Building in Historical Areas: Identity Values and Energy Performance of Innovative Massive Stone Envelopes with Reference to Traditional Building Solutions

The intrinsic nature of local rocks shaped the features of built heritage in historical centers. The resulting building culture is part of the cultural heritage itself, and must be considered when building in such areas, while it is essential to solve the issues related to traditional constructions’ weaknesses. Nonetheless, the potentialities of massive stone envelopes, particularly the importance of thermal inertia, have contributed to redefining the language of contemporary architectural culture. Nowadays, although the trend of employing thin stone cladding panels is prevalent, thick stone envelopes are gaining a renewed importance. Previous literature demonstrated that mixed building technologies or massive stone envelopes coupled with load-bearing framed structures are able to meet comfort and safety requirements and to guarantee the integration of new constructions in the consolidated urban landscape, avoiding historicist approaches. This research, through the analysis of case studies, aims to describe innovative building solutions developed by contemporary architectural culture, comparing them with traditional stone masonry walls. Moreover, thermal energy performance of such building solutions is assessed through dynamic yearly simulations. Results show that these solutions are technically and architecturally suitable to build in historical centers, because they can express urban cultural identity and guarantee good energy performance and users’ comfort

COST MINIMALIZATION ANALYSIS (CMA) PENGGUNAAN OBAT ANTIHIPERTENSI GOLONGAN CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKER KOMBINASI ANGIOTENSIN RECEPTOR BLOCKER PADA PASIEN HIPERTENSI DI RSU IMELDA PEKERJA INDONESIA MEDAN

Hypertension is a degenerative diseases that can take long treatments or even a lifetime. Hypertensive treatment costs tend to be as high as medical costs and other administrations in hospitals, so a CMA analysis is needed to getmoreeconomical and effective treatment cost. The study was intended to learn the minimum costs of the use of drugs from the CCB combination of ARB. The study is a descriptive observational study of retrospective nature. Studies show that of 60 patients there are 24 male patients (40%) and 36 female patients (60%). The average age of most patients between 51-60 years, with the most hospitalization is 1-5 days. The most widely used antihypertension medication is candesartan 8 mg combination of amlodipin 10 mg (42%) and candesartan 16 mg combination of amlodipin 10 mg (25%). Studies have concluded that antihypertension drugs that have a minimum costs (CMA) is candesartan 16 mg combination of amlodipin 10 mg at Rp.3.870.065.-. Where the average costs paid by patients daily for antihypertensive drugs are Rp.4.952.-, treatment costs Rp.167.819.-, doctor costs Rp. 69.619.- and room administration Rp.310.476.-. So the total daily costs incurred by hypertensive patients at RSU Imelda Pekerja Indonesia Medan amounts to Rp.552.866.-

La pietra massiva nella progettazione - dalle caratteristiche dei materiali alle valenze energetico-architettoniche di involucri lapidei massivi “innovativi”

