Demand Aggregation as a Strategy for Untapping Buildings’ Energy Renovation Potential: Diagnosis and Prioritization Methodology and Case Study from the Basque Country

Energy renovation of post-World War II private multifamily residential buildings has been identified to have a great deal of energy-saving potential but faces a great challenge across Europe, and especially in South Europe, due to fragmented property structures and longer return periods in energy efficiency investments. However, there is great deal of potential in activating demand aggregation in areas with homogeneous typologies. Local authorities play a key role in leading district-scale renovation but lack adequate methods for analysing and prioritizing areas from an integrated perspective, including social aspects. The methodology presented in this paper aims to support local authorities by providing a tool for the diagnosis and prioritization of homogeneous groups of residential buildings to address their renovation based on an analysis of their needs and opportunity factors. First, the methodology sets the universe of analysis; second, based on indicators, it provides comparative information within the municipality, which leads to a prioritization of areas for building renovations according to the state of the building and to the socio-economic profile of the residents; lastly, a detailed diagnosis of selected groups is performed, providing information to design the Renovation Action Plans accordingly. The application of the methodology in Basauri is presented in this paper.This research was funded by the European Commission, grant number 84706

Mobile travel services: A three-country study into the impact of local circumstances

In this paper we explore the difference in acceptance patterns of mobile services that are related to travelling in three countries: Finland, The Netherlands and New Zealand. The objective of this paper is to understand differences in the use of Mobile Travel Services in three countries that differ with regard to national travel patterns. This paper also contributes to the discussion of the relevance of the Technology Acceptance Model for mobile applications by focusing on the importance of context characteristics, such as the degree of mobility of the user, the social situation people are in, and their need for social interaction. Based on surveys in the three countries as executed in 2009, we use structural equation modelling to find differences in patterns. The paper concludes that context factors have an impact on the relation between the core concepts as used in TAM and DOI approach, and that t here is a clear need for closer research in the moderating effect of physical (e.g. mobile and fixed context) and social context, as well as the need for social interaction. Moreover it is clear that country specific characteristics play a role in the acceptance of mobile travel services. As we pointed out in many of our research projects before the acceptance and use of mobile services requires deep understanding from individual, context and technology related characteristics and their mutual interactions

Mobile travel services: the effect of moderating context factors

This article has two objectives: (1) to draw an international comparison regarding the acceptance of mobile travel services in three countries with different profiles when it comes to travelling and mobile telecommunications, and (2) to extend relevant literature on mobile applications, more specifically travel services, by including context-related concepts, taking moderating factors like location, mobility of users, physical, and social context into account. Based on surveys that were carried out in 2009, structural equation modelling is used to identify differences in patterns in the use of mobile travel services and in the role of context-related variables. the conclusion of this article is that context-related factors, that is, mobility and (physical and social) context, have an impact on the relationship between the core concepts of technology Acceptance model (TAM) and Diffusion of Innovation (DoI) research. many studies on the acceptance and use of mobile services indicate that a deep understanding is needed of individual, context-related, and technological characteristics and the way they interact. this is also highly relevant to the travel industry, which wants to utilize the opportunities provided by mobile technology

Trading-off price for data quality to achieve fair online allocation

We consider the problem of online allocation subject to a long-term fairness penalty. Contrary to existing works, however, we do not assume that the decision-maker observes the protected attributes -- which is often unrealistic in practice. Instead they can purchase data that help estimate them from sources of different quality; and hence reduce the fairness penalty at some cost. We model this problem as a multi-armed bandit problem where each arm corresponds to the choice of a data source, coupled with the online allocation problem. We propose an algorithm that jointly solves both problems and show that it has a regret bounded by $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{T})$. A key difficulty is that the rewards received by selecting a source are correlated by the fairness penalty, which leads to a need for randomization (despite a stochastic setting). Our algorithm takes into account contextual information available before the source selection, and can adapt to many different fairness notions. We also show that in some instances, the estimates used can be learned on the fly

