Evaluating a BiPV sun shading system with various software and methods

This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of a BiPV (building integrated photovoltaic) fixed façade shading systems in view of a deep retrofit of the residential building envelope. While doing so is necessary to access the confidence and differences among optimization and simulation tools. A facade equipped with a fixed BiPV shading system is simulated with different methods, software and modelling assumptions. The output of the simulations is compared and discussed, underlining the strong and weak points of each considered method. The performance of the BiPV façade is accessed by comparison with a more traditional one without BiPV. The traditional façade is characterized by a lower WWR (window to wall ratio) compared to the BiPV one because they have the same DF (daylight factor) by design. The BiPV façade is characterized by a better behavior toward annual radiative solar gain, while the traditional façade relies on lower thermal conductivity. Both the façade solutions are the result of a performance optimization method developed at EURAC and described in the paper. The method is based on the use of genetic optimization algorithms to find the parameters, WWR tilt angle and distance from the window, that maximize target performance indicators. Aims of the study are to evaluate the BiPV impact on the façade (i.e. whether it ensures an improved annual thermal performance or only better energy balance thanks to energy production) and to compare the results obtained with different simulation methods (i.e. by evaluating the results coherency and discrepancy). The comparison between these two facades performance and the consequent BiPV impact assessment, is carried out with different methods by coupling different software tools (e.g. PVGIS + COMFEN, Archsym + postprocessing). The software tools capabilities, the relative errors and the simplifying assumptions that can be considered safe in a performance-driven design perspective are discussed in the paper

Analysis of BRCA1 and RAD51C promoter methylation in italian families at high-risk of breast and ovarian cancer

Previous studies on breast and ovarian carcinoma (BC and OC) revealed constitutional BRCA1 and RAD51C promoter hypermethylation as epigenetic alterations leading to tumor predisposition. Nevertheless, the impact of epimutations at these genes is still debated. One hundred and eight women affected by BC, OC, or both and considered at very high risk of carrying BRCA1 germline mutations were studied. All samples were negative for pathogenic variants or variants of uncertain significance at BRCA testing. Quantitative BRCA1 and RAD51C promoter methylation analyses were performed by Epityper mass spectrometry on peripheral blood samples and results were compared with those in controls. All the 108 analyzed cases showed methylation levels at the BRCA1/RAD51C promoter comparable with controls. Mean methylation levels (\ub1 stdev) at the BRCA1 promoter were 4.3% (\ub1 1.4%) and 4.4% (\ub1 1.4%) in controls and patients, respectively (p > 0.05; t-test); mean methylation levels (\ub1 stdev) at the RAD51C promoter were 4.3% (\ub1 0.9%) and 3.7% (\ub1 0.9%) in controls and patients, respectively (p > 0.05; t-test). Based on these observations; the analysis of constitutional methylation at promoters of these genes does not seem to substantially improve the definition of cancer risks in patients. These data support the idea that epimutations represent a very rare event in high-risk BC/OC populations

What can we learn from the January 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes?

