Development of a compatible, low cost and high accurate conservation remote sensing technology for the hygrothermal assessment of historic walls

This article aims to properly assess the hygrothermal properties of walls located in historic buildings, this study discloses the development of a remote sensing technology compatible with an in-situ measurement implemented in Palazzo Tassoni (Italy). As required by the international recommendations adapted to cultural heritage (CH), this monitoring system balances CH conservation, performance aspects and economic costs using an integrated multidisciplinary approach. Electronics for measurement of environmental parameters is composed of sensor measurements, data acquisition system and data storage and communication system. Data acquisition system, equipped with standard modbus-rtu interface, is designed to run standalone and it is based on two cloned single board PCs to reduce the possibility of data loss. In order to reduce the costs, RaspberryPI single board PCs were chosen. These run a C/C++ software based on standard modbus library and designed to implement multi-client server TCP/IP to allow communication with other devices. Storage and communication systems are based on an industrial PC; it communicates with sensor measurements' system through a modbus-TCPIP bridge. PC runs a Labview software to provide data storage on a local database and graphical user interface to properly see all acquired data. Herein, some sensing options and approaches of measurement are described, unveiling different possible ways of enhancing the retrofit of CH with adapted technology

Smart Heritage Environment. IoT e KETs per il patrimonio storicizzato. Nuove prospettive attraverso l'analisi di best practices

Nella prospettiva di un’epoca di risorse scarse come quella nella quale ci troviamo ad operare, appare di fondamentale importanza valutare, all’interno di scenari in continuo cambiamento, la posizione del settore delle costruzioni nei confronti della necessaria mitigazione delle cause del cambiamento climatico, da un lato, e, dall’altro, del ruolo che le innovazioni introdotte dalla quarta rivoluzione industriale rivestono in tale scenario. Le tecnologie Internet of Things, insieme alle cosiddette tecnologie abilitanti, si sono in questi anni moltiplicate e sviluppate anche all’interno del settore delle costruzioni, con diverse finalità e obiettivi. Va detto però che specialmente nel campo del patrimonio storicizzato è possibile riscontrare grandi lacune, rilevando la pressoché totale assenza di relazioni fra la definizione di Cultural Heritage (CH) ed il concetto di “intelligenza” (smartness); anche le interazioni tra i due domini risultano quanto mai scarse, nonostante la grande incidenza dello stock edilizio raggruppabile sotto la definizione di patrimonio storico (specialmente nel contesto italiano) nell’implementazione di strategie realmente efficaci per la mitigazione delle cause del cambiamento climatico. Il presente contributo si propone pertanto di individuare, attraverso l’analisi di una serie di “casi-studio” riferibili all’applicazione, in termini generali, delle suddette tecnologie a progetti di riqualificazione energetica-ambientale e/o recupero di edifici storici, approcci innovativi specifici per il Cultural Heritage.In view of an era of scarce resources, such as the current age, it is of paramount importance to evaluate, within constantly evolving scenarios, the position of the construction sector towards the necessary mitigation of the causes of climate change, so as the role that the innovations introduced by the fourth industrial revolution play in this scenario. Internet of Things technologies, together with the so-called Key Enabling Technologies, have recently multiplied and developed also within the building sector, with different purposes and objectives. However, it must be said that especially in the field of historical buildings it is possible to find several lacks, noting the almost total absence of relationships between the definition of Cultural Heritage (CH) and the concept of smartness; interactions between the two domains are indeed very scarce despite the impact of the building stock that can be grouped under the definition of historical heritage (especially in Italy) on the implementation of truly effective strategies to mitigate climate changes. Therefore, this contribution aims to identify, through the analysis of a series of best practices referred to the application, in general terms, of the aforementioned technologies to projects of energy-environmental requalification and/or recovery of historic buildings, specific approaches and innovations for Cultural Heritage

Integrazione sottile nell'involucro edilizio per la gestione smart del sistema. Il caso dei sistemi radianti a bassa inerzia.

