Thermo-chromic glazing in buildings: a novel methodological framework for a multi-objective performance evaluation

Abstract Transparent adaptive facade components can improve the energy performance and the indoor environmental quality of buildings. Nevertheless, their utilization is not widespread, due also to the lack of a robust methodology to comprehensively evaluate their potentialities and find out their most suitable applications. The present paper introduces a novel methodology to characterize the behavior of a transparent adaptive facade component, a thermo-chromic glazing, and predict its effects, through numerical simulations, on energy performance and visual comfort aspects. An experimental characterization on the thermo-chromic glazing was performed to determine its optical properties at the variation of its surface temperature. The component was found to be able to switch its visible transmittance between 0.71 and 0.13, and its solar transmittance between 0.65 and 0.28. The experimental results were used to feed the numerical model created on purpose to describe the adaptive behavior of the component. Finally, a numerical simulation campaign was performed to assess the effects of the thermo-chromic glazing on energy and visual comfort aspects of an enclosed office located in Turin. It was found that the thermo-chromic glazing reduced the overall energy performance compared to a static selective glazing, but it allows improving the visual comfort conditions within the space considered

Juxtapapillary Retinal Capillary Hemangioma: New Therapeutic Strategies

The treatment of juxtapapillary retinal capillary hemangiomas (JRCHs) is still a therapeutic dilemma without established guidelines. Because of the location of these hemangiomas on or adjacent to the optic nerve, treatment is difficult and complex, especially when JRCHs are located in the papillomacular bundle. This manuscript reviews the clinically relevant data on literature regarding the treatment of JRCHs, focusing on novel combined therapies that have shown promising results in these lesions

unsteady methods applied to a transonic aeronautical gas turbine stage

Abstract The importance of considering the unsteady effects in aeronautical engine design has brought to the implementation of simplified unsteady CFD models to respect the temporal restrictions of design cycles. A comparison among steady, Non-Linear Harmonic (NLH) and Full-Annulus (FA) methods has been carried out analyzing the transonic turbine stage CT3, experimentally studied at von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. The understanding of the unsteady phenomena is fundamental to increase the engine efficiency and is precluded in steady calculations. As the computational cost of NLH calculations is of the same order of magnitude of steady ones, it represents a valid and competitive option in a turbine design process

Correction to “Going Beyond the Limits of Classical Atomistic Modeling of Plasmonic Nanostructures”

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c04716

Data modeling for museum collections

The relationship between cultural heritage, digital technologies and visual models involves an increasingly wide area of research, oriented towards the renewal of archives and museums for the preservation and promotion of culture. Recent research activities are the result of the progressive strengthening of digital technologies and the needs of a new generation of “digital” users, which requires museums to update their means of communication using Semantic Web languages and technologies shaped by a social conceptualization of a graph-based representation of information. The growth of several digitized heritage collections increases the necessity of proper methodologies to develop a structured system able to access to these collections and the large amount of data, metadata and paradata related to the digitized objects in a structured and organized way, defining a set of collection information models (CIM), that considers not only the digitizing process but also the data collection process, layered by an Upper Ontology level structure, based on CIDOC-CRM

Reducing Secondary Flow Losses in Low-Pressure Turbines: The "Snaked" Blade

This paper presents an innovative design for reducing the impact of secondary flows on the aerodynamics of low-pressure turbine (LPT) stages. Starting from a state-of-the-art LPT stage, a local reshaping of the stator blade was introduced in the end-wall region in order to oppose the flow turning deviation. This resulted in an optimal stator shape, able to provide a more uniform exit flow angle. The detailed comparison between the baseline stator and the redesigned one allowed for pointing out that the rotor row performance increased thanks to the more uniform inlet flow, while the stator losses were not significantly affected. Moreover, it was possible to derive some design rules and to devise a general blade shape, named 'snaked', able to ensure such results. This generalization translated in an effective parametric description of the 'snaked' shape, in which few parameters are sufficient to describe the optimal shape modification starting from a conventional design. The "snaked" blade concept and its design have been patented by Avio Aero. The stator redesign was then applied to a whole LPT module in order to evaluate the potential benefit of the 'snaked' design on the overall turbine performance. Finally, the design was validated by means of an experimental campaign concerning the stator blade. The spanwise distributions of the flow angle and pressure loss coefficient at the stator exit proved the effectiveness of the redesign in providing a more uniform flow to the successive row, while preserving the original stator losses

Intenção de Uso de E-learning no Ensino Superior: Há diferenças de Percepção entre Homens e Mulheres?

ABSTRACTPersonal differences such as age, gender and life experience lead to different perceptions, and thus, to distinct behaviors. Therefore, different perceptions may influence individual behavior regarding acceptance and diffusion of technology systems. This study has two goals: to analyze, in a Brazilian setting, e-learning usage among undergraduate students in a private university, and to test the impact of gender on the proposed relationships. Data obtained via a cross-sectional survey was analyzed by structural equation modeling. Results indicate that gender has little impact on the tested relationships, except for the effect of previous experience with technology on perceived ease of use, which is significantly more pronounced in females

A DNA barcoding approach in the study of tardigrades

DNA barcoding is a technique proposed by Hebert and coworkers in 2003 for discriminating species through analysis of a single gene barcode locus. It aims to obtain a better taxonomic resolution than that achieved through morphological studies, and to avoid the decline in taxonomic knowledge. Today DNA barcoding is a global enterprise, and the implementation of the idea has seen a rapid rise (more than 1900 papers published to date on different organisms). Nonetheless, controversy still arises regarding barcoding and taxonomy. It is important to note that DNA barcoding does not focus on building a tree-of-life or on doing DNA taxonomy, even though sometimes it has been used for these purposes. DNA barcoding rather focuses on producing a universal molecular identification key based on strong taxonomic knowledge that should be included in the barcode reference library. In the phylum Tardigrada, DNA barcoding represents a recent approach to species identification and to help in solving taxonomic problems, especially considering the diminutive size of these animals and the paucity of morphological characters useful for taxonomy. In the framework of the MoDNA Project (Morphology and DNA), carried out by our research group in collaboration with several colleagues, we are combining the study of a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (cox1) with morphological data, in a wide sense (cuticular structures, chromosomes, data on sex ratio and reproduction), to form an integrative taxonomy approach for tardigrade species identification. We believe that without verified reference sequences from voucher specimens that have been authenticated by qualified taxonomists, there is no reliable library for newly generated sequences with which to be compared. Methods and protocols for standardized results are focused on obtaining tight correspondence between tardigrade morphology (and egg shell morphology, when useful), possibly both light and scanning electron microscopy images, and molecular sequence. This approach is particularly useful in describing new species, and important when applied on material collected in species type localities. Results using this approach are presented, primarily focusing on a number of species from the so-called “Macrobiotus hufelandi group”