Enhancing the accountability and comparability of different campuses’ energy profiles through an energy cluster approach

Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). Open access funding provided by Politecnico di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.International sustainability ranking systems generally set criteria in order to monitor global achievement of universities in terms of sustainability. However, current sustainability ranking systems do not provide specific consumption thresholds according to the different buildings’ function or characteristic and the comparison among universities lacks of precise criteria. Thus, this paper proposes different energy clusters enabling a meaningful comparison among campuses within the international rankings. Energy profiles of two university campuses—Politecnico di Torino (Italy) and Hokkaido University (Japan)—similar for climate, surface, and population have been collected for 4 years as a relevant case study. Five different clusters of homogeneous consumption have been identified: cluster 1 (around 1 GJ/m2/year) includes the Art departments, cluster 2 (2 GJ/m2/year) includes the Science faculties, cluster 3 (3 GJ/m2/year) includes the hospital and the medicine departments, cluster 4 includes the Data Centre (9 GJ/m2/year), and cluster 5 includes special research facilities with consumption over 10 GJ/m2/year. Findings show how comparisons between different buildings should also take into account the electrification rate (dependence on electricity) and the leveling rate (variation of consumption during a year), which variations are directly related to the main building function (e.g., hospitals/data centers have high values, while arts or humanities departments have low values for both rates). The proposed energy cluster approach and the introduction of proper weights for energy performances based on the proposed clusters can significantly enhance the accountability and comparability of different campuses’ energy profiles, contributing to a better evaluation of universities’ energy performances.publishersversionpublishe

Survey on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in Italy

This study aims to investigate the incidence and the relative risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and posterior-ROP (P-ROP): ROP in Zone I and posterior Zone II, as well as to analyze the occurrence of surgical treatment of ROP and to evaluate the short term outcome of the disease in Italy

Microglia proliferation as a response to activation in the freshwater snail Planorbariuscorneus: a BrdU incorporation study

Invertebrate microglia constitute a class of cells resident in the ganglionic nervous system which are activated after tissue injury or by the presence of pathogens. The microglia activation response includes graduated morpho-functional and biochemical changes and cell proliferation. In this study we verified in the freshwater snail Planorbariuscorneus that an activation caused by a traumatic event may induce microglia division. Cell proliferation was assessed immunocytochemically using BrdU incorporation technique and documented on both ganglionic sections and microglia cultured cells at different experimental conditions and times after activation. In addition, we studied the possibility of increasing microglia proliferation by adding to the cultured medium the Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (M-CSF) that has been shown to stimulate specifically this process in vertebrates

Neuron-microglia communication in the CNS of the freshwater snail Planorbarius corneus

Invertebrate microglia constitute a class of cells resident in the ganglionic nervous system which are activated after tissue injury or by the presence of pathogens. The microglia activation response includes graduated morpho-functional and biochemical changes and cell proliferation. In this study we verified in the freshwater snail Planorbariuscorneus that an activation caused by a traumatic event may induce microglia division. Cell proliferation was assessed immunocytochemically using BrdU incorporation technique and documented on both ganglionic sections and microglia cultured cells at different experimental conditions and times after activation. In addition, we studied the possibility of increasing microglia proliferation by adding to the cultured medium the Macrophage-Colony Stimulating Factor (M-CSF) that has been shown to stimulate specifically this process in vertebrates

Explorative multidimensional analysis for Energy Efficiency: Dataviz versus clustering algorithms

We propose a simple tool to help the energy management of a large building stock defining clusters of buildings with the same function, setting alert thresholds for each cluster, and easily recognizing outliers. The objective is to enable a building management system to be used for detection of abnormal energy use. We start reviewing energy performance indicators, and how they feed into data visualization (DataViz) tools for a large building stock, especially for university campuses. After a brief presentation of the University of Turin’s building stock which represents our case study, we perform an explorative analysis based on the Multidimensional Detective approach by Inselberg, using the Scatter Plot Matrix and the Parallel Coordinates methods. The k-means clustering algorithm is then applied on the same dataset to test the hypotheses made during the explorative analysis. Our results show that DataViz techniques provide quick and user-friendly solutions for the energy management of a large stock of buildings. In particular, they help identifying clusters of buildings and outliers and setting alert thresholds for various Energy Efficiency Indices

The chemosensory spectrum of freshwater snails

In this paper we review the present information on the chemosensory spectrum of freshwater snails with particular reference to our study on Planorbarius. By comparing our results with other data from literature, it is evident that different species have different chemosensory spectra as a function of their ecological adaptation

Amplification of GC-rich DNAs in neuronal nuclei of Planorbarius corneus (L.) (Mollusca, pulmonata).

Quantitative microfluorometric evaluation of DNA content in nerve cells of the Pulmonate Gastropod Planorbarius corneus has indicated that the increase in nuclear volume is due to DNA amplification. Indeed, it has been observed that the DNA contents are scattered at random between 2C and 1,000C values. This is not in agreement with the occurrence of repeated duplications of the whole genome. Furthermore, chromatin photo-oxidation, a technique useful in discriminating GC-rich from AT-rich DNAs, suggests that DNA amplification involves GC-rich sequences

Localizzazione dei peptidi "CDC" nel mollusco bivalve Venus verrucosa.

E' stao effettuato uno screening immunocitochimico che ha dimostratyo la presenza nel sistema nervoso gangliare del bivalve Venus di alcuni neurotrasmettitori e neuropeptidi, come i peptidi "CDC" implicati nel comporatamento riproduttivo dei gasteropodi e di altri bivalvi

Amplification of GC-rich DNAs in neuronal nuclei of Planorbarius corneus (L.) (Mollusca, Pulmonata).

Quantitative microfluorometric evaluation of DNA content in nerve cells of the Pulmonate Gastropod Planorbarius corneus has indicated that the increase in nuclear volume is due to DNA amplification. Indeed, it has been observed that the DNA contents are scattered at random between 2C and 1,000C values. This is not in agreement with the occurrence of repeated duplications of the whole genome. Furthermore, chromatin photo-oxidation, a technique useful in discriminating GC-rich from AT-rich DNAs, suggests that DNA amplification involves GC-rich sequences

Restraint stress alters the secretory activity of neurons co-expressing urocortin-1, cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript peptide and nesfatin-1 in the mouse Edinger-Westphal nucleus

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