Gli ultimi disposti normativi che hanno modificato i requisiti minimi richiesti agli edifici in materia di efficienza energetica, hanno in realtà sancito importanti aggiornamenti anche in relazione agli impianti installati. Particolare attenzione è stata riposta nei confronti dei sistemi radianti, in virtù della frequenza sempre maggiore con la quale si stanno affermando nella prassi edilizia corrente grazie alla loro capacità di rispondere adeguatamente alle attuali esigenze di comfort ambientale interno, coniugando ottimi rendimenti con costi abbastanza contenuti. Il loro funzionamento infatti, basato sullo scambio termico per irraggiamento, permette di ottenere grazie a temperature costanti e all’assenza di correnti d’aria una sensazione di benessere termico diffusa, a fronte di una temperatura di esercizio ridotta rispetto a sistemi di tipo tradizionale. L’adozione di sistemi di questo tipo dunque, specialmente se a basso spessore e pressoché privi di inerzia termica, costituisce un’opportunità interessante per l’efficientamento del parco immobiliare, sia esso esistente o di nuova costruzione, sia per la possibilità di venire abbinati a sistemi di generazione energetica efficienti sia in virtù della loro applicabilità ad altri componenti di involucro la cui gestione smart, in un’ottica di sistema, permetterebbe di soddisfare le esigenze di benessere degli utenti a fronte di un contributo minimo di energia esterna.The latest regulatory provisions that modified minimum buildings’ requirements in terms of energy efficiency have actually established significant updates even in relation to the systems installed, paying specific attention towards RHC (Radiant Heating and Cooling system), which, thanks to their ability to adequately respond to actual needs of indoor environmental comfort, are becoming more and more frequent in current building practice, even because of the ability to combine excellent yields with quite limited costs. Their operation, based on irradiation heat-exchange, allows to obtain, thanks to constant operating-temperatures coupled with the absence of air-currents, a widespread sensation of thermal wellbeing if compared to traditional systems that works with much higher values. So, the adoption of such systems, especially if with low-thickness and therefore almost lacking of thermal inertia, constitutes an interesting opportunity for the efficiency of building stock, whether existing or newly built, by virtue of both their ability to be combined with other and efficient energy generation systems, as well as their applicability to other building envelope components, whose smart management would allow to satisfy users' comfort needs with a minimum external energy contribution

The Smart's Era. L'"edificio intelligente" e le sue declinazioni

La complessità della società contemporanea, unita all’evoluzione dei requisiti prestazionali oggi richiesti al settore delle costruzioni, ha portato l’involucro edilizio ad evolversi in un “sistema” diverso dal precedente modello assunto come riferimento, basato su prestazioni anche piuttosto elevate ma perlopiù lineari, in un rapporto di diretta proporzionalità con le caratteristiche climatiche del contesto di applicazione. Quale luogo di mediazione tra fattori esterni ed interni, cui è demandato il raggiungimento e successivo mantenimento di determinate condizioni di comfort ambientale interno, sembra necessario dotare l’involucro edilizio della necessaria flessibilità per consentirgli di adattarsi e reagire alle mutevoli variazioni delle condizioni al contorno. È in quest’ottica dunque che sono nate e continuano a nascere innovazioni tecnologiche rivolte alla massimizzazione delle prestazioni globali di involucro, quale elemento nel quale parametri ambientali e parametri tecnologici possono giungere ad una sintesi equilibrata in grado di conciliare le diverse esigenze, influenzando direttamente le condizioni di benessere degli occupanti. Tali nuove tecnologie, considerate disruptive per il settore delle costruzioni (dall’inglese, letteralmente, dirompenti) in ragione dell’elevato potenziale di innovazione che portano con loro, cominciano a divenire componenti imprescindibili anche in un settore – quello delle costruzioni – particolarmente reticente nei confronti dell’introduzione di nuovi paradigmi. Grazie anche ad un interesse crescente da parte degli utenti finali nei confronti di tali tematiche, la percentuale di investimenti in ottica smart – seppur ancora limitata – sembra seguire un trend crescente grazie alle possibilità offerte da tali tecnologie per l’efficientamento del patrimonio esistente in chiave innovativa e a fronte del plusvalore economico derivante dalla loro introduzione.The complexity of contemporary society, combined with the evolution of today performance requirements needed by the construction sector, has brought the building envelope to evolve into a "system" different from the previous model taken as a reference, based on quite high performance but mostly linear, in a relationship of direct proportionality with the climatic characteristics of the application context. As a place of mediation between external and internal factors, which require the achievement and further maintenance of certain internal environmental comfort conditions, building envelope must be equipped with the flexibility feature, to allow it to adapt and react to the changing variations of the boundary conditions. Therefore, it is in this perspective that technological innovations aimed at maximizing the overall performance of building envelope were born, to implement its environmental and technological parameters in order to make them able to reach a balanced synthesis, able to reconcile the different needs and to directly influence occupants’ well-being conditions. These new disruptive technologies, due to their high innovation potential, are found to become essential components also in a sector particularly reticent towards the introduction of new paradigms, such as the construction sector. Also because a growing interest of end-users towards these issues, the percentage of investments in a smart perspective – albeit still limited – seems to follow a growing trend, thanks to the opportunities offered by these technologies for the energy efficiency of the existing building stock in an innovative way and in the face of the economic added value deriving from their introduction

