Energy audit of a single-family house in a city in the middle of Sweden

The world is currently submerged in two big problems: supply energy crisis and climate change. It is clear that society has to do its best to overcome these challenges, and one effective way to mitigate their effects is by conducting an energy audit, which helps to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the buildings, enabling improvements in their thermal efficiency. The main goal of this study was to carry out an energy audit on a century-old single- family house located in a city in the middle of Sweden. To achieve this, relevant data of the building was gathered such as the bills and some temperature and dimension measurements. Subsequently, the calculations of the energy losses and gains were done manually. From this step it was observed that almost 70 % of the thermal losses occurred due to transmission through the walls, windows and roof. To reduce these losses, potential energy-saving measures were studied, such as replacing the 2-panel windows with 3-panel windows and adding 200 mm of mineral wool to the roof. Both improvements reduced transmission losses around 700 kWh/year and diminished CO2 emissions around 20 kg/year, which implied a decrease of 1262 and 1277 SEK per year for each measure respectively. However, the profitability of these measures was difficult to attain because the required initial capitals are probably higher than the investments allowed, which are around 17371 and 17579 SEK for each measure respectively. Moreover, a study about installing photovoltaic solar cells was conducted and it resulted in a significant positive impact in the energy usage of the house. In particular, this improvement lead to a reduction of 2471 kWh per year, which equaled to an annual decrease of 6036 SEK. These annual savings implied an investment allowed of 58620 SEK. Furthermore, a decrease of 99 kg of CO2 emissions per year was obtained. In conclusion, this measure yielded substantial profitability, making it the most recommended option for future energy-saving improvements. Finally, changing in the occupant’s behavior by reducing the indoor temperature had a positive impact on the house without the need for an initial investment. Specifically, it decreased around 105 kWh per yea

Spectroscopic trends for the determination of illicit drugs in oral fluid

The present work aims to review all of the articles published so far, focusedon the determination of drugs of abuse in oral fluid. This fluid provides a simpler,faster, and more controllable sampling in comparison with the other biological fluids,such as blood or urine. Actually, the main goal of the researchers is to lower the limitof detection (LOD) to detect quantities of drugs smaller than the cut-off limitsestablished by law for drug controls. Advances in Raman, infrared (IR), and nuclearmagnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy applications are discussed. SurfaceenhancedRaman spectroscopy (SERS) has been shown as the most sensitive techniquefor the detection of illicit drugs in oral fluid. The use of IR spectroscopy fordetermining drugs of abuse in oral fluid is growing, although the LODs obtained untilnow do not yet satisfy the necessities in the forensic field. Finally, NMR spectroscopyhas seldom been used to determine drugs in oral fluid. Another future trend seems tobe related with the use of portable instrumentation, which would allow us to performin-situ analysis. This last application seems to be particularly promising to performroadside drug tests and to identify overdose drugs in patients in emergency conditions

Sovereign Spreads and Contagion Effect

This paper studies the existence of contagion in Chile, using data of the sovereign debt spread for the period 1999-2006. Although we found a strong degree of interdependence between the Chilean series and the rest of the region, we reject the hypothesis of contagion from Brazil to Chile for the period studied. We use a threshold model and find that the effect of EMBI Brazil in EMBI Chile is not constant. When EMBI Brazil is above 800 bp, its effect over EMBI Chile decreases. This indicates that there is no contagion effect. Instead, when Brazil is in a crisis, its effect over Chile is lower than in normal periods. This result gives us evidence to say that countries with strong fundamentals, like Chile, have a lower probability of responding to a negative shock in a neighbor country.

Analysis of street cocaine samples in nasal fluid by Raman spectroscopy

The principal objective of this work was to demonstrate the capability of Raman spectroscopy to detectsmall amounts of cocaine in nasal fluid, and to identify the main drug and the most widely used cuttingagents. Initially, standard samples were analysed and sampling conditions were studied by comparingdifferent swabs used for the sample collection. Once the most appropriate swab was selected, whichpermitted a relatively simple detection of the standard cocaine hydrochloride, qualitative analyses of realsamples were carried out. Three street cocaine samples were analysed, and the presence of cuttingsubstances was highlighted by the appearance of different bands not corresponding to the ones of thestandard cocaine. To identify the substances present in each sample, the spectra of the street cocainesamples were collected and compared with a digital library created on purpose with the spectra of themost common cutting agents. In this case, correlation coefficients permitted to recognize the most importantsubstances presumably present in the samples, and gave an estimation of the purity of the cocaine.However, when nasal fluid was present, its strong signal could overlap or interfere with thesmaller signal of the cutting substances, hindering their identification

