Evaluación económica y ambiental de la construcción de edificios residenciales. Aplicación a España y Chile

Se pretende adaptar y revisar el modelo de Huella Ecológica (HE) aplicado a edificación para poder evaluar el impacto económico y ambiental de las construcciones de viviendas en España y determinar si el indicador HE es sensible a cambios en las tipologías de edificios, soluciones constructivas y materiales de construcción. Además, se plantea realizar la adaptación a otros países con distintos materiales y soluciones constructivas. Y todo ello partiendo de las mismas herramientas necesarias para realizar la medición y presupuesto del proyecto, es decir, un proyecto y una base de costes de la construcción como es la de Andalucía (BCCA). Se valida el modelo aplicándolo primero a España demostrando la sensibilidad a diferentes tipologías y sistemas constructivos, obteniendo como principales resultados que las viviendas unifamiliares tienen una HE superior a las plurifamiliares, que la huella parcial de la energía es la de mayor impacto con un 80% sobre el total de HE, y que la fabricación de materiales es lo que produce el 80% del impacto energético, en la mayoría de los casos analizados. En los resultados clasificados por capítulos de proyectos de puede afirmar que las fases de estructuras, cimentación y albañilería son las de mayor impacto. Finalmente se valida la adaptabilidad del modelo a otros países, como Chile, obteniendo resultados comparables. La HE de la vivienda unifamiliar chilena por metro cuadrado es inferior que la de una vivienda de la misma tipología en España, debido fundamentalmente al uso generalizado en Chile de la madera para estructura, cerramientos y revestimientos, frente al hormigón y la cerámica utilizados en las construcciones españolas. Como conclusión, cabe destacar, que el modelo HE es sensible a cambios en los recursos y en las soluciones constructivas, es adaptable a otros países y es válido para la toma de decisiones en fase de diseño para poder reducir los impactos económico y ambiental.Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado U

Herramienta para la predicción de costes económicos y ambientales en el ciclo de vida de edificios residenciales. Fase de construcción

Se presenta una herramienta para predecir los impactos económicos y ambientales del ciclo de vida de edificios de tipo residencial en fase de diseño, partiendo de un proyecto arquitectónico, el presupuesto del proyecto, las bases de costes de la construcción, en particular la de Andalucía y del indicador huella ecológica. La herramienta propone alternativas en el uso de recursos (materiales, mano de obra y maquinaria) y sistemas constructivos, pudiendo formar parte en la toma de decisiones para mejorar el impacto del ciclo de vida del edificio. Se analiza un caso concreto de edificio residencial de diez plantas sobre rasante y se obtienen los recursos empleados y su impacto económico y ambiental a nivel global y de forma pormenorizada según las fases del proyecto. Los materiales son el recurso de mayor importancia y en particular el hormigón o el cerámico son los que producen mayor impacto. Se realiza un análisis de sensibilidad proponiendo para un proyecto diferentes alternativas de materiales para una solución constructiva, obteniendo los datos para poder decidir la opción más viable económica y ambientalmente. La herramienta es de fácil manejo para el usuario y puede ser base para la certificación de edificios y en el desarrollo de valores estándares a emplear en políticas gubernamentales

Carbon Footprint of Dwelling Construction in Romania and Spain. A Comparative Analysis with the OERCO2 Tool

CO2 emissions due to the construction sector represent 40% of the total, either directly by the use of the building or indirectly by the emissions incorporated in construction materials and products. It is important to achieve a change in this sector to introduce these concepts in a simple way. There are various tools for evaluating emissions in construction projects. In the present work, the OERCO2 tool is used. This work studies housing projects in two European countries belonging to significantly different regions, Spain (Andalusia) and Romania (Bucharest and Transylvania). Although concrete or masonry structures are mainly used in Romania, due to an increased demand for residential buildings in recent years, a new niche has appeared in the construction sector: metallic and mixed (metal–concrete) structures for multi-storied buildings. For these reasons, a comparison between concrete and metallic buildings can be made in order to highlight their environmental impact. Twenty-four projects are selected from Romanian projects with metallic structures, and Spanish projects with concrete structures. They are also differentiated according to the type of foundation used. As expected, buildings with a metallic structure have more economic and environmental impact than reinforced concrete. The materials with greater impact are metal, concrete, cement, and ceramic products. The potential of the tool for the evaluation of various construction solutions, materials, and project phases is demonstrated