This note focuses on the ground motion recorded during the recent moderate earthquakes occurred in the central part of Northern Italy (panel 1), a region characterized by low seismicity. For this area the Italian seismic hazard map (Stucchi et al., 2011) assigns a maximum horizontal acceleration (rock site) up to 0.2 g (10% probability of exceedance in 50 yrs). In the last 4 years, the region was struck by 9 earthquakes in the magnitude range 4≤Mw≤5.0, with the three largest located in the Northern Apennines (Mw 4.9 and 5.0 Parma events, December 2008 and January 2012) and in the Po plain (Mw 4.9 Reggio Emila event of January 2012). We analyze the strongmotion data (distance < 300 km) from these events recorded by stations belonging to the INGV (RAIS, http://rais.mi.ingv.it; RSNC http://iside.rm.ingv.it) and DPC (RAN, www.protezionecivile.it; http://itaca.mi.ingv.it). The 2008 and 2012 Parma events, both characterized by reverse focal mechanisms (http://cnt.rm.ingv.it/), have depths of 27 and 60 km respectively. The deep event produced a maximum peak ground acceleration (PGA) of 97 cm/s2 at Novellara (NVL, EC8 C class) station (70 km from the epicenter). The 25th January 2012 event (depth of 34 km) produced a maximum PGA of 114 cm/s2 at Sorbolo (SRP) station (7 km from the epicenter). Preliminary analyses show: 1) a peculiar ground-motion attenuation of the deep Parma event with respect to the shallow one. In panel 2, the PGAs for the two Parma events are plotted as a function of hypocentral distance and compared to the global ground motion prediction equation (GMPE) calibrated by Cauzzi and Faccioli (2008) using events with depth < 30 km. The different distance-decay of PGA for the deep event (blue for A class of EC8 and red for B and C classes, CEN 2003) is evident, in particular for distance up to 100 km. On the other hand, the PGAs of the 2008 Parma crustal event (grey) are well explained by this GMPE. In panel 3, the PGAs for the deep 2012 event, grouped for EC8 classes, are compared to the national GMPE calibrated by Bindi et al. (2011) using crustal events and epicentral distance. Also in this case, the GMPE underestimates the PGAs up to 200 km. Although most of the class C sites (red) show the largest PGAs, the underestimation cannot be completely ascribed to site effects. The large PGAs from the Parma deep event, with respect to the shallow one, could be explained in terms of source effects (e.g. large stress drop values enhancing the high-frequency radiation). In addition, as explained by Castro et al. (2008), the different attenuation in the lower and upper crust could explain the large PGAs recorded for the 2012 deep event. 2) seismic amplification at Po Plain sites: In panel 4, the PGAs of the January 25th, Mw 4.9, Reggio Emilia event are plotted as a function of the epicentral distance, together with the Bindi et al. (2011) GMPE. In general, the largest amplitudes occur at the Po plain sites (red), suggesting possible peculiar site response. An overall increase of the PGAs is observed around 100km, in agreement with the results of Bragato et al. (2011) that studied the regional influence of Moho S-wave reflections in the area. An example of site response is shown in panel 5, considering TREG (class C) and ZEN8 (class A) stations (panel 5a), located at 88 km from the Reggio Emila epicentre. The rotational standard spectral ratio (panel 5b) for 10 s of S wave shows polarized amplifications around 2 Hz, detected also at others Po plain sites (not reported), as well as amplification on the vertical component. The points discussed above should to be interpreted as a warning for future applications dealing with ground motion estimation in the aftermath of an earthquake in this area (e.g. ShakeMap calculation): currently used GMPEs, based on different events and sites characteristics could lead to significant bias in the final results

Qui INGV

L’INGV, a partire dal 2006, ha iniziato una fase di potenziamento del monitoraggio accelerometrico, installando nelle aree centrali della pianura padana 22 sensori strong-motion (Rete Accelerometrica Italia Settentrionale, RAIS, http://rais.mi.ingv.it/). Dal 2008, sensori accelerometrici sono stati via via installati in 105 siti a Rete Sismica Nazionale (RSN), gestita dal Centro Nazionale Terremoti (CNT). Nel complesso le 127 stazioni accelerometriche presenti sul territorio nazionale costituiscono a tutti gli effetti la rete accelerometrica nazionale INGV. I dati acquisiti da tutte le stazioni accelerometriche sono attualmente distribuiti in tempo reale tramite il portale EIDA (European Integrated Data Archive; http://eida.rm.ingv.it/) e sono principalmente utilizzati per il calcolo delle Shakemaps a scala nazionale. Attualmente, l’INGV sta realizzando un portale web per la distribuzione dei dati accelerometrici registrati dalle stazioni INGV, composto da 2 moduli distinti: il primo, denominato ISMD, ha lo scopo di archiviaziare e distribuire in tempo quasi reale (poche ore dopo l’evento) le forme d’onda accelerometriche in formato non corretto ed i relativi metadati ottenuti a seguito di una procedura di processamento automatico; il secondo, denominato DYNA, è una banca dati relazionale, contenente le forme d’onda di accelerazione, velocità e spostamento e gli spettri di risposta di accelerazione, ottenuti attraverso il processamento manuale dei segnali non corretti, oltre ai relativi metadati associati agli eventi sismici ed alle stazioni di registrazione Il prototipo del portale dei dati accelerometrici INGV (Figura 1) è stato pubblicato lo scorso maggio, a seguito della sequenza sismica Emiliana

