A novel vertical greenery module system for building envelopes: The results and outcomes of a multidisciplinary research project

Vegetation in architecture can be considered a proper design strategy that is aimed at improving not only the performances of buildings, but also the outdoor climate. Different technological solutions have been proposed over the years to cover buildings with vegetation, i.e. green roofs, green walls and green balconies. A particular typology of green wall, which has recently been gaining high consensus among designers, is the vertical greenery modular system (VGMS). The positive impact of this type of technology on the performance of buildings is related to several factors, such as the façade orientation, the use of the building, climatic conditions, the type of plants, the substrates and wall assemblies, as well as mechanical and technological issues. A multidisciplinary approach is therefore needed, and different skills have to be joined together right from the early design phase in order to optimize and balance all the aspects that are involved. In this framework, a research project has been carried out in Turin (North West Italy), with the aim of developing a novel VGMS, constituted by a modular box covered with vegetation, made up of recycled/natural and highly performing materials from the energy/environmental point of view. After the design phase, the actual performance of the VGMS was assessed, through laboratory and long-term in field monitoring, and at the same time, the technological issues, biometric parameters, and the acoustic, thermal and mechanical aspects were investigated

A global database on freshwater fish species occurrence in drainage basins

International audienceA growing interest is devoted to global-scale approaches in ecology and evolution that examine patterns and determinants of species diversity and the threats resulting from global change. These analyses obviously require global datasets of species distribution. Freshwater systems house a disproportionately high fraction of the global fish diversity considering the small proportion of the earth's surface that they occupy, and are one of the most threatened habitats on Earth. Here we provide complete species lists for 3119 drainage basins covering more than 80% of the Earth surface using 14953 fish species inhabiting permanently or occasionally freshwater systems. The database results from an extensive survey of native and non-native freshwater fish species distribution based on 1436 published papers, books, grey literature and web-based sources. Alone or in combination with further datasets on species biological and ecological characteristics and their evolutionary history, this database represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater macroecology, macroevolution, biogeography and conservation

A global database on freshwater fish species occurrences in drainage basins

Zipped file containing shapefile and csv tables with information on the global distribution of freshwater fish species in drainage basin

Proof-of-Concept of a Zinc-Silver Battery for the Extraction of Energy from a Concentration Difference

The conversion of heat into current can be obtained by a process with two stages. In the first one, the heat is used for distilling a solution and obtaining two flows with different concentrations. In the second stage, the two flows are sent to an electrochemical cell that produces current by consuming the concentration difference. In this paper, we propose such an electrochemical cell, working with water solutions of zinc chloride. The cell contains two electrodes, made respectively of zinc and silver covered by silver chloride. The operation of the cell is analogous to that of the capacitive mixing and of the “mixing entropy battery”: the electrodes are charged while dipped in the concentrated solution and discharged when dipped in the diluted solution. The cyclic operation allows us to extract a surplus of energy, at the expense of the free energy of the concentration difference. We evaluate the feasibility of such a cell for practical applications and find that a power up to 2 W per m2 of the surface of the electrodes can be achieved

Characteristics of 698 patients with dissociative seizures: a UK multicenter study

Objective We aimed to characterize the demographics of adults with dissociative (nonepileptic) seizures, placing emphasis on distribution of age at onset, male:female ratio, levels of deprivation, and dissociative seizure semiology. Methods We collected demographic and clinical data from 698 adults with dissociative seizures recruited to the screening phase of the CODES (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy vs Standardised Medical Care for Adults With Dissociative Non‐Epileptic Seizures) trial from 27 neurology/specialist epilepsy clinics in the UK. We described the cohort in terms of age, age at onset of dissociative seizures, duration of seizure disorder, level of socioeconomic deprivation, and other social and clinical demographic characteristics and their associations. Results In what is, to date, the largest study of adults with dissociative seizures, the overall modal age at dissociative seizure onset was 19 years; median age at onset was 28 years. Although 74% of the sample was female, importantly the male:female ratio varied with age at onset, with 77% of female but only 59% of male participants developing dissociative seizures by the age of 40 years. The frequency of self‐reported previous epilepsy was 27%; nearly half of these epilepsy diagnoses were retrospectively considered erroneous by clinicians. Patients with predominantly hyperkinetic dissociative seizures had a shorter disorder duration prior to diagnosis in this study than patients with hypokinetic seizures (P < .001); dissociative seizure type was not associated with gender. Predominantly hyperkinetic seizures were most commonly seen in patients with symptom onset in their late teens. Thirty percent of the sample reported taking antiepileptic drugs; this was more common in men. More than 50% of the sample lived in areas characterized by the highest levels of deprivation, and more than two‐thirds were unemployed. Significance Females with dissociative seizures were more common at all ages, whereas the proportion of males increased with age at onset. This disorder was associated with socioeconomic deprivation. Those with hypokinetic dissociative seizures may be at risk for delayed diagnosis and treatment