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Phase change materials (PCM) as a passive system in the opaque building envelope: A simulation-based analysis
Get PDFThe ongoing energy crisis is a critical issue in both scientific and managerial spheres within the building and
construction industry. While low-cost strategies to reduce energy consumption offer advantage to stakeholders,
this study primarily advocates the use of phase change materials (PCM) to enhance the management of cooling
and heating loads in buildings. Using DesignBuilder simulations, this research is demonstrated on Iran as a case
study representing a developing country. The findings reveal that integrating PCM into buildings can reduce
energy consumption by approximately 6 %. Furthermore, a quantitative comparison of building efficiency based
on Energy Use Intensity (EUI) calculations highlights the benefs of alternative materials. Specifically, a 5.6 %
reduction in EUI was observed with PCMs while nano-paints contributed a 1.8 % reduction. Although these
reductions may seem modest compared to other techniques, they represent significant progress toward green
building objectives in both developed and developing nations. The case study, conducted in a region experiencing
four seasons, highlights the substantial potential of PCM systems for managing both cooling and heating
energy demands. Notably, the reciprocal performance improvement of PCMs sets them apart from conventional
systems that typically target one aspect of energy management. The research also includes comprehensive
thermodynamic and heat transfer analyses, economic assessments, sustainability evaluations, and exergy analysis.
These analyses demonstrate that the PCM scenario is more favorable compared to other strategies, such as
no thermal insulation and the use of nano-paints. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the alignment of the
proposed PCM integration with Sustainable Development Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy Targets). The
results provide a compelling argument for the adoption of PCM technology by highlighting its role in improving
energy efficiency, supporting sustainable development, and addressing the energy crisis effectively
Gen Z’s Willingness to Adopt Plant-Based Diets: Empirical Evidence from Greece, India, and the UK
Get PDFComprising the largest population cohort on this planet, Gen Z presents a future-oriented consumer segment driven by climate change and food. This study sought to investigate Gen Z’s perceptions toward plant-based foods and diets and explore the relationship that attitude components, meal preparation involvement, personal and lifestyle factors, and perceived barriers in adopting a plant-based diet have with willingness to adopt green-eating practices. Using cross-sectional data from university students in Greece, India, and the UK, various tools were employed to determine the factors influencing youths’ consumer behavior toward animal-protein substitutes. PCA indicated the underlying dimensions of students’ viewpoints on plant-based foods, whereas hierarchical and k-means clustering provided the cluster structure. An ordered probit model was estimated to delineate Gen Z’s willingness to adopt plant-based diets and distinguish among mostly unwilling, somewhat willing, and mostly willing youths. Our findings identified two consumer segments, namely proponents and opponents of plant-based foods and diets, with statistically significant differences in the perceived health benefits of plant-based diets, attachment to animal-based proteins, perceived exclusion of animal-based foods, dissatisfaction with plant-based foods’ attributes, and demand for ensuring adequate protein intake. The ordered probit model estimates showed that there is a “homogeneity” in the factors influencing youths’ intention to adopt plant-based diets, with attitude components, meal preparation indicators, perceived barriers to eating “green”, and personal factors, such as self-assessed knowledge of healthy eating and physical activity, being strongly associated with students’ willingness to switch to plant-based diets in all three countries. Mapping potential obstacles and enablers in terms of shifting to more green-eating behaviors, our findings could add information to better understand the factors affecting food choice and youths’ transition to a more sustainable lifestyle
Homeostasis: understanding the effects of impaired mechanisms
No full textThis article focuses on homeostasis and offers a pathophysiological perspective. The dynamic mechanisms responsible for maintaining internal balance and disruptive processes will be analysed through the lens of key systems including the nervous, endocrine and renal systems. The environmental factors and their potential impact on homeostasis have been considered. A clinical case study will contextualise homeostasis in clinical practice
Activation of LXRs alleviates neuropathic pain-induced cognitive dysfunction by modulation 2 of microglia polarization and synaptic plasticity via PI3K/AKT pathway.
Get PDFBackground
Cognitive dysfunction is one of the most common comorbidities in patients with chronic pain. It has been shown that activation of Liver X receptors (LXRs) plays a potential role in improving cognitive disorders in multiple central nervous diseases by modulating neuroinflammation and synaptic plasticity. In this study, we mainly investigated whether LXRs could reverse cognitive deficits induced by neuropathic pain.
Methods
The spared nerve injury (SNI) model was established to explore the roles of LXRs in neuropathic pain induced-cognitive dysfunction. Pharmacological activation of LXRs by T0901317 or inhibition by GSK2033 was applied. In addition, the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002 was administered to examine the downstream mechanism of LXRs. Changes in neuroinflammation, microglia polarization, and synaptic plasticity were assessed using biochemical technologies.
Results
We found that SNI induced mechanical allodynia and novel object recognition dysfunction in mice, accompanied by the reduction in expression levels of LXRβ, synaptic proteins, and the PI3K/AKT pathway in the hippocampus. Microglia were activated in the hippocampus after SNI, with an increase in M1 phenotype and decrease in M2 phenotype, as well as upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Activation of LXRs with T0901317 significantly ameliorated SNI-induced cognitive dysfunction including anxiety, learning and memory. Neuroinflammation and microglia M1-polarization also induced by SNI were reversed after using T0901317. Moreover, T0901317 upregulated expression levels of synaptic proteins and phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT. However, administration of the LXRs inhibitor GSK2033 or PI3K inhibitor LY294002 abolished all the protective effects of T0901317 on cognitive dysfunction in SNI mice.