La pietra naturale per secoli ha avuto un ruolo centrale nel progetto di architettura ma con la diffusione del calcestruzzo e dell’acciaio è stata impiegata prevalentemente in elementi sottili di rivestimento. Attualmente, però, c’è stata nella cultura architettonica contemporanea una riscoperta della pietra massiva attraverso il recupero e l’attualizzazione della tecnica costruttiva tradizionale della muratura e la diffusione delle tecniche innovative della pietra armata precompressa e dei gabbioni. Molti progettisti sono tornati, infatti, ad impiegare la pietra in spessori rilevanti, spesso in combinazione con altri materiali, per realizzare pareti perimetrali verticali, coperture e strutture in elevazione. Il rinnovamento del linguaggio architettonico è legato al riconoscimento delle potenzialità della pietra massiva connesse a valori espressivi e di sostenibilità economica ed ambientale: l’uso massivo della pietra naturale, infatti, è motivato non solo dall’esigenza di integrarsi con il paesaggio o esprimere l’identità locale ma anche dalla possibilità di realizzare con costi e tempi di costruzione contenuti elementi tecnici durevoli, dotati di elevata inerzia termica, facilmente riciclabili o ottenuti attraverso il recupero o il riciclo di materiale lapideo di scarto. Questo rinnovamento è stato consentito dalle molteplici innovazioni che hanno interessato il settore lapideo. In particolare, la diffusione dei sistemi CAD/CAM/CNC, il passaggio dalla stereotomia alla stereotomia digitale legata anche a software di progettazione parametrica e la disponibilità di programmi di calcolo e di metodi di form-finding basati su modelli digitali e non più su modelli fisici hanno permesso di realizzare prodotti lapidei di forma complessa con tempi e costi di fabbricazione ridotti e di ampliare le possibilità di ricerca formale dei progettisti. La prima parte della ricerca esamina alcuni dei metodi e degli strumenti innovativi che hanno contribuito alla riscoperta della pietra massiva nella cultura architettonica contemporanea e analizza, attraverso il riferimento a casi di studio, i caratteri delle tecniche costruttive della muratura, della pietra armata e dei gabbioni per definire un quadro di riferimento tecnologico-scientifico sui materiali lapidei: vengono messe a sistema, infatti, le conoscenze relative ai materiali lapidei naturali e artificiali (lapidei agglomerati; calcestruzzi realizzati con gli scarti di estrazione o di lavorazione dei lapidei naturali), alle tecniche di lavorazione, ai metodi e agli strumenti di progettazione e ai linguaggi progettuali contemporanei. La seconda e la terza parte della ricerca evidenziano alcune delle potenzialità di involucri lapidei massivi innovativi. La seconda parte della ricerca è dedicata allo studio scientifico-quantitativo dell’importanza dell’inerzia termica del materiale per il miglioramento delle condizioni di comfort termico interno e per la riduzione della domanda energetica degli edifici: attraverso simulazioni dinamiche annuali eseguite su un edificio residenziale di progetto sono stati valutati, infatti, i vantaggi prestazionali connessi con l’adozione, in diverse condizioni climatiche, di involucri massivi innovativi rispetto ad involucri lapidei tradizionali. La terza parte della ricerca, invece, indaga le valenze prestazionali e i caratteri architettonici di involucri edilizi a gabbioni. Attraverso simulazioni dinamiche annuali eseguite sullo stesso modello studiato nella seconda parte della tesi, vengono individuate delle correlazioni tra le principali caratteristiche di involucri multistrato a gabbioni e la prestazione termico-energetica dell’edificio: sulla base delle correlazioni individuate vengono definite delle indicazioni per valutare l’appropriatezza delle scelte compiute in fase di progettazione della soluzione costruttiva al fine di minimizzare la domanda energetica per il riscaldamento e il raffrescamento dell’edificio e migliorare le condizioni di comfort termico interno. Infine, attraverso il riferimento ad architetture contemporanee e l’individuazione di analogie figurative con opere e manufatti realizzati con tecniche costruttive tradizionali, vengono evidenziati i caratteri architettonici di involucri edilizi a gabbioni legati alle possibili tipologie di texture del riempimento litico dei moduli costruttivi e alle specifiche soluzioni progettate per la risoluzione di problemi connessi con l’inserimento di aperture vetrate o di altri materiali di rivestimento e con lo smaltimento dell’acqua piovana

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism discovery and genotyping within the chicken Tapasin gene

Tapasin is one of the specific accessory molecules for the assembly of MHC class I molecules inside the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) (Antoniou et al., 2003). Mammalian tapasin is a 48 kDa transmembrane chaperone-protein (Sadasivan et al., 1996), and is member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (Ortmann et al., 1997)

Exploiting network information to disentangle spillover effects in a field experiment on teens' museum attendance

Nudging youths to visit historical and artistic heritage is a key goal pursued by cultural organizations. The field experiment we analyze is a clustered encouragement design (CED) conducted in Florence (Italy) and devised to assess how appropriate incentives assigned to high-school classes may induce teens to visit museums in their free time. In CEDs, where the focus is on causal effects for individuals, interference between units is generally unavoidable. The presence of noncompliance and spillover effects makes causal inference particularly challenging. We propose to deal with these complications by creatively blending the principal stratification framework and causal mediation methods, and exploiting information on interpersonal networks. We formally define principal natural direct and indirect effects and principal controlled direct and indirect effects, and use them to disentangle spillovers from other causal channels. The key insights are that overall principal causal effects for sub-populations of units defined by the compliance behavior combine encouragement, treatment and spillovers effects. In this situation, a synthesis of the network information may be used as a possible mediator, such that the part of the effect that is channeled by it can be attributed to spillovers. A Bayesian approach is used for inference, invoking latent ignorability assumptions on the mediator conditional on principal stratum membership.Comment: Original article, 36 pages, 3 figure