La construcción de edificios residenciales en España en el período 2007-2010 y su impacto según el indicador Huella Ecológica

Se identifican en informes estadísticos oficiales, las características principales de las viviendas construidas en España durante el período 2007 a 2010, mostrando las 10 tipologías de edificios residenciales y soluciones constructivas representativas. Se evalúa el impacto generado por dichas tipologías empleando el indicador huella ecológica (HE), obteniendo, entre otros resultados, que las viviendas unifamiliares tienen un 45 % de huella superior a las plurifamiliares y que la huella que genera la mano de obra es un 35 % de la total. También se realiza el análisis de huella por fases de obra y sistemas constructivos, que determina que los elementos de mayor impacto son, estructura, albañilería, revestimientos y cimentaciones, por ese orden. Se finaliza con el cálculo total de HE durante el período objetivo y por persona de las viviendas evaluadas

Evaluación de la huella ecológica de la edificación en el sector residencial de México

In present day, Mexico has a very important urban development. In a near future buildings will become more important than what they are now. There will be more demand of urban land as it becomes scarcer, and also as the environmental impacts intensify. Currently, Mexico does not have a national certification program for sustainability of buildings of any kind. The present work evaluates impacts associated with construction using the Ecological Footprint indicator, by means of a tool developed by ARDITEC Research Group for the residential sector in Spain. It contributes to the standardization of methodology and code of home construction so it could be evaluated in different countries. In order to analyze dwelling construction in Mexico, especially in the residential sector, a typology and project should be defined. The Ecological Footprint is based on the project bill of quantities and afterwards a breakdown of information of materials, labor and machinery is given. The Mexican dwelling, although it has simple construction solutions, has bigger footprint per square meter because the Mexican dwelling is 50% smaller than the Spanish and elements with much energy (facilities, kitchen, bathroom, etc.) have more impact, and also the Mexican construction has biggest intensity of labor.Actualmente México presenta un crecimiento poblacional urbano importante, siguiendo el ritmo actual los edificios pronto tendrán mayor relevancia en materia de impacto ambiental al incrementarse la demanda de suelo urbano. En el país no existe ningún programa nacional de certificaciones de edificios en temas de sostenibilidad o algún sistema de evaluación para construcciones. En el presente trabajo se pretende poner en práctica la evaluación de impactos asociados a la edificación según el indicador de huella ecológica; para ello se emplea la herramienta desarrollada en la Universidad de Sevilla. A su vez, se busca contribuir a la estandarización de dicha metodología de manera que permita ser aplicable y evaluar edificios en cualquier país. Mediante el análisis de la situación de la construcción en México principalmente en el sector residencial se determinará una tipología y proyecto que definirá el caso de estudio a desarrollar. El proceso se basa en la medición de proyectos, el cual disgrega la información en materiales, mano de obra y maquinaria. A grandes rasgos se lleva a cabo la siguiente secuencia de fases: análisis del sector para determinar el tipo de proyecto a estudiar, selección de un proyecto real, creación de un banco de cuantificación de recursos y la aplicación del indicador. Finalmente, se presentan las conclusiones y recomendaciones, así como algunas sugerencias para continuar con la investigación. La vivienda mexicana, a pesar de tener soluciones constructivas sencillas, tiene mayor huella por metro cuadrado que la española debido al tamaño medio de las viviendas que es un 50% menor y los elementos con mucha energía incorporada (instalaciones, cocina, baño, etc.) tienen mayor repercusión, también la construcción mexicana tiene mayor intensidad de mano de obra