Conclusion
Our data indicate that LXRs activation alleviated neuropathic pain-induced cognitive dysfunction by modulating microglia polarization, neuroinflammation, and synaptic plasticity via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and thus, LXRs may be identified as potential new targets for pain-related cognitive deficits.
Keywords
Liver X receptors; Neuropathic pain; Microglia polarization; Cognitive dysfunction; Neuroinflammatio
Olivier Messiaen: A Critical Biography
No full textThis groundbreaking biography offers fresh perspectives on the life, ideas and music of French twentieth-century composer, organist and ornithologist Olivier Messiaen. Drawing on previously unexplored sketches and archival material, Robert Sholl seamlessly combines elements of biography, musicology, theology, philosophy, psychoanalysis and aesthetics to present a nuanced perspective on Messiaen’s work. This book examines the profound impact of Messiaen’s devout Catholicism, which found expression through his work as a church organist, his engagement with birdsong, his interaction with Surrealism and his influence on major musical figures of the latter twentieth century. Unlike previous biographies, this book also considers the perspectives of Messiaen’s contemporaries and students, providing a comprehensive understanding of his life and artistic legacy
Artistic practice as Embodied Learning: Reconnecting Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Composition.
No full textIn Rethinking the Teaching of Music Performance in Higher Level Institutions, ed. Jorge Salgado Correia, Gilvano Dalagna, Helen Julia Minors, and Stefan Östersjö (ERASMUS funded project: https://react.web.ua.pt
This article addresses pedagogy, improvisation, and composition as artistic research through Bach's Goldberg Variations (1741). This article develops a critical and reflexive method to connect these areas. It begins by presenting a creative rethinking of species counterpoint, a foundation for thinking in Schenkerian analysis, through the Goldbergs. I present a layered-cake of musical lines against the figured bass of the theme (moving from semibreves to quavers) as an exercise that inculcates various aspects of var. 1 of the ‘Goldbergs’, and then I explore the codes and ramifications of this that allow both historical sensitivity and creative development. This contextualized exercise provides a stepping-stone to a discussion of Variation 1 (prefigured in my species example), and the development of complete variations beginning with a given “invention” (Dreyfus 1997), and then moving to the composition of new ideas. I suggest how these exercises can be used for teaching improvisation and show how this invaluable connection can be developed through other models (‘la folia’ for example). This model of thinking is historically connected to partimenti (Gjerdingen 2010, 2020), and, following Feldenkrais’s thinking (Sholl 2019, 2021), I provide different solutions to the same exercises. This strategy attempts to promote an “adaptive flexibility” (Thelen and Smith 2004) in which students can enactively and organically learn musical and technical fluency, while also developing their creativity and autonomy
An intelligent decision support system for groundwater supply management and electromechanical infrastructure controls
Get PDFThis study presents an intelligent Decision Support System (DSS) aimed at bridging the theoretical-practical gap in groundwater management. The ongoing demand for sophisticated systems capable of interpreting extensive data to inform sustainable groundwater decision- making underscores the critical nature of this research. To meet this challenge, telemetry data from six randomly selected wells were used to establish a comprehensive database of groundwater pumping parameters, including flow rate, pressure, and current intensity. Statistical analysis of these parameters led to the determination of threshold values for critical factors such as water pressure and electrical current. Additionally, a soft sensor was developed using a Random Forest (RF) machine learning algorithm, enabling real-time forecasting of key variables. This was achieved by continuously comparing live telemetry data to pump design specifications and results from regular field testing. The proposed machine learning model ensures robust empirical monitoring of well and pump health. Furthermore, expert operational knowledge from water management professionals, gathered through a Classical Delphi (CD) technique, was seamlessly integrated. This collective expertise culminated in a data-driven framework for sustainable groundwater facilities monitoring. In conclusion, this innovative DSS not only addresses the theory-application gap but also leverages the power of data analytics and expert knowledge to provide high-precision online insights, thereby optimizing groundwater management practices
Enacting Musical Aesthetics: The Embodied Experience of Live Music
Get PDFThe vitality and affective potential of the live concert experience is a result of rich, cross-sensory interactions and varied participatory practices. The complexity of such entanglements has recently led philosophers to argue for an enactive, afford- ance-based approach that interrogates a variety of perceptual and sensory possibilities inherent in aesthetic experiences. Further, Shaun Gallagher’s recent addition of the 4As (Affect, Agency, Affordance, Autonomy) to the 4Es (Embodied, Embedded, Enacted, Extended) for clarifying mind–world relations seem to have potent explanatory power for these kinds of encounters. Building on such current philosophical approaches while examining specific (and actual) live musical engagement, this article offers an interpretation of selected audience data from the MusicLab Copenhagen with the Danish String Quartet research concert to discuss particular responses from the audience physically present at the venue. Responding to neuroaesthetic approaches, we clarify the audience members’ individual and collective aesthetic expe- rience through an enactive, affordance-based approach. We suggest that what is at play in the live concert environment is a mode of attentive dynamic listening. Rather than seeking to characterize the audience as passively responding to music, a 4Es/4As approach to aesthetic experience seeks to clarify embodied-enactive audience engagement for which anticipation is a dynamic factor that enables further musical action and resonance, also for the musicians on stage
‘A re-imagined Music Curriculum’: Jeremy Strong interviews PhD candidate Natasha Hendry
No full textProfessor Jeremy Strong (University of West London) interviews PhD candidate Natasha Hendry whose research seeks to formulate a framework for more inclusive, diverse, and equitable music education for black pupils in the UK