Sewing Identities

The present contribution descends from the activities of the workshop organized within the Joint International PhD Program IDAUP with the aim of find tools able to generate new architecture design processes for the future development of Shkoder city, one of the most important city of north Albania. The idea is to focalize the attention in three different parts of the site project: The historical city center, the lake waterfront + river and the sea waterfront. Instead of concentrating on a global vision of the territorial area, the workshop considers the entire area from Scutari until the sea, in terms of smart fragments in order to easily achieve the architecture scale. According to the main topic drawn by the planning proposal, the entire site will be divided in 7 quadrants each of them will be analyzed by the participants of the workshop

La temporaneità come risorsa per la riqualificazione edilizia

L’attuale congiuntura economica ha prodotto conseguenze dirompenti sugli stili di vita della popolazione. A ciò si aggiunga la ‘crisi della durata’ connessa all’evoluzione del progresso tecnologico, che ha determinato una rapida involuzione del parco immobiliare esistente, rendendo necessario intraprendere azioni volte all’adeguamento di quest’ultimo agli odierni standard non soltanto normativi. Il presente contributo pertanto, mira a definire, attraverso una proposta per il quartiere Pilastro a Bologna, una strategia per facilitare gli interventi su tali patrimoni mediante l’impiego di un’architettura temporanea, prototipo di una nuova idea di urbanità, funzionale a scopi anche complementari alla riqualificazione dell’esistente e applicabile – a seconda delle esigenze – a una molteplicità di contesti differenti.The current economic situation produced disruptive consequences on population ways of living. To this, it has to be added the ‘crisis of the duration’, linked to the technological progress’ evolution, which led to a sudden regression of the existing building stock thus making necessary to act on it to reach for its adaption to standards, not only in regulatory terms. Therefore, the present contribution aims at define, through the development of a proposal for the Pilastro district in Bologna, a strategy to ease the interventions on such assets by means of the adoption of a temporary architecture, prototype of a new concept of urbanity, effective even for other purposes complementary to the redevelopment of existing buildings and suitable for different application contexts

Safety of antipsychotics in people with intellectual disability

Background Despite frequent use, little is known about the metabolic and endocrine side-effects of antipsychotics in individuals with intellectual disability. Aims To compare indices of obesity, glucose, lipids and prolactin between antipsychotic-treated and antipsychotic-naive individuals with intellectual disability and also between participants with intellectual disability and controls from the general population. Method Observational study comparing 138 antipsychotic-treated and 64 antipsychotic-naive participants with intellectual disability in one National Health Service trust with general population controls. Results Antipsychotic treatment comprised: risperidone 48%, olanzapine 18%, thioxanthenes 10%, other 24%; monotherapy 95% of participants; mean treatment duration 8 years; median daily chlorpromazine equivalent dose 108 mg (range 16-667). Metabolic indices were the same or more favourable in the intellectual disability group than the general population control group but overweight/obesity and type 2 diabetes were more prevalent in the women in the intellectual disability group than the control group. Metabolic indices were similar, statistically or clinically, between the antipsychotic-treated and the antipsychotic-naive groups but there was a non-significant trend towards a higher rate of type 2 diabetes in the antipsychotic group. A total of 100% and 70% of participants on amisulpride/sulpiride and risperidone respectively had hyperprolactinaemia, with secondary hypogonadism in 77% and 4% of affected women and men. Conclusions Antipsychotics, on average, did not increase metabolic risk, although the existence of a susceptible subgroup at risk of diabetes cannot be excluded. Some antipsychotics induced hyperprolactinaemic hypogonadism, requiring active management. However, our findings suggest that antipsychotics at the low doses routinely prescribed for people with intellectual disability are generally safe in relation to metabolic adverse effects, even if efficacy remains poorly defined

Development of a compatible, low cost and high accurate conservation remote sensing technology for the hygrothermal assessment of historic walls

