Habitabilidad, un concepto en crisis. Sobre su redefinición orientada hacia la sostenibilidad

The urgent response to the environmental crisis –produced by our industrial productive system– constitutes the main challenge that the building sector should face, implying profound transformations on its objectives and intervention procedures. In this article, the possibilities to achieve the sustainability of the building sector are considered from a re-definition of the social utility that the sector should supply: habitability. First, the current regulations are analysed in order to identify the barriers against the sustainability conditions. Secondly, alternatives in the same Spanish regulations contexts are explored to identify the possibilities of adapting these ones to the new sustainable paradigm. Finally, the article reveals the changes which the redefinition of the concept habitability brings about in the own dynamic of the sector and, specifically, in the building stock renovation.La inaplazable respuesta a la crisis ambiental provocada por el sistema productivo industrial, supone el primer y mayor reto que debe afrontar el sector de la edificación, pues conllevará transformaciones profundas en sus objetivos y en sus procedimientos de actuación. La consecución de la condición de edificación sostenible se aborda en el presente artículo a partir de la aproximación a una redefinición de la misma utilidad social que debe procurar el sector: la habitabilidad. En primer lugar, se analiza la concepción normativa actual y se detectan las barreras que opone frente a las demandas de sostenibilidad. En segundo lugar se exploran alternativas disponibles en el mismo contexto legislativo español que permiten adecuarlo al nuevo paradigma ambiental. En último término, el artículo también presenta los cambios que la redefinición del concepto de habitabilidad conlleva en la misma dinámica de sector y, concretamente, en la rehabilitación del parque construido

Combined intermittent hypoxia and surface muscle electrostimulation as a method to increase peripheral blood progenitor cell concentration

Background: Our goal was to determine whether short-term intermittent hypoxia exposure, at a level well tolerated by healthy humans and previously shown by our group to increase EPO and erythropoiesis, could mobilizehematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and increase their presence in peripheral circulation. Methods: Four healthy male subjects were subjected to three different protocols: one with only a hypoxic stimulus (OH), another with a hypoxic stimulus plus muscle electrostimulation (HME) and the third with only muscle electrostimulation (OME). Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia exposureconsisted of only three sessions of three hours at barometric pressure 540 hPa (equivalent to an altitude of 5000 m) for three consecutive days, whereas muscular electrostimulation was performed in two separate periods of 25 min in each session. Blood samples were obtained from an antecubital vein on three consecutive days immediately before the experiment and 24 h, 48 h, 4 days and 7 days after the last day of hypoxic exposure. Results: There was a clear increase in the number of circulating CD34+ cells after combined hypobaric hypoxia and muscular electrostimulation. This response was not observed after the isolated application of the same stimuli. Conclusion: Our results open a new application field for hypobaric systems as a way to increase efficiency in peripheral HSC collection

Plasma myoglobin and creatine kinase after skeletal muscle injury in trained rats: The effect of intermittent hypobaric hypoxia and light exercise.

<p>ELISA tests on plasma were used as a rapid method to determine the existence of muscle damage in trained rats. Myoglobin in plasma showed a different dynamics in the active recovery group, perhaps indicating a different degree of injury in the<br>oxidative fibres. However, the CK level might not be the best representative parameter to accurately evaluate the actual level of the muscle damage produced.</p

Effect of intermittent hypobaric hypoxia on induced muscle injury repair in laboratory rats (DEP2010-22205-C02-01)

<p>A study aimed to establish the possible efficiency of intermittent hypobaric hypoxia exposure in the recovery of induced muscle damage in rats.</p

Structural and biochemical evidences for the effect of exercise and intermittent hypobaric hypoxia on the recovery from eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage in trained rats

<p>In rat soleus muscle, a recuperation programme of IHH combined with light exercise seems to induce a faster<br>recovery of the mean muscle fibres size and a significant decrease in the percentage of abnormal fibres, without affecting neither the percentage of fibre types nor the fibre shape.</p

Light aerobic exercise can reduce the cardiopulmonary impact of intermittent hypobaric hypoxia exposure in trained rats

<p>Supplementary light aerobic exercise in normoxic conditions could be beneficial for trained individuals in order to reduce the physiological alterations on the cardiopulmonary system induced by altitude exposure.</p

Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia and light aerobic exercise increase circulating haematopoietic stem cells in rats during skeletal muscle damage recovery

<p>Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia and light aerobic exercise could be beneficial for a skeletal muscle damage recovery. Rats combining hypoxic exposure and light runing for 15 minutes showed a higher increase of haematopoietic stem cells in<br>the peripheral blood after muscle damage.</p