Building performance analysis of a dairy factory in South Iraq: appraisal of a local bio-based envelope

Received: February 4th, 2021 ; Accepted: April 24th, 2021 ; Published: April 29th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] have a relevant impact on the environment, and building materials cause environmental impacts during all life cycle stages: production, utilization, management and demolition. The global request for more efficient buildings with less environmental impacts has grown during the last years. Among various technologies, thermal insulation has proven to be helpful in reducing emissions by increasing energy conservation. This paper intends to show how the Building Performance Analysis (BPA) supports the decision-making process in many areas where common insulation materials are not available and there is a general reluctance to use local natural materials. A building located in the city of Al Chubaish in Dhi Qar Province in Iraq is examined as a case study. The construction is designed for processing buffalo milk. It was built in the first decade of the century, during the Iraqi conflict, using only the materials available at that time, most of which, concrete bricks, mortar and plaster. Currently, this dairy factory is a very inefficient structure in terms of energy saving. But because its elementary form, it is a perfect example to investigate how a simple exterior wall insulation can improve building performance in extreme environmental conditions. Accordingly, two different models have been created. One is the replica of the real building without any upgrading. The second instead presents a thermal insulation realized with reed bio-based material locally available. Through advanced simulation engines and building performance analysis data integrated into Autodesk Revit, each model has been tested to identify significant improvements in terms of energy savings in this particular stressed background

Kawasaki disease in infants less than one year of age : An Italian cohort from a single center

Background and aims Few data are currently available for Kawasaki disease (KD) below 12 months especially in Caucasians. This study aims to analyze clinical and laboratory features of KD among an Italian cohort of infants. Methods A retrospective chart review of KD children aged less than 1 year at time of disease onset between January 2008-December 2017 was performed. Clinical data, laboratory parameters, instrumental findings, treatment and outcome were collected in a customized database. Results Among 113 KD patients, 32 (28.3%) were younger than 1 year. Nineteen patients aged below 6 months, and three below 3 months. The median age was 5.7 +/- 2.7 months. The mean time to diagnosis was 7 +/- 3 days and was longer in the incomplete forms (8 +/- 4 vs 6 +/- 1 days). Conjunctival injection was present in 26 patients (81.2%); rash in 25 (78.1%); extremity changes in 18 (56.2%); mucosal changes in 13 (40.6%,) and lymphadenopathy only in 7 (21.8%). Mucosal changes were the least common features in incomplete forms (18.2%). Twenty-two patients (68.7%) had incomplete KD. Nineteen (59.4%) had cardiac involvement, of whom 13 (59.0%) had incomplete form. ESR, PCR and platelet values were higher in complete KD; especially, ESR resulted significantly higher in complete forms (80 +/- 25.7 mm/h vs 50 +/- 28.6 mm/h; p = 0.01). Conversely, AST level was statistically significant higher in patients with incomplete forms (95.4 +/- 132.7 UI/L vs 29.8 +/- 13.2 UI/L; p = 0.03). All patients received IVIG. Response was reported in 26/32 patients; 6 cases needed a second dose of IVIG and one required a dose of anakinra. Conclusion In our cohort, incomplete disease was commonly found, resulting in delayed diagnoses and poor cardiac prognosis. Infants with incomplete KD seem to have a more severe disease and a greater predilection for coronary involvement than those with complete KD. AST was significantly higher in incomplete forms, thus AST levels might be a new finding in incomplete forms' diagnosis. Eventually, we highlight a higher resistance to IVIG treatment. To our knowledge this is the first study involving an Italian cohort of patients with KD below 12 months

Elbow monoarthritis: an atypical onset of juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common chronic rheumatic condition in childhood and an important cause of short and long term disability. Oligoarthritis is defined as an arthritis that affects four o fewer joints during the first 6 months of disease. The large majority of patients within this category belongs to a quite well defined disease which is not observed in adults. It is characterized by an early onset (before 6 years of age), an asymmetric arthritis involving mainly large joints, a female predilection, a high frequency of positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA), a high risk for developing chronic iridocyclitis and consistent HLA associations. We describe 3 clinical cases who presented monoarthritis of the elbow as early sign of oligoarticular JIA. All patients showed inflammatory markers elevation and 2/3 were ANA positive. MRI showed the presence of synovial inflammation without bone involvement. Intraarticular triamcinolone hexacetonide, led to remission in one case, while in the other two there was a re-activation of the disease treated with NSAIDs and/or MTX. The reported cases represent 0.6% of 490 patients with JIA followed by our unit in the last 10 years. Cases of exclusive involvement of the elbow at onset of JIA in literature are rare. Therefore, we report 3 cases of monoarthritis of the elbow as initial sign of oligoarticular JIA, a very atypical onset of this disease

A noncanonical auxin-sensing mechanism is required for organ morphogenesis in Arabidopsis

Tissue patterning in multicellular organisms is the output of precise spatio–temporal regulation of gene expression coupled with changes in hormone dynamics. In plants, the hormone auxin regulates growth and development at every stage of a plant's life cycle. Auxin signaling occurs through binding of the auxin molecule to a TIR1/AFB F-box ubiquitin ligase, allowing interaction with Aux/IAA transcriptional repressor proteins. These are subsequently ubiquitinated and degraded via the 26S proteasome, leading to derepression of auxin response factors (ARFs). How auxin is able to elicit such a diverse range of developmental responses through a single signaling module has not yet been resolved. Here we present an alternative auxin-sensing mechanism in which the ARF ARF3/ETTIN controls gene expression through interactions with process-specific transcription factors. This noncanonical hormone-sensing mechanism exhibits strong preference for the naturally occurring auxin indole 3-acetic acid (IAA) and is important for coordinating growth and patterning in diverse developmental contexts such as gynoecium morphogenesis, lateral root emergence, ovule development, and primary branch formation. Disrupting this IAA-sensing ability induces morphological aberrations with consequences for plant fitness. Therefore, our findings introduce a novel transcription factor-based mechanism of hormone perception in plants. Note that there is a CORRIGENDUM to this article: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/132306/ http://genesdev.cshlp.org/content/31/17/1821.ful

LEARNING FROM THE PAST TO FACE THE FUTURE: LANDSLIDES IN THE PIAVE VALLEY (EASTERN ALPS, ITALY)

Landslides are a critical process in landscape evolution and may pose a serious threat to people and infrastructure. In the last decades, a growing interest in such phenomena has developed in the Alps, where narrow valleys are increasingly in\uachabited, and landslides have caused several casualties. Understanding the driving factors, triggers, evolution, and impact of past and future failures is of the utmost importance when dealing with land use and risk reduction. In this paper, four distinct case stud\uacies are presented, showing how different approaches can interact and produce a comprehensive understanding of a landslide event. All examples lie in the middle sector of the Piave Valley (NE Italy) and deal with failures that occurred in the distant past (i.e., the historic Masiere di Vedana rock avalanche), in the near past (i.e., the 1963 Vajont event), in the present (i.e., the 60-years -lasting Tessina landslide) and in the future (i.e., possible Mt. Peron instabilities). The final goal of the paper is to show how the understanding of past landslides is fundamental to obtain reliable predictions on future failures, and how modelling designed to predict the evolution of potential detachments can be applied to understand the dynamics of ancient events