El lenguaje en la terapia narrativa

El trabajo consiste en una revisión teórica de la literatura reciente relacionada con el uso del lenguaje del terapeuta desde la terapia narrativa, esta es entendida como una alternativa de intervención basada en el marco del modelo familiar sistémico. La terapia narrativa comprende la intervención como un espacio dialógico, en el cual mediante la relación creada entre terapeuta y consultante emerge un nuevo relato. El terapeuta busca co-construir relatos alternativos por medio de la externalización del problema, para lo cual usa herramientas como preguntas, analogías, metáforas, ritos y elementos escritos. Se encontró que en la actualidad diversos autores brindan conceptualizaciones acerca del modelo narrativo, mas no se da a conocer a profundidad el uso de la terapia narrativa en estudios empíricos.The assignment consists of a theoretical revision of the recent literature related to the use of language of the therapist from narrative therapy, which is understood as an alternative intervention based on the framework of the systemic family model. Narrative therapy understands intervention as a dialogical space, in which a new story emerges through the relationship established between therapist and consultant. The therapist seeks to co-construct alternative stories by externalizing the problem, for which he or she uses tools as questions, analogies, metaphors, rites and written elements. It was found that at present various (several) authors provide conceptualizations about the narrative model, but the depth of the use of narrative therapy is not fully known in empirical studies

Estudio experimental del uso de un geoplano computarizado en la enseñanza de la geometría en los grados cuarto y quinto de básica primaria

Este póster tiene como objetivo presentar los resultados de la investigación sobre Estudio experimental del uso de un geoplano computarizado en la enseñanza de la geometría en los grados cuarto y quinto de Básica Primaria. El software educativo y el material de apoyo fueron desarrollados por Gedes (Grupo de Estudio y Desarrollo de Software) de la Universidad del Quindío. En la investigación se usó material educativo físico y computarizado con el fin de mejorar el grado de conceptualización y comprensión, estableciendo si esta nueva metodología influye significativamente en el aprendizaje de la geometría euclidiana

Formulación de estrategias para avanzar en la estructuración del sistema de gestión ambiental organizacional en la Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

Los Sistemas de Gestión Ambiental Organizacional, establecen las responsabilidades ambientales de las organizaciones, las normas ambientales que deben seguir con el fin de reducir los impactos ambientales presente en los procesos de cada organización. Las universidades son consideradas organizaciones gracias a sus tres fines fundamentales: el desarrollo de la enseñanza, la extensión y la investigación, allí se presentan consumos del recurso hídrico, recurso energético y generación de residuos sólidos y líquidos, estableciendo impactos ambientales. Por esta razón, el desarrollo de este trabajo se basa en la formulación de estrategias para lograr un avance en el Sistema de Gestión Ambiental Organizacional en la Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, de esta manera se tienen en cuenta los impactos generados con el fin de plantar lineamientos que disminuyan los impactos ambientales, aumentando la eficiencia del Sistema de Gestión Ambiental Organizacional

Application de la Convention Pour la Prévention et la Répression du Crime de Génocide (Gambie c. Myanmar)

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) was created in 1945 alongside the Uni ted Nations. In this new international landscape, where peace and security came to the forefront of the international agenda, the ICJ rose as a judicial organ, charged with the purpose of the peaceful settlement of conflicts between Na tions. Since then, the development of both the Court and International Law have created new avenues for States to relate to each other and manage their disputes

Educating designers through Materials Club

[EN] Material education is becoming a crucial element in the process of change that is involving the teaching in the field of design. The affirmation of fab labs in design education is increasingly manifested both in traditional classroom didactics and prototyping practices in studio. The growth number of fab labs in universities, have a high potential to change the original material didactics into participatory activities. Based on this situation, this paper aims to analysis how existing fab lab systems can be reframed to maximize benefits in the material education in design domain. As a result, we elaborate the concept of Materials Club as an enabling system to support design students developing their design projects with materials and being highly involvement inside the co-creative study community. In conclusion, Materials Club as an optimize of the fab lab system, can increase the effectiveness in material education. This scenario also promotes us to think about a universal method, which is valorizing the resources which already exist in university and integrate them in a virtuous system for reinforcing the design and material education.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Zhou, Z.; Rognoli, V.; Ayala-García, C. (2018). Educating designers through Materials Club. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1367-1375. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8206OCS1367137

CUENCA (SPAIN), WORLD HERITAGE CITY. ANALYSIS OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

[EN] This text presents a study on the city of Cuenca, carried out as part of the Project 3DPast-Living & virtual visiting European World Heritage. Nine case studies were selected within the project, when Cuenca was selected as the Spanish case study. The case studies selected had to be cases of inhabited vernacular architecture in places still preserving the traditional constructive techniques. In addition the selection was expected to cover all of Europe in some way. This is therefore a case study for a city declared World Heritage site, aiming to analyse the characteristics of vernacular architecture which have earned it the title of World Heritage Site (through different analyses and 3D methodologies), such as the management strategies currently used there, learning from those proving successful, and even showing these as an example of management for other World Heritage cities which may be encountering similar problems.This work has been carried out as part of the project 3D Past - Living and virtual visiting world heritage site (2016-1740/001- 001).García-Soriano, L.; Cristini, V.; Diodato, M. (2020). CUENCA (SPAIN), WORLD HERITAGE CITY. ANALYSIS OF VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences (Online). 44:529-533. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIV-M-1-2020-529-2020S5295334