Mathemagical Birdhouse

A class project using Gardner\u27s Mathemagical Birdhouse

Local Energy Efficiency Interventions by the Prioritization of Thermal Zones in an Historical University Building

Architectural constraints are a crucial aspect in energy retrofitting of historic buildings. Usual global interventions are often not allowed since preserving historical values of the building stock is mandatory. In this paper, the authors provide an alternative procedure by identifying the most profitable local interventions in order to maintain the architectural values during the restoration and energy retrofitting operations. So, thermal zones prioritization is the key element considered in this study. Its aim is to analyse which energy efficiency measures could be applied to a listed building, but at certain technological elements rather than a unique choice for the entire building envelope. Thus it will prove that you can work with individual elements of the building without compromising the protection of architectural good. The attention was placed in promoting single measures and improving the quality of the built environment. The case study is an historical building in Rome, currently used for university purposes. The analysis was carried out through a building simulation model so that to assess the building energy performance before and after the selected interventions. The chosen software is TRNSYS. This approach shows how interventions, usually not applicable at the building scale, would be beneficial if applied at local scale such as a single thermal zone or a single technological unit. The authors built a reference scenario and, for each identified thermal zone, tested the energy efficiency improvement in terms of heating demand reduction coming from the hypothesized local intervention

Comparing Energy Improvements and Financial Costs of Retrofitting Interventions in a Historical Building

In Italy, energy improvements of historical buildings are one of the key aspects to reach the EU 2020 goals on energy efficiency. Many papers are available in literature to recover and retrofit historical buildings, considering different types of interventions aimed to increase energy efficiency in existing building. Considering the most common retrofit interventions in historical building, this paper focuses on the estimation of the energy improvements and related financial costs of four considered scenarios on the building envelope of the “pharmaceutical chemistry” historical building located in the Sapienza University Campus of Rome. Additionally, a cogeneration system and the installation of a PV system have been included among the considered scenarios, in order to analyze their energy performance jointly with feasible retrofitting interventions. Research methods included a dynamic simulation of building thermal loads in the current state and in the scenario after each considered intervention carried out using TRNSYS software. Furthermore, yearly savings, investment cost and payback periods have been evaluated for each considered scenario, taking into account both the purchase prices of the saved energy and the amounts needed to realize related retrofitting interventions. In conclusion, among the feasible interventions in historical buildings, the obtained results provide useful data about what strategy offers the best energy performance improvement if compared with its financial costs. Results could provide recommendations for other historical buildings that need retrofitting interventions for improving their energy efficiency

School Based Policies Protecting LGBTQ+ Youth

According to the 2017 National School Climate Survey, over half of all LGBTQ+ students reported experiencing LGBTQ+ related discriminatory policies or practices in their schools (GLSEN, 2019). While there is legislation in place that should standardize compliance and equality within school districts, there is often a discrepancy in implementation and follow through in public school systems. This study sought to examine a) school psychologists’ knowledge of federal legislations protecting LGBTQ+ youth, b) school psychologists’ self-report of the implementation of these regulations in their school’s policies, and c) the attitudes of school psychologists working with LGBTQ+ youth. Results indicated that attitude does impact the overall skills utilized in schools by clinicians across the country. Furthermore, grade levels of students serviced have a significant interaction with the amount of knowledge possessed by practitioners

Technologies and strategies to design sustainable tourist accommodations in areas of high environmental value not connected to the electricity grid

As envisaged in the Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism, the adoption of an holistic and integrated approach and the use of the best available knowledge and technologies are key aspects to ensure a sustainable tourism. In particular, policies and actions should be planned considering the latest and best available knowledge, analyzing at the same time all the related impacts on the area of intervention. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to describe an approach for designing sustainable tourist accommodations that allow the fruition of areas characterized by high environmental values minimizing the related impacts on the surrounding environment and sensitizing users towards preservation and conservation of natural resources. In the proposed approach three aspects of tourist accommodation have been considered: the system component, the building envelope and the integration between them. As a result, the architectural structures designed, including their materials, shape, energy efficiency, modularity and removability, are in line with the standards of bio-architecture. The materials used, complying with the technical requirements and the technological needs of the tourist accommodations, are mostly recycled or reusable, coming from the surrounding area or of easy integration in the landscape. The components , that constitute the accommodations, are easy to assemble and disassemble for reuse them in another area, without changing the environmental conditions in the site. Some elements are precast and completed on site with local materials, moreover the modularity allows a high adaptability to different environmental and morphological conditions. To apply these architectural structures even in places without services and distribution networks of energy and water, special attention has been given to innovative and sustainable energy solutions: Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been used as the only energy vector, combined with a cogeneration plant to provide heat and electric energy as well as with particular building envelopes that allow the transfer of LPG into the walls for provide energy to innovative gas appliances. Lastly, in order to assess the environmental impact of the proposed approach, it has been analyzed the environmental insertion of these structures for tourist accommodation in the Circeo National Park, in Italy

Congressman Pat Tiberi, Ohio 12th Congressional District

Pat Tiberi is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee that has jurisdiction over tax issues, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and trade agreements. He currently is the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health where he is working to improve the quality, affordability, and accessibility of healthcare. He also serves on the Subcommittee on Tax Policy.https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/leadhour/1028/thumbnail.jp

284— Talkin\u27 Bout a Revolution: American Protest and Counter-Protest Movements in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century

This poster represents my research for my senior seminar in Political Science. This project explores different protest and counter-protest movements throughout the United States in the last one hundred years. Through comparative study, this project tracks and collates these different protest and counter-protest movements. This research attempts to answer the following questions: Have the nature of protest and counter-protests movements changed over time? If so, how have these movements adapted to modernity? Protest and counter-protest movements are some of the most direct opportunities for American citizens to engage in our democracy. Therefore, this project also explores the important implications of different protest and counter-protest movements over time as they related to the larger concept of the health of American democracy as a whole