A model for the sustainable selection of building envelope assemblies

The aim of this article is to define an evaluation model for the environmental impacts of building envelopes to support planners in the early phases of materials selection. The model is intended to estimate environmental impacts for different combinations of building envelope assemblies based on scientifically recognised sustainability indicators. These indicators will increase the amount of information that existing catalogues show to support planners in the selection of building assemblies.To define the model, first the environmental indicators were selected based on the specific aims of the intended sustainability assessment. Then, a simplified LCA methodology was developed to estimate the impacts applicable to three types of dwellings considering different envelope assemblies, building orientations and climate zones. This methodology takes into account the manufacturing, installation, maintenance and use phases of the building. Finally, the model was validated and a matrix in Excel was created as implementation of the model

Review and Analysis of Models for a European Digital Building Logbook

The concept of a Digital Building Logbook (DBL) was first introduced with the European strategy ‘Renovation Wave’. It is considered as one of two fundamental parts of which the Building Renovation Passport is composed: the DBL and a Renovation Roadmap. As the implementation of the DBL is a European priority, this paper reviews the existing literature and analyses the most developed European Digital Building Logbook models. The analysis includes iBRoad, ALDREN, X-tendo, and the Study on the Development of a European Union Framework for Buildings’ Digital Logbook, from the perspective of seven key aspects: References used as a starting point for the model definition; Identification of the relevant stakeholders in the DBL; Identified potential user needs; Proposed structure of indicators; Data sources; Potential functionalities; and Operation and use. The results show that important advancement has been made, although there is still no consensus about crucial subjects, such as the indicators to be collected or how to collect and use them. This is probably due to the fact that the final functionalities (objective and scope) that the logbook should provide are not fully clear. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Obsolescencia de la envolvente térmica y acústica de la vivienda social de la postguerra española en áreas urbanas vulnerables. El caso de Zaragoza

In current Spanish cities, social housing built after the Civil War represents a widely spread building typology. In this paper we diagnose the physical obsolescence of the thermal and acoustic envelope of 21 residential units in less favoured urban areas of Zaragoza built in Spain’s post-war. The existing constructive solutions are defined, and their energy and acoustic behaviours are compared to current standards. It is observed that widows show poor performance regarding energy and acoustics, and that the opaque part of the envelope of these buildings is insufficient regarding energy standards, especially the roofs.En las ciudades españolas actuales, la vivienda de protección pública construida durante la etapa posterior a la Guerra Civil y hasta mediados de los 60 constituye un modelo ampliamente extendido. En este artículo se realiza un diagnóstico de la obsolescencia física de la envolvente térmica y acústica de 21 Conjuntos Urbanos de Interés de Zaragoza vulnerables de la posguerra española, definiendo de forma sistemática las soluciones constructivas empleadas y comparando su comportamiento energético y acústico con los estándares actuales. Se observa que el sistema envolvente semitransparente es débil tanto acústica como térmicamente, y que el sistema envolvente opaco presenta fuertes deficiencias a nivel energético particularmente en el caso de cubiertas

La necesidad de conciliar la normativa de habitabilidad con la rehabilitación acústica de la vivienda mínima

There is no scientific literature on the interaction between the correction processes of acoustic pathologies and the habitability conditions in housing buildings. In this paper, the authors deduce the main interferences caused by the acoustic refurbishment of minimum dwellings in their habitability conditions from more than one hundred cases of legal claims in Catalonia. An analysis of the degree of interference is performed using as a case study the social housing of Aragon from the period 1939-1975 before and after a theoretical acoustic refurbishment. It is verified that the acoustic refurbishment solutions can have inopportune consequences in the habitability parameters of the dwellings. In addition, some of these dwellings before a hypothetical intervention are already deficient in this sense, raising the need for a revision of the habitability regulations for the minimum housing stock.No hay literatura científica sobre la interacción entre los procesos de subsanación de patologías acústicas en la edificación y las condiciones de habitabilidad de viviendas. En este artículo, los autores deducen, en primer lugar partiendo de casos de reclamaciones relacionadas con rehabilitación acústica de viviendas de Cataluña, las principales interferencias de la rehabilitación acústica de la vivienda mínima en las condiciones de habitabilidad. Posteriormente realizan un análisis del grado de interferencia usando como caso de estudio las viviendas sociales de Aragón del periodo 1939-1975 antes y después de una rehabilitación acústica teórica. Se constata que las soluciones de rehabilitaciones acústicas pueden tener consecuencias inoportunas en lo que respecta a los parámetros de habitabilidad de las viviendas. Asimismo, se observa que algunas de estas viviendas antes de una hipotética intervención ya son deficitarias en este sentido, por lo que se plantea la necesidad de una revisión de la normativa de habitabilidad para el parque de vivienda mínima