Measurement and shaping of biphoton spectral wavefunctions

In this work we present a simple method to reconstruct the complex spectral wavefunction of a biphoton, and hence gain complete information about the spectral and temporal properties of a photon pair. The technique, which relies on quantum interference, is applicable to biphoton states produced with a monochromatic pump when a shift of the pump frequency produces a shift in the relative frequencies contributing to the biphoton. We demonstrate an example of such a situation in type-II parametric down-conversion (SPDC) allowing arbitrary paraxial spatial pump and detection modes. Moreover, our test cases demonstrate the possibility to shape the spectral wavefunction. This is achieved by choosing the spatial mode of the pump and of the detection modes, and takes advantage of spatiotemporal correlations.Comment: Supplementary information also available. Comments and feedback appreciated. Compared to the previous version, here we have made the following changes: -corrected a typo in the text between Eq. (11) and (12) -corrected a typo in the references -added reference

Casa UNIMINUTO, propuesta de un espacio para el mejoramiento continuo de comunidades vulnerables en Villavicencio, como resultado de una experiencia de movilidad académica internacional en Puebla- México desde el 9/01/18 hasta el 23/05/18

Sistematizar el proceso de internacionalización en Puebla-México, tomando como referencia la experiencia vivida en Casa Ibero.El intercambió surgió como una necesidad de expandir mis conocimientos tanto académicos como culturales, para así poderlos aplicar en mi vida personal y laboral. El haber viajado a un país latinoamericano, permite que esta sistematización no cuente con un desarrollo complicado de digerir, puesto que, Colombia y México cuentan con características similares en distintos escenarios. Esta sistematización es el resultado del análisis de las vivencias comprendidas en mi intercambio académico en Puebla, México, las cuales dejarán un precedente que les permitirá a los estudiantes que realicen una movilidad internacional a este mismo destino; comprender las dinámicas a las cuales se pueden llegar a enfrentar. Además, contribuir en la posible creación de un espacio de intervención en el que los implicados tengan una apropiación mayor sobre las problemáticas sociales, sus contextos, y el cómo accionar para que éstas cambien

Casa UNIMINUTO, propuesta de un espacio para el mejoramiento continuo de comunidades vulnerables en Villavicencio, como resultado de una experiencia de movilidad académica internacional en Puebla- México desde el 9/01/18 hasta el 23/05/18

Sistematizar el proceso de internacionalización en Puebla-México, tomando como referencia la experiencia vivida en Casa Ibero.El intercambió surgió como una necesidad de expandir mis conocimientos tanto académicos como culturales, para así poderlos aplicar en mi vida personal y laboral. El haber viajado a un país latinoamericano, permite que esta sistematización no cuente con un desarrollo complicado de digerir, puesto que, Colombia y México cuentan con características similares en distintos escenarios. Esta sistematización es el resultado del análisis de las vivencias comprendidas en mi intercambio académico en Puebla, México, las cuales dejarán un precedente que les permitirá a los estudiantes que realicen una movilidad internacional a este mismo destino; comprender las dinámicas a las cuales se pueden llegar a enfrentar. Además, contribuir en la posible creación de un espacio de intervención en el que los implicados tengan una apropiación mayor sobre las problemáticas sociales, sus contextos, y el cómo accionar para que éstas cambien

Prenatal exposure to organochlorine pesticides and TSH status in newborns from Southern Spain

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Ovine serum biomarkers of early and late phase scrapie

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are fatal neurodegenerative disease occurring in animals and humans for which no <it>ante-mortem </it>diagnostic test in biological fluids is available. In such pathologies, detection of the pathological form of the prion protein (i.e., the causative factor) in blood is difficult and therefore identification of new biomarkers implicated in the pathway of prion infection is relevant.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study we used the SELDI-TOF MS technology to analyze a large number of serum samples from control sheep and animals with early phase or late phase scrapie. A few potential low molecular weight biomarkers were selected by statistical methods and, after a training analysis, a protein signature pattern, which discriminates between early phase scrapie samples and control sera was identified.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The combination of early phase biomarkers showed a sensitivity of 87% and specificity of 90% for all studied sheep in the early stage of the disease. One of these potential biomarkers was identified and validated in a SELDI-TOF MS kinetic study of sera from Syrian hamsters infected by scrapie, by western blot analysis and ELISA quantitation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Differential protein expression profiling allows establishing a TSE diagnostic in scrapie sheep, in the early phase of the disease. Some proteic differences observed in scrapie sheep exist in infected hamsters. Further studies are being performed to identify all the discriminant biomarkers of interest and to test our potential markers in a new cohort of animals.</p