Sustainable steel and composite constructions for multifunctional commercial buildings

[EN] Rising cost pressures and the prospect of quick returns have led to an increase in mono functional buildings since the 1970s. These prevent the adaptation to changing user requirements with little monetary outlay. Lack of marketability, increasing vacancy and early demolition are often the consequences. Main objective of the AIF/FOSTA research project P1118 is to develop planning recommendations for multifunctional usable buildings. Adaptability to changing needs will increase marketability and value stability as well as extend the lifetime of the buildings. This not only increases the economy but also the resource efficiency. First of all, the paper explains the ecological and economic requirements for modern buildings, which are based on current certification systems. In this context, the expected lifetime of primary and secondary building components are also dealt with. Subsequently, relevant types of use as well as requirements for essential building parameters are presented. In a comparison, the ecological expenses and costs are assessed for four selected composite structures. For the multifunctional building structures an extension of lifetime is considered and the environmental and monetary impacts are assessed. Furthermore, the influence of the structure on the building foundations is analysed. The investigations present the effects of the building masses on the foundations for two different soil conditions. Finally, the investigations show that variable usable buildings with a longer lifetime lead to a better sustainability.Stroetmann, R.; Hüttig, L. (2018). Sustainable steel and composite constructions for multifunctional commercial buildings. En Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Steel-Concrete Composite Structures. ASCCS 2018. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 609-616. https://doi.org/10.4995/ASCCS2018.2018.6956OCS60961

Toughness of old mild steels

[EN] For the rehabilitation of steel structures from the 19th and the early 20th century the brittle fracture behaviour is essential for the structural safety. The methods of the assessment used in EN 1993-1-10 were predominantly developed for welded structures made of current steel grades with more or less high toughness. The check by limitation of the plate thickness is not suitable for old mild steel structures with riveted and bolted connections. Notch effects and residual stresses are quite different to those ones of welded structures. The material properties of old mild steels are characterised by larger scatters, particularly due to the inhomogeneous distribution of tramp elements and higher contents of non-metallic inclusions. In this paper, experimental and analytical studies of the brittle fracture behaviour of mild steels as well as aging effects of structural elements with holes for riveted and bolted connections are presented.The presented material examinations were mainly carried out within the research project “Assessment of the risk of brittle fracture at punched steel structures - further development of analytical methods” [4] and were supported by funding from the research initiative “Zukunft Bau des BBSR” (AZ: II 3-F20-12-1-054). The authors sincerely thank them for their support.Stroetmann, R.; Sieber, L. (2018). Toughness of old mild steels. En Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Steel-Concrete Composite Structures. ASCCS 2018. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 659-666. https://doi.org/10.4995/ASCCS2018.2018.7029OCS65966

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data

The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD, www.i-hd.eu) has been formed as one of the key sustainable entities arising from the Electronic Health Records for Clinical Research (IMI-JU-115189) and SemanticHealthNet (FP7-288408) projects, in collaboration with several other European projects and initiatives supported by the European Commission. i~HD is a European not-for-profit body, registered in Belgium through Royal Assent. i~HD has been established to tackle areas of challenge in the successful scaling up of innovations that critically rely on high-quality and interoperable health data. It will specifically address obstacles and opportunities to using health data by collating, developing, and promoting best practices in information governance and in semantic interoperability. It will help to sustain and propagate the results of health information and communication technology (ICT) research that enables better use of health data, assessing and optimizing their novel value wherever possible. i~HD has been formed after wide consultation and engagement of many stakeholders to develop methods, solutions, and services that can help to maximize the value obtained by all stakeholders from health data. It will support innovations in health maintenance, health care delivery, and knowledge discovery while ensuring compliance with all legal prerequisites, especially regarding the insurance of patient's privacy protection. It is bringing multiple stakeholder groups together so as to ensure that future solutions serve their collective needs and can be readily adopted affordably and at scale

An innovative approach to designing digital health solutions addressing the unmet needs of obese patients in Europe

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the worldwide obesity rate has tripled since 1975. In Europe, more than half of the population is overweight and obese. Around 2.8 million people die each year worldwide as a result of conditions linked to being overweight or obese. This study aimed to analyze the policies, approaches, and solutions that address the social and health unmet needs of obese patients, at different levels, in order to simulate the definition of an integrated approach, and to provide and share examples of innovative solutions supporting health promotion, disease prevention, and integration of services to improve the collaboration between the different health and care stakeholders involved across the country and in the lives of obese patients. A collaborative approach involving various levels of government and regional experts from different European countries was applied to identify, explore, and evaluate different aspects of the topic, from the innovation perspective and focusing on a European and a regional vision. Currently, people prefer more foods rich in fats, sugars, and salt/sodium than fruits, vegetables, and fiber. This behavior leads to a significant negative impact on their health-related quality of life. Changes in healthcare systems, healthy policy, and approaches to patient care and better implementation of the different prevention strategies between all the stakeholders are needed, taking advantage of the digital transformation of health and care. Such changes can support obese patients in their fight against an unhealthy lifestyle and at the same time reduce healthcare costs