Prevention of neural tube defects through maternal supplementation

Neurulation is a crucial step in embryonic development that leads to the formation of the neural tube, a structure that ends up shaping the central nervous system. Neural tube defects (NTDs) appear when neurulation fails and the neural tube does not close completely. These diseases are usually lethal and, in the mildest cases, they are incurable and disabling; for this reason, research on NTDs focuses especially on their prevention. Currently, 70% of NTDs are preventable by maternal supplementation with folic acid, a vitamin necessary for the production of new cells. Our research group attends to find complementary compounds to folic acid for the prevention of folate-resistant NTDs. To that end, we studied the effect of inositol, an organic vitaminic compound with promising results in both human and mouse trials.Our laboratory uses the Looptail mouse model, a mutant strain for the VANGL2 gene, a member of the non-canonical Wnt pathway. In heterozygosity, these mice have a curly tail phenotype and a low incidence of spina bifida. We have also discovered that heterozygous mid-developed embryos have cell aggregates in the neural tube that resemble the most common form of spina bifida occulta in humans. In our research group, we carry out the in situ hybridization technique in these embryos using a probe that marks the aggregates. This allows us to compare the number, intensity and size of cell aggregates between embryos from untreated females and those from supplemented ones. Our preliminary results indicate that D-chiro-inositol combined with folic acid is the best combination for maternal supplementation, demonstrating higher levels of cellular aggregate reduction and no embryo toxicity.On the other hand, we have designed plasmids with the VANGL2 promoter, which together with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, it will allow us to study the effect on gene expression of possible mutations, as well as identify the most important regions of the promoter. Ultimately, our group aims to open new research routes for the prevention of NTDs, in order to avoid these serious and incurable diseases

Construction of a novel Pichia pastoris strain for production of xanthophylls

In this study, we used the yeast carotenogenic producer Pichia pastoris Pp-EBIL strain, which has been metabolically engineered, by heterologously expressing β-carotene-pathway enzymes to produce β-carotene, as a vessel for recombinant astaxanthin expression. For this purpose, we designed new P. pastoris recombinant-strains harboring astaxanthin-encoding genes from carotenogenic microorganism, and thus capable of producing xanthophyllic compounds. We designed and constructed a plasmid (pGAPZA-WZ) containing both the β-carotene ketolase (crtW) and β-carotene hydroxylase (crtZ) genes from Agrobacterium aurantiacum, under the control of the GAP promoter and containing an AOX-1 terminator. The plasmid was then integrated into the P. pastoris Pp-EBIL strain genomic DNA, producing clone Pp-EBILWZ. The recombinant P. pastoris (Pp-EBILWZ) cells exhibited a strong reddish carotenoid coloration and were confirmed, by HPLC, to produce not only the previous described carotenoids lycopene and β-carotene, but also de novo synthesized astaxanthin.J. M. A-G. is the recipient of an AECID scholarship from the Spanish Foreign Affairs MinistryS

Anatomic and Histological Features of the Extensor Digitorum Longus Tendon Insertion in the Proximal Nail Matrix of the Second Toe

[Abstract] Background: Anatomic and histological landmarks of the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) tendon insertion in the proximal nail matrix may be key aspects during surgery exposure in order to avoid permanent nail deformities. Objective: The main purpose was to determine the anatomic and histological features of the EDL’s insertion to the proximal nail matrix of the second toe. Methods: A sample of fifty second toes from fresh-frozen human cadavers was included in this study. Using X25-magnification, the proximal nail matrix limits and distal EDL tendon bony insertions were anatomically and histologically detailed. Results: The second toes’ EDLs were deeply located with respect to the nail matrix and extended superficially and dorsally to the distal phalanx in all human cadavers. The second toe distal nail matrix was not attached to the dorsal part of the distal phalanx base periosteum. Conclusions: The EDL is located plantar and directly underneath to the proximal nail matrix as well as dorsally to the bone. The proximal edge of the nail matrix and bed in human cadaver second toes are placed dorsally and overlap the distal EDL insertion. These anatomic and histological features should be used as reference landmarks during digital surgery and invasive procedures