Phenotypic and genomic identification of Staphylococcus epidermidis GOI1153754-03-14 isolated from an infected orthopedic prosthesis

Introduction: Staphylococcus epidermidis GOI1153754-03-14 is able to colonize orthopedic implants and to cause septic non-unions, as validated in a recent in vivo study (Lovati, 2016). To pore over the mechanisms leading to the biofilm formation on metallic implants, in the present study, we carried out the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the clinical isolate S. epidermidis GOI1153754-03-14.Materials and Methods: The antimicrobial susceptibility and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the strain were evaluated through the Vitek2 System (Biomerieux), as well as its ability to form biofilm in vitro through a spectrophotometric assay (Stepanovich, 2000).The genomic DNA was extracted by Bacterial Genomic DNA Isolation Kit (Norgen Biotek Corp.). Libraries were prepared with the ThruPLEX DNA-seq (Rubicon Genomics) and then sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq platform through the MiSeq Reagent Kit v3 (600-cycles) to produce 300 bp paired-end reads (Illumina Inc.). Reads were quality-trimmed and gene annotated thanks to the RAST software (Aziz, 2008).Results: The antimicrobial susceptibility along with the MIC values are reported in Table 1. The outputs resulted in 51 contigs (Average = 50,720.6 Mb) with 396X fold average coverage. The total genome is 2,586,753 bp long with a GC content of 31.84% and an N50 value of 7 bp. The whole genome is composed by 2,467 protein-encoding genes and 64 RNAs (55 tRNAs and 9 rRNAs). The entire genome sequence has been deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) under the accession no. FWCG01000000 (Bottagisio, 2017).Discussion: The genotypic and phenotypic characterization of the S. epidermidis GOI1153754-03-14 will enable a better comprehension of the mechanisms involved in the biofilm formation on orthopedic implants paving the way for innovative preventative and therapeutic strategies. Moreover, the sequence of this clinical strain is mandatory to develop dedicated proteomics analysis in order to highlight functional mechanism of biofilm formation

Does PGE1 vasodilator prevent orthopaedic implant-related infection in diabetes? Preliminary results in a mouse model

Background: Implant-related infections are characterized by bacterial colonization and biofilm formation on the prosthesis. Diabetes represents one of the risk factors that increase the chances of prosthetic infections because of related severe peripheral vascular disease. Vasodilatation can be a therapeutic option to overcome diabetic vascular damages and increase the local blood supply. In this study, the effect of a PGE1 vasodilator on the incidence of surgical infections in diabetic mice was investigated. Methodology: A S. aureus implant-related infection was induced in femurs of diabetic mice, then differently treated with a third generation cephalosporin alone or associated with a PGE1 vasodilator. Variations in mouse body weight were evaluated as index of animal welfare. The femurs were harvested after 28 days and underwent both qualitative and quantitative analysis as micro-CT, histological and microbiological analyses. Results: The analysis performed in this study demonstrated the increased host response to implant-related infection in diabetic mice treated with the combination of a PGE1 and antibiotic. In this group, restrained signs of infections were identified by micro-CT and histological analysis. On the other hand, the diabetic mice treated with the antibiotic alone showed a severe infection and inability to successfully respond to the standard antimicrobial treatment. Conclusions: The present study revealed interesting preliminary results in the use of a drug combination of antibiotic and vasodilator to prevent implant-related Staphylococcus aureus infections in a diabetic mouse model

Strong-motion parameters of the Mw=6.3 Abruzzo (Central Italy) earthquake

INGVPublished1.1. TTC - Monitoraggio sismico del territorio nazionaleope