Historic building and green energy. Strategies to make supply from renewable sources compatible with conservation

The challenges of today are largely summarized in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Buildings are also part of the 17 sustainability goals in several re- spects, one of them being the role of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reduc- ing waste, assessing the life cycle of materials, limiting heat loss and introducing renewable energy sources. In particular, the contribution deals with how to ensure the supply of energy from renewable sources for cultural assets and buildings that are part of historic centers. In these cases, it can be very difficult to achieve both the objective of protecting the monument or landscape as well as that of installing or connecting the building or urban or rural settlement to renewable energy sources. Through some European and Italian examples in particular, where about 8 million buildings were constructed before 1945, about 25% of the total, virtu- ous ways will be presented that make it possible to achieve both objectives sim- ultaneously. The regulations that favor this dual objective will also be high- lighted, such as the one of the Veneto Region on so-called energy communities and the national one that allows the deferral of energy production from one place of cultural interest to another that has none, without serious costs for the final beneficiary and safeguarding the cultural asset

Stochastic Rising Bandits

This paper is in the field of stochastic Multi-Armed Bandits (MABs), i.e., those sequential selection techniques able to learn online using only the feedback given by the chosen option (a.k.a. arm). We study a particular case of the rested and restless bandits in which the arms’ expected payoff is monotonically non-decreasing. This characteristic allows designing specifically crafted algorithms that exploit the regularity of the payoffs to provide tight regret bounds. We design an algorithm for the rested case (R-ed-UCB) and one for the restless case (R-less-UCB), providing a regret bound depending on the properties of the instance and, under certain circumstances, of $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(T^{\frac{2}{3}})$. We empirically compare our algorithms with state-of-the-art methods for non-stationary MABs over several synthetically generated tasks and an online model selection problem for a real-world dataset. Finally, using synthetic and real-world data, we illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches compared with state-of-the-art algorithms for the non-stationary bandits

A Combinatorial-Bandit Algorithm for the Online Joint Bid/Budget Optimization of Pay-per-Click Advertising Campaigns

Pay-per-click advertising includes various formats (e.g., search, contextual, and social) with a total investment of more than 140 billion USD per year. An advertising campaign is composed of some subcampaigns-each with a different ad-and a cumulative daily budget. The allocation of the ads is ruled exploiting auction mechanisms. In this paper, we propose, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, an algorithm for the online joint bid/budget optimization of pay-per-click multi-channel advertising campaigns. We formulate the optimization problem as a combinatorial bandit problem, in which we use Gaussian Processes to estimate stochastic functions, Bayesian bandit techniques to address the exploration/exploitation problem, and a dynamic programming technique to solve a variation of the Multiple-Choice Knapsack problem. We experimentally evaluate our algorithm both in simulation-using a synthetic setting generated from real data from Yahoo!-and in a real-world application over an advertising period of two months

RI-abitare l’oggi : intorno al progetto di riuso

Interi paesi fantasma, un patrimonio demaniale in disuso e in cerca di valorizzazione, caserme e carceri obsolete o abbandonate collocate all’interno dei centri urbani, capannoni industriali vuoti e un numero crescente di centri commerciali poco o per niente frequentati nelle aree di connessione tra città e campagna, interi complessi industriali abbandonati, palazzi pubblici e privati di dimensione, organizzazione e dotazione di servizi non adeguati alle esigenze odierne. E ancora, chiese, barchesse, scuole, ex colonie ma anche edifici residenziali del tessuto storico urbano e non, architetture storiche e monumentali dal grande valore culturale da rendere funzionali per i diversi usi attuali: sono diversi e sempre più evidenti gli esempi di un patrimonio da riconsiderare, in un’ottica di riutilizzo sostenibile del costruito inteso come risorsa da non sprecare, su cui convergono molteplici obiettivi europei, quali l’incremento dell’efficienza energetica legata al Green New Deal e il raggiungimento del traguardo di zero consumo di suolo, mediante un riuso selettivo e appropriato dell’esistente. In Italia, per la storia plurimillenaria e la forte tradizione identitaria caratterizzata dal ruolo significativo del costruito storico, in cui affondano le radici culturali del Paese, queste sfide richiedono lo sviluppo di un pensiero evoluto sul progetto, in cui l’innovazione e la continuità possano integrarsi, confrontandosi con i principi della Dichiarazione di Davos 2018 Verso una Baukultur di alta qualità per l’Europa e del New European Bauhaus. Sono questi i nuovi temi – o temi noti da riconsiderare – che l’architettura contemporanea deve affrontare, sollecitando una riflessione sui modi di intervenire sul patrimonio costruito e sul ruolo esercitato dalle diverse discipline

Ten daily fractions for partial breast irradiation. Long-term results of a prospective phase II trial.

