Energy Efficient Refurbishment of Old Listed Dwellings: The Case of Victorian Housing Stock

Architecture has to contribute to climate change recovering, by designing in a more responsible way respecting nature, local climatic, cultural, social and economic conditions, using the inexhaustible energy of the sun, wind, earth and water as Renewable energy Resources and existing local materials and resources as well. Making buildings more sustainable to time and space means that we also have to respect cultural heritage, the past, the present and the future. Architecture has also to ensure thermal comfort and healthy indoor environment during the whole year, while diminish conventional fuels consumption on the base of bioclimatic, energy efficient approach. Buildings in use or in course of erection account for over 50% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, upgrading old inefficient buildings so as to meet principles of bioclimatic design is an effective way to reduce energy use in industrialized countries. (Smith, 2005) However, refurbishment schemes should include both environmental design and conservation of architectural, historical and social values of old existing stock. This paper consists of two parts. At first there is a review of the objectives, targets and studies regarding the old existing UK housing stock, in order to highlight the principles and advantages of bioclimatic design and energy efficient improvements to listed buildings’ fabric and services. The second part contains an evaluation of performance of the recently refurbished 17 St Augustine’s road Victorian House in London. Critical assessment of its current performance has been carried out according to winter and summer on site measurements, simulations and calculations in TAS and SAP softwares. This study will be focuses more on winter performance and annual heating fuel demands. Occupants’ behaviour and its impact on Low Energy Victorian Dwelling’s (LEVH) performance has also been investigated through a questionnaire survey, while the cost of refurbishment scheme is evaluated in terms of positive effectiveness to annual savings

Post-COVID-19 interstitial lung disease: Insights from a machine learning radiographic model

IntroductionPost-acute sequelae of COVID-19 seem to be an emerging global crisis. Machine learning radiographic models have great potential for meticulous evaluation of post-COVID-19 interstitial lung disease (ILD).MethodsIn this multicenter, retrospective study, we included consecutive patients that had been evaluated 3 months following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection between 01/02/2021 and 12/5/2022. High-resolution computed tomography was evaluated through Imbio Lung Texture Analysis 2.1.ResultsTwo hundred thirty-two (n = 232) patients were analyzed. FVC% predicted was ≥80, between 60 and 79 and <60 in 74.2% (n = 172), 21.1% (n = 49), and 4.7% (n = 11) of the cohort, respectively. DLCO% predicted was ≥80, between 60 and 79 and <60 in 69.4% (n = 161), 15.5% (n = 36), and 15.1% (n = 35), respectively. Extent of ground glass opacities was ≥30% in 4.3% of patients (n = 10), between 5 and 29% in 48.7% of patients (n = 113) and <5% in 47.0% of patients (n = 109). The extent of reticulation was ≥30%, 5–29% and <5% in 1.3% (n = 3), 24.1% (n = 56), and 74.6% (n = 173) of the cohort, respectively. Patients (n = 13, 5.6%) with fibrotic lung disease and persistent functional impairment at the 6-month follow-up received antifibrotics and presented with an absolute change of +10.3 (p = 0.01) and +14.6 (p = 0.01) in FVC% predicted at 3 and 6 months after the initiation of antifibrotic.ConclusionPost-COVID-19-ILD represents an emerging entity. A substantial minority of patients presents with fibrotic lung disease and might experience benefit from antifibrotic initiation at the time point that fibrotic-like changes are “immature.” Machine learning radiographic models could be of major significance for accurate radiographic evaluation and subsequently for the guidance of therapeutic approaches

Molecular dynamic simulation of microscopic structure and psysicochemical properties of elastometric polymers

The aim of this thesis is the development and the implementation of a new realistic united atom molecular model for the prediction of thermodynamic microscopic structure and transport properties of PDMS, PDMSM, PDMSTM, poly(DMSM-alt-DMSTM) and PIB. The motivation behind this work was the increased use of polymeric membranes in a wide range of applications and the investigation of polymers that reveal interesting transport properties. Force field development was based on quantum mechanics calculations and on literature volumetric data. Molecular Dynamics simulations were performed for the prediction of important properties of pure polymer melts at various conditions. In all cases very good agreement with experiments was observed. Extensive MD simulations were performed for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient of alkanes and binary alkane mixtures in PDMS. Furthermore, the effect of penetrant concentration on the diffusion value was examined.Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αποσκοπεί στην ανάπτυξη και στην εφαρμογή ενός νέου ρεαλιστικού μοριακού μοντέλου για την πρόβλεψη των θερμοδυναμικών, δομικών και ιδιοτήτων μεταφοράς τηγμάτων PDMS, PDMSM, PDMTH, poly(DMSM-alt-DMSTM) και PIB. Το κίνητρο που μας οδήγησε στη μελέτη αυτών των συστημάτων είναι αφενός ότι η επιστήμη των μεμβρανών είναι ένα επεκτεινόμενο πεδίο και αφετέρου διότι κρίθηκε σκόπιμο να μελετηθούν οι ιδιότητες υλικών που επιδεικνύουν υποσχόμενες ιδιότητες μεταφοράς. Η παραμετροποίηση του πεδίου δυνάμεων βασίσθηκε σε κβαντομηχανικούς υπολογισμούς και σε βιβλιογραφικά ογκομετρικά δεδομένα. Πραγματοποιήθηκαν εκτενείς προσομοιώσεις Μοριακής Δυναμικής για την πρόβλεψη σημαντικών ιδιοτήτων των καθαρών πολυμερικών τηγμάτων. Για όλα τα πολυμερή βρέθηκε καλή συμφωνία μεταξύ αποτελεσμάτων της προσομοίωσης και πειραματικών μετρήσεων. Για τον υπολογισμό του συντελεστή διάχυσης οι προσομοιώσει έγιναν στο NVT στατιστικό σύνολο. Επίσης, μελετήθηκε η εξάρτηση του συντελεστή διάχυσης από τη συγκέντρωση του διαχεόμενου μορίου και διενεργήθηκαν προσομοιώσεις μιγμάτων αλκανίων στο PDMS