Providing energy efficiency location-based strategies for buildings using linked open data

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.Climate change is a main concern for humanity from the ending of 20th century. To improve and take care of our environment, a set of measures has been developed to monitor, manage, reduce consumption and raise efficiency of buildings, including the integration of renewable energies and the implementation of passive measures like the improvement of the building envelope. Complex methodologies are used in order to achieve these objectives. Using different tools and data translating is needed, and the loss of accuracy from the detailed input information is most of the times unavoidable. Moreover, including these measures in the development of a project have become a try and error process involving building characteristics, location data and energy efficiency measures. The raising of new technologies, capable of dealing with location-based data and semantics to relate and structure information in a machine readable way, may allow us to provide a set of technical measures to improve energy efficiency in an accessible, open, understandable and easy way from a few data about location and building characteristics. This work tries to define a model and its necessary and sufficient set of data. Its application will provide customized strategies acting as pre-feasibility constraints to help buildings achieve their energy efficiency objectives from its very conception. The model intends to be useful for non-expert users who want to know about their energy savings possibilities, and for professionals willing to get a sustainable starting point for their projects

The European GreenBuilding Projects Catalogue - January 2006-June 2010

The goal of substantially improving end-use energy efficiency and promoting the use of renewable energy sources is a key component of the EU energy and environmental policies, shared by all EU Member States. The European Commission Directorate General Energy and Transport contributes to this goal through a series of actions under the "Intelligent Energy - Europe" Programme. In addition, given the large share of energy consumption in buildings and the large cost effective energy saving potential, special attention has been dedicated to the building sector. To this end a major step forward is represented by the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings. The GreenBuilding Programme (launched in January 2005) is one of these actions, aimed specifically at private and public non-residential buildings. The GreenBuilding Programme is a European Commission voluntary programme through which non-residential building owners and occupiers, being private or public organisations, are aided in improving the energy efficiency and to introduce renewable energy sources into their building stock. Any enterprise, company or organisation (hereinafter defined as ¿organisation¿) planning to contribute to the GreenBuilding Programme objectives can participate.JRC.DDG.F.8-Renewable Energy (Ispra

Induction of more aggressive tumoral phenotypes in LNCaP and PC3 cells by serum exosomes from prostate cancer patients

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most frequent and sixth most fatal cancer in men worldwide. Despite its high prevalence, our understanding of its etiology and the molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of the disease is substantially limited. In recent years, the potential participation of exosomes in this process has been suggested. Therefore, we aim to study the effect of exosomes isolated from the serum of patients with PCa on various cellular processes associated with increased tumor aggressiveness in two PCa cell lines: LNCaP-FGC and PC3. The exosomes were isolated by filtration wand ultracentrifugation. Their presence was confirmed by immunodetection of specific markers and their size distribution was analyzed by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The results obtained demonstrated that serum exosomes from PCa patients increased migration of PC3 cells and neuroendocrine differentiation of LNCaP-FGC cells regardless of the grade of the tumor. PCa serum exosomes also enhanced the secretion of enzymes related to invasiveness and resistance to chemotherapeutics, such as extracellular matrix metalloproteases 2 and 9, and gamma-glutamyltransferase in both cell lines. Altogether, these findings support the pivotal participation of exosomes released by tumoral cells in the progression of PCa. Future studies on the molecular mechanisms involved in the observed changes could provide crucial information on this disease and help in the discovery of new therapeutic targets.Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) P118/00526, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), A way to make Europe to AM

Evaluation results of combined labelling of dwellings located in different countries

In the TripleA-reno project, a new combined labelling scheme was developed for dwellings. The combined labelling includes the evaluation of the energy performance, indoor environmental quality and well-being of occupants in dwellings. In this paper, the method of the TripleA-reno combined labelling scheme, the necessary calculations and measurements and the labelling process are introduced. In the TripleA-reno project, the developed combined labelling was successfully applied to different demonstration cases. The main results and experiences of the combined labelling for four demonstration cases located in Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy are presented

Citybench: A geospatial exploration of comparable cities

In many city comparisons and benchmarking attempts, scores are purely one-dimensional with results split accordingly for each dimension. We propose a methodology for comparing cities on multiple dimensions implemented as a mapcentric web tool based on a pairwise similarity measure. CityBench web tool provides a quick-scan geographical exploration of multidimensional similarity across European cities. With this dynamic method, the user may easily discover city peers that could face similar risks and opportunities and consequently develop knowledge networks and share best practices. This web tool is destined to provide economic/ financing institutions’, local governments’ and policy makers’ in Europe and beyond decision making support