Solar access assessment in dense urban environments: the effect of intersections in an urban canyon

The urban canyon model has been recurrently used as a basis for many solar access studies. However, its conception as endless structures disregards the effect of street intersections, despite being characteristic elements of urban fabrics. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of street discontinuities on solar access over building façades. The potential of crossings to increase the available radiation has been assessed through computer simulations in dense urban environments in a Mediterranean location. For the cases studied, results show that local effects of an intersection almost disappear beyond a speci¿c distance for each aspect ratio, which can be helpful to determine the suitable level of detail for solar analyses at an urban fabric scale.Postprint (published version

Characterization of façade fenestration for energy studies within the “Eixample” urban tissue of Barcelona

This paper explores the possibility of characterising the degree of fenestration of a certain city by studying a limited building sample. For the case study of the Eixample district of Barcelona, window-to-wall ratio (WWR) guiding values are provided and the role of the date of construction and the façade orientation is assessed regarding the opening size. Results indicate that not only average WWR values but also dispersion indicators should be provided to adequately describe façade fenestration. The age of construction has found to be a helpful parameter to approximate representative WWR values of a tissue reducing the uncertainty.Postprint (published version

The use of thermography to highlight the relationship between air and surface temperatures in urban scenes

The correlation between air and surface temperatures is recurrently used as a descriptor of the urban climate within built environments. The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities of time-lapse thermography to visualize this relationship in time and space. To this end, thermograms are colorized using a relative-to-air temperature scale, instead of the usual absolute one. This approach was tested for two deep urban canyons belonging to cities with different climates. Relative-to-air thermography has two main advantages: it facilitates comparisons between the thermal responses of urban scenes under different climates and makes convective energy exchanges more comprehensive.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Cooking and Active Leisure TAS Program, Spain: A Program Impact Pathways (PIP) analysis

Background. The “Cooking and Active Leisure” Tu y Alícia por la Salud (CAL-TAS) Program is a schoolbased pilot that addresses healthy lifestyle needs of Spanish secondary school students with initiatives that research has proven to improve dietary and physical activity behaviors. Objective. The objectives were to perform a Program Impact Pathways (PIP) analysis to describe key activities and processes of the CAL-TAS Program, identify Critical Quality Control Points (CCPs), and identify a suite of common indicators of healthy lifestyles to be applied across participant schools. Methods. The CAL-TAS Program designers and implementation team developed this PIP analysis through an iterative process and presented the results for feedback at the seven-country Healthy Lifestyles Program Evaluation Workshop held in Granada, Spain, 13–14 September 2013, under the auspices of the Mondelēz International Foundation. Results. The team identified three PIP CCPs: teachers’ motivation and training, changes in students’ knowledge of healthy lifestyles, and changes in students’ healthy lifestyle behavior. The selected indicators of the program’s impact on healthy lifestyles are adequacy of food intake, level of knowledge of healthy lifestyles gained, and adequacy of physical activity level according to World Health Organization recommendations. A clear definition of impact indicators, as well as collection of accurate data on healthy lifestyle behaviors and knowledge, is essential to understanding the effectiveness of this program before it can be scaled up. Conclusions. CAL-TAS is an effective secondary school-based program encouraging healthy lifestyles. The PIP analysis was instrumental in identifying CCPs to sustain and improve the quality of the program. The team hopes to sustain and improve the program through these program evaluation recommendations

Façade design and energy demand: fenestration indexes from an urban Approach

Façade design has significant effects on inner conditions of spaces and also on the energy needs to achieve user’s comfort. In this regard, the proportion of glazed surfaces to opaque ones plays a key role. Although the link between the fenestration ratio and energy demand for a space has been widely addressed in literature, a considerable number of these studies were based on isolated models, disregarding the effect of the urban surroundings. The aim of this paper is to provide insights on the impact of the window-to-wall ratio (WWR) on thermal energy demands taking into consideration a specific urban context. The Eixample district of Barcelona, with Mediterranean temperate climate, has been selected as the case study. Heating and cooling energy needs have been evaluated for a single residential space by means of computer simulations in Design Builder for different positions within the tissue. Results show that, from a thermal point of view, the design of façade openings within an urban context should vary depending on the orientation and the degree of obstruction, as a reflection of the differences in energy balance within the building envelope.Postprint (published version