Donkey milk production: state of the art

Milk is one of the most common causes of food allergies among children under one year of age. No specific therapy exists for this allergy, and thus the only feasible response is to avoid assumption of milk and derived products. Studies conducted on the serum of children with hypersensitivity to milk have shown that caseins are the proteins with the greater allergenic potential. However, in some cases, children have also shown hypersensitivity to the β-lactoglobulines and to the α-lactalbumins. When food intolerance is diagnosed in an infant, it is often necessary to impose a period of total parenteral feeding, followed by breast feeding, considered the most correct method of re-feeding. When human milk can not be given, alternative food sources must be sought. Clinical studies have demonstrated that donkey milk could substitute breast feeding in infants affected by severe Ig-E mediated milk allergies. In these subjects, donkey milk is not only useful, but also safer than other types of milk. In fact donkey milk composition in lipids (high levels of linoleic and linolenic acid) and proteins (low caseins content) is very close to human milk. Lysozyme content in donkey milk resulted to be very high (mean value 1.0 mg/ml) if compared to bovine (traces), caprine (traces) and human milk. The high lysozyme content of donkey milk may be responsible of the low bacterial count reported in literature and also makes this milk suitable to prevent intestine infections to infants. Among seroproteins, β-lactoglobulin and α-lactalbumin content in donkey milk was respectively 3.75 and 1.80 mg/ml and remained substancially the same during the different stages of lactation

Protein fraction characterization of sheep milk from the Comisana breed

This study investigated on the protein fractions characterization of sheep milk obtained by Comisana breed. Milk samples collected by 94 sheep were subjected to RP-HPLC analysis, in order to determine caseins and seroproteins contents. A total seroproteins content of 17.0 g/l was determined, while the total casein content was 39.0 g/l. The seroproteins content was further investigated by RP-HPLC, determining an α-lactalbumin content of 1.6 g/l, higher if compared to dairy cow’s milk, and two variants of β-lactoglobulin, with a content respectively of 16.7 g/l and 11.0 g/l. Since the RP-HPLC did not permit an accurate separation of the different variants of caseins, other studies are currently in progress using a proteomic approach

Disability, Physical Inactivity, and Impaired Health-Related Quality of Life Are Not Different in Metabolically Healthy vs. Unhealthy Obese Subjects

BACKGROUND: Obesity represents a major health hazard, affecting morbidity, psychological status, physical functionality, quality of life, and mortality. The aim of the present study was to explore the differences between metabolically healthy (MHO) and metabolically unhealthy (MUO) obese subjects with regard to physical activity, disability, and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). METHODS: All subjects underwent a multidimensional evaluation, encompassing the assessment of body composition, metabolic biomarkers and inflammation, physical activity level (IPAQ questionnaire), disability (TSD-OC test), and HR-QoL (SF-36 questionnaire). MHO and MUO were defined based on the absence or the presence of the metabolic syndrome, respectively. RESULTS: 253 subjects were included (54 men and 199 women; age: 51.7 ± 12.8 vs. 50.3 ± 11.7 years, p = 0.46; BMI: 38.1 ± 5.7 vs. 38.9 ± 6.7 kg/m², p = 0.37). No significant difference was observed in body composition. There was no difference between MHO and MUO considering inflammation (hs-CRP: 6517.1 ± 11,409.9 vs. 5294.1 ± 5612.2 g/L; p = 0.37), physical inactivity (IPAQ score below 3000 METs-min/week in 77.6% of MHO vs. 80% of MUO subjects; p = 0.36), obesity-related disability (TSD-OC score > 33%, indicating a high level of obesity-related disability, in 20.2% of MHO vs. 26.5% of MUO subjects; p = 0.28), and the HR-QoL (SF-36 total score: 60 ± 20.8 vs. 62.8 ± 18.2, p = 0.27). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:The metabolic comorbidity and the impairment of functional ability and psycho-social functioning may have a different timing in the natural history of obesity. Alterations in the physical activity level and mobility disabilities may precede the onset of metabolic abnormalities. (Trial registration 2369 prot 166/12-registered 23 February 2012; Amendment 223/14-registered 13 February 2014)