex optimization problem aimed at identifying the most effective strategies to improve building performance.These strategies can help reducing not only the climate change effect, but also the risk of energy poverty for low-income households. This work is intended to apply a simulation-based optimization methodology for optimizingthe energy performance of a multi-family building for social housing. The method combines the use of TRNSYS® withGenOpt®. A typical floor of a real case study was modeled and the impacts of the variation of several design parameters on the heating and cooling demand wereassessed.The optimization lead to reduce the primary energy demand of a floor by 36%. The resulted differences in performance and energy rating between flats were analyzed

Bilateral neck cysts as an isolated sonographic finding in the antenatal detection of fetal aneuploidy: a case report

Isolated fetal lateral neck cysts can represent a cystic hygroma or a developmental remnant cyst. In the absence of an increased nuchal translucency or associated malformations the risk of aneuploidy has been considered negligible. Still, dysmorphology in aneuploid fetuses might not be evident except at a later stage. We report on a case of isolated fetal bilateral neck cysts where aneuploidy was suspected and confirmed despite the lack of associated morphologic abnormalities