Comparación de ACV de un refuerzo estructural de plancha de acero y de un refuerzo de lámina de fibra de carbono ambos adheridos con epoxi

Este trabajo presenta una comparación de impacto medioambiental, aplicando la metodología de Análisis de Ciclo de Vida (ACV), de dos refuerzos estructurales a flexión adheridos con resina epoxi: un refuerzo de plancha acero, de utilización tradicional, y un refuerzo con fibra de carbono, uno de los más utilizados actualmente

Análisis de sistemas de valoración de la sostenibilidad en la edificación en relación con la norma CEN/TC 350

Numerous sustainability rating systems have been developed in the building sector. In this paper we distinguish between those whose aim is to allow companies striving for improved performance to gain an objective basis for communicating their efforts, such as LEED, and those that aim to communicate the life cycle environmental impact of goods, such as ATHENA Impact Estimator. We name the former effort-driven assessment and the latter data-driven assessment. This work undertakes a state-of-the-art review of all these assessment systems and assesses their effectiveness comparing the indicators used for assessment against the established standards by the Technical Committee (TC) 350 of the European Committee for standardization (CEN/TC 350). About 62% of the social and economic indicators remain unconsidered by the existing data-driven assessment tools, whereas effort-driven assessment tools have a higher consideration of social and economic aspects, with about half of the indicators unconsidered.En el sector de la construcción se han desarrollado numerosos sistemas de calificación de sostenibilidad. En este documento distinguimos entre aquellos que pretenden que las empresas que luchan por mejorar su sostenibilidad obtengan una base objetiva para comunicar sus esfuerzos, como LEED, y aquellos que evalúan el impacto medioambiental de los productos durante el ciclo de vida, como ATHENA Impact Estimador. Denominamos a los primeros, sistemas de evaluación basada en el esfuerzo y a los segundos, sistemas de evaluación basada en datos. Este trabajo revisa el estado del arte de estos sistemas y evalúa su efectividad comparando los indicadores utilizados con los estándares establecidos por el the Technical Committee (TC) 350 of the European Committee for standardization (CEN). Observamos que un 62% de los indicadores sociales y económicos propuestos por el CEN/TC 350 no son considerados por los sistemas de evaluación basados en datos mientras que los sistemas de evaluación basados en el esfuerzo tienen en cuenta aproximadamente la mitad de estos indicadores

Waist circumference percentiles for Hispanic-American children and comparison with other international references

Introduction Waist circumference (WC) constitutes an indirect measurement of central obesity in children and adolescents. Objective To provide percentiles of WC for Hispanic-American children and adolescents, and compare them with other international references. Materials and methods The sample comprised 13 289 healthy children between 6 and 18 years coming from public schools of middle and low socioeconomic levels in different parts of Argentina, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. The LMS method to calculate WC percentiles was applied. Sex and age differences were assessed using Student'sttest and ANOVA (SPSS v.21.0). Comparisons were established with references from the United States, Colombia, India, China, Australia, Kuwait, Germany, Tunisia, Greece, and Portugal. Results WC increases with age in both sexes. Boys show higher WC in P3, P50, and P97. Comparison of 50th and 90th percentiles among populations from diverse sociocultural and geographical contexts shows high variability, not all justified by the measurement method. Discussion and conclusions Specific WC percentiles for sex and age, and P90 cut-off points are provided; these values are potentially useful to assess central obesity in Hispanic-American adolescent children

Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals

Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans1–8, but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave11—making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya individuals were closely related, including a father–daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the individuals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these individuals’ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome diversity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial diversity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range

Metaphase I orientation of Robertsonian trivalents in the water-hyacinth grasshopper, Cornops aquaticum (Acrididae, Orthoptera)

Trivalents resulting from polymorphic Robertsonian rearrangements must have a regular orientation in metaphase I if the polymorphisms are to be maintained. It has been argued that redistribution of proximal and interstitial chiasmata to more distal positions is necessary for a convergent orientation, the only one that produces viable gametes. Cornops aquaticum is a South-American grasshopper that lives and feeds on water-hyacinths, and has three polymorphic Robertsonian rearrangements in its southernmost distribution area in Central Argentina and Uruguay. The orientation of trivalents in metaphase I, the formation of abnormal spermatids and the frequency and position of chiasmata in the trivalents, was analysed in a polymorphic population of C. aquaticus. In this study we observed a correlation between the number of trivalents with the frequency of abnormal spermatids; additionally, the number of chiasmata, especially proximal and interstitial ones, was strongly correlated with the frequency of the linear orientation. Therefore we confirmed our previous assumption, based on other evidence, that the chiasmata redistribution in fusion carriers is essential to the maintenance of the polymorphisms