Model-Based Underwater 6D Pose Estimation from RGB

Object pose estimation underwater allows an autonomous system to perform tracking and intervention tasks. Nonetheless, underwater target pose estimation is remarkably challenging due to, among many factors, limited visibility, light scattering, cluttered environments, and constantly varying water conditions. An approach is to employ sonar or laser sensing to acquire 3D data, but besides being costly, the resulting data is normally noisy. For this reason, the community has focused on extracting pose estimates from RGB input. However, the literature is scarce and exhibits low detection accuracy. In this work, we propose an approach consisting of a 2D object detection and a 6D pose estimation that reliably obtains object poses in different underwater scenarios. To test our pipeline, we collect and make available a dataset of 4 objects in 10 different real scenes with annotations for object detection and pose estimation. We test our proposal in real and synthetic settings and compare its performance with similar end-to-end methodologies for 6D object pose estimation. Our dataset contains some challenging objects with symmetrical shapes and poor texture. Regardless of such object characteristics, our proposed method outperforms stat-of-the-art pose accuracy by ~8%. We finally demonstrate the reliability of our pose estimation pipeline by doing experiments with an underwater manipulation in a reaching task.Comment: Under RA-L Submissio

Characterization of solar access in mediterranean cities: oriented sky factor

The link between city morphology and urban energy consumption, although proved, requires further research. In that sense, the analysis of parameters describing the urban texture may be a useful approach for energy assessment at a city scale. Some geometrical parameters have been used to study urban energy aspects related to the radiative phenomena, such as heat island or even a rough indicator of solar energy availability in locations where direct radiation is not determining. This paper aims to explore the correlation between one of these parameters -the Sky Factor (SF)- and direct solar radiation over facades, as a characterization tool of solar access within an urban context. Barcelona, a Mediterranean city where direct sunlight and the built environment density are deciding factors, has been chosen as case study. At different points of the facade for several urban canyons, SF value and direct solar radiation for different orientations and times of the year have been computed using Heliodon software. Both results have been related one to another and it has been found that, for a specific latitude, it is possible to define a smooth dependence between these parameters, if the orientation is taken into account. This paper shows that, beyond the SF threshold of 0.42, direct solar radiation on the facade reaches an almost asymptotic value for all orientations and times of the year.Postprint (published version

Cluster randomized trial in smoking cessation with intensive advice in diabetic patients in primary care : ITADI Study

Background: It is a priority to achieve smoking cessation in diabetic smokers, given that this is a group of patients with elevated cardiovascular risk. Furthermore, tobacco has a multiplying effect on micro and macro vascular complications. Smoking abstinence rates increase as the intensity of the intervention, length of the intervention and number and diversity of contacts with the healthcare professional during the intervention increases. However, there are few published studies about smoking cessation in diabetics in primary care, a level of healthcare that plays an essential role in these patients. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive smoking cessation intervention in diabetic patients in primary care. Methods/Design: Cluster randomized trial, controlled and multicentric. Randomization unit: Primary Care Team. Study population: 546 diabetic smokers older than 14 years of age whose disease is controlled by one of the primary care teams in the study. Outcome Measures: Continuous tobacco abstinence (a person who has not smoked for at least six months and with a CO level of less than 6 ppm measured by a cooximeter) , evolution in the Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical Model of Change, number of cigarettes/day, length of the visit. Point of assessment: one- year post- inclusion in the study. Intervention: Brief motivational interview for diabetic smokers at the pre-contemplation and contemplation stage, intensive motivational interview with pharmacotherapy for diabetic smokers in the preparation-action stage and reinforcing intevention in the maintenance stage. Statistical Analysis: A descriptive analysis of all variables will be done, as well as a multilevel logistic regression and a Poisson regression. All analyses will be done with an intention to treatment basis and will be fitted for potential confounding factors and variables of clinical importance. Statistical packages: SPSS15, STATA10 y HLM6. Discussion: The present study will try to describe the profile of a diabetic smoker who receives the most benefit from an intensive intervention in primary care. The results will be useful for primary care professionals in their usual clinical practice

Delayed leaf senescence (stay green) and digestibility in maize

Peer Reviewe