Analysis of Energy Consumption of Different Typologies of School Buildings in the City of Matera (Southern Italy)

Abstract School buildings constitute an important part of the non-residential building stock, because students and teachers spend much time in these rooms. This paper presents the outcome of a study on the energy performance of five different school buildings located in Matera city (South Italy). The analysis is aimed at calculating the energy requirement in accord with UNI TS 11300, comparing the results with dynamic analyses (using the Energy Plus method) and the effective energy consumptions. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 649956. The analysis has confirmed the best precision of dynamic method respect the stationary one, with an error estimated of about the ten percent compared to the real consumptions. We also presented the energy auditing interventions for all schools and evaluate the incidence of the envelope and thermal system on energy consumptions

Strigolactones as a hormonal hub for the acclimation and priming to environmental stress in plants

Strigolactones are phytohormones with many attributed roles in development, and more recently in responses to environmental stress. We will review evidence of the latter in the frame of the classic distinction among the three main stress acclimation strategies (i.e., avoidance, tolerance and escape), by taking osmotic stress in its several facets as a non‐exclusive case study. The picture we will sketch is that of a hormonal family playing important roles in each of the mechanisms tested so far, and influencing as well the build‐up of environmental memory through priming. Thus, strigolactones appear to be backstage operators rather than frontstage players, setting the tune of acclimation responses by fitting them to the plant individual history of stress experience

Otolith sectioning reveals higher maximum age in greater weever (Trachinus draco)

Growth and maximum age are two key parameters that inform resilience of fish populations to exploitation. Existing information on those for greater weever inhabiting the eastern North Sea is based on the analysis of whole otoliths. Here, we present a reanalysis using sectioned otoliths. The results reveal a different growth pattern and a higher maximum age than that previously reported. The higher maximum age makes greater weever populations more vulnerable to exploitation. Such information can serve as a basis for the estimation of the growth curve that can be used for future assessment of the species

Life cycle assessment of Italian residential windows: Sensitivity of analysis

Product Sustainability assessment is becoming ever more critical in the global competition; this is particularly true for building sector. This paper faces the problem of the analysis of sensitivity of this task by referring to a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) case of a PVC window for civil buildings applications. Sensitivity has been appreciated by referring to two functional units to evaluate the quality of the environmental impacts by relating it to the window features: per piece and per square meter of see-Through surface. It resulted that the sustainability impact calculated per square meter changes considerably with the change of the type of window. This sensitivity analysis leads to propose a new criterion of the analysis to provide a reliable assessment approach to be used for the evaluation of the environmental performance of products. The difference between the values of thermal transmittance measured and calculated is inferior to 5%, which it is an absolutely optimal value