Proposta de projeto de habitação rural indígena na comunidade Nasa-Páez em Toribío, Cauca. Turismo e cultura no pós-acordo

El diseño de alojamientos turísticos rurales indígenas en el municipio de Toribío cobra importancia en el posacuerdo, debido a las alternativas de desarrollo turístico en territorios que vivieron el conflicto armado. Se proponen tres tipos de alternativas en una intervención gradual en asentamientos indígenas tradicionales, partiendo de la adecuación de una habitación, hasta la construcción de un módulo independiente, con el fin de incentivar la exploración de este tipo de servicios. Estos diseños se generan a partir de la consulta a grupos encargados de la planeación del turismo en Totibío, para respetar los aspectos de su cosmovisión y cultura.Designing indigenous rural tourist accommodations in Toribío, Cauca (Colombia) becomes relevant in the framework of the post-agreement due to the alternatives for touristic development in territories that experienced the armed conflict. Three types of alternatives are proposed for a gradual intervention in traditional indigenous settlements, starting from the adaptation of a room, until the construction of an independent module, with the purpose of developing tourist services. These designs arise from consultation with the tourist planning groups in Toribío to preserve the worldview and culture of this territory.O projeto de alojamento turístico rural indígena no município de Toribío torna-se importante no pós-acordo, devido ás alternativas de desenvolvimento do turismo nos territórios que viveram o conflito armado. Propõem-se três tipos de alternativas em uma intervenção gradual em assentamentos indígenas tradicionais, começando com a adaptação de uma sala, até a construção de um módulo independente, a fim de incentivar a exploração desse tipo de serviço. Esses projetos são gerados a partir de grupos de consultoria responsáveis pelo planejamento do turismo em Toribío, para respeitar os aspectos de sua visão de mundo e cultura

Influence on Depression, Anxiety, and Satisfaction of the Relatives' Visit to Intensive Care Units prior to Hospital Admission for Elective Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Clinical Trial

[Resumen] Background Intensive care units (ICUs) may produce stress on the relatives of patients that have long-term physiological and psychological implications. Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the relatives´ visit prior to hospital admission(s) on the patient's scheduled cardiac surgery regarding depression, anxiety, and satisfaction of the patient's family in an ICU. Methods A randomized clinical trial [NCT03605420] was carried out according to the CONSORT criteria. Thirty-eight relatives of ICU patients were recruited at an ICU and randomized into study groups. Experimental group participants (n = 19) consisted of relatives who received 1 ICU visit prior to the patient's admission. Control group participants (n = 19) consisted of patients' relatives who received standard care alone. A self-report test battery, including the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), was completed by the patient's relative prior to the patient's ICU admission and again three and 90 days after ICU discharge. Furthermore, the Family Satisfaction with Care in the Intensive Care Unit (FS-ICU) and Critical Care Family Needs Inventory (CCFNI) were administered to help determine the respondents' satisfaction three days after the patient's ICU discharge. Results Statistically significant differences in FS-ICU results were found between control and experimental groups; no statistically significant differences were found in IES-R, HADS, and CCFNI results. Thus, members in the control group were more satisfied with the time elapsed to raise their concerns (p=0.005), emotional support provided (p=0.020), quality of care (p=0.035), opportunities to express concerns and ask questions (p=0.005), and general satisfaction with the ICU's decision-making (p=0.003). Conclusions Relatives' satisfaction during patients' ICU admission may be impaired after their prior visit to the hospital admission. Relative's anxiety and depression scores did not seem to be significantly affected. Relatives´ visit prior to elective cardiac surgery hospital admission impaired their satisfaction in an ICU and may not be advisable for healthcare practice