Partial breast irradiation (PBI) is an effective adjuvant treatment after breast conservative surgery for selected early-stage breast cancer patients. However, the best fractionation scheme is not well defined. Hereby, we report the 5-year clinical outcome and toxicity of a phase II prospective study of a novel regimen to deliver PBI, which consists in 40 Gy delivered in 10 daily fractions. Patients with early-stage (pT1-pT2, pN0-pN1a, M0) invasive breast cancer were enrolled after conservative surgery. The minimum age at diagnosis was 60 years old. PBI was delivered with 3D-conformal radiotherapy technique with a total dose of 40 Gy, fractionated in 10 daily fractions (4 Gy/fraction). Eighty patients were enrolled. The median follow-up was 67 months. Five-year local control (LC), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were 95%, 91%, and 96%, respectively. Grade I and II subcutaneous fibrosis were documented in 23% and 5% of cases. No grade III late toxicity was observed. PBI delivered in 40 Gy in 10 daily fractions provided good clinical results and was a valid radiotherapy option for early-stage breast cancer patients

Real-world data to build explainable trustworthy artificial intelligence models for prediction of immunotherapy efficacy in NSCLC patients

IntroductionArtificial Intelligence (AI) methods are being increasingly investigated as a means to generate predictive models applicable in the clinical practice. In this study, we developed a model to predict the efficacy of immunotherapy (IO) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using eXplainable AI (XAI) Machine Learning (ML) methods. MethodsWe prospectively collected real-world data from patients with an advanced NSCLC condition receiving immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) either as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy. With regards to six different outcomes - Disease Control Rate (DCR), Objective Response Rate (ORR), 6 and 24-month Overall Survival (OS6 and OS24), 3-months Progression-Free Survival (PFS3) and Time to Treatment Failure (TTF3) - we evaluated five different classification ML models: CatBoost (CB), Logistic Regression (LR), Neural Network (NN), Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). We used the Shapley Additive Explanation (SHAP) values to explain model predictions. ResultsOf 480 patients included in the study 407 received immunotherapy and 73 chemo- and immunotherapy. From all the ML models, CB performed the best for OS6 and TTF3, (accuracy 0.83 and 0.81, respectively). CB and LR reached accuracy of 0.75 and 0.73 for the outcome DCR. SHAP for CB demonstrated that the feature that strongly influences models' prediction for all three outcomes was Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR). Performance Status (ECOG-PS) was an important feature for the outcomes OS6 and TTF3, while PD-L1, Line of IO and chemo-immunotherapy appeared to be more important in predicting DCR. ConclusionsIn this study we developed a ML algorithm based on real-world data, explained by SHAP techniques, and able to accurately predict the efficacy of immunotherapy in sets of NSCLC patients

Homo Faber Exibition

The publication presents the results of the project ‘Versus-Heritage for People’, funded by the Creative Europe EU programme. The main aim of the project was to actively involve a broad audience and raise awareness among it concerning the value of vernacular knowledge in shaping more sustainable and resilient models of development. The material and immaterial elements constituting a vernacular heritage (encompassing local materials, construction methods, models for living and social interaction, technical and environmental knowledge for the management of territories, natural resources, settlements, etc.) have enormous potential for generating forward-thinking models that can improve the environmental and social quality of our habitats, foster a sense of identity and belonging, and relate in a balanced way to the capacities of our planet. The book explores strategies and tools for managing and transmitting knowledge and the values associated with vernacular heritage. It includes concrete examples and good practices for engaging people in processes of knowledge and the enhancement of vernacular heritage values for sustainability. The outcome is the result of the collaborative efforts between the five academic institutions involved in the project – Universitat Politècnica de València as coordinator (ES), University of Florence (IT), University of Cagliari (IT), CRAterre-ENSAG (FR) and Escola Superior Gallaecia at Universidade Portucalense (PT). A total of 63 authors, comprising both external scholars and professionals, contributed to the book

Tra sostenibilità ambientale e contrasto ai cambiamenti climatici. Quali scenari per il restauro?

The paper addresses the issue of global sustainability goals, of which the strong relevance of goals 11 and 13 for the issues of rehabilitation of historic built buildings is highlighted. The New European Bauhaus and Green Deal movements are highlighted, referring to policies and measures aimed at a new, quality, more ecological and inclusive idea of architecture. The role of heritage and the rehabilitation of buildings from the past is also addressed, as well as the importance of a green turnaround, in which the built heritage is an important part of achieving community goals. In the context of the ecological transition, the 2019 ICOMOS and 2021 Europa Nostra documents are addressed in summary, showing how the subject of architecture, landscapes and intangible things of the past are the identity structure on which Europe is founded and should be treated as such. An examination of the data and indications in the latest IPCC 2022 report shows that the situation can be reversed if action is taken now. The situation of energy efficiency and climate change measures for historic buildings in Italy is described, which, with the exception of some guidelines from 2012 and 2015, is currently based on the government's Bonus measures, with the related problems. Restoration is facing an important moment in which its ontological scope is being questioned. In addition to quality and environmental requirements for listed buildings, it has to face the challenge of historic buildings, which in Italy reaches truly significant numbers