This article aims to properly assess the hygrothermal properties of walls located in historic buildings, this study discloses the development of a remote sensing technology compatible with an in-situ measurement implemented in Palazzo Tassoni (Italy). As required by the international recommendations adapted to cultural heritage (CH), this monitoring system balances CH conservation, performance aspects and economic costs using an integrated multidisciplinary approach. Electronics for measurement of environmental parameters is composed of sensor measurements, data acquisition system and data storage and communication system. Data acquisition system, equipped with standard modbus-rtu interface, is designed to run standalone and it is based on two cloned single board PCs to reduce the possibility of data loss. In order to reduce the costs, RaspberryPI single board PCs were chosen. These run a C/C++ software based on standard modbus library and designed to implement multi-client server TCP/IP to allow communication with other devices. Storage and communication systems are based on an industrial PC; it communicates with sensor measurements’ system through a modbus-TCPIP bridge. PC runs a Labview software to provide data storage on a local database and graphical user interface to properly see all acquired data. Herein, some sensing options and approaches of measurement are described, unveiling different possible ways of enhancing the retrofit of CH with adapted technology.This article aims to properly assess the hygrothermal properties of walls located in historic buildings, this study discloses the development of a remote sensing technology compatible with an in-situ measurement implemented in Palazzo Tassoni (Italy). As required by the international recommendations adapted to cultural heritage (CH), this monitoring system balances CH conservation, performance aspects and economic costs using an integrated multidisciplinary approach. Electronics for measurement of environmental parameters is composed of sensor measurements, data acquisition system and data storage and communication system. Data acquisition system, equipped with standard modbus-rtu interface, is designed to run standalone and it is based on two cloned single board PCs to reduce the possibility of data loss. In order to reduce the costs, RaspberryPI single board PCs were chosen. These run a C/C++ software based on standard modbus library and designed to implement multi-client server TCP/IP to allow communication with other devices. Storage and communication systems are based on an industrial PC; it communicates with sensor measurements’ system through a modbus-TCPIP bridge. PC runs a Labview software to provide data storage on a local database and graphical user interface to properly see all acquired data. Herein, some sensing options and approaches of measurement are described, unveiling different possible ways of enhancing the retrofit of CH with adapted technology

Glycemic control with diet, sulfonylurea, metformin, or insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: progressive requirement for multiple therapies (UKPDS 49). UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) Group.

CONTEXT: Treatment with diet alone, insulin, sulfonylurea, or metformin is known to improve glycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, but which treatment most frequently attains target fasting plasma glucose (FPG) concentration of less than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) or glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) below 7% is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To assess how often each therapy can achieve the glycemic control target levels set by the American Diabetes Association. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial conducted between 1977 and 1997. Patients were recruited between 1977 and 1991 and were followed up every 3 months for 3, 6, and 9 years after enrollment. SETTING: Outpatient diabetes clinics in 15 UK hospitals. PATIENTS: A total of 4075 patients newly diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes ranged in age between 25 and 65 years and had a median (interquartile range) FPG concentration of 11.5 (9.0-14.4) mmol/L [207 (162-259) mg/dL], HbA1c levels of 9.1% (7.5%-10.7%), and a mean (SD) body mass index of 29 (6) kg/m2. INTERVENTIONS: After 3 months on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-fiber diet, patients were randomized to therapy with diet alone, insulin, sulfonylurea, or metformin. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Fasting plasma glucose and HbA1c levels, and the proportion of patients who achieved target levels below 7% HbA1c or less than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) FPG at 3, 6, or 9 years following diagnosis. RESULTS: The proportion of patients who maintained target glycemic levels declined markedly over 9 years of follow-up. After 9 years of monotherapy with diet, insulin, or sulfonylurea, 8%, 42%, and 24%, respectively, achieved FPG levels of less than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) and 9%, 28%, and 24% achieved HbA1c levels below 7%. In obese patients randomized to metformin, 18% attained FPG levels of less than 7.8 mmol/L (140 mg/dL) and 13% attained HbA1c levels below 7%. Patients less likely to achieve target levels were younger, more obese, or more hyperglycemic than other patients. CONCLUSIONS: Each therapeutic agent, as monotherapy, increased 2- to 3-fold the proportion of patients who attained HbA1c below 7% compared with diet alone. However, the progressive deterioration of diabetes control was such that after 3 years approximately 50% of patients could attain this goal with monotherapy, and by 9 years this declined to approximately 25%. The majority of patients need multiple therapies to attain these glycemic target levels in the longer term